How to make SoloKaiser a viable option

While reading the patch notes for 5.18 (r.i.p metallic mastery) I saw something along the lines of riot thinking that the lack of Sustain made solo lane Mordekaiser turn out to be weaker than expected. Which isn't really the main reason for his poor performance in solo lanes (around 44% win rate as of now top and 39% mid). The real reason is the lack of fallback patterns old Mordekaiser had in order to survive unfavorable matchups and not chainfeed and become a liability to his team. >>He can't do that anymore due to him not being able to safely farm from a distance, resulting in him getting even more behind. Not to mention his usually fatal encounters with the enemy jungler<<

Other solo laners can either safely CS from a distance or are tanky/mobile enough to do so without dying miserably, which the tin can can't do as of now. His siphon of destruction was severely nerfed in damage, leaving his former bread and butter ability into a miserable spot and stripping him from means to safely farm from range with a well placed E. Not to mention the fact that he can't push lanes even if his life depended on it. His nerfed E and the lack of a functioning W make his laning outside of the care of his babysitter...erm... I mean support a living hell if things don't go his way. Not to mention his bane; getting ganked pre rework was oftentimes something that didn't result in him getting recycled but rather get either a double kill or build up enough shield to survive the enemy assault or even put his creeping death on a backline creep and use the speed boost to escape sticks situations. >>Morde's basically bank-bait due to his lack of natural survivability and abysmal mobility. He used to gain enough shield to shrug off the enemy attacks and retreat to his tower or use his W defensively for a speed boost. Having 340 MS used to be enough to fall back to the tower while tanking the damage with his shield<<

Now, why was Mordekaiser reworked to fit into a duo lane? According to CertainlyT it was due to him being unhealthy Solo but he turned out to be just as bad duo if not worse, making the argument somewhat invalid. But Morde really WAS toxic to play against. Past tense. He used to be too much of a lane bully due to his shield and E making for pretty unhealthy gameplay patterns but the rework not only nerfed his most iconic ability (passive) but also his E so that the problematic aspects were basically taken care off.

Now how could we help Solo lane Mordekaiser out without making his duo stronger and/or making him the bane of any melee top laner as he was before? Iron Man: His defensive steroid was basically gutted in the rework due to the nerf to its damage conversion from 35-25% of the damage dealt. This was a hit to his identity and also made him escaping a two man assault less likely. I suggest buffing up the percentage to 30% while only being one third (10%) against minions. >>This would be a buff to his survivability in fights, which weren't the problematic aspects of his passive and a nerf to his bully nature by making hitting minion waves generate less shield<<

Harvester of Sorrow How many times did I mention this before? Give him his Aoe damage shroud again and make it being applicable to minions to give him means to push out waves on his own and also from distance if the situation demands it. If you're crazy you could also add a small ratio that converts some of his ap into MR/armor while the shroud's active similar ro his old W since the loss of resistances hurt his solo lane. Not a necessity though since the damage should be enough. Also, Morde's the only juggernaut with 325 MS, while Skarner,, Darius and Garen enjoy higher movement speed while still having CC and mobility in their kits. A small change would be to give him some of his MS back around 330-335ish while nerfing the active speed boost from his Harvester. >>This would allow Mordekaiser to have a fallback strategy in difficult matchups while also gaining the means to build up shield and push out waves more efficiently. The MS shift would also help him escape ganks<<

Siphon of destruction I'm honestly reluctant to say this needs buffs to its base damage since it would only make him return to his bully nature. What COULD be done is increase the AP ratio in order to make his range farming a bit easier while not really making him fall back to being this unhealthy meanie. >>Up to debate<<

Now these are just the things I experienced where the biggest problems for Mordekaiser's solo laning, which, if addressed would make taking him top/mid an alternative if your team insists on having a normal ADC bot lane and you just feel like counter picking an enemy assassin pr other late game carry top lane with someone who could deal with them.

It would help us Mordekaiser players to NOT handicap our team if they're unable to take a solo lane ADC as well as giving us options where we could play the Master of Metal.

Just a quick brainstorming session on my part, I'm bound to have left something out so go ahead and give us your own opinion what Mordekaiser needs in order to expand his horizon regarding other positions and strategies.

~M.M