My IGN is MasterOfMetaI, my peak is Master 86LP. I've peaked Rank 1 in EUW on LeagueOfGraphs' Mordekaiser Leaderboard. I've peaked Rank 2 on Lolalytics' Mordekaiser Leaderboard and Rank 1 on OPGG's Mordekaiser Leaderboard.

Strengths +Easy to pick up +Good Mid to Late-Game +Powerful in low elo +Hard to take down +Deals notable damage +Good dueling

Weaknesses -Kiteable -Hard to pull off in high elo -Low skill ceiling -Weak without his Ultimate -Weak early

Keystone Runes

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Conqueror Conqueror is the best keystone for Mordekaiser and should be taken 99% of the time, simply because it perfectly complements his playstyle, which is extended fights. It's also good in every stage of the game.

Grasp of the Undying Grasp of the Undying is a viable but slightly worse keystone than Conqueror, as your extended fights aren't that good. The good thing about Grasp of the Undying is, though, that your laning phase becomes slightly easier and you could argue that it carries over into the late-game with it's permanent max-health, but it's just not as good as Conqueror.

Lethal Tempo Lethal Tempo is a pretty cheesy and overstat keystone that gives you an easier time in lane but sort of falls short vs. Conqueror in the late game. This keystone is also only really worth it if you are going the Riftmaker build, as your AA's won't deal much damage otherwise and the Attack Speed will be somewhat wasted.

Everything Else

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Every other keystone than these three rarely find play on Mordekaiser, as they just simply don't fit his playstyle. I recommend never going any of these unless you're going a For-Fun-Build.

Precision Tree

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The Precision Tree is the best one for Mordekaiser and should always be taken as first or secondary.

Triumph Triumph is not only inherently good on Mordekaiser, as it lets you dive better, 1v2 better and teamfight better, but also are the other two runes in this row completely useless on Mordekaiser, so always take Triumph. Last Stand Mordekaiser can make very good use of Last Stand if he uses his Indestructible correctly, which is as soon as you got the max bonus from Last Stand, or in other words, at 30% HP. The maximum bonus of Last Stand is bigger than that of Coup de Grace and is granted for longer, so always take Last Stand.

Legend: Tenacity Legend: Tenacity grants you Tenacity , which is important on Mordekaiser in every game. Take Legend: Tenacity if you know that you won't be taking Mercury's Treads, otherwise you will get deminishing return of it. Legend: Alacrity Take Legend: Alacrity over Legend: Tenacity if the enemy team has little to no CC. This, however, is pretty rare and usually attack speed is not that important on Mordekaiser anyway, so, by default, go with Legend: Tenacity.

Resolve Tree

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The Resolve Tree is the second best tree for Mordekaiser and should also always be taken as first or secondary.

Conditioning Conditioning is in my opinion the best rune to take in the Resolve Tree, partly because I am confident enough in winning lane without either Second Wind or Bone Plating, but also because it gives you so much free gold worth of stats, roughly 600g on average. Bone Plating Bone Plating is a powerful rune in the laning phase that lets you outtrade an opponent that is normally stronger than you. Take it into champions, that can't proc it from range, such as Jax or Wukong. Personally though, I am confident enough in winning lane without it, so I usually take Conditioning instead. Revitalize Revitalize has more value when going Riftmaker, as you will be healing more. Still, Revitalize is also a good rune when going tank, it just comes down to preference which rune to take, as they are all good. Unflinching Unflinching is extremely useful when the enemy team has alot of slows or generally tons of CC. It should be taken into champions like Dr. Mundo, Ashe or Tahm Kench.

Overgrowth I like Overgrowth for a similar reason to Conditioning. They are essentially the same runes, just one grants Health and one grants Armor and MR. I like the gold in stats it grants for free, which is around 700g per game. Second Wind Second Wind, similar to Bone Plating, is mostly useful in the laning phase and should be taken into poke lanes like Gnar, Teemo or Quinn if you are otherwise not confident in winning these lanes. Shield Bash Shield Bash is not bad but in my opinion just a worse version of Revitalize, but in the end if you prefer it then take it. It is viable. Demolish Demolish's value obviously depends on how often you use it. You usually only have access to the enemy's turret if you are ahead of them or if they are missing, because you either killed them or they went roaming. So, take this rune if you are absolutely sure that you will stomp your opponent or if you know that your opponent will be roaming alot.

Inspiration Tree

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The Inspiration Tree is somewhat niche.

Approach Velocity Approach Velocity grants you 7.5% movement speed towards movement impaired enemies, doubled if you are the source of the impairment. Effectively, what this means is that, when you are chasing someone with the help of Rylai's Crystal Scepter, you will permanently benefit from the 15% movement speed buff.

