Mordekaiser and the Preseason

http://top-builds.com/app/public/img/splashs/mordekaiser.jpg

(Copied directly from the PBE boards)

Ahh, the Preseason. A time of change, extravagancy, funky and weird content hitting the Pbe and Riot attempting to get everything in line for the next season. Now, being the avid Metalmaniac I've been testing Mordekaiser quite a bit in custom games and matchmake queues and would like to seize the opportunity to lay out some concerns and interactions with the new content.

Now then, let's jam;

Duo Lane Ah yes, we know this one, hated by many, despised by some and root of every balance related dilemma mode's got. Rest assured that Mordekaiser's reign of terror has officially ended! Yes, due to items, champion changes, and especially jungle xp mordekaiser's dominance has been cut down tremendously, which is a good thing in my eyes but may push riot into leaving Morde as he is instead of finally addressing some of his solo lane issues. -Jungle camp xp made the level 2 cheese impossible -Relic shield's heal was nerfed, making his sustain bot much weaker

Champions This naughty cop's made Mordekaiser question his love for pain. She's extremely efficient at making his life a living hell due to her headshot damage piercing straight through Morde's abysmal base armor (20 hue :'( ) as well as being great at poking him down and starving him of CS/XP, which is made worse by the previous nerf to his W passive. She's really safe as well making her a powerful counter pick to him.

How do you fight a badass like Mordekaiser? You get another Bad Boy to deal with him. Yes, Graves might be a great solo laner after his rework but he can't be underestimated as a Mordekaiser counter pick. They can go toe to toe but with smart usage of kiting with his quickdraw, his burst and general superior base stats Grave's able to put holes into Morde's shield and eviscerate him. His constant wave push makes it hard for Morde to keep up without expending A LOT of health to clear the waves.

The daring bombardier manages to make Morde question his item choices. His mix of magic and physical damage makes it hard to itemize and his wave clear matches Morde's. Not much to say otherwise except the fact that his package's awesome!

Roaming Marksman. Can screw Morde over if he doesn't manage to get something out of her roaming mid and assisting her team.

This guy's capable of shredding harder than Morde. Metal jokes aside; Koggles is in a great spot due to him being utterly disgusting at dismantling frontlines but Morde making use of can get Koggy into sticky situations. Overall someone I consider Morde's equal in strengths and weaknesses.

Items! I highly dislike the changes to Tri force. It's not the lack of Ap, no, and not even the addition of CDR, seeing that Morde makes good use of it. It's the overbearing amount of crit. A stat most bruisers don't really want in their build. If there's anything Riot should change is the distribution of stats on the holy trinity force. Beefing up the health, ad and ms in order to nerf the Crit would be cool for most bruisers, maybe even throwing a stinger into the mix instead of a zeal.

Overall I think this change hurt Mordekaiser a lot in SoloQ. He relied on the AS, MS and the overall useful stats it provided, making the wasted crit and mana bearable. The sweet, sweet 340 damage sheen procs are too valuable to pass up and it makes me cringe buying this item from now on, seeing it being sub-optimal on most bruisers. ->needs work

Fun times. This item is highly stat efficient and the passive utterly destroys enemies when given the chance. Still, the lack of tanky stats makes it a risky buy even though it synergies well with Morde's ballsy play style.

Damn... This item is such a great counter to Mordie. It gives enough MS to kite him for days as well as providing strong damage reduction for his Q numero 3. Truly something every ADC would want, may need some nerfs and tweaks though, we'll see

I stand corrected. THIS makes me cringe every time I buy it. It used to be a great item on Mordekaiser, providing tankiness, highly sought after AP and a exquisite active for surviving focus fire. Now it's only 80% stat efficient. And it being double nerfed makes me sad. ->Nerfs should be reconsidered, Gold increase is a O K in my books

#Death'sDancer This item's a mess. It's sooo damn efficient at double dipping as a survival tool and damage option. The bleed being applied over 5 seconds and it giving spell vamp makes it basically reduce 20% of your damage. RIP Morde's 3. Q. Still, it's a good addition if tweaked a bit.

Not only a reference to his Metal background and Title. It synergies well with his passive and gives 300 health. HE IS IRON MAN! :D

Masteries! The more defensive Mastery tree seems tailored to burly dudes and in my opinion serves Mordekaiser really well. The more ferocious masteries can be acquired with the 12 remaining points but the defensive tree offers much sought after skills.

GRASP OF THE UNDYING Leeching 4% of your total health is a great way to sustain yourself in duels and offers Mordekaiser ways to trade really effective in top lane. It provides sustain, damage and seems like a great Keystone mastery for our Iron Revenant

MIGHT OF THE AGES 300 health's not too shabby, synergising with his passive but not exactly what you'd want in Morde

Now then, there's one thing that IRKS me; -Runic armor; Increases healing/shields for 8%

This just screams Mordekaiser! It synergies with his passive and even Grasp of the Undying/Children of the grave. YET IT DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK.

Is this intended? If so, what's the reasoning behind it? My guess is it doesn't recognize Iron Man as a shield since it doesn't show up on his buff bar. If that's the case please fix this interaction and it would be a Mastery he'd gladly put points in.

Still, as with every preseason champions are being impacted by items, counters, buffs, nerfs, etc. Mordekaiser is a prime example, him being played bot lane as well as Solo (Albeit in dire need of some tweaks, i.e W, base stats, etc.) From what I've gathered he's the only non-marksman champion that gets directly impacted by the marksmen rework.

Nerfs to his items and awkward interactions with the masteries are the only downsides I'm currently seeing. Tri force and Zhonyas being the hot topic for Bruisers and Mages makes changes for them likely so I rest assured that they might get changed soon. The Mastery on the other hand might need some explaining due to its wonky interaction.

~M.M