Hi all and welcome to my first guide on the Mordekaiser. I have played over several hundred games on Mordekaiser and I am currently in Plat hoping to enlighten other players to this standard guide that seems to be working quite well for me in ranked solo q. I also feel that compared to other guides/builds for Mordekaiser that always assume you will hit the 6 items dream which is rare but this one gives the general outline of how to deal the most damage possible while also giving left over item spaces for adaptation during a dynamic solo q match. I have also included a somewhat in depth section at the end of this guide/build suggesting how you should play some match-ups and what items you should build from my previous experiences.

Mordekaiser is a champion that has not seen much competitive play but does pretty well in solo q due to his ability to tank, nuke targets instantly, and the extremely powerful ult that can cripple/make the opposing teams MVP into your personal puppet to turn a team fight on its head. He is also very capable of being built into many different roles and be put into either the mid or top lane.

This guide is built to address the rise of S5s tank meta, remedying some of Mordekaiser's weaknesses in the laning phase and further strengthening his immense strength and kill pressure in fights.

Mordekaiser is a very unique champion who offers little to no team fight utility but provides an immense amount of damage, kill potential and durability should he be given the chance.

Pros :
- Tons of damage with notable scalings on his abilities
- Deceptively high ability to tank
- Lots of area of effect spells
- Can kill even tanks with ease
- Ability to turn your enemies strongest asset against them in a team fight
- Low cooldowns on most abilities at higher levels
- Does not use mana for skills
- Has exceptional wave clear
- Exceptional trades if the passive is used properly against an opponent
- Has the option to farm the jungle and lane effectively to reach power spikes before other champions
- One of the strongest late game champions to carry a game due to his ridiculous potential stemming from his ultimate and passive
- Has a lot of threat range given his Flash Siphon of Destruction Ignite Children of the Grave combo

Cons :
- Health Costs causes the Murder Emperor to go murder himself as well as everyone else
- Squishy to high amounts of CC burst damage from untargetable sources ( Fizz/ Syndra/ Fiora)
- Suffers from the lack of mobility in team fights and often relies on team mates
- Slow to roam or take advantage of openings on the map
- Mid to low range makes getting to the back line hard with all the tanks in the current meta
- Weak early game
- Easy to become ganked and fall behind quickly without support
- Is heavily item dependent for damage so falling behind early game is devastating
- Cannot provide much help to team mates if they get caught
- Unlikely to get a penta kill due to no mobility unless the entire enemy team runs into him

I use these runes to help win early trades in lane while also building towards the mid and late game damage items.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration helps with overall damage output and has a lot of synergy with our core build as it will allow us to deal true damage to everyone who does not yet have 40+ MR.
Greater Seal of Armor will help when dealing with auto attack trades in lane and works even better should you grab Doran's shield.
Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction are there to help us with our late game damage and to be honest we dont need the ~10 ap early on since we are relying on base damage and MR pen to carry us until we get our massive ap items like Rabadon's Deathcap
Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp are significantly better than any other alternative since we don't have to spend a lot of our gold into a Hextech Revolver which doesn't provide as much durability or damage as a Haunting Guise for more early game power.

I spec 19-0-11 into offense and utility since we are trying to do as much damage while also tapping into the additional 3% spellvamp. This will allow us to skip the revolver and go straight into more combat related items so that we can fight more and control the pace of the game.

For summoner spells go with flash ignite for threat range and burst if you need the additional mobility go with ghost flash. You can also use flash smite to clear the jungle faster and reach power spikes quicker although I don't recommend it since it reduces your ability to outright kill a target either by bursting them with ignite or running them down with ghost and Lich Bane.

Flash : When used properly it can greatly increase your pick potential, threat range, grants movement over walls, and can enable your close range spells to hit targets in the back line. If used in conjunction with your e and ult you have really high pick potential against moderately low targets and is heavily recommended.
Ignite : Greatly increases the ability to burst a target, negate last second healing, and helps overall threat in a fight.
Ghost : A close second to flash and ignite but should be used against very mobile champions with appreciable range that you can run down with the distortion enchant.

