Hello there and welcome to my first guide here on Mobafire. About myself; I'm a silver scrub, due to my lack of nerves to sacrifice for ranked matches, therefore I've only played my placement matches and those to prevent elo decay. But before I lose your interest I'd like to mention that I play Mordekaiser religiously ever since I started playing in mid-season 3 and therefore have a lot experience regarding his play style and strategy behind the champion.
So if you want to learn how to play the Master of Metal effectively look no further, let's learn how to play the Master of Metal!

So who's this Mordekaiser guy? Well, he's basically a walking metal reference and meme associated with the Brazilian player base (Hue?). Being an old champion with no CC or Mobility whatsoever makes I'm "unviable" in the eyes of those who haven't seen what he's capable of. On paper he looks quite a bit outdated and not worth playing but I guarantee you that after reading this guide you'll give the tin can a chance and realize that death is the best CC.
This guide will be focusing on the top lane, where all the shortcomings he'd have in mid will be covered up and where he can excel at being a lane bully, effectively countering most of the top-laners. His lane presence and dueling prowess make him a great pick against Irelia, Nidalee, Rengar, Renekton, Akali and generally speaking everything melee. (Hue!)

Pros

+Great damage + Extremely durable + 6v4, nuff said + Lane Bully + Strong Pusher/Farmer

Having high base damage and an inbuilt shield make Mordekaiser one of the best duelists especially against melee champions. But his damage potential gets astronomically high once he gets a clone in team fights. His 3 AOE abilities make him a force to be reckoned with in team fights as well as making him a great pusher .

Cons

-Prone to getting ganked >:) - No CC/Mobility - Squishy without items - Mercurials/Mikaels be damned!

Having no mobility makes Mordi vulnerable to ganks, which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you play it out. His tankiness rest solely on his shield if you don't build health and resistances, which makes you very squishy if you can't keep your shield full..

As a lane bully and high-damage bruiser you should almost always get Ignite. It helps getting early kills, which is a breeze when haunting toplane and prevents healing effects to screw your ult over. Generally the best spell to get on Mord but you're free to take other ones too :)

Not having CC/Mobility makes flash a must. It's just too damn strong. Always get it. You want to have the blink to escape certain death or to catch up to people. It's a no-brainer

I'm not that big of a fan of Teleport but it's wiser to get this over ignite in lanes you know you don't have any kill pressure. Such lanes include Maokai, Gragas and other safe lanes like lulu. Get this to split push and pull off surprise ganks.

Ghost/Flash combo seems to get popular for midlaners so I decided to list this here. Ignite/Ghost is a good choice for teams with only soft CC and slippery champions.

This is not a support only spell. Take this against lanes that rely on auto attacks or have the potential to burst you.

Generally it's up to your personal preference but I suggest getting Ignite and Flash as further explained in this guide.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Standard AP stuff. You want to do damage amirite?
  
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Since Mordekaiser's base damages are pretty high, making them hurt more is never a bad thing.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: Mord excels at the later stages of the game where his damage and tankiness skyrockets. So making him even stronger while the game progresses is a great thing to do.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Health: These serve many purposes; They let you spam and make you more durable throughout the game. I usually use those because they're stronger than Greater Seal of Scaling Armor but I sometimes swap them out if my opponent is dealing crazy amounts of physical damage

• Iron Man This passive is the s*it. It converts 35% of the magic damage dealt to a temporary shield, which decays 3% per second and is halved against minions. Meaning you basically win every trade by just spamming your abilities. Great for dueling, Skirmishes, Trading and the like.
  
• Mace of Spades Auto attack resetting ability, which scales with both AP and AD. Three segments break off from the primary target and hit three nearby enemies for the same damage. It's damage is pretty neat with good base damage and mediocre scalings. It does have some strategy behind it though as if the target is isolated, meaning the damage can't bounce it deals significantly increased damage. Great for dueling.
  
• Creeping Death This ability has potentially the most damage as it's an AOE DOT effect which also provides Armor and Magic resist. You can cast it on any ally and poke enemies from a distance by placing it on a melee minion or the like. A combination of this and Siphon of Destruction clears an entire wave.
  Ever since patch 5.4 Creeping Death works similar to Nunu's bloodboil, giving yourself and an allied unit the shield as well as a flat 60 MS buff while moving towards each other. Use it on your engage tank like Leona, Vi or anyone else who dives straight into enemy lines to get there faster.
  
• Siphon of Destruction This skill is pretty straight forward. It deals damage in a cone-shaped area attached to Mordekaiser. It's your primary farming and trading ability with 250 base damage and 60% AP scaling. Max this out for reliable damage and pushing power. A single one of these can clear entire caster waves with ease.
  