Magical Footwear The only other rune in the Inspiration Tree that is worth taking is Magical Footwear. Not only this, but also is it pretty good in itself; you get free boots that also have a permanent 10 movement speed buff. The only problem with this rune is that, in a hard match-up that requires either Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads to be rushed, you will not have access to them until around minute 10, which forces you to either rush Bramble Vest instead of Plated Steelcaps or to just sit on a Null-Magic Mantle until minute 10. With all this said, resort to only taking this when you are either confident to win lane without boots or if you have an easy match-up to begin with.

Everything Else

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Every other rune than the ones stated have little to no synergy with Mordekaiser and should never be taken, unless you are going for a For-Fun-Build.

Rune Stats

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For the Rune Stats, there are a few combinations that you can choose from, depending on your preference and the build you will be going for.

Jak'Sho Default

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When building Jak'Sho, The Protean, Attack Speed is not as important, as you will not be stacking AP, so we take Ability Haste instead. In the next row, take AP. Why AP, you ask? Well, 9 AP is worth more gold than 6 Armor or 9 Magic Resist, especially on a tank. In the third row, take scaling HP, because it's stats are way better than that of Magic Resist or Armor. Additionally, Health always retains the same value, no matter how much you already stacked. Armor and Magic Resist's value, on the other hand, deminishes the more you have, and you will stack alot of resistances on Mordekaiser when building Jak'Sho, The Protean.

Jak'Sho Defensive

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Instead of taking Adaptive Force, you can take Armor or Magic Resist in the middle row. This is a better option for when you are less confident in a specific lane or on Mordekaiser in general.

Riftmaker Default

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When building Riftmaker, you will have more AP than on Jak'Sho, The Protean, so Attack Speed will have higher value. In the second row, take Adaptive Force. In the third row, take health rather than armor or magic resist as explained above.

Riftmaker Defensive

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As with the tank build, instead of taking Adaptive Force, you can take Armor or Magic Resist in the middle row. This is a better option for when you are less confident in a specific lane or on Mordekaiser in general.

Summoner Spells

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Flash As an immobile champion, Mordekaiser needs Flash, as it will be his only means to beat slippery and kitey champions. It also gives him outplay potential. Not taking Flash will render you useless.

Ignite Ignite is the best Summoner Spell to take on Mordekaiser along with Flash, and here's why: Mordekaiser's stigma is the "Late game immortal raid boss teamfighter". The problem is that most of these titles are only appliccable if Mordekaiser is fed, and this is where Ignite comes into play, eliminating his weakness early and allowing him to snowball, while not completely sacrificing his late game power. Ignite also fixes most of your bad matchups. This will require you to learn how to lane without Teleport, which is in itself not a bad thing, but it might take a while to get used to.

Ghost Ghost sacrifices alot of early game strength, but in return grants more presence in teamfights. It can be of alot of help when the enemy team consists of alot of ranged and slippery champions. It can also only be taken into lanes that do not require Ignite in order to win them.

Teleport Teleport should be taken into a lane that you are not confident in winning even with Ignite or into match-ups that offer ABSOLUTELY NO kill pressure pre-6 no matter how hard you try, for instance some of the ranged match-ups. You will not kill them pre-6 (assuming they play well) and after 6 you will not need ignite in order to kill them. Still, this is very rare and I still like to take Ignite in these lanes to be sure I can kill them post-6.

Important Note:
Never choose your Mythic based solely on your lane opponent. Always have the entire enemy team in mind when deciding on your Mythic and choose the one that is strong vs the most enemy champions.

Riftmaker

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Though backloaded, Riftmaker provides massive damage amplification. This makes it very strong against champions that demand long and drawn out fights, namely bruisers, juggernauts and tanks. Riftmaker tends to struggle against frontloaded damage, aka burst, due to its low resulting resistances. If the enemy team is rather bursty, look into Jak'Sho, The Protean.

Jak'Sho

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Unless you're behind, Jak'Sho, The Protean turns you into a boss battle. If the enemy team has at least decent damage, it will probably be the better option. It gives you tons of resistances to work with and truly shines in longer fights.

Starting Items

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Dark Seal Dark Seal is a solid starting item for Mordekaiser if you're confident in winning your lane. It becomes insanely gold efficient when fully stacked, roughly 400%. It should be noted that you can only go this item if you took Ignite because winning lane becomes so much easier with it. With the 150g remaining, buy Refillable Potion, not triple Health Potion. If you're not confident in winning lane, took Teleport or Ghost, or don't like Dark Seal for some other reason, try the items following this. Doran's Ring Build Doran's Ring into every melee match-up with little to no poke. Doran's Shield Build Doran's Shield into poke lanes.

