Click to open network menu
Join or Log In
Mobafire logo

Join the leading League of Legends community. Create and share Champion Guides and Builds.

Create an MFN Account






Or

Not Updated For Current Season

This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page

x
Mordekaiser Build Guide by Phemeth

AP Carry Phemeth's Guide - Time to Shred - In-depth [S4] (New)

AP Carry Phemeth's Guide - Time to Shred - In-depth [S4] (New)

Updated on October 26, 2014
New Guide
Vote Vote
League of Legends Build Guide Author Phemeth Build Guide By Phemeth 44,727 Views 0 Comments
44,727 Views 0 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Phemeth Mordekaiser Build Guide By Phemeth Updated on October 26, 2014
x
Did this guide help you? If so please give them a vote or leave a comment. You can even win prizes by doing so!
Vote
Comment

You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.

I liked this Guide
I didn't like this Guide
Commenting is required to vote!
Would you like to add a comment to your vote?

Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Ignite

Ignite

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

|- Introduction -|

This is my first guide on Mobafire so any kind of comment, suggestion or help is really welcome. Recently this guide has got Deleted because of a mobafire server problem so I had to rewrite it. Now it's live again sorry for the inconvenience.

First of all I'm Phemeth (changed nickname from BerserkerSoul) a medium player in League of Legends classified in Diamond V division in EUW server. However I can say I have a great experience with Mordekaiser which is the second champion I bought and my favourite Mid laner.

Let's begin introducing this big guy Mordekaiser one of the best duellist of the game. Nobody can stop a good Master of Metal. In this guide will be explained how to play Mordekaiser in Summoner's Rift as Solo Laner.

This Champion is a melee AP bruiser naturally tanky due to Iron Man, one of the five champions who use Health to cast their spells along with Vladimir, Dr. Mundo, Zac and Aatrox.


I divided the Guide into Three parts:
Back to Top

|- Pro vs Cons -|





P
R
O
S


+ Tons of Damage
+ Great duellist
+ Good AoE
+ Children of the Grave is Awesome
+ Great pusher
+ Very durable
+ Burst damage combos



P
R
O
S






C
O
N
S


- Vulnerable through Early Ganks
- Vulnerable when Iron Man isn't up
- Squishy early game
- No Escape Mechanisms
- No Natural Crowd Controls



C
O
N
S

Back to Top

|- Masteries -|



Tier 1
Offense
Increase your damages by 2%, but amplify damage received by 1%.
Allow you to start with 1.25/2.5/3.75/5% Cooldown which is very useful to improve your spam potential.
Tier 2
Offense
Gives 1 more AP per level improving your late game damage output. Required in order to get Arcane Mastery .
Tier 3
Offense
Gives 6 AP which boost your early game damages and Shield generation.
Tier 1
Defense
Reduce by 1/2 incoming damage from basic attacks reducing lane harass recevied.
Gives 1/2 Health regen which helps keeping your Health up during laning phase.
Tier 2
Defense
Reduce by 2 incoming damage from any source dealt by enemy champions increasing your surviveability. ADs.
Increase your Health by 12/24/36 increasing your early surviveability.
Tier 3
Defense
Increase your maximum Health by 3% helping you survive burst damage.
Increase your Armor by 2/3.5/5 points, optimal while facing ADs
Increase your Magic Resist by 2/3.5/5 points, optimal while facing APs
Tier 4
Defense
Reduce magic damage received by 4% from AoE spells. Awesome for late game.
Tier 5
Defense
Improves your Armor by 1/2/3/4 and Magic Resist by 0.5/1/1.5/2 per champion near 700 units.
Tier 6
Defense
Gives 15% CC reduction which stack multiplicatively with Tenacity.


Alternative: Offensive Rune Page

Back to Top

|- Runes -|



Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush


Other Viable Runes


There are no Marks except Greater Mark of Magic Penetration which could be considerate "viable" for Mordekaiser, so I suggest you to get them. Greater Seal of Scaling Armor are a must nowadays so I higly reccomend them. For Gyphs yo ucan choose between Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist and Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power depending on your opponents.

Seals

Runes

Sorcery
Phase Rush

Gylphs

Runes

Sorcery
Phase Rush

Quintessences

Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork

Alternative: Full Penetration Rune Page

Runes

Precision
Fleet Footwork
Phase Rush
Back to Top

|- Summoner's Spells -|



There are few Summoner Spell that you need and a lot of summoner's spells you needn't. Most of times the best combination will be Flash and Ignite, but other combination are also viable. My personal advice is to never give up Flash.





Viable Summoner's Spells


Exhaust

I saw some Morde using this skill so I added this to the list. It could be helpful on one versus one or when you want to lock down the enemy AD carry or surive enemies' burst combos.

Flash

I'm absolutely for this spell. It takes a long Cooldown but allow you to pass through short walls to escape ganks moving toward the cursor current position for 400 units. The best Summoner Spell. It's Cooldown may be reduced with Enchantment: Distortion.

