Hello! I'm Shro, and I decided to write this guide in order to share with you the pure MAJESTY of Mordekaiser Jungle!

NOITCE: I AM WORKING ON UPDATING THE GUIDE FOR S13, BUT IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

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Thank you!

- Shro

YES! You can become a 1v9 Jungle God! However, there's a lot you need to know before you decide on Jungle Mordekaiser to be your champion! He has many difficult matchups, which I detailed earlier above in this guide!

I'll do my best to be as comprehensive as possible! I've seen plenty of amazing guides for Top Mordekaiser, chief among (us) them being lolkayleee's, Your Desired Username's, and BaLoRi's guides, but I haven't found anything similar for Mordekaiser in the Jungle!

Mordekaiser is an amazing Jungler, however, it must be noted that he was not made for the Jungle. This is apparent in how difficult it is for Mordekaiser to gank. However, Mordekaiser has several amazing tools that help him survive and even thrive as a 1v9 Jungle God!

I've been playing Mordekaiser Jungle since S10 when they increased his damage against monsters, but he only recently (S11) became actually playable within the Jungle when they increased his Darkness Rise damage to monsters again AND allowed for his Darkness Rise to proc on even the smallest jungle monsters (so for example a single Obliterate will proc Darkness Rise on the Crimson Raptor camp and the Greater Murk Wolf camp). If you understand the strengths and weaknesses of Mordekaiser, you will be able to take Mordekaiser from Top into the Jungle with ease!

Pros:

• High damange, great at teamfighting: Mordekaiser thrives being in the middle of a big teamfight. The DPS damage he can do with Riftmaker or Iceborn Gauntlet + Demonic Embrace reaches absolutely absurd levels. The rest of your build is dedicated to ensuring that you survive as long as possible in the middle of the fray, doing absolutely amazing damage through Obliterate and Darkness Rise.

• Amazingly healthy clear: I pointed out earlier that Mordekaiser has NO NEED for Refillable Potion, and that's for good reason! Mordekaiser has one of the most healthy Jungle clears that I've ever seen! After clearing your first buff, you should immediately level Indestructible. Using Indestructible optimally throughout your clear minimizes all damage from jungle monsters and allows you to even heal while taking camps! All starting at Level 2!

• Enemy carry isolation: No matter what position Mordekaiser is played in, one thing is always true: Realm of Death is absolutely amazing for taking an important target out of the fight. Whether that be the opposing Jungler preparing to Smite, or the extremely, absurdly fed Top Laner that your Fiora just couldn't handle, Mordekaiser can take them to Brazil to kill or stall them long enough for your team to hopefully take advantage of the situation.

• Best gank in the game: Mordekaiser has one of the best ganks in the game, but only at level 6. Realm of Death is extremely useful for ensuring a target can't escape back under their tower. The difficulty is ensuring you get into lane fast enough, which is why we take Ghost.

Cons:

• Unable to engage well during ganks: If you are unable to land Death's Grasp, the gank is effectively over unless you are ganking a lane with Crowd Control or you have Realm of Death. This is why we take Ghost on Mordekaiser Jungle, it gives us a much needed burst of speed that we need to position ourselves correctly for the gank.

• Low movement speed: Mordekaiser is very, very slow, and this isn't only important for ganking. You must be careful about how long it takes you to move from base to objectives, or how long it takes you to move from camp to camp during your clear.

• Ult Troubles: Mordekaiser is very, very easy to kite outside of his Realm of Death, also due to his move speed. Realm of Death is meant to remedy this by boxing the opponent within a fixed area, allowing for Morde to approach them much easier. However, Realm of Death is easily wasted if casted during unstoppable movements, such as Onslaught of Shadows or Bellows Breath. Sometimes there are even abilities like Heartbreaker and The Show Stopper that ARE UNSTOPPABLE but don't detail that anywhere in their kit. Further, Realm of Death is completely invalidated by the existence of items such as Quicksilver Sash (which outright ends Realm of Death ) or Zhonya's Hourglass (which serves as a stall for a decent portion of Realm of Death ). In short, Realm of Death seems straightforward but in actuality, has very interesting (and unfavorable) interactions.

In order to become a God, you must understand the tools you'll be using. This section is going to be long, but by the end you should have complete understanding of what you're going to be working with when you play Mordekaiser Jungle.

