Why would you do this?

I realized that I hadn't played Mordekaiser in forever because of his nerfing. I picked him up, checked out some guides, and played a couple of games as AP. I got FF and slaughtered over and over. Then I built tanky, and quickly learned that tank Morde's biggest enemy is himself.

I was getting crushed by this Trynd whose lifesteal and damage were basically refilling his whole health bar every fight, and I thought that this could be the answer to Morde's problems.

I tried laning as AD Morde, people were super pissed. My lane partner would rage quit. I did ok, but not stellar, and soloing was better until people started screaming at me to be AP once a teamfight started.

So I said screw it, I'll try to jungle. Surprisingly I did pretty good. The lack of cc kind of sucks, but you take heavy advantage of people out of position. As of this point I think the element of disbelief at seeing a red buffed Morde pop out of the bushes is pretty high. Plus you have really strong level 2-3 midlane ganks with the right people in the lane.

My view on jungling is that it's exactly like laning a solo; it's you vs. the other jungler with two exceptions. One is that you can kill the minions intended to feed him, and he can kill yours. The second is that there are no MIAs on you, but lots of wards.

Runes and Masteries: With 0/21/9 masteries: I've tried Armor and Dodge Seals successfully, attack speed, armor pen, crit chance, and spell pen Marks successfully. I've used CDR and mag resist Blues succesfully. I've used Gold Per Turn, Health, and Armor Pen quints, successfully. So you're not locked into a super specific build for jungling. Jungle speed is actually pretty fast

Sometimes called the sustained route, I rock Small Golems (which seem to take forever), the wraiths (which seem to magically instantly disappear), and the wolves. This uses 2-3 pots.

After wraiths, take a look at midlane. If the enemy is pushed up it's time to smash them down. You should be the same level, and if the midlaner has decent CC and decent damage you're going to set them up for success the rest of the game. Last game I had a GP mid, and the level 2 gank secured a kill that caused Brand to die everytime he returned to lane. Remember, since you have no CC, to watch the creep waves and move in between them to get behind your target like a giant metal ninja.

After wolves, look at midlane again, and see if you can snag an early kill as above.

Back, if you can afford it get a sword, but you probably can't, so grab a couple more pots and head to red. After red take a look at top. If their jungle started blue, he could be looking for a gank.

Morde is a really good gank stopper. If you can feel or catch a spot with a ward where a gank is going down, your reinforcement will typically win the fight 2v2 or 3v3. If you don't feel like you can counter-gank somewhere think about ganking top or mid. Check and see if anyone needs covers, if noone needs a cover. If their jungle is covering a lane, make sure to go and quickly snag a couple of his Neutrals (wraiths are easiest, but small golems sets you up for a gank.)

It's nice to give a cover here so you can get cash for the small madred's before heading to blue. Then head to blue. There is a chance that you can give the blue away to the support bottom lane or to midlane. If that's viable hand it over.

Remember be looking for ganks, you want to be killing people, or saving people from enemy ganks.

After you have a Wriggles you can just run around jungling whatever you please. You may want to pick up an Oracles after boots for safety's sake.

Make sure to type and tell your teammates you are coming. Ping on the priority target too. You're going to rely on their CC to get kills much like a Master Yi gank. This decides if you have a good game or a bad game.

On the side lanes you want to walk in between waves and end up behind your opponents. Remember you will do the most damage when you have an enemy champion singled out and away from his minions with Mace of Spades.

In the middle lane come down from the shoulder above the brush.

Once you're 6 use your ult to help get that extra man. As Jungle Morde you can easily get a tower if you wipe that lanes defenders. If noone is MIA you should almost always stay and do as much to the tower as possible.

Please don't come in here screaming that Morde should be AP or a Tank, but if you have any legitimate suggestions I'll toss them up. It'd be nice if I discovered something awesome that destroys ranked, or at least makes Morde a viable pick again. my ranked elo normally floats around 1350, so I don't expect this build to be the be all end all Morde guide. I just wanted to give some food for thought on a way that made Morde playable for me, and actually pretty fun.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way.

