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So, these Mord changes.

Noraver··83 votes·4,589 views

For those of you who haven't seen them, you can read more about the changes here.

Now before I get insta-downvotes, hear me out. Am I the only one who doesn't like them? I mean, it's neat, but I feel like Riot wants him to be focused around bottom lane more, and I don't know if I can get on board with that idea...

Replacing an ADCarry after you just nerfed armor items? Yeah, no thanks. I think ADCarries will be more necessary now. Support? Maybe. But depending on how long that dragon lasts.. Probably not worth picking him just for that. Taking away his W damage entirely? Even if you cast it on a creep in top lane, that still requires you to be near it to deal damage.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I was REALLY looking forward to playing him top lane some more. Not as an AP burst mage, but as a heavy, tanky juggernaut in full plate that steals souls. I sincerely hope his new kit isn't entirely based around "Play him bot as AD/Support and take dragon to be kewl!". D: Anyone else feel the same way?

Rito, you were really thinking out of the box with all of your Juggernaut changes, and that's awesome. Darius, Garen, and Skarner all look unique and bring their own type of power to the team now. But why does a hulking man in armour that steals souls need to be partnered with someone? Does he need someone to hold is hand? Is he afraid of the fog of war? Is he just a big baby in that suit of armour? What's his link to dragons? Why does he curse/steal dragon's soul? What does that have to do with his character specifically? Not against it as it's kind of neat, but what's the reasoning behind it? Was he a dragonslayer at one time?

Ever since Kalista was released, there's been a lot of "Partner" stuff; Her ult, Tahm's W/ult, Harbinger, and now Mord. It almost seems like whenever Riot finds a trend they love, they stick with it. Blue fire skins, robot skins, Shurima skins, "Partner" abilities, % Health damage, etc. I personally think this was a little too far to force it on him, but then again, I'm a Garen and Teemo main, so my opinion doesn't really matter.

83 Comments

Matezoide40 votes

Really, the dragon buff is fine. It is fun, makes sense for his theme and can be useful without breaking the game.

But the W change really gets me. If he cant deal damage by himself with that spell, his Solo laning will be pretty dead.

ArkenStorm9 votes

idk why they can't just make it so damage on his w stacks when the auras overlap instead of removing solo damage

OmegaTree11914 votes

I was looking forward to top lane morde even more also. I had an idea to TP down for drag, get my pet and going back up Top again to rekt shit. But I don't want to play him bot. He's slow and Melee. Hell Top lane Vayne already pisses me off. I don't want to go down against a Caitlyn Kalista or Jinx. Just so I can actually use one of my abilities.

Orangesilk1 votes

That's what your support is for, to lock down those squishies for you, and let you land that triple Q for MASSIVE DAMAGE.

OmegaTree1191 votes

Or I can pick Vayne who deals true damage every 3rd auto attack. And who has mobility,CC, is ranged, can fight 1v1. And can kite rather than being kited.

I'm sorry, but if I get a support who has strong enough CC to lock down people as well as people are saying to support a melee champion. I don't see why I won't pick a carry melee like Tryndamere Yasuo or LeeSin (he just got a buff) Instead of a slow tank who can't 1v1 to literally save his life. Again sorry but this new meta that Riot is trying to make with "Melee bot" doesn't scream Mordekaiser But now it does since you have to in order to use 1 ability in his kit.

Orangesilk1 votes

Have you... seen the numbers on his Q?, if he lands all three hits he's dealt 260% AP and 560% AD on his target.

Why pick Morde?, because he's the guy who:

-Benefits the most out of ANY champion in the game from duo laning, due to increased exp when duoing (So, he will always have lvl advantage, he'll guaranteedly hit 6 first too, for a brutal powerspike). -Benefits the most out of laning next to dragon, since if he gets drag, he can use it to push REALLY hard against a turret, or punish anyone who was contesting the dragon. -Benefits strongly from having a teammate who can lock down his targets, since his damage scaling is now off the charts.