ABILITIES:

• Darkness Rise

  One of the best parts of the kit, Darkness Rise allows for Mordekaiser to do continual damage to all enemies within a specific range surrounding himself. In order to proc Darkness Rise, Mordekaiser has to hit three consecutive auto attacks AND/OR abilities. However, these stacks can be gained all at the same time, as I show off in the below video alongside the isolation damage from Obliterate. AS OF PATCH 12.8 Darkness Rise now gives increasing movespeed! Level 1-5 is 3% movespeed when Darkness Rise is acitve! Level 6-10 is 6% movespeed when Darkness Rise is acitve! And level 11+ is 9% movespeed when Darkness Rise is acitve!
  
  Play Video
  

• Obliterate

  One of two skillshots in the ability kit of Mordekaiser. Obliterate is the main source of damage for Mordekaiser, helping him proc his Darkness Rise. This skillshot can actually be pretty difficult to land, so it's recommended that you try to auto attack the enemy first in some situations. The other thing to be mindful of is that sometimes, your opponent will stay as close to you as possible, making it very difficult for you to hit them. In the video above, I also detailed the differences in damage when the opponent is isolated vs when there are two or three opponents. Ideal situation is hitting one or three opponents with one Obliterate, as hitting a solo champ will do isolation damage and hitting three will instantly proc Darkness Rise.
  
  

• Indestructible

  A reference to Disturbed, Indestructible lives up to its name. Indestructible is your shield, storing up 35% of the damage you do and 15% of the damage you take (reduced for damage non-champions do). Using Indestructible gives you a decaying sheild of all the damage you stored for 4 seconds before finally running out. However, if you recast Indestructible before it expires, you can recover up to 45% (at max level) of the sheild value back as health. Honestly, it's not worth doing in the middle of a team fight. I recommend against using the recast unless you are not currently in a fight. It's good for recovering a bit of health after a fight though.
  
  

• Death's Grasp

  The second of the two skillshots Mordekaiser has, this ability is your engage tool. Functioning similarly to a hook, Death's Grasp brings your opponent closer to you. Death's Grasp also technically counts as a knockup ability, as you are removing your opponents ability to move and bringing them off their feet. Death's Grasp can also be used to gain stacks for Darkness Rise, the number of stacks being gained changing depending on how many enemies you hit with it. Another thing to note, Darkness Rise can be used defensively if you cast it at your feet, as shown below:
  Play Video
  

• Realm of Death

  This ability is what really allows Mordekaiser to shine. Realm of Death turns any fight that Mordekaiser wants into a 1v1, winner take all. See, Realm of Death may seem like an honorable 1v1, but Mordekaiser fixes the fight in his favor by stealing 10% of the opponent's stats (most importantly, armor, magic resistance, health, ability power and attack speed, though he does also steal other less important stats) for the entire length of the ability! If Mordekaiser is able to kill his opponent within Realm of Death, he keeps the stats he stole from the enemy until they respawn!
  
  This ability is what makes Mordekaiser ganks so impossible for opponents to deal with. Realm of Death is the best tool (and really, only tool) that Mordekaiser has to make effective ganks, so it's extremely important to make the most effecient use of Realm of Death each and every time you have it. However, sometimes it is best saved for objective plays. For example, if you intend on contesting an objective and know for a fact that the enemy Jungler is going to be there, it may be in your best interest to hold Realm of Death until that fight, Realm of Death the enemy Jungler so that they can't Smite the objective, kill them, then take the objective as your own.
  
  There is one major drawback to Realm of Death though. It is completely nullified by many interactions in the game. Quicksilver Sash is what you will mostly need to be paying attention to, as any champion can build the item, save it for when you ult them, use the active, and end your Realm of Death instantly. Further, anti-Crowd Control abilities such as Goes Where He Pleases, Black Shield, Unbreakable Will, Battle Roar, and Riposte will all waste your Realm of Death if you aren't playing careful. Other abilities such as Onslaught of Shadows, The Show Stopper, and Bellows Breath are unstoppable and will waste your Realm of Death as well.
  
  But it isn't all poor interactions for Realm of Death. Realm of Death can be used to kill Kindred within her Lamb's Respite, or completely waste it if Kindred uses Lamb's Respite within your Realm of Death. Illaoi is completely ruined by this sort of interaction, as if you Realm of Death after she uses Leap of Faith, she cannot continue to use Leap of Faith within your Realm of Death. Further, Realm of Death will "remove" things placed on the map, such as Event Horizon, [H-28G Evolution Turret]], Dark Procession and Jack In The Box, allowing for you to move freely within Realm of Death. You can also dodge skillshots by casting Realm of Death, such as Super Mega Death Rocket! and Shocking Orb!

