Mordekaiser - We are Almost There

We've come a long way since patch 5.16 when Mordekaiser was reworked as one of the new members of the Juggernauts, and slowly but surely we are getting closer to a perfect union between old Mordekaiser and new Mordekaiser.

Mordekaiser has an empowered Q that affects at least one basic attack, he has a W that provides utility and can be cast on minions as well as allies, and he has his familiar Siphon of Destruction, not to mention his Children of the Grave which lets him enslave the dragon itself!

But there are still hurdles that must be considered: Mordekaiser's has some rather abysmal stats like his health pool and armor on top of his movement speed, which hurt his solo lane capabilities as a result of lacking a gap-closer or means of CC, leaving him at the mercy of his opponent to decide when an engagement occurs or ends. Mordekaiser's bonus experience on his W isn't an organic or thematically-sensible means of encouraging bot-lane comps, and has proven to be either broken or simply not much more than a slight experience lead. Mordekaiser doesn't deal a lot of hybrid damage for someone who is being encouraged now to build and itemize with hybrid stats in mind. Mordekaiser's kit in the past promoted a very toxic game style, which still hasn't been fully addressed and may return with the addition of W-casting on minions.

As a result, I have come up with some ideas on how to bring Mordekaiser to something everyone can enjoy.

• Mordekaiser needs to deal more hybrid damage instead of almost entirely magic damage if he wants to fulfill the role of a marksman and be able to take out towers without relying entirely on a ghost to fulfill that function. An idea discussed in the forums was making Mace of Spades deal bonus hybrid damage rather than purely bonus magic damage, with bonus physical damage scaling from AD, and bonus magic damage scaling from AP, and maybe allowing the physical damage component to affect towers.
• Mordekaiser needs better stats to justify a hybrid or perhaps AD focused build on himself, considering that Mordekaiser in-lane won't be able to meaningfully initiate without help from another team member, hence why duo-lane Mordekaiser all but forces supports to take a tanky champion with lots of cc to help make any favorable engagement. Without greater movement speed or more armor/health to weather poke to begin engagement, Mordekaiser won't see play except in lanes where he is wholly oppressive innately by nature of his kit. With such changes, the balance team could then afford to adjust the AP scalings on some of Mordekaiser's abilities and tone them down a bit, just as they had mentioned wanting to do before.
• Speaking of kits, Mordekaiser's Siphon of Destruction, like Darius's Decimate, is problematic because it contributes to why Mordekaiser needs to be limited in certain aspects for the sake of champion health. A 675 cone-AoE instant skillshot that damages opponents and grants Mordekaiser extra shield on top of what he would already get from delivering damage... it was one of the reasons Mordekaiser was unholy oppressive against melee opponents. Perhaps a change for the better could occur, perhaps giving it the Decimate treatment and have a delay on the skillshot?
• In line with making Mordekaiser more hybrid, perhaps, if Siphon of Destruction was made a delayed AoE conic skillshot, the skillshot would also carry an additional physical damage component, perhaps shooting shards of metal from Mordekaiser's hands, with enemies taking more damage the more shards that hit them (think Grave's auto-attacks). This physical damage component could scale from the AD aspect of Siphon, promoting AD and hybrid Mordekaiser builds more.
• The bonus experience aspect of Harvester of Sorrow is one of the failings of the Mordekaiser rework, and having it still does nothing for Mordekaiser, even more so now that he no longer gains a comparatively massive level advantage. Rather, they should fall back on what it's predecessor, Creeping Death accomplished, which was to empower Mordekaiser defensively as well as offensively through armor and magic resistance stat gain, and Mordekaiser utilizing it was often a signal for everyone that Mordekaiser was ready to make an engagement. Of course, mere flat armor and magic resistance gain is uninspired for someone who Riot wants to scale better into the lategame, perhaps a flat resistance component combined with a scaling resistance component based on Mordekaiser's own bonus resistances, which are imparted to himself and - if cast upon a champion - an ally?

These are just some suggestions of mine, Mordekaiser is slowly becoming a successful rework, but we still have a ways to go.