Mordekaiser Build Guide: Farmekaiser by RablyPale

Introduction

Hello everyone, I'm RablyPale and I'm an average AP mid player. I have a couple hundred games played with Mordekaiser, through which I've learned different ways of building him and the optimal way of building him in different matchups. I'm writing this guide in the hopes that newer players, and even experienced players just starting to play Mordekaiser will have the knowledge of how to play him and how to build him.

Pros/Cons of the Metal Master

Pros

Good at pushing
Easy to farm with
Easy to play
Easy to roam with
Can go either top or mid lane

Cons

Low range
No escapes (if you get ganked without flash you're probably gonna die)
Weak early game (Skills use HP. Health regen/spell vamp quints help a lot)
Easily countered if picked early

Lane Matchups

As with all champions, Mordekaiser should be played differently against every champion. The following is a list of champions that are commonly seen mid lane and how difficult they are for Mordekaiser to lane against.

HARD MATCHUPS - You will probably lose these lanes or need a lot of ganks to win.
EASY MATCHUPS - Your opponent should pretty much be hugging their turret forever.
SKILL MATCHUPS - If the opponent is good at their champion they will destroy you. If they suck you'll destroy them. if you're about even, it becomes a farmfest.
MEDIUM MATCHUPS - These lanes will be in your favor at certain points but will be against you at certain points.

Hard Matchups

Cassiopeia will destroy you 99% of the time as long as she can land her . Her sustained damage from landing her poison followed by two s will melt you from level 2 onwards. You should farm at your turret and beg your jungler to let you rake wraiths when they're up because it's the only way you'll keep up in farm. If you move away from your turret, you'll probably die.

From levels 1-5 you can probably go even in lane, ut once he hits 6, stay the hell away from him. He can ulti to you, silence you, and unload at least 600 damage over a second and a half and not take any damage himself. When you notice him leaving lane, you should follow immedately or ping like a madman because otherwise he will snowball from other lanes whichis not fun (for you, at least. i'm sure he'd enjoy it).

Once he gets , you can't touch him. All of his spells outrange you and he does a massive amount of damage.

Before he hits 6 you can probably harrass him enoigh that he'll have to go back, but onc ehe does, you shouldn't go anywhere near him. will break your shield easily beacuase of the massive damage it does. Combined with the slow of as you run, you'll definately have to back. Hug your turret and upgrade boots ASAP to avoid his skillshots.

Her spells do massive damage and outrange you. if you try to run, she can slow you and speed herself up. She can also easily harrass you at turret with the range of her ball. If she starts to push, ask for a gank to at least relieve some of the pressure. never pusha gainst her though, because if you get ganked, you're a dead man.

It is literally impossible to get a kill in this lane unless the soraka is brain dead. Summoner heal + + at level 6 = around 1000HP and some bonus armor. She also has a silence on a eelatively low cooldown and a magic resist shred on . Oh, did I mention that she also has bonus magic resist from Consecration? If you get too close, she will kill you with ease. It's impossible to wintrades against her. just farm at turret and ask for ganks when she's pushing (all the time, really).

His turrets do lots of damage and the poke from his rockets will break your shield easily. He can also stun you and get a few free attacks on you with his grenade. Just try to farm at turret and if he stays pushed, call for a gank and teach him a lesson.

Swain will absolutely destroy you. Because you're mostly melee, he can easily slow you and land a snare and get a few seconds of damage form on you. He will outsustain you even after you get . You should just stay at turret and when you see him leave lane to gank another, follow him even if it means missing farm.

If she can land a taunt on you, her other spells will destroy your HP bar. Once she hits 6, you probably won't kill her unless you get a gank from someone with a stun or snare. She can kill you really easily before 6 and when she hits 6 it makes it even easier. Hug your turret and farm. When she roams, follow her immediately.

Medium matchups

For the most part this lane should be even. You can both kill each other at 6 but before that you can harrass and zone him. if he started off with bonus AD and went hybrid AD-magic penetration for early game, need to play more carefully, but I don't often see that mid lane.