Early Rush Items

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Plated Steelcaps Rush Plated Steelcaps against all Champions that deal most of their damage with Auto-Attacks. Perfect examples are Tryndamere, Yone, Yasuo, Jax, Sett and so on. Mercury's Treads Mercury's Treads are very effective against AP heavy or tank champions that have some sort of CC that can help them escape, such as Kennen, Ryze, Heimerdinger, Karma, Malphite, et cetera. Bramble Vest Rush Bramble Vest against ad healing champions like Darius or Irelia. Oblivion Orb Rush Oblivion Orb vs. ap or tank healing champions like Dr. Mundo or Vladimir. Rylai's Crystal Scepter ALWAYS rush this item if you are ahead and can reliaby fight your lane opponent. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is an extremely powerful rush item if you are struggling to stick to a certain lane opponent. These may include most of the ranged matchups or just generally champions that have very reliable escapes, such as Singed, Gragas, Malphite, and so on. It also lets you kite people really well if needed. Demonic Embrace Build Demonic Embrace as a first item if you are planning to build Jak'Sho, The Protean and are not necessarily ahead of your opponent, because rushing Jak'Sho, The Protean will leave you with absolutely no damage and waveclear for that matter. Riftmaker If none of the above applies to your lane opponent or if you are confident to win without them, build straight into Riftmaker. If you are ahead of your opponent, build Blasting Wand first instead of Leeching Leer because you won't need the defensive stats.

Core Items/Most Games

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Demonic Embrace Demonic Embrace is arguably the best legendary item for Mordekaiser, because your passive procs its burn, applying it permanently on your enemies during a fight. Also, you will be stacking HP with essentially every item you buy, which grants you extra AP with Demonic. You should build it in every game as your second or third item. Spirit Visage Spirit Visage is also a core item of Mordekaiser because of its great synergy with his kit. His shield, which is already big, will get amplified and the heal afterwards aswell. You conqueror healing will also be amplified. Even if the enemy has no AP source, build this item.

Jak'Sho Exclusive

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Sunfire Aegis Sunfire Aegis will provide massive damage in conjunction with a tank build and will also provide good stats. It also synergises well with your passive, so if you need that extra bit of damage, build Sunfire Aegis.

Riftmaker Exclusive

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Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonya's Hourglass is a core item for the Riftmaker build, though not so much for the tank build. Here's why: The effectiveness of Zhonya's Hourglass on a certain Champion is dictated by the relative amount of time you can survive the enemy's damage that is added by Zhonya's Hourglass. As an example, we can take the amount of time you can tank 5 people with the two different builds, and compare how much 2.5 seconds are in relation to that time. On average, a full tank build will let you tank the entire enemy team for roughly 4-5 seconds. With a Riftmaker build, this number drops to around 2-3 seconds if we assume the enemy has anti-healing. What we end up with is 60% vs. 100%. Thus, building Zhonya's Hourglass is way more effective when going Riftmaker. On a side note, the average Mage tanks the enemy team for around 0.4 seconds. This makes the percentage of Zhonya's Hourglass's time relative to that number around 600%, which is why you see every single mage in existence build this item.

Anti-Heal

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Morellonomicon Morellonomicon is good when you're against tanks or AP champions with strong healing. Thornmail Build Thornmail when the enemy has 2 or more AD healing champions.

Ahead/Offensive Items

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a snowbally item that is almost mandatory vs teams with a lot of kiting potential and/or mobility. If you have this item, an opponent without a dash will simply not be able to escape you, which makes it a great buy for when you are ahead. It is also a great rush item if you already got a few kills in lane. If you come back to lane with this item and hit one E on your opponent, you can simply run them down with the perma-slow. It also has a fairly low cost, making it easier to rush. Cosmic Drive Cosmic Drive is a fun item when you are ahead, or vs a low DPS comp. Every single one of its stats are super good on Mordekaiser and its passive also synergises well with Mordekaiser's kit. Nashor's Tooth Nashor's Tooth is a niche but effective item for when you are up against a tanky enemy team. It doesn't give you any defensive stats, so only build it when you are ahead or vs. a low DPS comp. It also makes you win practically every 1v1. Mejai's Soulstealer Mejai's Soulstealer is even more niche than Nashor's Tooth, because Mordekaiser, unlike most Champions who build Mejai's Soulstealer, needs to come close to the enemy in order to engage in a fight with them and is thus more prone to dying. So, if you want to build this item you either have to be fed enough to simply not die anymore or you have to play more safe, which I personally find boring so you should probably just sit on your Dark Seal. Shadowflame Shadowflame is a situational item that you can build vs. shield heavy comps or matchups if you would be having difficulties otherwise.