RUNES:

• Conqueror

  This is the BEST Keystone for Mordekaiser to take. Conqueror gains stacks during fights, 2 per each ability or attack for melee characters. At max stacks, Mordekaiser will gain 24-54 extra AP (depending on level) and will also be healed for 9% of the damage done to enemy champions! This is the PERFECT Keystone for an AP brusier like Mordekaiser!
  
  

• Triumph

  This single rune is capable of restoring 10% of your missing health and grant an additional 20 gold per takedown! This is CRUCIAL for Mordekaiser because of how much focus is going to be on you while you're doing 1v5s. The enemy team will use Ignite on you, you will lose health while beating people up in Realm of Death, and you need as much healing as you can get from any source. Triumph has saved me by just a hair so many times it's impossible to keep count. Highly recommend this pick over anything else in this slot.
  
  

• Legend: Tenacity

  This rune is by far the single best rune you can take in this slot, as Tenacity on a slow and immobile tank like Mordekaiser is invaluable. Tenacity is one of the hardest stats to purchase for in the game, and this one rune gives you up to 30%! By contrast, the only other somewhat viable rune to run in this slot is Legend: Alacrity which only gives you 1.5x the value of a single Dagger. Make the right choice, and take Legend: Tenacity!
  
  

• Last Stand

  As for the last rune in this tree, Last Stand is the best possible choice for Mordekaiser! Mordekaiser is an AP brusier that has TONS of healing, however, there will be plenty of fights where you'll be low on health. This is because as Mordekaiser, you should be holding your Indestructible until it's fully charged, at which point you can activate it and gain a shield of stored damage that will keep you fighting even when your health is low! You'll do more damage in this state with Last Stand and if you manage to kill someone, you'll be procing Triumph to heal back a bit more health to prolong the fight!
  
  

• Conditioning

  We take Conditioning in this slot because as Mordekaiser Jungle, we're power farming until 6 for Realm of Death and we aren't planning on fighting much until our second or third clear. Around this time, Conditioning should be close to coming online, giving us some much needed extra tank stats!
  
  

• Revitalize

  Lastly, but arguably more important than Conditioning, we take Revitalize because it increases both healing and shielding! It even grants bonuses when you're low on health, syncing well with Last Stand and healing from Triumph! This is perfect for Mordekaiser who is able to use Indestructible for both! This also pairs well with both Riftmaker, Spirit Visage, and Gargoyle Stoneplate to make for a very difficult to kill Jungle tyrant!
  

SPELLS:

• Ghost

  This is the best Summoner Spell for Jungle Mordekaiser (outside of Smite of course). Ghost is crucial for allowing Mordekaiser to have enough speed to efficiently gank lanes. The low cooldown and speed offered by Ghost allows Mordekaiser to position himself in the perfect spot to Realm of Death whomever his gank target is. The tradeoff for taking Ghost over Flash is that if you Realm of Death near a wall, it's possible someone may Flash over the wall, leaving you stuck until the end of Realm of Death. For this reason, it is important to keep in mind where you're using Realm of Death.
  
  

• Challenging Smite

  Most of the time, you should be taking Emberknife for your Jungle item. Challenging Smite will reduce the damage dealt by enemy champions to you for 4 seconds while increasing your damage against them for 2.5 seconds.
  
  

• Chilling Smite

  In the event that you are against extreme mobility, sometimes taking Hailblade can be justified. Chilling Smite will allow for you to slow down enemy champions, taking 20% of their movement speed for 2 seconds while increasing your own by 20% for 2 seconds! Taking this against Lillia, for example, would be extremely beneficial until you've invested into Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

STARTING ITEMS:

• Emberknife

  This item provides extra damage to Jungle Monsters through a burn while also providing omnivamp against them as well! The omnivamp provided by this item will ensure that you continue to heal while you're tanking Jungle Monster autos with Indestructible, removing the need to take Refillable Potion! Take this item and Smite 5 times to have your Smite upgraded into Challenging Smite!
  
  

• Hailblade

  This item provides extra damage to Jungle Monsters through a burn while also providing omnivamp against them as well! The omnivamp provided by this item will ensure that you continue to heal while you're tanking Jungle Monster autos with Indestructible, removing the need to take Refillable Potion! Take this item and Smite 5 times to have your Smite upgraded into Chilling Smite!
  