Ghost

This is a great spell for Top / Bot lanes with a lower Cooldown than Flash. This can save your champ from some ganks. It's Cooldown may be reduced with Enchantment: Distortion.

Ignite

Ignite is a single target spell which deals (50 + 20 × level) true damage and reduces Health received by all fonts by 50% over 5 seconds. It's the best Summoenr Spell pick along with Flash giving you the possibility to secure kill in combination with Children of the Grave.

Teleport

Teleport is what you need to come back faster to the battlefield. It has 300 seconds of Cooldown. You can use it on any non champion ally unit including Dark Passage, Demacian Standard and similars. If you succesfully use it on towers its Cooldown gets sightly reduced. Its Cooldown is reduced by Enchantment: Distortion so it's a good combination with Flash.


Other Not Viable Spells

Barrier



Clarity


Clairvoyance


Cleanse



Heal



Revive


Smite


Back to Top

|- Skill Sequence -|



Now we'll talk about Mordekaiser's skill set. Mordekaiser uses Health in order to cast skills. Spamming skills when you have low life will not kill you, but your Health would be brought to 1. This means you can still fight when you have low Health and you can take advantage of this feature spamming all skills in order to survive with Iron Man.

Right after maxing out Siphon of Destruction the skill sequence is compeltely situational. Maxing Creeping Death means having a faster and safer farm while having huge AoE influence without exposing yourself. Alternatively maxing Mace of Spades will imply more sustained damage and it's especially good when you grab an early Hextech Gunblade.

Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Ability Sequence
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Back to Top

|- Abilities -|





Iron Man (Passive)

35% of the damage dealt from abilities is converted into a temporary Shield, absorbing incoming damage. Shield generation is only half as effective against minions. Maximum Shield strength is 90 + (30 x level). The Shield decays by 3% per second.

It's your passive skill one of the best of the game. Your champion is tank-like when he gets this passive up. We'll call this skill "Shield". Your Shield is located under your Health bar where should be located your mana bar. You could charge it using your four skills or with Ghsot Pet auto attacks.

Unfortunately hitting minions return only 17,5% of damage done as Shield. However hitting champions mean you'll get 35% of the damage done after the Magic Resist mitigation so you could get more Shield hitting a minion than a tank champion.

Your Shield is like extra life so it benefit from Armor and Magic Resist's damage reductions, but it's better because if you get hit by skills which damage is based on current, maximum or missing Health you'll receive the same damage you should get without the Shield so you can mitigate the damage received. The biggest problem is that it decays by 3% of it's maximum amount per second.

A balanced build focused on keeping Iron Man up owe to medium defensive stats and high damage output is the perfect build for Mordekaiser. This is why you are an AP, although your damages are based on basic skills' damage and Magic Penetration.



Mace of Spades

On next hit, Mordekaiser swings his mace with such force that it echoes out, striking up to 3 additional nearby targets, dealing 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+1 per bonus attack damage) (+40% of ability power) magic damage. If the target is alone, the ability deals 132 / 181.5 / 231 / 280.5 / 330 (+1.65 per bonus attack damage) (+66% of ability power).

Health Cost: 25 / 32 / 39 / 46 / 53 health
Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 seconds
Single Target Magic Damage: 132 /181.5 / 231 /280.5 / 330 + (66% Ability Power) + (165% Bonus Attack Damage)
Multi Target Magic Damage: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 + (40% Ability Power) + (100% Bonus Attack Damage)
Range First Target: 125
Radius Secondary Targets: 600

It's your late-game skill. With a low Cooldown and a good AP Ratio (40% Multi Target and 66% Single Target) it's a great damage skill which converts all the damage done with the basic attack into magic damage including Spell Blades. It also scales with AD (100% Multi Target and 165% Single Target).

It's a basic attack modifier, which resets the attack timer allowing Mordekaiser to perform a basic attack quickly followed by Mace of Spades. It can't critical strike, it does magic damage and it can't be dodged ( Jax's Counter Strike), although the basic attack could miss ( Teemo's Blinding Dart or Quinn's Blinding Assault). It has two poissible effects:
  • The first is a Multi Target effect which target the first enemy hit and up the three nearest units to the target's position (400 bounce range) dealing moderate magic damage. You can use this effect to last hit more minions at once when Siphon of Destruction isn't up or to harass your enemies in lane when they'll get closer to last hit minions.
  • The second is a Single Target effect which deals awesome magic damage to a single enemy target when it's alone. This is your only way to proc Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Spell Vamp with full effect so be sure to use this second effect as much as possible.



Creeping Death

Unleashes a protective cloud of metal shards to surround an ally or himself, increasing their Armor and Magic Resist by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 and dealing 24 / 38 / 52 / 66 / 80 (+20% of ability power) damage per second to enemies in the cloud for 6 seconds.

