I play Malphite exclusively in the Jungle. These are my experiences.

GhostStalker·May 25, 2014·1 votes·445 views

The best rune's I've used so far are Attack Speed Reds, Armor Yellows, MR/LvL Blues, and Armor Quints. THey help me clear the jungle fast and I have great HP Resilience through the jungle.

When I play Malphite jungle, I either try to gank lanes that are absurdly push into my teammates turrets, hold a lane if someone has to back, or farm my jungle. Normally a game will be me trying to get to 6 as fast as I can, then I gank a lane. I'll build Frozen Heart to give me some mana for extended fights since malphites spells cost a lot of mana and it really helps vs AD Carries, Jax's, or anyone who's attack speed based. I frequently am up against champions who have a ton of attack speed, so Malphite works well against them. Except for Udyr's because they farm their own jungle so fast that they leave me in the dust with levels and items.

I think my biggest successes with Malphite involve either having a team that can syngergize well with my knockup ult, or being against enemies who get destroyed by my attack speed slow, giving my team a huge edge (My Frozen Heart provides 15% attack speed slow, and Malphite himself has a 50% attack speed slow, 65% attack speed slow negates an item's worth of attack speed and then some).

My biggest complaints with Malphite are my slow ability to clear my own jungle, high mana costs. I think if Malphite were better able to clear his own jungle I'd feel a bit more useful when im against .... well any current meta pick jungler really. I actually do pretty good against jax junglers, he kinda seems like a meta-jungler-pick.

Just let me clear my jungle faster. That alone would be amazing.

10 Comments

Bethor KookalianMay 26, 20142 votes

Honestly, Malphite really hasn't been a jungler since S2. After that, Vi pushed him out of the role, almost entirely, since their kits are very similar but Vi has significantly stronger jungle-attributes(Clear speed, wall hopping, targeted ult for ganks, versatile item builds including option of jungler item).

If you're really enjoying Malphite, I suggest learning to top-lane him, as he has a more well-defined niche in that role.

If you're really enjoying a Malphite-like jungle, I suggest learning Vi, as she can fairly accurately replicate the things that make Malphite Malphite as a jungler. Just better.

GhostStalkerMay 26, 20141 votes

I used to play Vi a lot. But I think Malphite is better for a lot of reasons. Especially in teamfights/pick comps.

1). Malphite is a hell of a lot tankier than Vi with his W active alone. His W also works with his passive incredibly well giving him god-like armor making his shield harder to take down

2). Malphite's ult is hands down the best engage in the game. It works really well with other AOE ultimates AND Yasuo.

3). Vi doesn't shut shut-down auto-attack centric champions like Malphite does. Malphite drastically lowers attack speed. And frozen heart on top of this is even more brutal. I see lot's of Jax, Yi, Aatrox, Trundle, and almost any ADC. These are champions malphite does well against. Also Malphite's Attack Speed slow works on master Yi, which is pretty awesomne.

Bethor KookalianMay 28, 20141 votes

Vi is currently the better jungler, despite Malphite's strengths, but:

1.Malphite isn't that much tankier early on, because his shield's CD is denied by damage while Vi's is controlled by ability CDs. This ensures that her shield is almost always up for the next camp. Later on, her stronger ganking and damage make up for his greater CC and tankiness. On top of this, Vi clears camps faster, meaning she has even higher health retention than the initial comparison would lead y ou to believe.

2.Vi has stronger synergy with Yasuo than Malphite, due to her Q being a knock-up as well, giving her more and easier options to lead into his ult.

3.While Vi can't CC auto-attackers as well, she's much more capable at killing them.

3a.Malphite's attack speed slow no longer works on Yi during his ult. They changed it in one of the late S3 patches(3.13, I think?).

GhostStalkerMay 26, 20141 votes

Basically, I think I feel that I shouldn't be so vulnerable to invades just because I clear slower. I think I should be vulnerable to invades because I'm playing my jungle poorly. But Malphite clears so slowly that it's easy to clear the camps he's not at because he takes a while to get started.

ChaosThiefMay 26, 20141 votes

He's a tank jungler, which all are vulnerable to invades. They don't do damage compared to the newest junglers.

Give this some thought: Should I really go tanky, or should I get something unusual like a thornmail first, then health?(excluding ancient golem ofc)

GhostStalkerMay 26, 20141 votes

Why should Tank Jungler's be vulnerable to invades? That's the question I pose. I think being vulnerable to invades to the point that we have it now with our tank jungler's is too much of a negative.

I would not have damage oriented junglers nerfed either. But rather increase the CC capability "frequency" of tank jungler's, and give them matching resiliency so that they can keep a target invading on them down long enough for people to respond and collapse on them.

ChaosThiefMay 26, 20141 votes

Tank junglers shouldn't be invincible or do tons of damage, they should have weakness early on. That might be why, that is my perspective at least.

GhostStalkerMay 26, 20141 votes

the weaknesses are a problem when it phases out an entire subsection of junglers.

ChaosThiefMay 27, 20141 votes

Riot is aware and trying to fix this problem, know that. But it can't be helped right now as junglers are supposed to carry, and they currently can't.

ChaosThiefMay 26, 20141 votes

I personally only played Malphite as an AP mid. It infuriated the other mid laner since he couldn't deal with poke, then comes the all in.