Defensive Items

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Force of Nature Force of Nature is an insanely efficient item when facing a heavy AP team. It makes you so much tankier vs magic damage and it also gives you a ton of MS. Randuin's Omen Randuin's Omen is an insanely powerful anti-AA item for Mordekaiser, and should be built if the enemy team has at least 2 autoattackers. Frozen Heart Frozen Heart is a very underrated item on Mordekaiser which is very effective against high attack speed champions that don't necessarily build crit. The mana is wasted but the stats and the passives are so strong on Mordekaiser that it's usually worth it in the right situations. Gargoyle Stoneplate Gargoyle Stoneplate should be built as a last item if the enemy team has too much DPS. It lets you tank 5 people and use your W twice if you use Gargoyle Stoneplate's active in between of the W's. Additionally, nobody expects you to have this item, so you can bait them with low hp and when they try killing you, you can surprise them with a 3000HP shield. In addition to all this, Gargoyle Stoneplate has great synergy with Jak'Sho, The Protean, as both scale with resistances and will thus scale off of each other. Anathema's Chains Another severely underrated item on Mordekaiser that is almost a must buy against singular enemy carries. This may include any fed ADC, assassin or mage alike. My personal favorite champion to build this item against is Evelynn, since it's basically the only item that lets you have a chance against a hyperfed Evelynn. Just try to remember that you should only build this item if there's just one problematic enemy.

Item Set

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If you want these items as a set ingame, you can copy this text and import it into your client:

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Early Game

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Fake-Leash

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Fake-Leashing is the act of not showing on lane before 1:45 when your jungler started bot-side. This way, the enemy team cannot exclude the possibility of your jungler starting top-side. Of course, showing up late requires you to sacrifice some lane-prio. Thus, this should not be done against certain champions that make excellent use of early lane-prio, such as Tryndamere, Irelia, Yone or Yasuo.

Pre-Level-3

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Mordekaiser's base stats are terrible and you level your W at level 3, so you get one-shot before that. Pretty much everyone beats you in this stage, so play safe and don't get engaged, you will probably lose half of your HP or more. You can use this stage to poke down your enemy with Q's to prepare for an all-in as soon as you hit level 3, but I recommend just getting as much CS as possible. Even better, if you can poke the enemy AND get CS, do it.

Cheater-Recall

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If you are up against a champion that is very weak in the early game or someone that yielded lane-prio for some other reason and lacks waveclear, the Cheater-Recall is an excellent way of "cheating" your way into an early advantage and allowing you to freeze. The execution is quite simple: First, get early lane prio. Obviously, into most match-ups for Mordekaiser, this is quite hard and sometimes even impossible, but just in case you did actually get early lane prio, follow the second step: Slow push the first two waves. This means to first of all push, but to also not have your wave crash into the enemys tower, so that it can stack up as many minions as possible. As soon as the third wave arrives, push it as hard as you can. As your stacked up wave crashes into the enemy's tower, recall. If you didn't miss too many minions, you will be able to afford a Ruby Crystal, Cloth Armor, Amplifying Tome or even a Null-Magic Mantle if you're vs. AP. Assuming your lane opponent has low wave-clear, he should not be able to fully shove the wave before you return to lane. This means that you can now freeze the wave that is pushing toward you. I've explained freezing further below in this same Tab. The enemy will also not be able to simply break your freeze, because you have an item advantage.

Levels 3-5

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You will still lose against roughly half of all toplaners during these levels, unless you have poked them down enough. If your enemy is not that strong early-game or poked down, try for an all-in. If both is not the case, keep poking and farming from afar. You can go for trades but keep them short. Use the Basic Short Trade in this stage of the game. I have explained the Basic Short Trade in the Mechanics/Combos-Tab.

Post-6

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This is where you get really strong. Your Realm of Death + Ignite makes you an insane duelist. You can 1v1 most toplaners at this point, so try forcing all-ins.

Farming under Turret

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Farming under turret isn't something that can really be taught, it just comes with experience. What you should know, though, is that Mordekaiser sucks at farming under turret and you should try avoiding it at all costs. Alternatives include: Freezing, clearing the wave before it crashes or to just perma-shove but this is not the best option most of the time.

Consolidating your Lead

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Freezing

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Freezing is an insanely effective method of consolidating a lead by starving out your opponent. If a freeze can be pulled off, it's really strong and should be done. Freezing requires 3 prerequisites. These include:

Your ability to freeze
Obviously, a freeze can only be pulled off if you know how and what a freeze even is. If you don't, a freeze is essentially a wave state where you have the waves crash into each other on your side of the lane and to keep the waves there by always having the enemy wave have 3 caster minions more.

You being stronger than your opponent
If your opponent is stronger than you, he will simply "thaw out" the wave by killing your minions and having them crash into your turret. This way the waves will reset and crash in middle of the lane again. If you are stronger than your opponent, you can punish him whenever he tries to touch the wave/cs.

The wave state allowing it
You can only initiate a freeze if the enemy wave is pushing towards you. You can manipulate the wave to push toward you either by crashing multiple waves into the enemy tower with a slow push, or to briefly tank a reset wave in front of the enemy turret so that the waves crash on the opponents side of the lane. This will cause a slow push towards you.