• Children of the Grave Finally we come to Children of the grave, which is a great song by Black Sabbath and one of Mordekaiser's best aspects. It deals a percentage of a target's maximum health and marks them throughout the duration as the first half of the damage is instant and the rest applied during a 10 second window. If the enemy champion dies when afflicted by this spell Mordekaiser gains 25% of their Bonus health and 30% of their AP for 30 seconds as well as a controllable ghost with increased stats. This is one hell of an ultimate as it makes team fights into a 6v4 if your team focusses correctly. And did I mention it heals you for 100% of the damage dealt as well as gaining shield from it and the ghost?

Mordekaiser works really well with magic pen so this should be your choice of footwear. But if you find yourself focused a lot try these:

This might just be the holy grail. It gives you all the stats you need; 100 Ap to make your skills hurt like a truck, health to survive fights and soft CC effectively covering up one of Mordekaiser's weaknesses. I get this in 99.9% of the games.

Well, this is a no-Brainer. Mordekaiser uses health to cast abilities and slowly kills himself so getting an early hex tech revolver to make you resourceless is a good thing. Upgrading it later into this item gives you even more spellvamp and CDR, putting you at about 30% cooldown reduction with your Spirit Visage. Another option is which has the disadvantage of having a lousy build path and being even more expensive than a deathcap. I used to get this one a lot but the recent changes to Wota have made me reconsider getting it. It's great in its own right though as it adds to your stickiness and burst with its active and the AD isn't wasted either as scales from it.

With the recent popularity of Ap-Toplaners and generally magic-damage heavy teams I found myself building this item a lot. It gives all the stats to make Mordekaiser one scary Motherfuehue. Cooldown reduction, making you able to spam spells and keep your shield full, health that makes you even more tanky and Magic resist. But what really sells this item is the passive; By increasing self healing your ult will heal you even more!(And it already heals you for incredible amounts) As well as making your spellvamp and life steal more effective. I like it, it's great.

As a bruiser you have to find the right balance of damage and survivability and this item is great for surviving focus fire and get precious time waiting for your abilities to come off cooldown. While in stasis you can also gain shield from your clone attacking baddies which might save your sorry ***.

This is the cherry on top. It gives you loads of Ap and increases your already accumulated amount even further. I usually get this kind of late as it's smarter getting some early tankiness and Ap to increase with this item. Getting this makes you a huge threat.

This build gives you about 3000 health and 600 Ap, making your ult deal 58% of their hp and healing you for the same amount, not counting the effect of .
For Build order I usually get an early and then work straight for Rylai's, going for the giant's belt first to make myself quite tanky and able to pack quite a punch but also deal hefty amounts of damage. After completing the crystal scepter you have the option to either go for a Zhonya if you get focused a lot, a Spirit Visage if the enemy team consists mostly of mages or if you just want to get as beefy as possible. Try finishing your Gunblade as 3rd or 4th mayor item and finish things of with a Deathcap, which you can tip whenever you get a pentakill.


Other viable items are for dealing with tanks or if the enemies are being pansies and stack a lot of MR.

Edit: R.I.P




As for starting items you have many options, depending on the matchup and the items you want to be building.

is a great starting item as it not only reduces damage from your opponents, which are mostly ad based in the top lane, but also the minion damage. It isn't wasted either as it can be built into a zhonyas at some point into the game. I usually start with this as it allows me to be quite aggressive in lane and gives you the privilege to start with 5 WHOLE POTIONS, letting you spam your spells.

Take these if you are against a skillshot oriented champion like Jayce, Nidalee or are against a champion whose damage doesn't get reduced by armor. With this start you'll be faster in lane, escape ganks easier and have still enough gold for 4 potions.

This item has fallen out of flavor for me because current to planers don't rely on auttoattacks as often as they did in season 3 and because it only allows for 1 health pot. But that's just personal preference. If you want it, get it.

this is the riskiest start as it only allows for 1 health pot and offers no defensive stat for your weak early game. get it if you plan on getting first blood on an either stupid or weak enemy laner. It get's upgraded into hex tech revolver with only 775 gold, making it a great choice if your aggression pays out.

provides health to spam and one health pot, making for a rather passive start. It does get upgraded into a though which provides great stats for the early/mid game. With a whooping 600 Gold you can turn this lil' gem into a which builds into a multitude of great items like my all time favorite

Now lets get a bit into the strategy behind playing Mordekaiser in the top lane.

I hope I provided some insight into my favorite Metalhead and how to effectively play him throughout the game.
If you're a fan of tanky mages and bruisers like Swain or Rumble Mordekaiser's your man. He's quite a bit of fun as I often get comments like "Mordekaiser is so OP" or "Learn a skillful champion"/ "Noobchamp" from those who think that playing a popular champions means that they always have to win. (Looking at you Yasuo, Lee Sin and Akali <3 )
So, go out there and spread the word of Mordekaiser and don't forget to play some Metal music while playing him as it makes it so much more fun :D