# Malphite Counters, Matchups & Tips | Baron Buff
See Malphite counters, hardest matchups, and tips to play against or draft around Malphite in League of Legends.
Canonical HTML: https://baronbuff.com/champions/malphite/
Markdown URL: https://baronbuff.com/champions/malphite.md
Language: en
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- Malphite

## Page Content

Tank · Vanguard · Top, Support, Mid, Jungle

Prepare for battle with Malphite — master their strengths and exploit their weaknesses before the game starts.

## Playstyle Profile

Malphite is an initiator — excels at engaging grouped enemies with impactful openings

Teamfight Role Vanguard Initiator

Power Spike Mid game

Split Threat None

Backline Access Low

## Malphite's Strengths

- Starts fights on your terms — Malphite's engage forces enemies to react, giving your team the initiative

## How to Play Malphite

Champion-specific pre-match tips

### Lane Phase

Step back out of enemy range whenever your passive shield breaks, re-entering the minion wave only after the shield fully recharges.

### Lane Phase

Cast Q primarily to secure cannon minions or escape trades, since spamming it early will completely drain your mana pool before your level 6 spike.

### Lane Phase

Walk up and cast E exactly when the enemy steps forward to last hit, crippling their attack speed to win the resulting auto-attack trade.

### Mid Game

Group with your team around neutral objectives when your ult is available, immediately rotating to catch side lane waves while it is on cooldown.

### Mid Game

Activate W immediately after your first basic attack during skirmishes or while pushing towers to reset your auto-attack timer for faster burst damage.

### Mid Game

Hold your ult until enemies walk into narrow jungle choke points or clump tightly around the objective pit to guarantee a multi-target knock-up.

### Late Game

Aim your ult directly at the enemy backline carries when a teamfight breaks out, bypassing frontline tanks to immediately burst their primary damage threats.

### Late Game

Sweep a flanking brush near Baron or Elder Dragon and wait out of sight until the enemy team commits to the objective before casting your ult.

### Late Game

Wait for your allies to land their crowd control first before casting your ult if the high-priority enemy carry still has flash available.

For matchup-tailored tips, download Baron Buff's AI Coach & Companion App.

## Core Build

Ranked from real ranked-match itemization

We look at ranked games after each item was bought. If the player or team gained ground in gold, we rate that item higher.

- Sunfire Aegis — 2,700

- Kaenic Rookern — 2,900

- Plated Steelcaps (Boots) — 1,200

- Thornmail — 2,450

- Frozen Heart — 2,500

- Jak'Sho, The Protean — 3,200

total: 14,950

## How to Counter Malphite

Counter strategies and draft context

build percent-health damage, kite effectively, or bypass them entirely to reach carries

- Weak to disengage and spread comps — Malphite's engage loses value when enemies aren't grouped

- Split-push threats that avoid 5v5 team fights entirely

- Compositions with strong disengage to negate engage windows

- Picks that bypass the frontline to reach backline carries directly

### Malphite's Weaknesses

- Heavy disengage compositions — Malphite's engages get peeled off before the team can follow up

## Best Synergies with Malphite

Team synergies and draft context

- Follow-up damage dealers who capitalize on Malphite's engage — burst mages and ADCs with range

- Assassins that flank while you hold enemy attention at the front

- Follow-up damage dealers that capitalize on your engage and CC

- AOE mages that combo with your crowd control for wombo setups

### Draft Context

- Pairs another engage champion with no follow-up damage to capitalize on Malphite's initiation

## Learning Curve

[Based on 1.2M+ matches](https://baronbuff.com/blog/mastery_by_tier/) across all ranked elos, showing how Malphite's win rate changes with mastery level

Malphite has a typical skill ceiling, with a straightforward learning process. Steady improvement comes over a moderate number of games.

Skill Cap Medium

Cost of Learning Medium

Win Rate Delta by Mastery

Mastery Level | Win Rate |

1-2 | 43.3% |

3-4 | 46.5% |

5-6 * | 51.6% |

7-8 | 51.6% |

9-12 | 51.6% |

13-16 | 51.6% |

17+ | 51.6% |

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