THIS GUIDE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS - UNFORTUNATELY DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS I HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO COMPLETE THIS ENTIRELY YET. PLEASE EXCUSE FORMATTING FOR SOME PARTS! IT IS MORE COMPLETE THAN ALMOST EVERY OTHER MORDE GUIDE THOUGH! SO PLEASE SUPPORT ME AND I WILL SUPPORT YOU GUYS BY COMPLETING THIS TO AN EVEN BETTER STANDARD WHEN I CAN! :D

Some of you may recall the mayhem that occurred after the Mordekaiser rework during Season 5. In essence I loved what Riot was aiming for - diversifying the bot lane meta to include more than ranged champions only. It certainly worked for the first few weeks of his rework, but not for the right reasons. Simply put, the numbers were broken. After a much needed nerf, the poor King may as well have retired, win rate diminished and people sort of forgot all about him.

The Season 6 change to Mordekaiser's Harvesters of Sorrow allowed him to apply the DoT aura to nearby minions:
PATCH 6.1 - Harvesters of Sorrow "NEW NOW WITH MORE SORROW: Can now be cast on allied minions (melee and caster minions have smaller rings)"

Why does this matter?

Realistically the change made to Harvesters of Sorrow eliminated Mordekaiser's primary weakness when Solo Laning (Top, Mid). Sustain was Mordekaiser's main weakness when solo laning, he was outranged, easily abused and had little in the way of effectively trading. The slow juggernaut was able to cast the spell on himself, but the ability was easily avoided so long as you avoided the ring around him for a short duration. Back then when you could only self cast, Harvesters of Sorrow really didn't give much in the way of a heal. Now however - the heal is so effective you are essentially able to negate an entire enemy combo, while still damaging them for all you can hit them with.

Solo Lane VS Bot Lane

Now, people often say to me that Mordekaiser was redesigned to only work effectively from the bot lane, as his lack of CC and Gap closer makes his kit unreliable - thus he relies on heavy CC from a supporting laner.

While I agree in part that Mordekaiser's kit works best when his enemies are under crowd control, when you take him in a lane like top, or some melee mid lane's, this eliminates the problem of being kited or unable to effectively damage the opponent. Add to this our 2 core items Hextech Gunblade as well as Rylai's Crystal Scepter you suddenly overcome many of the issues involved in trying to close the gaps.

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No. Simply put, Mordekaiser is one of the most underplayed champions in League of Legends and has a very unique kit and playstyle that requires a much deeper understanding in order to be effective with this champion. As you can see by this graph below:



So, yeah, if you play under 10 games with Mordekaiser like the majority of people do, you probably are gonna have a few rough games and a steeper learning curve. For this reason, I HIGHLY recommend at least 20 games with him before considering Ranked Play. But as you can clearly see, once mastered this Champion has an alarmingly high win rate of 58.89%. This kind of win rate with over 100 games indicates an extremely powerful hidden OP champion. Myself, I am currently sitting at around 56-57% win rate with over 400 games played in Season 6. That being said, in the writing of this guide, I have messed around with all kinds of builds and experimental "off-meta" stuff to really give a quality guide to let you guys know what's good and what's not.

PROS

- Amazing Damage Potential

- Snowball Champion

- 6v4 Potential is an amazing tool, especially if you are able to kill the enemy ADC or heavy auto-attack reliant champion.

- Very very low play rate - sitting at 0.5% at the time of this guide. This means people are mostly unaware of our tricks and playstyle, at least in lower ELO.

- Extremely strong objective control and push potential with Dragon.

- Can solo baron after taking dragon, assuming you are at least level 11.

- Very good at dueling 2v1 (excellent for taking advantage of certain jungler's ganks)

CONS

- Terrible base mobility

- Struggles once behind

- Lack of Heavy CC

- No escape/gap closers in standard kit

- Very Vulnerable to CC ruining his day

- When picked early, has very strong counter picks: Riven, Quinn & Kayle

This section is an in depth look at each ability. I STRONGLY advise you take a good read of this section as understanding the function of each spell for the right moment is actually really critical to becoming a "good" Mordekaiser. While this kit may seem basic at first glance, you must understand all elements of his kit to effectively know WHEN to utilize each spell rather than mashing away and hoping for the best.