Health Cost: 26 / 32 / 38 / 44 / 50 health
Cooldown: 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 seconds
Armor & Magic Resist Bonus: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Magic Damage Per Second: 24 / 38 / 52 / 66 / 80 (+20% Ability Power)
Maximum Magic Damage: 144 / 228 / 312 / 396 / 480 (+120% Ability Power)
Range: 750
Could Radius: 250


It's your mid-game skill. A nice AP Ratio (20% Ability Power) and a nice damage per second. The increase of Armor and Magic Resist let the target absorb more damage. The Cooldown could seem very long, but if maxed you can put your cloud of metal for 6 seconds every 12 seconds. It has different uses.

It can be thrown on an allied champion, minion or pet, so you can use it on your Children of the Grave's Ghost. in ordero to control its location by moving the Ghost. It can be used to help somebody tank a turret, to defend a focused ally or in order to get an assist. Due to it's AoE over time component it synergize well with Zhonya's Hourglass, self casting Creeping Death just before going for stasis means you will be damaging nearby enemies, gaining Shield and Health while being invulnerable.

This skill is wonderful! I like the heavy AoE damage which proc Spell Vamp with diminished effect and keeps your Shield up while you are fighting enemy champions. During laning phase you could target the second melee minion of the incoming weave in order to get a bit of Shield before extending through lane. An other underestimate usage is targeting minions when you are escaping through a lane, consequently this will slow and lightly damage your chasers owe to Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment, while increasing your possibilities to survive.

This skill is a defensive skill, but it has the best damage so use it to take Health advantage fighting the enemy champion among his minions. You can use Alt + W to use the skill on yourself, but be careful if you do this when you are moving and you have a Ghost pet to control.



Siphon of Destruction

Mordekaiser damages enemies in a cone in front of him, dealing 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60% of ability power) magic damage.

Cooldown: 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 / 6 seconds
Health Cost: 24 / 36 / 48 / 60 / 72 health
Magic Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (60% Ability Power)
Range: 700


It's your early-game skill. With a fixed low Cooldown and a sweet basic damage it's your main harass tool. It's first aim is to farm from distance the second is to heavily harass your opponent the third is to instantly gain tons of Shield. Every time you use Siphon of Destruction is a sure hit.

It's a conic skill which instantly damages all enemies under the template which is just few units longer than you can see. It's easy to harass your lane enemy, but do never forget to farm. Moreover lv 1 and 2 of this skill are really bad, especially level one, so do not spam it. When you'll get Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment this skill will apply the DoT and the Multi Target Slowing effect.

Don't be greedy with this skill because you are vulnerable to early gank in every lane so be sure to get Stealth Wards as soon as possible and if you don't want to push the lane simply aim Siphon of Destruction in order to damage only the minion you want last hit. The cost of this skill is high, but you can completely refund it with Shield and Health Potions.

Keep buying Health Potions if you run out of it, until you get Hextech Revolver on your second back (in most cases you should get it on your first back unless you back to get some Stealth Ward). Then you can spam skills freely just be sure to hit something! You can use this skill to check bushes by listenting the sound feedback and lookinG at Shield bar.



Children of the Grave

Mordekaiser deals magic damage to the target and curses it for 10 seconds with a damage-over-time effect. The damage is equal to a percentage of the target's maximum health. Mordekaiser heals himself for the damage done.
In addition, if the target dies while under the effect of the curse, their soul is enslaved and will follow Mordekaiser for 30 seconds. During this time, Mordekaiser gains 20% of their ability power and attack damage. The spirit in turn gains 75% of Mordekaiser's adjusted damage, ability power, and health totals.

Health cost: No cost
Cooldown: 120 / 105 / 90 seconds
Initial Magic Damage: 12 / 14.5 / 17% + (2% per 100 Ability Power)
Magic Damage Per Second: 1.2 / 1.45 / 1.7% + (0.2% per 100 Ability Power)
Range: 850
Leash Range: 1125 (estimate)

It's your ultimate, one of the best ability in the game. The Cooldown isn't too long and it has no cost. It deals a percentage of Health as magic damage cursing the target with a DoT, in addition if the target is killed when he the it is still cursed Children of the Grave will gives you an exact copy of the killed enemy as a controllable pet. I've dedicated a section of the guide on how to use Ghost Pets.

Children of the Grave deals half instantly and the other half over 10 seconds while applying a 100% innate Spell Vamp to the damage done. This skill is the longest DoT in LoL so it's the best combination possible with Liandry's Torment, Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Ignite. This combo applied during late game when you are full equipped with a Magic Penetration build will bring an enemy with 100 Magic Resist from 100% to 25-35% of his health. However the damage of Liandry's Torment is based on current life so the damage the combo will deal a minimum of 45-50% of target's maximum life. It procs Spell Vamp with full effect and Rylai's Crystal Scepter with diminished effect.

During laning phase Children of the Grave level 1 is your worst damaging skill because his damage is based on maximum Health and your enemy hasn't got many of it, however a combination with Ignite will shutdown any enemy which has less than 20% of his maximum Health. It could seem silly, but if you want to secure the kill be sure your enemy hasn't Health Potions into his inventory or self healing methods out of Cooldown or he could survive the combo. For more information about securing the kill have a look on Children of the Grave VS All.

