UPDATE BUILD FOR THE NEW MORDEKAISER REWORK! (IN BETA SUBJECT TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER AT ANY TIME!

THE ENTIRE BUILD DESCRIPTION HAS BEEN REWORKED! PLEASE READ THROUGH IT ALL WHETHER YOU'RE A NEW COMER TO THIS BUILD OR A LONG TIME FAN!

Please Note: The 3% CDR taking in masteries is not reflected in the above character sheet. Added in with Runes and Items your CDR should be at 39% (Actually it is just under it at 38.9% to be technical)

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Been playing Mordekaiser for quite a while now, I've tried basically every sort of build from Attack Damage, to Ability Power, to Sunfire Capes, and to Cool Down Reduction.

What I am finding most about Mordekaiser is that his abilities outright do a pretty significant amount of damage without really adding any AP to boost it. His AP ratios to his spells are now a lot better than before which makes investing in AP worthwhile now. Building only attack damage is a waste on Morde, although some AD such as from the Hextech Gunblade that I now recommend is nice because it helps Mace of Spades. The thing to remember is that your auto attack doesn't fill your shields so only building AD is lost.

For a while I went for a strict AP build and found a couple things I didn't like. The abilities, while having a pretty good Cool Down Timer, couldn't sustain me in longer drawn out battles. Sure I was hitting hard with my spells (harder at least than no AP) however I found that my abilities were "Overhealing" my shield. Basically, doing too much damage and basically refreshing your shield more than what it could hold. That means waste. Now that he has been reworked, he does even more damage with a strict AP build, however those pesky Cool downs really keep him from his full potential.

It was time I addressed the possibility of a Cooldown Reduction build. With my CDR nearly capped (at 40%) it translates to a Mace of Spades CD at 2.4s, Siphon at 3.6s, and Children of the Grave at 54 seconds! Your abilities alone do ample enough damage to fill your shields, especially since his passive, Iron Man, now gains shields from 30% of the total damage you deal with spells instead of 25%. By having more CDR the ability to spam your abilities (play whack-a-mole) with your cooldowns means you're keeping a constant influx of shield replenishment. This is important, as your shields are technically a never ending pool of HP....As long as you can keep it filled.

Basically, little to no CDR with AP = A big boost to your shield on a slow timer with "overhealing" while fast CDR means a constant surge of shield boosting with little to no "overhealing."

40% CDR in theory means 40% more DPS.

This is why I believe items with lifesteal and HP5 are kind of moot on Morde since he is a spell caster and not a melee'er. You really shouldn't be taking that much damage to your HP if you build him right. HP5 is useful to counteract the damage his spells cost...but that's about it. Take it in moderation. With a build like this, you shouldn't be taking near as much HP damage as someone who doesn't build CDR.

With the rework of Mordekaiser, I find that CDR is even that more important now. Mace of Spades does an INCREDIBLE amount of damage now. Siphon of Destruction got nerfed a bit in overall damage, but most importantly it no longer gets nearly the amount of shields per hit as it previously did (at rank 5 it used to give you an additional 18 points of shields PER TARGET HIT!. Since it no longer does this, shields are mainly filled by overall damage and not just from Siphon. MOS with capped CDR has a CD of 2.4 seconds and since it is now Morde's big damage dealer, it now has become a solid shield regenerator too! Basically in a nutshell. Riot changed Mordekaiser's shield regeneration by taking it away from being primarily filled with Siphon of Destruction and spreading it out amongst his other abilties. This....is very very good for a CDR build...

As far as Items go. (I recommend building in this order but to each his own)

Regrowth Pendant - Starting Item (hp5 to counteract spell cost and is later used when building up Shurelya's Reverie)

Health Potion - Starting Item

Heart of Gold - I usually build this first as I work up towards Randuin's Omen as a few minutes of the extra gold does help to add up in the end. The HP is nice again. By this time, your first real core Items have each started with a Ruby Crystal. This extra HP helps Morde's survivability greatly as he doesn't gain a lot of HP each level.

Boots of Swiftness - I recommend these at this time unless enemy team is very CC heavy.

Kindlegem - Great for HP and starts working up your CDR.

Shurelya's Reverie - Start with the Philospher's stone if you cant afford the entire thing at once. With the Heart of Gold and the Stone you'll enjoy some time of getting extra gold per 5 until you finish the final item. Although the 12 MP5 is complete waste on the final item, the HP and HP5 from the item is great. This will put you just over your CDR cap (cap is 40% this puts you right under it with Items, Runes, and Masteries) however, using Randuin's Omen in succession to Shurelya's Reverie is a double whammy to AOE slow the enemy team *AND* AOE speed up your allies to sweep the enemy once a team fight is on the cusp of them deciding to "retreat."

Randuin's Omen - Second of the 2 CDR items you will build. AOE slow, defensive slow, HP, HP5 etc. This item is EXCELLENT on Morde.

From here, the last 3 items are solely up to you. I now prefer to make my 4th item Hextech Gunblade. MOS now does a lot more damage. Hextech gives you some AD to boost this. It also gives you AP which now scales much better into Morde's abilities. With the decent amount of Life Steal and Spell Vamp, this item now fits VERY well into a Morde build. Lastly, it has a User Effect which slows the enemy target by 50%. With Boots of Swiftness, Shurelya's, and Randuin's, Morde now has a lot of potential to CC and chase down (or reverse that and use them to escape) If you remember to use your User Effects (all 3 of them now) Morde can really be a CC asset, from a character who is pretty powerful because he has no original CC, these items really bring him up.

