Build Guide by Revory

Introduction

Welcome to my build. Lets start off briefly telling you what this build is all about.

Mord isn't a main Tank, with no CC until you get the Rylai's Crystal Scepter and that isn't till mid/late game, and it would mostly be used for chasing for a kill. Though at end game, you will be quite Tanky in the idea your gonna last a long time. At that point your being the Tank out of pure need, due to the fact the longer they fight around you, the more damage they take and because of his Ult, they will see you as a major threat if your using it right to turn your 5v5 into a 6v4.

I play with a group of friends most of the time, and usually solo lane as much as possible, but when I'm solo, I'm usually forced into a side lane with a partner. Mord is at his strongest solo in a lane. Fact. Simply because he can farm, building those Items quick; build that shield everyone hates you for; and a Fed Mord is really hard to deal with. But if your stuck in a side lane with a partner, its not all bad as long as they have a Snare, Slow, or Stun. Otherwise in my opinion, your really just wasting time.

The Tankyness, via a bit of research, 200 armor means they have to deal 200% damage to deal the same amount of damage to you physically, same applies for Magic Resist, thus reaching 200+ in each from Items and Runes. Survival is great for Tanks, duh.

Hope you enjoy this build as much as I do, and GL and HF.

Runes/Masteries

Lets start out with your Passives, Runes and Masteries.

Runes

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration Magic Pen is whats gonna help you build your shield, (icon=Iron Man=19), since 30% of your damage from your abilities build it, the more your output, the better off you are.

Greater Seal of Evasion Dodge Chance, this is going to help with your GTFO when your set to be ganked. Remember, at the start of the game your soft, this will help keep them from shutting you down so you can wreck face later.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist Magic Resist Per Lv, starting off, this helps against Caster Champs and overall help you lane longer then without it. Also when you get all your items for endgame, this will put you over the 200 magic resist mark.

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration Magic Pen again, keeps up the theme here, same reason for the Marks.

Masteries

Here I have gone with the Utility tree and burst into Defense. This build I must say I find the most effective for my games.

Utility Tree:

Haste: Ghost is HUGE in this build, not only for chasing/keeping up with your target(s), GTFOing from ganks, but also to get up to your team when a team fight is about to start up.

Perseverence: Hp Regen increased by 4%, yeah thats making even stronger, thus an increase in survival.

Good Hands: Your a tank, I follow the Golden Tank Rule: First in, Last out. Guess what, that is gonna mean your gonna die for your team a few times. Your not getting items with stacks, so you can afford it over, lets say Lux and others that pick up items that build stacks for complete destruction.

Awareness: Quicker Xp is great. Do I really need to explain this?

Utility Mastery: Yeah its great for you. Red buff + Blue buff = win on Mord. Red buffs slow is great for Mord early game before you get Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Blue buffs ability CDR is great for Mord. I personally only get Red buff on my own due to the fact that others benefit from Blue buff so much more than you, though I get blue buff from killing champs.

Greed: Only really needed so you can get that 21 points in Utility.

Quickness: Awesome, you need this speed to keep up, and run from enemy champs. Good stuff.

Intelligence: 6% CDR on your abilites. 6% isn't much but your abilities have rather low CD so this just speeds it up rather nicely.

Presence of the Master: 15% CDR on Ignite and Ghost. OMG great. Ignite is gonna be used with your Ult (explain later), so more kills, and more using that ghost from your kills.

Defensive Tree

Hardiness: 6 more armor to start with is great. Late game doesn't really do much but its great to start lane with and hold it for longer.

Resistance: Just tossing 1 in here, your Glyphs help out with this more but its still worth it over the other 2 in first tier.

Evasion: 2% more dodge. And needed for what you want, Nimbleness.

Nimbleness: Yay for GTFO when you need it most. Dodge an attack when they are trying to gank you and get out of there. Or even, when targeting their DPS, dodge an attack from their other team mates and charge at them full speed.

Summoner Spells

You Champion ignores unit collision and moves 32% faster for 14 seconds.
Yeah, this is your all encompassed spell of awesomeness. Escape Ganks, get that kill, and to get where you need to quicker. Your spec'd for this, making your move bonus up to 40% and lasts 15 seconds. So use it.

Ignite is a DOT spell that targets a single champion, dealing 50 damage plus 25 damage per level over 5 seconds. Ignite ignores enemy Magic Resist and reduces healing and regeneration by 50%.
When combined with Children of the Grave you will own them. Use this right before you pop your Ult on them due to the range, its shorter than your Ult. Used in this order they can't quickly pop a Health Pot and live if your on them.

Other Spells

This can replace Ghost, but your gonna have a useless spec into it. Yes it can slow them down so you can get to them, or slow a gank down, but ultimately I would leave it for your DPS to pick up.


