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Mordekaiser Build Guide by KingPudding

AP Offtank Mordekaiser: The Deathking

AP Offtank Mordekaiser: The Deathking

Updated on May 21, 2013
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League of Legends Build Guide Author KingPudding Build Guide By KingPudding 16,494 Views 6 Comments
16,494 Views 6 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author KingPudding Mordekaiser Build Guide By KingPudding Updated on May 21, 2013
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Mordekaiser
    Ranked Mordekaiser
  • LoL Champion: Mordekaiser
    will of the ancients morde
  • LoL Champion: Mordekaiser
    Gun blade morde

I. Introduction: Why Play Morde

Introduction: Why Play Mordekaiser?


Above is one of the reasons to play the great and all powerful Mordekaiser. If this isn't a good enough reason then there is a problem or your ignorant
Mordekaiser is an AP-Hyper Carry. What this means is post level six his threat as champions/teams becomes a target for him to laugh at. Examples of a few hyper carries include Darius Karthus, and Anivia. They become stronger late game; now back to our metal master. He can turn games around with one ult and make a team fight a 6v4. He has been known to do things that seem almost impossible such as a 1v5 PENTAKILL. Once you learn to play Mordekaiser and get a kill you will start talking like the picture below. I will teach you three different styles of Mordekaiser for each of the different spell vamp items.
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II. Pro's and Con


Pro's
  • Crazy farmer if following my build
  • DOT gives you health from ult
  • Ghost is great for teamfights
  • Low cool downs
  • No mana
  • Shield
  • Can carry a whole team if not focused
  • Can possibly 5v1
  • crazy good pusher


Con's
  • Spells cost health
  • No form of Crowd Control
  • Slow moving
  • Easily ganked
  • Focused in teamfights
  • Pushes lanes very hard if not careful
  • Teams with CC shut him down easily
  • Easily kited
  • Weak early game pre level-4
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III. Runes

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power

In the long run of the game this will give you the most ability power out of all the runes. It is a basic neccesity for most AP carry's in the game.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration

This allows you to deal more damage to your opponents by penetrating their magic resist. This benefits you the most early game but will still have its benefits late game.

Greater Seal of Scaling Health
So a champion that uses health for his abilities should have this because its health. Also if he is almost indestructible as is without runes he become almost indestructible with them.

OR

Greater Seal of Armor

This is a viable option if you decide to play Mordekaiser top or against an AD mid such as Talon or Zed. It is good for the early game as you Mordekaiser has a weak early game pre 4.

Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power

This is a great choice that maximizes the damage output from your abilites in the late game.

Or

Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

This is for early game damage and is great if you want to play really aggressive Mordekaiser. In the end it will give you less ability power than the scaling quintessences. But I believe it's a viable option especially due to his weak early game.
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IV. Masteries

Offensive


Summoner's wrath: I get this because it helps when Ignite is on cooldown. This gives you increased ability power when it's on cooldown.


Sorcery: I get this because it gives you cooldown reduction on your spells and most of morde's damage comes from his spells. This allows you to keep your shield up longer.


Blast: This ability power gives you AP that scales. It's a recommended on all AP Carry's


Arcane Knowledge: The magic penetration is really nice for an AP carry as most of the damage AP carry's do is based upon ability power. This helps you early game allowing you to deal more damage.


Havoc: helps with auto attacking minions as morde's attack speed is slow allowing him to deal more damage.


Mental force: this gives you flat ability power unlike Blast that scales per level. this benefits Mordekaiser as his main form of damage comes from his abilities.


Archmage: This increases your abillity power up to 5%. Which is actually a very good amount for a mastery.


Executioner: This gives you more damage if your opponent is below 50% health. This helps to finish people off with your Children of the Grave and Ignite combination.

Utility

Wanderer: The increase in speed allows you to kite and escape ganks better. It's beneficial because Mordekaiser has a slow movement speed.
Summoner's insight: This helps with the cooldown of Flash.
Improved Recall: This helps when you need to go back to base.
Mastermind: This perk allows you to have access to your spells more often.

This gives you spell vamp which is a major factor to playing Mordekaiser this allows him to stay alive early game.

Viable masteries

Durability: 4/4

You get this because it gives you more starting health.

