Mordekaiser Build Guide by Phemeth

Introduction

This is my first guide on Mobafire so any kind of comment, suggestion or help is really welcome.

First of all I'm BerserkerSoul a medium player in League of Legends classified in Silver I division in EUW server. However I can say I have a great experience with Mordekaiser which is the second champion I bought and my main Mid pick in ranked games.

Let's begin introducing this big guy Mordekaiser one of the best duellist of the game. Nobody can stop a good Master of Metal. In this guide will be explained how to play Mordekaiser in Summoner's Rift's Mid, Top or (Solo) Bot lane.

This Champion is a melee AP bruiser naturally tanky due to Iron Man, one of the four champions who use Health to cast their spells like Vladimir, Dr. Mundo and Zac.

I divided the Guide into Three parts:

• First Part: Preparing your Champion for the Battlefield
• Second Part: How to play your Morde in the right way
• Third Part: Ranked Score & Changelogs & FAQ & Special Thanks

First Part: Preparing Mordekaiser

In this Part of the Guide we'll learn something more about our Champion. All that can be said will be said, so let's begin.

Here we go.

Pros/Cons

P R O S

+ Tons of Damage + Great duellist + Good AoE + Children of the Grave is Awesome + Great pusher + Very durable + Burst damage combos

P R O S

C O N S

- Vulnerable through Early Ganks - Vulnerable when Iron Man isn't up - Squishy early game - No Escape Mechanisms - No Natural Crowd Controls

C O N S

Masteries

I usually use this masteries (9/21/0) which are the best for building a durable Mordekaiser.









Other good alternatives are 21/9/0 and 9/0/21. I don't recommend these masteries to any inexperienced0 Mordekaiser.

Runes

In this section I want to explain my choices and show other viable runes to equip our Mordekaiser. I would start saying there are few Runes we can chose.

There are no Marks except Greater Mark of Magic Penetration which could be considerate "viable" for Mordekaiser, so I suggest you to get them. While you are playing in Mid lane you can exchange a maximum of 6 Greater Seal of Armor with Greater Seal of Scaling Armor in order to get AP and Magic Penetration items over Armor items.

Summoner Spells

Now we'll talk about summoner's spells. There are few Summoner Spell that you need and a lot of summoner's spells you needn't. However there's one summoner spell required in order to play Mordekaiser efficiently that is Ignite.

So you have to chose the last one. Although there are other viable Spells, I prefer playing Morde with Flash, because he has no escape mechanism.

I saw some Morde using this skill so I added this to the list. It could be helpful on one versus one, but it leaves you without an escape method. It is improved by Summoner's Wrath so is a good combination with Ignite.

I'm absolutely for this spell. It takes a long Cooldown but allow you to pass through short walls to escape gank moving toward the cursor current position for 400 units. The best Summoner Spell. Its Cooldown is reduced by Summoner's Insight .

I'm not a fan of this spell, but it's still viable for Morde and this can save your champ from some ganks. It is improved by Summoner's Wrath so is a good combination with Ignite.

Ignite is a single target spell which deals (50 + 20 × level) true damage and reduces Health received by all fonts by 50%. It's improved by Summoner's Wrath . A must have for Mordekaiser.

Teleport is what you need to come back faster to the battlefield. It has 300 seconds of Cooldown, but with it you can save an allied, a turret, an inhibitor or come back to your lane. Nice. Its cast time is reduced by Summoner's Insight so is a good combination with Flash and Enchantment: Distortion.

Skill Sequence

Now we'll talk about Mordekaiser's skill set. Mordekaiser uses Health in order to cast skills. Spamming skills when you have low life will not kill you, but your Health would be brought to 1. This means you can still fight when you have low Health and you can take advantage of this feature spamming all skills in order to survive with Iron Man.

This is the ability sequence and Here I explain why Mordekaiser doesn't need Mace of Spades and why taking Creeping Death level 2 over Mace of Spades. If you are constatly focused or you feel a third point in Creeping Death would help you can get it on level 10.

Abilities

35% of the damage dealt from abilities is converted into a temporary Shield, absorbing incoming damage. Shield generation is only half as effective against minions. Maximum Shield strength is 90 + (30 x level). The Shield decays by 3% per second.

It's your passive skill one of the best of the game. Your champion is tank-like when he gets this passive up. We'll call this skill "Shield". Your Shield is located under your Health bar where should be located your mana bar. You could charge it using your skills.

Unfortunately hitting minions return only 17,5% of damage done as Shield. However hitting champions mean you'll get 35% of the damage done after the Magic Resist mitigation so you could get more Shield hitting a minion than a tank champion.

