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So you want to play Mordekaiser top

Malicious Metal··54 votes·8,738 views

Well, after so many people added me on League and wanted me to share my insight on Top Lane Mordekaiser with them I decided it would be best to post this on the boards rather than to reply to every single one of you guys.

So yeah, something different than my usual Mordekaiser threads, trying to cut down on those kinds of threads for the time being. (But you bet I'll be back at complaining' once more Mordekaiser changes hit the PBE). But I'm digressing, let's jam.

Why Pick Mordekaiser top? Welp, for starters; He's way more fun to play up top in my opinion, seeing that currently he gets his teeth kicked in by every other bot laner. Not to mention top being the home of bruisers, tanks and sometimes Assassins, making those matchups more favorable for the Metal Juggernaut.

Pros; -Good Waveclear -Plenty of favorable matchups -Less prone to getting poked and bullied in lane -Great duelist -Can shut down a lot of snowball reliant top laners -He's numero Uno -Scales really hard into mid and late game -Versatile build options -Damage's nothing to laugh at

Cons; -Prone to getting ganked -Lacks a W in lane.... T^T -If behind he usually has problems catching up and playing safe -Not exactly the most durable champion without proper items -Kitable -Removes source of CC top -REQUIRES a CC tank jungle or bot -Not exactly near dragon

When to pick Morde top; -You lack Magic damage (I.E Yasuo/Zed mid) -You got plenty of CC on your team -You're confident in your skills to shut down the enemy laner -You're against either one of those; Yasuo (Once the damn mastery gets nerfed he'd be even easier to beat) Akali Darius Garen Irelia Malphite Riven Renekton Rengar MonkeyKing Zed TalonVladimir

Runes and Masteries

http://orig03.deviantart.net/6b5c/f/2015/320/f/a/runes_by_roughnut-d9gx3bd.jpg

Movement speed quints are a must nowadays, seeing that Morde's base MS of 325 is way too low and needs to be addressed somehow. Health seals synergies well with his passive based on max hp and make him a bit more tankier seeing that his base health's a mere 1765 Magic pen for your spells to sting Ap/Level for the late game scaling of his skills, I sometimes replace 'em with MR/level, depending on the matchup

http://orig05.deviantart.net/2697/f/2015/320/6/a/masteries_by_roughnut-d9gx3et.jpg Some masteries to pint out; -Runic Armor, once fixed, would be his core defensive mastery but for the time being we'll have to stick with veteran's scars. Still, his ultimate heal, spell vamp, W heal and shield would all benefit from it so be ready to put points into it as soon as Riot manages to address this.

-Grasp of the Undying helps Morde substantially. He gets more bullying pressure He gets sustain and damage (Which even gets increased with a Spirit visage and eventually runic armor) It scales with his maximum health, making it scale quite nicely at all stages of the game It makes him win trades easier

Build

item 3116 Behold! The holy grail! This items is a MUST on Mordekaiser. It gives him ways to stick to his target, tankiness, damage and its build path is quite nice. I rush this 99.9% of the games I play on Morde

item 3146 I know what you're thinking. "But M.M. Spell vamp is only a third effective on Morde since he's all AOE" Yeah sure. Yet it gives him all he wants! It gives a hefty chunk of both 40AD and 80AP, scaling extremely well with both his Q and E due to them having total AD ratios. It gives him a 30 second, ranged slow with decent base damage and scaling It's relatively cheap with 3400 gold The build path is great It provides a strong mid game power spike The sustain is awesome on this, even though it's only 1/3 as effective. hit three targets at least and it's fine ;) Together with SV you become unkillable

item 3053 Well, Morde scales hella good with total AD. What else? Insane shield 500 health Cheap Provides all the durability you need to survive focus fire

item 3157 Yeah, it was nerfed yet it's still one of the best items in the game due to its active. It also provides a bog chunk of AP and even Armor

item 3065 Why wouldn't you want to build this item on Morde? You get CDR, 500 health, 70 MR and an awesome passive that makes your grasp and gun blade even more effective. Not only will you heal for ungodly amounts but due to your shield gain you'll almost never die

Boots are situational but I usually get either item 3111 or item 3047

As for other options; item 3742 Armor, MS, Health. Great item versus full ad teams

item 3001 I sometimes replace Zhonyas with this one, being a LOT cheaper and helping with your damage output. Do they have Fizz, Akali or Diana? Get this!

item 3285 Well, the MS is nice^^ Gives you loads of ap too and some more wave clear

item 3089 I sometimes get this when I'm ahead. Beware the 2000 damage nuclear Q's and 60% max hp shred Ult!

item 3026 Well, what's worse than to kill Mordekaiser? Killing him twice!