When you use your combo with Ignite keep in mind that its range is much shorter (600 units) than Children of the Grave (850 units), but its Cooldown is longer so you should use first Ignite and then Children of the Grave, if you are sure to hit your enemy with both DoTs. Remember that this ultimate will draw turret aggro if the target is in range of the turret's sight.


Back to Top

|- Items -|



The game is a living thing so you should dynamically chose items in order to react to your champion's needs. I think choosing an item or an other changes the future team fights. If your champ in the next fight should die, adding a new item could change the result of the skirmish. You have to learn what your Mordekaiser needs and get it when he needs it.




Starting Items


Boots Start


Doran's Shield Start


Cloth Armor Start


Sustain Start


  • Boots Start is the standard start granting you 25 bonus MS and 600 Health over 60 seconds. This helps you to escape ganks, dodge skillshot and satying alive for the very early game. In addition it speeds up your build allowing you to rush Sorcerer's Shoes.
  • Doran's Shield Start is a safe pick agaisnt passive laners who doesn't need to land skillshots for their combos and uses a lot of auto attacks. The block passive combined with Block and Unyielding makes you almost immune to auto attacks. The Health regen will worth more than 3 Health Potion from Boots Start if you manage to stay alive until 8:20 minute mark. The Health bonus helps you survive burst damage. The 150 Health over 15 seconds from Health Potion will help you survive when your Health bar will drop too low. Sell it only when you'll seriously need the item slot for 220 Gold.
  • Cloth Armor Start is more effective when you are going to face AD Mid and Jungle or you want just to survive lane agaisnt an AD assassin without any jungler's help. Upgrade Cloth Armor into Seeker's Armguard for laning phase than when you'll need to get Zhonya's Hourglass.
  • Sustain Start is a really outdated start, which is not really viable anymore due to lack of a meaningful upgrade for Rejuvenation Bead. It's a really safe start giving you the Doran's Shield's sustain over time, along with 600 Health over 60 seconds and 2 Stealth Ward for lane coverage. Get it if you really fear the enemy jungler's gank and you want to just be safe and farm all day long.



Core Items


The first thing you should get after Spell Vamp is damage. Since Mordekaiser AP Ratios aren't really high he needs Magic Penetration in order to improve the base damage of skills. Sorcerer's Shoes gives 15 Magic Penetration which combined with an early Haunting Guise and 9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration makes your Siphon of Destruction hit harder.

A great alternative to Sorcerer's Shoes combined with Tenacious grants you about 44% CC Reduction. Useful while playing Top lane facing AP opponents with meaningful CC Ryze, Annie, Elise or playing against high magic damage and/or CC Teams.

A good alternative to Sorcerer's Shoes, although your best defence should be offence with a bit of resistances. It's useful against auto attack based champions such as Tryndamere, Fiora or Rengar. The Passive of this item reduce damage from turrets too. Get this item only if the enemy team composition is heavily based on AD.

The Spell Vamp is a must on Mordekaiser it allow you to freely harass while gaining Shield back for free. During the laning phase it's mandatory to get this item. You should upgrade this item into Hextech Gunblade or Will of the Ancients if you need CDR. However you can sell it instead of upgrading in order to free a slot during end game.

An excellent Early game item. It gives all stats you need Health to resist burst damages, a bit of AP and Magic Penetration which is the best stat for early game. You can get it after Hextech Revolver, and before Sorcerer's Shoes in order to maximize damage output or later on in order to build Liandry's Torment.


This item is awesome combined with Children of the Grave, Rylai's Crystal Scepter and high Magic Penetration stats. It deals 6% of current Health over 3 seconds the duration and it's the damage is doubled if the target is impaired, so it synergies perfectly with Rylai's Crystal Scepter and your AoE skills.

A powerful item on Mordekaiser which gives AP, Health and a soft CC to each damaging skill. Every Multi Target skills will slow hit enemy units of 15% and Mace of Spades will slow of 35% when hitting with Single Target effect for 1.5 secodns. The Active of Deathfire Grasp procs the 35% slow and consequently Liandry's Torment. It synergises perfectly wtih Liandry's Torment.

It's a situational items which becomes mandatory while facing AD assassins such as Zed or Talon. It gives Armor and AP which scales with creep score and cap at 30 creeps. It definetely worth its price if the enemy team lacks a strong source of magic damage. It's upgrade is Zhonya's Hourglass.




Fifth & Sixth Items


A Balanced Advanced item. It has cheap total cost, but the recipe is expensive. It gives a great amount of Magic Resist, a good amount of AP and a unique passive aura debuff, which reduce enemies champions' Magic Resist by 20 in a medium range of 700 units. Good against APs, great if played in a team which does heavy magic damages. Every balanced team should get this item for it's benefical aura.


A Defensive Legendary item. It's a cost efficent item which grants a good amount of Health and Magic Resist. It gives a Spell Shield which block the first incoming spell on your champion and grant a massive amount of Health regen for 10 seconds. In addition if tsustain through and a lot of Magic Resist. It's a perfect choice while facing AP mages who rely on their first spell hit in order to land their combos.


