Mordekaiser Build Guide by KingEmonerd

Introduction

Hello fools. I am Mordekaiser. HUE HUE HUE. I have become the nightmare of all characters, for different reasons. If you have not met me yet, you are in for quite a pain. How delightful. As a champion, people have often used me as a tanky character. Most obvious, as I bring the most pain. On the other hand, I deal so much damage, that others have decided to play me as an AP carry. This fool here, EmoN he is known as, decided to try his hand at playing me as a mage DPS carry. Much fun for me. So in this 'guide', he will show you how he does this.

Abilities

So first, let's cover what I can do, yes?

This thing is an on-next hit effect, which deals magic damage to up to 3 additional targets. This damage is based off both AP and Bonus AD. Pretty simple, I'd say. Using it is an entirely different thing though. Since it does deal significant damage to both creep waves and single targets, I take it first at Lv.2, and max it by Lv.13.

I poof out a cloud of metal, providing a small amount of bonus Armor and MR to a single target, and dealing continuous magic damage to units around the shielded unit. This is a bliss in team fights at higher levels, as it deals amazing damage if used on a target focusing high-priority targets. AS it does not deal that much damage though, I take it first at Lv.4, and max it last.
I Simply deal magic damage to units in a cone in front of me. It has its uses, and since it has a relatively low cooldown, with a low cost at lower levels (and just as much so later in the game), it's a great spell to have at all times. As this is my primary damaging spell, I take it first at Lv.1, and max it by Lv.9.
A single target meltdown that deals significant magic damage, both intially and over 10 seconds. Its base damage does up to a total of 34% of their max health, so it's great to use both as an intiating spell as well as a finishing move. The cool thing is, that if the target dies while afflicted, I gain THEM as a pet for my evil plans. Pushing towers or stuff, you know. As with all ultimates, I take it whenever I can.
I believe that this is the reason I have absolutely NO CC effects in my repertoire. I gain 35% of all damage i deal through abilities as a shield for my evil purposes, but only half of it if it is damage against minions. It only degrades at a rate of 3% per second, so upholding it is not that hard at all. Its max health increases per level up to a max size of 630, which is more than nice.

Skill Usage

Mace of Spades

• If there's no additional targets around, my target gets dealt even more damage (65% more, to be exact). It makes taking down a siege minion that much easier.
• It resets my attack timer on cast, so if I start tagging a tower, I strike twice within a short time. It does not consume the buff though, so I can still hit a minion and get the effect after all.

Creeping Death

• Casting this on a melee minion takes down health of other minions slowly but surely. Using Mace of Spades or Siphon of Destruction takes them down very quickly.
• It deals continuous damage to multiple targets, so with some SpellVamp, it regenerates my health quite rapidly.

Siphon of Destruction

• As it is my only AoE spell, it is useful for scouting brushes, especially so in early game. If I get any shield strength, I know there's an enemy where I cast it and act accordingly.
• It is on a relatively low cooldown, making a Lv.1 cast of it absolutely free between casts (25 HP5), and even later in game, I hardly notice the costs taking down my health bar.

Children of the Grave

• I can use this both as an intiating spell, indicating the focal point, or as a finisher on a powerful tanky champion to help me facetank a turret so that I get to push more.
• Its damage is not as much dependant of AP as it is of the target's health, so taking on a target with lots of health helps destroy their health bar quicker than with my other spells.

Runes, Masteries and Summoner Spells

My Runebook looks like this:
9 Greater Mark of Magic Penetration
9 Greater Seal of Armor
9 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
3 Greater Quintessence of Magic PenetrationWhat this does, is make my damage output in early, mid AND late game so amazing that I will be feared all the time. No pain, no drain, you know. Also, it makes the fragile early game a bit more bareable, both against DPS characters as well as taking on an AP carry on mid. For my Masteries, I go 9/21/0, where my book looks like this:Why I take this, is because it allows me to take on any target, regardless of their MR with my offensive masteries. What it also does, is make me more durable during the fragile state I'm in during the early game, and grant me the 25 HP5 which makes my laning so easy, even as a solomid champion.

Items

Playstyle

• I am not powerful yet, nor am I self-sustainable past Lv.3 (with Lv.2 Siphon of Destruction). Play me more passively, and try to farm as much as possible to get Sorcerer's Shoes and Hextech Revolver as fast as possible. After this time, it's more possible to spam skills, as I have both HP5 and SpellVamp to sustain me.
• Siphon of Destruction does deal enough damage to scare enemies off. Mace of Spades is low on damage, but helps me farm just as much, and once you get me SpellVamp, Creeping Death also regenerates me health from a distance.

• By this time, the Hextech Gunblade should be finished. This item is more than adequate at getting health back which we lose using our abilities, as we get very much health back from using Mace of Spades, and a bit less from Mace of Destruction as it's a multi-target spell.
• If get me low on health at any given point, using my ultimate is a good way to get some health back, allowing us to stay in lane a bit longer. It's a single-target spell, so it gets the full amount of SpellVamp from it.

• Following this guide makes me a complete facewrecker. I have enough damage and sustain to take on tanky characters, just so as long as they stay around for me to deal damage and LifeSteal/SpellVamp back to health if I lose some.
• Your ultimate has two special uses late game: with enough Magic Pen., it's very useful against high-health tanks, but as a nuke, it's good to use on a high-damage DPS character (Miss Fortune, Xin Zhao, Master Yi, Caitlyn, Ashe, etc.) as their power becomes mine to use once they die.
• Focusing the squishy characters is an obvious thing here, as they deal the most damage to our team. Once we take them out, a combination of CC from your team and hardcore damage output from me and other carries should be able to take down tanks.

Concluding

So EmoN wants to say a few things before closing, so here is.

Mordekaiser is an extremely powerful champion, and versatile in his ways. His extreme damage output combined with amazing ratios and good durability, even without items, make him a deceptively strong champion, even with a build not common to the public. Try him out. At 3150, he is a great buy. To be honest, I didn't like Mordekaiser when I bought him at first. At the very first I did, but then he sorta dropped off, and following games resulted in terrible scores. But after purchasing Pentakill Mordekaiser to troll a game w/ 3 Pentakill skins, he resulted in a 15/4 score. That build caused me to make this guide. Feel free to try it out.

Thanks to JhoiJhoi for the dividers (the purple line-thingies)!

EmoN signing off.