Hardiness:
You get this to help on top lane Because most tops will deal AD damage.
Veteran's scars:
Gives you 30 health at the beginning of the game and allows you to stay alive longer.
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V. Skill Sequence and combos

Iron man

Passive: 35% of the damage dealt from abilities is converted into a temporary absorption shield. Shield generation is only half as effective against minions and monsters. Maximum shield strength is 90+ (30 X level). The shield decays by 3% per second.

This is what makes Mordekaiser so feared as a champion. it's like having a Barrier spell up most of the time. This is a tricky thing so I shall explain a few misconceptions with the shield.

Noob: I should always keep up my shield so I should spam my abilites whenever they come up cause they cant break through it!!

A: Wrong. The reason is that then you have no way to kite enemies and farm easily.The shield only blocks 630 damage at level 18. In the late game an ADC can burst through that in 3 hits so it's a matter of timing it.

Mace of SpadesSo what i have found is q is a big NO NO early game. It wastes health and leaves you looking like a fool asking for ganks.

Creeping Death also is known as W. Creeping death is good for two things pushing your opponent and stopping him from easily farming without taking a few hits and charging your shield. The other is for defensive purposes on yourself. NEVER forget that it does have a Magic resist and Armor bonus!!!

Siphon of DestructionSo start E for that range and it increases your shield the most. Despite that it looks like your lose tons of health you don't really cause it regens fast enough.

Children of the Grave your ult considered one of the scariest things in the game. There are many ways to use it.
1. Kills use this + ignite + your Liandrys torment and you get a ton of damage and most likely the kill.

2. Use it to change up the stakes in a teamfight put it on the ADC and wreck them all with two ADCs instead of one.

3. Pushing use it to take turret shots and deal extra damage or take Baron.

4. Life steal: use only when needed to stay in lane a little while longer.

So here is the combo for Morde more or less

For pushing W minions E when low then q to finish off stragglers

For 1v1s Put W on yourself and hit them with Q then E if they run away and use E if it gets up in time again.

For the sneaky trololo kills 1v1 Go in with about half health save flash for chasing first hit with E and W in THEN this is the trololo part they think your have no health or everythings on cooldown WRONG!! then pop your R and E them again if they flash follow em and ignite with and e to finish em. leaving them thinking WTF just happened?!
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V. Items

1st
X3
Get the boots of speed for mobility and the three health potions because Mordekaiser uses HEALTH for his spells. This is a basic start for mid lane.

2nd
Spirit of the spectral wraith:
50 Ability Power
10 cooldown reduction
10 mana regen
(Unique passive) Butcher: damage dealt to monsters is increased by 25%
(Unique passive) Reduces the cooldown on summoner spell Smite


So let me explain why this item is actually so good on Mordekaiser. So mathematically it costs less than both Will of the Ancients that costs 2550 gold and Hextech Gunblade that costs 3400. Spirit of the Spectral Wraith only costs 2000 gold. It gives you the same spell vamp as both items and it gives you cooldown reduction. The other components aren't useful to mordekaiser. This item can be sold late game depending on the enemies team composition and yours. I will go over the benefits of each item in the next chapter.

Too long didn't read: Gives you early spell vamp, ability power that is equal to Will of the Ancients and it gives cooldown reduction.

3rd
Warmog's armor
1000 health
(Unique passive) restores 1% of your maximum health every 5 seconds.


So this item is great on Mordekaiser because it allows him to stay in fights longer and it gives him a bit of regen that helps with sustain as well. I used to play Mordekaiser straight up AP glass cannon thinking "herr derr the more ability power the stronger my shield herr derr." forget that notion. Mordekaiser is made to be a freak of nature that doesn't die the shield Iron Man doesn't scale with ability power and your shield can only stay up so much. Having Warmog's Armor allows him to stay alive when his abilities are on cooldown.

Too long didn't read: Gives you health making you tanky and survive longer.

4th
Rabadon's deathcap
120 ability power
(Unique passive): increases ability power by 30%

If the above statistics don't make it clear why to get this item let me tell you a little a more. It gives you the most ability power in the game which is beneficial for an AP hyper carry. This allows you to charge up your shield faster too keeping you alive longer.

5th
Liandry's torment
50 ability power
300 health
(Unique passive): eye of pain: + 15 magic penetration
(Unique passive) Dealing spell damage deals 6% of their current health as magic damage over 3 seconds,dealing 1% of their current health as magic damage every .5 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage. 100 maximum damage per second vs monsters

This item is wonderful for Mordekaiser as it acts as a deterrent from foes getting close to him. When having this item plus your Creeping Death activated melee opponents will think twice before getting close to you. This item should be bought towards the end of the game. You can make this item more efficient if you pair it with Rylai's Crystal Scepter as Mordekaiser has no natural form of slow or crowd control to double the amount of damage this can do.

