Nobody Likes Mordekaiser

Shapiro·Dec 30, 2019·4 votes·1,513 views

The Mordekaiser rework was a failure. Brushing past the fact that it destroyed his identity, he is extremely unfun to play against, and (for the majority of people) to play as well.

The amount of people crying (just or unjust) for nerfs just show how antifun and uninteractive he is to play against, and if you nerf him, he'll be useless because he has no skill expression and is merely a stat checking champion. He will always be too strong or too weak, there is no avoiding this with his current kit.

He needs a revert (never gonna happen) or mini reworks in his kit. There have been countless suggestions since day one on potential changes to be made, and the fact that Riot hasn't even attempted to change anything other than a hotfix nerf and a small number buff shows similar distastefulness that the rework was handled with. Nobody cares about the champion. Not enough to finish his skin VFX during the rework, not enough to keep his identity or try to maintain his playstyle / skill expression, and not enough to make ACTUAL changes to make him less toxic to play against or more true to his original identity / being more skill expressive.

30 Comments

BLACK REALM GODDec 30, 20195 votes

i like new mord. old mord's kit quite frankly sucked and made zero sense. he was closer to a support than a tank or fighter and made zero - ZERO sense for the support role. there wasn't a single item that actually worked with his kit as intended and his kit which made zero sense with zero items and zero skill expression was rightfully destroyed.

ShapiroDec 30, 20193 votes

[{quoted}](name=BLACK REALM GOD,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nNo4rTwN,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2019-12-30T06:20:16.651+0000)

i like new mord. old mord's kit quite frankly sucked and made zero sense. he was closer to a support than a tank or fighter and made zero - ZERO sense for the support role. there wasn't a single item that actually worked with his kit as intended and his kit which made zero sense with zero items and zero skill expression was rightfully destroyed.

Liandry's? Rylais? Old Morde had FAR more skill expression than current Morde.

BLACK REALM GODDec 30, 20193 votes

{quoted}

Liandry's? Rylais? Old Morde had FAR more skill expression than current Morde.

liandrys and rylais working with mords old kit is an absolute joke. he needed those items to even function. those weren't benefits those were crutches.

Q? didn't benefit him. W? didn't benefit him. E? Didn't benefit him. R? the only spell that mattered. and once you got your R to pop it was useless.

and more skill expression? what baloney. you had 3 options. secure drake, last hit an enemy, or die because of the horrible xp passive that was never compensated for lack of damage and growth.

old mord was 100% reliant on his team succeeding. it's hilarious how people talk about mord's macro play when what those people are actually talking about? is his ability to be a shitty support in an off-position lane. you'd be better off bringing tahm.

ShapiroDec 30, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=BLACK REALM GOD,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nNo4rTwN,comment-id=000200000000,timestamp=2019-12-30T07:13:21.089+0000)

liandrys and rylais working with mords old kit is an absolute joke. he needed those items to even function. those weren't benefits those were crutches.

Q? didn't benefit him. W? didn't benefit him. E? Didn't benefit him. R? the only spell that mattered. and once you got your R to pop it was useless.

and more skill expression? what baloney. you had 3 options. secure drake, last hit an enemy, or die because of the horrible xp passive that was never compensated for lack of damage and growth.

old mord was 100% reliant on his team succeeding. it's hilarious how people talk about mord's macro play when what those people are actually talking about? is his ability to be a shitty support in an off-position lane. you'd be better off bringing tahm.

Skill expression: W'ing proper minions for best AOE positioning or minions opponent wouldn't expect for cheeky long range kills on low health targets. Baiting people by seeming lower than you are with a self casted W (to be fair, still somewhat possible on current Morde, though they can see how full your shield is), controlling 2 champions at once, the satisfaction of 2v1ing during a jungle gank (new morde you can just R)

BLACK REALM GODDec 30, 20192 votes

{quoted}

Skill expression: W'ing proper minions for best AOE positioning or minions opponent wouldn't expect for cheeky long range kills on low health targets. Baiting people by seeming lower than you are with a self casted W (to be fair, still somewhat possible on current Morde, though they can see how full your shield is), controlling 2 champions at once, the satisfaction of 2v1ing during a jungle gank (new morde you can just R)

your entire argument is flawed and consists of rose tinted hyperbole. did you even play mord pre-rework? because it definitely doesn't sound like it.

