Malphite

Malphite is an AP tank in the support, and on patch 16.11 they grade out as an off-meta pick — a 46.6% win rate, 0.3% pick rate, 3,860 ranked games sampled. On the power curve, Malphite is a scaling champion: comparatively weak early, but one of the strongest picks on the map once core items come online — so the plan is to survive the laning phase and take the game over late.

How Malphite wins: landing engage and starting fights on Malphite's terms, and grouped 5-v-5 teamfights, where Malphite tips the fight. The kit grades 10/10 engage, 10/10 teamfighting. Play around where Malphite is thin, split-push and disengage (3/10, 2/10), and the enemy loses their angle.

The most-played core build is Zaz'Zak's Realmspike, Malignance, Stormsurge, which holds a 42.6% win rate across 441 games this patch. The build above re-optimizes once you lock in the enemy composition.

The matchup to respect is Sylas, where Malphite sits at just 35.8%, the lane swings the other way into Caitlyn (53.1%), and on the team side, Malphite gains the most from a Yone (+10.6% pair win rate).