You should rank up the skills in the following order R>E>Q>W and putting 1 point in Creeping Deathat level 4.
This will give you multiple options of wave clear, and ways to trade in lane depending on your situation.


Mace of Spades : Good once you have a lot of points invested into it but it suffers from being a melee range ability and a relatively long cooldown at low levels.
Creeping Death : Effective ranged AoE dps ability that also bolsters the defense of your initiator/tank but should be leveled last since you want as much burst as possible to nuke anyone in a teamfight.
Siphon of Destruction : This is your main skill that provides exceptional wave clear, is ranged, deals considerable damage, and is on a much lower cooldown than your q at lower levels.
Children of the Grave : One of the most powerful ultimate abilities in the game that should always be ranked up whenever possible. It has bad scaling in the early game but is absolutely devastating to anyone in the late game with its massive % max health damage, hefty duration, and the extremely powerful ghost if you kill someone with this ability. This ability also provides sustain by outright draining your opponent's health and giving it to you. Use this skill wisely since it can be used to survive damage, threaten a carry, cc someone (rylai's), or be used as an execute on a frontline tank/assassin to remove them from the fight and gain an early numbers advantage. Usually people will state that you should always ult the carry for more damage potential but sometimes it is better to drain a massive portion of hp and possibly even kill the tank for more durability and the ability to push down towers with ease after a potentially won teamfight.

Starting Items
Boots and Doran's Shield helps against champions reliant on skill shots or heavy auto attack trading at early levels. You can also pick up the Boots in case if you want to harass your opponent more.

Early/Mid Game Core Items
The reason to grab these items Sorcerer's Shoes Haunting Guiserather a Will of the Ancients is to help win in early fights. Doing true damage, bypassing the base MR of most enemies with your skills and moving significantly faster to get off more damage is much greater than the minor 20% spellvamp and 10% CDR solely because of your passive (if you think about it the passive acts as if it is giving 105% spellvamp against champions and 45% against minions that can overheal from your abilities since all your abilities excluding the ult are aoe and spellvamp is reduced to just 1/3rd for these skills). If you really need hp in a fight your ult should also provide a lot of additional sustain and it works better with damage rather than spellvamp since it already drains for 100% of the damage dealt.

Mid/Late Game Build
The plethora of magic penetration from Sorcerer's Shoes Haunting Guiseand Void Staff should allow you to deal the most damage possible against teams with Locket of the Iron Solari while the enhanced ap ratios from Rabadon's Deathcap threatens even the squishies of the opposing team of getting blown up instantly. There is also 2 addtional slot for any situational items you choose depending on what will give you the most benefit when fighting.
The Rabadon's Deathcap and Voidstaff should always be part of your end game core items that will help you deal as much damage possible to also synergize with your passive and should never be skipped.

Uber Late Game Build
The build varies depending on the match since pretty much anything happens in solo q and you have 2 free slots to build any answers to whoever presents the greatest threat on the opposing team. You can even sell of the Haunting guise for a more powerful/situational item if the game goes on long enough.


Situational Items
Lich Bane greatly helps in overall damage especially in team fight brawls as it gives you an additional magic damage modifier. Lich Bane also greatly increase your burst damage with a Creeping Death Flashauto attack Mace of Spades combo proccing it 2 times in quick succession.
Luden's Tempest is a late purchase against prolonged team fights where you can reliably get a lot of procs, kiting and when you have a significant amount of cooldown reduction.
Mejai's Soulstealer is another viable pickup but only if you are winning extremely hard and your opponents are very unlikely to kill you.
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is extremely powerful against targets that have to burn dashes defensively or those with absolutely no mobility whatsoever such as Ahri, Pantheon, Viktor, Nasus, etc.
Will of the Ancients/ Banshee's Veil greatly helps against poke as they either negate damage or allow you to heal the damage taken.
Zhonya's Hourglass is almost mandatory depending on whether or not your are facing a champion with a really high damage ult or burst combo (Fizz, Fiora, Zed, Leblanc, etc)
Mercury's Treads is good against heavy damage early game AP carries such as Annie or Swain
Abyssal Mask greatly helps in most AP match ups and gives a really good debuff to amplify your damage in fights.