  

• Control Ward

  Instead of purchasing Refillable Potion, purchase two of these instead. They last indefinitely, you can have them on the map at the same time as a Stealth Ward, and they reveal/disable enemy Stealth Ward and Farsight Alteration. You should ALWAYS have a Control Ward on the map in a bush or objective pit (Dragon/Herald/Baron). Within the early game, it may be wise to place one of your two Control Ward in a defensive location to ensure that you are not invaded by the enemy Jungler or to ensure that your laners are not ganked easily.
  
  

• Stealth Ward

  When the game first starts, you should pick Stealth Ward for your ward item, as well as your Jungle knife and your two Control Ward. From there, you should run out and use your Stealth Ward in either mid river or to gain vision on an enemy buff to learn where they are starting (but be careful to not be seen). Use your Control Ward somewhere that will give good information, but also somewhere it will not be seen. One of my favorite locations is the bush leading away from Blue Sentinel and towards river. Alternatively, you could Control Ward a bush for any of your laners, though it should be the one you anticipate is ganked first. After you drop off both your Stealth Ward and Control Ward, you need to start recall before 0:54 so that you can still walk to whichever buff you intend on starting with. When you recall, make sure you switch your Stealth Ward to Oracle Lens! This is a really easy way to benefit from Stealth Ward but also have Oracle Lens for your clear!
  
  

• Oracle Lens

  I touched on it above a tad bit, but you need this ward item for the rest of the game! Simply put, Oracle Lens is the Junglers best friend. It can reveal Stealth Ward, Control Ward, enemy champions, as well as camouflage/invisible champions, AND it can reveal Jungle monsters on the other sides of walls (useful for if you've been invaded or are invading). Oracle Lens is generally used for clearing Stealth Ward around lanes and objectives. Stealth Ward and Control Ward make ganking difficult on normal Jungle champions, but as low mobility Mordekaiser, your only option is to either clear Stealth Ward and then come back later to gank or use Ghost to sprint past the potential Stealth Ward and then clear them after the gank.

FIRST ITEMS

• Blasting Wand

  A rather straight forward item, it just gives you an extra 40 AP. What isn't so simple is why buying Blasting Wand is almost always better than buying Leeching Leer. Blasting Wand gives Mordekaiser a HUGE powerspike in comparison to Leeching Leer, as Blasting Wand will strengthen Obliterate and his Darkness Rise. This allows Mordekaiser to clear much faster and on the off chance that you're fighting before you have Realm of Death, will allow for Mordekaiser to absolutely dominate the fight so long as you hit your abilities and get your Darkness Rise up quickly. It's also worth noting that Darkness Rise gives Mordekaiser bonus AP damage on his auto attacks, meaning that the more AP damage you have, the more your auto attacks will do.
  
  

• Leeching Leer

  I know that I just discouraged use of Leeching Leer in the above description, however, in some special cases, Leeching Leer is preferrable to Blasting Wand. Leeching Leer will give you half of the AP of Blasting Wand, but it does give you a bit of health and 5% omnivamp. If you're into a Jungler that is going to result in a lengthy fight anyways, taking Leeching Leer will keep you healthy. However, you won't be able to buy this item on your first back unless you go for a gank, which is incredibly risky. I still recommend Blasting Wand in 99% of cases, but I figured I would detail this regardless.
  
  

• Bami's Cinder

  Much like Leeching Leer, Bami's Cinder is meant for lengthy fights. Bami's Cinder will do incredible damage early over the course of longer fights and will also assist in clearing your camps quickly. I don't believe this item is better than Blasting Wand for clearing, but it is comparable to Leeching Leer and is the first component item you should build for Iceborn Gauntlet. You won't usually be able to build this on your first recall, but you can build two Ruby Crystal and buy it after your second clear.
  
  

• Riftmaker

  This item is one of the two damage items that Mordekaiser will 100% always build if you choose this Mythic (obviously). Riftmaker will give you everything you need, health, omnivamp, AP, and a small bit of ability haste which will give you your abilities faster. Riftmaker gives 8% omnivamp by itself, but the Mythic Passive gives an extra 2% omnivamp and 8 AP per Legendary Item that you build. Further, Riftmaker has a Unique Passive that basically just makes you do 9% true damage if your fight lasts for 3 seconds. This is why we build tank after we finish Riftmaker and Demonic Embrace, because the longer we stay alive and in the fight, it's only a matter of time and sustain before the target has their health burned away.
  
