[Champion Discussion] Mordekaiser; Is he the best Champion in the game? Why or why not?

I want to talk with you guys about Mordekaiser, and I am curious in hearing your opinions on this champ!

My name is TheKingofEloHell, I have mained Mordekaiser for over 8 years. I am approaching 3.6 million mastery, but despite all this time playing Morde, I have never made it past Diamond 5, 98 LP.

It’s not that Mordekaiser isn’t viable in Mid to high diamond, masters or even Challenger, because there are a few Morde mains on various servers across the world, who have hit Challenger while playing only Morde.

So it’s doable. What’s holding me back? What’s holding you back?

I think it’s attitude really. In my hueart, there are normal ways to play Morde, and the there are ways to play Morde that realize his full potential. The best Morde mains do not dwell on these strats, they may or may not know them, but they refine the basics of the meta;

Last hitting (more or less this amounts to wave control, and the best players know that if their lvl 2 is strongest they have to take advantage of that and go for that 7th or was it 8th? Minion to hit lvl 2 first. A good player pays attention not only to how many minions they have killed, but also the enemy to know when they will lvl l)

Lane control (Knowing your match ups to the point that you can accurately know whether freezing a wave, (easier to gank, and denies gold/exp) or when to shove a wave, (enemy cannot farm well under tower, or you want to pressure a gank or roam with your jungler) knowing when and how to trade with your lane opponent.

Map awareness (Staying aware of where the enemy jungler is for a long as possible while still maintaining a confident lane presence)

Objective control (there are a lot of very powerful plays to be made if your team stays on top of objectives like Drg, Rift and Nashor)

Team fight control (Morde doesn’t always go for the adc ghost. Aside from the obvious that the adc should be the hardest champ to catch, some other champs provide major HP, or AP for Morde. Others even have special Passives, like Udyr ghost keeping bear stance)

Rotation (a strong Morde player knows to shove a lane prior to Drg spawn, know how to read the map and with that information make the best use of their roaming, as Morde has awfully low base movement speed; 325)

Proper builds (you won’t see a Challenger Morde troll building for example, there are no "just for fun cuz why not games", they know and go for the most optimal build for every lane and every game)

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So with Mordekaiser, as I mentioned above, playing with the basics perfected will increase your elo; but something I want more than Challenger elo is a purer game. If that makes sense?

I want to perfect the meta, to break it down into something cleaner.

At the end of the day, all that matters is taking out their nexus before they take yours.

This is why I main Mordekaiser. His ultimate has the ability to create a major advantage for your team, but only if that team is grouped together and only if you can make a catch on the enemy.

This makes Mordekaiser a wheelchair champion. If you build around him, and play around him, Mordekaiser is strong. But if none of that happens, he is just an immobile champion whose kit is not useful to his team.

I feel like I’m rambling so I’ll try hard to pin down what I’m trying to say.

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Mordekaiser has 4 major potential strategies. All of them require cooperation from your team.

1- Mordekaiser’s W has the longest ability description in the game and because of this most people don’t know that Morde has Soraka level healing potential not only for himself, but also his allies!

   How it works: Morde W is a circle he places around himself *and* an allied unit. After 4 seconds, or when Morde detonates it early, both circles damage all enemy units inside. Of that DMG, a % is **converted into a heal for Morde or his Ally unit, depending on contents of each player’s circle**

  Only 2 units can be *drained* so minions = 25% of dmg dealt converted into a heal, maximum heal is 50%.


  But Jungle Monsters and Enemy Champs grant 100% of the detonation dmg as a drain, making the maximum heal potential **an insane 200% heal.** It can heal up to 750 for both Morde and his Ally every 5.5 seconds.

