DESOLATION IS COMING!

Introduction

A typical Mordekasier player will tell you that MK is best played as a tank or alternatively as an AP champion. Both are acceptable, but:
- Tank Morde is a lame fat blob and is no fun to play (try Cho'Gath...)
- Ap-kasier is very easy to nuke (get Brand instead)
My build is an attempt to overcome what I see as shortcomings of AP or tank Morde and is more or less pure pwnage.

See `Play Style' chapter for basic guidelines and explanation of skill sequence. Mind you that this build assumes you know how to play morde and if you are just starting out, you'll be better off playing him as a tank.

Runes

Morde is an epic farmer but with no cool-down reduction at level one, I find that it is easy to miss a few minions in the first couple of waves. This is due to the low damage and speed of morde's auto attacks. Also, if you are solo-laning 12% cool-down reduction will help you a lot with last hitting instead of letting the turret eat all your gold. The 10 magic penetration will allow you to farm caster minions in a single Mace of Spades + Siphon of Destruction combo from very early on (level 3). And since you will be throwing your health at enemies all the time you will find that you are harassing yourself unless you have health regeneration runes.

Masteries

With Mordekasier, I prefer to kill enemies instead of tanking them. Its possible to play him with 9/0/21 with this build, but you end up with Awareness, Good Hands and Quickness, which are not really that great. You're not supposed to die, Force of Nature will have you running faster than most others, and you're supposed to be last hitting every minion and be in lane 24/7 anyway so there should be no problem getting xp. With 9/21/0 you are much better off, but you will lack in damage and morde is a bad tank because he has no crowd control. This is why I prefer to get 21/6/3 or 21/0/9 with at least two points in Perseverance and none in Good Hands.

Summoner Spells

Just get Ghost and Ignite.

Flash = fail (can't chase, can't run)
Fortify = fail (cant hold enemy under tower like Shen, Amumu or Rammus)
Heal = epic fail (because you have 5x Greater Seal of Regeneration and Force of Nature)
Exhaust = only vs ad team (ranked)
Teleport = (see flash)
Repeat the equation for the remaining summoner spells...

No Ignite; enemy pop a Health Potion or a Elixir of Fortitude after Children of the Grave = fail.

Ghost is important because you want the effect of Creeping Death to grind the enemy down while Mace of Spades and Siphon of Destruction are on cool-down. If you don't have Ghost and the enemy is running, chances are Creeping Death will be out of range.

Items

If you're not surviving the enemy stuns, get Mercury's Treads, otherwise get Sorcerer's Shoes boots. Other boots are just fail. Even against ad teams, don't get Ninja Tabi or Boots of Swiftness against Sona / Janna / Miss Fortune / Teemo / Singed / etc.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is often the most important item for Mordekasier in my opinion. This is mostly because no one in their good state of mind will want to get close to you. The slow effect will enable you to chase them down. Of course, if you are up against an ad-heavy team, then Sunfire Cape would be good as well, or maybe even better, since they are in your face anyway. However, once they realize that they are about to go down, they will run and if none of your mates can keep them in place, Sunfire Cape will do you no good.

Force of Nature is relatively important because of the magic resistance and movement speed bonus. Everyone will run from Mordekasier and you want to be able to chase them. Again, Sunfire Cape might be better against an ad-heavy team, in which case you will probably want to get Warden's Mail before you get Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Trinity Force is your last item (unless you change boots with litch bane or Phantom Dancer in late game) and may not be the best choice depending on what your team needs. If your teams needs you more as a tank, then get Warmog's Armor. What I like about Trinity Force is that it makes you roughly 30% stronger.
- gives you more AD to push structures faster
- phage passive will hinder your enemies from running away
- the 150% extra AD on every cast will even out what you lack in AD because it will be constantly active due to the availability of either of your spells as a result of 30% CD (from Deathfire Grasp, Randuin's Omen and runes of focus).
- better than Lich Bane because the increase in attack speed and critical chance will result in more damage than from 100% AP every other second

Hextech Gunblade would give you an active-effect item that locks a single enemy in place for a short time. This would be a must have if you didn't have Rylai's scepter and Trinity Force. But with no extra attack speed, the life steal is not very effective and the spell vamp is not really necessary because of all the health regeneration you have.

