My Malphite Rework

Malphite He has long been a staple in League of Legends, having been one of the most popular champions pretty consistently, or even if the meta still doesn't favor him, people will not turn you down for selecting him because of how dang reliable he is as an initiator. He's always had consistent poke, consistent aoe, and that ol' reliable ultimate of his, 'Unstoppable Force'. He is, in my opinion, the only true tank in the game that can either go full defensive items (as tanks do), or build full damage (AP), as his ult just allows him to nuke an entire enemy team where they stand, and as long as he has a half decent team to follow up on him, its pretty much always a win. (Though his win rate may seem misleading).

But if there is anything people despise when it comes to a game of League, it's boring gameplay. People don't want to be cooped up 20-40 minutes in a game and not be awake for half of it. They would much rather invest worthwhile time into a champion to know that they are getting better at them, and the learning curve for Malphite quite frankly... isn't too steep. Most of what you need to really understand when playing Malphite is how to set up the perfect initiation for your team, and a good Malphite ult wins you the fight almost 100% of the time.

The only bit of hard cc in his kit is his ult, so the rest of his kit, as you can imagine, is kind of lackluster. His Q, 'Seismic Shard', is his next most interesting ability. It's a targeted ability as well, meaning what you can do with it is quite limited to begin with. He has his basic attack buff on his W, and a minuscule aoe effect from his E, both which scale with his AP, and Armor, in a desperate attempt to make this ability seem unique.

RIOT has long expressed an interest in making Malphite a literal wall, as one of his abilities, but they are unsure of how they would do this. But as of now, he kind of fails at living up to his archetype of being this massive, unassailable wall. Malphite is supposedly the size of a mountain, and he is from an alternate dimension of, sentient rock people who all work together in complete harmony, almost like a superorganism, or a hive of some sort. (Thats his lore man don't question me). Now, his lore will likely be changed dramatically when he is reworked for real, but for now, I'll use this as a point of reference.

So without further ado, I present you with my idea on a Malphite (gameplay) Rework:

Granite Shield: Passive (Innate)

This ability fails to excite, but there is no denying it's use, which is why I have to go with this ability largely remaining the same.

Q: Seismic Shard: Active

This has always been Malphite's poke ability, and his catching out enemies ability for his team, when his ultimate is off CD. The thing is, when you have an ultimate ability as impactful as his, you struggle to find a way to balance out the rest of his kit so he isn't stupidly broken. If he has a way to win you the team fight other than just being a Tank who can soak up all that damage, he shouldn't be winning it for you with just his basic abilities. (Really the only time this should ever happen if the player was very smart about how they used them). I'm thinking a skill shot that creates terrain where it lands. For an example, Malphite hucks a boulder in a volley (overhead) and will deal damage and slows all enemies it hits when it lands, or if it hits no enemies, it will create unpassable terrain there for a short duration. Suppressing the power of this ability would mean removing the movement speed he steals from the enemy he hits with it. I can also see this being a channeled ability, where the longer he channels, the farther he can throw the boulder.

W: Brutal Strikes: Active Old Passive: Malphite gains bonus armor, tripled while Granite Shield is active. New Passive: Malphite gains bonus movement speed by using a basic attacks on enemy champions.

The active of this ability has always been there to simply fill in the void of when his E is on CD, but I don't see a reason to keep it this way. I propose a new type of basic attack steroid: One that reduces attack speed, but when the basic attack does connect with an enemy, the results are catastrophic. When he hits an enemy while this ability is active, they are inflicted with grievous wounds, or are knocked back a short distance, or just receive a minor bleeding effect. You can imagine what other froms of CC (I know Grievous wounds isn't a form of CC, and the bleed)- could be utilized through what I am, right on the spot calling, the 'Double-Edge' technique, you are wasting potential DPS on a tank, however, the benefits of doing so help your team tremendously. Image being the tank and you just inflicted grievous wounds onto the enemy carry, now they recieve reduced healing, and they are now at danger of being slain easier than before because they won't be healing as much as before.

Also, since Malphite is this harmonious rock giant that is used to working perfectly alongside comrades, then maybe convert this ability into something similar to a Nunu, 'Blood Boil', or you both are granted a shield based on your missing health. That doesn't sound very fun does it?

E: Ground Slam: Active: This ability is his bread and butter, because when you aren't using weak basic attacks on enemy champions, you know you are spamming this spell. I like the idea of 'defense is the best offense', so I believe keeping the armor scaling on this ability would be nice.

Malphite slams the ground with his fist, but he does the same thing with his whole body for his ultimate, so I would prefer it if he stomped the ground for the aoe damage rather than punched it. This would make it to where he could cast the ability simultaneously as he used his basic attacks. If this ability could react with the terrain created by the boulder he threw from earlier, it would shatter and deal damage to all enemies surrounding it.

R: Unstoppable Force: Active:

This is why everyone loves Malphite, so changing this ability in any dramatic way, would really hurt him as a whole. So I see no reason to change it, other than maybe give an indication of where the ult will collide just as he casts it.

So, thats what my take on how a Malphite rework would go down. I found some artwork from a RIOT art contest back in 2014, they are in the link below if you'd want to see what it may... more or less, look like. You can check it out. (They aren't by me, all credit is to the artist(s))

http://polycount.com/discussion/143736/riot-art-contest-malphite-trik (by Trik)

As always, you might see these abilities as totally over powered, or busted, whatever you prefer to call them, but just remember how many times you saw a new champion release and you thought they would be extremely broken. So, with that, I hope I provoked some thought inducing processes in you, dear reader, and I would love to hear your opinion on a Malphite rework, down in the comment section.