Take smart trades by positioning yourself so that your AoE will hit the opposing laner and their minions. Use Creeping Death to generate shield at a safe distance then walk in if you think they might try to burst you and you are low on shields. If you are up against a champion who has a lot of kill potential you can either nuke the wave and shove it to their turret to reset the wave or farm conservatively at a range with Siphon of Destruction while allowing the minion wave to push towards you. If you intend to push out there is high chance that you will get ganked so it is best to buy wards and stay closer to the side of the lane they are on.

You can start doing the camps (wolves and raptors) effectively post level 7. You should only do so when your jungler is off ganking another lane or if it is on the opposite side from them so it will probably respawn when they come back. You also should consider your opponent's ability to wave clear since the opposing creep wave might be shoved into your tower. If anything push your wave to their tower and immediately run back to work on the jungle camp. Do not attempt to do this if there is a highly aggressive jungler (Shaco/Xin Zhao) in the game that can easily force you to back to base or burn summoners since your skills would most likely be on cooldown.

This Mordekaiser build tends to work best with heavy ad/initiation/burst comps that forces CC or damage away from him and allows him to dominate a teamfight with almost true damage.
Good champions that excel with Mordekaiser are Wukong Jarvan IV Ashe Lissandra Zedetc.

Mordekaiser also works well against some squishy assassins/offtanks and those who deal damage up close but lack the ability to burst him down that have a lot of HP ( Vladimir/ Olaf/ Ahri/ Diana/ Kassadin). He is also really strong against squishy close range assassins/adcs that can be easily punished with brute force such as Vayne Quinn Zed Draven and if your team has good reliable cc/lockdown then Fizz.

Unlike most Mordekaiser build this build is more geared towards the mid game for heavy tower pushing/aggression once he obtains his core but still transitions well into the late game through significant magic resist penetration and good scaling against high hp targets.

Ahri : Try to have a feel for your opponent. If you push the wave relentlessly to their tower and they don't need to spam Orb of Deception it is better to stay in the middle or closer to your turret. Either Doran's Shield or Boots will help in dealing with her since she relies on skill shots and auto attack trading in lane to get an advantage. Depending on the jungler you can also choose to build a Negatron Cloak to mitigate a lot of her all in potential early and continue to build a CS advantage. If the Ahri has difficulty controlling the lane/trading with you then building Sorcerer's Shoes Haunting Guise will grant you more innate mobility and penetration to punish her further.

Akali : Her early game is exceptionally weak since she cannot utilize most of the damage from q or e before obtaining her ult. Pressure her quickly through harass with Siphon of Destruction. Boots/ Sorcerer's Shoes do not help as much here due to her excellent targeted mobility so kiting becomes difficult. Since kiting becomes nearly impossible after she gets her ult, rushing an Abyssal Mask will allow you to torture her even further if she tries to all in.

Anivia : A classic counter to Mordekaiser's low mobility since her wall and zone control is punishing. Push out the lane aggressively before she obtains her ult then play it very defensively. Her wall and AoE slow can often force your flash or will likely net a kill with any support from the jungler. Avoid playing around walls and stay closer to the center of the lane. If you do find yourself out of position it might be better to just run into the river than towards your tower since she lacks mobility. The item you should build is Sorcerer's Shoes since they will allow you a chance to avoid Anivia's Flash Frost and will greatly reduce the time you are in her ult.