The beauty of a freeze lies mostly in the fact that you are ungankable and if the opponent tries to even get xp, he will be prone to a gank. The only problem with freezing as Mordekaiser is that you will break the freeze yourself if you bully the opponent. So, if you want to bully the opponent, be sure to always all-in him, otherwise you will be left with a thawed out wave. If you kill him, hard shove the wave and back. When you are back to lane, the enemy wave will slow push into you again, allowing you to freeze once more.

Here's a diagram to better understand the wave state that is required for a freeze: (It's a bit older but it still applies)

Perma-Shove

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This strategy is pretty simple and essentially consists of this: You hard-shove every wave under the enemy's turret and poke your oppponent with isolated Q's as they are farming the minions you just shoved. Once they are low enough, dive them, preferably using the E-R combo. This strategy has 2 prerequisites:

1. You are ahead/stronger than your opponent
In order to shove the waves, you obviously need to be stronger than your opponent, otherwise they will just kill you.

2. Your opponent does not have anti-poke/sustain or is too tanky
If your opponent can't be poked down low enough and just keeps sustaining your damage, you can't dive him. Similarly, tanky champions take way too long to reach an adequate amount of HP to be dove. These champions include most tanks, such as Ornn, Sion, Tahm Kench, Dr. Mundo or Cho'Gath. As an example for Champions that simply sustain your poke you can take Sett. In addition to all this, Champions that can CC you while you are poking them under turret are also immune to this strategy, as they can simply CC you, such as Darius' Apprehend, and have you take more damage than them or even kill you. If you are ahead against any of these kinds of champs, try freezing to press your lead.

You should also note that, when applying this strategy, you don't really need to ward the river bush right next to the lane, because you are ahead enough to simply 1v2 the jungler and toplaner. Rather than that, save your wards for vision on their buffs or generally choke points in their jungle. If your opponent under turret ever just Recall s and does NOT Teleport back, try getting at least one turret plating and make sure to clear one more wave, even if that means going behind the enemy turret to clear it.

Taxing Enemy Jungler

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If the previous 2 strategies (freezing and perma-shove) don't work, assuming you can't hold and/or initiate a freeze and your opponent can't be poked down under turret, you can simply slow push 2 waves into the enemy turret, then proxy one wave to buy yourself time to take camps from the enemy jungle. Of course, proxying a wave is risky and should only be done when ahead or when you are sure that the enemy jungler is not near. This is extremely crippling to the enemy jungler and will require your enemy laner to give up the 2 waves you just pushed into his turret in order to protect his junglers camps. Obviously, in order to do this you need to be stronger than your lane opponent (in order to push the waves) and the enemy jungler (in order to fight him in case he happens to be there).

After Killing your Lane Opponent

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Generally after you kill your opponent, you want the wave to push toward you as you come back to lane and guarantee the enemy toplaner to not be able to fully shove it, so that you can set up a freeze and consolidate your lead. In this case, we would always try to come back to lane at the same time as our opponent, to first of all get as much as possible while they are dead (which ALWAYS includes shoving the wave, and getting platings IF the time allows it) and second of all to not allow them to shove before we arrive, as this would cause the wave to reset. For this, we need to simply Recall when the opponent's death timer is at 8 seconds. This will guarantee for both to return to lane at roughly the same time. All this, though, does not apply when you are making use of the "Perma-Shove" Strategy. Here, a reset wave doesn't really bother you, as you will just be shoving it again, so you can get more platings, as long as the opponent is not there. Also, if you are ever really ahead, what you can do is, after you kill your opponent, shove the wave and walk into the lane bush closest the opponents turret. This will make them think you Recall ed, but in reality you were just waiting for them to come back. When they walk past you, just kill them again.

Objective Macro

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Whenever there is about a 1 minute timer on Dragon and you know that your team can contest it, push out the top wave and walk to Dragon . If you know that your team cannot contest it, splitpush top and try to get the t2 tower. Whenever Baron Nashor is up or about to come up, try not to be too far away from it. If you know that your team cannot contest it, splitpush bot. The enemy will be at Baron Nashor , which is the opposite of the map. If they are NOT on Baron Nashor , and instead try to 3v1 you, signal your team to do Nashor. Otherwise, if your team could theoretically keep the enemy from doing Nash, stay close to it. Even better, if your team can force a Nash, go for it. If you took Teleport (Why), you can Splitpush while an objective is coming up or is up on the opposite of the map and use it when your team starts fighting (if that will result in your team winning).
If Baron Nashor , Dragon or even Rift Herald are on low HP, you can indirectly "secure" it by ulting the enemy jungler. In your Realm of Death he cannot interact with said objective, leaving your jungler to freely smite it and get it with a 99% probability. I highly recommend doing this whenever the enemy jungler has potential to steal an objective. Place a Ward over the wall and just ult him. You will not kill him, but that is worth it.