Upgrade boots before buying Giant's Belt to make dodgning barrels easier. be careful of his level 2-3 burst, he can kill you easily with a barrel, bodyslam, ignite, and 1 or 2 auto attacks.

in the early levels, you can harrass him out of lane if you get close enough. Don't bother trying to kill him past 6 becasue he can jsut revive himself wiht his ulti. His bombs can break your shield easily and he'll be spammign them once he gets blue, so you'll start ahving a harder time in lane, When he bombs you, stand near your minions so the wave pushes twards your turret then ask for a gank.

You want to upgrade boots before getting Giant's belt to avoid his . movement speed quints are a pretty good choice against him. If he's good, he'll use and as it's flying towards you he'll use and you'll be stunned. Tyr to avoid having that happen by alwasy moving.

You can't kill him because he'll have massive magic resist. He'll start to do lots of damage to you around level 5, but as long as you have your shield up and a few health potions you should be able to farm with him evenly. Try to keep the lane at aroudn the halfway point, but stand back a little more when you know he has his ulti and flash up.

When he has his shield up, try to avoid beign stunned. Just walk away. if you know you can't, try to build your shield on a minon wave so you take less damage, and once the sutn wears off, counter attack him.

If Veigar lands a stun on you at level 6, prepare to die, especially if his jungler is near. You can probably try to pait a gank as soon as he hits 6 though, just make sure your jugnelr can get in before he kills you.

You can destroy her early game, but she can do the same to you. Don't be overly aggressive. At 6, you can both kill each other, but she can kill you more easily. if you hit 6 before her, try to push her out fo lane even if you need your ultit o do it, because it can snowball you a little bit.

Easy Matchups

You should be able to kill her or make her back several times before level 6. Push her to her turret because she has a hard time farming at turret. By the time she's level 6, she shouldn't be able to combo you from full. If you're unsuccessful at stopping ehr from hitting 6 at the same time as you, you might want to rush Giant's Belt.

The damage from is going to annoy you befoere you get to around level 5, when actually gives yo a decent shield. But once you hit level 6 or 7, Malzahar is a piece of cake. I reccomend gabbing a as your second or third item if he manages to kill you though.

Play as aggressive as you can at level 1 and 2. you should eb able to bring him down to around 100 health which will make him fear you for a long enough time that you can snowball. back early (push to his turret by level 2 then back) and buy 2 wards and place them so you can make sure you won't get ganked.

She can't really do anything to you at any point in the game. You're both melee which means that if she wants to try to kill you, she has to be near you,w hich emans you can use . She's also pretty squishy for the most part, which means easy kills at 6.

Upgrade boots early because all of her skills are skillshots. If you can avoid them while still getting last hits and hitting her with , she'll cry like a little baby.

Skill Matchups

A well played Anivia will make you cry. into will deal huge damage. if she can make you stand in her ultimate with a stun and a wall, you'll probably have to flash. You can't kill her alone if she builds properly either. If she's bad though, you'll have fun killing her constantly.

This will probably be a farm lane, but if he's good, he'll knwo that he can hit you with 3 or 4 times when you go for a last hit, which can get pretty annoying. upgrade boots early and try to harrass him with Sipon of Destruction.

You shouldn't get a kill in this lane without a gank, and she shouldn't either. You can push a bit harder than her once you have your spells levelled a bit, so you should roam when you can do that. She'll probably follow you, so try to only roam when she's backed.

You're playing the same champion, so it really is up to who's better or who gets more ganks.

Runes

The runes you choose to take on Mordekaiser, as with any other champion, are based on your own playstyle and on what you're laning against.

Marks

These are the marks you should take 90% of the time. They're what most AP carries use. They're generally the best in slot, but I have one other preference against some lanes.

I will use magic resist glyphs sometimes, but very rarely. I will usually only use them if the enemy championhas extremely high harrass (for example, , or , two of the best counters to in lane).

