My thoughts on Mordekaiser's changes and a small-rework idea.
Disclaimer: English is not my mother language, so feel free to correct my mistakes, but don't be a jerk about it. --- This is a long post, so feel free to go to the tl;dr at the end if you don't wanna read more.
I've seen today's PBE patch with Morde and Veigar's rework and I want to share my thoughts here hoping that someone in RIOT read it and give me an opinion.
First of all I have to say that I'm not that kind of person that complains about every change: I defended Gragas rework and even Cassio rework, and I was against some others like Rengar. And I like Veigar's changes. But you guessed it: I don't like Morde's rework at all.
Mordekaiser's kit is intended to somehow manage to reach X target and burst him down to get its ghost. If you want to shift his core into a fighter pattern, you can't just remove some damage and give a little extra utility in reward. You have two options if you don't want to just kill him: You do a bigger rework or you just leave him the way he is now. With his current rework, he just get outclassed but Rumble or even Swain.
Which are his main problems?
- He has zero CC to stick to his targets: It is already a problem in his kit but it is alleviated because he can burst his target down if he manages to reach it. If you are going to remove his burst capability, you are just magnifying that problem: it will be really hard to reach a target and once you do it, it will just escape with half HP.
- His ultimate seems awesome but is actually trash-tier: I think that's self-explanatory. The idea of a ghost of the champion killed sounds great, but if you have played Morde you know these ghost are rather useless and their only use is to tank a turret if you want to backdoor it. Most champions in this game need their abilities to do something useful, but the ghost can only basic attack. You can get the ghost of a fed Zed and that ghost will be useless, and will deal no damage. But what if you take their ADC? Well, their ADC will be between the enemy team. They will just burst it down as fast as it spawns.
- He gets outclassed by other AP-fighters in this game: Rumble is the best example. New Morde and Rumble have similar play patterns but Rumble has actual CC with his E (and a ranged poke) and his R is far more useful.
So here are my ideas: (Numbers are just tentative, I can't test them, so don't complain if X deals too much or too little damage.)
Keep in mind that this kit idea is to create a viable Morde fighter without changing his kit too much, but keeping the viability of more burst-oriented or tank-oriented builds. I love build diversity and I think I've created a balanced kit that allows that. (I even imagine BotRK + Trinity + Tank builds being viable with this).
Passive - Iron man
- Shield conversion is no longer half as effective against monsters.
- Now decays after being out of combat for 3 seconds.
I don't like the idea of his shield scaling off his maximum health, I think more damage should mean more shield. Besides that, I like the fact that you don't lose shield while in combat, but I reduced it to 3 seconds for the sake of his new E (explained below). And allowing full conversion against minions would allow him to jungle (not a good jungle but if people want to play him that way, why should we stop them?)
Q - Maze of spades Range: 600 | Cost: 25/30/35/40/45 health | Cooldown: 8/7/6/5/4 Mordekaiser enhances his next basic attack, converting it to deal magic damage and replacing the base attack damage with 60/85/110/135/160 +1 AD +0.35 AP. He swings his mace with such force that it echoes out, striking up to 3 additional nearby targets. All enemies affected are slowed by 30% for 1 second. If the target is isolated, this ability deals 90/120/150/180/210 +1.4 AD +0.5 AP and snares the target for 1 second.
- Damage reduced to 60/85/110/135/160 +1 AD +0.35 AP from 80/110/140/170/200 +1 AD +0.4 AP.
- Damage to isolated targets reduced to 90/120/150/180/210 +1.4 AD +0.5 AP from 132/181.5/231/280.5/330 +1.65 AD +0.66 AP.
- Now slows all enemies hit by 30% for 1 second if they are not isolated, and snares its target for 1 second if they are isolated.
- Cost reduced to 25/30/35/40/45 from 25/32/39/46/53.
Mordekaiser needs that CC, he won't have any potential as a fighter without something like this. Damage is reduced to limit his burst (as he can now stick to his targets and deal more damage on a longer period of time). I just standardized the cost.
W - Creeping death Range: 625 | Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 health | Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12 Mordekaiser creates a cloud of metal shards to surround target ally or enemy and himself for 6 seconds, dealing 20/35/50/65/80 +0.10 AP magic damage per second to nearby enemies. It also grants Mordekaiser (and its target if its an ally) 10/15/20/25/30 (+15% of Mordekaiser's bonus armor/magic resistance) armor and magic resistance. Mordekaiser and his target are also granted 20% movement speed while moving towards each other. If casted on an enemy, Mordekaiser steals 15% of their bonus AD and 30% of their attack speed for the duration.
