Malphite
Matchup Summary
Malphite can be either a very easy or difficult match up, as mainly it depends on his playstyle and how Malphite plays. Comet Malphite for instance is a lot easier to deal with as Renekton, as Malphite cannot force constant trades with his early mana issues, which is also countered by Renekton having Second Wind or Doran's Shield. Grasp Malphite on the other hand can go toe to toe with Renekton, forcing Renekton to play more conservatively until Malphite makes a mistake with his abilities. The whole goal of this match up is simply trying to obtain a giant CS lead over malphite, via clearing standard waves or proxying behind his turret when applicable, or trying to freeze on your side of the map, forcing Malphite to waste mana to break the freeze, or allowing Renekton the ability to fight back under his own conditions. Malphite eventually will become a lot more annoying to deal with, hence why Black Cleaver and Empowered E are vital tools when trying to duel or deal with Malphite within teamfights. Do note that as soon as Malphite his E on you, try to just disengage and don't bother trading auto attacks until the E wears off you. Try to also spam ping Malphite's R and try not to clump up together within major objectives, otherwise Malphite R can win him and his team the entire game.
Detailed Tips
- 01
Level 1 Q Start - Starting Q against Malphite, allows you to easily shove the wave into your level 2 spike, allowing you to hard trade against Malphite by taking E or W. Playing for 2 wave crash into wave bounce is typically how you want to lane against Malphite, as you’re able to lower his HP, then look towards freezing and finding a level 3/4 kill.
- 02
Respect Malphite Q - Malphite’s Q damage depends on his overall build, as if he takes Grasp his overall damage against targets with Q is severely weaker compared to his Comet keystone. If Malphite takes Comet, Malphite will try to hard poke you every time he has his Q and manaflow band up, presenting in really disgusting and heavy damage until he’s able to try and secure a kill onto you. The way to counter this playstyle before entering the game is taking Second Wind, as once you load into the game you can buy Doran Shield against him if he has Comet. Malphite cannot out damage Renekton’s outsustaining power, forcing Malphite to waste a lot of mana and setting himself up for an early Renekton kill.
- 03
Respect Malphite W - Malphite’s W allows his next auto attack to become empowered, dealing high physical damage on his first auto and slightly lower increased damage on his remaining hits. Whenever Malphite uses W, we want to avoid trying to trade deeply with him, as Malphite’s auto attacks hurt an absolute ton in combination with his attack speed slow on E. Try to always disengage from Malphite if he uses his W and E onto you, providing you the ability to keep your HP up and our plan to mana burn Malphite.
- 04
Avoid Malphite E - One of the most common reasons Malphite is able to out damage Renekton, is based around the fact people try to fight Malphite while they are attack speed slowed. Malphite’s E slows from 30% to 50% attack speed, which can stack multiplicatively with Frozen Heart’s 20%. Overall Malphite’s ability to negate our total attack speed, prevents us from being able to trade auto attacks against him. There are two ways we can play around Malphite’s E; we can either use short clicks to walk in and out and bait him to cast his E if we walk into his range, or we can use only our abilities to trade, using our E2 to instantly escape fighting him. The overall objective with these types of trades into malphite, is to allow ourselves to easily burn his mana, providing the ability to look for an all in or force him to base.
- 05
Play For Manaburn - As I recently mentioned, playing for mana burn is our most viable way of sustaining a lead over Malphite. Malphite naturally counters our ability to snowball over him, due to his high armour stacking and his annoying mechanics that lower our overall ability to obtain kills over him. Using our techniques of Doran’s Shield and Second Wind, short movements to bait abilities and using our short combos to bait out any abilities of his, will provide us with the result of easily wasting his mana, allowing us to force his recalls to help proxy, take plates or crash minion waves. Don’t try to aim for the kill in this lane, aim to have a high CS lead, as well as removing his mana and presence as a result.
- 06
Play Waves Accordingly - Simply assess whether or not you want to play for freeze, to help you deny XP and CS, while presenting yourself more opportunities to create fights. Or, play to shove waves to create proxy angles, tempo resets or create a dive opportunity. Renekton has all the cards to do whatever he wants with wave management. Also respect that if your laner tries to proxy, simply proxy back or coordinate a kill on them with your jungler.
- 07
Abuse Renekton Empowered E - Renekton’s Empowered E allows him to help shred Malphite’s total armour, synergising with Black Cleaver to help take away Malphite’s unkillable Aura. As the game progresses, using Empowered E is 100% essential for taking away his armour within teamfights. Having the ability to remove 300+ Armour is absolutely crazy value for Renekton, hence why using this is always super important for you and your teammates.
- 08
Abuse Renekton’s R Powerspike - Whenever you’re trying to fight Malphite, you must always have your R available if you want to provide that outcome. Renekton’s R magic damage combined with his armour shred and high AD damage, allows him to find early kills on Malphite as long as he plays it well. Malphite can always hold his own within 1v1’s, allowing him to get over confident against Renekton’s R, eventually losing the fight or wasting his R. If you manage to take away Malphite’s R, that’s always a win for you and your team, so make sure to notify your team whenever he doesn’t have it.
- 09
Respect Malphite R - Malphite’s R is an absolutely giant play making tool, allowing him to win an entire fight alone from the overall utility or high damage it can provide. Typically, we want to always avoid fights that are held within choke points, as it will easily provide the potential for a 5 man knock up with how tight the terrain is. Try to always avoid fighting Malphite clumped up, make sure to spread out and protect the ulted target if you have the chance to. Otherwise as previously mentioned, try to find ways to force his ults in a 1v1, then look to find a skirmish or teamfight while he has his R down.
- 10
Build Hexdrinker, Eclipse, or Black Cleaver - Go Hexdrinker to lower Malphite’s overall damage and have a MR shield. / Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. Go Black Cleaver to hard counter Malphite, allowing you to easily fight and apply armour shred for yourself and the rest of your team.
- 11
Mid Game + Teamfighting Tips - Malphite’s playstyle within the mid to late game, consists of stacking heavy armour to counter any AD threats, as well as using his R as a big initiation tool to help him catch out his main targets. Malphite’s overall presence is always annoying to deal with as Renekton, as he’s able to easily access anyone in the game with his R, while he’s practically nearly unkillable if he’s drafted into a heavy AD comp. When playing against Malphite, typically we want to make sure he’s away from our teammates at all costs, meaning we want to hard crash waves on his side of the map. Keeping Malphite away from your team is priority, allowing you to also look for fights with your R and Black Cleaver powerspike, forcing Malphite to potentially waste ult for any upcoming objectives. Whenever you get rid of his R, you’re able to force objectives or fights with your team, as naturally you will be able to make more play making opportunities than Malphite can within a fight. Within teamfights, try to ignore Malphite unless he’s the last target left. Killing Malphite is just a waste of time, so make sure to focus his carries and remove them from the game. When you’re forced to fight Malphite, make sure to use your empowered E to shred his abundance of armour, as well as stacking your Black Cleaver to allow all your teammates to do additional damage against the Malphite.