Full Wriggle's Lantern before Mobility Boots. I do this because I get tired of being drunk on pots all the time. Morde's abilities sap his health faster than a host of vampires on a recently dead hooker. This allows better jungling, and to get that free ward up either at their blue, top lane, or dragon, depending on who I'm jungling against.

Berserker's Grieves increases your attack speed, as this is an ad build. It is also the most significant gain to lifesteal at low level. I think.

Giant's Belt next, for a touch of survivablity, and to prepare that Atma's for damage. Yes this is an Atmog's build. I haven't tried completely taking the tank out of Morde. Let me know if you're finding it successful.

Atma's Impaler: damage and survive.

Then I pick up an emblem of valor.

After the Emblem, I typically get a survivability item at this point. So far I've settled on a few different items for who on the enemy team is the biggest danger.

AD's: Thormail, Guardian Angel, Warden's Mail. I'd advise against the Sunfire Aegis, as it's too expensive for what you get, imo. Don't buy a full Randuin's if you get a wardens until much later.

AP's: Wit's End, Hexdrinker, Guardian Angel. I like the hex for it's price, and the little bit of damage it gives.

Ap & Ad even and enemies doing good: Guardian Angel, Aegis of the Legion (if your tank or support hasn't picked it up already)

Ap & Ad even and enemies doing bad: Frozen Mallet, Last Whisper, Spirit Visage. These aren't serious survivability items, but are more shut the door items with some emphasis on keeping them from coming back.

Finish your Zeke's Harbinger, then lastly finish your Warmog's Armor. Why finish Warmogs last? It gives you some reason to farm after you're finished, and allows you to still get stronger while your enemies begin to stagnate. If you picked up a Hexdrinker, you should be saving for something to replace it with.

All the while you should be picking up at least 2 wards per fountain visit, or at least one pink ward for taking dragon or baron.

First, Why no Siphon? Well it just won't do enough damage AD, and will be more detrimental for you to caste it than the damage it will typically deal.

Second How can you play Morde without Ignite? Solos have a tendency to have ignite, so I really haven't noticed a big difference, and I often strike people who I've noticed have been ignited.

3rd Flash or Exhaust: Exhaust helps those low level ganks since you don't have CC, but until they nerf flash it's still my preference.

With just just two skills and an ult, Morde is a good tanky dps.

Like most tanky DPS, you probably don't want to initiate against 5. You need to focus on hitting one target, and getting out of the fire, in and out, hit and run, almost like a good Pantheon player until the enemies are low. Once the first one is low, it's time to ult and pounce. Knock that guy out, and get back out of the fire, and let it do some damage. USE YOUR ALT CLICK TO MAKE THAT GHOST BE A BEAST! Come back in when you've lost focus and finish the job. You can easily come out of any team fight alive, and with 3 kills and 2 assists if you use that 3 phase strategy.

3 phase strategy again:

Phase 1: Don't initiate. Hit and run. Hit your Q. Consider using your W to help a teammate getting focussed. Get out of focus range. Wash rinse repeat. Try not to get below half health, so you can be sure to be one of the healthiest champs when going for your ult.

Phase 2: Ult and kill an AD squishy. Ping your target. Ult him. Kill him. Then run Morde into nearby brush (unless there are very few left, and you health looks good). If you're near a jungle creep kill them to gain some hp. Use your ghost to deal some sweet damage. The more focus your ult gets, the less your teammates are getting.

Phase 3: Reenter, it's nice to reenter while your ghost is still up, but really you want to make sure that you'll win the fight you reenter. Clean everyone up. All cd's should be done, your health should be decent, and it is time for you to AD carry through those chumps.

I'll post your name and links (if appropriate) to all good advice generated in the comments.

Please don't downvote without commenting, and telling me how your try went. I've already had several no try, no comment, downvotes. If you don't believe it works but won't accumulate data for your speculation then, please keep it to yourself. If you find a legitimate problem, then please I'd like to know. Any and all comments would be appreciated to make this more effective.