Hi readers,ProjectL here. This is my first guide on this site so i hope i do good.

I decided to do a guide about Mordekaiser because he is a really fun champion to play. He can be played as Tank or AP Carry and he can solo top or mid pretty well(preferably solo top). He got an unique passive that makes up for him casting with health and has a really cool ultimate that can turn the whole game around.

This guide will be aimed towards AP Carry build but i also included AP Tank build in case you want an easier early game,whichever build you chose doesn't effect late game that much but AP Tank gives you easier but less powerful early game presence. If you like the guide please upvote it and please don't downvote unless really needed and tell me why you downvoted because this is my first guide and i took a lot of time to make it.. If you have any suggestions please share them with me and i will try to improve, do not be afraid to tell the truth :) .

The build is a bit situational, but it usually ends up similar to what it says above,but it's possible to change depending on who you lane against.

Pros
[*] Good pusher
[*] Good late game
[*] Use your opponent's feed carry to win
[*] Spam Mordekaiser memes
[*] Absorbtion Shield that blocks any kinds of damage(even true damage) from his passive Iron Man

Cons
[*] Weak early game
[*] Uses health as resource for his spell casts which may leave him at low hp(cannot kill himself)
[*] No escape tool
[*] Needs farm
[*] No CC of his own

Iron Man is Mordekaiser passive. 35% of the damage Mordekaiser deals with his abilities is converted into his absorption shield. It's really useful because it gives you a big absorption shield(counting that you hit a lot of enemies) in exchange for a little health which when you buy spell vamp and ability power slowly decreases to zero.


Mace of Spades deals magic damage to the next enemy he autoattacks and 3 enemies around it. If there aren't any it will deal 65% more damage. This skill is really good in farming and in team fights. It is also good in 1v1 or 2v1 fights because it will deal more damage which also means more shield from passive.


Creeping Death surrounds an allied champion(including Mordekaiser ) or minion with shards of metal which deal damage to each enemy around it. You can abuse this skill during early game to get your shield to full really fast or just to harass your opponent by putting this skill on a nearby minion and get some shield from it


Siphon of Destruction damages all enemies in a cone in front of him. This is the best way to farm as Mordekaiser and is a great skill to use at start of teamfight. During the laning phase you can try to hit the minions and the enemy champion at the same time giving you some last hits,shield and damage to the enemy.


Children of the Grave curses a enemy champion making them take damage every second while charging Mordekaiser 's shield and gives any health drained by this skill to him. If the enemy dies while this debuff is activate they become a pet for some time that can be controlled by Mordekaiser by reactivating the ability and targeting an area or using ALT+Right clicking on where you want the pet to move. This skill can be quite deadly if you manage to use it and ignite on an enemy as this combo will take out a lot of squishy champions out really quickly. However if you can try to save the ultimate in case you get ganked or to ulti your opponent's carry or any other champion that deals high damage on their team to turn it into 6v4 and give yourself a big advantage. You can also ulti tanks to survive(or try to) from ganks.

Mordekaiser ultimate( Children of the Grave) is one of the best ultimates in the entire game. However you need to know how to use it. It's not like ignite where you can just cast it on an fleeing enemy and hope it kills them. You should be more careful about how you use Children of the Grave because it is the longest damage over time debuff in th entire game,gives you health equal to how much your opponent is losing and if it kills the target it gives you a ghost with the same stats as the opponent that was killed by it+your stats and same for you.

Why it shouldn't be used like ignite
Ignite is a spell made to finish off fleeing enemies in case they get too far away from you and to prevent them from healing themselves while waiting for their team to arrive to help or to lure you into turret range. Children of the Grave is a better version of ignite but does not prevent healing attempts which is one of the main reasons it should be not used together with ignite unless using both on the enemy carry which can turn the game around if used properly.

Who to target?
That is one of the main issues that can change the game around into your favor or do absolutely nothing.

Tanks: When you are ganked 1v2 or 1v3 and you think you can take the enemy team on. Use it on the tank and attack the other 2 people first,the spell vamp and sustain you are getting from Children of the Grave will help you survive and with enough AP can score you a double kill and possibly triple if you did not get effected by a lot of CC. Unless you are ganked and think you can take the pursuers on never use the ultimate on the enemy tank, it is a really bad idea as everybody knows that tank should not be focused. Misclicks can happen.

