UPDATE: 2/28/11 - TEAM 2 HAS BEEN ADDED AND CAN BE FOUND NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THIS GUIDE. IT IS A BUILD BASED AROUND MORDEKASIER DPS.

Hello and welcome to my Mordekaiser build. Here I will be explaining what makes this guide work well and how to change things around properly if the situation requires you to do so.

Please let me begin by mentioning this is first and foremost an ability power/tank hybrid build based around having the survival required to deal some serious damage. If you are not into AP Mordekasier, or anything hybrid please leave now as there is going to be nothing here for you in this guide.

On the other hand, if you have an open mind, some experience with Mordekaiser and then willingness to explore my build before making any comments, do feel welcome to read.

INTRODUCTION

Firstly, Mordekaiser is a fantastic and fearsome champion choice. He is a superb farmer and one of the best pushers in the game, and on top of both these facts, he is also a great tank who can deal heavy damage.

Mordekaiser's gameplay varies on the kind of team you have with you, and the kind your against. While he is typically very strong early game against mostly melee champions, he does fall prey to the ranged ones. Early on he can not raise a strong shield or even fill the shield up completely, and so because of this he will need to be played carefully around ranged champions.

Around level 10 Mordekaiser is quite strong, having maxed out his Siphon of Destruction ability and placed several points in his Creeping Death, as well as having his Ultimate available. At this time, you can and will dominate lanes very well because you can fully charge your shield effortlessly and deal some decent damage. As he continues to gain levels his effectiveness in the game grows substantially.

There have been so many games where the opposing team was destroying us and our team was on the verge of surrender, but I assured them once I collect just a few more items that this game would change, and it did. A game I recently participated in saw us being crushed in a 3/19 slaughter with 4 of our towers destroyed and just a lowly 1 tower loss for theirs. As I gained my levels and followed my rule of always be killing something, I managed to gain the items that were necessary to completely destroy the enemy team.

I issued some commands to my fellow team mates and set off to find a team fight, and I achieved that by lane blanking, witch is where your team is near you but not on the map and your falsely pushing a lane for attention. When the enemy team came at us headstrong, they found a super Morderekaiser willing to take barely any damage and dish out supreme hurt with his team. At that point we began to win every single team fight no matter what, including one literally on top of their tower, the game was ours solely because of Mordekaiser.

EXPLANATION

The key to this guide is that you must understand how to play Mordekasier well to begin with and that you will not have a problem changing your base items around to meet any requirements of the game. If you grow attached to just my basic items, this build may not always prove useful for you.

By nature, your a tank but this does not mean you need to stride into every fight with no support and attempt to show off how much damage you can take, because playing like an idiot will get you killed, and if your dead the enemy team is stronger and your weaker.

Mordekaiser is to be played opportunistically. This means you stick to a lane, scout the map and look for someone you might be able to destroy with the assistance of your team. Play safe, have map awareness and communicate with your team.

If I am at top lane, I scout mid and bottom as well. If I see someone on the opposing team doing something dumb often, I will go into a bush, port home and rush my way down to a gank spot usually behind the enemy in question. I don't just stand there either, I explain the game plan to the others in that lane and then bang!, just like a well sprung trap some random from top lane appeared out of no where and got himself or his team a kill or two in a lane where he was not expected.

The best thing about Mordekaiser is that no one expects this, they are used to you being a tank/farmer and just basically only arriving to tank in a team fight, no one thinks "Oh my God, there might be an assassin Mordeksaier in that bush!", use this to your advantage.

PROS AND CONS

Pros:

High health champion
Naturally fast
Great ability for damage mitigation from his passive
Creeping Death can be used on anything with a green name
Great damage
One of the best pushers in the League
Fantastic farmer
Outstanding tank
Children of the Grave both hurts and heals, and the ghost can be used to slaughter enemies or destroy towers with ease
Brutal team fighter
Great tower diver

Cons:

Absolutely no crowed control
Has no escape mechanism
Can be annihilated with a multitude of stuns and focus attacks
Dependent on his passive
Extremely easy to harass with ranged attacks

Please take into consideration all of these facts, as they determine your gameplay.

