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Tank Mordekaiser is awesome!

LifeCyclesTWA··5 votes·867 views

Watch this thread get downvoted by a bunch of fuckwads who have never even played a couple games as tank Morde let alone know what he is capable of. Go theorycraft away circle-jerkers, but I guarantee it works a hell of a lot better than any of the other builds out there building the melee champion with no CC or gapcloser as a glass cannon.

item 3001 item 3020 item 3068 item 3102 item 3075 item 3135

Replace Sunfire with Randuins late game if vs heavy AD. This is not an all purpose build, everything in this game is situational, but Sunfire Abyssal and Sorc boots are core. Buy Elixir of Iron with extra gold.

And before you open your mouths about "omg no revolver" you only need revolver during the laning phase, if you have a spell-vamp item 30-40 minutes into the game you sir have no clue how to play Mordekaiser as the spell vamp items fall off hard late in the game. So yeah, buy a fucking revolver and replace it later if you have to.

Now rain on me, go cry about it. I guarantee none of you are going to try it though, and I guarantee everyone who is going to critique me and has been critiquing me has not played this champ even 1/10th as much as I have. Instead, you guys are going to devise some master-plan to rework a champion you don't have a single fucking clue about. Continue building a melee champion with no CC or gap closer glass cannon and QQ more about him needing a rework.

Deuces, and sorry for the salt ;]

17 Comments

Laughing Fish5 votes

Downvoted for the attitude. http://i.minus.com/ibmSqyKNilDCbn.gif

LifeCyclesTWA3 votes

Upvoted for the honesty and the hilarious meme. Loved that movie.

BastionKross3 votes

I tried this build (along with the runes and masteries you mentioned in another thread) in both bot games and just recently in an ARAM game. I must say, it's quite a bit better than glass cannon Morde. Being able to do roughly the same amount of damage as before (with Mpen instead of AP) while being tanky as hell is pretty surprising. Turns out it doesn't matter how much damage you have when you're dead, and thus why full AP Morde isn't working out.

And as you mentioned before, Morde's AP ratios are really lackluster for a burst mage. DFG helped people force him into that role, but now that's it's gone he can't burst well anymore. However, what he does have is really nice base damages, which means Mpen is a natural match. Hopefully Riot won't completely wreck this build with their item 3001 modifications.

I think the reason most people load him down with tons of AP is because no one plays him, so they just never notice the less than spectacular ratios on him.

However, calling him "tank" Morde is a bit of a misnomer. Tanks have initiation and/or CC in addition to their ability to live a long time. I'd say he's more of an tanky AP bruiser along the lines of Singed Swain, due to his high damage output and ability to survive quite a long time in melee. You probably wouldn't want to be the team's main tank with him, but you can if need be. Best case scenario is that you're the off-tank, protecting your squishies or going after theirs while the main tank does his thing.

Overall, I feel like this build has the potential to replace the old DFG full AP Morde build in effectiveness.

LifeCyclesTWA1 votes

I've been preaching this build for a while, every time I do though I get tons of downvotes and comments like "wow tanky morde would do no damage wtf noob" so reading this post from you was awesome.

And yeah, tank is misleading. Like you said, it CAN be a main tank but its better suited to an off-tank role. Its surprising how much damage it puts out too, I always wind up either #1 or #2 in damage dealt to champions with it.

Anyways, thanks big time for giving it a try. Hopefully others do so as well.

BastionKross1 votes

Here's the issue. Most people don't play Morde, so they don't know about his numbers. Hell, until I read your comment a few days ago I had no idea. His ratios aren't the lowest they possibly could be, but .4 on his Q? .66 if the target is isolated? That's pretty terrible scaling. His E, the spell that you'd say is his bread and butter, has a .6 ratio. His W, if you stood next to someone the entire duration, would only total up to a .9 ratio. (And lets face it, you're not standing next to anyone for six seconds as Morde)

Those are horrible numbers for a mage. You can load AP on him all day, and he'd still be doing gimped damage. I just assumed that his ratios were great since he's constantly played as a burst mage. Taking advantage of his high base damages with Mpen seems to be a more efficient route, sort of like Karma.

However, I did notice that you avoid item 3136. I know that resistances are better since they lessen the damage his shield takes, but a bit of extra health wouldn't be bad against someone bursty. As well, item 3151 can really bring the pain in this meta of health stacking tanks with item 3717, even if Morde has no CC to trigger the double proc.