AD Carry: Usually the person you should use your ultimate on,it's worth also casting ignite on the carry just to be sure. They still keep their damage when they we're alive and all their passive abilities along with the fact that their stats are transformed to Mordekaiser making him benefit from Hextech Gunblade a lot if build as well as the ghost of the AD Carry getting all the stats Mordekaiser currently has excluding the bonus he got from enemy stats. If you really want to benefit from using Children of the Grave on the enemy carry then ask somebody to fed it. Fed a carry,get it's ghost,win the game.

AP Carry and Support: The most useless people to use your ultimate on. Never use it on them except if you won a teamfight and one is getting away with really low health and is in range of your ultimate but not ignite or your ignite is on cooldown. Their ghost is weak because no ghost can use their abilities as a pet and AP champions usually use their abilities.

Children of the Grave and Ignite
This combo is really deadly to anybody expect tanks. As long as you deal some damage before using both it will kill anybody expect tanks in few seconds. A lot of AP can also increase Children of the Grave damage eventually making it deadly against tanks and making an easy kill on everybody else. However a lot of magic resist can easily shut down this combo as it will lower Children of the Grave damage over time.

Greater Mark of Insight gives you magic penetration which can be useful with your passive or to give Mordekaiser some early game power. However these runes could put you at disadvantage if you want some gold but do not want to push your lane too much and are useless if you do not take many AP runes or masteries and in that case you could replace them with some health or health regeneration.

Greater Seal of Potency gives you small AP at the start of the game. It's not much so if you do not want the small bonus and want something else then swap them with greater seal of resilience.

Greater Glyph of Potency this is a stronger version of the Greater Seal of Potency and will make you benefit from Greater Mark of Insight alot more than the Seal version. I usually do not swap these as they are fairly strong runes.

Greater Quintessence of Potency you can always swap these for some Health or Health Regeneration because you will probably have a good amount of AP without this rune,but you could also swap these for some Magic Penetration and swap Greater Mark of Insight for Health runes.

Alternate Rune Picks

Greater Seal of Resilience this Seal can give you a lot of armor in exchange for the little AP you would have got otherwise. If you think you need Armor then pick this Seal instead of the normal Potency. I'm gonna keep this in alternate rune picks,however i recommend you take them instead of Seals of Potency

Greater Glyph of Warding i don't usually use this glyph because i rather stick with the AP i got from Potency glyph. I really fell like it's better that way but if you really want the magic resist you could always exchange Marks of Insights for AP marks and replace Glyphs of Potency with Glyphs of Warding

I usually start with these but sometimes i do not buy health potions or buy less of them so i can save up gold for other items, i usually do this when playing against an easy enemy champion


I rush this item early game to make my abilities almost costless and if you use them on big minion waves then you can even get health from them instead of paying health. I usually leave this item how it is and upgrade it into Will of the Ancients during the late game.


Shoes for AP champions and they also work really good on Mordekaiser , it gives you 20 magic penetration which will help you with gaining health via spell vamp from Hextech Revolver rather than losing it with spell cast and it also helps maintaining your absorption shield.


This item gives you a good amount of AP and Health and also has a passive that slows the opponent when hit by a skill for few seconds which will help you get kills and keep in range. When starting to build this item i recommend to take Giant's Belt first because it gives you a good amount of health,something this build isn't based around that much.


While you do not benefit from the AP this item gives(because 10 AP that is added to this item and 30 AP this item passive gives is the amount of AP Blasting Wand gives,your allies can benefit from this item,especially AP champions. You also get 3% more spell vamp then before which means more health gaining. You could replace this item with Hextech Gunblade if you fell like you should deal more damage with basic attacks and get health from it.


Whenever you decide to rush and build this item is your choice. This item gives you 140 AP and also increases your total AP by 30% which means at the point you buy this item you bill become a great threat to the enemy team(if you weren't already anyway). Keep stacking AP to benefit from this item as much as possible.