SKILLS AND DESCRIPTION

IRON MAN


Champion Passive. Mordekaiser is built around this passive ability, its what makes him completely unique to the other champions in the league. This allows him to build a constant shield that will protect him from any damage until it is gone, and every single ability he has builds this shield, making it quite hard to reach his life bar consistently.

The more damage you do, the more shielding Mordekasier builds, until it is full. Its like having two life bars, If you have 3000 life and the shield offers a further 500, that's 3500 life with a full shield, with the possibility that attacks will never even touch your life if you can keep it up constantly! You can technically view this as a temporary heal.

MACE OF SPADES


A great ability, but one we will be focusing on later down the track as it is not as important compared to the others. This ability will light up Mordekasier's weapon and remain active for 10 seconds or one attack, the next auto attack Mordekaiser does causes up to three shards of metal to fly towards the closest targets from the struck enemy for additional splash damage. In addition, if there is only one target and nothing else around it, this ability will deal double damage to the target.

A good thing to note is that this can be used just like Miss Fortunes Double Up ability, where the shards of metal will fly to the enemy champion directly behind the struck target. Note this is a great ranged harassment to other enemy melee champions close by, but it does not have as big of a range as Double Up.

CREEPING DEATH


A superb defensive ability that acts as a Sunfire Cape for the full duration, making minion farming ridiculously easy and boosting your shield extremely fast. The defensive properties are both armor and magic resistance increase for 6 seconds, and this ability can be placed on any one of your allies and minions alike.

This should always be in use when fighting no matter what. A tip for use in harassment is to place it on melee minions heading towards the other team, that way they will take damage trying to farm them while boosting your shield at the same time. This is especially effective when your tank minion spawns. I have actually killed someone doing this once.

CHILDREN OF THE GRAVE


Mordekaiser's fantastic ultimate, witch has multiple purposes and uses. I find it to be one of the most helpful and game changing ultimate's for a pushing class or a tank in the whole game.

You can use this to survive and keep your lane phase strong early on by casting it on an enemy and letting it heal you for the duration and weaken them in return. This stops you from needing to go back and heal, witch effects your exp/gold per minuet.

You can use this to attack, witch is one of its more primary uses. This deals extreme damage when paired with ability power items and the use of your Ignite Summoner Spell. You get the best results when you combine Children of the Grave with Ignite and your damage output instead of just Ignite.

Tip: When looking for healing during a team fight, placing Mordekasiers Ultimate on the opposing tank will yield the greatest life regeneration, as Children of the Grave deals damage in a percentage of the targets maximum health basis.

Ghost Control:

To control your ghost, simply hold down the ALT key and then right click wherever you want your ghost to go or whatever you want it to attack. It is considered a minion by the game and so will be targeted as such when paired with a minion wave against a tower.

Please note that it is still considered an ability when active and that any attacks made on players near a tower by the ghost will have it automatically targeted by the tower if you are too far away, otherwise the tower will target Mordekasier instead of the ghost.

The reanimated ghost of the victim is completely modified to hit harder and survive more damage then the actual player who died. It is only able to auto attack but will slow targets if you have a Frozen Mallet.

The best tank to kill for a ghost is Malphite, who's ghost is practically immortal at high levels.

Personally, ranged champions are the best targets to kill for a ghost, as they can deal high damage from a long distance and overall harass better. All ghosts last for 30 seconds or until killed. Ask a Zilian to speed your melee ghosts up for devastating chase results.

BUILD FACTS AND TIPS

You will be weak until at least level six, so be sure to play a careful Mordekasier until you get your ultimate. Your damage however, will be strong early game, and Siphon of Destruction has a quicker cooldown then most spells in the game allowing you to use it frequently right off the bat.

