Why Mordekaiser's "Harvester of Sorrow"s the worst part about his kit/rework

If you take a look at Mordekaiser's abilities you'll probably find them all pretty straight forward; Q's a ramping up melee range nuke, his E's a cone damage spell that builds up shield, his passive's a great tool for a brawler and his ultimate's a huge heal/shield generator/nuke and even provides a clone. All skills speaking for a solo laner fit for top lane, where brawls are commonplace and the home of tanky champions.

Now we take a look at W; Harvester of Sorrow! It's a MESS. It's utility's not only bound to having a nearby ally, NO. the damage part itself's only going to trigger when you've got an ally sanding right next to you. The heal's mediocre at best since it's base value's pretty small and the scaling won't do much until in the later parts of the game. For some godforsaken reason Riot went about to give it what they call "Invisible power" in form of a passive that doesn't even penalties you laning with an ally. This is not only an unfair advantage over every other bot laner but the sheer uselessness of the skill if not having an ally nearby makes it really, really hard for a solo lane kaiser to work.

Bot lane advantage Bot lane's all about outleveling your opponent, reach certain powerspikes quicker and dominate the opposing team. What other ADC's and supports have to work hard for Morde gets for FREE, which his entire viability bot lane revolves around. It's an artificial edge the guy gets simply for playing the goddamn game, not having to lift a single finger to get ahead. Once he reaches level 6, way earlier than the enemies that is, he'll get a dragon and from there on he'll roflstomp the opposition. This is shown by his 57% winrate, which plummets down to about 47% in games that last longer than 20 minutes. >>>>>>>Morde's entire viability' bot is based on getting ahead and ending the game before his enemies can catch up and stop his rampage.

Top lane handicap When did ENTICING became FORCING? Since patch 5.16 it seems. Even though riot claimed morde could handle the solo lane properly he's been left to rust with the likes of Urgot and Galio. Barely clinging to a winrate slightly over 40%, going as far as to drop to 38% in mid lane. The main reason for his is his polarizing gameplay; He needs to get ahead to be able to afford his expensive build and if he only gets slightly behind top he's dead meat. His abysmal MS of 325 doesn't really help either since he's basically free gold when the enemy jungler decides to drive by. Not to mention the sheer lack of tools to handle long range enemies on his own. >>>>>Supports cover up his glaring weaknesses to make him unstoppable while top lane Morde's got no tools to excel in a Solo lane due to his lack of W skill, defensive steroids, long range farming tools and means to push out a lane.

Natural Viability or Enforced dominance? Old Morde had his niche, he was THE pusher, Numero Uno, he could roflstomp the opposition when ahead but still handle getting his ass handled to him. He was able to be a mid range mage or a tanky Ap bruiser who relied on his shield and ultimate heal to stay alive in teamfights. When ganked he was usually able to survive both enemies since he'd probably weakened his enemy laner enough with his constant poke, built up enough shield with his (un nerfed) shield gain and siphon. He could even put his creeping death on an incoming minion to gain a burst of MS to get out of the sticky situation. Having had 340 MS was necessary for the guy to succeed since he was slow, pushed the lane and didn't have any natural form of sustain. His niche wasn't the most popular but he worked and harbored the reputation for being a Monster if the player knew how to play him. His gameplay pattern in lane wasn't very engaging but he had his fair share of counterplay and strategies to deal with him. While the old Mordekaiser had an established role and was actually viable without gimmicks like Dragon clones, XP passives and the like the new Morde's being forcefully pushed down Bot in order for a gimmick to keep him viable. And here lies the problem with the rework! Same as yasuo actually. By giving him hidden power they try to make him work off this gimmick rather than allowing him to find his own lane, playstyle and niche. They try to shoehorn him into Bot solely based on the strategy to dominate the enemy before they get a chance to play around him. >>>>>>Making Morde work off a gimmicky strategy is not only unhealthy and toxic but also inhibits him to find his own place in League's vast array of champions. He doesn't work because his kit actually works well but because Riot made him get ahead by default when teamed up with a support.

Give him a chance to make a name for himself with the tools you give him rather than make him the semi-viable Gimmicky pick he is now.

~M.M