This item gives you AP and also gives you magic resist which can help you survive. It also decreases the magic resist of nearby enemy champions and because the range of it is similar to most of Mordekaiser 's skills it will always make you benefit from it. You can buy this item last and buy Zhonya's Hourglass earlier in case you get focused.


If you are focused in team fights you should rush this item early even before Rabadon's Deathcap sometimes. If the enemy ignores you then you can buy this item last. This item gives you high AP and armor which will increase your change in teamfights or even 1v2 or 1v3 fights if you are facing AD champions. Also if you are being focused you can use it's active ability to freeze a invulnerable for 2 seconds and when you are unfrozen you can start spamming skills again to get back any health you lost. This item can ruin your opponent's strategy to focus you. If anybody turret dives you late game you can also use this ability and hopefully get a kill(even tough you probably never have gold for this item early because expect if you are feed.


All the Elixir's are automaticly applied if you have all 6 item slots full unlike other consumable items so you can always buy all of them late game when your build is completed or almost completed and gain their effects. Mordekaiser can benefit from all of these in a way( Elixir of Agility is not that useful unless you get Hextech Gunblade instead of Will of the Ancients)

Other Possible Items


This item gives further magic penetration and when combined with Sorcerer's Shoes magic penetration and Abyssal Mask magic resist lowering effect can be quite deadly. You can also buy this item instead of Abyssal Mask as their passive effects are similar and you will get more AP however you will throw away some magic resist and your team will not be able to benefit from this item.

Lyandry's Torment
Gives you some sustain and AP. If you plan on buying this item, try buying it early game because you will barely benefit from it at all late game. Also the burn effect is quite nice,but it mostly works better with damage over time AP champions like Singed but you can still buy this item,can help you finish fights quicker.


This item gives a good burst damage with it's active and it also almost gives 80 AP which means it almost triggers +5% effect it has. Also with this build your AP should be really high which means you could benefit very well.


Nice alternate to Will of the Ancients . Buy it instead of you want some damage from basic attacks and lifesteal which may help your sustain. It also has a nice active ability allowing you to slow somebody that is chasing you or who you are chasing.

I mainly take Heal because Mordekaiser is really weak early game because he uses Health as a casting resource. It becomes weak late game but it can still save you from tight situations. I say this spell is a must for every Mordekaiser


Ignite is a really useful summoner spell on almost every champion in the game. However while i could have picked a spell like Flash or Ghost to give Mordekaiser an escape tool, i usually pick this spell for 2 reasons. The first is because Ignite can help secure kills,the other one is because Children of the Grave and Ignite can deal insane damage to an enemy champion late game and can even kill squishy champions if Mordekaiser has enough AP for Children of the Grave to deal enough damage.



Other viable summoner spells:

This spell gives a nice movement speed buff which can help you escape or chase down enemies. For escape tool i prefer Flash,but for chasing down enemies i usually prefer Ghost


This spell teleports you a short distance into the direction of your cursor. It can be taken instead of Heal if you think you can rush Hextech Revolver soon enough. It is also more useful than Heal because Mordekaiser has no escape built into him.


You can use this spell to help pushed lanes(And get gold and exp from it) or to gank if your allies cared to place a ward or you have Teemo on your team so you can teleport to his mushrooms.

Any other summoner spell i did not mention is probably not good on Mordekaiser or he doesn't need it at all.

Yorick

Yorick isn't that hard to deal with. His ghouls prefer to target champions so you can charge up your shield and get some gold from them. The only issue Yorick may pose is that his ghouls can decay your shield pretty fast if Yorick keeps spaming all of them on you. Take second point in Creeping Death earlier and his ghouls will not do much unless Yorick himself goes after you. Watch out for when he's level 6 tough.

Darius

Darius is really easy to deal with. Your shield should be taking almost the whole damage Darius is supposed to be dealing and you will mostly take damage only from his passive. When Darius hits level 6 try to have your shield always full or near full so when you are low health and Darius decides to use his ultimate he will waste his ultimate and you will survive as the shield will absorb all the damage. Darius will probably call for ganks so try to not push the lane too much or ward the area and retreat if anybody comes.