As you reach level 10-12, you should have Sorcerer Boots, Warmogs Armor and be close to completing Force of Nature. At this point your survivability is huge and all of Mordekaiser's spells recharge his shield very quickly and easily, along with dealing high damage.

By level 16 you should have completed the Abyssal Scepter, or be very close to completing it. When you get this item, your damage increases substantially. You will be a much higher threat to the enemy now, and anyone in your team that is also an Ability Power class will benefit from this item too, increasing damage output around the board.

At maximum level you are fierce. You stand with around 3200 life, a ton of damage and the ability to slow anyone you choose at will once a minuet thanks to your gun blade (or Bilgewater Cutlass if you haven't got one yet)

Almost all games I enter and play my Mordekasier properly end in a 25 minuet surrender. I almost never get to fully complete my build, but the rare occasions where I am against a decent team that wont surrender I become a thing to behold, single handedly being able to annihilate 2 and 3 enemies at a time by my self.

In a good game, I will finish up with 9+ kills with maybe a death or two at the highest and multiple assists. In a great game I have been 20+ kills with very few deaths and assists.

You must always remember your a tank first, so do expect to have Kassadin or Pantheon level kills every game. Don't be greedy and chase kills into a trap but don't let anything get away where you can help it. By being map aware and gank-smart you will destroy all games.

Always get Elder Lizzard Buff. While Ancient Gollem buff is helpful, it is not necessary. The "Red Buff" will allow you to forever slow anything you hit with all attacks... yes all attacks!

You will be on a murder spree with Red Buff, but be careful as always, because it's never good having this stolen from your dead body and used against your own team mates.

PREFERRED LANING PARTNERS

As Mordekasier you can lane well against pretty much all classes when doing so correctly. Taking mid lane can be a good thing, but I usually prefer not to because of how many more kills I get in double lanes.

I solo queue a lot, witch isn't always a good thing because of the level of team mates you might get (And I'm talking about the **** kind) In a game where feeding is constant or team mates are slow or even uninterested, you will have a hard time carrying the game.

However, there are some good tips I can give you for making the laneing phase a pleasant one. Personally I prefer a ranged class with me in the lane, because I am melee with a small amount of ranged and so I am prone to harassment by other ranged classes. Having a ranged class with you decreases that harassment substantially and perhaps even allows your ranged team mate to harass any melee they have.

If I have one ranged with me, and we have a double melee in a lane, its easymode. My lane partner keeps them away from all mobs and we starve them out while allowing us to set up some nice rush kills at levels 4-6. Most times you'll be 9 and they will be 6.

When it comes to what ranged class I prefer as a partner I always hope for something with control, Ashe for her stun for example or a Ryze for his cage, etc. This makes killing a breeze.

In a game where I am forced into double melee laning, I prefer classes like Sion and Rammus or even Gangplank. This makes us still have the ability to control and get kills, but we are likely still prone to some ranged harassment.

In a game where I am unfortunately placed in a double melee lane against two ranged, you are going to find it stupid annoying, so don't try to do a single thing because they will out damage you. Stick to bushes or your tower and just kill minions and then go kill the jungle mobs until the next wave arrives. Remember when killing jungle mobs not to try for any buffs early, you will die. Also this means just killing the wolves or the gollem's/wraiths, but don't ignore your lane or tower.

Speak with your lane mate when setting up a rush kill, then be ready to go from acting normal to popping Ghost/Ignite on some unfortunate opponent. Most times you'll get a kill, other times you wont, but you will send them back home to heal and lose gold/exp. If they want to be dumb and stay in lane, you will just need to watch carefully for any mistakes or opportunities that arise for you to just punish them for their stupidity.

THE DRAGON AND THE BARRON

Personally whenever I am in the lane close to Dragon, I wait until we are dominating the lane before taking my lane mate and possibly mid lane to grab it. If you have a jungler in your team, then you and your lane mate should set the kill up with him. The Dragon is worth two champion kills in gold and exp, making it a valuable resource for your whole team, and it spawns every 7 minuets or so.

