Guide Details x Introduction & Credits x Reasons to play Mordekaiser Champion x Pros & Cons x Abilities x Tips & Tricks

Pre-Game x Runes x Team Comp In-Game x Gameplay

I'm not a super duper Challenger 2000 LP guy, I'm currently sitting in Emerald IV.
I probably have more than 200-300 matches with Mordekaiser, but I've sold my accounts and now playing with a fresh one.
I myself, think that I'm experienced with this champion enough to make a detailed guide about him.
My account is demirkasiyer#1283 for the people wondering.

Credits to AlmightyNoxian for helping me with the builds and the Darius matchup.

PROS + Tanky + Has great damage + Scales great + Carry's nightmare + Solid DPS + One of the best juggernauts As I've told before, he is tanky. His W gives him shield in the middle of the fight, think of it like a Heal. He has great damage because of his passive and the great scaling with AP that pairs well with Conqueror. He scales great because of the tanks items or the AP ratios of this bad boy. He is the carry's nightmare because one ult and the carry is out for 7 seconds (unless QSS). He has a solid DPS because of his passive and his Q's low cooldown. He is one of the best juggernauts because of his kit. Will explain.

CONS - Slow - No CC - QSSable ultimate He is slow. Really is. He doesn't have enough CC. Yes, his ultimate captures the enemy for 7 seconds but if he has some slow or CC, your ultimate is wasted. His E just pulls the enemy towards you. Until you get Rylai's it won't count as a CC. His ult counts as a suppression so you can't reduce the time of it, but you can cleanse it. Though normal cleanse won't work, you need QSS. Or just be Gangplank, eat an orange and cleanse it away. :DDDDD

Darkness Rise AoE high damage tank melting main damage. The main source of damage. You might think your Q deals all the damage, maybe. But your passive is the one that does all of the job. Obliterate AoE high damage passive triggering skill. The main source of damage. It has a great range and great damage, but it's kinda chunky. Compared to Darius's Q, if you cast it while he casts it, you will eat it 100% because you stop while you cast it, so it makes it chunky. Though isolated Q's are bangers.
The best tip I can give about this skill is that you can use the corner of it to increase your range a little bit, kinda like Aatrox's Q2. Also it's easier to dodge when they are inside you so keep your range. Indestructible Kinda like Sett's W, increases with taken and dealt damage. The exception is you don't deal damage with that, you just take it. The great par it that in the fight, your Q and passive will fill it up so quickly that you won't even notice when it filled up. It also lasts long and gives you enough to kill the enemy. The best tip I can give about this skill is that use it when you are on 30% health so you can get the best of Last Stand. Also you can use it early on trades to negate damage and win the trade. Don'T use it if you think it'll become a fight. Death's Grasp Slow but rewarding magic penning skill. The great part is that you can cast it under you so if the enenmy is nearly inside you and tries to run, instead of using it at max range, you can cast in under you so you pull the enemy closer. Vice versa, you can do it to disengage but it requires skill.This becomes a golden tool with Rylai's. Realm of Death 1v1 Stat Checking skill. This is what makes Mordekaiser Mordekaiser. Self-explanatory skill.
The best tip is that to get behind the enemy. For example, if the enemy is running towards his tower, if you manage to get in front of your enemy and ult, enemy's tower will be gone due to when you ult, the space behind you is much more little compared to enemy's behind.

KEYSTONE Conqueror: Lethal tempo won't work with our champion simply because we rely on our autos just to stack our passive up. No need for Fleet Footwork except if you're too bad against ranged champions. Like REALLY bad. PTA is useless. SLOT 1 Triumph: Like I explained in the Runes section up in the guide, this helps you a lot. You don't have mana so the other one is useless, and the other one is just useless again since you don't really rely on healing, except for W heal + Spirit and even then you don't really get much from it. SLOT 2 Legend: Tenacity: Now you can swap this with Alacrity if the enemy doesn't have enough CC, but usually you go with this. SLOT 3 Last Stand: If you go FULL + FULL AP without health and the enemy is 3+ tanks, you go Cut Down. If you go FULL + FULL Ap knowing the enemy won't burst you, you go Coup de Grace. SLOT 1 - CHOICE 1 Bone Plating: Don't go this against ranged people. You go this against melee champs or burst champs (again, no ranged) so you can negate their burst or combo one time with 30 second cooldown. This REALLY reduces the damage you get so it's worth. SLOT 1 - CHOICE 2 Second Wind: This rune heals pretty well. Against ranged top lanes or poke champs, you go this. You can swap Bone Plating with this if the enemy is melee but still a very poke champ(Jayce, GP, Dr. Mundo), but STILL I don't recommend swapping. SLOT 1 - CHOICE 3 Conditioning: Makes you very tanky. You use this with Overgrowth usually to maximize your snowballing. Math shows that Conditioning + Overgrowth outperforms Second Wind + Revitalize, but it's just a 1-2% difference and it won't make that much, also Second Wind + Revitalize help you in lane much better than the other. SLOT 2 - CHOICE 1 Unflinching: I don't know if they fixed the Tenacity, but apart from the Tenacity it gives (towards late, you get 50% Tenacity with Legend: Tenacity) tenacity and SLOW RESIST which only 2 or 3 items give (boots, DMP and the sup item I guess)so it's great. SLOT 2 - CHOICE 2 Revitalize: You mostly go this because it gives you 5% healing and shield increase, also increases to 10% when you are below 40% health so it gives a lot. SLOT 2 - CHOICE 3 Overgrowth: This makes you tanky also. I explained the synergy in Conditioning.

I'll explain shortly.

Get Mordekaiser if your team has only 1 AP, only 1 frontline, lack of CC (against carries), tank enemy top laner and etc.
Don't get Mordekaiser if the enemy top laner is an early melee bully (Darius, Tryndamere, Riven etc.).

early game
except against level 1 monsters (guys with lethal tempo (except nasus), darius, sett, jax and so on) you will win every trade. it'll be better if the enemy is a tank. hide in the river bush and wait for the enemy. if he comes from there, ambush. you'll win 100% but be careful. if he leashed, his jungle will come so retreat at will.

as for the minions, wait for their health to get low. when they are, use your q on them but try to hit the enemy too. zone the enemy (unless he's a lvl1 monster) from getting minions but don't get the minion agro too. spam q's, you'll slowly push the wave and hurt him. at lvl2, upgrade your e. if you damaged him enough you can combo him with e q auto (again, unless he's a lvl1 monster) and you'll probably win the trade. chase him down to his tower because you'll stack conqueror from your passive and your damage will rise. try to hit the last q and return to your wave. at lvl6 if you have rylai you can easily kill the enemy. just lower his health with 3-4 q's and e ult him. if you are behind, you can just poke with your q and disengage with your e.

mid game
this is where the t1 towers are taken, and the game starts to rotate towards mid-bot sides. i usually try to farm in the lane that game rotates at. since you are powerful, no one can 1v1 you unless fed. if you have teleport, tell your team that your tp is ready and can start fights. don't forget to teleport though!

aside from that, if the game starts to rotate towards mid (usually low-mid elo) you'll want to push the bot side and rotate from the enemy jungle - river - mid - river - top or opposite.

late game
there's nothing you can do anymore. just ask your team to who to ult and have a cup of tea with the enemy. DON'T EVER ULT A GUY WHO HAS QSS.

also you'll be the frontline probably so you can start and disengage fights with your e.