LifeCyclesTWA1 votes

I read a post that some dude put up on Reddit and did all the math for everyone that would build Liandry's. Basically, for the gold you will be spending on it, you won't be seeing a big enough increase for it to be worth it on Morde. The one ability it does sync well with is your ultimate, but the issue is late game the dps increase isn't very large and people will be buying QSS to counter it. Thats actually why I don't grab ignite as Mordekaiser, something that everyone does (hell, riot even recommends you do that because how well it syncs with its ult) You may possibly lose an early game kill, but you provide much more to your team by grabbing teleport.

https://m.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2e1ugc/how_efficient_is_liandrys_torment_and_when_should/

Troy2426211 votes

Now I'll be honest, I don't play Mordekaiser, because I'm a jungler. Now that being said, looking at his stats, on paper, this seems to be an intelligent way to build him. I don't know how it translates to live games, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt.

TasteTheirFear1 votes

You are really not helping your argument here with that tone...

LifeCyclesTWA1 votes

Tired of seeing my posts get to -5 and whatnot when I even mention "tank morde" on these damn forums. I've been playing Morde since he has been released back in 2010. I'm waiting for some prick that just started playing the game a season ago say something like, "You aren't even level 30 noob!" not even thinking about the fact that this could be and is a smurf account.

DrNova2 votes

Being a douche from your very first sentence isnt going to help. And no one cares about your claimed smurf.

If people dont want to accept tank morde, why get so worked up over it? You have a unique thing then, be happy with that. Getting approval on the forums for it is unimportant.

TheRakkun1 votes

Generally not a good idea to "Swap out" an item unless it's boots to a Zephyr,

Selegun1 votes

I realy like this build, dispite its lack of spell vamp.

Have you seen the new abyssal on the pbe yet? If that item goes live i might drop Sunfire for a Will and wait for the nerf morde topics to crop up again.

Also, someone mentioned your runes and i was curious about your thoughts on scaleing AD marks as opposed to magic pen.

LifeCyclesTWA1 votes

{quoted}

I realy like this build, dispite its lack of spell vamp.

Have you seen the new abyssal on the pbe yet? If that item goes live i might drop Sunfire for a Will and wait for the nerf morde topics to crop up again.

Also, someone mentioned your runes and i was curious about your thoughts on scaleing AD marks as opposed to magic pen.

New Abyssal Scepter Item Cost: 2500 Recipe Cost: 815 +30 Ability Power +250 Health +60 Magic Resist

UNIQUE Passive: Every 4 seconds emanates a pulse dealing 80 (+5 per champion level) magic damage to nearby enemy champions and reduces their Magic Resist by 15% for 10 seconds (stacks up to 3 times, up to 45%).

I'd actually keep Sunfire if this is what Abyssal Scepter winds up being. At level 18, Sunfire does 43 dps I believe, Abyssal would deal about 43 dps, and your W (before your AP is factored in) does 68 dps. So just by standing around you get 154 dps, which isn't bad.

Also, with the Abyssal Scepter change to % based reduction as opposed to its current flat magic resist reduction, this hurt Mord a bit imo in some aspects but helps in others. He'll be better at killing tanks, especially if someone else on his team also builds an Abyssal Scepter to get max stacks on enemy team more quickly. However, he'll be a bit worse at killing squishies, especially the ADC because he won't be able to be in their face enough to build up stacks. The worse thing about the new Abyssal Scepter imo is that its a nerf to Thornmail vs ADC's. Previously, everyone within 700 range of you lost 20 mr, and no one aside from special circumstances has an autoattack range above 700, so essentially if anyone tried to autoattack you they'd take extra damage from Thornmail due to Abyssal's mr reduction. I doubt Abyssal will keep the 700 range if they turn it into a pulse, however. But, it is a buff to Thornmail vs melee attackers such as Master Yi.

I'd definitely keep the Sunfire though, as it is the only source of health from items in this build and helps greatly with dueling (aside from the possible 250 we'll get from new scepter) Especially with the new Abyssal Scepter being the way it is, Sunfire + Abyssal + Thornmail will continue to have amazing synergy. I'm not a fan of WotA, however if you are you can always drop the Sunfire late game in exchange for it. I normally drop Sunfire for Randuin's though, as Randuin's is amazing vs AD champs and you still get armor and health from that item slot.

