Pls Update: Force of Nature is no longer a available Item, and Saint wants to build something out of Negatron in his Jungle Vid of Malph maybe take that. Thx

i'm wondering if anyone has tried doing a manamune build on him to try and take advantage of some of the nice armor+mana items he uses:

something like tabi/merc treads- frozen heart - iceborn gauntlet- runic bulwark- manamune - randuin's omen?

I really miss force of nature :(

He can carry so hard!!

So.... I normally refrain from getting on here and saying anything about these guides. Too often you see people saying "No, it should be like this!!!" or "This is dumb". These people are experts, or as much as one can be on this game; and additionally you have come to this site ot see their opinion(s).

HOWEVER ... Xin Zhao is a pretty difficult counter. I am not writing this to tell the admins / experts to change it; but more as a warning to those who would play against him. Here is why - his passive (Challenge) reduces your armor - and your armor is supplemental to your damage. Whereas with most champs; your armor goes down your survivability goes down. With Malphite - your survivability AND your offense goes down. He also can heal in the lane; and you can't.

You've been warned :-)

The tips and tricks section mentions Frozen Heart + Atma's Impaler, but these items aren't mentioned anywhere else in the guide. When do you get these items, and which items do you replace with them?

Why get Enlightenment masteries? Not necessary as your build already has 40% cdr...

How comes in either guide Malphite isn't abusing Warmogs to make his Passive stronger? I build everything here -the Banshee's and make it a Warmogs and I like it a ton. Curious why Mog's isn't used?

You want to find the balance between raw HP and armor / MR that maximizes your effective health.

Same goes for your passive - more base HP will make it a bigger shield, while more armor / MR will make it a tougher one.

Both work fine towards the same goal, and it ends up coming down to personal preference / situational factors, but oftentimes tank items come with some HP along with defensive stats, as well as some utility, making them the superior choice over just a big chunk of HP.

Best champ in the game vs 3 AD. J/w am I right to target the AP caster first (if I have to choose they bunch up sometimes lol) while armor stacking to be invincible or do I need to consider my team's needs more? I like to be unkillable but does this actually work in higher level play?

Call me crazy, but I always start wraiths/red since the opposing team always tries to invade it thinking Malphite demands blue. Red buff lets you clear really fast and so long as you don't actually use the W active, you will have plently of mana for blue buff after a full clear of wraiths>red>dubs>wraiths>wolves>blue by only using E to clear camps. Red buff also lets you level 2 gank if you want to mess with the other lanes early since no one expects a level 2 Malphite gank. I usually start boots too since I can get around to camps faster, his passive and base armor keep him healthy, and ganking without boots isn't exactly easy since Malphite's Q is not the best gap closer. With boots AND Q you can gank just about anyone with the help of your teammate. Red buff and E are a lot of damage vs a level 1 champ.

So why would it not be better to start jungling at the wraiths, then wolves so that you have both W and E available for the blue camp, then just head back to the wraiths since they should have respawned?

In my opinion the second jungle path could be done differently. 

 Wolves →Blue Buff →  Wraiths  -->Wolves → Red Buff → Mini Golems →  Wraiths → Wolves → Buy

This saves you waiting for respawn on the 2nd time you do wolves, and it also cuts on the walking time needed between the last 3 camps. Can cut a good 30 seconds on the second path mentioned in the guide.

I've been going wraiths, wolves, blue, wraiths, golems, red.  I just feel much more comfortable taking on the blue at level 2 with brutal strikes