Seals

Greater Mark of Vitality
I usually take these when I'm playing against another AP champion. The extra health means they will have a harder time bursting you down. It will also give you a bit more health to spam your spells at them

I take these when I lane against an AD champion. The 13 armor reduces the damage they deal to you substantially. It's a terrible idea to go into any lane without runes that prevent some damage from that lane (armor vs AD. magic resist vs AP)

Glyphs

I take these only when I'm against an AD champion. Going into lane against an AP champion with no bonus magic resist is a terrible idea.

I take these every time I know I'm laning against an AP champion. They are amazing. They reduce the early game harrass ('s weakest point in the game) you take by quite a bit and improve your early game substantially. It is also very unwise to go into lane against an AP champion with no bonus magic resist.

Quintessences

I will usually take these against an AP champion I know I have difficulty handling, such as or .

I will take these against burst damage mages like and . The magic resist from these plus the defenseive stats from other runese makes their early game harrass have very little effect on you.

I take these only when I know I will have no trouble handling my lane opponent. Against weak early game champions like .

Greater Quintessence of Vigor
I used to take these before spell vamp quints came out and I knew I would spam a lot. They're still viable, but I prefer the extra spell vamp, especially later in the game.

Note: The health regen from these will help your early game more than the spell vamp from the , but the spell vamp quints will overshadow these after your hits level 3 or 4.

Mordekaiser is a relatively slow champion and he has no crowd control until he gets . These quintessences are great if you know you're going to be running from your lane to another for ganks a lot. They can also help you land that last , or get in range for or to finish them off.

I take these when I know I won't be pressued very much in lane and I will be harrassing my opponent. The spell vamp is really nice and scales very well into mid and late game.

Summoner Spells

This spell can be the difference between getting a kill or not. It can also be the difference between living or dying. It's extremely versatile and useful in many different situations.

When you combine this spell and , you have a massive damage over time effect. Ignite reduces the healing they do, so health potions and lifesteal/spell vamp or that annoying have a lesser chance of saving their life. It's a great spell choice on Mordekaiser, and it's really useful to have at least one on your team. Most AP carries take this spell.

If the enemy team has a lot of crowd control, this spell is awesome. I'll usually take it if they have something like mid and jungle becasue it can save your life from ganks like that. Overall an amazing spell, but only useful every now and then.

If you take , I recommend only taking it if you have as well. This combination gives you a lot of kill potential. You bait them in and then hit them with everythign you have. The downside of this is you have no escape without , so you have to play really carefully.

I would only take this on Mordekaiser if I were top lane and I was in a premade team and we had a composition in which I would split push. I wouldn't take it in solo queue becasue in order to use it best, you need to ahev really good team communication.

Masteries

Speccing 21 into offense

Masteries

The improved ignite makes it useful even when on cooldown. Everything else in the offense mastery tree is jsut to add more damage output.

For the defense mastery tree, you can take improved if you choose to take it as a summoner spell. Depending on what you're laning agaisnt (AD or AP), you want to put 3 points into either Resistance (vs AP) or Hardiness (vs AD).

Masteries

The explanation for the offensive tree is the same. Speccing into Utility allows you to move faster and have a longer duration with red and blue buffs (usually you won't take these, but if you kill someone that has one they're still somewhat useful). The main reason, however, is the increased movement speed.

Speccing 21 into defense

Masteries

The only time I would spec into defense is against a really hard lane to win, such as against or . It can provide you with a bit more survivability and might give you a little more of a chance to win lane.

Speccing 21 into utility

Masteries

The reason I don't like speccing into utility is that you either have to give up defensive stats or magic penetration. Both are extremely useful throughout the entire game. The experience bonus in utility does nothign once you're level 18, causing you to waste 4 points. The only things that benefit you enough to take utiltiy are the spell vamp and reduced summoner spell cooldowns (you get more cooldown reduction off defense and only 2% less off offense).

