Mordekaiser: Playing an Off-Carry

Mordekaiser's Theme.

Or something like that.

Runes

"This the hardest beat, it's made out of gunshots."

Marks: Armor marks help us get into that "60 of both resists at level 1, i don't give a **** who I'm laning against" area, where you don't give a **** about who you're laning against.

Seals: Armor seals help mordekaiser's early game against a large number of champions, most top laners at my elo will rune offensively against Mordekaiser, so i take advantage of that, by largely neutralizing their damage with my 26 armor from runes/masteries.

Glyphs: These help against champions like Lee Sin, Udyr, Warwick, and any AP carry. They mitigate a lot more Magic damage than you would expect.

Quintessences: These push your MR into the 60's, which is awesome against hybrid damage dealers, and against people like Swain or other AP's that can sometimes go Top.

Overall, your rune choice should make your 1-6 laning phase as easy as possible, and i beleive that these runes, combined with 5 health potions, and cloth armor, make mordekaiser's 1-6 as painless as possible.

Masteries

"Takin' off our shirts 'bout to make these rifles burs."

Offense:

Mental Force: 4 AP, what's not to want here?

Sorcery: Mordekaiser scales very well with cooldown reduction, as it's his form of spell vamp and shield generation.

Arcane Knowledge: Magic Penetration is always awesome!

I try to maximize my damage per mastery point by taking 9 points in the offense tree in order to reach Arcane Knowledge.

Defense:

Summoner's Resolve: Heal + summoner's Resolve, match made in heaven.

Resistance: Hello MR! This pushes you to 60+ mr @ level 1.

Hardiness: Hello Armor! This gets you to almost 65 armor @ level 1.

Durability: Health has good synergy with the high base resists in this build.

Veteran's Scars: 30 health is a lot more than you would think at level 1.

Initiator: I feel that Mordekaiser actually benefits more from this mastery than most other champions would. He is very often at 70% health or more, and your shield is a very good buffer against going below 70% health.

Enlightenment: Mordekaiser's damage scales really well with cooldown reduction per level.

Honor Guard: While not an amazing mastery on it's own, i feel it is better for our purposes than other masteries in the defense tree.

Juggernaut: This mastery is very strong on mordekaiser, who gets 42% CC reduction with this mastery and Mercury's Treads, and has a lot of sustain through his abilities.

Overall, your masteries are built around being strong all game, with resists for early game, and AP for late game.

Items

"Hold my money (money), Pockets too heavy (heavy)"

Item Sequence:

Early game, Mordekaiser has problems with losing trades, so i start the game with Cloth Armor and 5x Health Potions.

Combined with the substantial resists, your potential to trade is maximized by taking lots of potions.


I buy boots next, because you can afford to delay your Hextech Revolver by 350g, and they offer so much mobility.

You get back to lane faster, you avoid AoE attacks more easily, and in general, you are faster and can complete map objectives more easily.


Mordekaiser has pretty decent AP scaling, Gunblade was nerfed, and this item is too cheap to not buy. I feel that mordekaiser in his current state NEEDS spell vamp to be an effective, otherwise he just kills himself with health costs.


These give you some magic resist, will help you out with that nasty CC, and the additional move speed help you go even faster.


I mainly buy this item for it's health, and it's AP. The slow is fairly weak on mordekaiser, but it's better to have it than nothing.

You can replace this with Spirit Visage if the enemy team has a lot of magic damage.


Aegis makes your team tanky, gives you lots of resists, and gives you Health and plenty of resists.


Void Staff is your most cost effective damage upgrade at this point in the game. Damage upgrades are also defensive upgrades because of Iron Man.


I like to build GA as my last item because while you are reviving, your spell vamp from Creeping Death heals you.

Guardian Angel is nice, because your cooldowns are just long enough that you have most of them back when you revive, and you can do really good burst, and you should be tanky enough that you won't just immediately die after you resurrect.

End Game Items:

This build is VERY cheap and you will probably finish it very quickly.

I start triple potting (buying Elixir of Brilliance, Elixir of Fortitude, and Elixir of Agility), and then buying Oracle's Elixirs with extra gold, as single item replacements can't significantly improve your tankiness or damage without ruining the other.

Overview:

You might have noticed that this build is really cheap. Well, to be quite honest, these are all the items Mordekaiser needs to dominate games.

I feel that Guardian Angel, Heal, and Will of the Ancients all have very strong synergy with each other.

Will of the Ancients, and Aegis of the Legion also serve a dual purpose of making almost everyone on your team much tankier.

Skill Sequence

"Bebop Rocksteady? Bebop Rocksteady."

Level 1: I take at level one because it is your only ranged spell, and when you cast it into the wave of minions, it gives you more shield than your other spells.

It is also on a shorter cooldown that Creeping Death or Mace of Spades

Level 2-18: I get all three of my skills as soon as possible, because you can't rely on Siphon of Destruction for shield.

I max Siphon of Destruction first, as it is your most reliable farming and shield generation tool.

I max Creeping Death second, as it gives you huge resists, and makes you very tanky, and also helps you farm.

I max Mace of Spades last because i don't get a lot of AP until late game, and Creeping Death is better for my playstyle in the laning phase.

Overall, this ability sequence helps you be strong early game, and then keep that strength late game.

Summoner Spells

"Ninja turtle swag."

I take heal on Mordekaiser for several reasons.

1. Mordekaiser has a lot of defense in his kit that synergizes with heal.

2. Mordekaiser is deceptively strong at low health because of his shield, heal+shield is really strong bait.

3. The way i play Mordekaiser, i always use two defensive summoner spells, and heal in my opinion, is a better option than ghost, because

I take Flash on Mordekaiser mainly because of the ability to flash over walls.

I feel that flash is better for Mordekaiser than Ghost, because Mordekaiser is very susceptible to burst damage, and is very resistant to sustained damage.

Overall, these summoner choices make me strong against burst damage, and let me escape through walls, and make me very hard to kill.

Unique Skills

"I will kill yo hoe... I will make that hoe re-dead."

: Mordekaiser's ultimate ability, Children of the Grave is unique in that it gives you a large amount of life, does quite a bit of burst damage, and if you get a kill with it, you get to steal their team member and have them kill the enemy team.

When you kill someone with your ultimate, they keep their passive, so people like Graves, Caitlyn, Fiddlesticks, Soraka, Janna, and Corki are all very strong choices for ghosts.

AP Carries are also good choices for ultimates, because you gain a percentage of their AP.

You should try to avoid using your ultimate on a tank, but if there is a Cho'Gath standing there with a billion health and no Magic resist, tanks are a good target if you are low on health.

Summary

"I carry dis whole state on my back doe."

This build is aimed at making Mordekaiser strong the whole game, and making your team stronger through the use of Will of the Ancients and Aegis of the Legion

Your high resists, along with your large amount of spell vamp and shield regeneration make you pretty hard to kill, along with this being a really cheap build, so even if you get shut down early, you should be able to farm all of this.

This is probably a really good 3v3 build as well because of it's cost.