  

• Iceborn Gauntlet

  After hearing about Riftmaker, you might be wondering why you would ever want Iceborn Gauntlet? Well, the answer is simple: it's to deal with high mobility and burst champions ( Akali, LeBlanc, Zed, etc.). Riftmaker is amazing if you can keep your Darkness Rise up and your enemies within it, but if you're burst down to 0 health before your 3 seconds for Riftmaker true damage or you just can't catch up to your targets to begin with, Iceborn Gauntlet is the better choice. Iceborn Gauntlet is similar to Riftmaker in that it does damage over time, albeit through a different method. More importantly, the Unique Passive on Iceborn Gauntlet allows for your auto attacks to create a field of frost under enemies that you auto attack, slowing them down. This is amazing for Mordekaiser, as it helps address his mobility problems without needing to burn Ghost to keep up with his target. The Unique Passive on Iceborn Gauntlet will allow for Mordekaiser to easily land abilities and auto attacks to proc his Darkness Rise, which will be the end of them (if you don't squash them with Obliterate).
  
  

• Plated Steelcaps

  These Tier 2 Boots are more often than not what you're going to go with. Most champions that are capable of killing you are AD champions, and Plated Steelcaps will help put a stop to that by reducing the damage from basic attacks by 12%. Yes, this also applies to someone using Wit's End, Nashor's Tooth, or a champion that does mixed/hybrid damage like Warwick. The biggest threats to Mordekaiser are often high attack speed crit champions like Jinx, Tristana, Jax, and Fiora, so Plated Steelcaps often has massive value.
  
  

• Mercury's Treads

  At times, you will face extremely difficult team comps with LOTS of Crowd Control. Something like Morgana, Veigar, Ashe, Zac, and Shen would be an example of a high Crowd Control team. In this case, bulding Mercury's Treads would be optimal to deal with just how much Crowd Control they have. While Mercury's Treads do give you more move speed and some magic resistance, more importantly they give you tenacity. Tenacity reduces the duration of all Crowd Control and is one of the hardest stats to purchase. Running Legend: Tenacity alongside Mercury's Treads should give you just enough mobility to still fight, though you should still do your absolute best to avoid Crowd Control as much as possible.
  
  

• Boots of Swiftness

  This is a VERY rare build on Mordekaiser, but it can be crucial at times. I recommend building these only into very fast champions, specifically Lillia, otherwise she will simply outrun you and kite you until her burn finally takes you out.

EXTRA AP ITEMS

• Demonic Embrace

  Oh, YES. This is our item. Demonic Embrace is a must have no matter what Mordekaiser build you're using. It should always come second, right after Tier 2 Boots. Demonic Embrace gives you a nice bit of AP and health, but more than that, it's Unique Passives are why we're getting this item. The first Unique Passive rewards Mordekaiser for building tanky, gifting Mordekaiser with AP equal to 2% of his bonus health. The second Unique Passive is really why we're here though. Every 4 seconds, enemy champions will lose 1.8% of their health. The longer the fight goes, the more health they lose! For a tank champion like Mordekaiser, adding yet another health burn on top of what he already gets from Riftmaker or Iceborn Gauntlet is INVALUABLE. And don't worry about other players on your team also building Demonic Embrace such as Brand and Swain, because now as of 12.13, Demonic Embrace stacks between users!
  
  

• Zhonya's Hourglass

  In the right circumstances, this item is a godsend. See, when you use the active on Zhonya's Hourglass, Darkness Rise continues to stay active and do damage during the stasis. What this means is that if you are in a big fight with several foes with Darkness Rise going and you get low on health to proc Last Stand, and you have Riftmaker, Demonic Embrace, and Spirit Visage in addition to Zhonya's Hourglass, you can use the acitve and do INSANE DAMAGE WHILE HEALING FROM ALL OF IT WITHIN STASIS! If you get a kill, you'll also proc Triumph and heal even more! This healing is done through Riftmaker, and then amplified by Revitalize and Spirit Visage. This can be incredibly busted alone, but Zhonya's Hourglass also offers good armor, good AP, and a little bit of ability haste, all of which are great on Mordekaiser!
  
