well he is frozen and such of course he'd be slower

Glacial Malphite is no longer rock solid because of this animation change.

He's still cool, though.

lol

oh hi xerath what are you doing here

malphite's ground slam uses the standard cast time of 0.25 seconds across all skins--you'll get the gameplay effect (damage + debuff) at the same time regardless of which skin you're using, and it's the same timing that was in effect before the patch.

something you might be noticing that's specific to this skin is that malphite doesn't immediately transition into his idle state after the spell effect triggers--he stays on one knee a bit longer and dramatically rips his fist back up from the ground (accompanied by a secondary powder effect around his fist when he 'shifts his weight' in preparation of rising again). this follow-up doesn't impact gameplay in anyway--you're able to move/cast at the same time as you would before--it's a subtle visual reward if you don't need to immediately move/cast after you slam the ground.

'flourishes' like that are things we like to add in when we get the chance.

burn

Besides, it obviously has a larger AoE radius, as shown by the frost all over the ground!!

inb4 its a secret stealth malphite nerf done Xerath style to match the fancy new animation

Thanks! first time a riot replies to me evarr... good to know. Top lane it seems to be more of a nuisance and harder to land but I got used to the animation now so it's all good.

I feel like this is one of those improvements that should go on all Malphite skins instead of just one, like the recent Singed particle enhancements that ended up on all of his skins. It's just something that changes how the ability feels between skins, and I don't think that's what Riot wants.