Your Shield is like extra life so it benefit from Armor and Magic Resist's damage reductions, but it's better because if you get hit by skills which damage is based on current, maximum or missing Health you'll receive the same damage you should get without the Shield from skill based on current, maximum or missing Health. The biggest problem is that it decays by 3% of it's maximum amount per second.

The additional damage from Spell Blades, if combined with Mace of Spades will charge your Shield. This damage is considered magic damage so it will benefit from Magic Penetration and it will proc Spell Vamp and Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

A balanced build focused on keeping Iron Man up owe to medium defensive stats and high damage output is the perfect build for Mordekaiser. This is why you are an AP, although your damages are based on basic skills' damage and Magic Penetration.

On next hit, Mordekaiser swings his mace with such force that it echoes out, striking up to 3 additional nearby targets, dealing 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+1 per bonus attack damage) (+40% of ability power) magic damage. If the target is alone, the ability deals 132 / 181.5 / 231 / 280.5 / 330 (+1.65 per bonus attack damage) (+66% of ability power).

Health Cost: 25 / 32 / 39 / 46 / 53 health
Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 seconds
Single Target Magic Damage: 132 /181.5 / 231 /280.5 / 330 + (66% Ability Power) + (165% Attack Damage)
Multi Target Magic Damage: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200
Range First Target: 125
Radius Secondary Targets: 600

It's your late-game skill. With a low Cooldown and a good AP Ratio (40% Multi Target and 66% Single Target) it's a great damage skill which converts all the damage done with the basic attack into magic damage including Spell Blades. It also scales with AD (100% Multi Target and 165% Single Target).

It's a basic attack modifier, which resets the attack timer allowing Mordekaiser to perform a basic attack quickly followed by Mace of Spades. It can't critical strike, it does magic damage and it can't be dodged ( Jax's Counter Strike), although the basic attack could miss ( Teemo's Blinding Dart, Heimerdinger's CH-1 Concussion Grenade or Quinn's Blinding Assault). It has two poissible effects:

• The first is a Multi Target effect which target the first enemy hit and up the three nearest units to the target's position (400 bounce range) dealing moderate magic damage. You can use this effect to last hit more minions at once when Siphon of Destruction isn't up or to harass your enemies in lane when they'll get closer to last hit minions.
• The second is a Single Target effect which deals awesome magic damage to a single enemy target when it's alone. This is your only way to proc Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Spell Vamp with full effect so be sure to use this second effect as much as possible.

Unleashes a protective cloud of metal shards to surround an ally or himself, increasing their Armor and Magic Resist by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 and dealing 24 / 38 / 52 / 66 / 80 (+20% of ability power) damage per second to enemies in the cloud for 6 seconds.

Health Cost: 26 / 32 / 38 / 44 / 50 health
Cooldown: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 seconds
Armor & Magic Resist Bonus: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Magic Damage Per Second: 24 / 38 / 52 / 66 / 80 (+20% Ability Power)
Maximum Magic Damage: 144 / 228 / 312 / 396 / 480 (+120% Ability Power)
Range: 750
Could Radius: 250


It's your mid-game skill. A nice AP Ratio (20% Ability Power) and a nice damage per second. The increase of Armor and Magic Resist let the target absorb more damage. The Cooldown could seem very long, but if maxed you can put your cloud of metal for 6 seconds every 12 seconds. It has different uses.

It can be thrown on any allied unit except turrets, inhibitors and nexus, so you can use it on your Ghost pet made in Children of the Grave. It can be used to help somebody tank a turret, to defend a focused ally or in order to get an assist.

This skill is wonderful! I like the heavy AoE damage which proc Spell Vamp with diminished effect and keeps your Shield up while you are fighting enemy champions. During laning phase you could target the second melee minion of the incoming weave in order to get a bit of Shield before extending through lane. An other underestimate usage is targeting minions when you are escaping through a lane, consequently this will slow and lightly damage your chasers owe to Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment, while increasing your possibilities to survive.

This skill is a defensive skill, but it has the best damage so use it to take Health advantage fighting the enemy champion among his minions. You can use Alt + W to use the skill on yourself, but be careful if you do this when you are moving and you have a Ghost pet to control.

Mordekaiser damages enemies in a cone in front of him, dealing 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60% of ability power) magic damage.

Cooldown: 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 seconds
Health Cost: 24 / 36 / 48 / 60 / 72 health
Magic Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (60% Ability Power)
Range: 700


It's your early-game skill. With a fixed low Cooldown and a sweet basic damage it's your main harass tool. It's first aim is to farm from distance the second is to heavily harass your opponent the third is to instantly gain tons of Shield. Every time you use Siphon of Destruction is a sure hit.

