Big Malphite changes are headed to the League of Legends PBE

Malphite is one of the oldest champions in League of Legends, dating back to 2009 when he was released alongside Blitzcrank, Janna, and Dr. Mundo. His kit hasn’t really changed too much either since then, but Riot Games’ Nathan “Lutzburg” Lutz has revealed that our favorite rock will be getting some big changes to a few of his abilities soon.

Lutz—who recently joined Riot’s champion design team—explained in a Dev Corner post that Malphite will be going through some quality-of-life changes in the Public Beta Environment (PBE). The two main goals that Riot wants to accomplish with these changes are to “improve the visceral satisfaction of Malphite’s abilities,” while also keeping his relatively easy-to-learn kit and teamfight impact.

First, Malphite’s passive will make him glow when his shield regenerates. This will make it easier for enemies and allies to discern whether he has his passive back up. Additionally, Malphite will now scale in size depending on how much armor he has, like Cho’Gath.

His Q, Seismic Shard, is going through a ton of changes as well:

• Range increased from 625 to 700.
• Missile speed increased from 1,200 to 1,400, and will spawn closer to its target on cast.
• Cast time increased from 0.25 seconds to 0.5 seconds.
• AP scaling reduced from 0.6 to 0.4.
• Malphite no longer steals target movement speed. Malphite now slows his target by 20/25/30/35/40 percent and increases his own movement speed by 20/25/30/35/40 percent.
• Speed duration reduced from four seconds to three seconds.
• Malphite no longer summons his Seismic Shard from behind himself and instead casts it from his arm. This also increases how fast the missile reaches its target.
• Targets affected by Q are covered in a molten rock effect for the duration of the slow.

Malphite’s W, Brutal Strikes, has also been changed. The ability is now called Thunderclap and it resets his auto attack and deals 40/55/70/85/100 bonus physical damage on cast.

Also, Malphite’s auto attacks will cause “aftershocks” after using W. Similar to Titanic Hydra, his auto attacks will cleave in front of Malphite and do 10/20/30/40/50 physical damage to all enemies in range of the cone.

The last proposed change that Riot will be making to Malphite is his ultimate, which will leave an impact crater wherever he lands. Get ready to leave a mark with your favorite rock very soon.