An Offensive Legendary item. This item has an high cost which increase your CDR. Moreover it gives your Morde a huge amount of AP and a great Active. The Active deal 15% of the maximum target's Health as magic damage and amplify magic damages taken by target by 20% for 4 seconds. It synergies well with Rylai's Crystal Scepter.


A Defensive advanced item. It is a low cost item, which grants an good amount of Armor and low amount of Magic Resist, furthermore it allow you to resurrect after 2 seconds of Invulnerability with 30% of your maximum Health (Cooldown 300 seconds). Excellent if enemies are focusing you, moreover while you are resurrecting you can still control your Ghost pet. Using it to keep champions away you can save your life and help your team to dominate the fight.


An Offensive Legendary item. A low cost item which gives a nice boost of AP and huge CDR. It's a situational item owe to his Passive which applies Grevious Wounds (50% healing reduction from all sources) every time you hit an enemy with less than 40% Health with magic damage for 4 seconds. The magic damage applied by items such as Hextech Gunblade and Deathfire Grasp will apply the debuff too. It's a cheap counter item to champions which relies on Health regen such as Dr. Mundo, Vladimir and Sion.


An Offensive Legendary item. An high cost item which increase your AP sightly. This gives you the best amount of it you can get by a single item. In addition it's passive give the owner an extra amount of AP equals to 30% of his total AP. Nothing else is better than a Rabadon's Deathcap to improve Lich Bane damage. However in most of cases you should get other items.


A Defensive Legendary item. It has an average cost. A big amount of Armor and Health. It's passive helps a lot against auto attack based champions: every time you get hit by champion's basic attacks reduce the Attack Speed of the enemy champion by 15% for 1.5 seconds and his movement speed by 10%. The active do the same thing of the passive on a small area (500 Range) slowing by 35% for an an amount of seconds equals to 1 per 200 Armor + Magic Resist. Great for escaping.


A Defensive Legendary item. This is an average cost item. This gives a bit of all you need to survive: Health, Health regen, Magic Resist and Cooldown reduction. In addition the Passive improve all your healing received by 20% including Spell Vamp, Health Regen and Children of the Grave. The Magic Resist bonus is huge and the CDR good. The recipe and items are cheap.


An Offensive Legendary item. A cheap item which improve your CDR sightly and gives you a good amount of AP. In addition it gives a movement speed buff and an active, Hunt, which explore the area near your champion and reveal nearby enemies (Cooldown 120 seconds). You should pick this item over Morellonomicon only if you absolutely need the MS and the Active effect.


An Offensive advanced item. This is a very low cost item. As I already said basic Morde's basic skills damages are good so improving them is the best way in order to deal more damages. It synergise well with Children of the Grave because your Ghost pet benefits form Magic Penetration on his Auto Attacks. However this item lose a bit of efficency when combined with Abyssal Mask so try to avoid this item combination.


A Balanced Legendary item. This is an high cost item. This item has a cheap recipe cost, but is built from high Needlessly Large Rod which has an high cost and Seeker's Armguard. It gives Armor and an huge amount of AP. However there's an other reason to take this item the Unique Active. This powerful effect place your champion in stasis for 2.5 seconds making Mordekaiser invulnerable, but unable to take any action (60 seconds Cooldown).




Twisted Treeline Items


The best way to approach Twisted Treeline is to get a Defensive or Balanced item and then an Offensive one. In most cases playing a balanced Mordekaiser should be the key to the victory.

Get a Wooglet's Witchcap If the enemy team is basing his damages on physical, or get an Abyssal Mask if the enemy team is mostly composed by mages. For the Offensive item chose between Void Staff and Blackfire Torch. Moonflair Spellblade is really valuable against heavy CC Teams ecspecially if combined with Wooglet's Witchcap.

Accordingly to situation you can swap you Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment for other items listed above. You'd never face a full AD or AP team, but in that rare case you should get a Randuin's Omen or a Spirit Visage or Banshee's Veil.

The following items are unvaible on Twisted Treeline:
Deathfire Grasp, Guardian Angel, Zhonya's Hourglass

If you feel like a badass just take a Blackfire Torch and Void Staff. Try to avoid getting both Abyssal Mask and Void Staff unless the enemy team is getting tons of Magic Resistance and your team can't afford to get an Abyssal Mask. Here for a full expleination.

An Offensive Legendary item. It's a nerfed version of Deathfire Grasp on Twisted Treeline. It deals a 24.4% of enemy's maximum life over 6 seconds, in addiciton it amplifies the magic damage received from the target by 20% for the debuff duration. It gives a medium amount of AP and Cooldown reduction.


Hextech Sweeper
A Defensive Legendary item. Let's see it's good item which gives a bit of Armor, Health and Mana along with a big amount of Cooldown reduction which helps a lot. The Active is a mist which help you check the bushes without any risk. In addition its Passive reveal Traps such as Noxious Trap. You should get this item only if your team rquires it since it's not cost efficient due to its mana component.