Ability Explanation

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

This is your passive ability. It provides you with survivability and makes you benefit with more than just damage when you use spells. Every time you use a spell, 35% of the damage you deal is added to your current shield health. Every second, your current shield is reduced by 3% of it's current maximum. It cannot go below 0.

On next hit, Mordekaiser swings his mace with such force that it echoes out, striking up to 3 additional nearby targets, dealing magic damage. If the target is alone, the ability deals 65% more damage.
Cost: 25/3/2/39/46/53 health
Cooldown: 8/7/6/5/4 seconds
Additional target radius: 600
On multiple targets: 80/110/140/170/200 +1.0 per attack damage +0.4 per ability power magic damage to each target
On single target: 80/110/140/170/200 +1.65 per attack damage +0.66 per ability power magic damage

This is your secondary damage skill. It is very useful for both farming and harrassing. If you want to make the most out of it, use an auto attack then immediately afterwards press Q because this skill resets your auto attack timer (similar to 's ). When damaging a single target, it's damage is increased by 65%.

Mordekaiser unleashes a protective cloud of metal shards to surround an ally or himself, increasing their armor and magic resistance and dealing magic damage per second to enemies in the cloud for 6 seconds.
Cost: 26/32/38/44/50 health
Cooldown: 20/18/16/14/12 seconds
Armor & Magic resist bonus: 10/15/20/25/30
Damage: 24/38/52/66/80 +0.2 per ability power magic damage per second
Cast range: 750
Damage radius: 250

This skill can save a person's life. There have been several times in a game where I've been ganked and gotten away with next to no health because of the bonus magic resist and armor from this skill. There have even been a few times where I have gotten double kills and gotten away with 40 health with this skill. Cast it on your tanks when they initiate fights or cast it on the person that is tanking baron or Dragon.
Protip: In lane, cast it on your melee minions when one of your opponents minions is about to die to last hit it if you have to. To cast it on yourself, it is much easier to hold alt and press w. This works with any self targeted skill, and can be changed to something more convenient in your key bindings.

Mordekaiser damages all enemies in a cone in front of him, dealing magic damage.
Cost:24/36/48/60/72 health
Cooldown: 6/6/6/6/6 seconds
Cast range: 700
Damage: 70/115/160/205/250 +0.6 per ability power magic damage to each target

This is your bread and butter skill. It's pretty spammable with only a 6 second cooldown. You should use it mostly to harrass early game, but you can use it to farm a bit (the health cost will begin to be noticeable if you spam it too much). Once you get your , you can spam this skill as much as you want. When you're level 8, + will pretty much clear an entire wave (you may have to auto attack 2 minions). It has decent base damage and a decent AP ratio.

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.
Cost: No cost
Cooldown: 120/105/90 seconds
Initial damage: 12/14.5/17% +0.02% per ability power magic damage
Damage over time: 1.2/1.45/1.7+0.02% per abiltiy power magic damage per second

This is your ultimate. It deals a percentage of the opponent's health based on how much AP you have. By the time you reach the end of the game, it usually does around 50% of the opponent's health on it's own, quite a substantial amount. It gives you a clone of somebody on the enemy team if they die while they are ulted, and increases both your stats and the stats of the clone. It has a low cooldown, so it should be up for every teamfight late game. Clones are great for pushing a lane or taking Dragon or Baron quickly.

Skill Sequence

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

You should always max your skills in a similar order to this as Mordekaiser. Your is your most useful skill (other than your ultimate), and deals a large amount of damage on a low cooldown.

You get a point in at level 2, 3, or 4. It depends on the enemy team/if you're getting denied. If you can't last hit, get it at level 2 and put it on your melee minions when one of your opponent's melee minions is about to die. I recommend getting it at level 3 against a strong jungler like or . It can be maxed either second or last. If your tanks need more defense in teamfights, it should be maxed second, but otherwise, is more important.

should be maxed either before or after depending on your tanks (read above if you skipped that for some reason).

As with most ultimates, should have priority over everything else and should be maxed first.