Dishonorable Mention.... item 3078 It used to be good on him but since the preseason.... eh.... 360 damage sheen procs are nice though!

Tips :^) -Got 75 gold? Get a pink ward and put it into the tri bush! -Skip W at level 3 and get an additional point in your E -Max E->Q->W -Try zoning the enemy by charging your Q and let them chose between life or CS -Poking with E is essential to keep em low enough for them not to contribute in a gank. -If you do get ganked use your W for a heal and E for shield gain and heal -Alternatively kill one of them if he's low and beat the Motherfcker with another Motherfcker -Use your ultimate defensively or at the start of a duel to get the best out of the heal -You can "pseudo-engage" with a Rylais empowered Ultimate

Final thoughts I hope this lil' guide will help you if you want to pick up Mordekaiser for top lane. Feel free to ask me anything and I'll be sure to answer. All in the name of SoloKaiser!

Thanks for reading folks,

M.M

62 Comments

PlsTouchMeGently8 votes

I love you MM. I don't even play Morde, but when I think of my main Malzahar and what I would do if Riot stripped him of his space aids identity I can only hope that I would be a champion for Malz players the way you have been for Morde players!

Sir Ticklesword7 votes

Thank you for this guide. I used to play morde a lot before the changes. I played him in the adc role he was shoehorned into when the rework came through and I felt like I was cheating somehow. I think I'll take him back to top and have some more fun with him. Thanks again.

CoolKnightST7 votes

I think I have the solution for Mordekaiser:

Let him able to slave the Rift Herald too !!! ;)

Raid Boss Morde4 votes

Don't pick Morde into Irelia... just don't. Irelia wrecks Morde, and now that she can rush Rageblade, she turns into a tanky, sustained, mobile, assassin.

Malicious Metal3 votes

I haven't had the pleasure to play against a rage blade Irelia but the ones I faced couldn't do much to me. Her stun's annoying as hell though especially when you whittle them down with your E's.

Still, I've heard how grossly OP the new Rageblade is, only a matter of time until people catch up and abuse it.

SlytherinUmbreon1 votes

speaking of, I was actually wondering how Rageblade worked on Morde :u

junglerboy164 votes

(Rageblade's) stats look really good on paper and in practice it's a really strong snowballing item. Yet there are some problems; Morde's AS is really bad so he doesn't scale as well with the attack speed and can't make as much use of it sadly. It's also ramping up and without being able to build tanky early on Morde gets blown up easily. So yeah, it works when you're ahead but it inhibits Mordekaiser from getting his core items early.

That's the answer he gave me about it, seems to cover everything nicely.

Sumutherguy4 votes

So, you're saying my buy order shouldn't be item 3053 item 3078 item 3053 item 3053 item 3053 for 445 base AD (with the shield) and smashing peoples faces with 3k Q's?

Alternatively, you can get an extra 1.75 AD and .7 AP ratio on your R if you take Deathfire Touch as a mastery.

junglerboy163 votes

So I know a lot of you Morde mains said that gun blade was a noob-trap item before preseason, so were the changes to it really that significant that it's worth buying or did you like it all along MM?

Also, in a solo lane, what's you're favorite skill maxing order (W seems like a bit of a waste, but Q is solid and with the upcoming E buffs to grant more % shield with rank, that one also seems strong).

With the nerf to Merc Tread's tenacity, have you tried out Swifties? Since SV gives so much MR now (and you may also build Abyssal) and the tenacity is only slightly stronger than the slow resistance, would having 20 higher MS be superior?

Last question, what do you think of the new Rageblade on Morde? It gives a lot of stats he likes, such as AS for faster Q procs, AD and AP for obvious reasons, while also giving a strong on-hit that also boasts wave clear and sustain w/gunblade, and it's super cheap. Is it too good to be true or does it really come out as strong as it sounds on paper?