Mords kit consisted of AP scaling, HP scaling, AD scaling, Attack speed scaling, and you were required to buy defense on top of everything if you didn't want to die at level 18 to a fed soraka with greivous wounds and warmogs - literally one of the biggest meme builds in the game.

there are literally zero items to build now and there were zero items to build then that gave old mord an advantage over anyone. if you couldn't get rylais and liandrys for the AP+HP you would die in 3 hits and be putting out a whopping 300 damage for your spell rotation and then be vulnerable because even at max cdr you'd be on a 4 second cooldown for your Q due to it scaling with both AD and AP.

Harvester of sorrow required you to dive right into the middle of an enemy wave or an enemy team... but wait... isn't mord a mage? or is he a support? the literal truth of the matter is that mords kit was so god awful cluster f***** that literally anything you did with him was probably wrong and if you weren't abusing his bugs to make him invulnerable or permanently untargetable then you were playing him "wrong". more often than not his W was used for running away or boosting dragon's carcass if he ever got it. there's no skill expression in relying on your team to do all the work and then hoping to get rewarded while running away. and don't even get me started on the BS xp passive.

mord's E was a fat joke. if you got all 5 champions with it you'd get 1/4 of your hp as a shield. if you got 4 champions with it and had enough damage you'd get 1/4 of your max hp as a shield. if you got any less than that - guess what? you got basically nothing because 25% of 60% AP+AD + 155 is basically what your output is and that's barely anything. tack on that 30%+ resistance level everyone had pre-rework mord and you essentially had to make sure you engaged a 4v1 every time you wanted to use your E. even with warmogs do you know how much 1/4 of 3k is? it's 750. or literally less than your Q if you hit with all 3 strikes. jhin and yasuo have auto attacks to do 1400 on crit not to mention all AD champs can build lifesteal and tons of AP champs can build gunblade without negative side effects to their kits. mord can't do that because he has such a heavy reliance on defensive items. Because he puts out so little damage per hit and has 2 aoe spells in his kit building gunblade for him is essentially just negating his spells costs.

Mords R was literally his only tool that mattered because in a 1v1 you lost. his kit was designed to lose 1v1s. think how absurd that is. you can't win a 1v1 as mord so you either have to force a 1v2 or a 2v1. that does not make good gameplay in any sense of the term. the league community is a bunch of adult babies for the most part with less than average IQ. when they see you standing there because you can't engage that's going to tilt your team. if your team engaged all you could do is pop R and wait while it cooks and hope your teammates can get the kills otherwise you're a useless dump for 90 seconds. on the off chance that you do get your ghost you look like you just got hit with steroids and now all of a sudden you can kill anyone - assuming the ghost you get actually is building AP. And since typically there are only 2 champions on the enemy team that MIGHT BE building AP your options are support or mid. And that shit tilts teammates too because now they think you're some troll sandbagging to try and draw out the game when the reality is without a useful phantom you're a heimer without a turret and you don't even have stuns. There needs to be a meme about mord being a giant minion because essentially that's what you were. you would have to W the minion wave and hope to god they didn't have a big enough AOE spell to destroy the wave because as soon as they did your W was worthless.

so where do you play mord? because his kit screams W is a support ability. throw relic shield on him and maybe you can play support right? well... no. Mord had one of the lowest starting HP, HP/5, Armor, and Magic resist stats in the game. if you went bottom where both enemies were likely ranged you might as well have been inting. because you're going to get blown up.

so go top because most tops are melee... except now you're banking on not being able to use your W passive and in some cases active. HIS KIT MADE LITERALLY ZERO SENSE.

IT'D MAKE MORE SENSE TO PUT BONUS DAMAGE TO MONSTERS ON IVERN'S AUTO ATTACKS.

TeodorusofNoxusDec 30, 20193 votes

I happen to like the new Mordekaiser. He is, at last a bruiser. The old 2015 version was supposed to be a juggernaut but was an assassin. Many popular and fun champs get hated on all the time. People get smashed by a one trick and cry all day. Yasuo and Riven are probably the most one tricked champs in the game and there will always be someone out there who will cry for nerfs. Doesn't matter if you're easy to play or hard as heck-people willc all any champ braindead and call for nerfs. Morde is a Juggernaut at last. Should have been like this in season 5 when they amde the juggernaut update.

Nik NikersonDec 30, 20193 votes

How exactly did they ruin his identity?