Nidalee

She can be rather easy to deal with, keep your shield charged and buy some magic resist and you will have no problems even if you do get hit by her spears,that does not mean however that you should not attempt to dodge them at all.Buying some early magic resist can also help you early game because until you get a Hextech Revolver keeping charging your shield could be risky and may leave you at low health,it will also lower the damage your shield takes. When reaching level 6 and buying Hextech Revolver and Sorcerer's Shoes you can start playing aggressive and possibly scare her off or even get kills on her.

Cho'gath

Cho'Gath can be difficult to lane against. He has a lot of CC including silence which will prevent you for casting spells for few seconds which may slow you down in farming and building your shield,knock up does similar but is a less of a threat(can still be annoying). Try to play more defensive and harass over the minion when you have the chance. Buying Mercury's Treads instead of Sorcerer's Shoes is a better choice here as it will give you magic resist and lower the CC duration of his skills,buying some sustain and magic resist early can help you too. And remember that you must not allow Cho'Gath to Feast so call an ally to gank and shut him down before he get's too big.

Wukong

Wukong has really strong poke and harass. Every time he tries to harass you you should use your Siphon of Destruction to reveal if the Wukong that is next to you is a clone or not. Try to play defensive and even let Wukong push so you will be able to farm under the safety of your turret. Once you reach level 6 you can start playing aggressive and even go for the kill, as long as Wukong didn't outfarm you in the laning phase you should be fine,otherwise call for a gank.

Irelia

Better nerf Irelia because they are giving Mordekaiser a bad time. All you have to do is let her push to turret,get low on health from spaming skills and bait her into diving you (which she will probably do as Bladesurge resets on kills allowing her to dive out easily),if you see her moving towards you despite the turret cast heal and attack her and try to kill her. It's possible it won't work and it's still possible for you to die and for her to survive with luck. Ask for ganks all the time until she becomes scared(IF). If you try to face her 1 to 1 in the laning phase without turret help you will probably die to her so play as defensive as possible and some tanky items could help you in early game.

Riven

Like Irelia she can give you a hard time. She can be overall more annoying than Irelia however her combat skills are a bit weaker(a lot of her skills being dashes). Just try to avoid getting hit by any attempt she makes to turret dive and jump to the other side with her Q. Usually letting your lane get pushed can be the best choice so you can farm in peace unless Riven makes any attempts to turret dive you but Heal can lure her into death or almost death state. Calling for ganks usually helps.

Mordekaiser needs farm to be effective so going solo top or mid is usually the best lane pick for him. If you cannot get any of these(no jungler and mid taken) then ask the person who is laning with you to harass the enemy team as much as possible so you can farm.

During the laning phase try to keep your absorption shield charged all the time so if the enemy starts playing aggressive your shield will absorb all the damage. Harass and poke your opponent over the minion wave by hitting both at the same time.

When laning solo against 2 people it's better to let them push to turret and farm from there. That will also make your jungler or any other teammate gank your lane easily. Ask your teammates to buy Oracle Elixir just in case there is a ward on the location they are going to gank from which may make the enemy 2v1 them while you won't be able to do anything because you are too far away from the fight.

After some time in the game passes you will become more and more effective depending on how much farm you have got during the laning phase. Try to get as much AP as possible and rush a Rabadon's Deathcap and you will become somebody everybody will fear to 1v1,which means of
course that they will usually come in numbers of 2 or 3 against you. If you got enough farm you can take them on and at least kill 1 before retreating.

Late game you should try to start a team fight by using Children of the Grave on the enemy AD carry or anybody else on their team who has high AD and passive ability effects that increase the damage they deal (passive abilities still work so ghost of a champion like Vayne or Nocturne can hurt the enemy team and turn the game into your favor). Doing this will turn the game into 6v4 for your team probably forcing the enemy to retreat.

This build will probably never be completed in any game because of how much gold it needs,but if you somehow do you will become really strong and almost invincible in 1v1,1v2 and maybe even 1v3 fights. You are still weak to being focused down by the enemy team so you could always replace some offensive items for some defense(items that give AP and defense like Abyssal Mask work great) so you can survive longer even if focused.