Teamfighting

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Teamfighting with Mordekaiser is fairly straightforward.

Before the fight
Before anything happens, choose your prefered ult target. I've explained the process in the Ability Usage-Tab.

Engaging
You can be the one to engage, but I would strongly advise against it. Your only "Engage"-Ability is your E, if you can even call it that. Your E, though, is not reliable at all and will most likely not hit more than 2 people. If, though, you can be sure to hit at least 3 people with an E, definitely go for it. If you absolutely need to be the one to engage and are not sure to hit E, chances are you won't be able to ult your prefered target, as you will have to immediately ult someone to not be oneshot.

Fighting
If your team has an engage, just walk to your target and ult. If your target is not already in your melee range, use the E-R Combo. If you don't know, what the E-R Combo is, look it up in the Mechanics/Combos-Tab. If both teams are even, the result of the teamfight depends heavily on you killing your target in Brazil. If you don't, your ult will be somewhat wasted and Mordekaiser without his ultimate is kind of weak. Also, if you do kill your target inside Brazil the fight will turn into a 5v4 in your favor. After leaving Brazil, always try to E the backline if it still exists. They are the only ones that can bring you down. If you hit, try killing the enemy you hooked. If you miss your E or there is no backline, just fight the people in front of you and try surviving for as long as possible.

Farm, Farm, Farm!

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Keep up your CS! Even if that means taking some jungle camps. CS is the biggest and most reliable source of Gold, and can sometimes even bring you ahead of someone with many kills. If you are ever moving somewhere, always make sure to take CS there, or get at least 1 kill, otherwise moving there will be wasted. Rule of Thumb is to never go below 6CS per minute.

Keep up in XP!

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Arguably even more important than your gold, especially when considering that Mordekaiser has a few level scalings in his kit itself, so make sure you are NEVER behind in levels. The stats a champion gets with one level is roughly equal to one kill or two waves worth of gold. When you are ahead in levels, you feel like a raid boss. Equally, when you are behind, you feel really weak and you just get one-shot.

Late-Game

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Mordekaiser's late game is not as strong as it once was, but by no means weak. Not much changes here, Macro-wise, except for making sure to not die and always being at Objectives in time, as they get shred this late into the game. If you're trapping/going for catch plays, always make sure the enemy does not have vision on you.

Q - Obliterate | Positioning

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Isolating Q

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As you already know, your Q deals 160% damage if it hits only 1 enemy. When fighting near or inside minions, try aiming your Q so that it hits only the enemy champion. Not only will this deal more damage to your enemy, but also will you not push the wave this way. Depending on your game plan, this will be a huge benefit.

IMPORTANT: Movement Prediction

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Everytime the enemy dodges your Q, try to make out a pattern of their movement in your mind. All players, subconsciously or not, have a pattern to their dodges (yes, even you). If you get the pattern of a specific enemy down, you will never miss a Q on them again. Examples of a dodge pattern could be always dodging upwards or always to the right, or even knowingly not dodging at all. You will realize when you pay attention to it.

Free Q Hits in Lane

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Whenever you see your opponent going for a last hit you can get a free Q hit on them during their attack animation.

W - Indestructible | Timing

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Timing in short and long trades

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In a long trade/all-in make sure to ALWAYS use your max shield. If not, it's wasted potential and it often makes the difference in early fights. Short trades are different. If you try to go for the max shield in a short trade, chances are you won't even get to use it until the trade is already over. So, try using it as you are still fighting, without laying too much value on getting the max shield. Obviously, you need to make sure to NOT carry it over into a long trade if your shield was too small. Another thing to keep in mind is to only go for short trades if your shield is already at least 1/3 full.

Early to Mid-Game

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On Mordekaiser, you will be taking Last Stand. If you shield at around 30% HP, you gain the most out of Last Stand because it will be active for longer than if you use W any earlier. This only applies to all-in fights.

Late-Game

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At this stage in the game, your W's cooldown will be low enough to use it twice in one fight. For this reason, try to W as early as possible in order to be able to use it once more.

Consuming W

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If you can know for sure that a fight won't be happening for the next 8-ish seconds, you can consume your W shield for healing.

E - Death's Grasp | Come Here!

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Normal Usage

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The normal usage of your E is to obviously bring people closer to you so you can beat the **** out of them. It's hitbox is pretty thin and it's cast time is rather slow, making it hard to hit.

Placement

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As you might already know, your E works like this: It gets spawned on the ground and a hand swipes from top to bottom. Enemies only get dragged if they are hit by the hand, meaning that the further away they are from the top of your E, the easier it will be for them to dodge it. If you want to increase its chance of hitting, place the top of your E as close to your opponent as possible while also excluding the possiblitly of them escaping towards the top of it.

