HI!

Welcome to my guide! This is my best effort to teach people about how to play the one and only badass in league. I want people to introduce people to the pleasure of sipping elo while listening to heavy metal. Thank you very much for checking this guide out. Please leave a rating or a comment because I put a lot of effort into it. :)

P.S. This guide focuses mainly on solo laning, but most of what I say applies to bot lane as well. I play mostly mid unless i get filled top so that's where a lot of my experience comes from.

Why would I ever play this trash?

Why you should

Awesome lane bully
Insane burst damage
ADC and dragon ghosts are OP
W and passive shield are completely broken
Coolest character in the game


Why you should not play morde

No CC at all
Kited extremely easily
Falls off late game
Get camped and int
Model looks like it was made by a down syndrome gorilla

Flash
Flash is essential. If you don't take flash, you lose out on kill potential and you will probably int their jungler when he ganks you 40 times.

Ignite
Awesome spell for mid. I pretty much always take it mid to secure kills.

Teleport
You should always take this top if you want to win. You lose a lot of pressure because it's significantly more difficult to get drag ghosts and get first tower bot with no tp.

Ghost
If you are mid and want to shove the lane over and over you can take ghost to go roam and get your team ahead.

Summon Aery
This is definitely morde's best rune imo. Aery makes your poke even better and gives a nice shield. It's also worth mentioning that aery procs multiple times on your ultimate. Sometimes if you continue to walk towards your opponent aery will get extra procs and secure the kill.

Phase Rush
Phase Rush is pretty good if you want to try to close gaps with your opponent. Some top tier mordes prefer it to aery because of the extra mobility.

Glacial Augment
Glacial is decent for certain matchups. VS champions with dashes and mobility like riven, yasuo, and singed, augment allows you to keep up with them and screw them over. Many mordes hate the singed matchup, but i personally like it because with glacial and ignite, you can all in him level 3 and probably kill him.

Electrocute
Electrocute is a fun rune to take if you aren't playing too seriously. It grants BONKERS damage. ...

Guardian
This is a good rune for bot because it helps survive poke and gives you both movement speed and a shield.

Harvesters of Sorrow
Max your W FIRST because of the burst healing. Maxing W makes you very effective in both 1v1s and teamfights. Many melee champions won't even be able to contest you if you max W.

Mace of Spades
Max your Q damage so you can deal BONKERS damage.

Siphon of Destruction
Max your e last UNLESS you are in a matchup where you can't get up close to your opponent and you are getting poked out. Sometimes maxing e is the best choice.

Children of the Grave
Max your R every chance you get because it is arguably morde's best ability. Your r destroys champions over time and perma slows enemies if you have rylai's. R allows you to take siege towers with ghost drakes and carry late game fights with a fed enemy adc ghost.

What to build and why:
The main stats morde needs are AP and HP. This is why liandry's, rylai's, and morellonomicon, are basically essential. AP actually makes morde more durable because it builds his shield faster and grants a ton of burst healing. However, HP is also needed because shield is based on max hp and if you build no HP you are likely to get bursted and die. Although you should rush into one of the above mentioned items, early you should almost always buy resistances like seeker's armguard and negatron cloak because morde has abhorrent armor and MR. He's a walking suit of armor and has lower base armor than janna... wtf riot

CORE BUILD

Liandry's Torment
Gives you a really nice burn on your ultimate. This should be built every game.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Gives you an invaluable slow and makes you more useful in fights. This should also be built every game.

Morellonomicon
Gives you some magic pen and inflicts grievous wounds on enemies. This should be built every game as well.


These items round out the core of morde's build. The rest of your items are pretty situational. I'll list some and their strengths.

Nashor's Tooth
Very good vs melee teams. The attack speed, cdr, and ap allow you to dish out so much damage if all your enemies are right in your face and not killing you from afar.

Void Staff
Build if enemies stack MR.

Rabadon's Deathcap
Damage on damage on damage.

Zhonya's Hourglass
If you are getting bursted and can't survive in a teamfight buy this.

TANK ITEMS
Please DO NOT build full tank morde. It's terrible because you have no CC to frontline with. However, sometimes it's good to build a tank item if you are very behind or have no front line and are getting destroyed in team fights.

AD ITEMS
Please DO NOT build full AD morde. You have to be very careful when building AD because some of your abilities scale only with AP and it is not very consistent damage. Building all AD also subtracts from your burst heal. However, sometimes building some ad doesn't hurt. Examples of OK AD Items are gunblade and triforce.

The Important Stuff

Always look for opportunities to take dragon and siege. If your botlane or jungle is doing decent during laning phase, walk or tp down to drag and use ghost to get first blood tower either bot or mid. This gives your team a massive lead and is probably the most key morde skill to master. Here are some examples of how key dragon ghost is:
https://youtu.be/adtmSF46s0k


FOCUS THE ENEMY CARRY. In fights the best course of action is often to get on top of the enemy that is carrying and burst them down. This is very effective when you have flash up, but if you don't have flash it is sometimes okay to walk in and just damage who you can, but avoid killing tanks.


Other Tips

In lane, if you poke your enemy until they are weak enough, you can Q your minions twice and flash on the enemy. Make sure you have all your abilities ready for maximum burst. If they don't die instantly your R and ignite if you have it should kill them.

When walking back to lane, put your W on a minion in front of you. This gives you extra movement speed and allows you to get back to lane faster.

If you're maxing w, you can go heal after you push in a wave. Walk to your raptors if mid or krugs if top and w them. You'll get a ton of hp and be able to stay in lane.

Push your lane in when you can. It denies your enemy farm if the tower takes it. This is especially good against mid laners who can't last hit effectively. This can accrue you a large farm lead and put the other laner in the dirt. HOWEVER, BE CAREFUL because this makes you a prime target for the enemy jungler. Make sure you buy control wards and practice map awareness to counter this.

Don't let up on the poke. Your e is on a fairly low cooldown and it costs no mana. This is amazing for you because you can infinitely poke your opponent. E them as much as possible without putting yourself in danger.

Morde is easy to carry. Usually this is the best way to win games. Get your team ahead early and let them take it from there while you dish out damage and heals in team fights.