His W isn't even the ability that forces him to duo lane with someone else, it's his Q, which he can't possibly land on a non-CCed target that forces him to.

Additionally, his lategame melee dueling will be nothing to scoff at, once again, virtue of his new, insane Q, paired with Rylais and smart spellblading.

Also, Morde won't -replace- the ADC, that's ridiculous, he's about early lane and dragon dominance, while the actual marskman farms up another lane (probably midlane since it's a short lane)

Goodnight Nunu9 votes

"So, rather than committing to balancing him in a patchwork fashion for the next few years, we decided to try something a little crazy." Why? Why does it have to be Morde? If you want to try out crazy ideas, DONT FORCE THEM ON A CHAMPION THAT HAS A DEDICATED PLAYERBASE THAT LIKES HIS PLAYSTYLE W T F ?!

gaby1best3 votes

A CHAMPION THAT HAS A DEDICATED PLAYERBASE THAT LIKES HIS PLAYSTYLE

Every champ has that.

Wyrmblade5 votes

New champions don't.

gaby1best1 votes

Let's not forget about that wave of Ekko mains a week after they got released.

Tapu Fini3 votes

Welcome to Cassiopeia in a nutshell. Poison mage? Nah, machine gun.

EndlessSorcerer7 votes

Like-wise. I was really hoping he would be a tanky, solo-lane bruiser after the rework who could wade through fights while clubbing people. These specific changes were quite unexpected, but I don't think it really fits with his theme and standard gameplay.

Taking over the dragon seems like it will be fairly clunky and unreliable, but my biggest issue is that they are trying to force him into a duo-lane with tentative W changes.

Señor Karthus7 votes

The dragon thing is nice. Forcing him to replace the adc is just stupid. It is the most crazy thing I've ever heard.

JediSenpaiNP7 votes

I am not a fan. Don't get me wrong, pet dragon? I love it. Doesn't completely hurt top morde, so it's still viable, and mid morde is promoted. But the W. The w is, imo, an extreme nerf. His solo laning is somewhat messed up now, as this was great against melee champs, and even some ranged, but thats quite dependant on them being a little close to a minion or you for some reason. I would prefer not to change his w really at all, or maybe give it extra mr and armor when the aura from an allied champion overlaps yours. Maybe put his health regen back, but that's a personal issue. He wont do well at all in bot lane. he's a melee, and has health costs with no way to heal himself in his own kit, and he cant really support, i believe, at least very well due to lack of cc as well as need for income for his items to do his major thing, aka, damage.

TL;DR: W nerfed his solo laning way to hard, and he wont do well in bot lane.

Merxamers6 votes

i'm willing to give the changes a try. Morde feels better when you build damage anyway

Doggie Kruger5 votes

Have people EVER really complained about morde? Im pretty sure not , and now they're forcing us to take him bot lane. His solo laning is 100% dead with that new W.

Not sure why people are complaining about the pet dragon though. It isnt that big.

I s2g rito is pushing me out of All of my mains.

Azir gets the E with no Knockup , I go to Mordekaiser . NOW THEY ANNOUNCE THIS. item 3070

AbyssionKnight7 votes

You must not have played during S1. There was a period of time where Morde was basically unkillable and would wade into teams 1v5 and take them out without a problem. He's changed a lot since then, and it's a very good thing, since he was very oppressive back then.

PoisonedPeace1 votes

Morde has never been good competitively. Especially in early seasons when CC was a luxury.

AbyssionKnight1 votes

Person i'm responding to claimed Morde has never been complained about. They weren't talking about competitive viability.

Morde was complained about a ton back in the day. He might not have been super viable for pros, but for the vast majority of players (especially back then when peoples knowledge of the game / the champion pool was much smaller) he was a serious issue.

Valthan1 votes

Ah... those were the days. Just build Force of Nature, Rylai's Crystal Scepter, some spellvamp and a Sunfire Cape or two. Proceed to wreck face.