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Mace of Spades :


Summary: Indeed the primary damage source of Mordekaiser, and MAN does this spell HURT! Despite Mace of Spades having ratios that just make me want to max the **** out of this ability, doing so severely hinders our ability to sustain the damage most bruisers can dish out Top, or the poke that you have to endure Mid. So Max this ability 2nd, however depending on your opponent there's occasionally a time where I take this level 1 e.g Nasus.

The true trick to mastering the use of this spell however is TIMING and WATCHING YOUR OPPONENT.

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So, these are fairly basic runes that you will see on many AP based laners.

Now, you can change these slightly when vs all AP or all AD team comps that simply won't utilize our runes - However for the most part there are just so many champions that deal hybrid damage that I really don't think it's essential.

Now here we see quite a difference to standard AP based champions, who usually finish the mastery tree with Thunderlord's Decree or Deathfire Touch . For us, I really cannot stress just how AMAZING going Stormraider's Surge is, simply put - this will act as a "mini" Ghost summoner spell in lane. With Mordekaiser 2 Mace of Spades hits combined with Siphon of Destruction is almost always guaranteed to proc Stormraider's Surge . Once you do this, it's quite easy to then stick by the enemy to ensure you ALWAYS win the trade by healing with Harvesters of Sorrow as you re-activate it as the circle's overlap the opposing champion.

Wise Choices

Flash

Flash: The uses of this summoner spell should be pretty self explanatory, excellent for both engaging and retreating it's rare to see anyone on the Rift without Flash. That being said, it's important to realize the play potential this spell has on Mordekaiser. When you see an opponent on roughly 1/3 HP, it's more than likely you can pull off the following combo. I almost always try this if I'm in a safe spot early and have established lane control pre-6:

1. Proc first 2 hits of Mace of Spades on minions, providing some Iron Man shield for the upcoming trade.
2. Activate Harvesters of Sorrow - however do not reactivate yet.
3. At the right moment, use Flash to close gap and land 3rd strike from Mace of Spades + reactivate 2nd part of Harvesters of Sorrow. This will not only heal us, but majorly damage the enemy.
4. Finish with Siphon of Destruction + Ignite (if they are low of course, and you're running Ignite )

Later in the game, you can accomplish much of the same technique with one of the Hextech Items you will pick.

Teleport

Teleport: Interestingly enough I myself don't run this quite as much when I am trying to really bully my lane and steam roll down top, however in matchups where you KNOW you will struggle (e.g Kayle ) then you should ALWAYS bring Teleport. This is so that you can mitigate the weaker lane with stronger map control and stay on top of farming and stopping the push. Since Mordekaiser's rework was designed to keep him most effective in the bot lane thanks to dragon ghost, I always think Teleport is en extremely effective map control tool more so on Mordekaiser than most top laners. In one single play you can secure a double kill bot lane, take dragon, and then take a tower with the dragon ghost.

Ignite

Ignite: I almost always run this myself because I rather crush my lane and utilize the enemy ghost from Children of the Grave to push lane or take the rift herald. It's astonishing how much damage the combination of Children of the Grave and Ignite can burn for over time at the end of a trade.

There are however, several scenarios where taking Ignite just makes no sense because you know you're going to get kited or simply lose lane for the most part. Some of these champions include Taliyah, Riven, Kayle. So when you see this pick, myself I change to Teleport as this allows Mordekaiser to head botlane for kills and dragon objectives.

Questionable Choices

Cleanse

Cleanse: So, generally speaking I avoid taking this Summoner Spell simply because taking it requires dropping either Flash, Ignite or Teleport - all of which have huge potential on Mordekaiser. However, should you find yourself looking

Ghost

Ghost: This Summoner Spell is particularly useful for lanes that are going to be easy to chase down or champion's who use SLOWS as their primary source of CC. These include matchups like Olaf, Gnar & Kayle. Overall though I prefer taking Ignite + Flash as I find that you can make a surprising play much easier with Ignite + Children of the Grave.

