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Malphite - A Rock Solid Support?

ZergReap·4/14/2015, 6:49:27 PM·5 votes·1,793 views

I have been climbing steadily for a couple weeks and if I can I play either Irelia top or Draven, but if I can't do that I would rather supp than mid/jungle. I almost never support but I usually did ok since I play lots of adc. At least I know what I want out of my supp in lane... I really never played any conventional supports except Annie I guess, but I would always get caught out as squishy caster supports when warding and end up with a lot of deaths. SO I whipped out the Malphite supp and had some success (3-0 in ranked) and even got me my last win for Plat promos.

I go Hybrid Pen Reds, Scaling Health yellows, Armor quints, MR Blues 0/21/9

I usually do standard Targons sightstone rush, although I don't like upgrading Targons for some reason. Then I get locket and Frozen Heart (Iceborne Gauntlet if I'm feeling like the game is already snowballed), and Sunfire Cape/Abbysal sceptre.

It's similar to a Nautilus and Braum. I can Q and run up early game and deal decent damage while taking almost none. They want to focus my adc, but it is almost impossible to ignore me sitting on top of you. Plus His E is actually a very strong attack speed slow. A couple of the games we had the tanky top and Full tank Cinderhulk jungle with Malzahar mid and Lucian adc. Our carries were getting caught and trying to front line, dying instantly every fight. Then us 3 tanks would slowly kill everyone while taking no damage.

Overall it was a lot of fun for me playing an almost pure tank for once. I usaully main anything that is AD with lots of damage.

21 Comments

Orangesilk4/14/2015, 9:27:18 PM3 votes

I find Malphite to be a good but sub-par support, meaning, his initation is fine, but it's his main CC tool and he only gets it at lvl 6. Meanwhile Leona has equally strong initiation, with 2 additional cc tools, and she can start bum-rushing your face as soon as lvl 2.

Malphite CAN poke, but any decent ADC will poke back way harder.

He's weaker at poke than the poke supports and he's weaker at initiating than the hard initiation supports. He's at his best against an aggressive lane where can use his AS slow to turn fights the other way around and then his Q to make winning trades last longer. But when it comes down to a defensive tanky support, Braum is the best there is.

Nauti on the other hand shudders

Nucleophilic atk4/14/2015, 7:01:53 PM1 votes

He is a little worse in lane since he can be kited fairly easy, and has to extend to do much of anything really...but if your ADC is smart enough to play safer early, he is pretty good once you hit 6. Then he is a monster late game lol.

ZergReap4/14/2015, 7:24:35 PM1 votes

Thanks for replies. Early laning phase is pretty meh for sure. I can spam Q's for decent harass at a heavy mana cost. I feel like I am more effective when I just sit on the enemy adc with the attack speed slow I take very little damage, and deal enough to be a threat.

I am definately going to try Spellthief's edge for sure sounds awesome! A little extra damage and mana regen sounds a lot better than Targon's since I am running full tank Runes/Masteries anyway. And yeh I just never upgrade any support item ever for some reason...

adkoralmighty4/14/2015, 7:26:16 PM1 votes

i have played malphite support quite a few times my first ever ranked game was using him as a support (won that although i didn't play that great) i tend to go full tank with relic shield start. imo his early game (when going tanky) wasn't that great but once he hit 6 he can become a monster.

i however ran into a couple of malphite supports that went spelltheifs and used magic or hybrid pen marks, and ap quints and glyphs. those q's where dealing a crap ton of damage especially when they would level it up . his early game is a little better imo if you go more of an ap start.

Orbv4/14/2015, 7:50:46 PM1 votes

I find Malph and Mao'kai are really good supports. Malph has the element of instant initiation, but Mao has better poke and can setup ganks a little harder early on. He's like a pokey Leona with less initiation.

wwwdots4/15/2015, 1:08:13 AM1 votes

only thing u can rely on is ur 6, so through out the game in lane or out side malph is useless as support imo.

Drunk Rummate4/15/2015, 1:56:53 PM1 votes

Malphite support seems good on the surface, but let's compare him to another more traditional support, Braum.

His Q is a skillshot. This means you can miss, but it also procs his passive which can easily set up kills and/or peel for your adc. Malphites has more base damage, but Braum's scales with HP meaning he scales later into the game while Malphite does not.

His W brings him to an allied champion and grants them armor magic resist based on Braums stats. Malphites is a personal steroid, and since you're a tanky support this means it's only going to buff your base stats.

His E blocks skill shots and absorbs damage. Malphite does a little AOE damage and reduces enemy attack speed. Useful for sure, but it's not anywhere on the level of blocking a nami wave or anything similar.

His R is an AOE knockup that applies his passive. Malphites is an AOE knockup that does more damage.

So really, as a support, what does Malphite have that Braum does not? More reliable poke? I'd sooner pick Zyra if I wanted a poke support. A stronger aggressive engage? You could always go with Leona who gets free tank stats unlike Malphite.

ZergReap4/17/2015, 7:23:20 PM1 votes

Thanks for all the responses. Going to grab Braum as my next champ. I can still always grab that malph for the Yasuo with no knockups if necessary.

M4nTiCoR34/18/2015, 9:39:35 PM1 votes

I just want to reiterate that the reason to take Malphite as a late support pick isn't to pick the best champion to win your lane with...

It's to pick the champion who will have the most impact in the late game against an enemy team that has over committed to melee range AD champions. If they took an AD mid top and jungle, and you last pick support, Malph can become a monster against that enemy team comp that no amount of early lane advantage can overcome assuming you don't throw the game in 20 min.

You hit 30-45 min mark as a malphite with any legit income and he will single handedly swing every team fight in your favor assuming you can keep your team together and make play.

The Objective is to win the game, not just your lane. There are situations where support malph will outshine any other pick due to his unique ability to shut down melee DPS, and his initiation is always welcome for teamfights. Late game teamfights win more games in my experience than early game lane dominance by bottom laners. Maybe it's just me but I'll pick the late game advantage over the early lane.advantage 9 times out of 10 if it's stacked in my favor like the situation I mentioned above.

To each their own...good luck and stay rock solid.

Only Play Darius4/18/2015, 9:41:34 PM1 votes

Draven top is asking to feed.

Reminds me of a teambuilder game I played where enemy Jinx took mid vs our Zed. Guess who got extremely fed?

M4nTiCoR34/14/2015, 6:59:41 PM1 votes

I use this occasionally when the enemy team over commits to AD....even if it's sub optimal during laning...malph can transition to a nightmare for that team late game. Glad to see I'm not the only one who uses this.

Spell thief is a better starting item. Don't bother upgrading it. Just sell it mid game.

ZergReap4/20/2015, 8:45:44 PM1 votes

was on 5 game loss streak on my main, but had to support today so you know.... Make that 4-0 on my malph supp lol!!