Annie : An exceptionally strong early game champion that can easily burst down a Mordekaiser early. The stun from Pyromania enables her to win trade against you should you choose to be passive. The best way to deal with her is to outright avoid her by clearing the wave as soon as possible and farm the jungle to buy the magic resist/health to survive her damage. You can also choose to buy an early Giant's Belt for extra survivability but I would recommend grabbing the Abyssal Mask and potentially Mercury's Treads

Azir : Try to always avoid his sand soldier's and force him to reposition them if he wants to do anything. This can be done by clearing the wave or walking up along the side of the lane and harassing him with Siphon of Destruction. Sorcerer's Shoes enables better trading and dueling since he relies so heavily on the positioning of his soldier's. After he obtains his ult, things will get very dangerous since he can abuse your lack of mobility and cut off your potential escape routes. Trade and farm closer to your tower to lower the chance of being knocked into his turret through his ult. If the wave is closer to his turret try clearing the waves as soon as possible while letting your jungler know in case if you get ganked by the opposing jungler.

Brand : A more uncommon pick but you can push into his turret early and his reliance landing his q makes Sorcerer's Shoes a good purchase. Buying MR through an early Negatron Cloak or more spellvamp through a Hextech Revolver might help alleviate problems if you are eating too many of his skills.

Cassiopeia : Another champion reliant on skill shots actually landing. Try avoiding her poison and trade aggressively whenever your skills are up. Spend the majority of your time facing away from her since the stun from her ult is pretty much a free kill. Sorcerer's Shoes will help allow you to dodge the poison easier while also providing easy harass since she will most likely build towards a tear on her first purchase.

Cho'Gath : This is pretty much a farm fest and grabbing a Mercury's Treads/ Giant's Belt will greatly increase your survivability to his burst combo.

Corki : This match up tends to favor Corki early on due to his stronger ranged auto attacks and good wave clear. Focus on wave clear and farming until you can obtain your Sorcerer's Shoes and Haunting Guise then you will be able to trade efficiently against him.

Diana : Akin to Akali you should punish her early and focus on rushing an Abyssal Mask. Unlike her however buying boots might also be a good option to avoid her Crescent Strike that enables most of her burst damage combo.

Ekko : Press your advantage early on and buy an Abyssal Mask and Boots. Also take note of his ult since it can make your all in backfire horribly. To beat an Ekko once he obtains his ult is to out dps/sustain him in a fight. A Will of the Ancients, Haunting Guise and Abyssal Mask will allow you to fight him off.

Ezreal : You are rarely ever going to kill this guy due to his range and escapes. Just out farm him till the mid game, buy your core and fight for objectives.

Fiddlesticks : He cannot threaten you early unless you directly walk into him as he is draining you. Be careful of your positioning, clear his wave quickly and ward often so your other lanes do not get ganked into oblivion. By pushing really hard he is often forced to farm at a disadvantage since he lacks efficient wave clear and will miss CS often. Build Mercury's Treads Haunting Guise and Rabadon's Deathcap so you can retaliate should he all in you.

Fiora : This is a significantly harder match up than most since she can easily all in you before and after obtaining her ult. Try to keep the wave towards you since she has a high enough ad ratio to last hit at turret anyway so there is no merit in pushing the wave. To prevent roams you should also ward defensively alongside both ends of the river and try to follow up if she is moving towards your bot lane or top lane for a dive. Vision is absolutely key in this matchup since your team needs to prevent her from snowballing and becoming unstoppable. It is most wise to build towards a Zhonya's Hourglass from a Doran's Shield since it gives a lot of AP Armor and provides damage immunity to her targeted ult.

Fizz : Easily punishable early game as you shield will protect you from his passive and keep your health relatively high. Always position yourself to hit Fizz with your e while pushing down the lane. You can even harass him under the turret but be careful of jungler interference since you are overextended when doing so. Buying an early pink ward might remedy a lot of your vision problems and allows you to save gold towards a either Zhonya's Hourglass or Abyssal Mask to mitigate his damage while still dishing it out in teamfights.