This may also Replace Ghost, but unlike Exhaust you can replace the point in Haste , into Blink of an Eye . This will keep with the whole CDR of your abilities. I don't really see a problem using this, you can tower dive with it, escape, and catch up to targets just as with ghost. So use this is you know how to use it, I for one, don't like it that much so I'll leave it for others to work with.

Fortify No! your not a support character, and you should be able to get to any tower to defend it remarkably well. Unless your dead, which then you should ping the tower and if no one goes to defend it, well that isn't your fault, your team is bad.

Heal Why! Your building for Hp Regen, and you have a shield, and yet again, YOUR NOT SUPPORT.

Revive Noob. Nuf said.

Teleport Yeah, interesting, but unneeded. the Utility of this spell is only for Carries in my eye's and even though you can spec for it, but replacing Ghost for it would almost be almost a waste of a spell. You can't Dog Fight, you can't GTFO, but you can get to a tower to drop it with your minons or defend a tower, or get back into a team fight. Though the delay when it comes to a team fight can be costly. I would still keep with Ghost.

Items

As I have said, this build is for Tanking Mostly. It has some great DPS built into the Items though. The reason why is simple, you still want to get kills. Even a Tank wants kills but your offense here is also for getting assists.

Core Items

These are our Core Items. So here we go.

Force of Nature simply due to the Hp Regen is incredible. At start of game the Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion are going to be your starting items. Dependant on who your laning against, your gonna grab another Regrowth Pendant if its Physical Damage, or grab the Negatron Cloak if they are Magic Damage.

This item is going to start our Tankyness by about level 10 if not earlier. Given your Farming capability you should complete these and your boots asap.

Sorcerer's Shoes give you more Spell Pen. Great for making those early kills for the gold and late game for getting multi kills and help with assists.

Note: I usually build these over any other boots. Though, you still have to keep in mind the other team, build to counter them. Boots of Swiftness, Mercury's Treads, and Ninja Tabi are good choices dependent on the opposing team.

Next up is the Rylai's Crystal Scepter which will help in 2 ways. First is the most obvious. Slowing your target(s) for the kill. For your kill, or an assist, this is incredible. Plus the extra 500 Hp, helps with the theme of Tanking. More Hp, more Hp 5 with the Force of Nature

Note the end game build is my personal best for most games. The last 3 items are totally up to you for best effect of your playstyle

The remaining Items

Sunfire Cape is just re-enforcing your Creeping Death with more damage for any melee combatants who think they can drop you. Love this item and it almost makes it to core items but sometimes dependent on the other team I drop this item for something more productive, more on this later.

Abyssal Mask is here to be a bigger threat in team battles and to get the Magic Damage through even further then before with the +70 AP and Magic Resist Debuff by 20. If your team has strong magic, team fights are all yours, get in there and be the tank.

Thornmail is to pretty much balance this build. Most teams I've seen always have atleast 2 Auto Attackers, and this is so good vs them. With your increased Hp Regen, your high Armor, they will most likely kill themselves just attacking you.

Note: There are Champs that they laugh at this item. A good Tryn Player will own you in most every situation unless as formentioned, swarmed by minions, even then with his insane crits and endless rage, fear him 1v1.

Situational Items

Love this item against a team of Caster's. Gonna speed up your attacks, eat up their Mp, and give you some needed Magic Resist. I found myself looking for items to fit these fights and this is what I feel is best.


Ok another great Item for Caster's. CDR, a bit of Hp, and increases your Hp Regen by 20%! More tanky you say and I can keep my shield up with the CDR, AWESOME! But it doesn't make my usual build due to the fact that the other items fit my style.


Ok this is for those pesky Atk Spd Melee champs like Yi and Xin. If you see both on their team, this is a great item to look into. Your gonna up your Armor 80, 20% chance on them hitting you to slow their movement and Atk Spd, and if you are quick for activating items actives, you have yet another way to slow them when they are on the run or your on the run. And lastly, more Hp Regen! Yay for Tanky builds.


I love this item, though I only use it if the opposing team has a good Carry and everyone else seems to not know what they are doing, ie targeting the tank (me) over the DPS. This does a few things for you but the one I like the most is the Rez, nothing pisses off a team more than the Tank that they want out of the way, to pop back up fill his shield and start the slaughter all over again.

Note: I usually only pick this up for the fun of it, and if you find yourself dieing a ton, and you want to pick this item up...I believe your doing it wrong. Slow your roll and stop being so Aggressive and take your time. The more deaths you have, unless your being ganked by 3 of them, your doing it wrong. Never Over Extend!!