GreenLore1 votes

Mordekaiser is right now in a kinda awkward spot. He was for a very long time the only champ who had neither CC,nor any form of mobility. He then got a very small and conditional speed buff to his W,but thats about it,he still had almost no way to secure a kill.

Spizzle90004 votes

rip numero uno

Okay, now, the dragon is cool. Replacing the ADC is ridiculous as armor's getting nerfed. Like, if anything he'd end up as a support, and he's not a support. He goes around stealing souls and hitting shit with a mace. DOES THAT SOUND LIKE A SUPPORT TO YOU??? NO.

Being forced to duo lane is stupid. How the hell is he supposed to 1v1 with his w being useless?

Auryiel4 votes

Riot's way of effectively deleting Morde from the game.

Celio Hogane HD3 votes

Tanky? Mordekaiser? HUEHUEHUEHUE don't make me laugh.

JedenVojak3 votes

I hate every and all "partner" mechanics, as they're all based around tying someone to someone else which is horrible. Every champion should be designed with solo lane in mind, no exceptions.

The W change is terribad - and changing the Q to work on 3 hits is nice and all, but ultimately pointless since he'll never be in range to administer those 3 hits; especially given the fact that they lowered his move speed.

EfficientDynamo2 votes

Agreed. The Morde changes (speaking as a somewhat Morde main) could be really cool, but for that W. Make it castable on cannon and siege minions in addition to allies, at least. That retains a LITTLE bit of viability for top lane Morde.

Skoonie2 votes

I like some of the changes you''ve decided to make to Morde, Riot. The changes to his passive and E are very welcome, and him being able to enslave dragons is just badass.

But these nerfs and W changes? I'm happy you want to shake up the meta a bit, but Mordekaiser is the worst champion to take bot lane. With no form of sustain, being outraged by all the popular picks, and having no form of escape outside of his Flash, Morde has a terrible time catching anyone in a SOLO lane, let alone a duo bot lane.

Add to this the removal of his MR/Armor buff of his W, the entirely unnecessary MS need (seriously, why was this needed? He's a melee champ with no CC, why make it harder for him to keep up with people?), and the heap ton of stats he needs to build what with his shield scaling off %HP, it would be a miracle for Morde to do anything of value.

AMYS GRAVE2 votes

Yeah, Morde can't really replace the ADC for one reason. He can't siege towers safely. Teams need an adc for that reason and no other class will be able to ever do that as well as the marksmen can.

Shockforce1 votes

Well actually there is a way if you take dragon.

It is still better if you have an ADC though.

AMYS GRAVE2 votes

Taking dragon in order to siege towers is too conditional, i agree that and ADC will still do it better.

Orangesilk1 votes

He doesn't replace the ADC, ADCs can lane elsewhere, I'm a huge fan of AD Tristana mid.

AMYS GRAVE1 votes

If your ADC is mid lane they have to both cs and trade, meaning they will get less farm overall. ADCs need farm due to their expensive item needs.

ADCs traditionally go duo lane is so they can effectively free farm while the support harasses the enemies.

Mid lane is better saved for champions with roaming potential, and ADCs typically lack that.

ADCs are generally weak to assassins, which tend to go mid lane because of their roaming potential.

Most ADCs lack sustain which is another reason they typically go duo lane with supports who can provide that for them.

Typically mages bot lane don't work because mages need levels, but the exp boost for duo lane morde covers this point, and that is one thing that they did right, but they didn't address other bigger picture strategy issues.

In the end mid lane ADCs can work, but they take longer to reach their power spikes and longer to get to their items, which makes it a weaker strategy overall.

Orangesilk1 votes

Okay, first of all, trading is both something you MUST do in the botlane (usually much more often than in the midlane, where you can do by just by dodging skillshots) AND has NOTHING to do with farming. If you can't trade and farm, that's a player skill problem and has nothing to do with role, lane or anything else.