Galio : Relatively hard to kill but easy to harass. Just trade consistently in lane while also pushing it towards his turret. This will force him to go out of mana and allows your team to pressure the map. Be weary of the ult since most junglers provide enough damage to outright kill you. Building a Mercury's Treads and Haunting Guise/ Abyssal Mask will greatly help in mitigating the cc and damage while adding to your own.

Heimerdinger : This matchup is pretty much a farm fest because both you and the Heimerdinger will not be able to run into each other without dying. It is difficult to approach him without dying to his turrets and he always tries to stay behind the creeps to place even more turrets. Even with jungler support do not attempt to kill him since more often than not his upgraded turret will shred though your health bars in no time. Take smart trades, spam Siphon of Destruction and focus on killing all the minions, a few of his turrets, and possibly the jungle creeps as well. Buying your standard core will allow you to deal hefty amounts of damage and allow you to move freely in lane.

Irelia : Just farm closer to your side since she is unlikely to miss CS with Bladesurge. You might want to clear the wave as soon as possible if you want to get the jungle creeps as well. Recommended items in response to her Trinity Force are Haunting Guise and Rabadon's Deathcap.

Jayce : This is a match up that favors Jayce early on due to his greatly stronger auto attacks and ranged poke but as long as you farm it out and cast spells in response to his to the skies and melee attacks you should be fine. Depending on who is the enemy jungler in addition to vision you can keep it closer to either side depending on how far up the lane you want to push. Your main items when facing against Jayce are Sorcerer's Shoes for more damage and more ability to dodge his sudden long ranged poke and possibly a Rabadon's Deathcap to make wave clearing/jungling easier.

Karma : You should try and farm a lot to late game. The reason to farm so hard is that it is unlikely you will kill her due to her shield, innate speed, and long range wave clear with a regular and mantra'd Inner Flame. Buy Sorcerer's Shoes Haunting Guise and Rabadon's Deathcap to outright out shield/heal her damage while farming the jungle for even more gold and experience.

Karthus : Yet another farm fest... Just buy Sorcerer's Shoes Haunting Guise and Rabadon's Deathcap and out shield his damage while farmign even faster.

Kassadin : Should be able to punish him early by shoving the lane to his tower forcing his to spec in w to last hit. Once you see that he is doing quite a bit of damage with his w let the wave bounce off the turret towards you and starve him. He will then be forced to either receive jungler support, farm with his q which is very inefficient, or take considerable damage when farming since he did not rank up his Null Sphere to mitigate magic damage. Post level 6 you should always punish him by shoving the lane into his turret and ward so he cant get free kills off your other lanes. You can use this additional time to subsidize the cost of those wards by farming the jungle creeps in between waves. Due to his innate passive MR pen is not as effective since he will always mitigate the damage however an Abyssal Mask and Rabadon's Deathcap once completed will make his life hell. These 2 items provide lots of damage mitigation/amplification while allowing you to clear waves even harder to prevent roaming or force the Kassadin to fall behind even harder in CS.

Katarina : A strong solo q champion that is picked quite a bit. She can be punished early by having the wave shoved in since she doesn't farm well under towers nor does she provide a lot of kill pressure onto you with a lack of cc. Buying Sorcerer's Shoes Rabadon's Deathcap will allow you to harass effectively, take good trades with the ~150 ap and clear waves so she can't roam unless she wants to miss CS. To punish most katarina players who go off looking for kills since she is such a heavy snowball champ you should ward heavily towards bot side pref and notify team mates that Katarina is missing from mid lane. If your bot lane is brain dead and decides to fight her with 200 hp or something just follow her and try to pick up a revenge kill after the dive with all the killing spree gold attached to her.

Kayle : This is a really punishing matchup where you have to rely on your jungler to gank her and force the Kayle to play more defensively. Until then you have to try and build Boots and as much ap to effectively farm under tower. Do not try to push the wave early or she can cast Reckoning and auto attack you 3-4 times with Righteous Fury leading to an absolutely miserable trade.

