Simple question. I only pick Malphite top lane when the enemy team is heavy AD (make use of his ult) and/or I have teammates such as Oriana or Amumu to synchronize ults.
Something I can't decide is when to go AP instead of tanky. Can I get some suggestions?
Winning hard? AP
Losing or breaking even? Tanky.
Malphite is more of an Offtank that charges and threatens the opponent team with his combined threatening presence+tankiness. If you think one full blown combo with tons of AP+Armor scaling is going to be more useful for your team, I don't see any reason to be afraid not to.
Treat Malphite like a bruiser. Build damage when you think you can take advantage of a situation, build tankiness if you want to be more reliable.
If you are able to ult into several players, have your team follow up, AND end the fight quickly, build AP. If you are going to have a slow fight, your team doesn't/can't follow up quickly OR you need to peel, build tank. Notice the difference between AND compared to OR.
I like playing Malphite as a late pick against any AD heavy team. Especially those that take an AD assassin mid like Talon.
As for specifically when to go more AP focused than full tank...basicly whenever you have a tanker jungler or support you have the option. He is deceptively good in poke comps that like to seige with long range attacks too. If you pair his Q with LT item, you get decent range for paoking and can soak trades with your passive, and the burn from LT is doubled allowing you to maximize that poke over time. The high AR and health you get from other items like Hourglass, and sunfire, can allow you to Ult in when the time is right and tank the tower until you need to pop your hourglass in the later parts of the game.
Thanks, guys.
Simple, you go ap when your team needs more damage and needs more magic dmg. Otherwise, building full tank is the ideal build because you essentially want to stay alive long as possible to shut down the enemy's main physical dps dealers.
I will build a bit more AP against ranged Tops such as Teemo, Ryze, Gnar, and Jayce. I'd also recommend it against Rumble since he has pretty bad sustain. One Doran Ring > Chalice is the core for constant harass with Q.
