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Mordekaiser's Iron Man Passive

Pokakaa·10/23/2014, 11:13:15 AM·2 votes·1,409 views

I would like to suggest that Mordekaiser's Iron Man Passive maybe utilizing an additional mechanic. I've been using Mordekaiser for mid for quite a while now, and I noticed that there is a bit of a weird contradiction to his kit. He has incredible pushing power, and to raise his shield, he has to do damage with one of his moves. However, that often forces him to push lane. Bad news is, if he pushes lane, no matter if that shield is max or not, he will most likely get ganked, and die. Now vision has always been my friend, but there's plenty of champions able to get around it quite well, namely most of them. Whether they are invisible or just able to jump to Mordekaiser super fast, they will kill him with the mid's help without a problem despite his shield. The shield clearly only adds perhaps another 3 - 5 basic attacks on Mordekaiser at maximum shield generated depending on his level.

I was thinking, why not Mordekaiser's shield have a mechanic that is slightly helpful for getting away. He's the only mid without any natural cc or mobility. I had quite a few suggestion for this:

  1. Mordekaiser's shield, when it negates damage, reflects a portion of that damage back to the offender as magic damage somewhat like the Thornmail. Say it reflects 15% of the damage done to Mordekaiser's shield. So if he has enough shield to block 100 damage, and some one does 175 damage, they get 15 damage back, and 75 damage is done to Mordekaiser in total. This option makes him a bit more viable against long range mid champions and potentially gives him the ability to fight back a little more when ganked, instead of ineffectively running away. This would also make Thornmail synergize with his build too.

  2. Mordekaiser's shield heals Mordekaiser as it decays for a certain percentage. The shield decays at 3% per second, why not heal back half of the amount of shield decay? This would not apply to the shield being normally damaged, just when it naturally decays. I thought maybe this would make Mordekaiser have a bit more sustainability for when he does need to get away. This would also maybe add to his theme a bit: a natural healing for causing pain to his enemies to generate the shield itself.

  3. When hit, Mordekaiser's shield slows the attacker's movement speed or attack speed by a certain percent for a 1.5 seconds. This was the Randuin's Omen synergy idea I thought of. He has his shield up, he gets hit by an attack, and the attacker's movement speed is slowed by 10% for 1.5 seconds. This would add some natural cc to his cc-less kit. It feels kind of like something Mordekaiser could do in a way perhaps? His idea is pain, and when he's caused pain by his enemies, they suffer somewhat for it.

I honestly have to say that the very first suggestion I stated was my favorite. I mean his armor is nothing but sharp bits and is essentially what I'd imagine a thornmail would be a lot like. I thought these ideas might make Mordekaiser a bit more popular by making him a bit more viable of a pick. When compared to say Kassadin or Leblanc(two champions he supposedly counters), it would seem to me that most would pick Kassadin or Leblanc. They have mobility and getaways, they do plenty of damage, they can push a lane decently, and they have cc to spare. Mordekaiser may be the murder emperor, but despite all his damage, he's only a real threat to enemies in range that can't get away.

What are some thoughts on this suggestion? Does it sound reasonable in a way? Is it really fair to add a little more for him to get away easier?

8 Comments

Jamnon10/23/2014, 11:40:45 AM3 votes

Mord does need something, that's for sure. Just concerned Riot would wreck him like they did to Cass/skarner.

Stars Shaper10/23/2014, 11:33:10 AM3 votes

From my point of view

2 > 1 > 3

I like the idea of healing Morde back because he is the only HP-cost champion without a free HP back mechanic and realies heavily on Doran Shield to stay alive before he gets 1.2k mandatory golds item. That one also gives the enemy a chance to deny that heal either by poking his shield or wait for it to fade and directly hit Morde.

I'm fully supporting your suggestion.

BeatzBoyFTW10/23/2014, 2:21:14 PM1 votes

  1. Rammus already has this mechanic, and it's horror enough to have a 2nd champ to have the same mechanics.

  2. This would just seem impossible to push him off lane after he builds spell vamps.

  3. Ummm no. But if you're really persistent about it, reduce the duration from 1.5 sec to 0.5 sec. He will just be too tanky & would crush many melee fighters too easily when built with Randuin's Omen & Frozen Heart, and would become a somewhat 2nd Irelia.

The only problem I have with Mordekaiser is just one word: mobility. Yes, his clunk of metallic shield is pretty awesome, but when it comes to getting ganked, about 60% you're dead already. And also, fighting just 2 enemy champions with no minions nearby wouldn't increase his shield much while damaging just the two guys. This has been in my mind, but since you brought this thread up, I suggest this:

Q- Mace of Spades When hitting an enemy and spreads to other two units, he gains bonus movement speed of 6% for 1 seconds. If only hitting a single enemy, gains 12% bonus movement speed instead.

Pokakaa10/26/2014, 4:13:24 AM1 votes

Also, there's only spellvamp quints now. They only give a max of 6% at 3.

Mikayle10/26/2014, 4:16:42 AM1 votes

Option 2 is very nice option. Doesn't increase his tankiness alot, so we don't have to worry about BR mordes killing us all again Allows him to compensate for health costs on abilities a bit better, which every health costing champ should has.

1 i'm a bit against as he doesn't need more damage xD

JustMyBassCannon10/26/2014, 6:37:41 AM1 votes

Mordekaiser does need a regular rework. I don't get why so many players don't trust Riot when, arguably, the worst rework they've had is Sona, and she's still not as bad as everyone and their cat would have you believe.

The Iron Man passive and Children of the Grave are pretty central to his identity, but they're also the largest problems with his kit design. The passive allows his defense to scale on his offense during combat, which makes AP bruiser type items very powerful with his kit.

His ultimate...the base concept is interesting enough. Steal life force from a target, and potentially turn them into your slave for 30 seconds. But it's so mechanically overloaded. It has 100% innate Spell Vamp and no cost. It lasts 10 seconds on the target. It deals %HP damage (yes, the DoT is really low, but the initial burst and the scaling are nice, and coupled with the duration and a Liandry's, it's hell). It also generates shield with the HP gain. If he kills the unit, Mordekaiser first gains 20% of their AD and AP, and then the ghost gains a percentage of Mordekaiser's AD, AP and HP. The ghost is treated as a spell effect (unlike other pets), meaning it can proc Rylai's, Liandry's and Spell Vamp, in addition to any item effects from the champion's items.

If you've seen a Mord with Rylai's, Liandry's and Gunblade get a CotG ghost who has BotRK, IE and Statikk Shiv, you know exactly why that last part sounds so utterly broken.

Minishmaster10/23/2014, 12:39:03 PM1 votes

Morde gets a lot of power from spellvamp runes, so much that it probably negates the need for option 2.

Pokakaa10/25/2014, 12:13:44 AM

Well Sat, I think what you said was very informative and I definitely like the mace of spades idea. However, it doesn't seem like enough considering it's only for 1 second. Mordekaiser is almost impossible to push with and have enough shield to stay in lane. Maybe give the q a half second stun in addition to the speed boost? Or how about it slows the target's movement speed by 6% and increases his own by 6%. Because honestly, I don't think he'd be able to get out of a gank anymore so than usual with just the speed up for 1 second. Compare him with this added mace of spades buff to some like kass or Leblanc who is insanely to easy to get out with, or even Ryze who just has single target snare, he still would not have the ability to get away anywhere near as good as they do.

Also for what you said about suggestion #2, I find that the only reason he'd be impossible to push off would be because half of the decay is too much. How about 10% or 5% of the decay? I mean he is the only health pool as mana user that doesn't have a natural heal mechanic.