How to win lane as Malphite against Lucian · 55.71% win rate over 3,177 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Even / skill | No trade pattern for either of you at level 1 — you both just last-hit, so soak the double-shot poke behind Granite Shield and set up your spike. |
| Level 2 | Lucian | Lucian's double-shot passive plus Q-W poke chunks you before Thunderclap or Ground Slam exist to answer it — this is his cleanest window. |
| Level 3 | Even / skill | By level 3 your kit is barely online but your Q slow can punish a greedy E-dash up, evening the trade math out. |
| Levels 4-5 | Malphite | Thunderclap's armor and empowered autos plus Ground Slam's attack-speed slow start out-trading his all-AD damage — E is a hard counter to an auto ADC. |
| Level 6 | Malphite | Unstoppable Force lands point-blank through his Culling range — he can't E-dash out of an R already on him, flipping the kiter into a kill. |
| First item | Malphite | Your first armor item stacks into W and E while his all-AD double-shot DPS drops off — you out-trade and out-durable him here. |
| Two+ items | Malphite | Bramble/Frozen Heart make his pure-AD autos useless while Q denies the kite and R deals scaling armor damage — no percent-HP tool lets him reclaim it. |
Lucian owns the very early poke: his passive double-shot after a Q or ability proc chunks you every time you walk up to last-hit, and you have no trade pattern at level 1-2 to answer it. Don't try to Q-trade into his range — you'll just eat the return double-shot and lose the exchange. Farm with the tip of your Q for the move-speed steal when he over-extends, soak the poke behind Granite Shield, and accept that levels 2-3 are his. Your Q slow is your only real tool here, so save it to punish a greedy E-dash up rather than spending it on a poke he'll just kite.
The full Malphite vs Lucian report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Lucian vs Malphite guide →
All Malphite top lane matchups →