Best Tank Malphite Build For Season 13

There are different kinds of champions in League of Legends; some hold over 5 different types of guns, while others can set up an entire style show just to get a kill, but when it comes to Malphite, things are rather simple.

However, simple they should be – especially when your entire kit revolves around a single button. So, with his kit being so simple, why does his build path feel this much of a pain to go through? We feel that pain quite well.

Therefore, in this guide, we will show everything you should, and could build on Malphite in order to secure victory. Read till the end, to understand everything related to building Malphite in season 13!

Malphite Build Path

Unlike most champions, Malphite is a hybrid that can follow two distinct build trees. You can either go full tank on him, or you can build flat Ability Power to one-shot anyone you want.

While the guidelines are different for both branches, the concept is pretty much the same i.e. to make Malphite feel unfair!

So, on that note, here is the best tank Malphite build:

Tank Malphite Build

The purpose of tank Malphite is to utilize his passive, and innate tankiness to absorb as much damage as possible in teamfights. This playstyle focuses on building Health, Armor, and Magic Resist items to increase the power of his tankiness, rather than building AP items to increase his damage.

This playstyle is typically used in the top-lane, where he can use his abilities to control and harass the enemy top-laner.

Also read: AP Miss Fortune – The Ultimate Build Guide

Items

Here’s what the general build for Malphite looks like:

Starter Items

You need to build the following starter items on Tank Malphite:

Icons	Item	Description
	Doran’s Ring	Provides additional Ability Power, Health and Mana Regen, which will help Malphite stay in lane and use his abilities more frequently.
	Health Potions	Provides an additional source of sustain in lane, allowing Malphite to stay in lane longer and continue to farm and harass the enemy laner.

• Doran’s Ring: It is a great starting item for Malphite because it provides a good balance of Ability Power, Health, and Mana Regen. These stats are all important for Malphite to stay in lane and use his abilities effectively to harass his opponent, clear waves, and survive lane.
• Health Potions: These are a good choice of starting items along with the Doran’s Ring for tank Malphite as they give him additional sustain in lane and help him to stay in lane longer. This will allow him to farm and harass the enemy laner more effectively and give him an edge over his opponent.

Tear of the Goddess is not a good starting item for AP Malphite because it does not provide any immediate stats that help him in the lane, and Doran’s Shield doesn’t provide enough ability power to maximize his abilities.

Plus, the shield build doesn’t really have a lot of wave clear, so might as well skip that!

Core Items

Here are all the valid options for Tank Malphite’s core items:

Icons	Item	Description
	Jak’Sho, The Protean	Provides additional Ability Haste, Health, Armor, Magic Resistance, and a unique passive that grants additional resistance based on time spent in combat and deals damage and heal to nearby enemies. It also empowers other Legendary items with additional resistance.
	Turbo Chemtank	Provides additional Ability Haste, Health, Magic Resistance, and a unique active that grants bonus movement speed and ghosting while facing a turret or enemy champion, and slows nearby enemies after the duration or when an enemy champion is within range.
	Sunfire Aegis	Provides additional Health, Armor and a unique passive that deals magic damage to enemies within a certain range and increased damage to minions and increases damage dealt to enemy champions or epic monsters for a short duration.
	Thornmail	Provides additional Health, Armor and a unique passive that reflects damage and applies Grievous Wounds to the attacker for a short duration.
	Gargoyle Stoneplate	Provides additional Ability Haste, Armor, Magic Resistance and a unique active that grants a shield and increased size and a unique passive that increases armor and magic resistance for a short duration when damaged by a champion.
	Force of Nature	Provides additional Health, Magic Resistance, Movement Speed and a unique passive that grants a stack of Steadfast for 7 seconds upon taking magic damage from champions and reduces incoming magic damage by 25% at 6 stacks.

• Jak’Sho, The Protean: This is by far the best tanky mythic to go for considering you won’t be able to apply Heartsteel’s passive due to you having to auto in melee range. Plus, you don’t want to do prolonged fights is possible. In comparison, Radiant Virtue is still pretty applicable, but more on that later! As for now, consider Jak’Sho, The Protean to be your bread and butter.
• Turbo Chemtank: You want to have as many tools as possible to get in range for your ultimate, or to just be there to tank. The movement passive from Turbo Chemtank ensures you’re always there when needed. This item is very effective in catching retreating enemies, and slowing and taking them down. However, do note that tank Malphite is a teamfight champion, so don’t go trying to sidelane for no reason!
• Sunfire Aegis: Despite having AoE abilities, you need some sort of surefire way to deal damage, and clear minions, and the immolate from Sunfire Aegis is just perfect for that occasion. It’s a pretty good item in general and can give you that extra damage needed to hold a 1v1 against certain champions.
• Thornmail: Considering Malphite wants to stack as much armor as possible in the Tank Route, having some sort of Healing Reduction is always a bonus. However, this might turn out to be useless if there’s no source of healing in the enemy team.
• Gargoyle Stoneplate: As mentioned previously, Malphite can go in, but there’s no button to go out. Therefore, having a secondary health/shield bar can be very effective in making enemies’ lives miserable. Plus, it’s a pretty balanced item that gives both Armor and Magic Resist.
• Force of Nature: Much like Thornmail, this is also a pseudo-situational item that relies on the enemy team having a threat-worthy magic damage source. In addition, the stacking movement speed is pretty good for maneuvering through a difficult spot during skirmishes.