6th
Abyssal scepter
45 Magic resist
70 Ability Power
(Unique aura) Reduces the magic resist of nearby champions by 20. range 600

This is great for Mordekaiser as it gives him a great amount of damage and magic resist. This item also is another great item that synergizes with Mordekaiser. Because most of his spells are very short ranged your enemies will be close enough 90% of the time to be effected by the aura and also adds another reason to stay away from Mordekaiser.
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VI. Spectral wraith v. Will of the Ancients v. Hextech

As I promised above we will now go over the different times and uses for each of the spell vamp items and why they are so vital to Mordekaiser's success. Mordekaiser's spells cost health which I have stated before which means he would become weaker as a fight wages on. But, with a spell vamp item with more than 12% it allows him to actually gain health from his spells making it reasonable to spam all of your spell without worrying about the consequences of losing health. all of them practically resulting in a negation of ability costs. So now lets go into detail of the core items of Mordekaiser.

Spirit of the spectral wraith

50 Ability Power
10 cooldown reduction
10 mana regen
(Unique passive) Butcher: damage dealt to monsters is increased by 25%
(Unique passive) Reduces the cooldown on summoner spell Smite

So let me explain why this item is actually so good on Mordekaiser. So mathematically it costs less than both Will of the Ancients that costs 2550 gold and Hextech Gunblade that costs 3400. Spirit of the spectral wraith only costs 2000 gold. It gives you the same spell vamp as both items and it gives you cooldown reduction. The other components aren't useful to mordekaiser. This item can be sold late game depending on the enemies team composition and yours.

Benefits:
  1. Can rush early
  2. Gives same spell vamp as other items
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Can proc with Mace of Spades when farming golems
  5. Cost efficeint

Cons:
  1. Useless mana regen part
  2. Less ability power than both Hextech Gunblade and Will of the Ancients
  3. Doesn't benefit whole team

TLDR (too long didn't read): This item is for early rushing and cooldown reduction. And has the least amount of ability power of the three.

Will of the Ancients

50 ability power
(Unique Aura) Nearby allied champions gain +30 ability and +20% spellvamp (1100 range)
In total 80 ability power due to aura.

So Will of the Ancients has been a great item for me I recommend it 70% of the time. It gives the most ability power of the three spell vamp items. So if you need to deal more damage than shoot off more spells, this is the better way to go. practically resulting in a negation of ability costs.The spell vamp aura is also a major boost to any attack damage-based casters and assassins who deal their damage primarily through their spells, but cannot efficiently buy an item for spell vamp themselves as it would inhibit them from being efficient.The aura is very useful for champion with ability power ratios , but who can't really build into them , like Gangplank.Note that Will's prerequisite item, Hextech Revolver, will already provide the holder with a reasonable amount of spell vamp. The upgrade into a Will does not increase the sustain effect very much, and thus should not be a priority until your team will greatly benefit from the aura.

Pro's
  1. Most ability power of the three items
  2. Benefits the team with an aura and ability power
  3. Cost effective
  4. Benefits whole team

Con's
  1. Doesn't give cooldown reductiom
  2. More costly than Spirit of the Spectral Wraith.

TLDR: most ability power,spell vamp/ability power aura.
Hextech Gunblade
65 ability power
45 attack damage
10 life steal
(Unique passive) 20% spell vamp
(Unique passive) your basic attacks and single target spells reduce the cooldown of this item by 3 seconds.
(Unique active) deals 150 + 40% ability power as magic damage and slows enemy targets movement speed by 40% for 2 seconds (60 second cooldown)

This item is great for Mordekaiser as it gives him the spell vamp he needs to stay alive and negate costs of spells. It also adds a bit of attack damage that is useful for his Mace of Spades as it scales ap and ad. It has a lifesteal component to it in case you are forced to auto attack enemies. It has a slow to it that helps synergize with Liandry's Torment if you choose to do so. I recomend this item if you feel that Will of the Ancients isn't benefiting your team and you can spare some money. To really use this item effectively you have to use the active effect. If you aren't comfortable using actives stay away from this item.