DuskDaUmbreonDec 30, 20193 votes

Because his old identity was not having a playrate and being a buggy piece of shit, and now he's actually picked and has relatively few bugs. :^ )

Nik NikersonDec 30, 20192 votes

Makes sense.

thefatlazycatDec 30, 20194 votes

Mordekaiser went from a bursty, macro-oriented AP juggernaut with a phat heal for himself and allies, a ghost, and heavy AOE damage/teamfighting power to a straightforward, sustained damage dealing AP juggernaut based around 1v1ing

Salty Mc FeedDec 30, 20191 votes

You actually don't have to build any AP. Tank Mordekaiser works too. Riot gave him a lot of base damage on his Q and his passive based on his level (white numbers) and he even gets 15% magic pen on his E. If you ever happen to get Mordekaiser in ARAM just go full tank so you can survive while being focused, you will still deal very high damage overall, because of constant AoE. Mordekaiser against a high physical damage team with thornmail and sunfire is especially funny. Everything around you just dies and they can't do shit.

ShapiroDec 30, 20193 votes

[{quoted}](name=Nik Nikerson,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nNo4rTwN,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2019-12-30T06:34:53.198+0000)

How exactly did they ruin his identity?

Being a drain based burst champion, red eyes to differentiate himself because he's NOT a shadow isles champ, iconic macro play and strong waveclear.

thefatlazycatDec 30, 20193 votes

It hurts to see people complaining about Aatrox's rework when Morde's gutted his identity just as much and made him more two-dimensional. And it's all because Aatrox had a higher playrate when he was reworked

ShapiroDec 30, 20192 votes

{quoted}

It hurts to see people complaining about Aatrox's rework when Morde's gutted his identity just as much and made him more two-dimensional. And it's all because Aatrox had a higher playrate when he was reworked

Yep. At least Riot kept changing Aatrox after his rework until it was somewhat well received

ShapiroDec 30, 20193 votes

Riot literally took Morde, and acknowledged they were "using him as an opportunity to make an easier champion" where RIGHT AFTER they rework Pantheon, infamously easy, to be HARDER.

WoodakoodashoodaDec 30, 20192 votes

The old Mordekaiser was an absolute design failure.

Setting aside the fact he was a sub par champion, he had hundreds of in game bugs, making him a literal, not figurative, failure.

The new Mordekaiser needs nerfs. Specifically, his passive needs toned down.

ShapiroDec 30, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=Is So Chill,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nNo4rTwN,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2019-12-30T12:02:37.321+0000)

The old Mordekaiser was an absolute design failure.

Setting aside the fact he was a sub par champion, he had hundreds of in game bugs, making him a literal, not figurative, failure.

The new Mordekaiser needs nerfs. Specifically, his passive needs toned down.

Having hundreds of bugs is a testament to how Riot has genuinely never cared about the champion in giving him a chance to succeed.

TeodorusofNoxusDec 30, 20191 votes

Salty Mc FeedDec 30, 20191 votes

The rework was long overdue after Riot's meta breaking experiment with Mordekaiser bot and the juggernaut update, which was 4 years ago! If you are talking about a revert I hope you are aware that the more recent "old" Mordekaiser was designed in a very specific way and not for top lane but as a cheesy bot lane duo juggernaut/carry. Or are you talking about the old old Mordekaiser? Of course if you only played league for a year or two you wouldn't even know the story of his reworks and you probably shouldn't make discussions about his "identity". Clarification needed.

ShapiroDec 30, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=Salty Mc Feed,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nNo4rTwN,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2019-12-30T12:54:19.772+0000)

The rework was long overdue after Riot's meta breaking experiment with Mordekaiser bot and the juggernaut update, which was 4 years ago! If you are talking about a revert I hope you are aware that the more recent "old" Mordekaiser was designed in a very specific way and not for top lane but as a cheesy bot lane duo juggernaut/carry. Or are you talking about the old old Mordekaiser? Of course if you only played league for a year or two you wouldn't even know the story of his reworks and you probably shouldn't make discussions about his "identity". Clarification needed.

Am referring to Juggernaut Mordekaiser. Yes I'm very aware he was intended to be played bot lane, and the versatility of being viable mid/top/jg/adc was part of what made him interesting. Now he's dedicated top.