Unwise Choices

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Tips: Basically, this lane is difficult due to the hard amount of zoning Ahri brings to a lane - however I argue that we do eventually outscale and can mitigate a lot of their damage with items like Spirit Visage, Abyssal Mask and even Mercury Treads if Magic Resistance is required.

Since we are in the mid lane for this Matchup there are a few very handy tricks for surviving long enough to make it through laning and into the mid-game without being destroyed. I would argue the first, and most important rule is to never take risks if you think Ahri has any shot of an ahri ultimate + Charm + Ignite finisher combo. We are so very immobile and can't rely on evading charms simply by good pathing techniques. So basically, let's say you find yourself at 1/3HP... if you think they have dive potential you have 2 options:

1. Go back and buy items (always advised if you have a chance to upgrade to a core item).
2. Raptors or Wolves Camp (explained in Sustaining Lane Section)

The first option should be what you really should look at closely, evaluate your items and how much room you have to leave lane for a short while. The 2nd option however is a great way to mitigate the continual damage and gradually outfarm and out-sustain an enemy Ahri.

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Tips: Diana is quite a strong champion, and in most of my guides - her difficulty level is always above 5! Huehuehue.. Not this time! Her kit is designed to be an ALL or NOTHING duelist style of burst champion. When vs Mordekaiser however, we both outscale and out-trade most circumstances. This is because Mordekaiser has arguably one of the strongest kits to counter the way Diana initiates, and what's more - we also don't suck as much as her pre-6.

During the Laning Phase, Diana will be using Crescent Strike to farm as well as poke. It's crucial to time your Siphon of Destruction in response to this poke. Even if you don't have the range to hit Diana with Siphon of Destruction, hitting minions will still give us a decent Iron Man shield, mitigating anywhere from 40-70% of the damage. Try to avoid using Sipon of Destruction for farming purposes only as you want her to have to fight you, don't overpush the lane and get ganked.

Make sure to take a bully stance for the most part, get closer to minions that are low and try to make Diana trade with us. Remember as always to be aware of your Harvesters of Sorrow cooldown, without it Diana might try a deadly combo, without Harvesters of Sorrow you may be unable to endure the combo.

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So as a general rule, if you see the Anivia pick, it's probably not a game to be playing Mordekaiser mid. However, there are always circumstances where we are 2nd pick and are countered, so these tips can help getting through it.
1. Farm using Siphon of Destruction if it means safety.
2. Continually use the "Sustaining Through The Mid Lane'' Technique to ensure you don't get so low that it's unsafe to farm.
3. After buying Hextech Revolver, stop investing in pure damage, you need MR. If you feel that you need damage in addition maybe try Abyssal Mask but my usual advice is Spirit Visage as the Healing Buff is always incredibly strong on Mordekaiser.

A little side note on itemization for this lane - sometimes I run Mercury Treads however I usually pick up Boots of Swiftness instead as I often figure avoiding the Anivia Flash Frost is far better than being hit by it and reducing the damage. But really you know yourself as a player and you will pretty quickly see how skilled the Anivia is at landing her stun. Both options are good, but run Mercury Treads always if it's an enemy AP Top like Kennen or Jungler like Elise (both have annoying cc and are AP based) in combination with Anivia then Mercury Treads should be a must buy!

As far as actually trading, never just charge into Anivia she will kite you, poke you and leave you a very unhappy Mordekaiser ONLY take advantage of an enemy out of place or when they have used spells recently and are on Cooldown. Generally speaking though, we have next to no kill potential 1v1, so avoid it. All this is only amplified by Anivia's Rebirth.

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Tips: For the most part this lane should cause no issues. However, Cho'Gath always is a bit of a threat to us if they know how to effectively use their Feral Scream to Silence us at the right moments. Most of the time I would guess that we will face this matchup Top Lane, and most take Teleport for this scenario. In this case, we really have an easy time in lane, and the Cho'Gath has few opportunities for beating us in a 1v1 duel. However, there are times where we might face this in the Mid lane, or for some reason they take Ignite - if this happens make sure to be aware of their Feral Scream cooldown as a sneaky silence + Ignite + Consume can be terrible for a Mordekaiser trying to re-activate a heal.

