Mordekaiser Build Guide by corruptsoul

Introduction

___

___

___

___

___

You guys have got the views up to half a million! Thank you so much! I am still looking to tweak the guide and any constructive comments would help a lot! Thanks Again!

Hey Corruptsoul here with a guide of the Anti-carry battle-mage, Mordekaiser. This year they have made a number of changes to Mordekaiser and his item sequence (I'm referring to Will of the Ancients) which have made it a little harder to play Mordekaiser. After deciding that I really like his style and abilities, I decided to buy him and try him out. Been playing him a lot and am in love with him. After trying to find a decent guide to base my initial setup off of, I realized that there wasn't a very in depth guide. So this is my interpretation on what works best and the alternatives that are viable and work well with the current meta. I hope you enjoy.

Also, I have been tweaking this guide for about a month and there is still a lot of content I'd like to add. So if there is something missing, please let me know so I can add it! Thank you!


Credits to jhoijhoi for the template, which you can find here.

Pros and Cons

Mordekaiser is like every champion. He has weaknesses and flaws and he has his strengths. Mordekaiser is excellent at filling in the role of tanky AP carry due to his unique shield and his multiple target abilities.

P R O S

______

______

+ A viable pick for either top or middle lane of Summoner's Rift to fulfill the role of AP carry . + Mace of Spades, Creeping Death, and Siphon of Destruction offer multiple target damage, making him excellent in team fights while still giving the ease of being able to focus a single champion. + High damage output + Naturally tanky due to + Long range finisher that is great for retreating enemies and focusing champions in team fights. + Excellent farmer using and while still allowing you to attack enemy lane. + Built in buffer to your health. + Mordekaiser is often severely underestimated, leading to commitments in a fight that you will win. In order to maximize the benefits of this, try to keep your shield up constantly, especially early game.

______

______

P R O S

C O N S

______

______

- Shield is very weak early game, especially before and are leveled up. Regrowth Pendant can counteract this as well as smart early game. - Difficult to master his play style since he is a mixture of different types of champions. - Movement Speed can make it hard to focus AD Carry in fight. - is very critical to success. Until it is built, health is very slow to regenerate and you risk being burst down. - No built in escapes or hard CC at all. - Might be accused of playing an "OP" champion. - Your team might not understand how to best work with you. Lack of team cooperation can lead to not activating, leaving you at a disadvantage.

______

______

C O N S

Masteries

OFFENSE

______

Mental Force For the extra damage early game. This mastery will allow you to last hit easier and give you more damage for your early game, especially if you start with Boots of Speed instead of a Doran's Shield Sorcery This mastery helps counter your slightly high cooldowns but is mostly so we can grab the mastery directly branching off it. Arcane Knowledge Is a great mastery, especially for one point. The 10% Mag Pen is wonderful. Just helps to hit home the damage especially after the enemy starts building magic resist. Havoc Scales with your AP to increase your damage output. Blast As Mordekaiser is primarily a AP caster champion, every bit of AP helps. This just means that as the game progresses, you add even more AP to your arsenal. Archmage Again, builds your AP. This really helps at the beginning of a match, making your first Siphon of Destruction hurt that much more. Executioner Great with Mordekaiser, synergizes well with his ultimate, Children of the Grave, to help finish the kill.

DEFENSE

______

Summoner's Resolve For the upgraded Heal Resistance For use in middle lane especially, this just gives us a touch of early game magic resist to help you take some hits from their abilities early game. Hardiness Great top lane for early survivability. These plus our Greater Seal of Armor help shut down the enemy AD. Vigor For lane sustain mostly - I prefer to regen my health, as opposed to Veteran Scars, but it is up to your personal preference.

UTILITY

______

Summoner's Insight Just for the upgraded Flash Good Hands Just to keep you in the game more. Useful and necessary if going with 21 points in utility. Improved Recall Same as before, just trying to keep you in the field more. Swiftness Mordekaiser is dreadfully slow when trying to get your abilities to hit a ranged caster in lane. This helps negate that and keep you from taking too much damage early game and still lets you be mobile late game. Transmutation Great if you go 21 in utility, that spell vamp helps you maintain your health bar without buying potions. Runic Affinity Not as useful on Mordekaiser but can be useful to keep you buffed whenever you do get the buffs.