Naturally, be careful for wards or opposing team mates. If you see your lane suddenly have no enemies farming minions, then this almost always means their coming to you right now.

When Barron spawns (I think it is on the 20th Minuet of the game) it is important to place a ward at him. If a team mate is too dumb to do it, take the ward there your self. Whenever you destroy the enemy team, it should be used as a change to perhaps take one tower down and then get the Barron buff. He is equal to 4 champion kills in gold and exp and the buff he gives is game changing.

Now go back and continue pushing lanes and destroying team fights. usually at this point surrender is the only thing on the opposing teams mind.

ALTERNATIVE ITEMS

As mentioned earlier in the guide, you need to know when to buy some of the other items more useful to a game with different situations, whether it be a lot of AP or AD against you or games where you are against gank/teleport teams.

Here I will show you what I find the most useful against the problems at hand.

Against Several Ability Power Classes (3+)

Begin by fully completing your Force of Nature and then working towards a Banshees Veil as a third item if you still find the damage too much. If your suffering against crowed control as well, make a Quicksilver Sash instead of a Banshees Veil. Continue building Warmogs Armor as a fourth item when your done.

Against Several Attack Damage Classes (3+)

Fully complete your Warmogs Armor as a first item followed by your boots, be sure to get a Thornmail as a third item and continue building your Abyssal Scepter when your done. Again be sure to pick up a Quicksilver Sash if your being seriously crowed controlled.

Against Several Life Stealing classes or Life Stealers Doing Well

Build Executioner's Calling as a third item, then continue building as normal when your done. This item will literally destroy classes like Warwick, Tryndamere and Master Yi, while also bringing a ton of hurt to Soraka and Karma classes.

Against Gank Teams

Follow the build as normal but change your boots to Mercury Treads, once you have a Force of Nature, build a Randiun's Omen for the stats and the AOE slow. Afterwards, continue to your Abyssal Scepter. Whenever you can, buy 3-5 wards and place them in obvious spots throughout the map.

Against Teleport Teams

There's really more gameplay methods involved here then gear, but it is important to watch the minimap like a hawk. These teams almost always consist of AOE classes with two tanks, so it's important to build Warmogs Armor, Mercury Treads (only if there's more then 2 crowed controllers, otherwise Boots of Speed) Force of Nature and then a Rylai's Crystal Scepter for the control.

These teams are almost always going to lose team fights, because their not built for fighting, their build for grinding on minions and jungle mobs and teleporting all over the map to rush an unguarded tower and retreat. This doesn't mean that they can't get strong enough to annihilate you end game.

Their always doing Dragon and Barron whenever possible, clearing out the full jungle and avoiding fights. Even if you have dominated the kill counter against this team, they will still push your base until they win.

It is imperative that your entire team knows to guard towers and build defensively.

TEAM 2 - DAMAGE DEALER MORDEKAISER

For this build of Mordekaiser, I focused less around having his survival high and more around letting him bring the pain. This build is highly suggested to be played with a team capable of supporting you, as you will be playing Mordekaiser more as an assassin such as Irelia or Akali and less like a tank/harasser.

The general game plan with this build is to know you are able to put out some serious damage very quickly, and this becomes especially true when you get up to your Abyssal Scepter. Rushing enemies and smashing them dead in a matter of seconds with no chance for them to escape is exactly what your going to be doing.

Please bare in mind, you really are not a capable tank with t5his build, you can take a few his thanks to some of the health that comes bonus with the items, but you can not take focus fire for long.

Your job is to smash their soft targets and carry classes when a team fight starts, and when there's no team fight, you gank.

CONCLUSION

So there you have it, my guide to playing a very enjoyable and successful Mordekaiser. I hope you enjoyed what you read and put all of what you leaned into a little practice before making any comments or abandoning the build.

Please do not thumbs down this guide without a real comment, and criticism is more then welcome and be sure to tell me how you feel about this guide. Please also do not flame in the comments or force your opinion about the guide to anyone else who has a different feeling then your own.

Thank you very much for reading,

~Mannerless