Aside from that, you can take a pretty aggressive stance in lane, just keep things well warded. His damage and over-all usefulness falls off hard in comparison to Mordekaiser in my opinion. Overall he can't do much to split push either so you should be able to roam and secure Dragon's relatively easily. Keep in mind they might Teleport down to contest it however.

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Zed: So, a lot of this matchup is simply player skill and knowledge over the other player. A good Zed player who understands our kit and how to counter it is a pretty even matchup to be honest. However the fundamental way in which Zed makes his usual engage, is countered by what Mordekaiser does best.

Pre-6: Mordekaiser should have complete lane dominance over Zed, try to stand closer to your minions and play around the q poke. Remember you can negate most of Zed's q poke each time with a quick cast of Siphon of Destruction, even against minions this is just such an easy way to block the poke a Zed usually relies on during the early game.

Post-6: You need to be really aware now, always know when your opponent has Death Mark + Ignite ready, because they can execute us fairly easily if the Ignite cuts into the Harvesters of Sorrow heal amount too much. Generally speaking, if I drop below 50% HP from any of our trades in lane, I retreat to a Jungle camp to heal - SEE "Sustaining the Mid Lane". This is because Zed excels as an executioner, so he's really not that threatening to most champions if they are on even terms, it gets risky when Zed starts dealing % of Missing HP based dmg to champions.

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Hold onto your seatbelts... It's going to be a bumpy ride...

Yeahhhh... Try to do yourself a favor and avoid this lane if you see it picked, generally speaking it's really not fun for Mordekaiser.

I strongly suggest communicating to your Jungler that you will require babysitting, because it's highly unlikely you will succeed in this lane without assistance. Basically any decent Xerath will continually poke you, you're too immobile to dodge this consistently. Despite the fact that Xerath is mana reliant, all hope of out-sustaining his barrage of spells are lost to his virtually unlimited mana pool thanks to his broken passive.

I always get Boots earlier rather than later (sometimes even first buy) as the mobility assists in being able to dodge the skillshots. Beyond this however, items such as Spirit Visage and Abyssal Mask can be really useful for trying to tank through Xerath's initial poke and burst. The idea for this lane is to survive long enough to get into melee range and still have enough HP to survive a full on assault. Also SPAM the heck out of my "Sustaining The Mid Lane" tip.

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Seriously this lane has ALWAYS been a cakewalk for me. Aside from the occasional game where Akali makes an awesome roam to other lanes and snowballs hard - I usually win. I think this is simpy due to Akali's linear trading style directly being countered to a Mordekaiser's linear trading style, but let's evaluate what's at play here.


Pre-6: Mordekaiser is just so much stronger than Akali at this point, our Mace of Spades is a rough counter to squishier melee champions in general, however combined with Siphon of Destruction we should be able to completely zone even good Akali players.

Post-6: If this player is anything like the majority of Akali players, they will try going HAM the moment they hit 6. Generally speaking, we will be able to duel them in this circumstance, no problem! This is super rare, and I believe it's largely due to the Akali damage being inflicted to our Iron Man Shield, as we fight them. Beyond this, Akali MUST get in the danger zone ( Harvesters of Sorrow ) to fight us, which means we almost always have a guaranteed OP heal.

Remember: Siphon of Destruction & Harvesters of Sorrow can effectively damage Akali even within their shroud, so ensure to keep that Harvesters of Sorrow churning if you are still hitting the opponent under veil.

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Generally speaking, don't pick Mordekaiser into this lane, there are far better choices to combat Orianna, one of my personal favorite off-meta choices being my AP Ezreal - check it out if you're interested. However if you are faced with this lane as Mordekaiser, ask for help from a Jungler as they have a pretty immobile target in Orianna that they should be able capitalize on with your help.

