Short Term and Long Term Mordekaiser Suggestions
Introduction
Mordekaiser has long been a problem champion that never quite nailed his gameplay or thematic niche. Gameplay wise he has often been seen as outright oppressive or weak depending on what time period you played him. Thematically he has always been a big iron dude with some kind of past that competes with other similar themed characters such as Thresh, Hecarim, and Karthus. Going forward I would like to propose some suggestions that can help Mordekaiser in the short and long term to make him more satisfying to play.
Theme
The three key points about Mordekaiser’s character that tells players what they need to know about him are:
- Losing a fight with Mordekaiser leads to a fate worse than death.
Mordekaiser doesn’t just kill you. He rips your soul from the afterlife to serve him for all time. He defies the natural order of life and death itself allowing him to damn the souls of gods and mortals alike.
- Mordekaiser is not just an inhabitant of the Shadow Isles he is the ruler of the Shadow Isles
Mordekaiser contends with the likes of Thresh, Hecarim, and Karthus who are all big names in their own right. None however, have proven strong enough to overcome him. He needs a big boss feeling that matches his story. You don’t rule over the Shadow Isles with an iron fist without having the power to back it up.
- Mordekaiser is accustomed to being thrown into fights where he is outnumbered
Not just armies, but entire nations have waged war with Mordekaiser. He isn’t just proficient in large scale combat with multiple targets, he thrives in it. Mordekaiser is a front line brawler that carves swathes out of the enemy ranks.
To deliver on these three points two things need to happen:
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Mordekaiser’s curse needs to become more reliable and his overall kit needs to make the enemy team anxious when they are near death
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Mordekaiser needs to go back to being a fully AOE centric fighter that doesn’t just do well, but absolutely dominates team fights.
Short Term Gameplay
Short term not much can be done to completely revolutionize how Morde wins fights or plays. However, there are some things that could be done to increase QOL and make him overall more functional.
• Mordekaiser is no longer effected by attack speed items or scaling. When activating Mace of spades his attack speed is set to 1 attack per second for the duration.
• Mace of spades now delivers its damage in two hits instead of three
• Children of the Grave loses dragon ghost passive. For the duration of the curse champions cannot be revived or healed. Curse reduced to 5 seconds and DOT ticks doubled to compensate.
• Harvester of Sorrow loses its EXP passive. Redesigned as a self-cast that grants 20% move speed while moving toward enemy champions. Deals X amount of damage and Steals X amount of health per target hit for the duration.
Explanation
Mordekaiser is not an auto attacker, but he needs to lands his Mace of spades reliably to satisfy his win condition. 2 Seconds is a long enough time to react to a big hit incoming without demanding so much melee up time that most scenarios result in failure. Giving Mordekaiser a two second attack speed boost every few seconds that lines up his one-two punch should give him that much needed reliability.
Children of the Grave is countered by a slew of items, passives and abilities in the game. This is supposed to be his one high point and it can be crippled in so many ways. Instead of being the champions that is hard countered by champions like Zilean, items like guardian angel, and passives like Cell Division Mordekaiser should be the one you call to shut down those kinds of strategies. That is why I propose his ultimate, which still has counters, shut down healing and revives. You can still move away, QSS, Zhonya’s, or go invulnerable. You just can’t completely freeze Mordekaiser out all game from what should be his highest point thematically and gameplay wise.
Harvester of Sorrow should be the visual indication that Mordekaiser is going on the offensive. When you see a hulking iron behemoth wreathed in souls and living metal that should be your clue something is about to go down. It should provide good sustain and damage to keep him up in a fight as well. Giving Mordekaiser move speed and more damage/healing should help accomplish this.
Long Term Gameplay
To satisfy thematic and gameplay needs long term Mordekaiser changes should be focused on three things:
- Escalation
The longer the fight the worse things get for your opponent. Mordekaiser is forced to commit to fights and should be empowered for doing so not constantly punished.
- Low Health
Low health enemies should be faced with a hard decision to run or fight. They are battling damnation personified and should feel that anxiety building as they come closer to dying.
- AOE
Mordekaiser should be hitting everything and anything in his path. The only safe place should be away from Mordekaiser.