Offensive Masteries for Damage Output

>> This page is the one you will want to use if you know how to charge your shield and avoid major damage. This compliments the offensive runes well and is the build of choice for me. The Utility specs on this page are mainly for Swiftness to keep you from dying as much since you have no CC to help you. I choose Improved Recall just because it helps get you back to the lane earlier but it could be replaced with Summoner's Insight to get your Flash up sooner.

______

Defensive Masteries for Survivability

>> You really want to avoid using all defensive masteries because of the mechanism of his Iron Man passive. You actually increase your defense by using a more offensive set-up. The only time you would really want this is if you use a very AP and Magic Pen heavy rune page. I chose Vigor over Veteran's Scars just because of the uselessness of it late game. Even early game it doesn't do that much. I chose Honor Guard over Mercenary just because I never have noticed any advantage to it. Summoner's Resolve could be useful for Cleanse if you have a very CC heavy team and want to avoid it. Juggernaut just helps you with a little boost in health and reduces CC by 10%, which is useful if you are going tanky to work with your team.

______

Utilitarian Runes for Support

>> I am currently looking into support Mordekaiser, but it doesn't seem to be a good choice unless you have a great teammate. He lacks the CC or healing properties of a support to keep the carry in the lane. Greed and Awareness I picked up so that you can help the support more by harassing the enemy without needing minion kills. Transmutation is for regening your health by hitting the minion waves and enemies and to keep you in the lane. Intelligence is just to help you spam your spells to harass. Mastermind seems pretty worthless to me. As a more offensive player, I don't use it often but I suppose its useful in this build.

______

Runes

Q U I N T S

___

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration: These runes let you build without worrying about magic resist reducing items unless they build rather tanky. Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed: These are great especially with Mordekaiser to help focus AD carrys in teamfights and to land your abilities in lane. Greater Quintessence of Vigor: Awesome if you are playing mid lane against another Caster. Mordekaiser has short range attacks, so you are prone to a lot of harassment. Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: For the early game boost to help get you started. Mordekaiser benefits a lot from these because he already has pretty decent starting AP and these just hammer home that advantage.

___

Q U I N T S

M A R K S

___

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Again, these runes let you build without worrying about magic resist reducing items unless they build rather tanky. Greater Mark of Ability Power: Only other major choice. These again just help get that early game boost to your AP to dominate the lane.

___

M A R K S

S E A L S

___

Greater Seal of Regeneration: As discussed before, Mordekaiser has a short range than most of the ranged champions you are pitted against. These runes help bolster your health above the regen you already have to keep you in lane longer against other opponents early game. The great thing about these runes is how much they stack late game. Greater Seal of Armor: These are great top lane when you are playing against an AD character to just give that little edge you need to get an early kill. Greater Seal of Health: While I think these could benefit Mordekaiser, I think using the regen seals is a better choice, especially for the experienced player.

___

S E A L S

G L Y P H S

___

Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: Mordekaiser loves cooldown reduction because it lets you fire your Siphon of Destruction and Mace of Spades more often and keeps your shield up, making you that much harder to kill. Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Magic resist is useful especially if you are playing mid lane. If you are playing against a mid lane caster like Veigar or Annie, it might be a good idea to invest in flat magic resist glyphs instead, but I think both work very well as long as you play smart.

___

G L Y P H S

Survivability

Damage Output

My Personal Favorite

Summoner Spells

• New Mordekaiser: Ghost + Heal
• Intermediate Mordekaiser: Flash + Ignite
• Expert Mordekaiser: Flash + Cleanse

Summoner spells are in my opinion more useful when they follow your personal preference, but I have found that these spells are the most useful when used with Mordekaiser.

_____

Ghost: Ghost is the ultimate in movement boosts. I use ghost to either land the killing Siphon of Destruction or Children of the Grave to finish the carry on the enemy team or to escape after losing most of your health. Ghost is basically interchangeable with Flash for that little bit of mobility.

_____

Flash: Just like Ghost, Flash is for that movement for the final blow or escaping. I prefer Flash just because of the ability to jump walls with it. Mordekaiser has no escape mechanism and sometimes that boost of speed just doesn't cut it for me.