A Balanced Legendary item. It's a cost efficient item which gives a huge amount of Armor along with a bit of APn and Tenacity. It's a perfect choice when your enemies have a balanced mix of damages or when you need the Tenacity stat. It's built from Seeker's Armguard.


A Balanced and Advanced item. This item is the Twisted Treeline version of Rabadon's Deathcap combined with Zhonya's Hourglass. It gives a bonus of AP equals to 25% of yours and the stasis Unique Active which grants you invulnerability for 2.5 seconds perfect to let you survive when you are heavily focused. Remember you can't control your Ghost pet while in stasis. It's built from Seeker's Armguard.




Spell Vamp Item


Hextech Gunblade


Will of the Ancients



  • It cost other 2200 Gold;
  • It gives 65 AP;
  • It gives 20% Spell Vamp;
  • It gives 45 AD improving Mace of Spades;
  • It gives 12% Life Steal;
  • It has an active soft CC which slow by 40% for 2 seconds and deal 150 +40% AP as magic damage (60 seconds of Cooldown);
  • It may reduce it's active Cooldown by targeting enemy champions with Single Target spells and Auto Attacks.
  • It cost other 1300 Gold.
  • It gives 80 AP;
  • It gives 20% Spell Vamp;
  • It gives 10% CDR.
    TextTextTextText12345
    TextTextTextText12345
    TextTextTextText12345
    TextTextTextText12345
    TextTextTextText12345
    TextTextTextText12345
    TextTextTextText12345
In Mordekaiser's build Spell Vamp is necessary for sustain in lane. Although there are two different valid upgrades for Hextech Revolver selling it may be the best choice during end game in order to free an item slot.
  • If you are playing very well and you won the lane you can buy an Hextech Gunblade which increase damages sightly and give you the slow CC you lack from distance (especially if you give up Rylai's Crystal Scepter).
  • If you are doing well or you need early CDR get Will of the Ancients. Its AP boost and high cost efficiency will spike your damages early on while it will worth one slot item later.
  • If you are facing a dual AP composition you can go for Spirit Visage, instad of getting your Spell Vamp item, in order to improve your survivability and your damages through CDR.

Back to Top

|- Farming -|





L
E
V
E
L
S

1
|
6


Early Game


In the Early game your damages aren't enough to directly face to face your enemy so try to last hit minions and harass your enemy with your Siphon of Destruction try to hit every time your lane opponent will try to last hit, but do not lose your last hits.

If your Wraith are up and your jungle isn't near take that camp after pushing your lane. Try to leave them to your jungler if he goes for Feral Flare.

When you reach level 6 you'll be ready to face to face the enemy and defeat him. Moreover remember to fight near minions in order to charge your Shield with you area attacks, in addition do not sacrifice your Creeping Death damage for Auto Attacks.

If you are level 6 and the jungler comes to gank your lane you have to check the situation and decide whether to fight or flee. If they got tons of CC skills and gap closer such Xin Zhao's Audacious Charge do never try to fight them even if they are low on Health. Pick up only fights you are able to win. If you do want to fight be aware of enemy jungler positioning and keep enemy laner low Health in roder to successfully get the double kill.


L
E
V
E
L
S

1
|
6





L
E
V
E
L
S

7
|
1
3


Mid Game


Now farming minions should be easy so just keep harassing the enemy and when you can get the kill, do not forget to ward both bushes in Mid and the river in Top/Bot lanes with Stealth Ward or Stealth Ward.

If you are playing Mid you can push the lane hard and when you could see the jungler is visible on the map, while your lane opponent is defending the tower go stealing Wraiths. You may get your Wraiths as well if you ask your jungler. If you are in Top/Bot lane be sure jungler is visible and when your lane opponents can't stop you go stealing Buffs.

Although it could seem silly buffs are not bad on Mordekaiser, stealing a buff without risking too much always worth the time spent. Blessing of the Lizard Elder improve tour Auto Attack damage with on-hit true damage while slowing target movement speed and Crest of the Ancient Golem improve your CDR which is fairly good.




L
E
V
E
L
S

7
|
1
3





L
E
V
E
L
S

1
4
|
1
8


Late game


During the late game minions are so much easy to kills, that no explanation is needed. Your main resource of Gold should be champions, minions and jungle camps during free time.

This is a summary of your skills amin focus:
  • Mace of Spades Lethal on champion, less useful on minions. Great amount of Health drain and Shield.
  • Creeping Death Clears the minions and full the Shield over time while damaging enemies.
  • Siphon of Destruction Instantly grants you Shield while damaging champions.
  • Children of the Grave Instant Burst damage for last hits, Health Regen to escape sticky situations and sustain, Ghost and Shield generation.