You're correct in that I never played the original Mordekaiser, but the Juggernaut update (other than changing his INTENDED role) was pretty minor when compared to the abomination of his current rework. His Q stayed a point and click, now just with 3 hits rather than one, his W instead of being self castable just moved to being a 2 man/minion ability, his E literally the same, his ult the same with the added dragon ghost. They both lived in fights by doing damage. Drain tanks that were hard to kill as long as they were doing damage.

New Mordekaiser kept really nothing. "A" shield, and AN aoe ring.

5050BSDec 30, 20191 votes

I love the new mord. The old rework was clunky. The original mord was "ok" but not as fun as the new Mord. Also both the old Mords do not fit in todays game. Riot needs to update all the champs to fit in todays game.

More Mobility More Damage More "Special" things

thefatlazycatDec 30, 20192 votes

Morde's rework took away more unique mechanics than it added:

-Passive Shield -Ghost -Dragon Ghost (I consider this to be separate from the other ghost personally) -XP Siphon -W's Entire Behaviour (Debatable if this one counts, it was certainly unique)

+Resource for one ability (no longer even feels unique thanks to Sett's release) +Death Realm

chipndip1Dec 30, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Morde's rework took away more unique mechanics than it added:

-Passive Shield -Ghost -Dragon Ghost (I consider this to be separate from the other ghost personally) -XP Siphon -W's Entire Behaviour (Debatable if this one counts, it was certainly unique)

+Resource for one ability (no longer even feels unique thanks to Sett's release) +Death Realm

Who cares if they were unique? The point is "what do they accomplish" and "are they buggy piles of trash or not"? Morde's old kit wasn't cohesive at all.

ShapiroDec 30, 20192 votes

{quoted}

I love the new mord. The old rework was clunky. The original mord was "ok" but not as fun as the new Mord. Also both the old Mords do not fit in todays game. Riot needs to update all the champs to fit in todays game.

More Mobility More Damage More "Special" things

More damage? LOL. Juggernaut Morde's Q outdamages new Mordekaiser's entire kit. Level one of Jugg Morde W outdamaged max rank Q and E on new

2gudaiyaDec 30, 20191 votes

honestly when I queue for top I would rather face a morde than an illaoi or darius or heavens forbid a kled. to me it is an absolute muchness that people are up in arms about morde like he's the worst offender in the history of the game, and no I don't play morde.

ShapiroDec 30, 20191 votes

{quoted}

honestly when I queue for top I would rather face a morde than an illaoi or darius or heavens forbid a kled. to me it is an absolute muchness that people are up in arms about morde like he's the worst offender in the history of the game, and no I don't play morde.

I don't think he's the worst offender at all either. Though he certainly isn't fun to play against.

2gudaiyaDec 30, 20191 votes

{quoted}

I don't think he's the worst offender at all either. Though he certainly isn't fun to play against.

yeah I can agree with him being an unfun champion, especially given certain match ups which would be considered meta. lucky for me most of my top lane picks are off meta and hella cheesy into a morde, not so much into the other popular juggernauts as I always find myself lacking damage potential on them when they start getting the defensive or health items.

there's also the mage tops which are...whoof tier.

The entire teamDec 30, 20191 votes

I rather not deal with old Morde. Especially with his old R plus Liandrys, Morello's and Rylais oneshotting people? Nuh uh.

Also, I don't see Morde rocking a ghost.

ShapiroDec 30, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=The entire team,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nNo4rTwN,comment-id=000a,timestamp=2019-12-30T16:04:57.656+0000)

I rather not deal with old Morde. Especially with his old R plus Liandrys, Morello's and Rylais oneshotting people? Nuh uh.

Also, I don't see Morde rocking a ghost.

People complain about Morde's current ult and don't build QSS. You could cleanse Mordekaiser's old ult with QSS, so no you don't get one shot. Also with any semblance of magic resist you didn't anway.

The entire teamDec 30, 20191 votes

They also complain about the skill usage. Both R’s are point and click, but new Morde requires him to work for ONE kill, rather than just a point and click move that turns him into an unkillable pentakill machine.

Plus, the design didn’t work. Current Morde was a tried and true juggernaut mage, while Old Morde was all over the place: AP nuker, AD bruiser, mage, and support wit no CC. You wanna play a champ that controls a ghost? You wanna play a champ that’s like old Morde? Play Yorick.

And for the complaints about new Morde being OP, those are from the old Morde toe suckers who proudly wear their biasing nostalgia goggles, just to discredit Riot for taking away a broken champ they married in their 1 hour of sleep. They are the reason we can’t have nice things, like nerfs.