  

• Rylai's Crystal Scepter

  The bane of high mobility champions, Rylai's Crystal Scepter is capable of completely ruining the lives of champions like Hecarim, Udyr, Akali, and many others. This item is perfect for slowing down enemies, as well as buffing your AP and health. Once you get someone caught within your Darkness Rise with this item, they will not leave alive. Darkness Rise with Rylai's Crystal Scepter applies continual slow and damage to enemy champions, making it so that it's far easier for you to auto and land Obliterate.
  
  

• Nashor's Tooth

  This item is extremely underrated on Mordekaiser, as is attack speed in general. Nashor's Tooth not only stacks with the AP damage per auto that your Darkness Rise gives you, but it also gives Mordekaiser an insane amount of both AP and attack speed. Running this item basically invalidates the need to actually land your Obliterate, as you can auto them three times within the span of time that it would take to hit your Obliterate (not quite, point is that it's very fast). However, running this item makes you very squishy in comparison to any of the above items.
  
  

• Cosmic Drive

  This item can be abolsutely GAME BREAKING on Mordekaiser, so let me explain: One of Mordekaiser's biggest issues in the game is his lack of mobility. Cosmic Drive can fix that easily, and it also sync's VERY well with Darkness Rise. In order to proc Cosmic Drive you need to land three separate attacks or abilities (which is the exact same case for Darkness Rise, and doing so will give you a 15% bonus movement speed buff (which will decay to 5% in 2 seconds) as well as 40 AP on top of what the item already gives! This is MASSIVE in addition to the health, movement speed, and AP that the item already gives! Definitely a super amazing item to build on Mordekaiser, but I recommend against it in most cases. Mordekaiser needs to be tanky and the damage he gains from Riftmaker and Demonic Embrace is already enough. However, Cosmic Drive is PERFECT for dealing with fast champions and should not be ignored!

ARMOR ITEMS

• Thornmail

  This is our anti-heal item, we take this over Morellonomicon. The reason we take Thornmail is simple: not only does it "reflect" a small amount of magic damage back at enemy champions that attack you, but it also offers great armor and health, as well as applying grevious wounds/anti-heal to anyone that attacks you. HOWEVER, the only time Mordekaiser can benefit from the full 50% grevious wounds/anti-heal is if he lands Death's Grasp. Yes, you heard right, technically Death's Grasp immobilizes as it is a very, very brief knockup! That being said, if you do miss your Death's Grasp, you will only be benefitting from 30% grevious wounds/anti-heal.
  
  

• Frozen Heart

  The first of the two anti-crit items, Frozen Heart is something that most wouldn't immediately build on Mordekaiser on account for the 400 Mana going to waste. However, what we're really building Frozen Heart for is the unique aura, the 20% reduced attack speed of nearby champions. This, in combintion with the unique passive, make it VERY difficult for champions like Yasuo, Yone, Tristana, and Jinx to kill Mordekaiser before he can even proc his Darkness Rise. You could look at Randuin's Omen below and see that Frozen Heart SEEMS to share its unique passive with it, however, Frozen Heart actually has the stronger of the two unique passive upon closer inspection.
  
  

• Randuin's Omen

  The second recommended anti-crit item, Randuin's Omen is REALLY good for handing crit champions like those listed above. The unique passive on Randuin's Omen is similar to Frozen Heart, though a tad bit weaker. However, the active on Randuin's Omen is VERY helpful for slowing down crit champions for just a moment, while reducing their overal damage by 10% and their crit damage by 20% for 4 seconds! In addition, the extra health that Randuin's Omen gives pairs up nicely with Demonic Embrace as well as Iceborn Gauntlet! As for choosing between Randuin's Omen or Frozen Heart, it's situational. If you're into more crit/attack speed ( Tristana, Jinx) then I recommend Frozen Heart. But if you're into pure crit ( Yasuo, Graves) then I recommend Randuin's Omen.
  
  

• Dead Man's Plate

  Not really one that sees a lot of use, but can work well on Mordekaiser depending on the situation. Dead Man's Plate gives Mordekaiser a bit more speed, granting stacks after moving uninterrupted for roughly 4 seconds. These stacks grant extra AD damage on the first auto attack on another champion, however, at maximum stacks, it also slows the enemy champion by 50% for 1 second! Again, not really something to use every game, but it can work!