L
E
V
E
L
S

1
4
|
1
8





Farming Neutral Monsters

  • Wraith and Lesser Wraith you just need to focus the Wraith , use Siphon of Destruction, Creeping Death, and Mace of Spades just before Lesser Wraith dies then you may finish Wraith with Siphon of Destruction or Auto Attacks. Wraiths gives the best amount of EXP among minor neutral monsters, but they drop few Gold. Level Required 3+.
  • Giant Wolf and Wolf the same for Wraiths, but Wolf s are harder to kill and deals more damage then Lesser Wraith while having one less monster to hit with your AoE spells. Wolfs gives a greater amount of Gold than Wraiths, but fewer EXP. Level Required 4+.
  • Big Golem and Golem they are pretty hard to kill for Morde, so I suggest being level 8 to clear these monsters camps, or just be sure to have a good amount of Shield up. Focus the Big Golem and kill him with basic attacks, E and W and Q, when the big one is gone you can focus the Golem using your Q with full effect and maybe E again. Level Required 5+.
  • Weight you can see this monster like an EXP and Gold resource to get when you jungler is not nearby, the best skill to farm this camp is Mace of Spades sicne it's a solo monster. You may want to not use Siphon of Destruction in roder to not waste Health. Level Required 8+.



Back to Top

|- Gameplay -|



Now you have to play the team fight with your role of0AD carry killer your strength relies in your burst damage and if you keep close to the AD carry you'll certainly be able to shut him down with Children of the Grave turning tides of the team fight. However reaching the AD carry in melee range without dieing or splitting from your team is hard.

You have to rely on your team mates because you need team play in order to make your job. Although your aim is to kill the ADc don't be afraid to use your ultimate to finish off other enemies, unless that is the support because a Ghost Utility Support such as Janna or Sona is completely useless, even if you could find useful to get a Support Ghost for their passive Auras such as Taric or Janna with their Shatter and Tailwind.

However remember that you can curse someone with a lot Health in order to survive a gank. Getting a kill is more important than getting a good Ghost. If you get a tank Ghost you can still use it to push a turret, if you get an AP, it will share with you his high AP statistic, if you kill an AD you can melt their team.

In conclusion what's your role and what you need to do? You need to deal as much damage as possible in the best way possible without dieing taking only risks ony you can afford. In teamfights cast Creeping Death on melee tanks which will be right in the middle of the fight in order to maximize your damages (bring in Rylai's Crystal Scepter's slow and Liandry's Torment damage if you built them) spam Siphon of Destruction form the edge on the fight and go for Auto Attacks and Mace of Speades only if necessary.
Back to Top

|- Warding -|



Wards are the most important purchase you can get. You should never back to lane without at least a Stealth Ward (two for Mid lane). Keep buying wards until you'll need the ward slot to get an other item because map warding is a shared resposability among your team, but warding your lane is your responsability.

In addition if you back to base and have a free slot during mid-late game getting a Vision Ward would be a good idea because it allow you to secure Nashor/Dragon without any risk. Your team will appreciate it. Steal Totem does not replace your need for wards.

Do never give up to wards even if you could get an important item such as Hextech Revolver or Rylai's Crystal Scepter. In early game if you fear a jungler gank and you have no wards do not wait to farm enough Gold to get a specific item go back to base as soon as possible and get wards now or you'll get them when you'll be dead.

Do not leave your base if you can't ward the following strategic points:

Blue Team
  • Mid Lane: Both Side Bushes.
  • Top Lane: Top river Bush.
  • Bot Lane: Dragon (and Bot Tri-Bush if your midder is not warding the bottom-right side Bush).
Purple Team
  • Mid Lane: Both Side Bushes.
  • Top Lane: Baron Nashor (and Top Tri-Bush if your midder is not warding the top-left side Bush).
  • Bot Lane: Bot river Bush.

Mid Lane


Top Lane


Bot Lane
Back to Top

|- Ghost Pet -|



Your Ghost pet is like a champion, but he's better. He gives you 20% of AD and AP of the champion killed and takes 75% Health, AD and AP from your adjusted statistics. The Ghost is controllable, can't use active spells, but uses all passive skills and passive items of the killed champion, except toogle and semi-toogle on-hit skills passive such as Teemo's Toxic Shot or Vayne's Silver Bolts.

You can control your Ghost champion pressing the Alt key and using the right click of the mouse or pressing the R of your keyboard as any other controllable clone such as Shaco's Allucinate or Annie's Summon; Tibbers. A Ghost pet does magic damage with basic attack, so it charges your Shield up. In addition Shield generation work on structures. Use this feature in order to full your Shield whenever your Ghost is alive.

Mordekaiser can easily push a turret with a Ghost, but don't waste your Children of the Grave to steal a kill if you don't really need a Ghost, use Creeping Death, instead to get an assist. If you killed your lane opponent with Children of the Grave, but you haven't enough Health to stay in lane you can send your Ghost to push the lane,a tower/color], or farm jungle camps while you safely recall in the nearest bush, but be careful you never know where the enemy jungler could come from.

Your leash range is long about 1150 units and if the distance between you and your Ghsot pet exceeds that leash it gets teleported to Mordekaiser's current location, so you may use this to reposition your Ghost by sending him in the opposite direction where you are moving to or where you are fighting. Altough Ghost pet is a champion he can no longer conquest Twisted Treeline's Altairs, but he can farm jungle or push Side lanes while you do so.

