I´m playing Morde for a very long time now exactly I started playing LoL with Morde. During the time I play LoL now many things changed and I hadn´t had the time to experience all of the different patches with their different balances so it may be wrong if I say Morde always was a very strong Champ. When I started LoL I played Morde as a tank which was common at that how I saw it, besides i got to add that I was under level 30 for long time.
So for me Morde has changed from a tank at the start to a strong damage dealer now, i usually don´t see Morde played as a tank anymore but to my opinion he is one of the best offtanks in the game including some special features, after I played him for some more time now i decided to share how I play him so there´s my guide to the "Heavy Metal Offtank" I hope u like!

I usually begin to put in the marks so I´ll start with them here, too. As the most people know Morde usually goes on ability power so the choice for our marks is magic penetration and we take 9 times .
For the seals I used 9x Greater Seal of Vitality but I´d like to change to 9x or to 9x Greater Seal of Vigor.
The reason is that I´m of the opinion that those 175 hp I get for 9x Greater Seal of Vitality suck in lategame. When I´m at about 2800 hp with my full build i don´t need a bonus of less then 200 hp but what I desperately need is to get 300 armor and 200 magic resist or vice versa depending on the enemy team´s lineup. So if I can grab some armor which is also helping me in early game I´m on the run. I think I´ll use in the future.
Another possibility is to take 9x Greater Seal of Vigor which will help you to spam in early game and to hold lane. I never tried that and I´m not looking forward it besides it may work well I never had any problems with spamming and usually I try to get some kills and or my enemy´s tower in the first 20 minutes. In some cases you can get a very ugly lane and this build might fit you but usually armor is the best choice.
The glyphs are very easy I think, after I take seals for armor my glyphs are 9x . After the grants me some more damage especially in teamfights I often have some more armor then magic resistance bsaically so I like to get some with those glyphs. For getting fb cooldown reduce might be fine to, I never tried that and suggest to do that if you like but remember that you can also be fb if you have a very good Vlad, a usual Sion or a Malzahar in mid besides Vlad usually is no match for Morde.
For Quintessence I commend to take 3x , some ability power or cooldown reduce might fit here too.
Ability Power is possibly a good idea for the start of the game but usually you deal enough damage with Morde anyways, with some modifications i had like 6 or 12 ap in the beginning which was more than enough to get fb and more.

Masteries are more complicated then the runes for Morde I think, I take 9/0/21 which has some special features for us. Very important for that one is that we get as much cooldown reduce as possibly for us, this will help us with early kills and make the game more fun because we wonßt have to wait like 2 hours on our ultimate or eat our *** after an enemy survived with it, besides of that we of course have our damage skills faster and we can use the armor which has a very long cooldown in my opinion more often. The armor is very important because if we use it deals a lot of dps in teamfights and the defensive bonus will make it even more hard to kill us while our sharp metal shards and the Sunfire burns our enemys.
I won´t discuss the 9 points in the offtree detailed because I think they´re naturally, I just mention that they also give as some more magic penetration which is very uncomfortable for our enemys.
So only thing to explain on top of that is why to go in the utilitytree instead of the defensetree, therefore I admit, that the defensetree might be worth an idea, offering us some more ability power plus beeing unkillable.
I won´t use the defensetree, because we play an offtank and it´s not our task in teamfights to be unkillable (we´ll be unkillable but I´ll explain that later). Our task is to deal as lot of damage as it´s possible in a constant way without beeing knocked out in the first seconds, we can catch some aggro but after we miss any cc on Morde we have no chance to tank like malph, Shen, Rammus, Alistar or a few other Champs.
Besides of that I already told you the cooldown reduce which we gain partly from the utilitytree is important to us, it also makes us cast our summoner spells more often then we could without.
The movementspeed we gain from and is important for us to get fb or to chase single enemys (always remember to not chase your enemys for 3 hours they´ll reach their spawn or a teammate and that might kill you) on top of that we gain some more gold and some experiance, Morde is always strong but the best way to win with a random team is to rock earlygame and finish before lategame. An additional and very nice feature is that neutral buffs last longer on you this way, I like to grab red or blue in some situations, I admit that you won´t need them usually but they can help you sometimes and in the random games you sometimes have no one else to take them or those who could use them better than you with Morde are simply braindead and lose them in suicide or get them while they had to def some of your towers.
There you go with 9/0/21, I commend to not go deeper in the offtree, it´ll make u sad. The defensetree is worth a thought but I remind you of the fact that we play offtank and so I can only tell you be a man and don´t hide behind some useless defpoints you´ll get more than you like off them anyways.

Don´t forget!

For the items first of all, never forget that all itembuilds are situational, there is a couple of standard items for the most Champs but strange situations or strange games can demand for strange arrangements.

How you get the core

this should be your first item, it helps you to survive and gives you a little regeneration, some people possibly prefer Regrowth Pendant and a pot but I won´t go that deep into regeneration because regeneration won´t help you if you´re dead because you had less armor and hp.

your second item, if you die (you´ll burn in hell!) you can also take the normal boots and some pots if you have not enough gold then.

I need it, you need it, Morde needs it, to get some more kills and more equip you need that slow, it´s even hard to catch up with an enemy slowing you like Ashe for example but if you have no slow you dont even have to try it exept that enemy has no brain and no reflexes.

Advanced Core/LateGame Build

So, you finished the 2 items you really really need to play Morde, now I´ll explain how you fill the next 4 slots with some ******** HOT ****!

if the game is running well and your enemy team consists of less then 4 ap champs you can get the cape, it will keep you alive for some time and make your enemys suffer. Besides it´s a very good choice for Morde keep in mind, that it goes only well if you fight a melee 1on1 or if you have like 2-4 enemys close to you in teamfights, in that case it´s important that you have 1 or 2 points in your armor to the enemys somehow.