- Damage reduced to 20/35/50/65/80 +0.1 AP from 24/38/52/66/80 +0.2 AP
- Now can be casted on an ally or enemy AND himself.
- Now grants himself and his target (if it's an ally) 15% of his bonus armor and magic resistance along with 10/15/20/25/30 flat resistances.
- Now grants himself and his target 20% movement speed while moving towards each other.
- Now steals 15% of his target's bonus AD and 30% of his target's attack speed if casted on an enemy.
- Range reduced to 625 from 750.
- Cost increased to 40/45/50/55/60 from 26/32/38/44/50.
- Cooldown increased to 24/21/18/15/12 from 20/18/16/14/12.
Damage sharply reduced since Creeping death has too much utility now. Can be casted on an ally or enemy (as RIOT's original idea) along with himself. Grants resistances to the target if it's an ally (Morde always get these bonuses), but now it scales off Morde's own resistances to rewards tanky Morde's for building tanky. If casted on an enemy, it steals AD and attack speed from them. It always grants movement speed to BOTH (Morde and his target) while moving towards each other, so Morde gets an advantage from stealing damage from his enemy but can get punished if he commits a mistake and target an enemy he can't really face at that moment. Range reduced since it would be too abusive against enemies. Cost increased and standardized.
E - Siphon of destruction Range: 700 | Cost: 25/30/35/40/45 health | Cooldown: 5 Mordekaiser afflicts all enemies in a cone in front of him, dealing 50/75/100/125/150 +0.5 AP magic damage. This damage is increased by 0.5% per every 1% shield Mordekaiser has (maximum 75/112.5/150/187.5/225 +0.75 AP magic damage).
- Damage reduced to 50/75/100/125/150 +0.5 AP from 70/115/160/205/250 +0.6 AP.
- Damage now increases by 0.5% per every 1% shield Mordekaiser has.
- Health cost changed to 25/30/35/40/45 from 24/36/48/60/72.
- Cooldown reduced to 5 from 6.
Now deals too less damage, that's because his E is frustrating to play against when he uses it to poke, and because he has a better engage now with his new W and Q, so I want his lane phase to be more risky and interactive using all his spells instead of just spamming E. Also, it increases it's damage (up to 50%) depending on your shield, to reward him for keeping himself in a fight (since this kit is oriented to sustained damage). Initially I planned to apply that increase on his Q but his Q already has one damage bonus (to isolated targets), so I thought it would be redundant to have two damage increases in a single spell. Also E is too simple.
R - Children of the grave Range: 650 | Cooldown: 100 Mordekaiser curses target enemy champion for 12 seconds, dealing 15/20/25% +0.25% per 10 AP of his target's maximum health over the duration and healing himself for the same amount. While the curse is active, Mordekaiser deals 15% increased damage to its target. If the target dies while under the effect of the curse, their soul is enslaved and bla bla bla.
- Initial magic damage removed.
- Damage over time increased to 15/20/25% +0.25% per 10 AP from 12/14.5/17 +0.2% per 10 AP (total damage reduced from 24/29/34% +4% per 100 AP).
- Curse duration increased to 12 seconds from 10.
- Mordekaiser now deals 15% increased damage to cursed targets.
- Now grants the enslaved champion 35% of Mordekaiser's bonus health from 15% of total health.
- Now grants Mordekaiser 25% of enslaved champion's bonus health, along with 20% of it's total AD and AP.
- Range reduced to 650 from 850.
- Cooldown changed to 100 at all levels from 120/105/90.
Well, his signature move. I tried to make this skill more useful and more in line with his new fighty-style (if RIOT can say "mage-y" I can say "fighty"). It has no longer initial damage but deals more damage over time (total damage is reduced), and lasts a little more for the sake of sustained damage. I increased the bonus health the ghost gets to reward tanky Mordes again, but I kept the AD Morde gains from his ghost because it pairs too well with his W. I added a damage increase in cursed targets that makes up for the damage lost, and also allow him to better take down cursed targets until the mark expires. Range reduced since this Morde has more opportunities to reach its target and cooldown standardize because YOLO.
tl;dr: You can't transform Mordekaiser into a fighter with only tweaking his abilities. You need to do a bigger rework or leave him as he is now. Morde's current rework is a weaker version of Rumble.