_____

Ignite: Mordekaiser's best friend. One of the easiest ways to get a kill on someone as Morde is to harass and push them under the tower, then close in and use Children of the Grave and Ignite and just sit back. No amount of healing can stop an experienced combo. If you plan on doing this, I suggest you practice on bots first since getting the timing and correct health level is tricky.

_____

Cleanse: This is one of the spells that very high end players can use to wonderful effect, but the inexperienced player will basically be left with only one summoner spell while Cleanse takes the others spot. Only use it if you are able to spam it precisely when you need it if not, move to the next one.

_____

Heal: As a player who relies on his passive to keep alive in fights, any kind of stun or burst damage can decimate him. I take heal if I am playing against characters like Renekton or Veigar since they have the ability to stun then burst my health before I can move.

_____

Teleport: Teleport is great for mid lane and top lane to keep you in your lane after recalling. It is wonderful for ganks as well, since you can teleport to wards for the ultimate surprise party.

_____

Exhaust: This is one of those spells that can be useful, but isn't the best for this character. I love exhaust for a lot of champions but Mordekaiser is very unique and if you can't kill enemies by your burst damage, you either finish them with your ultimate and Ignite or the fight is over. I find this to be more useful on carrys or on your support while you use your spells to deal damage and more movement.

Morde's Abilities

___

Iron Man: One of the most unique abilities in the game, this passive is Mordekaiser's main defense. You should always try to charge your shield before major team fights and remember to charge it to prevent harassment. It also is a great surprise in a 1v1 when suddenly Mordekaiser has practically double the health he had just a second ago.

___

• Use your abilities on minions to charge your shield as you approach the enemy.
• A 1v1 fight around a minion wave will allow you to charge your shield while hitting the enemy as well.
• Your shield works off of magic resist and armor, so the more of both, the longer your shield will hold against attacks

___

Mace of Spades: This ability is basically a charged up hit that can spread to enemies behind your target. This works well against minion waves and can also hit enemies trying to hide behind them. Upon hitting the initial target, up to 3 additional targets can be hit, maximizing the amount of shield and damage you gain.

___

• If your enemy is hiding behind the minion wave, try using Mace of Spades on the minions to make the branching part hit them.
• If there is only one target around, Mace of Spades deals more damage. This can be used to surprise the enemy with your initial hit.

___

Creeping Death: Creeping Death is your defensive ability but also deals quite a bit of damage over time. This is great to use on minions while farming and while in the jungle. It also gives you a slight armor and magic resist boost. It's a great compliment to your shield. I always try to keep it on a minion close to the champions just to add a little harassment to the lane.

___

• Remember that it gives armor and magic resist, so casting it on your tank can help keep the focus away from your squishy characters.
• If you are pushing your lane well, you can cast Creeping Death on the minions to help get a couple more hits on the turret.
• Remember that Creeping Death charges your shield as well, so casting it while in a fight will grant a long boost to your shield.

___

Siphon of Destruction: Your bread and butter ability. This ability has a decent range and can hit multiple targets equally. The damage output from Siphon of Destruction is amazing and it charges your shield the best. Use this ability to harass, farm minions, and force the enemy to retreat.

___

• After a few hits with Siphon of Destruction the enemy will back off significantly. Use this to your advantage to push to their tower and force them to lose gold.
• Use this in co-operation with your Mace of Spades to farm quickly.
• If you are retreating, you can use it to charge your shield just enough to make it away.

___

Children of the Grave: An amazing blend of offensive and defensive ability. You can turn a team fight by ulting on a carry, giving you health, and finally, using their ghost to finish the team off. It also works as a long range ignite to finish fleeing opponents off. It is probably one of the most versatile ultimates of the game.

___

• Items such as Banshee's Veil can ruin an attempt to get a ghost.
• Some characters abilities can stop his ult from going off. These include Zilean's Chrono Shift and Tryndamere's Undying Rage. Avoid using it until you are sure that it will result in a ghost.
• His ult has a relatively short cooldown, meaning you can spam it throughout the game to give you a better chance of a ghost.
• Using your ghost to tank a tower or Baron Nashor after a team fight is a great way to take advantage of your it while no one can stop you.