MAGIC RESIST ITEMS

• Spirit Visage

  Ah yes, sustain. Spirit Visage is what we'll be using to keep ourselves nice and healthy in the middle of a 1v5. This item offers good magic resistance, health, and ability haste, but what we really want it for is the unique passive and the 100% health regen. Spirit Visage will increase all of the healing you get from Riftmaker, turning you into a massive omnihealing monster! Further, any damage you do with Riftmaker and Demonic Embrace translates to more healing through Riftmaker, right? But then Spirit Visage increases that healing, as well as making your Indestructible more effective! You can essentially use Riftmaker, Demonic Embrace, Zhonya's Hourglass, and Spirit Visage to heal back almost half of your health through the damage done by your Darkness Rise!
  
  

• Force of Nature

  Usually not better on Mordekaiser than Spirit Visage but DEFINITELY worth stacking into heavy AP, Force of Nature is the penultimate magic resist item. Running Force of Nature alongside Spirit Visage will make you essentially unkillable into high AP, though it should be noted that a good team comp usually has mixed damage. If you find yourself into many mages, consider building both!
  
  

• Gargoyle Stoneplate

  Usually one of the last items to build, Gargoyle Stoneplate is a great item to run into mixed damage teams. While it does offer both good armor and magic resistance, it also offers an awesome active effect: a big shield. This shield is buffed by both Revitalize AND Spirit Visage! You should use this item AFTER you use Indestructible! Your goal is to save the active for when Indestructible is on cooldown. The shield will hopefully keep you alive to use Indestructible one more time, which should be enough for your to walk out of any fight, provided you aren't killed by burst damage.
  
  

• Abyssal Mask

  Lastly, while this certainly isn't a common build item, running Abyssal Mask on Mordekaiser can be extremely beneficial into tank comps. This item isn't usually part of the build because it doesn't offer much base magic resistance, though it does offer a fair bit of health. However, the unique passive on Abyssal Mask grants you 7 bonus magic resistance per enemies, meaning that if you are in the middle of their entire team, you have a total of 35 extra bonus magic resistance! But that's not all it does! It also reduces the magic resistance of other enemy champions by up to 20 magic resistance! What this means is that your Riftmaker and Demonic Embrace are going to absolutely shred anyone that is standing within your Darkness Rise!

OL' RELIABLE AND ELIXIR

• Anathema's Chains

  Ah, Ol' Reliable. This item shouldn't be on every build and should only be used in specific circumstances. Put simply, after using the active on this item and selecting a "nemesis", they have reduced tenacity when around you, on top of also negating up to 30% of their damage towards you! This is perfect for dealing with the hyperfed Jax, Camille, Vayne, etc. Sometimes, it's really just one person on the enemy team that's ruining your entire game. Use Ol' Reliable to solve that problem.
  
  

• Elixir of Iron

  The best Elixir item for Mordekaiser, this item offers MORE TENACITY and MORE HEALTH, as well as leaving a trail behind you that lets allies move towards you faster! This is the perfect Elixir item for a tank build on Mordekaiser, however, you could optionally run Elixir of Sorcery instead if you feel that you are tanky enough and just need more AP.

As Mordekaiser Jungle, you have specific rules that you need to follow. For example, if you're trying to force ganks before Level 6, you're playing wrong. I will go over exactly how you should be playing in order to 1v9 carry all of your games!

Early Game:

RED START: Red Brambleback, level Death's Grasp for the extra 5% magic penetration, Smite Ancient Krug + Krug, Crimson Raptor, Greater Murk Wolf, Start Blue Sentinel then Smite Gromp at the same time, Scuttle, look for enemy Crimson Raptor if Scuttle is uncontested or their Jungle shows topside for a gank. I've made a video covering the clear here:
Play Video

BLUE START: Blue Sentinel until roughly 180 health + Smite Gromp (instantly level Indestructible after using Obliterate to hit both Gromp and Blue Sentinel at the same time to kill Blue Sentinel), Greater Murk Wolf, Crimson Raptor, Red Brambleback, Smite Ancient Krug + Krug, look for top gank. I've made a video covering the clear here:
Play Video

NOTE: The RED START is faster and is recommended. This is because it is much easier to do Blue Sentinel and Gromp at the same time at the end of the clear than it is to do it at the beginning. Doing it in this manner will allow for you to clear by 3:15 in time for Scuttle. If you use BLUE START you will be a tad bit late.

• During the early game, you should be focused on farming until Level 6 so that you have access to Realm of Death. You can start clearing from either Blue Sentinel or Red Brambleback, make sure you're pathing towards a lane that has Crowd Control. After Obliterate, you should immediately take Indestructible, as you'll be able to tank all of the damage throughout the rest of your clear and stay insanely healthy.
  