It's a conic skill which instantly damages all enemies under the template which is just few units longer than you can see. It's easy to harass your lane enemy, but do never forget to farm. Moreover lv 1 and 2 of this skill are really bad, especially level one, so do not spam it. When you'll get Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment this skill will apply the DoT and the Multi Target Slowing effect.

Don't be greedy with this skill because you are vulnerable to early gank in every lane so be sure to get Sight Wards as soon as possible and if you don't want to push the lane simply aim Siphon of Destruction in order to damage only the minion you want last hit. The cost of this skill is high, but you can completely refund it with Shield and Health Potions.

Keep buying Health Potions if you run out of it, until you get Hextech Revolver on your second back (in most cases you should get it on your first back unless you back to get some Sight Ward). Then you can spam skills freely just keep sure to hit something! You can use this skill to check bushes.

Mordekaiser deals magic damage to the target and curses it for 10 seconds with a damage-over-time effect. The damage is equal to a percentage of the target's maximum health. Mordekaiser heals himself for the damage done. In addition, if the target dies while under the effect of the curse, their soul is enslaved and will follow Mordekaiser for 30 seconds. During this time, Mordekaiser gains 20% of their ability power and attack damage. The spirit in turn gains 75% of Mordekaiser's adjusted damage, ability power, and health totals.

Health cost: No cost
Cooldown: 120 / 105 / 90 seconds
Initial Magic Damage: 12 / 14.5 / 17% + (2% per 100 Ability Power)
Magic Damage Per Second: 1.2 / 1.45 / 1.7% + (0.2% per 100 Ability Power)
Range: 850
Leash Range: 1125 (estimate)

It's your ultimate, one of the best ability in the game. The Cooldown isn't too long and it has no cost. It deals a percentage of Health as magic damage cursing the target with a DoT, in addiction if the target is killed when he the it is still cursed Children of the Grave will gives you an exact copy of the killed enemy as a controllable pet. I've dedicated a section of the guide on how to use Ghost Pets.

Children of the Grave deals half instantly and the other half over 10 seconds while applying a 100% innate Spell Vamp to the damage done. This skill is the longest DoT in LoL so it's the best combination possible with Liandry's Torment, Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Ignite. This combo applied during late game when you are full equipped with a Magic Penetration build will bring an enemy with 100 Magic Resist from 100% to 25-35% of his health. However the damage of Liandry's Torment is based on current life so the damage the combo will deal a minimum of 45-50% of target's maximum life. It procs Spell Vamp with full effect and Rylai's Crystal Scepter with diminished effect.

During laning phase Children of the Grave level 1 is your worst damaging skill because his damage is based on maximum Health and your enemy hasn't got many of it, however a combination with Ignite will shutdown any enemy which has less than 20% of his maximum Health. It could seem silly, but if you want to secure the kill be sure your enemy hasn't Health Potions into his inventory or self healing methods out of Cooldown or he could survive the combo. For more information about securing the kill have a look on Children of the Grave VS All.

When you use your combo with Ignite keep in mind that its range is much shorter (600 units) than Children of the Grave (850 units), but its Cooldown is longer so you should use first Ignite and then Children of the Grave, if you are sure to hit your enemy with both DoTs. Remember that this ultimate will draw turret aggro if the target is in range of the turret's sight.

Second Part: In Game Choices

Finally we finished the first part of the build. Now our Mordekaiser is ready to jump into the battlefield.

In this section we'll talk about the in game part.

Items

So let's talk about Items. The game is a living thing so you should dynamically chose items in order to react to your champion's needs. I think choosing an item or an other changes the future team fights. If your champ in the next fight should die, adding a new item could change the result of the skirmish. You have to learn what your Mordekaiser needs and get it when he needs it.

Boots Start

Cloth Armor Start

Sustain Start

• In Top lane you can start with Sustain Start or Cloth Armor Start depending on your lane enemy. Adopt a defensive play and don't overextend until Mid game especially if you get no Sight Wards.
• In Mid lane you can start with Boots Start, Sustain Start or Cloth Armor Start depending on the lane enemy and the jungler. If they are two ADs go for Cloth Armor, if the jungler has no gap closers and the Mid laner has no hard CCs go for Boots of Speed, otherwise get Rejuvenation Bead.
• In Bot lane you can start with Boots Start in order to secure your harass and improve your escape potential. Be careful until your first back to jungler's position.

