Mordekaiser
is a powerful anti-carry capable of mitigating large amounts of damage
due to his defensive shield passive. He has the unique ability to
resurrect an enemy champion and turn it onto its former allies.
Mordekaiser is also a powerful pusher and farmer with a very powerful
team fight presence, due to the area of effect on his abilities.
This Mordekaiser guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Mordekaiser, it is recommended for people just starting to use Mordekaiser.
This Mordekaiser guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Mordekaiser, it is recommended for people just starting to use Mordekaiser.
Abilities
-
Iron Man (Passive)
The skill that makes Mordekaiser the tanky damage dealer he is,
allowing him to get to the enemy carry without dying instantly. It is
important to focus on damage and cooldown reduction to maximise the
potential of this skill. The shield also factors in your armor and magic
resistance, making these stats much more important than health. -
Mace of Spades
This skill is a great addition to Siphon of Destruction as your main
two offensive shield generation abilities, which you should be spamming
whenever possible to keep your shield at maximum strength. It gives you
great area of effect damage but is also very strong in 1v1 encounters. -
Creeping Death
Give's Mordekaiser a free Sunfire Cape, adding to his area of effect
abilities. The armor and magic resistance boost is also great to
increase the effectiveness of Mordekaiser's shield. This skill can also
be cast on allies to increase their defences. -
Siphon of Destruction
Mordekaiser's main offensive ability (and thus your main shield
generation ability), it has a strong area of effect range in a cone in
front of Mordekaiser and has a very short cooldown. This ability packs a
large health cost early game, so you must be careful with its usage. -
Children of the Grave (Ultimate)
This skill is why Mordekaiser is a powerful anti-carry, not only can
this skill cause ridiculous damage when combined with Ignite, it also
brings them back from the dead to fight for you. This ability also heals
you in the process, making you deceptively powerful in 1v1 engages.
Ability Order
Ultimate > Siphon of Destruction > Mace of Spades > Creeping Death
Siphon of Destruction is your main damage and farming ability, so it is maxed as soon as possible, to increase its damage and reduce its cooldown. Mace of Spades should be maxed second to give you powerful 1v1 and team fight damage while also helping you farm effectively. A point in Creeping Death in level 4 is a strong choice for the bonus resistances it provides, but should be left till last as it does not scale well with levels.
Runes
Yellow (Seals) - Armor
Blue (Glyphs) - Cooldown Reduction // Magic Resistance
Purple (Quintessences) - Health // Movement Speed // Magic Penetration
Mordekaiser deals magic damage with his abilities, so Magic Penetration on Marks are an obvious choice, as the more damage your dishing out, the more you can absorb with your shield. Running Armor Seals beefs up your early game presence and as Armor impacts your shield it is a better choice than Dodge. Glyphs you want to run Cooldown Reduction to allow you to use your abilities more often (and this keep your shield up), but you can also run Magic Resistance. A good choice for Quintessences on Mordekaiser is Health, as it boosts your starting health pool, which is very important to counter Mordekaiser's hefty health costs. If you have movement speed Quintessences available to you then these are also a solid choice, allowing you to chase down your enemies (as Mordekaiser lacks crowd control), you can even run more magic penetration to boost your early game damage.
Summoner Spells
Best Summoner Spells:
-Ghost
-Ignite
Ghost counters Mordekaiser's weakness of lacking any crowd control abilities, allowing him to chase down enemies and keep in range of them. Ignite synergises extremely well with Mordekaiser's ultimate and gives him great added burst damage for destroying the enemy carry.
Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Exhaust
-Cleanse
If your looking to try out some different summoner spells then you have 2 options for Mordekaiser. Exhaust is one such summoner spell and gives Mordekaiser the crowd control he lacks and is also great at shutting down the enemy carry. Cleanse is a good counter if the enemy team is crowd control heavy as if you get stunned you will be unable to generate your shield, making you vulnerable.
-Ghost
-Ignite
Ghost counters Mordekaiser's weakness of lacking any crowd control abilities, allowing him to chase down enemies and keep in range of them. Ignite synergises extremely well with Mordekaiser's ultimate and gives him great added burst damage for destroying the enemy carry.
Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Exhaust
-Cleanse
If your looking to try out some different summoner spells then you have 2 options for Mordekaiser. Exhaust is one such summoner spell and gives Mordekaiser the crowd control he lacks and is also great at shutting down the enemy carry. Cleanse is a good counter if the enemy team is crowd control heavy as if you get stunned you will be unable to generate your shield, making you vulnerable.