Items

Core

, , or
Your boots depend on the opponent's team. If they have a bunch fo crowd control, go for Treads. Fed AD top lane, jungle, or carry, go Tabi. Otherwise, go Sorcs.

Great for sustain in lane. Lets you spam spells more without the consequence of losing HP.

or
Without some kind of HP bonus, you're surprisingly squishy. Go for if you knwo you'll be building . is actually a really good item becasue of the extra gold it gives. It can be built into later. i'd build it if I notice they have lots of AD or one fed AD champion.

This is my favorite item as an AP Carry. in my opinion it is one of the best items in the game and the most ridiculosuly powerful item in the game. having 2 secodns where you can't be targetted is really awesome, especially whne you have a ghost that can do a huge amount of damage in that time. there have been games (not jsut as mordekaiser) where I've chosen Rabadon's Detahcap over this item and have caused my team to lose a teamfight because of that.

This item is one of the best items for any AP Carry. the extra 30% AP is really powerful. You should have this eventually.

The damage this thing does late game when you have 600 AP is ridiculous. It's really powerful, and the Kage's Lucky Pick is really good because of the passive gold bonus. I suggest getting the Kage's Pick on your first back so the gold/10 kicks in early.

40% magic penetration is really nice. Also 70 AP is good. I'd choose between this and Abyssal Scepter.

This takes priority over Void Staff if you're against a double AP comp or you're running one. Or you just need magic resist.

You don't have any built in crowd control so I'd only recommend this if your entire team has a lack of crowd control.

This is amazing late game if you chose to keep your or upgrade it. you get revived with 750 HP and can continue to heal yourself with your revolver.

This is awesome if you're getting focused a lot with crowd control or they ahve some CC and you need magic resist.

I prefer this over Hextech Gunblade becasue it's cheaper and most members of my team will benefit from it (Even most AD carries). If you're running double AP, this should be rushed after getting a Kage's Lucky Pick and a bit of health. As long as you have it by the first major teamfight, it's fine.

Situational

If you're playign on a smurf account or you're just stomping everyone in the game, this item will make you stomp even more.

If you really want to and you're getting lots of kills or assists without dying, go ahead. I'm not a fan of it though, because even with full stacks, other items have much better effects.

Shurelia's Reverie
The active ability is really nice if you don't want to build . it also gives health and cooldown reduction which are really nice. Just becasue it gives mana regen/5 is no reason to not get it.

This item is great when the enemy's AD champions are getting fed. if you chose to build early game, then you should upgrade it to this. is also viabvle, but you should be able to afford this.

I tried this out again recently and it's really not that great. The only time it really does anything is in a teamfight and even then it's not like you're hitting all 5 people at once wiht it. Even combined with the spellvamp from your revolver it's not very good. However, if you absolutely need armor and you built a earlier, go for it.

This is another item you can get if you're stomping. the active ability is pretty nice, but it costs too much for what it does in my opinion. only one of your spells benefits off the AD bonus and you don't auto attack enough to benefit form the lifesteal.

Another altetnative to gaining some magic resist. I prefer because it costs nearly half as much, but this item's moe useful against champions like or . Basically champions that have a way of putting you inside their team.

The Game Changer

If you reach late game, your ultimate can actually turn the game around. No matter how far behind your team is, if you get a good ultimate (AD carries are the best, but pretty much anything other than a support does decent), you can win. If you get a clone and engage in the next 30 seconds, it is a 6v4 fight. This advantage is ridiculous, especially late game. You have a champion with extremely buffed up stats and yourself with buffed up stats.

Also, remember that if you have a ghost and you use the passive of Zhonya's Hourglass, you can still control the ghost.

Unfortunately, your ultimate can be countered by quite a number of things. Most of them don't counter it entirely, and some of them are based on luck, but it is counterable.

Item counters

If you use your ultimate on somebody and they die and their activates, your ultimate will not be on them when they respawn. Try not to ult them until after they have respawned.