Skill Sequence

There really isn't a better skill order to follow. Siphon of Destruction is the ability that Morde is really built around so it should be leveled first. One note about this order: I put 2 points into Siphon of Destruction before I put a point in Creeping Death. I do this mainly because at this early stage of the game Creeping Death doesn't have much chance to be used to its full potential. This is more due to personal preference than necessity but it seems to work better with that exception to our order. If you use Creeping Death more often, then build it earlier.

Mid Matchups

Please understand that I don't want to base this off my previous experience since I have been trying new things since this guide was started. I will add people as I play against them and hopefully I will be able to flesh this out asap.



Ahri
Difficulty = MEDIUM

Ahri can be difficult early game. She is totally skill shot based so picking up Boots of Speed first is a good choice. Once she hits level 3 and has all her abilities, she becomes rather difficult. Try to stand away from the minions and anticipate her taunt and orb. Try to combo her at level 6 to force her back so you can get your Hextech Revolver as early as possible. Besides that just farm, farm, farm.



Cassiopeia
Difficulty = VERY HARD

Cassiopeia is very difficult to lane against. She is faster and has great harass that breaks down your shield. Start with Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potion. Focus on last hitting early game and try to get any harassment with Siphon of Destruction you can. Tell your jungler that you are taking wraiths and that you need pressure from them as much as possible. With proper movement and a decent amount of minion kills you should be able to beat her by midgame. Realize that she has faster than you with boots so you need to make absolute sure that your shield is up or she will shred your health before you can recover.



Evelynn
Difficulty = MEDIUM HARD

Evelynn is pretty hard to get an edge on in a match-up. You cant harass her well but she is able to maneuver around you well. If she gets to mid-game without dying, it is very hard to beat her. I suggest getting Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potion. Wait her out and just farm away until you can get a gank and a kill. Until then it is too dangerous to chase her for the kill.



Fizz
Difficulty = EASY

Fizz isn't a terribly hard fight. Whenever he gets close early game, harass him with your Siphon of Destruction. If you keep him back long enough to get all your abilities up, he won't be able to burst your shield without taking major damage. Your only threat is his Chum the Waters, which he can use to get a gank on you. If he becomes aggressive, fall back and prep for a gank. Your ult plus your shield should be able to deal with anything that comes your way.



Heimerdinger
Difficulty = MEDIUM

Heimerdinger is a confusing match-up. The fight goes one of two ways: he plays well and it is a stalemate, with you pushing to the tower and him harassing you from afar OR he is bad and you get early kills and dominate the lane. Against a good player you should be a little cautious and try to get your shield up from further back before moving in. He has some serious harass and shouldn't be messed with without your shield. After its up, move in and Siphon of Destruction, Mace of Spades, Creeping Death, retreat. Rinse and repeat as necessary.



Katarina
Difficulty = EASY

Katarina is a decent character to play against. She does have ranged harass with her Bouncing Blades. to negate this and to stay aggresive, just wait to use your Siphon of Destruction until she comes into range for Bouncing Blades and then hit her to proc your shield and to harass her a bit. She can dive you with her Shunpo so you need to be wary when you are low on health. The best defense is offense in these situations and you need to turn and fight and keep that shield up and hope for the best.



Kog'Maw
Difficulty = VERY EASY

Kog'Maw is a very simple champion to beat mid lane that I have seen being played more lately. While he has the range and damage to take squishier AP carries down in mid lane, your sustain is just too much. Focus on hitting him every time he tries to last hit and prevent him from getting the gold he needs desperately to get his damage items. Proper denial leads to you out-leveling and out-farming to the point where he cant stop you.



Morgana
Difficulty = MEDIUM

Morgana is a very viable champion for fighting with Mordekaiser. The important thing to remember when playing against her is that her stuns can make or break a fight or gank. I go with Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potion. Remember to always try and keep minions between you and hit her with Siphon of Destruction whenever you can. Wards are important because if she can hit you with her stun, you are very likely to be killed in a gank.