An ADC who just afk farms while letting his support do everything else is a -terrible- ADC, you should be trading, harassing, looking for an opening and watching your positioning while laning, even if you're Kog'Maw.

Now that I got that out of my system: The point in roaming midlaners is usually to help out botlane for dragon control... But that was the whole point of sending our mage who has level advantage, burst on CCed targets, and the ability to keep a dragon ghost to the botlane. If anything, having a Morde winning his lane out of sheer burst + level advantage and then leveraging that advantage into a dragon ghost for an early tower does MUCH more for the botlane than an assassin who MAY roam if the circumstances are right.

Now, I must admit, many ADCs, namely the immobile defenseless kind with no waveclear have no business going to the midlane. I'd never place AD Kog'Maw up there and hope he does well. The kind of ADCs that'd go up there are the safe, long-range kind with some access to mobility or self-peel.

Tristana could do great on a farming lane, keeping his enemy laner under his turret and doing that HUGE jump back to safety if anything goes wrong.

We've all seen that AD Varus mid competitive, it works, and it bullies assassins.

Caitlyin could do work, with her humongous range and waveclear.

Sivir, while lacks safety, can trade strongly in the midlane with her spellshield, clear waves easily, and escape with her ult if things get ugly.

It would require the whole team to be coordinated around the Morde pick for it to work, but that's a -good- thing, it brings creativity and team planning into the 5v5 scene, it's awesome.

AMYS GRAVE1 votes

Okay, first of all, trading is both something you MUST do in the botlane (usually much more often than in the midlane, where you can do by just by dodging skillshots) AND has NOTHING to do with farming. If you can't trade and farm, that's a player skill problem and has nothing to do with role, lane or anything else.

An ADC who just afk farms while letting his support do everything else is a -terrible- ADC, you should be trading, harassing, looking for an opening and watching your positioning while laning, even if you're Kog'Maw.

Ok that's absolutely fair. I think I would reword my reasoning on this point. Traditional mid laners have tools to simultaneously cs and harass. Most adcs lack those types of tools as they are focused around their AA (which are single target) rather than their abilities, and abilities that can damage multiple targets are more rare on adcs than on traditional mid laners. If you are more skilled than your lane opponent, then of course you will be able to cs and harass, but traditional mid laners are mid lane choices because of the tools that their kit has which allow them to more easily thrive in the solo lane environment.

Now that I got that out of my system: The point in roaming midlaners is usually to help out botlane for dragon control... But that was the whole point of sending our mage who has level advantage, burst on CCed targets, and the ability to keep a dragon ghost to the botlane. If anything, having a Morde winning his lane out of sheer burst + level advantage and then leveraging that advantage into a dragon ghost for an early tower does MUCH more for the botlane than an assassin who MAY roam if the circumstances are right.

The reasons mid laners roam are far more than just dragon control. They can serve to gank to keep other lanes ahead, roam into the jungle to prevent counter jungleing, as well as warding, and yes dragon control.

Now, I must admit, many ADCs, namely the immobile defenseless kind with no waveclear have no business going to the midlane. I'd never place AD Kog'Maw up there and hope he does well. The kind of ADCs that'd go up there are the safe, long-range kind with some access to mobility or self-peel.

Tristana could do great on a farming lane, keeping his enemy laner under his turret and doing that HUGE jump back to safety if anything goes wrong.

We've all seen that AD Varus mid competitive, it works, and it bullies assassins.

Caitlyin could do work, with her humongous range and waveclear.

Sivir, while lacks safety, can trade strongly in the midlane with her spellshield, clear waves easily, and escape with her ult if things get ugly.

It would require the whole team to be coordinated around the Morde pick for it to work, but that's a -good- thing, it brings creativity and team planning into the 5v5 scene, it's awesome.

While i agree certain adcs can go well in other lanes, and that the ADC/support bot lane can be a bit stale, having the whole team have to work around one player isn't exactly going to be good for soloq.

