Mordekaiser is one of my favorite champions. Many people seem to play him as an AP offtank, however, I find this incorrect. Morde's passive, Iron Man, makes him passively tanky without any extra health items, so I like to put an emphasis on increasing his damage. With his huge burst potential, I find that having massive amounts of AP brings out morde's true potential, allowing you to destroy squishies with ease, and keeping you alive through the toughest of fights with your spell vamp and passive.

The runes I have chosen give morde a great early game boost. With the AP and magic pen from his runes, you can easily hit 75 damage with your E at lvl 1. But to compensate for the lack of tanky runes, I take health regen seals. 3.9 health per 5 along with masteries and a dorans shield gives you all the lane sustainability you need (23 health regen per 5).

21 in offense and put the rest in defense. If you dont like what I take in defense, feel free to change it however you want. Perseverance is another mastery worth taking.

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I first take a boots and 3 pots. The boots help you dodge enemy harass and get in position for your own harass. The health potions help you stay in lane and take more harass. If you're going top, a Doran's Shield would also be good.


Next stop back, i get a hextech revolver. The revolver gives me some good early game damage and spell vamp.


Now I buy a haunting guise. This gives me some early tankiness with the health and also a good amount of AP and magic pen which increases my early damage.


My next main item is sorcerers boots. It gives magic pen. No explanation necessary.


After that, I take will of the ancients. The AP and spell vamp really help you deal out lots of damage while healing yourself in the process. Even when you're low, you can walk up to a wave of minions, hit your E, and return hundreds of health.


Then I get Rylais. It gives both health and AP. Great. But seeing how morde lacks a cc skill, the passive on this item makes up for this drawback.


Now I take a deathcap. The one item all mages need.


The next major I take is a liandry's. First, it gives AP and magic pen which means more damage. It also gives a little bit of health which helps you stay tanky. Finally, the passive ability is very strong in combination with morde's very spammy skill set. Because the damage doubles on slowed enemies, taking it after a rylai's gives you even more damage. Along with your ultimate, the percent damage is ridiculous.


The final item is a deathfire grasp. The huge amount of AP gives me a nice damage boost, and the active works great along with your ultimate and burst combo.

Also good:

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Other good damage items include Hextech Gunblade, Abyssal Mask, and Zhonya's Hourglass.

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If you are being destroyed by a dps, you can get sunfire cape. Warmog's is also a good general tank item you can buy.

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Other great items on morde include: randuins for tankyness, or void staff if they start buying magic resistance.

If you find you need one item over the other, feel free to switch up the order of items. The only items I suggest you rush are sorecerers shoes and will of the ancients.

Why flash and ignite you ask?

Simple.

Flash helps you escape all sticky situations. If you're over extended and get ganked, you can use it to get away. It is also useful to use while chasing. If the enemy is just barely out of your range, a flash+spell will help finish them off.

As for ignite, it is the must need spell for morde players. Using it along with your ult almost guarantees a kill.


You can also play with heal-ignite instead of flash-ignite. If the enemy doesn't have a very strong ganker and you don't need the flash, heal will give you a good edge over your lane opponent. Baiting with heal and using your ult give you a huge amount of health.


Other possible summoners include teleport, ghost, and exhaust.

Some may say "Max your Q first".
Some may say "Max you E first".

But I find that alternating between your E and W is the optimum skill sequence there is.

Assuming you are laning solo top, you need your harass to be strong enough to discourage all attackers. And if they do get close, Your W will be dealing so much sustained damage, that they will run. Also, these are his best farming skills. Use them as often as you want.


Another good skill sequence is to get 3 points into you e before alternating between you e and w. This gives you more harass and burst. This is more useful in mid, or against a weak top laner.

With morde, you want to start playing agressively at lvl 4, when your E has 2 points in it (but dont forget to harass at level 1: ur E is still very strong). Using your e-q-w combo can quickly burst down enemies.

By forcing your opponents off the minions and preventing their exp gain, you will hold the upper hand in lane. You want to stay in lane for as long as possible without going back. Staying in lane and leveling up faster than your opponent will also give you the edge in a fight. However, remember to get a sight ward after ur first trip back, or you will be ganked which will most likely lead to a death, or a double kill for you if you're good. To keep yourself alive, hang back at low health and use potions and wait for it to regen. If you are being pushed off your minions, place your w on any melee minion and hopefully, it will get you minion kills and damage your opponents, scaring them a little and giving you a chance to farm. As I stated in the section above, you want to freely use your skills as both harass and for minion kills.



When engaging, you want to lead in with your E, followed by placing your W upon yourself. when they get into attacking range, hit them with your Q. By now, your shield should be fully charged. Continue pelting them with attacks until they get to around 1/3 health. Now, use your ult as an execute along with your ignite. If they are running, follow them and try hitting them with one last E. With the cdr from the deathfire you should be able to fire off your E and Q every 4 seconds.

As you should know, mordekaiser's ult deals percent damage. With a full build, it can do 55% (excluding magic resist). All of the damage dealt with ur ult is transferred back as health. Also, if the ulted opponent dies while ur ult is still active (10 seconds), you take their soul and can control it for 30 seconds. Now what some people dont know is that a portion of your stats are transferred to the soul, and a portion of the souls stats are given to you as well. As such, a good soul can completely change the tide of battle. you generally want to ult the enemy's ad carry, but ulting the ap carry isnt bad either. The extra ap given to you from the soul can boost your damage output a lot for as long as you survive the fight.

Pros:
[*] High damage
[*] Great for 1v3 situations
[*] Passive tankyness from your shield

Cons:
[*] Suspectable to CC

Dont be afraid to spam skills when faced off against a minions wave. With the full build, you can instantly kill almost all minions with just your E, and the spell vamp keeps your health up. Mordekaiser is in my opinion, the best farmer in the game, so to bring out your full potential, focus on farming until lvl 11. You should be able to have a CS of at least 60 by 10 minutes in, even if you are a terrible last hitter. And to prevent any competition with your teammates, I suggest you take a solo top if your team has a jungler. The faster you can make money and the faster you can get stronger, the greater your influence upon the game. Almost every item I listed is rather expensive (3 items costing over 3000 gold, 2 other items costing over 2000), so stay focused on farming until you have at least a rylais.

Well, That's it for my morde build. Hope you liked it.
If anyone every sees me in game, feel free to say hi.
Plz comment and vote. Thx