Pre-6: Orianna has pretty much complete control over this lane, aside from her heavy reliance upon mana, which is why our strongest strategy for early game is to OUT-SUSTAIN her. Follow the tip outlined in "Sustaining the Mid Lane" to ensure you can run the Orianna mana pool low as well as remain healthy despite the heavy poke. Remember to also always try to mitigate the damage of her spells with Siphon of Destruction in addition to this.

Post-6: My personal advice is to invest in some form of Magic Resistance, as without it Orianna's damage will really sting and you will be quite unlikely to break through the initial burst damage she's going to dish out before you reach melee range combat. Items like an early Haunting Guise are really handy for these kinds of mages, then building into Spirit Visage. However if you've been lucky and enduring the opponent's damage is no trouble, then invest in Rylai's Crystal Scepter as per usual.

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This lane is very "snowball" one way or the other. Generally speaking whoever gets the initial kill on the other is usually the one to dominate lane. However, I would argue that Renekton falls off into the late game much earlier than Mordekaiser does, so there's always room for a comeback even if you've given a kill or two.

Pre-6: Relatively even in trading potential, Renekton has extremely high base damage with quite large AD scaling on most of his kit. This means that he's quite effective at bullying most champions out of lane, and Mordekaiser is no exception to this rule. A Renekton's trade is a "hit and run" sequence most of the time. They dash in ---> Stun ---> BIG chunk of Damage ---> Dash Out. Whenever they do this, try your best to get your Harvesters of Sorrow activated while they are next to you, as this will heal you a great deal from their trade. A really good Renekton won't hang around unless he's going for the kill though, so they will dart in and do ALL their trade while you are stunned - you won't even get a chance to cast Harvesters of Sorrow, in this case you may consider an earlier form of tenacity boots, so this stun duration is lowered.

Post-6: When brawling it out with a Renekton you need to evaluate what's been used so far and how long each engagement goes for. In an extended battle where all of Renekton's escape tools have just been used, as well as their ultimate - you should probably activate Children of the Grave + Ignite sooner rather than later as this drains the opponent, gives us HP & prevents healing Renekton often relies upon. However, don't waste these spells too early, as a simple stun + dash is all a Renekton needs to completely disengage a Mordekaiser.

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Really quite a harsh counter to Mordekaiser - I strongly advise avoiding this lane matchup for the most part, as Riven's kit is highly exploitable by a handful of champions if you want to learn a pocket pick, Cassiopeia being a really strong one.

This is one of my common opponents in Top Lane recently. Riven Mains usually know they counter me, and Riven overall is just simply strong!

Pre-6: A "GOOD" Riven player will know their limits and will likely go quite aggressive during early laning. Remember that hard CC is Mordekaiser's HARDEST form of counter and Riven brings 2 forms in both a Knockup AND a stun. Chaining this effectively will break almost any form of play Mordekaiser relies upon. So generally speaking, be very passive, if she moves forward - back up. Farm with Siphon of Destruction as safely you can, and remember that a fed Riven = gg for team. This doesn't mean be a complete ***** however, trade with them, however just make sure it's on your terms rather than trying to move forward and engage head on.

Post-6: Riven's "All In" potential is quite insane and will deal huge amounts of damage to Mordekaiser, so it's crucial to respect their hard engage and realize that you will probably need some Tenacity and Tank itemization to effectively duel her. Aside from that, ask Jungler for assistance.. Just keep in mind she can 2v1 quite well if you're behind substantially. Sometimes it's better to roam and secure more Dragon's than keep fighting a losing battle.

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Overall this lane should be in Mordekaiser's favor for laning, however Malphite's team fight potential is far more devastating than Mordekaiser so the aim here is always to bully and snowball a game via early kills, towers & objectives to the point where despite the enemy composition being stronger with a Malphite pick, we still win simply due to gold lead and larger map control.

Pre-6: Heavily in Mordekaiser's favor, so try to take a Bully Stance. Every time Malphite is in range to cast q we will be in range to cast Siphon of Destruction - this makes the continual Malphite poke virtually useless. Stand in front of your minion wave for the most part, as Malphite will be faced with either CSing with q or using q on us.