I remember reading in some guide that Deathfire Grasp was an awesome item for Mordekasier and thinking that it sounds funny. I have since then stopped playing MK as a tank, and realized that it really is the best way to initiate against a full health enemy. What you want to do is to kill+ultimate their AD carry as fast as possible, and no other single item will help you with that as much. It also has cool-down reduction which will help you cast your ult in almost every fight. Get this item right after Rylai's Crystal Scepter if your team is pwnink the enemy.

Randuin's Omen will do you no good if your enemies are mostly dealing magic damage. Get an Abyssal Scepter in that case. It will give you the 20 magic penetration you are missing (since you got Mercury's Treads to counter their bursts and stuns) and provide you with extra magic resistance.

The reason I like this item is that it makes it possible for morde to 2v1 or 3v1 against melee champions. Tryndamere, for example, is a piece of cake with even Warden's Mail.

Try to always have a gold per five item in your inventory. Even after you get both Deathfire Grasp and Randuin's Omen, buy the AP/HP+gold per five item and wait for 4.1k gold. That is, unless you team needs wards of course. It may even be worth it to get Heart of Gold before Giant's Belt. Such as when you get a kill early on. Just recall after the kill, buy the HoG and profit.

Elixir of Brilliance is a good way to bring the CD percentage closer to 40. Get it if you have the money.

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The majority of the guides I have seen put a great deal of effort into explaining how their builds are situational and that you need to get armor vs ad and MR vs AP. I think there is a lot of truth in that and is why I have provided some alternatives. Generally though, the items presented above work almost in every game. You have about 125 in both armor and magic resistance which is plenty because the amount of damage you are dealing is overwhelming.

Pros / Cons

+ good farming
+ insta-nuke enemy support/carry
+ can do 2v1 or 3v1
+ you will almost always get a kill before dying

- FB hard unless you get Q and not E at level 1
- Easy to die early on if you fight without the shield
- Not really a tank (team mates get angry when you say "I'm no tank")
- Can get owned by max-ap-at-level 1 morde (use cooldown advantage)

Play style

I SHALL BRING GREAT SUFFERING

MS = Q = Mace of Spades
CD = W = Creeping Death
SD = E = Siphon of Destruction

EARLY-MID GAME

Some guides will have you believe that maxing E is of paramount importance because "it gives you lane control and a good harassment tool". Well, okay. But what if say.. Jax or Xin Zhao jump on your head? Ap-harass-morde will do one E, then W and run. By the time another E is ready it will not be very useful because there will be no enemy minions to help you charge the shield fully. Another Q however, will do a lot more damage against a single target and charge your shield more because it gets 25% of damage dealt. I guarantee you Xin or Jax will turn back after eating two Q's at level 3.

This guide suggests that you max Q Before E. This is because the cool-down of Q is actually lower than of E on level 5 of the skill. You will deal more damage and the shield will be recharged more often that way. I also keep E at level 2 and level W to 3 because of the 21/6/3 mastery tree. You will rely on W to keep you safe instead of masteries. I use
E primarily to charge the shield against a big wave of minions and W+Q for damage. If you use ghost and force your target to flee while W is active and landing Q on them whenever you can, the damage will be good enough to kill them without even using your ultimate.

Laning against ranged AD champs might be somewhat more tricky. What you want to be doing is blocking their main harassment ability ( Ashe Volley, Caitlyn Ace in the Hole, etc) by casting E on as many minions as possible when you anticipate their attack, waiting for the shield to go down, then Q and run back while they auto your shield down. And repeat. This works well if a couple of your spells destroys the minions entirely and if you attack only when either Q or E is available.

LATE GAME
optimal path: Just kill ad carry and let her kill the rest of the enemy team.
less optimal: stay with your carries and punish whoever is trying to kill them.

todo:
- describe the ghost, deathfire, Q, W, E, randuin, QWEQWEQWE, ignite+ult combo.
- important targets (ad carry)
- trololol...

