Mordekaiser's rework, thoughts from a mainer

While I will not blame CertainlyT for trying to be creative in how to make my favorite master of metal more unique than he already is, I think that it isn't a safe way of going about it.

While the dragon ghost is appealing to have, it does not excuse, not even CLOSE!, the dependencies this "juggernaut" gets in exchange. I remember the burial of DFG like it was yesterday, Morde and had specific buffs that made them more in line with their current theme and identities rather than have them taken away completely because of a gimmicky puppet of lead or something else. I also recall that AD Morde was not a thing. When has the change of mentality taken place? Fuck the thought process, the philosophy of diversity that Riot has been preeching about for what seems like a year now is irreperably broken and shattered if the new morde goes anywhere NEAR live.(even with a reverse on the changes, the extensively deep damage will be done.)

Disrespecting you're own ideas is one thing, but BS'ing the community you work so hard to gain the approuval of that you even make a behind the scenes blog post after annoucing these changes? That crosses a line I didn't think would ever get crossed, let alone existed until a few hours ago when I saw the news.

If AD morde was never a thing to begin with after patch 5.7, then why the sudden decision to make it real by experimenting with the idea? Is it so ludicrous that it might just work? I honestly think not. I have varying degrees of success with mordekaiser but to deprive me of the lane bullying power I have because you want to see if this champion can be a potential carry in a duo lane is an outright, thinly veiled, disrespectful and hurtful insult to me as a player that you claim to care about and have as you're top priority.

On the flip side, I understand that Mordekaiser is oppressive to the point that he needs constant attention from the enemy team, I should know since I draw a lot of focus from the jungler in about 60% of my games regardless of lane opponent(but making him have ad ratios and forcing him into a duo lane is NOT the way to go about this at all) while the rest of my team is free to do whatever they want. I can see the problem of a match being decided in champion select, I get it, but it doesn't give anyone any right to simply rip the soul straight out of a champion and enslave it into a role he/she/it has no affinity with in his original kit to begin with. Ever saw an ahri as a support in a victorious game? me neither, and I played one earlier today(she was on my team and said she was getting acknowledged in ranked queue as a good support; we all thought she was full of shit and turned out to be just that)

I tried a lot of things with morde; different builds, different runes &masteries, different roles, different summoner spells, etc. If you can name it, I probably tried it already so I know that enslaving mordekaiser into a duo lane isn't healthy for anyone, it is downright stupid to think that he can be an ad carry when his strongest and well established role is a solo one.

The W change is beyond stupid, it's downright retarded. Kinda makes me think of the atari days when the devs were all doing drugs and coming up with shittier and shittier ideas to make as much money as they could selling crap in a cartridge. And frighteningly enough, I feel those changes aren't drug induced because then there'd be something intangible to blame, but there isn't any drugs and it got greened for the PBE to boot. This..... "THING" is scary as fuck because I will lose all interest to play league ever again and I will tell everyone I know what has happened if this gets to live and it'll be known as the metal plane crash. DISCLAIMER: the previous comment is not a threat directed to anyone in specific even though it may be perceived as such but rather a prediction based on my fears of what could happen if the Riot employees responsible for the rework of mordekaiser went ahead and made him a disfunctional ad carry.

• How to "actually" and "factually" improve Mordekaiser while keeping him healthy and his identity whole: 1 . Implementing interactions that allow for counterplay in a behavioral playstyle. 2 . Increasing his health costs and/or his cooldowns. 3 . By lightly shaving off some power away from his passive shield gained on minions or increase the shield's potency against damaging abilities and spells. 4 . Include some form of soft crowd control into his kit that can be easily out-maneuvered. 5 . Giving valid and rewarding incentives for marginaly thinking outside the box.(going in the jungle for example) 6 . Having specific effects based on missing/current/max/stealed/shield health is in play for Mordekaiser upon kill or assist for X seconds (movement speed boost, bonus ap, bonus health, bonus HP5, etc) 7 . Conceive an inderect counter champion to mordekaiser.

These are my ideas to replace the trash can rework on the PBE. And while I will not go into extensive details for all of them, I will give context to the more pre-dominant ones that I find are the best courses of action.

For starts, a hard/soft counter champion is self-explanatory.

Reducing his passive by a meager 5% will greatly lower his durability through his shield and increasing his health cost will significantly widen the window of relief the lane opponent gets to play around with to set up a gank or go in for the killing blow. I oftenly get below half my health by simply farming in the top lane, regardless of who I'm up against and I still haven't backed or used my initial potion, and that's for most of the time the first ten minutes. More often than not, I back only to put more pressure onto my lane opponent and deny him even more farm because I can poke him down to a mear 240 hp and either go in for the kill or just push my minion wave to his tower and chunk it out of about 1/3 before my opponent gets back to lane. I have to physicaly stop myself from being overly greedy because I have unimaginably strong wave control from the champ's kit. It's not just the wave clear that is insane but the wave management itself. It rivals Ziggs wave clear and he's got mana to manage. I can probably farm better than any other ziggs can with mordekaiser because of his E.

The recent item buffs have greatly widen his versatility and given him so much more power than what was thought possible. He still can't be an adc though, because well... phylosophy of diversity can't apply to him if you want him to be one thing and do another at the same time. Morde is a strong mage and a pretty solid tank because of his inherant sustain. But for him to have to rely on a duo lane to factually work is impossible. So unless he gets some form of CC, much better AD ratios than his AP ratios currently are, he's not going to have a lane buddy. PERIOD!

Opening his playstyle into the jungle isn't something I feel is underwhelming nor fully mapped out. The jungle is just starting to become appealing to mages again and taking the mage part out of Morde's kit is an essantial part in making him unplayable and unviable and cancerous. We're not simply talking about unhealthy gameplay here but down right negative changes in every possible way, shape and form for the champion which, i believe, is unheard of. It'd make the champion litteraly unplayable as anything. No niche, no actual build order and will definetly make for bland and boring gameplay interactions with lane opponents. There are champions that have little interactions to them and I'm not just saying that or anything. I really mean it. They aren't really doing what is intended of them but you don't treat them because they are in a situation you feel is "OK" in your fancy shmancy diversity paradygm theory or whatever.

Enticing the morde player to go for more dives isn't something that is entirely out of the realm of possibility. For example, his ultimate could steal health from a given target and heal one or more of his allies next to him for a fraction of the percentage he steals over time, it could also reveal the cursed target to help with focusing proper enemies. I oftenly ult a teemo in hopes he'll stay visible and I can kill him but he pops into stealth inbetween ticks. That said, sometimes his ult simply won't get casted and go on cooldown because the target enters fog of war or a brush.

I'm not trying to bash senselessly the idea of a rework for morde nor am I against it, in fact I'm ok with the idea, but when it's as bad as the one currently proposed on the PBE, I have to speak out and try to actually make the rework worth the while. You simply can't just rip a champion out of his comfort zone to make him something he can't be and expect it to work. Not on the first try, not on the 207th time, not on the 126479584523th time. Champions evolve and grow into specific and clearly determined role as the game around them evolves. Those changes don't change the meta at all, the don't even break it, they simply take morde out for a stroll before leading him into a ditch that has radioactive waste and slamming the cover on his death barrel and throwing him into oblivion. I don't care if you want to lose 2 or 3 million players in total but if you REALLY do want to, go ahead and ignore the community's reactions and proceed as plan to destroy one of League's most unique and oppressive champion in the game because you want him to be a duo lane carry.(after several years of solo'ing it no less)

Have you even asked the pros if they would like seeing a morde bot lane as an adc?