Post-6: Try not to leave yourself vulnerable to Malphite Rock Slam, as the sudden burst combined with the knock-up is devastating to Mordekaiser chaining his spells together. ALWAYS WARD! Any Jungler knows how well a Malphite Rock Slam sets up a gank, and they also know Mordekaiser has no escape! So you're a prime target. Die to too many ganks and Malphite can still easily defeat us 1v1.

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Slippery guy this one, not to mention his engage tools are unlike any other champion. I always think of Wukong as the horrible child of Shaco and Malphite combining kits... Mordekaiser can do quite well against Wukong, however some Wukong players will utilize their kit to negate Mordekaiser's kit from working effectively. Try not to give an early kill, as this guy will snowball pretty hard and is a MAJOR threat to your team's back line later on if this happens.

Pre-6: Fairly even lane, however generally speaking I play things on the safe side levels 1-3. Then levels 4-6 you can really start to duel it out more if you are relatively even in HP. Remember that a good Wukong will be trying to utilize clones to tank the high damage components of your kit. There is nothing more frustrating than landing the 3rd and most powerful Mace of Spades strike against a useless Wukong clone, negating about 30% of our damage.

Post-6: Wukong has a very scary ultimate in his r. Warding is essential, as Wukong's knockup is the perfect initiation for any jungler and we aren't likely going to see Wukong going for this thanks to his invisibility, so clear vision of river is ALWAYS preferred. It can be incredibly useful picking up a Vision Ward even for dueling this guy as sometimes being able to hit the invisible target with a Mace of Spades strike is what's required for the kill.. Can't hit what you can't see!

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My question for this lane is almost always Ignite or Teleport? Because most Irelia players will take Teleport but some of these guys take Ignite which can SEVERELY change the outcomes of our duels. Overall though, we should have a minor advantage over Irelia simply due to our ability to bully the lane enough to gain a lead over them early. Mid-Late game however, there's no question Irelia is an unstoppable force, so try to ensure you don't slip too far behind.

Pre-6: Like most champions Irelia faces for the first levels, she is pretty hard countered when fighting against Mordekaiser's early game. This is due to our high base damages as well as our ability to punish Irelia's q dive farm techniques. In the early levels Irelia will try darting in and out of farming using q, there is a 3 part method I use to counter this:
1. Stand close to the minion soon to die
2. If you can see them moving in to collect the farm, use Harvesters of Sorrow on the minion, and activate Mace of Spades.
3. As the Irelia takes the minion, they will re-activate 2 rings of Harvesters of Sorrow, you then hit them with Mace of Spades and tag them with a Siphon of Destruction on their way out.

This combo is highly effective, however you can get caught with your pants down if you try this technique in the later levels as you NEED to allow Harvesters of Sorrow to churn as a DoT ability when fighting Irelia in extended circumstances.


Post-6: Once Irelia has hit 6, you should really evaluate how well you have been trading with them thus far, as well as seriously consider which Summoner Spell they have taken Ignite or Teleport. If they have taken Ignite I strongly advise AGAINST dueling this player now as their damage is usually insane and will happen VERY quickly, try to win now via objectives unless you have already established some lead over the player.

If however they have taken Teleport then I would say your dueling power matches the Irelia and you should activate Children of the Grave + Ignite pretty much the moment Irelia activates their ultimate. This is because Ignite cuts the healing effects of r and Children of the Grave will drain Irelia while healing Mordekaiser, virtually reversing the usual effect Irelia sees when they duel a champion.

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Realistically a good Singed player is just going to hardcore proxy all day. Your actual dueling potential is somewhat limited and furthermore, a good Singed actually outscales us simply due to tankiness and AOE harass IF the Singed knows what they're doing.

So realistically it's difficult to stop the push, and it's difficult to engage on him because of his annoying kit and our limited mobility. Where does this leave us?

Objective Control!

For me, the best way to counter a Singed is to create an equal Macro focused effort into our own endeavors. So, prioritize all Dragon's as these will give by far the highest impact on tower control and can't easily be countered with pure force as Singed will usually stick to relentless pushing, so if we group with team 4v5, they can't stop the pressure.