  
• The reason you should be power farming until 6 is because it is often very difficult for Mordekaiser to gank without Realm of Death. If you are going to attempt a gank prior to Level 6, you should use Ghost and sprint into whichever lane you're trying to impact, directly towards your target, being careful to dodge any Crowd Control. The best lane to repeat gank is botlane, as getting two players ahead is better than just one. It is more effective in all encounters to auto attack, hit Obliterate, and then follow up with Death's Grasp. This will get your Darkness Rise up, which you should be aiming to keep up as much as possible.
  
  
• If you can't gank any lanes, you should be farming as much as possible. In order to make up for how tough it is to make ganks happen, you should be especially focused on getting objectives. You must effectively track the enemy Jungler and stay on top of all objectives.
  
  
• It's important to keep in mind that just because ganks are hard, it doesn't mean you can completely ignore them (though there are cases where that is more effective). Highly mobile champs such as Akali, Fizz, LeBlanc, etc. are impossible to gank and there is 0 reason to even try (UNLESS THEIR LANE OPPONENT ON YOUR TEAM HAS GOOD CROWD CONTROL). If their entire team is capable of high mobility then your best bet is to farm as much as possible and just do your best for objectives until you have Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Mid Game:

• By mid game, you should have three items: Riftmaker or Iceborn Gauntlet, Mercury's Treads or Plated Steelcaps, and Demonic Embrace. From that point forward, your build should be entirely dedicated towards tanking. You are VERY strong with your current items and should be capable of fighting 1v2 so long as nobody is extremely fed or directly counters you.
  
  
• At this point, you need to be playing with your team. It's easy to get into the habit of power farming, but Mordekaiser thrives in battle and should be helping his team do what they need to do.
  
  
• As stated earlier, you should begin building to counter the damage spread of the enemy team. If they're healing a lot, build Bramble Vest. If they have a lot of crit, Warden's Mail. If they have a lot of AP, start Spectre's Cowl, etc. For most of these items, it is very important to start building one item and then finish it. In some cases though, it may be worth building something like Bramble Vest only and then switching over into Frozen Heart or Randuin's Omen.
  
  
• No matter how easy or hard your game started, mid game is going to be tough. Enemies will be desperate for an objective if they're behind, and if they're not, they're going to be playing very aggressive to keep their lead. Use your pings (NOT SPAMMING ???) to communicate what you need your team to do. Make sure you're looking to Realm of Death the most impactful person on their team (but be mindful of Quicksilver Sash and Crowd Control freeing abilities). If you keep your lead during the Mid Game, the game is almost certainly yours.
  
  
• Make sure you're denying the enemy Jungler as much of their Jungle as possible through use of Control Ward and by taking all of their camps.

Late Game:

• Your priority within the late game is the same as it's always been. Ensure that you're peeling for your carries while being a carry yourself. You should NOT be splitting with Mordekaiser because he is awful at splitting unless you're running Nashor's Tooth and Hullbreaker (which you shouldn't since you're playing Jungle).
  
  
• If you're struggling to end, make sure you're staying grouped and look for picks (people on the other team that are out of position). Remember that an opening will show itself eventually so long as you stay consistent!
  
  
• Reminder that if the only problem standing between you and the end of the game is one person, sell your Mercury's Treads or Plated Steelcaps and purchase Anathema's Chains. Unforuntately, Anathema's Chains doesn't extend the duration of your Realm of Death, but it does reduce their damage by up to 30% at max stacks! Also be sure to start purchasing Elixir of Iron once you finish your build!

I have enjoyed Mordekaiser for several years now and he is one of my favorite champions. For a long time, I played Mordekaiser Top, but I often found that I just couldn't make as big of an impact on the game from Top.

I tried many other champions after Mordekaiser, primarily Jungle champions to address my want for more control over the game, but I keep finding myself coming back to Mordekaiser. He's a huge, hulking tyrant that does insane damage, is hard to kill, loves lengthy fights, and thrives in the heat of battle!

I hope that you all find as much enjoyment out of Mordekaiser as I do, and I hope this guide is able to help anyone out there that might be struggling! Further, if you found this guide to be helpful, please consider giving it an upvote! I would absolutely love that and it would mean the world to me!

If you're interested in chatting, watching me play, or want to talk to me about the guide, feel free to catch me on any of my socials! It's easiest to find me on Twitch, Twitter, and Discord at the moment! I'd love to have you be part of our community!

Thank you for your time!

- Shro