Orianna
Difficulty = MEDIUM HARD

Orianna is an interesting fight. Early game you will be able to harass her more than you with your Siphon of Destruction. Later in the game she becomes more difficult. Be careful of ganks and try to avoid her auto-attacks. Her ball is very long range harass, so be sure to have your shield up BEFORE you go for minion farming. With careful approach and taking the wraiths as much as possible, you should be fine until late game, where she becomes much easier to take down.



Ryze
Difficulty = MEDIUM

Ryze can be a big pain. His snare and burst damage is a strong counter to you. Don't try to harass him too much until you get Hextech Revolver because it will cost you too much health. If you can wait until later in the game when you have built up Abyssal Scepter or some other AP and MR, it will be much easier to mitigate his damage without danger. A highly skilled Ryze should be avoided as Mordekaiser but it is still not a bad fight.



Syndra
Difficulty = VERY HARD

Syndra is your worst nightmare. She out harasses you and can zone you out from outside your range. The only thing you can do is sit under your tower, ask for ganks and hope you get carried into late game. In this fight, I recommend getting Mercury's Treads instead of Sorcerer's Shoes since her stuns will screw you up. This is a fight to see if you can get good ganks. Tell you jungler that you need wraiths no matter what and that he needs to camp mid because its gonna be a long laning phase for you.



Teemo
Difficulty = EASY

Teemo isn't a particularly favored fight but can be won easily if you play correctly. His Blinding Dart works for your Q so you need to make sure you can shield yourself when trying to harass him. To do this, build up your shield on wraiths BEFORE you try to get any harass. Then come back and use your combo on him and retreat. He is highly mobile, so make sure to keep track of where he shrooms post-level 6 so your jungler can help lock him down.



Vladimir
Difficulty = EASY

Vladimir is an extremely simple character to beat as Mordekaiser. You both are based on your health but you have the advantage because of your Iron Man. To beat him start with Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion. Every time Vladamir goes for a minion, make sure to hit him with Siphon of Destruction and follow up with a Mace of Spades if possible



Ziggs
Difficulty = VERY EASY

Ziggs is not even a challenge. His abilities are all skill shots and being able to dodge 90% of his shots will win you the lane. Just farm and remember to hit minions before he throws his Bouncing Bomb and hit as few of his Hexplosive Minefield as possible. Boots of Speed help with this a lot. By mid-game you should have been able to deny him enough gold and experience to make this no contest. His late game doesn't touch yours and its free kills from here on out.

Boot Choices

Boots of Swiftness Mordekaiser is often the center of attention and is focused often. He also is not particularly fast. If you can't move the way you need to around the map, it might be a good idea to get these.

Mercury's Treads Crowd control can make it impossible to charge your shield and land your ultimate. If the enemy is locking you down with stuns, Mercury's Treads are a necessity. I take these whenever I need to escape those stuns more often.

Sorcerer's Shoes I love these boots. These give you the same movement speed as other level 2 boots but the magic pen is killer. I take these about 90% of the time because they are so useful.

Item Progression

There are 4 things that Mordekaiser needs to remain viable: Survivability Ability Power Movement Speed Spell Vamp If you can keep these four aspects in mind when playing, any build you create, as long as they use a combination of all four, should work with him well.

_____

Different Builds

____________

Beginner Mordekaiser Experienced Mordekaiser

______

Maximized Burst Mordekaiser Maximum Damage Mordekaiser

Items for Damage

These items are where your damage comes from. All of them have certain characteristics that make them desirable and their own area of expertise when they need used. Remember that your build should be fluid, since no one game is the same as another.

The Hextech Revolver should almost always be rushed as Morde. His early game depends so much on his survivability that the little bit of spell vamp that it gives goes a long way.

THIS IS HIS CORE ITEM! Will of the Ancients lets Mordekaiser become the huehuehue king that he is. With the Ability powerand spell vamp it gives, you meet three of the four requirements to keep you viable.

Rylai's gets a special note since it is the only item that can really give Mordekaiser any decent CC. Since Morde is constantly wading through the enemy team, hitting everyone at the same time, a slow on him is devastating if done correctly. Add on top of that the other stats and Rylai's is a wonderful item for almost any situation.