I like the magic pen marks over everything else just because how much it meshes with the build and Morde's kit. Every match no matter what items you put on Mordekaiser over 90-95% of your damage with be magic damage, so due to the overwhelming amount of his total damage output is magic you'll want as much penetration as possible. The best way to improve the damage on your ult is through magic penetration, also, because it is % based damage as opposed to flat damage. I try to use Morde's ult as a last-hitting tool against champions and wait til someone is at their last bit of health then ult them so it is guaranteed to work and can't be QSS'd, so the magic pen helps ensure that that can happen. Especially with the changes to Abyssal Scepter causing it to remove flat penetration in favor of % based penetration, you'll want as much flat magic pen as possible.

Also, new Abyssal Scepter + Void Staff would have a crazy 80% magic penetration at max stacks. Combine that with a flat 15 magic pen from your runes and 15 from your boots, you are doing true damage to squishies and you are hitting tanks hard.

Reikken1 votes

tanky is definitely the best way to build him. There's no question about that. (but I can't really call a guy with 0 CC --- not even rylai's? --- a tank)

I'd still take some spell vamp though. especially since it comes with CDR. vamp scales pretty nicely with resists

I'd rather have something more along these lines item 3152 item 3116 item 3075 item 3065 item 3135 item 3020 maybe swapping out the void and boots for something more defensive if the situation calls for it

Selegun1 votes

A good build though I would never part with the void staff since that would directly reduce damage and survivability. The boots could be item 3047 or item 3111 for better results.

Reikken1 votes

well like, if the enemy is nothing but a bunch of squishes, I'd get abyssal instead of void while if they have a lot of MR, sorcs not that great, so boot swap might be good

and new abyssal may be a general void replacement when MR is needed

LifeCyclesTWA1 votes

{quoted}

tanky is definitely the best way to build him. There's no question about that. (but I can't really call a guy with 0 CC --- not even rylai's? --- a tank)

I'd still take some spell vamp though. especially since it comes with CDR. vamp scales pretty nicely with resists

I'd rather have something more along these lines item 3152 item 3116 item 3075 item 3065 item 3135 item 3020 maybe swapping out the void and boots for something more defensive if the situation calls for it

The issue is with building only SV for MR is that Morde's base MR at level 18 is 53, and I do not use MR per level runes. So basically at level 18 with only SV as an MR item you have 108 MR, which get reduced to about 50 by AP champions.. this will result in you get insta-blown up if focused by an AP champion. Instead, I use CDR per level runes which provide me with 15% cdr at level 18, 20% total with Masteries (the total CDR I'd receive from WotA and SV combined) and in their place I build Abyssal Scepter and Banshee's. These combined give me a load of MR and mesh well with the other items. FE: Abyssal Scepter reduces the MR of everyone around him, and because they all have reduced MR they take more damage from all of his spells, Thornmail, and Sunfire Cape.

Also, I strongly believe Rylai's is a weak item on Morde. It doesn't do anything to strengthen his shield (although the 100 AP does help it build up more quickly, I'd argue Abyssal Scepter is better at that as well... especially considering the lack of AP in this build you want your base damage to do as close to 100% damage as possible) Also, due to the fact all of your spells with the exception of your ult is an AoE, you are only slowing people by 15%... this won't stop carries from kiting you. If you like using Rylai's in combination with his ult, keep in mind any decent carry will build QSS to counter it so it is a waste of an item slot.

I find Sunfire Cape and Abyssal Scepter to be core items on Mordekaiser. Its awesome running around being some big nearly impossible to kill thing that does a crap load of damage when you have Abyssal, Sunfire, and Sorc boots. If someone engages on you, your W and Sunfire will eat them up early-mid game. If I'm vs an AD in lane, I rush sunfire. If vs AP, I rush Abyssal. If vs high mobility champion or someone camping my lane, I'll build either a chainmail vest or a negatron cloak (depending on which item I am going for first to win matchup) and rush Sorc Boots.

Also, new Abyssal Scepter + Void Staff would have a crazy 80% magic penetration at max stacks. Combine that with a flat 15 magic pen from your runes and 15 from your boots, you are doing true damage to squishies and you are hitting tanks hard.

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