If you're unlucky, the opponent might have a , and it might come up right as you ult them.

This doesn't make your ultimate entirely useless as it will still do it's initial damage, but it does prevent the ghost. Using is probably the way most people will try to counter you. It is the best item to counter as it is guarenteed that he will not get the ghost unless the initial damage kills you. Also, it removes and other crowd control if necessary.

If a person has one of these in their inventory and you ult them to try to kill them, they can use it to gain 250 health immediately. Never underestimate the power of a mid-game . It's enough that someone can kill you instead of you killing them.

Yes, this works. It's happened so many times. The extra 10 health regen per second can actually save somebody's life.

If a person has , they can prevent 2 of the 8 seconds of your ultimate with it's active effect. Most AP carries tend to get it at some point, so watch out in team fights.

Major Champion Counters

If timed correctly, her can prevent your ultimate. Usually this doesn't happen, but there's some times that she gets really lucky and it's really annoying. You can try to bait it out of her, though.

If you ult him and he dies, you have to wait 7 seconds after his death for his passive to wear off. He is not an ideal target to ult unless he's caught out of position.

Just like with , his can block your ultimate with the right timing. Again, it's annoying when that happens. Try to bait it out of him before ulting.

Her can prevent 3 seconds of the damage from anyone on her team.

undying rage undying rage undying rage undying rage undying rage.
Try not to ult him until he's near the end of his ult. Also, him so his heals him for less.

Just like with , you have to wait for 's passive to explode before you get your clone.

Her passive, , is really annoying in lane and in teamfights. If you ult her and it is up, you have to kill the egg to get the clone.

Protip: Even if her passive is down when you kill her (well it always will be), if you get the ghost and it dies, will be used on it. This makes an ghost amazing at tanking turrets or baron for your team.

If she uses on anyone other than you (whcih she should), your ult does no damage to her/. If she somehow dies while it's on her, you will still get the ghost though.

is really annoying. It's also a reason to take . If you + [Children of the Grave]] someone, they should still die even if uses [{Wish]], but there's still the possibility of the heal saving them. Also, if she is close enough to them, she can use .

makes your ultimate do much less damage, so it's very likely he will survive.

can save his life if you aren't careful.

Minor Champion Counters

Generally, champions with a shield or heal are really annoying (I'm only listing the ones that can save allies becasue otherwise the list would be much longer).

-
-
-
- (heals him or gives him/ally bonus MR + Armor)
- ,
-
-
- + ,

The Wonderful and Majestic Wraith Camp

The wraith camp is simply amazing. By the time you have Hextech Revolver, you should be killing both your wraiths and invading to take your opponent's wraith's every time they are available.
Taking both camps every time they respawn (every 50 seconds) gives you a very large gold advantage over your opponent. By level 7, if you use Siphon of Destruction, Mace of Spades, and Creeping Death, you only need to auto attack once or twice to kill them all. This not only gives you more gold, but deprives their jungler of gold. Also, only take wraiths from your side of the map if your jungler isn't close to them.

Just make sure that you know where your opponent's jungler is when you try to take their wraiths. Otherwise you might get caught and die.

Warding

Warding is extremely important in league of Legends, and the earlier you learn to do it, the better. For this section i will only include wards I usually put down when I'm playing mid lane.

The orange circles show the approximate location where wards should be placed. the ones near wraiths should be able to give you vision near the wraith camp and the others should be inside the bush at the very tip (Load a custom game and look for that spot on your map; my apologies for being unable to provide a better description).
Protip: you can ward over the wall into that bush. It might take some time to do properly, but it's doable.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my Mordekaiser guide. I hope you've learned something about how to play Mordekaiser against certain champions and how to build him properly. Please leave feedback in the comments section so I can continue to work on the guide and make it better for everyone.

Thanks for your feedback.

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Mordekaiser Build Guide by RablyPale

This build has been archived and is for historical display only.

Not Updated For Current Season

Farmekaiser

Thank You!