Note:
The Movement Prediction paragraph from Q - Obliterate (two headers above) also applies here.

The E Self-Peel

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Many already know this one but most of the players execute it the wrong way, by having their cursor too far ahead of Mordekaiser when using E. This often leads to the E not even hitting the champion that is chasing them. For those who don't know, as you are running away from someone, you can plant your Death's Grasp right in front of you so that it essentially spawns below you. The enemy chasing you will either have to walk back or get pulled back, both resulting in you getting away from them. Higher skill level players will expect you to do this, so they will try to chase beside you. When they do this you can try to place the E on the side he is running.

Here's how it looks: Play Video

R - Realm of Death | Brazil

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Usages of Ult

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To win the 1v1
The most obvious reason. You steal 10% of your targets stats and gain those stolen stats, effectively becoming 20% stronger than your target. Some champions, such as Trundle, also have a stat stealing gimick, just like Mordekaiser. It is preferable to steal their stats after they steal yours, so that you gain some of the stolen stats back.

Common Misconception:
The description of Realm of Death says 10% of the target's CORE stats. This leads many to believe that Mordekaiser is simply stealing their BASE stats, meaning the stats they would have without any items or runes, only from levels. THIS IS FALSE. In this context, CORE stats stands for a select few stats, which include Attack Damage, Ability Power, Max Health, Armor, Magic Resist and Attack Speed, of which 10% of their TOTAL value is stolen, NOT their BASE values or BONUS values.

Effectively, what this means is that whenever you are fighting an enemy that has some form of stat boost in their ultimate, such as Renekton, Nasus or Volibear, ulting them AFTER they have used ult gives you an advatage over ulting before them, as you steal part of the stats they gained from ulting.

To remove other champions/To make a X>1 vs. 1 a 1vs1
Also fairly obvious. Better to fight 2 1v1s than to fight a 1v2.

To stop the enemy's retreat
Your target cannot walk outside the bounds of the Realm of Death, so he can't run away from you.

To save a teammates life/To peel
When you see the fed Kha'Zix jump onto your ADC, ult him and save your ADC's life.

To deny the enemy jungler from smiting/stealing an objective
If you ult the enemy jungler before the objective's health bar drops to around 2000 HP, you effectively guarantee your team to get said objective, as he can no longer interact with it inside the Realm of Death.

Understanding Death Realm Arena spawn position

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When you cast Realm of Death, there is a pattern to where the border of the Death Realm will spawn relative to you. It will always spawn in such a way that Mordekaiser is in the first third of the circle, with his back facing the closest wall. Here is a minimalistic image drawn in MS Paint to help you understand (the white circle is the border of the Death Realm):How can we use this information efficiently? If possible, try to ult your enemy so that the border spawns in such a way that they cannot escape you. This, for example, is done by ulting the enemy when he is between you and your turret. Now, the border will spawn in a way that forces the enemy to run into your turret if they were to run away. This forces them to fight you.

Choosing Ult Target

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Choose the target that has the most priorities checked without skipping any from top to bottom.

1st Priority:
Your target has no way to Cleanse your ultimate. This includes Quicksilver Sash, which ADC's often like to build vs. Mordekaiser, Gangplank's Remove Scurvy, Alistar's Unbreakable Will, Olaf's Ragnarok, and so on. If they do have a Cleanse and use it on your ult, it is wasted. Weirdly enough, though, the actual Summoner Spell Cleanse does NOT cleanse your Ultimate, so don't be afraid of ulting the ADC if he took it.

2nd Priority:
Your target needs to be useful to the enemy team. Your ultimate is essentially wasted if you use it on the 0/17 Nunu that has been rolling it down mid the entire game. Ulting the Diana, for example, who is really good at teamfighting, would be way more effective.

3rd Priority:
You need to be able to reach the target/catch up to them. If the target jumps over a wall or perma kites you, your ultimate is wasted.

4th Priority:
You need to be able to actually kill your target in the Realm of Death, otherwise your Ultimate was wasted. Even worse, if your target can beat you, then you essentially played yourself, because you too cannot escape the Realm of Death before the 7 seconds are over.

Ult Timing

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1st Priority:
When you are on the verge of death. Don't wait any longer, ult NOW!

2nd Priority:
When your target is adequately low. If your target is at full HP at the time of ulting him, chances are you won't be able to kill them in time. Even in a 1v2 situation you should wait before your targets HP is low enough to be able to kill him in the Realm of Death. This does not apply as much to squishier targets as they are usually easier to kill, unless they have good means of escape.

Fighting inside your Ultimate

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If your target is actively fighting you inside the Realm of Death:
Nothing to add to the usual fighting, just fight like you would fight outside.

