Saintvicious calls Malphite a Bad Jungler

But me got buffed :(

So yesterday night, Saintvicious, the jungler of the pro team CLG aka Counterlogic Gaming declared last night that Malphite was a "terrible jungler" on his stream. Although he didn't elaborate is the recently buffed Malphite really a terrible jungler?

Let's take a look at his kit: 

Passive: Granite Shield
Malphite is shielded by a layer of rock which absorbs damage up to 10% of his maximum health. If he has not been hit for 10 seconds, this effect recharges.

Q: Seismic Shard
Deals 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+60% of ability power) magic damage and steals 14 / 17 / 20 / 23 / 26% movement speed from the target for 4 seconds.

W: Brutal Strikes
Passive: Malphite's attacks hit units near his target for 30 / 38 / 46 / 54 / 62% of his attack damage.
Active: Increase Malphite's armor and attack damage 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 6 seconds.

E: Ground Slam
Malphite slams the ground dealing 60 / 100 / 140 / 180 / 220 (+50% of his Armor) magic damage to surrounding enemies, reducing their attack speed by 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50% for 4 seconds.

R: Unstoppable Force
Malphite charges towards the target area, dealing 200 / 300 / 400 (+100% of ability power) magic damage and knocking enemies into the air for 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 seconds.


The one glaring flaw to his kit is that his attacks are all buffed by different stats, aka armor, attack damage, and magic damage. Meanwhile, all of them are pretty key to his kit. His main way of initiating from level 2~5 is his Q. Unfortunately, it's only really effective if you can get behind a target to gank, since if you're in front of the target, by the time your Q rolls to your victim he's already scampering as fast as he can to get away.

In the current metagame of low level ganks, Malphite isn't a very strong jungler. However, once the new patch comes out and the jungling mechanics change, Malphite's strong sustain and ability to take red at level 3 without smite will definitely make him a strong jungler.

As for his laning abilities, in my opinion Malphite is a very strong counter to certain champions like Talon and Garen. However, he suffers against magic-based top solo champions such as Rumble.

Pros:
Strong sustain in jungle
Safe jungling
CC in ganks
Mid-late game tank
Strong level 6 AOE CC

Cons:
Weak early game ganks
Difficulty scaling all his abilities at once
Slower jungling

Conclusion: Malphite's a pretty decent jungler in my opinion just because he allows your top laner to build more towards damage rather than tankiness. Although his early game doesn't fit in with the current metagame standards, with the upcoming patches I foresee him being one of the stronger junglers on the field.


Got any comments? Post them below!