If the enemy team has got 1-2 very well played or very strong ap Champs and you experiance Death or lethal injurys by those you better get this:

as I already explained ... besides of keeping you alive it also offers you some movementspeed and some regeneration which can be very helpfull at that time of the game.

If some op-ad-carry like Vayne, Trynda or another one sends you to the dark master you can either if it´s not as bad as it sounds now get the Sunfire Cape or go with this:

it grants you 100 armor which is very funny for you in teamfights and if you face Trynda e.g. 1on1, even more funny is the fact that all those ad-carry-champs will now **** themselves if they come to you, just cast:
> > > >

The damage you deal on top of the damage your Thornmail deals to him will be a lot and after he´ll have less life than you have you got a chance to kill him.
But be careful with ad-carrys, Trynda´s ulti for example could easily destroy that fine combination and remember that you have to adapt your movement in fights to those of your enemys.

The item build for the perfect game is shown on top of the guide, here some situational items follow, remember to get Thornmail if the enemy team consists of one well played or more very hard ad-carry-champs.


if you notice that you die to fast in teamfights although you use Zhonya's the right way you can get the Guardian Angel, it makes you an uncomfortable enemy in 1on1 and it gives you the possibility to get some enemys down after they mind you in hell.
Don´t buy this if your team dies even faster than you and you have no chance after your rebirth anyways.
And don´t buy this in case your team is totally braindead and leaves you in every teamfight because the enemys will just wait and kill you.


If the only thing you do in the game is slaughtering your enemys, you´re at 20/0/x and you have no idea why you haven´t finished yet then buy one of the following:
You can also do this if your funny random team had the funny idea to pick 3 strong tanks and 1 support or 1 damage dealer whos unskilled like hell.











Another posibility would be to get some life steal with your spells, i admit i hadn´t had the time to test that yet but I know there are people using it so you might try, I will certainly do it when i find the time and the fun to do.

Now, after you know what you need it´s time to learn how to use it. Therefore I´ll start with the early game, I prefer to play Morde in midlane but he rocks on every lane and you can do the most things you do in midlane on the other lanes aswell.

Generel:
> > > >

So, at the start you only have your , try to hit as much minions as you can and the enemy Champ behind them, if you have an enemy like keep some of your own minions between you and him and come out only to hit him, fpr an enemy like keep out of range unless you hit him.
It´s also possible, that you´re strong enough or your enemy is to weak/scared, that you can step behind of his minions to keep him away from every possibility of farming, with Morde it´s a good idea to keep his ranged minions between you and him if they aren´t shooting at you, so you can load if he´s charging forward to you.
So The earlygame goes like: Dodge/Hide > Hit > Hit > Hit ....
If you got you can try to hit your enemy with it, he won´t like it if you hit him and cast when he tries to get out of range.
Now remember, that there is not only Vlad and Kennen in mid, a usual or well played Cait will **** you to hell if you´re not a pro and every enemy can demand some different behaviour but the generel rule is:

Keep the armor up + Dodge/Hide > Damage the enemy/Keep him from farming
Beeing killed is worse than doing no kill so don´t be greedy!

In teamfights later you should run in with and then cast on either yourself or another Champ inside the enemy team who needs some defpoints.
When you´re in the teamfight cast and if available on an enemy who needs and then go for on a Champ with less health or on one who has to die anyways.

You need it! It´s a good one to escape and to chase an enemy with your ultimate on who needs a last blow, you can run behind him and cast and if you did right before you got another kill.

Do you really need to have this explained? You´re from Hell and you love Fire! also having Ignite and your Ultimate on one enemy makes him die very fast, usually in earlygame you need 1 combination as the general one to kill the most enemys ob midlane. Reducing the enemys heal + hurting him is the ultimate value for Morde!

For the use:

Cast the usual skill sequence including as long as your enemy needs to notice he´s dying and starts to run, then chase him with and finish him.
If you´re in a bad situation and you need to go to the shop before you face like 3 enemys chasing you just activate and show them that you´re a sportsman.

The last point I´ll mention is the teamwork, if you play most times in random teams like I do sadly forget about the most of this, many teams are just to bad or to silly for it.

At the start of the game only thing important is, to say miss for you and your team, if you play solo mid.
If you get your tower down very fast, you should gank around or hold the lanes for your teammates but never forget that no one harms your tower, it´s very important to keep all the towers as long as possible.

In Teamfights you should be inside if you can as an offtank, but remember you´re not the tank, if you get aggro and go down fast get out of the focus and let them attack someone else, if they follow you your mates get some time to deal damage and if they stay in you can turn back careful to deal some more damage. or to cast your ultimate on a weak enemy if you haven´t done before, if you get your personal minion get him/her a good target while you keep save.
If you manage to get out with enough life go deeper in again. Remind this won´t work if you have no tank or 1-2 well played and strong offtanks and or ccChamps which keep the enemy team or most of them busy.

Well, I think the guide describes everything and is already summarized in the startup page, so there is only few words left to say ... you should for example remember, that you play the Heavy Metal Offtank and not any loserOfftank there is, so don´t listen to Katy Perry or Coldplay while you play Morde, do that when you play Cait, Asher or LeBlanc or anything like that but if you play Morde get some music for your ears!
I commend to take some Metallica, Megadeth, Machine head, Fear Factory, Hatebreed or some other mad ****, I´m a little out of this metal trip but I stil remember the good old times!

\,,/ Rock On \,,/