So Morde’s ally heal alone is a huge mechanic, but since so many players don’t know this, Morde is gimped in his potential. Imagine if your JG knew that heal and waited in your lane bush top for you to be ganked. Abusing the heal mechanic makes it easy to bait the enemy team into committing to the fight before you and your Jungler turn the fight and score sums and kills. Killing enemy JG early can snowball the entire game as we all know. But in most cases Morde is forced to play much safer than he could, not because his plays are bad, but because teammates will likely flash when he attempts to turn a fight, leaving him to die. I hate this. Unlike the Challenger Morde's who likely accept that players are not going to be reliable, I shoot myself in the foot all the time, going for the best possible play because I know that if we go for it, its doable. I tilt really hard when that happens.

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2- The Holy Diver; a play that requires your entire team to be on board for. This is the play in its ideal form; your Jungler red wards Drg pit at your lvl 5; and bot lane pushes as far to enemy bot tower as they can for the next 60 seconds. If they are able to get the enemy bot lane under their tower, that’s perfect.

At lvl 6 you teleport to the red ward in Drg pit, while mid lane rotates top. You and Jungler take Drg together and afterward you dive bot lane from behind their tower. The first 1-3 tower shots will hit Drg and after you or your Jungler go ham, you use Morde’s W to heal back up to full. This play can kill at least 2 and sometimes up to 4 players if enemy top tp’s, mid roams or their Jungler tries to help. Because Drg can tank for so long and attacks in an AOE, it’s very easy to kill pre lvl 6 champions. This play almost always leads to first tower and sets the entire team ahead.

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3- the Petting Zoo attack; after the Holy Diver, rift herald spawns about 2 minutes later. If you and Jungler can kill top or enemy jungler before 12-13 minutes (next drg spawn) you can use the ghost from Morde ult to take rift easily. Keep that buff until next drg.

After Drg and assuming your team got it, get entire team to go mid or bot. 5 players, a minion wave plus dragon AOE siege and Rift tower burst almost always equals an inhibitor. Taking an inhibitor that quickly with as undeniable play as this ruins the morale of most enemy teams. From there, Baron is an easy secure.

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4- Baron; at 20 minutes the 3rd and usually final Dragon of the game is taken by your team, because of Holy Diver and Petting Zoo, your team believes in the importance of Drg objective and you don’t hear anyone whining about it “just being Cloud Drg” (Can we all acknowledge that cloud is the best drg? Free movement speed out of combat? On a coordinated team that = insane map control)

Even with the extra HP on baron, if Morde has a Gunblade built or at least 260 AP and at least lvl 11, (15 seconds longer on ult duration) he can SOLO BARON with Drg tanking it. In this case, after Drg, have a red ward ready to place in the baron pit as you direct teammates to 4 man mid or bot; (whichever lane you’ve been focusing the most this game with the prior two plays) while you solo Nash. Worst case scenario someone on the enemy team knows what you’re doing and steals baron, but your team takes another inhibitor and makes it harder for the enemy to come back. Best case scenario your team keeps the enemy busy and clueless as you solo Baron and secure the buff to end the game with.

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These plays define Mordekaiser in my opinion, and I think they represent the meta Morde embodies. Every successful Morde ult or Drg should lead to a tower. Every tower takes you closer to their nexus. If you break the game into 6 minute intervals, and play around each Drg, you can win games in almost any elo, with any skill level on your team; stress free.

It doesn’t bother me if a teammate is bad. What bothers me is when they are stubborn, closed minded in regards to the play potential Mordekaiser represents.

I tilt so hard when teammates farm instead of Drg, or flash away instead of using my W to heal and win the fight, or follow me and Drg to baron instead of pushing a lane, thus leading the enemy team to Baron and ruining our momentum. Morde is a momentum champion, if you get an inch, you can take a mile.

To anyone below me in elo, what are your thoughts? How do you prevent tilting when teammates don’t believe? If you had Morde on your team, would you go for these plays?

For those reading this that are higher elo than me, what advice do you have for me? Without muting all, and without giving up Morde, how can I finally get out of D5 (without demoting lol)

Thanks for reading and I hope this mobile texted post makes sense.

Haters call Morde bad and that's a score Imma settle, cuz' I put the meta in the MASTER OF METAL!