Orangesilk1 votes

Oh yes, you're entirely right, I'm talking about the premade 5v5 scene, and MAYBE, the competitive scene if Morde somehow hits it big.

As it is however, Morde is dead for solo Q.

Partholonian1 votes

This is my main concern too, even more than laning against ranged as a melee healthcaster (ouch, but that's what Soraka, Sona, and Nami are for). If you can't usefully approach a tower without a dragon ghost with you, what objectives can your team work on for the other 5 minutes 15 seconds?

Or is he only intended to be viable in combination with a marksman top like Vayne or Quinn? But those aren't played much in competitive because you need a frontline for teamfights, which Morde is probably not going to be.

1000angrybees1 votes

Actually, I'm also thinking that they're maybe trying a possible Top/support combo system as well as the aforementioned APC/support.

Merxamers1 votes

you'd probably want to be bot lane tho, to be close to the dragon

chipndip12 votes

{quoted}

you'd probably want to be bot lane tho, to be close to the dragon

Like mid isn't just as close...

gaby1best1 votes

You don't think that Morde gets ghosts by hitting monsters is the only change and that would make him viable for bot lane? You could wait to see the ACTUAL CHANGES on the PBE and then freak out.

Noraver6 votes

If the biggest changes they wanted to show us are "We're making him a duo laner and his W no longer works while solo!", then we have a reason to be upset.

gaby1best1 votes

Oh, so playing with a support to protect your ass is not nice.

PoisonedPeace5 votes

When you get to challenger playing melee champs bot, let us know.

OmegaTree1191 votes

Not when you have a fucking Caitlyn and Annie zoning you out from CS and poking the crap out of you, and a goddamn Udyr ganking and Tower diving you because you can't do shit about it. I'm sorry but I must be insane for not seeing how fun that would be.

gaby1best1 votes

Well you won't pick Vayne either in that duo. The thing is, give it a chance. First, check the Q and W buffs on the PBE, the passive buffs AND the E buffs. Then wait for it to hit live and give it a shot in a normal.

GwingMaster1 votes

I'm not sure about the actual gameplay changes, but the VFX changes suck. Q and W basically look the same (W might've been upgraded a little bit) and the E effects look TERRIBLE. I loved the maces popping out of the ground from before - now it's just purple swirls like I"m farting on the bad guys or something. So disappointing.

SwordGrunt2 votes

{quoted}

I'm not sure about the actual gameplay changes, but the VFX changes suck. Q and W basically look the same (W might've been upgraded a little bit) and the E effects look TERRIBLE. I loved the maces popping out of the ground from before - now it's just purple swirls like I"m farting on the bad guys or something. So disappointing.

I'm not sure I even want to watch the animation for that. Siphon of Destruction is my favorite ability in the game when we talk about visual effects.

Why can't Riot just rework him into a mixed damage bruiser that can actually do something instead of keeping his cheesy gameplay of walking up to people. But more importantly why force him into a duo lane. That is the worst change I've ever seen done in this game, granted I've been playing for less than an year, but fuck man, it just doesn't sound right

Knalxz1 votes

OP i've been on the PBE all day testing these changes and so far i've really enjoyed morde and practically main the guy.

I haven't gotten a chance to try him top or fully AP but so far that changes I don't like are...

His Q does send those smaller maces out giving him crazy wave clear. Now you can only relay on your E solo wise and your Q is jsut an auto reset but it is really powerful the longer the fight goes on.

The W not being able to be casted on minions. You can cast it on dragon but that just feels like a kick to the balls. It also lost it's armor buff.

Those are the two things i really dislike but the things i enjoy out weight them but they aren't to be forgotten.

ExiledTyrant1 votes

Does his Q proc hydra?

Knalxz2 votes

{quoted}

Does his Q proc hydra?

Yes, when I played him as ADC I got my hydra first because i knew I'd need to clear fast.

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