The first thing you should get after Spell Vamp is damage. Since Mordekaiser AP Ratios aren't really high he needs Magic Penetration in order to improve the base damage of skills. Sorcerer's Shoes gives 15 Magic Penetration which combined with an early Haunting Guise and 9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration makes your Siphon of Destruction hit harder.

A great alternative to Sorcerer's Shoes combined with Tenacious grants you about 44% CC Reduction. Useful while playing Top lane facing AP enemies such as Akali, Kennen, Vladimir or playing against high magic damage and/or CC Team.

A good alternative to Sorcerer's Shoes, although your best defence should be offence with a bit of resistances. It's useful against auto attack based champions such as Tryndamere, Fiora or Rengar. The Passive of this item reduce damage from turrets too. Get this item only if the enemy team composition is heavily based on AD.

The Spell Vamp is a must on Mordekaiser it allow you to freely harass while gaining Shield back for free. During the laning phase it's mandatory to get this item. You should upgrade this item into Hextech Gunblade or Spirit of the Spectral Wraith if you need CDR. However you can sell it instead of upgrading in order to free a slot.

An excellent item for Early game. It gives all stats you need Health to resist burst damages, a bit of AP and Magic Penetration which is the best stat for early game. You can get it after Hextech Revolver, and before Sorcerer's Shoes in order to maximize damage output or later on in order to build Liandry's Torment.

This item is awesome combined with Children of the Grave, Rylai's Crystal Scepter and high Magic Penetration stats. It deals 6% of current Health over 3 seconds the duration and it's the damage is doubled if the target is impaired, so it synergies perfectly with Rylai's Crystal Scepter and your AoE skills.

An other must for Mordekaiser which gives AP, Health and a soft CC to each damaging skill. Every Multi Target skills will slow hit enemy units of 15% and Mace of Spades will slow of 35% when hitting with Single Target effect. The Active of Deathfire Grasp procs the 35% slow and consequently Liandry's Torment. It synergises perfectly wtih Liandry's Torment.

It's a situational items which becomes mandatory while facing AD assassins such as Zed or Talon. It gives Armor and AP which scales with creep score and cap at 30 creeps. It's really cheap and useful. Its upgrade is Zhonya's Hourglass.

A Balanced Advanced item. It has cheap total cost, but the recipe is expensive. It gives a great amount of Magic Resist, a good amount of AP and a unique passive aura debuff, which reduce enemies champions' Magic Resist by 20 in a medium range of 700 units. Good against APs, great if played in a team which does heavy magic damages. Every balanced team should get this item for it's benefical aura.

A Defensive Legendary item. It is recommended when playing against high CC teams or champions like Karthus. In a lot of cases isn't necessary. It's just a situational item.

An Offensive Legendary item. This item has an high cost which increase your CDR. Moreover it gives your Morde a huge amount of AP and a great Active. The Active deal 15% of the maximum target's Health as magic damage and amplify magic damages taken by target by 20% for 4 seconds. It synergies well with Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

A Defensive advanced item. It is a low cost item, which grants an good amount of Armor and low amount of Magic Resist, furthermore it allow you to resurrect after 2 seconds of Invulnerability with 30% of your maximum Health (Cooldown 300 seconds). Excellent if enemies are focusing you, moreover while you are resurrecting you can still control your Ghost pet. Using it to keep champions away you can save your life and help your team to dominate the fight. Unavailable on Twisted Treeline.

An Offensive Legendary item. A low cost item which gives a nice boost of AP and huge CDR. It's a situational item owe to his Passive which applies Grevious Wounds (50% healing reduction from all sources) every time you hit an enemy with less than 40% Health with magic damage for 4 seconds. The magic damage applied by items such as Hextech Gunblade and Deathfire Grasp will apply the debuff too. It's a cheap counter item to champions which relies on Health regen such as Dr. Mundo, Vladimir and Sion.

An Offensive Legendary item. An high cost item which increase your AP sightly. This gives you the best amount of it you can get by a single item. In addiction it's passive give the owner an extra amount of AP equals to 25% of his total AP. Nothing else is better than a Rabadon's Deathcap to improve Lich Bane damage. However in most of cases you should get other items. Unavailable on Twisted Treeline.

A Defensive Legendary item. It has an average cost. A big amount of Armor and Health. It's passive helps a lot against auto attack based champions: every time you get hit by champion's basic attacks reduce the Attack Speed of the enemy champion by 15% for 1.5 seconds and his movement speed by 10%. The active do the same thing of the passive on a small area (500 Range) slowing by 35% for an an amount of seconds equals to 1 per 200 Armor + Magic Resist. Great for escaping.