If your target is running from you inside the Realm of Death:
Do NOT use your E as your target is running from you, you will miss it 90% of the time. The target is going to expect you to throw your E and run in a wavy line. Instead, just run at them until you're in their face, forcing them to run away from you in a straight line and THEN use your spells. If this is not possible due to getting cc'ed/slowed or them just being fast, still don't use your E first, always use your Q first, then E.

Regarding Mechanics and Combos, Mordekaiser does not have much to offer, there are a few mentionable ones, though.

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E-Q Combo vs. Q-E Combo

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Most Mordekaiser players always use the E-Q combo, which is not bad, but the Q-E combo is better in most situations and here's why:

1. The Q-E Combo is faster

Assuming you start walking toward your opponent after you've hit the first spell of your combo, you can start walking after Q'ing because your E does not need you to stand still. In the E-Q combo, after hitting E you would still have to stand still once again because of your Q. Additionally, Your Q ending frames overlap with the beginning frames of your E.

2. The Q-E Combo is easier to land

People do not expect you to throw your E right after your Q, making it easier to hit. When you are chasing someone, they will expect you to use your E first and we all know that hitting your E is practically impossible when they know you will be using E. Your E is harder to hit than Q because of its long cast time and thinner hitbox. If you Q them first, which will more probably hit than E, they will reveal their dodge pattern or maybe not even try dodging anything else afterwards, thinking you do not have E up, because if you did, you would have used it first, making it easier to hit E.

3. It's more satisfying

This one is obviously a more personal reason to use this combo but I just think its more satisfying than the E-Q combo.

When is E-Q better?

If the enemy you are intending to hit is not within your Q range, forcing you to E first in order to be able to hit Q.

Watch the 2 combos in-game and decide for yourself:

Q-E: Play Video
E-Q: Play Video

Is the opponent running from you in wavy lines?

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Everytime they do this it seems like you can't hit any spells, and that's exactly why we won't use any spells. Them running in a wavy line makes them slower, allowing you to catch up to them and AA them until they notice that their strategy isn't working and will start running from you in a straight line again. Now you can hit your spells.

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Basic Short Trade

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In the laning phase, especially early, this combo will come in handy if you only want to Q-E-AA without extending the fight further. It consists of Q'ing the enemy, then using your E behind you so that it pulls the enemy away from you. While your E is still on the ground, autoattack the enemy. This will guarantee the enemy to be pulled away and to not be able to extend the fight. Use this combo vs. early game powerhouses like Darius, Trundle, Sett, Warwick, and so on, that you would rather not fight for longer. Play Video

You can also choose to auto-attack first: Play Video

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The E-R Combo

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If you are fighting a fast champion post-6 that makes it hard to hit E, use the E-R combo to guarantee it to land.

Why does it guarantee the E to land?
Your R has a 0.5 second cast time, during which the target is slowed by 75%. If you immediately R someone after planting your E right below them, it is practially impossible for them to dodge it. This is obviously ineffective vs. champions with dashes.
Play Video

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R-Flash

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If you Flash early enough during your ult animation, you can cleverly manipulate the position of the ult border in your favor and prevent the enemy from escaping. The way the border spawns is explained in the Ability Usage Header in the Realm of Death header.

Here's how it looks: Play Video

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Q-Flash

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Most will know this already, but you can Flash in the middle of Obliterate's animation. This interaction, however, does not behave like most [Ability]-Flash combos: After flashing, your Q will not retain its original direction, but rather its original aim location, which you need to keep in mind when making use of it. This will lead to some very weird looking interactions. The only good scenario I can think of where this interaction actually benefits you is when someone throws an important skillshot at you while you are Q'ing. This way you can flash somewhere else, with that location still being in range for hitting Q. You would stand somewhere else but still hit Q and you dodge the skillshot.

Q-Flash Interaction: (Watch the cursor closely) Play Video

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Masking R Animation with Q

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"Masking" might not be the most accurate word to describe it but it is applicable to some extent. This mechanic is mostly used against a champion that has a spell that briefly makes him unstoppable or gain a spell shield, such as Ornn, Volibear, Kled, Nocturne, Fiora or Sivir. Your R animation hast a cast time of 0.5 seconds, which allows for the enemy to cast their CC-Immunity spell right before your R goes through, putting it on cooldown without actually going through. Most players don't expect you to R right after Q so they won't be as alert.

Note:
This interaction does not guarantee your opponent to not cancel your R, however it does increase its chance to go through.

Here's how it looks in-game: Play Video

Hi there, King! You, yes, you reading this. Thank you so much for reading my Mordekaiser Mobafire guide! I've put alot of work into this, so I hope you found this guide helpful and learned a few things. If you did, make sure to give this guide an upvote, it would mean the world to me. If you didn't like this guide, please let me know why and I will try to improve it in that regard. Have a nice day and good luck in your SoloQ games! Also, feel free to ask me any questions in the comments, I usually answer within a day.