@Meddler: Now I know it's a bit late to ask, and may be rude, but...
#Why was Mordekaiser chosen to become a bot lane champion?
I don't mean to talk about mechanics, or complain, or discuss balance on this; I'm just confused, and have been confused for some time, and I've thought about it a good deal. I just want to know why Mordekaiser was chosen for this, as opposed to any other champion. When the Juggernaut update came through we were given an explanation stating that these champions all filled a similar nitch, and that the changes were not meant for balence, but to give each a unique and distinct identity in game. Going through each of them quickly, we can identify those:
: Built to chain kills
: brings hell for enemies on a killing spree
: the bot-lane melee carry
: master of neutral objectives in the jungle
Of these 4 champions, I think we can all agree that they are now very distict from one another. In that sense, the reworks have been a great success. All 4 of them at one time or another have been called Over Powered, or otherwise criticized. Given that this happens for many newly released champions, I don't think that such criticisms are in themselves an indicator that the changes were bad. Quite contrarily, it means that many players were using the champions and struggling very hard to adapt to the changes they brought about.
But back to my initial question: Why was Mordekaiser chosen to head south, and not the others? All 3 of the other juggernaut champions have some kind of tools (and had them before their updates) which make them fairly reasonable choices when put into a 2v2 lane.
: has a pull and a slow, to stick to and harass/kill his ranged enemies.
: has a move speed boost to engage with, and a hp regen to recover from ranged poke.
: has a slow, an ms boost, AND his most iconic ability is made for teamfights, rather than solo kills.
Comparatively, Mordekaiser has none of those tools. He has essentially no way to close on an enemy, other than walking, meaning that he has great difficulty in a predominantly ranged environment. While he formerly had a very frustrating ability to burst and ignore counterattack, that is no linger present. (I understand this to have been an intended goal in his rework) The same ability used to make Morde somewhat resistant to poke as well, but that benefit has also been essentially nullified.
As far as I can conclude, the reason Morde has been pushed so hard toward the bottom lane really has nothing to do with any ability Morde has to succeed in that environment, but instead has been placed there specifically because of his inability to succeed there. (here me out) Unlike the other juggernauts, Morde has zero ability to synergies with an existing adc marksman in the bottom lane. Cuing up with a marksman, and Morde both in the bottom lane is arguably less beneficial than putting the marksman there alone--Which unless I am mistaken, was exactly the goal: Morde is meant to Replace the marksman in his lane; therefore an ability to co-exist with one would be highly detrimental. Also unlike the other juggernauts, Mordekaiser benefits a great deal from having a duo lane partner, almost to the point of being entirely dependent on them. Because Morde has no crowd control abilities, no gap closer AND his shield only comes on line after he's gotten in a few hits already, the benefit of having a partner with HARD crowd control becomes almost a necessity. This alone could potentially be considered enough of a reason to play Mordekaiser bottom lane.
#Is all this speculation accurate? Are these really the reasons Morde was chosen for bottom lane? I don't want to be guessing on this anymore.
Beyond all this, there was a second goal regarding Mordekaiser which is only partly related to his move to bottom lane. Meddler stated (this is not an exact quote) that Morde was meant to become a ramp up damage dealer, rather than his former incarnation as a burst damage dealer. The change to his Q supports this idea. At the beginning, however, I think his Children of the Grave are a large reason for this change. (how fair is it to burst 1 target to death just to stand back at a safe distance while you watch that same champion shred the rest of his team while you sit back at home all safe and cozy?) I think this was probably a good call, but it brought a problem: Morde formerly was able to use both E and Q to poke at his enemies from range. With the change to his Q, he can no longer do that. --> this causes great difficulty for Morde's laning phase. because he can't really strike out at his ranged opponent, he was liable to fall behind in cs, and therefor gold advantage and levels. Was this the reason the XP Passive was added to his W? Was this the reason a heal was attached to his W?
Thankyou for reading. I know it's a long post, but I would VERY much appreciate a direct reply.