As I personally never build this, but its great against heavy Auto Attackers. If your gonna get this, get it after Rylai's Crystal Scepter so you can get your Hp and Hp Regen early on. This isn't an item that i'm 100% behind cause it doesn't provide Armor or Spell Resist, but the Hp and Hp Regen is pretty nice.

Skill Sequence

Ok lets take a closer look at those abilities.

Mace of Spades - On next hit, Mordekaiser swings his mace with such force that it echoes out, striking up to 3 additional nearby targets, dealing damage plus bonus damage. If the target is alone, the attack deals extra damage.
On next hit, Mordekaiser swings his mace with such force that it echoes out, striking up to 3 additional nearby targets, dealing 80/110/140/170/200 (0.2 + ) magic damage.

If the target is alone, 140/192.5/245/297.5/350 ( + ) damage is dealt instead.
Cost
Costs 25/32/39/46/53 Health
Range
600

This is a great ability. Simply put its gonna not only help you farm, destroy some champs, and fill your shield. This ability should be maxed out just after Siphon of Destruction due to the fact that they both fill your shield. Each hit multi targets, but Mace of Spades deals extra damage if there is only a single target, meaning better time dishing out damage in 1v1 of the beaten path since you don't have minions to hit.

Creeping Death - Unleashes a protective cloud of metal shards to surround an ally, increasing their armor and magic resistance and dealing damage per second to enemies in the cloud.
Unleashes a protective cloud of metal shards to surround an ally for 6 seconds, increasing their armor and magic resistance by 10/15/20/25/30 and dealing 24/38/52/66/80 (+0.2) magic damage per second to nearby enemies.
Cost
Costs 26/32/38/44/50 Health
Range
750

Great ability, but the only thing I really use this for is harassing from a distance. I like to toss this on the cannon minions while a champ is killing other minions near to it. They always back off or target it, either way I get some damage across. Mid and Late game Its essential to solo pushing towers, due to the bonus to Armor. Also, with Rylai's Crystal Scepter if you toss this up when your next to your target, they are almost everytime gonna die. Flash is a great way to get away from you if they know how to use it to jump walls to get away. But thats about the only way aside from their team jumping in.

Siphon of Destruction - Mordekaiser deals damage to enemies in a cone in front of him. For each unit hit, Mordekaiser's shield absorbs energy.
Mordekaiser damages enemies in a cone in front of him, dealing 65/105/145/185/225 (+0.6) magic damage.

For each unit hit, Mordekaiser's shield absorbs an additional 1/2/3/4/5 health.
Cost
Costs 24/36/48/60/72 Health
Range
700

This is your primary Ability. You can harass, farm, and just like Mace of Spades it fills your shield, but much faster. To harass with this, simply make sure you line up the target champ with their minions and let'r rip. Rinse and repeat. It has a good range on it but be careful against laning against 2 ranged champs.

Children of the Grave - Mordekaiser curses an enemy, stealing a percent of their life initially and each second. If the target dies while the spell is active, their soul is enslaved and will follow Mordekaiser for 30 seconds.
Steals 24/29/34 (+0.04)% of target champion's maximum Health (half stolen initially and half over 10 seconds; deals Magic Damage).

If the target dies while cursed, their soul is enslaved and will follow Mordekaiser for 30 seconds. Mordekaiser gains 20% of their ability power and attack damage, and the pet's stats are enhanced.

Pets can be controlled by holding the alt key and using the right mouse button.
Cost
No Cost
Range
850

Survivability: Its dealing damage while its giving you Hp. When I know the fight that I'm going into may be a bit tough and I'm defending my tower while my Lane Partner has died or ran back for shopping, I'll use this if they get ballsy and tower dive. This is gonna act like a Health Pot for you plus deal some decent damage. Or, when I find myself in the 1v2 situation. If one is a Tank and the other DPS, most people will tell you to toss this on the DPS, if your solo, don't. Simply put it deals a % of their health and you heal based on that %. So its only smart to drop it on the one with the most Health, the Tank in this case. Then Ignite the dps and drop them. I find that most players will GTFO once you drop Children of the Grave on them, so this can be very good for the outcome.

Offensive: Going into a Team Battle after someone has initiated, drop this on the top DPS of their group and make sure your party know how to kill the Top DPS when your around. All ganging up on them = turning the fight into 4v6 with some more DPS for 30 seconds. I love killing Te Emo with this and then destroying their tank with him while I focus on the rest of their DPSr's or Support Champ.

Great move all around. This has basically 2 real uses. Until mid game, I use it for survivability unless I see an easy kill. Combined with Ignite, OMG its so incredible.

Iron Man - A percent of the damage dealt from abilities is converted into a temporary shield, absorbing incoming damage.

Game Play

Alright, this is where I'm gonna let you in to my head and how I play Mord.