Special Notes
• Mordekaiser is not effected by attack speed items or scaling. • An icon showing that a champion is at under 50% health would be a nice QOL for the reworked abilities. • No more health cost but no more healing. Mordekaiser will be strictly about shielding now.
Abilities
Passive: Iron man- Mordekaiser gains more power the longer he is in combat.
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3 seconds in combat – 100% of damage done generates a shield up 30% of Mordekaiser’s max health.
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6 seconds in combat – Mordekaiser’s abilities now steal 20% movement speed from enemy champions for 2 seconds.
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9 seconds in combat - Mordekaiser’s abilities ignore 50% (level 6)/ 75% (level 11)/ 100% (level 16) of an enemy’s magic resist.
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Passive would have to have some sort of visual que to denote the increasing amount of danger enemies face.
Q: Mace of Spades: Nightfall greatly enhances Mordekaiser’s physical abilities for a short period of time setting his attack speed to 1 attack per second. When activated Mordekaiser swings out in a large horizontal arc grounding all enemies hit for 1 second. You can activate this ability again within 3 seconds to initiate a returning swing. Enemies below 50% health have their vision greatly reduced for 1 second on the return swing.
W: Harvester of Sorrow – Mordekaiser wreathes himself in a maelstrom of living metal dealing X damage and reducing all damage done to him by 2/3/4/5% per hit. This effect stacks up to 5 times. Duration 5 seconds. Hitting enemies below 50% health extends the duration by 1 second (2 second cooldown)
E: Siphon of Destruction – After .5 seconds Mordekaiser projects a cone of destruction in front of him pulling all enemies towards the center damaging them. Enemies below 50% health trigger a secondary explosion dealing 50% of the initial hit in an AOE.
R: Children of the Grave – Melee range skill. Mordekaiser locks one enemy champion into a battle over their very soul suppressing both for 2 seconds, and draining 4/5/6% of their maximum health as magic damage every .5 seconds. If the enemy champion dies while Children of the Grave is active they are unable to be resurrected and produce a shade that fights alongside Mordekaiser for 30 / 40/ 50 seconds. The shade deals half Mordekaiser’s total AD in magic damage. The damage done is doubled on enemies below 50% health.
Explanation
Iron Man - Mordekaiser’s new passive helps frame how traditional Morde’s gameplay has always played out. It is slow and repeated engagement with an enemy. Now however you are rewarded for committing to a fight and get more powerful for doing what comes natural to Mordekaiser’s kit anyway. Having to wait three seconds before shielding means no more “toxic” trades during lane where Mordekaiser unleashes Siphon of Destruction and his shield eats all the damage. Now Morde has to commit to a fight to benefit from shielding.
Move speed steal pairs very well with slows and move speed % increases. Now you can build Rylai’s without it being too strong on other champions, or you can build move speed and do just as well.
Lastly large % penetration allows Mordekaiser to skip penetration itemization in favor of more tank or health based items. This helps decrease the burden his itemization puts on him while capping his power until a fight progresses for a fairly long time.
Mace of Spades - Mace of spades now offers ways to counter initiate in a team fight. It gives two soft CCs that reduce mobility for short bursts and cause team wide chaos.
**Harvester of Sorrow **– Harvester now gives Mordekaiser the durability he needs to stay in the thick of battle. Low health enemies can increase the uptime on his durability allowing him more time to keep fighting.
Children of the Grave – Mordekaiser’s ultimate allows for a unique high point during a fight where a weakened enemy is picked out of the crowd and forced to fight off the iron revenant himself. They can still be healed, made invulnerable, QSS, or CC Morde out of it, but they can’t freeze him out completely. This is part of Morde’s win condition and he should feel like he has a chance to win.
Conclusion
Mordekaiser has been a constant problem gameplay and theme wise. I have offered some short term and long term suggestions that I believe would greatly help him transition into a balanced state. I have been playing Morde for almost 7 years now, and to think that my favorite champion may be gutted for another couple of years (like seasons 2-5) is disheartening. Short term I think it is very possible to make Morde somewhat fun to play if his engagement window was lowered so he can actually get his skills off. Long term I do feel he should be remodeled into a long engagement champion that can actually win when faced with League of mobility. It is fun to slug out fights on Mordekaiser and gets ghosts. Right now he isn’t fun at all.