Kennen : Pick up a Doran's Shield/ Boots then Abyssal Mask and Rabadon's Deathcap push hard by clearing the wave instantly. After killing most or all of the creeps just walk back. This will force Kennen to either farm with his Lightning Rush, take damage from the minions if he is trying to cheese off an all in or lose CS to the tower. If he uses the lightning rush to farm you can go ahead up the lane and harass him even more.

Kog'Maw : Just pick up Sorcerer's Shoes and Haunting Guise to harass him to no end. Punish his early game as much as possible and work towards your Rabadon's Deathcap to help wave clear and build shield from all the random poke. Look below for proper positioning against Void Ooze.
In a parallel position to the enemy Kog'Maw you can easily side step the Void Ooze without much hinderance and you can continue to farm in safety without fear of getting completely wrecked by a gank.
In a more perpendicular position to the Kog'Maw you take the risk of Void Ooze cutting off your main escape towards your turret. Additionally if the enemy jungler is mobile and can dash over walls they can easily surprise you and start applying cc to break your legs while the Kog'Maw vomits at you to death.

LeBlanc : Some players consider leblanc a counter to morde due to her high burst but you can easily win trades with her just by casting Siphon of Destruction while she is in mid flight with Distortion. This will grant you a lot of shield from the wave to mitigate her damage to pretty much nothing while also damaging her. Due to her squishy nature if she takes 2-3 Siphon of Destruction she will be forced to chug lots of hp pots or go into lane at low hp. If she is at 30% or lower you can try to all in her with Ignite Children of the Grave and Siphon of Destruction. Akin to most other ap assassins picking up an Doran's Shield into Abyssal Mask and Rabadon's Deathcap will give you a very advantageous position. Be sure to ward heavily towards bot side since desperate LeBlanc players will try roaming there for a double kill should you gain the advantage in mid lane.

Lissandra : Same thing as above except try to be beside rather than behind your minions to avoid her q harass and cast w on your furthest minion instead of e to gain shield while getting cced when she sends the claw towards you.

Lulu : Repeat the same thing as stated above for Karma.

Lux : Repeat with Kog'Maw except replace Void Ooze with Lucent Singularity

Malphite : Farm harder by nuking each and every wave to build up your shield. Buy Abyssal Mask and Haunting Guise/ Rabadon's Deathcap and be done with his harass. Be careful of his ult since it will either force out a flash/kill if you don't have shielding or the enemy jungler is nearby.

Malzahar : Same thing as Malphite

Morgana : Grab Sorcerer's Shoes into Abyssal Mask dodge her Dark Binding and help survive against her all in with Soul Shackles.

Nidalee : Clear the wave, stand behind minions, grab Sorcerer's Shoes and Abyssal Mask/ Banshee's Veil(if you are having difficulty dodging spears to win trades.

Orianna : Farm hard, grab your core and then work towards a Rabadon's Deathcap.

Pantheon : Rare choice now since you can just grab Seeker's Armguard + Sorcerer's Shoes and win the lane.

Riven : Cast E whenever she tries to use e or q towards you and retaliate with an additional q before walking away. Build towards a Haunting Guise and Seeker's Armguard since you will need the additional survivability. Due to her high damage/cc potential it is better to ward defensively and farm close to your tower.

Ryze : Clear the way early and repeat so that he is forced to go oom trying to farm it all. Avoid direct confrontation with him since his new passive allows him to get 3-4 snares with ease and can easily win trades against you. build your flat penetration and rush the highest damage ap items as you can with Rabadon's Deathcap and Lich Bane being strong purchases to nuke him before he spams too many spells.