A Defensive Legendary item. This is an low cost item. This gives all you need to survive: Health, Magic Resist and Cooldown reduction. In addiction the Passive improve all your healing received by 20%, Spell Vamp, Health Regen and Children of the Grave are included. The Magic Resist bonus is huge and the CDR too. The recipe and items are cheap so I think this item is really viable especially when the enemy team deals heavy magic damage. Furthermore the Unique Passive synergies with Children of the Grave.

A Defensive Legendary item. A cheap item which improve your Magic Resist sightly and gives a bit of AP. In addiction it gives a movement speed buff and an active, Hunt, which explore the area near your champion and reveal nearby enemies (Cooldown 120 seconds). It's a perfect alternative to Abyssal Scepter when you need Magic Resist and damages and your team will already own this Aura item. It's build from Null-Magic Mantle, so you can buy this basic item during laning phase and then upgrade it.

An Offensive advanced item. This is a very low cost item. As I already said basic Morde's basic skills damages are good, improving them could be the right way in order to deal more damages. It synergise well with Arcane Knowledge giving 40.2% Magic Penetration. However it lose efficency when combined with Abyssal Scepter so try to avoid this item combination.

A Balanced Legendary item. This is an high cost item. This item has a cheap recipe, but is built from Needlessly Large Rod which has an high cost. It gives Armor and an huge amount of AP. However there's an other reason to take this item the Unique Active. This powerful effect place your champion in stasis for 2.5 seconds making Mordekaiser invulnerable, but unable to take any action (60 seconds Cooldown). Unavailable on Twisted Treeline.

The best way to approach Twisted Treeline is to get a Defensive or Balanced item and then an Offensive one. In most cases playing a balanced Mordekaiser should be the key to the victory.

Get a Wooglet's Witchcap If the enemy team is basing his damages on physical ones, or get an Abyssal Scepter if the enemy team is mostly composed by mages. For the Offensive item chose between Void Staff and Blackfire Torch.

You'd never face a full AD or AP team, but in that rare case you should get a Randuin's Omen or a Spirit Visage.

If you feel like a badass just take a Blackfire Torch and Void Staff. Try to avoid getting both Abyssal Scepter and Void Staff unless the enemy team is getting tons of Magic Resistance and your team can't afford to get an Abyssal Scepter. Here for a full expleination.

A Balanced and Advanced item. This item is the Twisted Treeline version of Rabadon's Deathcap combined with Zhonya's Hourglass. It gives a bonus of AP equals to 25% of yours and the stasis Unique Active which grants you invulnerability for 2.5 seconds perfect to let you survive when you are heavily focused. Remember you can't control your Ghost pet while in stasis.

An Offensive Legendary item. Well it's a great item the best thing Mordekaiser gain on Twisted Treeline. It deals a 3.5% of enemy's maximum life of damage over 2 seconds so if your Children of the Grave hits his target you should deal 1.75% per second per 12 seconds! In addiction you get AP, Magic Penetration and Cooldown reduction.

An Offensive Legendary item. Let's see it's good item which gives a bit of AP and a pretty nice amount of Health. The Cooldown reduction helps a lot ad the Active gives your team a mist which help you check the bushes without any risk. In addiction its Passive reveal Traps such as Noxious Trap, so if the team need this item you should pick it.

It cost other 2200 gold. It gives 65 AP. It gives 20% Spell Vamp. It gives 45 AD improving Mace of Spades. It gives 10% Life Steal. It has an active soft CC which slow by 40% for 2 seconds (60 seconds of Cooldown). It may reduce it's active Cooldown by targeting enemy champions with Single Target spells and Auto Attacks. TextTextTextText12345

It cost other 800 gold. It gives 50 AP. It gives 20% Spell Vamp. It gives 10% CDR. It boost by 25% your damages against jungle monsters. TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345

It cost other 1350 gold. It gives 80 AP. It gives 20% Spell Vamp. It gives 20% Spell Vamp and 30 AP to allied champions into aura range (1100). The aura stack for you and an other allied champion which get WotA. TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345 TextTextTextText12345

In Mordekaiser's build Spell Vamp is necessary for sustain in lane. Although there are three different valid upgrades for Hextech Revolver I reached the conclusion the best choice is to sell it during end game in order to free an item slot. Alternatively: If you are playing very well and you are winning the lane you can buy an Hextech Gunblade which increase damages sightly and give you the slow CC you lack from distance. If you are losing the lane, instead, you could get Spirit of the Spectral Wraith for the early Spell Vamp, the CDR and the bonus damage to jungle minions which allow you farm jungle camps while gaining Health and Shield in jungle camps. If your team need the Will of the Ancients aura or if an other member of your team gets it you can grab Will of the Ancients.