Remember a Ghost pet is a Champion so it can be focused by spells like Ignite which can only affect champions, but as any other pet it will draw turret's aggro on Mordekaiser if it damages an enemy champion in turret's sight. The Ghost pet grants vision of the surrounding area so you can use it to scout and is normally affected by any trap or spell which can affect a champion including Yorik's Omen of Death.

Stasis Active effect (from Zhonya's Hourglass or Wooglet's Witchcap) makes Mordekaiser invincible and unable to take any action, this mean you can't control your pet so gives your Ghost an order before going for invulnerability.
Back to Top

|- Children of the Grave -|



There are few champion which counter your ultimate directly. However there are several other minior counter mechanism which may save the target. In this section I'll explain as many champion abilities and items as possible that could prevent the death of Children of the Grave's target or the application of the skill.


Main Counter Abilities


Minor Counter Abilities


Spoiler: Click to view
Back to Top

|- FAQ -|

Here I'll write best questions about Mordekaiser and this guide and the best possible answers.


- How Magic Penetration and Magic reduction work? By Common Question

Spoiler: Click to view


- Will On-hit effects trigger on a Ghost's autoattack? By xcd222

Spoiler: Click to view
Back to Top

|- Ranked Scores -|




Lolking profile: http://www.lolking.net/summoner/euw/29179911
Elophant profile: http://www.elophant.com/league-of-legends/summoner/euw/29179911

This is the my score at the end of Season 3:


I played Mordekaiser 30% of times and i won 40% of my won games with him. I can say i carried myself from Silver III to Platinum IV with him. In my opinion it's even more than viable in ranked games especially from low to mid elo.


Back to Top

|- Changelogs -|

- 10/26/14 Guide Republished due to a mobafire bug.
- 10/26/14 Azir Added to Mid match ups section.
- 06/19/14 Guide updated.
- 04/05/14 Vel'Koz Matchs up added.
- 02/23/14 Yasuo, Xerath and Lulu Matchs up added.
- 12/30/13 Tristana and Vladimir Matchs up added.
- 10/03/13 Layout updated, banners added.
- 07/29/13 Master Yi Match up edited.
- 07/29/13 Aatrox Added to Mid match ups section.
- 07/21/13 Jayce Added to Mid match ups section.
- 07/21/13 Mid Match ups section updated.
- 06/06/13 Ghost pet section updated.
- 05/13/13 ARAM and The Crystal Scar builds added.
- 05/12/13 Lissandra and Master Yi Added to Mid match ups section.
- 04/28/13 Added Twin Shadows to items section.
- 04/14/13 Added FAQ about Ghost's on-hit effects.
- 04/07/13 Children of the Grave vs All updated.
- 03/27/13 Elise and Karma Added to Mid match ups section.
- 03/27/13 Viktor Added to Mid match ups section.
- 03/13/13 Added alternative Utility masteries.
- 03/01/13 Added Warding Section.
- 02/26/13 Word spelling corrected.
- 02/15/13 Lee Sin and Kayle Added to Mid match ups section.
- 02/15/13 Added Mid match ups section.
- 02/13/13 Modified the Skill Sequence, added the related FAQ, new sections Added.
- 02/13/13 The guide has been completely updated.
- 02/08/13 Item section modified.
- 02/08/13 Added Summoner's Rift Top and Solo Bot Builds.
- 12/24 Item section modified.
- 12/24 Added Liandry's Torment to items section.
- 12/23 Build Updated.
- 12/23 Added Zhonya's Hourglass to items section.
- 12/20 Removed Runic Bulwark from viable items.
- 12/20 Added Spirit Visage from viable items.
- 12/20 2 Masteries points moved from Hardiness and Resistance to Relentless .
- 12/08 Build adapted to Season 3.
- 11/04 Added Twisted Treeline item section.
- 11/02 3 Masteries points changed from Mental Force to Brute Force .
- 11/01 Improved coding.
- 10/28 2 Masteries points changed from Honor Guard to Resistance and Initiator .
- 08/27 Build name edited.
- 08/20 Added FAQ about Deathfire Grasp.
- 08/15 2 Masteries points changed from Indomitable to Initiator in order to improve Movement Speed.
- 08/15 Added FAQs.
- 08/15 Guide Published.
Back to Top

|- Special Thanks -|

I'd like to Thanks:
  • jhoijhoi for her break lines and guide which taught me How to Make a Guide;
  • Unforgiven for his old guide which taught me how to play Morde How to build a Succesful Mordekaiser;
  • LoLWiki for his additional information. A Wiki opened to all players of League of Legends;
  • LiLStormcloaK for his review of this guide. His Review Shop;
  • YourSpineIsMine and Lucorian5 for their review of this guide. Their Review Shop.
Back to Top

|- Summary -|

I really enjoyed writing this build so I guess you'll like it. I'd like to talk about it, so that I could improve this guide and my Mordekaiser.

Thanks for reading. Phemeth.
Download the Porofessor App for Windows

League of Legends Champions:

Teamfight Tactics Guide