Swain : This match up is completely momentum based between how much damage you can do and how much damage he can take. If he gets the advantage in lane, he will be able to always push towards your tower, trade damage really efficiently through the massive amounts of healing on his ult, and take complete control of the lane with very little to stop him. If you gain the advantage, you can trade a bit of your health to clear the wave, force him to use massive amounts of mana to try and cs, and it gives you ample time to farm the jungle for even more gold to buy the items to burst him down. To win early I actually recommend using Ghost Flash over Flash Ignite. The reasoning for this is that you can get an additional rotation of skills, dodge his nevermore and not get punished so hard by Decrepify. When facing off against a swain you need to not give any care about him and kill as many creeps as possible. Swain players tend to focus on ranking up their Torment to maximize trades this causes them to more often than not lack the wave clear neccessary to deal with our ability to shove the lane relentlessly. In addition you should completely forgo magic penetration since we need to get as much ap as feasibly possible to CS quickly and pressure him. The heavy ap purchases you should look for are Rabadon's Deathcap and Lich Bane. These 2 items give you a lot of wave clear and the ability to out damage the Swain's Ravenous Flock and even if he uses Zhonya's Hourglass you would probably have an additional rotation of skills to use once the effect ends.

Syndra : A very strong counter to Mordekaiser due to her long range cc that is almost instant and really high damage. To reduce the likelyhood of being dead, you need to farm and clear the wave relentlessly to build shield and force spells onto your minions rather than your face. Building Sorcerer's Shoes is good against not as strong Syndra players but against higher tier players Mercury's Treads and Abyssal Mask are an absolute must.

Talon : Clear the wave quickly/farm the jungle and grab an Oracle's Lens and Zhonya's Hourglass to avoid getting blown up from his ult while being able to work around his stealth.

Teemo : Play passively the first few levels to buy your core and crush him outright.

Twisted Fate : You know this guy is always going to try and roam to get free booty gold off your other lanes. The best way to deal with this is ward around your mid lane and grab items such as Abyssal Mask and Rabadon's Deathcap to clear the wave really efficiently. If you do not see him on any wards on one the side of the river or in the lane try roaming to the lane that lacks vision or pushing his lane down even further. Hopefully you can get either a retribution kill or the enemy tower if you chose the latter.

Urgot : Buy Boots and Sorcerer's Shoes asap since you desperately need the mobility to dodge his Noxian Corrosive Charge that will win him the lane. His focus on heavy armor pen, constant dps and tank stats from his ult makes the best way to counter him is to out shield/heal his damage with even more damage. This can be done with a Rabadon's Deathcap and Lich Bane to further amplify your burst which might allow you to outright kill him if he gets too close.

Varus : Rush Tier 2 Boots to side step the Piercing arrows while also clearing out the creep wave this will enable you to farm effectively while also avoid taking unnecessary damage. You can build a Haunting Guise Rabadon's Deathcap and possibly a Lich Bane later to threaten him with an all in.

Veigar : Farm hard, Harass early, build core items to win trades with damage mitigation, get a banshee's veil to prevent instadeaths and crush him in teamfights.

Vel'Koz : Repeat Veigar.

Viktor : Repeat Kog'Maw/ Lux

Vladimir : Punish his early game and shove as many waves into his turret before lvl 7. This will force the either the enemy jungler to come to your lane and waste time guarding his CS, have the CS die to tower shots or he will gradually kill himself with tides of blood spam. Since his passive helps us so much just grab an Abyssal Mask and Rabadon's Deathcap to murder him with Children of the Grave+ Ignite

Wukong : Farm really hard with Mace of Spades Creeping Death and harass with Siphon of Destruction whenever possible. Buy Doran's Shield to prevent a significant portion of his early game damage from auto attacks/ Crushing Blow. Also try to repeat the same thing for LeBlanc where you just cast Siphon of Destruction whenever he tries to trade with Nimbus Strike to mitigate his damage while hurting him to win the trade. Grabbing a Zhonya's Hourglass will greatly weaken his all in potential since you can negate his ult with the active.

Xerath : repeat Karma Lux Kog'Maw

Yasuo : repeat Wukong however use Zhonya's Hourglass whenever you are about to get knocked up in a dangerous position.

Zed : repeat Wukong

Ziggs : repeat Karma Lux Kog'Maw

Zilean : repeat Karma Lux Kog'Maw

Zyra : repeat Karma Lux Kog'Maw