Bot Lane

Most of the time you just want to start with a relic shield and red pots, if the enemy bot lane has a lot of single target poke (maybe a lane with Caitlyn) you could consider get Doran's shield.

If you are forced back to base during the early laning phase with maybe ~500 gold you should consider buying Doran's shield.

Solo Lane

Doran's shield is standard but boots and red pots can also work in some match ups.

In my opinion the new morde is much better with gunblade than with wota. (The active really helps, especially before you get rcs, and it gives him a lot more damage on his q. This is more than worth the loss of 10% cdr.)

I like distortion boots just for the lower flash cd.

GA is pretty strong as it stops him from being bursted down as easily in team fights.

Morde is, for the most part, a short range burst mage, and as such flash is really important. Knowing when to use it and when to just save it is critical.

Teamfights

Since Morde is so easy to kite it can be a good idea to charge up you q on the enemy's front line or their minions whilst waiting for a chance to flash in to kill a carry (You will often be able to kill them with the 3rd part of your q alone, if not then use your ult and e to finish them off). Good vision really helps with this.

Once you have rcs you can actually peel for your team a surprising amount as well as being a massive threat to enemy off tanks who will die to one combo, unless they have build an unusually high mr.

If your team has a good frontline initiation you can often just follow them in and try to use your ult and gunblade on an enemy carry.

Laning

Just try to keep your passive up as much as possible whilst hitting enemy champions with your e, you easily reset the wave with your w and e. However since Morde just naturally pushes and has next to no escapes, make sure that either you or support is warding your lane and try to be aware of what's happening around the map.
- note that Morde's new passive will never drop below 25% on its own.


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