Why did Riot give morde more complexity,too much counterplay,polarized gameplay,and call it healthy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKe_IMl92sg
(some of) my thoughts on the matter cover :25 - :45 seconds
here's some context: I was a huge fan of the old morde kit (pre-rework), and I loved how simple it was. I mained it for half of season 4 and from the start of season 5 to now. I have played 830 games of old mordekaiser from when the new match history was launched (for however that goes back).
No matter how much people bitch and moan about how morde was before, he had been played with and against for so long people could deal with his powerspikes very well. Pre-rework, Morde sat at around 50-51% winrate across all elos. He obviously had his strengths, but wasn't so powerful to just outright win every game he ever played. He had a niche, and while he didn't have the playrate that thresh, vayne, or leona have, he had his loyal mains who played him, as well as people who played him whenever he had a very favorable matchup.
Fast forward to now, and we have the current mess. Mordekaiser, who used to be simple, straightforward, and a champion based almost entirely on positioning instead of making immensely flashy plays, is now a champion with a lot more gimmicks, more arbitrary complexity, ramp up time on the one ability that most of his power budget is invested in, and less options in solo laning altogether.
Why?
Why does he need to be such a drastically different champion than he was before?
What makes altering his Q, a strong ability in its own rights, into a ramp up? Morde's old Q was a solid ability in a solo lane, and it could be maxed first in a top lane environment quite comfortably. It gave him a source of good damage that could be accessed instantly and punish a player for being isolated from their minion wave if they chose to fight Morde. It wasn't an instagib level of damage (although it could be built that way with lichbane), but it was certainly enough to make opponents think twice about cockily walking up to him.
Side note: Morde was a champ that punished or rewarded positioning. That alone was something that held him back from just dominating everything. If he got caught out during a bad extension and the opposing laner was someone who could dish out consistent damage to him while CCing him (a lot of champs can do this relatively easily), Morde was dead.
What makes altering his W, a strong ability in its own rights, into an ability locked only for botlane morde who has a support? Morde's W before the rework was a perfectly fine ability, and gave him some strong situational mobility in a solo lane. It was strong enough to possibly max first (this was seen in an LCS game where morde was played in), but overall was strong enough with one point in it to save morde's life every now and then.
What makes altering his E, again, a strong ability in its own rights, into a shadow of its former self? On a champ that absolutely needs waveclear due to lacking mobility and CC? And keeping the health costs the same? Why on earth should anyone max E until last now? The health costs are large for an early max, and morde doesn't build spellvamp anymore.
Why does morde's ult become unavailable when a dragon ghost is captured? A dragon ghost that is mostly ignorable during teamfights that aren't over the first dragon and only makes morde situationally strong? Morde's ult used to be a simple DoT and the rest of his kit was strong enough that it didn't need to have such a situational gimmick attached to it. If morde's team is strong enough to take dragon and get that dragon ghost, then they were probably going to get a tower off of that anyway. Even if not, why does the rest of morde's kit have to be balanced around it? The dragon ghost is purely a "win more" mechanic, nothing more.
How is being situationally powerful, with the requirements of needing a support and getting the dragon ghost, healthy gameplay?
How is being even stronger against melee champs, while being even weaker against ranged champions that can kite, healthy gameplay?
Before the rework, while morde did have bad matchups, he had options to deal with those matchups. There were a few matchups he would win outright, a lot of matchups that were skill based, and some matchups he lost very hard. Such is the way with all champions in this game. How is that considered unhealthy, when all champions are subject to that? Were Morde matchups only considered in a vacuum, where the only factors were Morde and his lane opponent? The inherent problem with that is that morde pushed waves naturally, so he would leave himself vulnerable to ganks, which, newsflash, happens all the time in every match ever. That is one of the biggest weaknesses old morde had.
So, to wrap up, a simple champion with clear strengths and weaknesses is subject to unnecessary change and alienates an entire group of players who were mains of a champion, all for the sake of making him situationally stronger, and giving him "win more" mechanics instead of sticking to a simple, strong brawler?
I'm sorry, but just because morde can be situationally strong, does not make him a strong champion overall.