Early Game Lv 1-8
Ok lets start buy snatching up a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion, put your point into Siphon of Destruction and head on out. Personally I take which ever lane has the Golems, so Blue base = Bottom, Purple Base = Top. This is so when I have to go back and shop, I'll hit these guys up to catch up on Xp and Gold for the downtime, or if I get killed, same reason.

Your gonna wanna take it easy, don't be lazy but don't overextend. Keeping them at their tower is ok until you hit level 4 or 5. This is where most teams 'Ganker' begins their fun. Keep a sharp eye on the Mini Map and if you see one Champ missing and you know no one died, back off just far enough to still get your Xp from minion kills, and keep the gank spots covered. If there team does have a good ganker roaming around or if they have a jungler, the first time you go back to shop or cause you got ganked, get wards. Set them up, and take care.

Start of the Game Harassment is great for Mordekaiser. This build gives you the Magic Pen that will make just about anyone back off after you hit them with Siphon or Mace. But with your Regrowth Pendant you can if your being heavily harassed, just back up and chill out and heal. Use your Health Potion when you need it. Many players use it too early, remember you have a Regrowth Pendant, so you can just back off and stay in your lane till you have atleast 1200 gold. When you get the gold, port back, buy your boots (based on your lane as fore-mentioned), and the next Item towards Force of Nature.

Mid Game Level 9-15
Alright, at this point you should be just about done building Force of Nature. Once you get the gold, build it quickly, but if you have to stay in your lane, then do so. This phase gets so much better once you have it and your boots. You gain the ability to get a bit more gutsy, but remember your still not unstoppable.

After finishing Force, buy your Giant's Belt in prep for Rylai's Crystal Scepter. Once this is built around lv 12, your ready to start being narrow minded and help in ganks and tower stomping. Work with your team not against them. Your a Tank and about lv 11 is when my team will usually start team battles, so Stay with your Team. You can be a defining force at this point and your power starts to come out.

After building Rylai's Crystal Scepter, buy another Giant's Belt for building into a Sunfire Cape. Boom goes those who oppose you once you get the Cape. But yet there is still so much more work to be done, its only mid game and unless you are all dominating, you have a while yet till its over.

Also keep in mind that you can push towers at this time very well. It only gets better if you have a Ghost of the enemy champ to tank the turret for you. So use it whenever possible to push those towers.

Late Game Level 16-18
At this point, you've been helping with Ganks, Dropping towers, and turning Team Fights with Children of the Grave and Ignite. But here at the end game, you need to look to their Carry at this point. Your a Tank and you want to make them useless. So see above to check out what items work best for you. I stay on my regular build unless their carry is very good and their Main DPS is doing well. Last 2 Items then are split to function on both so that they can't kill me so quick with my team around.

Here is where you can if you wish, start jungling when there is no team fight getting set up nor any of your towers being pushed. Reason here is just to get that gold you need to finish off you full build. If your looking at a win soon then you can skip it. Remember that dropping turrets is the point of the game, don't get caught up on making kills. You can back door very well. So if your team all goes one way and you see that they all are focused on them, get in there and try for an inhib.

If the game runs long, you will find that with your full build, you are pretty damn hefty. You are gonna need to work with your team and get those turrets down at this point. My personal strategy is to let my team let them push, and ambush them so they can't get away and then all go mid and get that inhib. Let your team know you can tank turrets at this point if they lay off minions and leave them for you for your shield, otherwise your gonna have to fall back. But only if your not pushing without your minions.

After that, if you can get your team to down the other turrets atleast. This is to help ensure your teams victory. STAY TOGETHER IN ENEMY BASE. This is actually where they could turn the game. I have had a few games where they dominated us in our base but then split up and we killed them all, pushed, and won.

End Game is great for you, while in their base, you should own their entire team while you have your team with you. Organization is Key. You have to put yourself first from the minion waves so you can Siphon and Mace for your Shield so that when their team spawns again you can down them one by one again, cause that is gonna be the way they come at you.

If your team had to back after due to low Hp, or lack of Champs still up. Do so, then let the other team deal with the Super Minions heal up, let your team spawn and get everyone to Bush sit by Barron for a minute if they are Mia. If they are all in their base dealing with minions, then just down him and go for the GG.

Summary

So, after all this, the build will make you a threat in all situations outside of 1v4/5. Your focus is getting that staying power, and magic pen for your killing ability and your team's.

Keep with your team, you are the tank afterall, and get those towers down.

Always remember to try to gear up for the enemy's Carry. If you can shut them down with gear, your a god and then they will hopefully target you over you DPS. Though good players will still endlessly go for your DPS and leave you for last and you should do the same.

Use Ignite and Children of the Grave together so you can get an extra Team member!