Masteries
Item Build
Final Item Build:
-Sorcerer's Shoes
-Spirit Visage
-Sunfire Cape
-Abyssal Scepter
-Force of Nature
-Randuin's Omen
Steps/Reasoning:
-Start off with a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion, this gives you maximum lane survivability and counteracts Mordekaiser's heavy health costs for his skills early game.
-On your first trip back you want to build your Sorcerer's Shoes, giving you more damage output and thus increasing your shield generation, you also want to grab a Kindlegem, giving you some health and a cheap 10% cooldown reduction (this will eventually be turned into a Spirit Visage for the synergy with your ultimate.)
-From here you want to start building up your resistances to boost your shields strength, Sunfire Cape and Randuin's Omen are your go to items for armor, these items provide you with some health, health regeneration, cooldown reduction, more area of effect damage and a powerful slowing active to help you chase down your enemies.
-For magic resistance you want to look at finishing your Spirit Visage while also building a Force of Nature for a solid chunk of magic resistance with some bonus speed. Another powerful choice is an Abyssal Scepter, as it also boosts your damage output through some Ability Power and magic resistance debuff.
Alternatives:
-Rylai's Crystal Scepter (A great choice to add a slow to your abilities.)
-Void Staff (A must have against tanky magic resist heavy teams.)
-Banshee's Veil + Quicksilver Sash (If the enemy has large amounts of crowd control, this may be necessary to keep you dealing damage [and thus generating shield] and not getting completely stun locked)
-Sorcerer's Shoes
-Spirit Visage
-Sunfire Cape
-Abyssal Scepter
-Force of Nature
-Randuin's Omen
Steps/Reasoning:
-Start off with a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion, this gives you maximum lane survivability and counteracts Mordekaiser's heavy health costs for his skills early game.
-On your first trip back you want to build your Sorcerer's Shoes, giving you more damage output and thus increasing your shield generation, you also want to grab a Kindlegem, giving you some health and a cheap 10% cooldown reduction (this will eventually be turned into a Spirit Visage for the synergy with your ultimate.)
-From here you want to start building up your resistances to boost your shields strength, Sunfire Cape and Randuin's Omen are your go to items for armor, these items provide you with some health, health regeneration, cooldown reduction, more area of effect damage and a powerful slowing active to help you chase down your enemies.
-For magic resistance you want to look at finishing your Spirit Visage while also building a Force of Nature for a solid chunk of magic resistance with some bonus speed. Another powerful choice is an Abyssal Scepter, as it also boosts your damage output through some Ability Power and magic resistance debuff.
Alternatives:
-Rylai's Crystal Scepter (A great choice to add a slow to your abilities.)
-Void Staff (A must have against tanky magic resist heavy teams.)
-Banshee's Veil + Quicksilver Sash (If the enemy has large amounts of crowd control, this may be necessary to keep you dealing damage [and thus generating shield] and not getting completely stun locked)
General Mordekaiser Tips
- Don't forget that you can control your minion using "ALT + Click", it is great for tanking towers for your team in a push or at harassing a weak enemy champion.
- Sometimes as Mordekaiser its better to fight and stand your ground instead of trying to escape.
- Always use your Creeping Death for the increased armor and magic resistance every fight, either on yourself or an ally that needs the defensive boost. It can also be placed on the tank in the middle of the fight and used for shield generation.
Level 1-6 (Early)
- Play carefully for the first 3 levels, Mordekaiser is surprisingly squishy.
- Grab as many last hits as possible using your auto-attack as this will prevent the lane from pushing too far (which leaves you open to ganks from the enemy).
- You can use Siphon of Destruction to harass the enemy champion thanks to its long-range, this will also generate your shield making you very hard to harass back.
- If you are up against a weak lane opponent you can very easily zone them out with your burst damage and damage mitigation.
Level 7-12 (Mid)
- You can 1v1 alot of champions at this stage of the game thanks to your damage mitigation and your health stealing ultimate, do not shy away from a fight.
- Start pushing and farming lanes when appropriate, to get your core items and defences built up.
- Start considering what build order you will take, based on what resistances you need due to particular enemies performing well.
Level 13-18 (Late)
- Consider saving Creeping Death for your carry to give them an extra defensive boost, to keep them in the fight longer. Keep in mind its not a large defence boost though.
- Now your role as an anti-carry really takes off. Save your ultimate and Ignite for the enemy carry and use your powerful damage and thus damage mitigation to target them.
- Spam your abilities to keep your shield generated, use this generated shield to protect your allies from any poking damage.
- Mordekaiser is a great candidate for an Oracle's Elixir late game as he is very hard to take down.
- This Mordekaiser build will bring you to 30% cooldown reduction, to achieve full cooldown reduction you should purchase Blue Elixirs late game.
