For those who are still wondering why there is no Mordekaiser rework yet

It has been a few days since the new Swain reached the PBE. And with his arrival, came the usual complains questioning the choices of champions who need a rework. One of them can be summed up as "why did they choose to update Swain or Irelia before Mordekaiser or Nunu: these last two need it more!", and I'd like to share my answer because it talks about what Mordekaiser is.

Rioters often said that even if they make a priority list with different tiers, they are free to choose a less-prioritized champ if they got a solid concept for him: that's particularly true for Irelia, which was both seen as underwhelmingly exploiting her fantasy and a good lore opponent for Swain during the Ionia campaign, even if she is in a decent state, art wise and gameplay wise, at the moment (yes, it's a state check champ, but most bruisers are).

Here comes Mordekaiser, and my theory: I think that Rioters don't have a solid concept for Mordekaiser yet, and I'm going to explain why I think so.

Who or what is Mordekaiser? People tend to say it's an undead king who enslaves his enemies, a burst mage, a juggernaut dealing magic damages, a melee botlaner, or a bowl of spaghetti. The thing is, they're all right. The problem is, like they said again recently during the Swain Insights , that they usually streamline the theme of the champ they rework, and then, start to work from there, trying to implement previous elements if necessary or if they can; and from this point, I got to ask what is the main aspect of Mordekaiser. I don't have the answer, and I think Rioters do not either.

I could stop here, but let us see if we can explore the possible answers. For most of the player base, Mordekaiser is a meme: most of the time, when there is a post about Mordekaiser on Reddit, for example, it talks about either his unannounced rework or his bugs. He's not popular, and his must known aspect is his ultimate. In 2016, they changed his lore while rewriting the Shadow Isles, to better define his place there. He went from "a being of pure, living agony" in armor to a cruel king, endlessly resurrected by necromancy. The two versions are quite different, but they keep two themes: the "superior" undead aspect, because he's not from the shadow isles curse, and the soul enslaving aspect. From here, the main theme is pretty simple to dig: mainly keep the undead black knight theme, and keep the ultimate which enslave champs. Simple, right? No, it's not. Because the ultimate has to go. The ultimate is the only thing we are sure will be gone when Mordekaiser will be reworked (this, and pizza feet) because it's the main source of bugs: the stability of this ultimate isn't sustainable because it should literally be modified everytime a change is made to the game, be it runes, champions or items. Its behavior even change from patch to patch, with Jhin's ghost going from having his AS capped, as it should be, to not respecting this rule anymore this patch.

Then you could argue that they could go with just a theme (the evil black knight trope), work around it to make him original, and then, either stick a reworked kit echoing his old ones (like Taric), or a new kit fitting his role (Swain as a healing battlemage). But that doesn't work either because he doesn't have a clear role, be it his lane or his gameplay: he's either built as a melee burst mage or a sustaining raid boss. He's not the first champ to be like that: Sion had a similar profile. They made him a tank with CC. That's not Mordekaiser. And Riot doesn't like highly versatile champs (see Poppy, Evelynn, Tristana reworks). So, if they choose the Taric way, we'll have a second Sion (I may be exaggerating a bit here), and if they choose the Swain way, he will lose one gameplay identity. So, what is da wae? The AP Burst version is the most played actually, as are mid and top his most played lanes. But I personally prefer the Juggernaut Triforce build, and I love to play him Botlane.

Let me be clear here: the rework is clearly not impossible, and we will all be happy when they'll make it, in the end. But I'm afraid because I feel like I'll be part of the minority who will lose its Mordekaiser: they won't support his botlane profile because they want to support the non-ADC botlaners with tools proposed outside of their kits (Mordekaiser was a test of melee botlaner, with extra XP, dragon ghost, and passive shield giving what he lacks compared to an ADC). They won't make him an AP Juggernaut because they don't have the items to support this archetype (nor they do for AP bruisers). And, the worst part I think, they will surely change his appearance a lot, which is pretty sad, because, for me at least, he's super iconic . But they'll need to change him to suit his new abilities and potentially new lore.

Rioters certainly already talked a lot about him, and if nothing started yet, I really think it's due to them not knowing how to take him; where to start, where to go, what to keep and what to take away.

In a few days, there will be a new roadmap, and maybe he'll finally be announced as one of the very next reworks: but if he isn't, be aware that Rioters had better concepts ready for other champions. Because Mordekaiser is unique. Try him out if you didn't do it yet. Try him with friends: he's better with a team.

TL;DR: Mordekaiser is one of the hardest champions to rework at the moment, if ever, because of both his gameplay, his themes, and their relations.