It’s worth noting that the order and timing of these items depend on how the game is going and the enemy team composition, you should adjust the build depending on the situation you are facing. Also, the last item could be replaced by a pseudo-AP option if you think you need more damage to stay relevant.

Alternative Item Choice

Here are some choices that are situationally built on tank Malphite:

Icons	Item	Description
	Zhonya’s Hourglass	Provides additional Ability Power, Ability Haste, Armor and a unique active that makes you invulnerable and untargetable for a short duration but also unable to move, attack, cast abilities or use items.
	Radiant Virtue	Provides additional Ability Haste, Health, Armor, Magic Resistance and a unique passive that grants increased maximum health, basic ability haste and heal to yourself and nearby allies for a short duration and empowers other Legendary items with additional health.
	Randuin’s Omen	Provides additional Health and Armor and a unique active that slows nearby enemies for a short duration and a passive that reduces incoming basic damage and critical strike damage from basic attacks.
	Anathema’s Chains	Provides additional Ability Haste and Health and a unique active that curses the target enemy champion, designating them as your Nemesis and grants you a stack of Vendetta every 2 seconds for up to 30 stacks and a passive that reduces damage taken from your Nemesis and reduces their Tenacity while they are within a certain range of you.

• Zhonya’s Hourglass: This is a great fifth or sixth-item option as it introduces some more survivability and damage in your kit, so even if your 34 other plans fail, this one still has your back.
• Radiant Virtue: If Jak’Sho, The Protean isn’t cutting out for you, it’s time to change it with a similar item that focuses just as much on prolonged fights. It’s a good alternative option if your backline damage is a little less strong, and you’re planning to initiate more in small skirmishes, than full-blown teamfights.
• Randuin’s Omen: Speaking of a fed ADC, this item ensures you give the enemy backline as hard of a time as possible. The slow from the active is pretty obnoxious as well. While Randuin’s Omen is not a core item on tank Malphite, it’s safe to assume that its used against a physical damage comp is immense.
• Anathema’s Chains: This final item is also specced for ensuring the enemy having the most gold doesn’t get to enjoy his lead. And as you can guess by now, that’s the entire goal of playing Malphite.

Luckily, that’s pretty much all you need in terms of itemization if you want to find success on Tank Malphite. Oh, and don’t forget to land your ultimate – that’s a pretty big part too!

Also read: Full AD Kayle – The Ultimate Build Guide

Runes

These are the little tweaks and optimizations that help define the playstyle of a champion. In the case of Tank Malphite, you’d obviously want to spec into as much damage reduction as possible right?

Well, unfortunately, you still have to play the laning phase and whatnot, so the runes are meant to mitigate some of tank Malphite’s weaknesses in addition to providing him all he needs to wreak mayhem.

Primary Tree – Resolve

Here are your Rune selections for tank Malphite:

Icons	Rune	Description
	Grasp of the Undying	Grants health and damage based on his maximum health, deals damage to nearby enemies and generates permanent health when Malphite kills minions or monsters.
	Demolish	Increases Malphite’s damage to towers, which allows him to siege and push lanes more effectively.
	Conditioning	Grants additional armor and magic resistance after 10 minutes of game time.
	Overgrowth	Grants additional health based on the amount of time he has spent in the game.

• Grasp of the Undying: Gives you something to trade with in lane. You’re gonna use your Q in-lane anyways, so might as well get bonus health for it.
• Demolish: Malphite tends to play for waves, and with so much poke in his kit, it’s common for the enemy laner to take a few bad backs. Capitalize on it to get tower plates.
• Conditioning: More Armor and Magic Resistance means you’re going to get even tankier! Since that is the goal of this build, why not?
• Overgrowth: Similar logic as conditioning. You want to have as much health as possible to make the most of your resistances.

Secondary Tree

Here are your secondary Rune selections for tank Malphite:

Icons	Rune	Description
	Magical Footwear	Grants Malphite free tier 1 boots at the 10 minute mark.
	Biscuit Delivery	Grants Malphite a Biscuit every x minutes, up to a maximum number. Biscuits restore health and mana upon consumption.

• Magical Footwear: Since your build is so expensive, it’s better to cut corners on expenses a bit. Plus, you’re not going to be relevant before level 6 either way, and more movement speed didn’t hurt anyone now did it?
• Biscuit Delivery: Your abilities cost mana, and you don’t have much of that till your first or second back. This keystone can help you mitigate some of it. The health regen is just the icing on the cake!

Rune Stats

You will be picking the following stats as the final addition to your rune page:

And with this, you will have completed the best tank build for Malphite!

Also read: The Best AP Varus One-Shot Build

Takeaway

In essence, tank Malphite has a lot of leeway in his build options. Therefore, you don’t necessarily have to go for a textbook approach. Sometimes, adapting to the situation at hand is plenty. Regardless, we’ve mentioned the best options to go for while playing Malphite.

And if you’re having difficulty in shutting someone down, we’ve accounted for that as well. We’ve left the summoner choice to you as those are entirely dependent on your playstyle.

Lastly, best of luck playing Malphite, go out there and have fun!