So, I've been trying this out to great success lately.

It's REALLY strong once you get the glacial, and pretty strong until then.

This is much stronger late game than the other AP builds, it just plain does better overall.

All builds have their weaknesses though, this particular build is pretty bad when your team has no cc.

Pros

• High Sustained Damage
• Very tanky
• Ultra Game Changing Ultimate

Cons

• No CC
• No "ZOMGWTF" burst damage
• Relies a lot on team

[/Runes]

Spell vamp quints give you a little bit of breathing room in the early games when your health is pretty much limited by your spell usage, and gives you a buffer until you get your revolver.

Magic Pen marks because the only other option is armor, and that's a fairly mediocre choice.

Armor Seals because the only other reasonable choice is ap/lvl, and those aren't a good choice for this build.

MR glyphs because ap/lvl glyphs don't really work well unless you get a deathcap, and you already get 39% CDR.

Overall these runes are designed to give you a sufficient early game, and a strong late game.

9 offense for magic pen and CDR.

11 utility for spell vamp, movespeed and the flash mastery.

10 defense for the 6mr, heal mastery and 1 damage reduction, which REALLY helps with trading with a large group of minions there which you will be wanting to do.

Honestly, i would probably run 10-9-11 instead of 9-10-11 because i would go 3/3 Brute Force and 2/2 Butcher over the point in Indomitable but i use this mastery page for a lot of other champions who don't have shields.

Boots + 3X Health Potion: You will want to start boots against almost all matchups because it helps you last hit, avoid skill shots, and move speed is essential if you are leashing blue @ 1:55 in order to get the first few cs.

You work towards 765g for a Kage's Lucky Pick to maximize your gold gain, and get a Hextech Revolver in order to sustain in lane.

After your Revolver is completed, you build resists in order to make your shield and spell vamp very strong. Resists REALLY help your passive and your revolver do their job better.

If you are feeling really really behind and need tank stats, you should delay Deathfire Grasp and buy a Giant's Belt

Deathfire Grasp is most of your burst damage, and when you finish it, you should feel comfortable in teamfights.

Finishing Deathfire Grasp allows you to work on becoming more tanky through the spell vamp from Will of the Ancients, and then working on your magic resist and damage with Abyssal Mask. (I feel that Abyssal Scepter is mordekaiser's strongest MR item by a lot.)

Frozen Heart is actually a huge sustained damage buff, around 25%, and the passive, and armor really hurt AD carries.

If you are going to replace Frozen Heart, do so with a Randuin's Omen, you really need the armor, and really need a way to last a bit longer against an AD carry.

After you have your core 5 items, you need to build some health, and Rylai's Crystal Scepter gives you a reasonable amount of health, a minor slow, and a small boost to your damage.

Rylai's can be replaced by Warmog's Armor if the game goes long enough, you will be doing enough damage that you won't need the 80 ap, the slow is 99% useless, and Frozen Mallet isn't as much health as Warmog's. But Warmog's is a poor choice as a sixth item for obvious reasons.

As a note, I see the current meta moving towards AD carries top lane, and i feel that the frozen heart is extremely effective against that metagame.

> > >
R>E>Q>W

R is a truly game changing skill, but you really shouldn't be afraid to use it without getting a sure kill.

In lane, using your ultimate and getting your enemy low enough to send them back is just as good as getting a kill.


This is your main form of harass, 700 range, and it's AoE cone damage make it a very strong choice to level up first.


Your Q lets you use a combination of Q and E to instantly clear waves, it has a very low cooldown too.


The AP ratio on your W is really high, and doesn't give you enough mr/armor per level up, level it last.

Flash

Flash over walls? Flash OP.

This is your escape summoner spell.

Flash is really strong on mordekaiser because of morde's lack of escapes or gap closers.

Heal

Heal is extremely strong for baiting, and really strong against burst casters in mid lane early game.

Heal vs Ignite is a choice between aggression and passive farming.

Heal is really strong against high danger junglers, but ignite is really strong against easy lanes who you can deny/kill.

Morde is REALLY good as a tanky AP mage.

I feel this is the strongest build for him in the current meta game.

Also, this build is pretty easy to play compared to all the "zomg full ap glass cannon" mordekaiser builds out there.