Tanking with Mordekaiser

This is a short guide on how to efficiently tank with Mordekaiser.

Intro

Mordekaiser is a fighter type champion with great farming potential and incredible survivability. This is a champion that can dominate any lane against almost any other (at least he COULD before all the horrible nerfs). He is not a tank by nature but he can fulfill this role veryy well.

Most people playing Mordekaiser for the first time do not realize the correct item build for tanking. Mordekaiser uses HP as energy to cast his skills. This means more HP = more fuel, and the better your HP regen is the more you can stay on lane without having to run back to base to recharge.

P.S. This guide is pretty old, i'll have to update it a little more, so any feedback would be great, thx.

Runes

Full Health/HP regen runes. You won't need anything else. I find no better use for rune slots because cooldown reduction runes are far too weak, and your masteries will be more than enough.

Mastery

You will need to go full defensive if you want to be tank. The Ardor mastery goes well with Mordekaiser's natural attack speed and Evasion will keep you from takeing a few hits. You might also want Archaic knowlege for the added damage your skills will do, but the offensive masteries are all up to you, but Sorcery is important.

Items

CORE ITEMS:

ALWAYS START WITH A REGROWTH PENDANT! This is very important because it will keep you alive and on the field up to level 10 with no problems (unless you play agressive).
The next choice of items would be Mercury's Treads for mobility and because they provide the bare minimum of resistance against offensive spellcasters and they also make you much stronger against crowd control(stun, fear, slow, etc.), wich is essential for any decent tank.

Next on the list is Phage: damage, HP and chance to slow. (By now you can start ganking with your fellow champions)

The next item should be Warmog's Armor because you will still have time to farm and you will need the extra HP and HP regen bonuses.

Next is a choice between Sunfire Cape and Atma's Impaler. This depends on the situation of the game so far and what you need most, but in any case you will have to buy both these items, one after the other.

If the game hasn't ended yet you will need a Frozen Mallet. More HP and 100% chance to slow on hit are always welcome, in case you encounter problems and cannot end the game.

THE LAST ITEM: It's all up to you. If you want massive HP and have the money for it, go for another Warmong's Armor. In case of too many casters, Force of Nature is your best friend. The added movement speed, constant HP regen and magic resistance are ideal for any tank.

By the time you complete all these items you will be so hard to kill that the enemy will just give up and quit even if you don't kill them. Be sure to stack up on elixirs once you're full build.

ITEMS NOT TO MAKE:

Banshee's Veil - Useful on any other tank, but too much waste of money
for the extra Mana capacity. Mordekaiser has no need for
mana, keep that in mind. There is no point in wasting
money and item slots. Mercury's Threads will more
than compensate for the spell block.
Leviathan - cheap, but not practical. You won't be making very many kills
and you won't have problems getting money for more expensive
items. In the long run this item will no pay out in favor of
other, more expensive ones.
Guardian Angel - a viable option for annoying your enemies, but only
as your LAST ITEM. With it you CAN charge into all 5 of
the enemy team and actually kill 1-2 of them, but I
would prefere a different item as LAST ITEM, especially
when you have a support champ in your team, such as Zilean.
Spirit Visage - Just not enough cooldown reduction, HP or even the tiny little
extra heal. It's not worth it, so don't waste your inventory slot.

Skills

Siphon of Destruction gets maxed out first because it is your #1 skill to charge up your Iron Man, it's your bread and butter. Also, the nice AOE and decent damage makes it valuable for farming and pushing. By lategame your attack will be high enough to use Mace of Spades constantly to charge up your shield without wasting too much HP (or any HP at all). One level of Creeping Death is taken at level 5 just as a precaution, in case of early enemy attacks it CAN save your ***.

Summoner spells

Flash - will get you in and out of sticky situations. For a tank it is
very usefull.
Heal - the obvious choice if you want to stay alive.

Other spells:

Clarity - completely useless for your champion.
Cleanse - no point in taking it unelss you have too many heroes with DOT skills
(damage over time) eg: Twitch.
Exhaust, Ghost - for offensive builds.
Fortify - not recommended, but just as usefull as on any champ.
Ignite - VERY GOOD IN COMBINATION WITH YOUR ULTIMATE!
Smite - useless, you dont need any help farming or killing minions.
Teleport - again, useless as you will level very fast due to farming abilities,
so no need to get back to your lane quickly. Some might argue that
you will need it in order to quickly defend towers. This is true, but
you will be pushing and destroying enemy towers faster than they can
destroy yours, so don't bother.