Pro's
  1. More ability power than Spirit of the Spectral Wraith
  2. Attack damage component
  3. Active slow
  4. Life steal

Con's
  1. Costs the most of the three items
  2. Less ability power than Will of the Ancients
  3. Doesn't benefit the team as a whole

TLDR: gives more ability power than Spirit of the Spectral Wraith, costs the most, has an attack damage component, and a built in slow.
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VII. Situational Items

Offensive Situatinal Items

Abyssal Scepter: This item is very useful to Mordekaiser because he is a melee champion and the enemies must get close to him for most of his spells. It lowers their magic resist allowing you to deal more damage. This gives you ability power and magic resist as well.

Lich bane: This item is for synergizing your Mace of Spades. So the damage is great with the passive spell blade effect of it that stacks with mace of spades.Also the movement speed helps with escaping. The only downside again is that it gives you mana.

Void Staff: This item gives you really great magic penetration and a great amount of ability power.

Zhonya's Hourglass: This item is great for mordekaiser. It gives him a lot of ability power and a decent amount of armor. The active effect is really good but your shield will still decrease.

Deathfire Grasp: This item is great by giving you a lot of ability power and cooldown reduction. The active effect is also great for killing prized ADC's.

Morellonomicon: This item is really useful on morde. It gives you cooldown reduction, ability power, and a wonderful passive ability similar to ignite. This can help you secure a kill almost guaranteed if they are low and you put Children of the Grave to good use.


Deffensive Situational Items
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IX. Farming

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X. Counters

Cassiopeia: I've heard she counters due to her Damage over time and maybe her slow. But I havent fought one yet.

Zyra: She is the worst to be matched up against besides Teemo. She will snare you to death so ask for ganks when she is really pushing you.

Teemo: That little hamster thing is just annoying. His poison will kill your shield and take your health with it.

Talon: Its just Talon he wrecks almost All mids except maybe Cho, Diana, and Gragas.

Ahri: She can be a pain cause she is the queen of early game. But, once you follow the build and stay behind or in your minions you should be fine.

Malzahar: Just a pain no matter what you do.

Leblanc: her burst is the real problem. As long as she can't land her combo fully you should be ok.

Swain: His E will shred you to pieces.
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XI. Matchups Mid l

Lux: She can be tricky depending on who's playing her and the style they use. Some can wreck you by using their shield to take your hits similar to what you should do to them. But her little passive gives her some more damage. So be careful and dodge those spells to not give her a chance.

Annie: she isn't very hard until she reaches level 6. Then she can outburst you with her spells. So try and make her waste her mana early.

Elise: She is a tough little arachnid. But, if you make sure to keep your shield up and not let her hit you with her ridiculously long ranged auto attacks you should be fine.

Brand: He can be tough due to his DOT. But your shield can negate most of the damage he can dish out.

Karthus: I haven't had the pleasure of fighting one yet but I will update it when I do.

Akali: I have played akali a lot as well. So I think she wont be too hard if you keep your shield up when she combos her Shadow Dance.
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XII. Matchups top l

Vladimir: despite his sustain he can't escape you ult in that pool of blood.

Veigar: just super squishy. make sure to stop him from farming though

Katarina: probably the most feared mid besides fiddlesticks hahah. But joke aside you wreck her from farming. Her shunpo get close to you so put on Creeping Death and hit her with Mace of Spades.

Melee AP mids such as Troll AP Yi, Fizz, Diana, Gragas, or Kassadin

So in a nutshell there isn't a lot you can't beat. I know personally that even if IE: Ziggs has a 40 AP rune start over you doesn't mean he can beat you if you play carefully.
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XIII. Summary

Well Thank you for reading my guide. It's my first and hopefully not my last to look up my record to prove that this build isn't a scam go to LOLKing and type in awoodenspork. I will try to check this for critiques about once a week or so. This isn't a copied guide but of my own work before i made this account. I would also like to say I'm making changes and making it prettier thanks to reading jhoijhoi's guide on how to make a good guide. Thanks jhoijhoi for helping new bloggers such as myself.

to learn more on making a better guide go to jhoijhoi's page I'll put the link below
http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/making-a-guide-101506
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XIV. Ch

1/13/13 Added New build information and added change log.
1/28/13 added new pictures and will work on improving the farming section. Hope to find a picture of Mace of Spades in action soon.
3/1/13 Added rune explanation
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