For me, I drop Ignite for this matchup unless you have any plans from your Jungler to quickly and effectively prevent Singed from doing his thing. Generally it's not a bad idea to grab Teleport or Ghost as this aids us greatly against a Singed. Teleport will assist in defense, Ghost is versatile however is definitely more of an offensive choice.

He's probably going to grab a Zz'Rot Portal at some stage, and to be honest it's not a bad idea grabbing one ourselves.. But evaluate what he's buying. Remember 1 Zz'Rot Portal should counter another, but a Singed who rushes one will definitely take towers very early if you try to force Dragon control and have nothing to defend your towers from continual push.

Mordekaiser Bot Lane Brief Summary and Tips:

Some People don't enjoy the matchups Mid and find that Mid Mordekaiser as a secondary Role is trickier for them to manage and survive. Other people might just be looking to Duo with a good partner that can make Mordekaiser effective in the Bot Lane. Overall, I would tell you that with the current meta of high range, high poke and hyper carry bot laners make playing Mordekaiser in the bot lane very difficult, even though this was the intended purpose of his Rework.

So without further ado!
My thoughts on Bot Lane Mordekaiser matchups:

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These supports can make Mordekaiser Bot Lane work really effectively:

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These Supports "can" work, however it's highly dependent upon the ally's understanding of the champion they are playing and also understanding how Mordekaiser's kit needs to work with their own:

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And these Supports I would strongly advise AGAINST playing in Combination with Mordekaiser in the Bot Lane (don't have these allies!):

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SUPPORT CHOICE SUMMARY:

As you can pretty quickly see - the supports that work best with Mordekaiser offer both some form of hard engage and CC, most of these picks are also tanky. Often these supports also can run Relic Shield to offer sustain in lane and shared farming techniques to out-sustain and out-farm the opponents.

The supports that really don't work as well are those that are best designed to "zone enemies" and/or "shield allies" instead of actually engaging themselves. The exception to this kind of rule are champions like Zilean that can offer Mordekaiser extra movespeed to actually get in melee range as well as potentially stun the enemy with double Time Bomb's, then if things go wrong, Chronoshift is always the failsafe. But these kinds of champions obviously require good communication and I don't really recommend it for Solo Queue.

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_____________________________ENEMY ADC MATCHUPS________________________________

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These Opponents you can do quite well against, given the correct support of course:

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These ADC's are difficult for Mordekaiser to overcome their kiting potential, I would avoid these matchups in general, but there are way too many variables for this to be a "rule":

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In Bot Lane, I almost always advise getting Relic Sheild and either x 3 Potion of Health or a Refillable Potion depending on whether you think it will be early burst aggression or sustained aggression. The advantage of Relic Shield if that you and your support can share farm and will both heal eachother with the sustain these Relic Shield kills provide. The disadvantage is however our damage is quite lacking until we get some items and out of the early levels. If the enemy jungler decided to make an early play against us, we are potentially screwed.

____________________________CORE 3 ITEMS FOR BOT LANE___________________________

These boots are my personal choice for Mordekaiser as I believe mobility is always a strong investment on an immobile carry, however you can vary this choice from game to game depending on what is needed.

We this item has been explained before however, this is core to Bot Lane Mordekaiser as it really gives you the dueling potential you need at roughly the time you and your support will hit 6 and seek engage.

There are only a few ADCs who can benefit from an early Phage. Mordekaiser is one of them. Honestly this item rounds out some of Mordekaiser's early chase potential. Each Mace of Spades hit will proc "rage" which gives the movespeed often needed to hit the next strike.

When filling the Role of Bot Lane we can severely imbalance the Team's Damage sources and overall damage output if we build exactly like we might for Top Lane, always consider building into items such as: Sterak's Rage, Trinity Force, Hextech Gunblade and even in some cases Death's Dance or Bloodthirster to give your team a bit more AD.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is always still an amazing item, so no matter the amount of AP your team has, I almost always advise this. I've played maybe only 3 games where I broke this rule and went for Frozen Mallet instead simply because our team had so much initiation and I had already gotten Trinity Force so I was able to chain the Mace of Spades easier (thanks to 40% attack speed from Trinity Force - with Frozen Mallet this really is a must otherwise it's very hard to chain the slowing effect with base attack speed. Generally though, please just run Rylai's Crystal Scepter!