Patch notes

OMAGAD NERF DAT MORDAKAISER!!!!
1.0.0.126
Creeping Death now properly gives assists
1.0.0.125
Iron Man
Shield regeneration adjusted to 30% at all levels from 25/27.5/30%
Shield regeneration is now half effective versus minions
Mace of Spades bonus damage reduced to 65% from 75%
Siphon of destruction no longer adds additional shield for each unit hit
1.0.0.116
Fixed a bug with Mordekaiser's Taunt animation
1.0.0.113
Fixed a bug where Mordekaiser's per-level health, armor, attack speed,
damage, and magic resist were lower than intended
1.0.0.112
Mace of Spades ability power ratio increased to 0.4 from 0.2
1.0.0.110
Fixed a bug with Iron Man where the tooltip said it had 5% decay but was actually 3%
Shield generation increased to 25/27.5/30% from 20/25/30%
1.0.0.109
Shield decay reduced to 3% from 5%
1.0.0.107
Mace of Spades now resets the attack timer when used
Iron Man shield generation reduced to 20/25/30% from 30%
Iron Man shield decay increased to 5% from 3%
1.0.0.105
Mace of Spades now has a 0.2 ability power ratio
Fixed a bug where Mace of Spades didn't gain proc effects from Sheen,
Lich Bane, and other similar items
1.0.0.104
Mace of Spades
Base damage increased to 80/110/140/170/200 from 20/40/60/80/100
Now scales off of only bonus damage rather than all damage
Now deals 75% bonus damage if Mace of Spades only hits 1 target
Health cost reduced to 20/25/30/35/40 from 30/35/40/45/50
The main target of Mace of Spades now generates shield for Mordekaiser
Creeping Death
Base damage increased to 24/38/52/66/80 from 16/32/48/64/80
Ability power ratio increased to 0.2 from 0.15
Increased missile travel speed when casting Creeping Death on an ally
Siphon of Destruction
Damage reduced to 65/105/145/185/225 from 85/110/155/200/245
Ability power ratio increased to 0.6 from 0.4
Base shield generation reduced to 1/2/3/4/5 from 6/9/12/15/18
Children of the Grave
Now steals 24/29/34% of the target's maximum health over the duration up from 24/28/32%
Now deals half damage to the target initially and half damage over time
Duration increased to 10 seconds from 8
Total ability power ratio over the duration increased to 0.04 from 0.016
Fixed a bug where Children of the Grave was improperly blocked by Black Shield
Mordekaiser now gains 20% of the pet's Ability Power, reduced from 25%
Mordekaiser now gains 20% of the pet's Attack Damage, reduced from 25%
Children of the Grave Pet
The pet now gains 75% of Mordekaiser's ability power and damage at all 3 ranks and the
ratio itself no longer increases with Mordekaiser's total ability power
Pet health bonus reduced to 15% from 50%
Fixed a bug where the pet was not generating shield for Mordekaiser when hitting inhibitors
Iron Man
Shield generation increased to 30% from 25%
Fixed a tooltip bug
General
Fixed bugs where several components of some spells generated shield
equal to 20% of the damage dealt instead of 25%
Fixed bugs where several tooltips did not properly reflect cooldown
values with cooldown reduction factored in
Fixed a bug where occasionally Mordekaiser could generate shield
multiple times from a single source of damage (causing a huge spike)
Reworded/simplified several tooltips
1.0.0.97
Fixed a bug with Children of the Grave where it was granting permanent
ability power and damage in some circumstances
1.0.0.86
Fixed a bug where Mordekaiser would infrequently gain health from Mace
of Spades or Syphon of Destruction while Children of the Grave was on his target

OMG UR GUIDE SUXX

Think your **** is better? Want to teach me Mordekaiser?

I will gladly accept challenges to a Mordekaiser vs Mordeksier duel on either Summoner's Rift or The Twisted Treeline.

My summoner names are:
North America: tox2ik
Europe Nordic: tox3ik