My last items are typically of the following items: Force of Nature or Thornmail depending if the enemy is Magic damage centric or Melee damage centric. Sometimes you find that you're doing so well in a game that defensive items aren't needed that much. Other times one of the enemy Champs is either pretty smart/good or sadly just uberly fed. However, AP just became much more viable as well with changes to scaling. With that being said, Abyssal Scepter is looking mighty good as it gives AP, and Magic Resist! Also, it has an aura that decreases enemy Magic Resist which means more damage and more shields from Morde's abilities. Definitely an item to think about now!

To recap: Some recommended Items for your last slots are (in no particular order):
Abyssal Scepter - (AP, MR, MR Aura - Especially good against Magic teams but otherwise still very viable)
Rabadon's Deathcap - AP and AP % boost. (After CDR items, this makes a great item to go with an Abyssal Scepter and/or Hextech Gunblade)
Force of Nature (MR, HP5, Movement Speed)
Thornmail (High Armor and returns 30% damage from melee hits)
Guardian Angel - (Armor, MR, Rez)
Sunfire Cape - (Some people really like this item. It does pair very well with your Creeping Death so I can see why this is a popular pick. The added HP and Armor is very nice too. With the amount of Movement Speed this build has, this is a viable option for Morde although I believe it to be a better investment into Magic Damage that actually fills shields. Sadly, Sunfire Capes do not.

I DO NOT Recommend the following Items:
Warmog's Armor - (Item is too expensive, Delays building more necessary items, and you get plenty of HP/HP5 from the items already in my build (look at the 3 core CDR items! Hp on all of them!)

Madred's Bloodrazor - (Since you're not building Morde attackspeed, his attacks are too slow for the 4% hp damage to be worthwhile. Also, your shield's aren't replenished via attack damage, only abilities!)

-Lifesteal Items - (I know The Bloodthirster is recommended on his page. But without adequate attack damage and speed, this item serves him little. I only recommend Stark's as this applies to your party, and you have great survivability which means you probably won't die early thus causing everyone to lose the buff) Once again, Morde gets shields by using abilities...not auto attacking for Lifesteal. Note that I do have Lifesteal in my build. I am not saying that Lifesteal is bad! But lifesteal should not be a main focus of a build for Mordekaiser! Hextech Gunblade is an exception as it gives AP, AD, Lifesteal, Spell Vamp, and a use effect slow. This in turn is actually very much viable for him!


Runes

Red - Magic Pen (helps build shields by doing more dps, especially at beginning of the game when every little bit helps)

Yellow - Dodge (helps with defensive masteries and dodge = 100% damage mitigation granted that you dodge) -OR- Armor (helps to mitigate incoming damage whether to your shields or your health. Either or, your pick.

Blue - Cool Down Reduction runes.

Quintessence - CDR Quints -OR- Movement Speed Quintsessences -OR- HP quints -OR- HP5 quints. The added HP early game can be a life saver. I like the Movement Speed Quints as they go well with the Boots of Swiftness, Ghost, and when using Randuin's Omen and Shurelya's Reverie. However without CDR runes you will miss out on a few tenths of a second of CDR in the end of the game. HP5 quints are nice at the beginning of the game to counter spell cost and to keep in the lane.

Summoner Spells

- Ghost is excellent in this build because it pairs well with the Boots of Speed, Randuin's Omen, Shurelya's Reverie, and your Movement Speed Quints. It really keeps those quick moving enemies from getting away with 1 bar of health.

- Ignite - This is of course a must have with Mordekaiser. Nothing like cooking your opponent like a rotisserie chicken with Ignite and Children of the Grave. You just "Set it and forget it" if someone with low life tries to make a run for it. (Love that feeling of killing someone who you can even see anymore because of Fog of War!)

-Teleport - I like teleport on Mordekaiser mainly as a defense mechanism starting mid game. Because he does so well 1v1,1v2 this makes it easy for him to stop a push on the opposite side of the map that is about to start working down your turret.



FINAL THOUGHTS

First and foremost - It is to be noted that this build can/will land you with a pretty sizeable amount of armor and magic resist. Armor and Resists mitigate damage incoming to Mordekaiser thus causing attacks and abilities to do less damage to his his health and his shields. This decreases the damage your shields will take, and increasing your survivability.

The rotation and amazing low cooldowns of your abilities means that as you're using one ability, another one is coming up to be used again. It's a constant stream and your shields are constantly being boosted. Often the other team gets greedy when they see you at low life while their own health may not be exactly topped off themselves. They see a 2v1 or 3v1 gank and don't realize that your Ulti is already back up from being on Cooldown (54s with CDR). Drop it on one of the light armor/HP dps'ers, finish him off, and you'll be surprised how your health is now replenished a good portion at least and now the fight is a 2v2 with the outcome heavily on your favor. This scenario has happened more than once and the majority of them end the same way. Morde can hold his own even when caught alone and out numbered when you're able to spam your abilities and get some very nice kills on your scorecard. Of course, The game is won by killing the Turrets/Inhibitors/Nexus and is not factored on who had the most kills, although the 2 coincide more often then not. (although I have won games when our team was 10-15 kills behind but backdooring the enemy team kept the fight on their side of the map.

This build I believe builds Mordekaiser to be a great threat. Good Hp, Armor, Magic resist, CDR, and Magic Pen. High survivability with potentials to deal great amounts of damage while fulfilling the "FIGHTER" role that Mordekaiser is destined to fill.

I look forward to your comments! (Boo to those who downvote and don't comment why)I DO NOT DOWNVOTE IN RETALIATION IF YOU DOWNVOTE...just tell me why! (and ask questions if you don't understand something!)