These are a few tricks & tips I want to pass onto you guys because I've learnt these over MANY games and these are the tricks that any player who claims "mastery" of Mordekaiser should already know:

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_________________________________Returning To Lane:_________________________________

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Pretty simple trick but I use this pretty much every single game I play. When returning to lane, you should use Harvesters of Sorrow on a minion that is heading down the lane and in front of you, as Harvesters of Sorrow gives movespeed to targets moving toward one another. In this case Mordekaiser will be moving toward the minion that is running ahead of him down lane.

Remember too in general, if an ally is ahead of you or behind you this movepeed bonus can be essential to getting to a location promptly. Just don't use it then not have it off cooldown for the actual fight!

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______________________________Sustaining Through The Mid Lane___________________________

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Thanks to Harvesters of Sorrow, Mordekaiser can easily walk to Raptors and heal a good 1/3 of HP with a single cast. Each time we do this, basically we mitigate all the damage we probably took trying to farm the most recent wave of farm - but we do not have mana like most mid laners, so we can keep going where they will likely run dry. Same theory applies to Wolves. Utilize these camps to ensure you can endure the damage and still farm your lane. In lanes like Ahri and LeBlanc in which Mordekaiser has little chance to gap close and the Jungler has little chance to catch them too due to their higher mobility - usually I say to the Jungler to not gank for the most part, and instead ask that you can take Raptors & Wolves from time to time for the extra farm. Remember 3 rounds of raptors is 1 kill's worth of gold. This also will often give us a much needed level advantage.

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______________________________HEAL YOUR TEAM!___________________________

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This is more something you need to be continually aware of, rather than a special trick. But basically Mordekaiser's Harvesters of Sorrow acts as a support spell during team fights, or just around the map in general. Remember, this spell gives a DoT Aura around an ally, gives movespeed AND gives a broken heal upon re-activation (provided you are in drain range).

So remember that this spell heals significantly, and can significantly revive squishier targets that want to dive in, yet are likely going to be punished after they've made their engage - e.g. Lee Sin, Vi & Malphite. So it's almost always a decent choice to prioritize your "initiator" (whoever you've identified that as), when utilizing your heal and supporting ability.

Remember too, Jungle Camps heal a LOT more than minions, so generally speaking it's not always worthwhile trying to heal an ally off a minion wave. If for example, you & your Jungler have just taken significant damage however need to defend a tower, ping your Jungler to stand near a jungle camp, and heal him back up with Harvesters of Sorrow

This section is designed to be a quick reference to what items you should be considering for each game. Mordekaiser can build in so many different ways, due to his natural tank stats, both AD & AP scaling. So, we are going to evaluate ALL kinds of itemization here, but please don't think that items put in the "Wise Choices" category make sense for every game! A single game of League is a continually shifting Dynamic, and it's critical to assess what your team composition lacks and what role you need to be filling, since we are so versatile.

For each item, I have attempted to "categorize" them into functions they will give you, these include:

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_________________________________WISE CHOICES:_________________________________

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Hextech Revolver ----> Hextech Gunblade OR Hextech Rocketbelt:

Summary: This item, followed by either Hextech Gunblade or Hextech Rocketbelt is virtually the only item I truly consider "core" to Mordekaiser. In short, this item fills the void between your weaker early game and transitions into 2 excellent activatable item choices that both allow Mordekaiser to achieve much more than if he lacked the activatable portion of these item choices.

Personally however, I rarely build directly into the final forms of the Hextech Revolver as a first purchase, simply because I find Hextech Revolver is a VALUE purchase, however, does not give Mordekaiser significant gains in completing the item path. This is why I usually build a Trinity Force (starting with Phage ) for stronger 1v1 dueling Top Lane OR I build into a Rylai's Crystal Scepter for a more rounded kit that now includes CC and more HP. So, buy Hextech Revolver but do give it some thought before rushing the items it builds into.