Sometimes it comes to mid game and you've either done really well or just decent (if you are listening to me). In the case that you've built your early game items and feel you can step away from the conventional and have enough gold, a Needlessly Large Rod could be just what you need. The massive AP boost will surprise the enemy and can be built into both Zhonya's Hourglass and Rabadon's Deathcap.

Ability power, armor, and a two second stasis. This item is great because it gives a great amount of AP and fulfills your need to build armor when the time comes. The stasis is an AMAZING tool, especially when you find yourself the focus of the enemy team in fights.

• When you are engaging, try to wait until the whole team is focusing their autoattacks on you. This forces them to change targets and hopefully your tank can take the aggro away from you.
• It is usually a bad idea to use this when running from a fight unless you are sure your team will be there in time to force the enemy away from you. For some reason sitting still lets the enemy catch up with you.
• Don't be bashful and wait too long. It can be useful to use it earlier rather than later, since it gives the enemy more time to find the weaker target (you).

Rabadon's is your super late game item or for when you are doing well during mid game. The passive just gives that extra kick to make your abilities really hurt.

Lich Bane is an item that I believe was built with Mordekaiser in mind. Every time you use an ability, your next attack deals an additional 100% of your ability power as damage. This is great because of how Morde is focused around his autoattack as a main form of damage. Great for burst damage and long team fights, this is usually a late game item for me.

When the enemy is starting to realize that you are dealing too much damage for them and they start building MR, this is a strong choice. That extra magic penetration will help you break through it and keep viable to your team and prevent the enemy from focusing other characters over you.

A great replacement for Will of the Ancients, the Gunblade also packs its active that helps chase down rogue carries in fights and is great if you are less worried about the aura for Will of the Ancients.

Another great choice, this isn't one of my ideal items only because I think you benefit more from other items. Can definitely replace Abyssal Scepter if needed or wanted.

Children of the Grave

Morde's Children of the Grave is very special and is critical for a good Mordekaiser to understand and use to change the course of the game. As Morde, you are one of the lucky few who can have a pet to take around with you. What makes this better than Shaco or Annie? You get to pick your poison.

There are 2 main types of targets: Tanks and DPS. There are times to focus on each type and I'm going to go into detail on when and why you pick certain targets.

Tanks

Tanks are usually the secondary choice for ulting but do have value. You may want to take a tank in two situations: if you are being focused and taking large amounts of damage OR you want to kill the tank first to use as your own tank. Both situations require you to be aware of what your team is doing and how the enemy team is reacting. If you can catch the tank alone (for example with a Blitzcrank pull) and burst him down, you can turn a 5v5 fight into a 6v4, giving you a major advantage.


DPS Carries

This is your primary target. Getting a Vayne or Nocturne ghost is devastating to an enemy team and also eliminates a lot of their damage. These are defined by being autoattack champions, meaning that while a Veigar can deal amazing damage he would not be included because he doesn't have high autoattack damage and therefore would not be a great ghost to take. There are a wide range of champions that can fit into this catagory so I will go over the different champions that I would consider a priority.

Ranged

These are considered Priority because they are ranged champions. This allows them to give damage while also staying distant to the fight and picking off champions moving through a fight.


Great damage output and also has her built in slow.

His damage and attack speed is high and both AD and AP Teemo's poison is devastating.

Similar to Teemo. He has great damage and his poison will help with fleeing targets.

Amazing output as well as true damage.

NOTE: His passive MUST go off before he can be used! This delays his usefulness.

High damage and long range, great choice.

Great carry, hard to focus with his Valkyrie up.

Like Corki, his built-in flash makes him harder to focus.

Shorter range than other major carries but has high damage.

Hard to focus with her escape, but has high damage and range is excellent.

NOTE: Make sure her Spell Shield is down or you just wasted your ult. Can be beat but her shield can ruin any attempt to ghost her.


Special Mentions

Kennen can be useful if going AD but usually it will be more worthwhile to take the offtank in this situation.


Urgot can also be useful when AD, however he does have a shorter range than other AD carries.

Summary

I obviously have a lot to work on this build to make it the best, but I hope you enjoyed it and it helped you. If you have anything to add or comment about it, please contact me!