Malicious Metal4 votes

I like Gunblade, even before but there wasn't a place for it left in the usual builds as well as Trinity force basically being a better pick up. Since it got heavily nerfed and Gunblade got some minor tweaks that add up nicely I finally could revert back to building the bloody thing :)

E->Q->W With the PBE changes you'll be even more encouraged to max e due to the shield generation and Q's multiplier being 2 at all rats albeit with a total ad ratio increase per level.

Depends on the matchup. Against slow-heavy teams I'd consider getting swifties but the mere treads tenacity adds up nicely with the mastery and elexier of Iron. Boots are really flexible TBH. Heck, I sometimes even get sources just for fun XD

Its stats look really good on paper and in practice it's a really strong snowballing item. Yet there are some problems; Morde's AS is really bad so he doesn't scale as well with the attack speed and can't make as much use of it sadly. It's also ramping up and without being able to build tanky early on Morde gets blown up easily. So yeah, it works when you're ahead but it inhibits Mordekaiser from getting his core items early.

The champions that make the best out of rage blade are those who usually scale great with AS, aa a lot and have tons of on hit.

junglerboy163 votes

Thanks for the tips!

I'll probably give him a shot once this next batch of PBE changes come through for him.

ltmetal3 votes

I hope this doesn't take you off your original topic, but what are your thoughts/builds on Mordekaiser Jungle? I haven't had the heart to try it on the current patch with the Tri Force and Machete changes, but before preseason he had Warwick levels of sustain, could solo the dragon at level 4 with double buffs, and cleared almost as fast as Master Yi or Skarner once he got Cinderhulk.

item 1401 item 3047 item 3124 item 3116 item 3065 item 3742

Malicious Metal4 votes

Mordr Jungle is wayyyy too underrated. He's really good at staying alive in the jungle and clears really well.

I usually max Q in the jungle and build mostly tank to get past over 1000 shield :^)

Sasogwa3 votes

I don't think Morde should win the mathchups against good Irelia Darius Vladimir . And still have some doubts about the others

Jacknife2 votes

Irelia I don't imagine going well, unless you get major amounts of health early she'll just farm you like a minion. Vlad would actually be a good matchup, if you can shield all of his poke he can't push you out of lane, and early you have higher burst than him. Darius would boil down to getting your third Q first versus him getting 5 stacks, but early on as long as you don't give him heals you should be able to poke him down.

Malicious Metal2 votes

Irelia isn't as hard as people make you believe. With an early Rylais rush and making sure she'll get an E every time it's up makes it kinda easy to bully her.

Still, rageblade Irelia is a monster o_O

As for Vlad; he'll be annoying to deal with but his kill pressure is like 0 Trying to force fights is the best strategy since he'll simply sustain through trades.

FistOfSharkiesha3 votes

Surprised you didn't include Rageblade. It's easy to stack now, requiring only 4 hits for melee champions, and basically let's Morde 100-0 enemies with nothing but a Q.

MealReadytoEat2 votes

How's he going to get to 4 hits in three auto attacks?

It's decent, but his AS is so abysmal that he has trouble getting it stacked.

BastionKross2 votes

Let's face it, if any enemy is going to stand there and let Morde auto them not just three but four times, they're either CC'd, DC'd, or an idiot. You won't always have the luxury of charging the rageblade before starting a fight, especially once laning phase is over and fights can break out in areas bereft of minions or jungle monsters. It also takes a surprisingly long time for Morde to auto four times since is attack speed is so low and he generally doesn't build any.

And rageblade doesn't grant any defensive stats, which is okay if you're ahead but disastrous if you're even or behind.

Chicken4dinner3 votes

This should be in the weekly thread pickup

ChaosThief2 votes

I tried morde top pre 5.22 one time, and the one time it happened to be an enemy ryze.

Early game I did fine, late game I couldn't do crap with ryze constantly murdering me if I dared get near anyone of his team. It was not fun.

Though I can see the value of it!.. and maybe I shouldn't have gone full AD.

Malicious Metal4 votes

AD Mordekaiser's early and mid game are one of the strongest but the lack of AP will eventually bite you in the ass^^

AD items themselves aren't all that useful on Mordekaiser anyways seeing that he doesn't profit from life steal, crit chance and AS all that much.

Against a Ryze I would have gone something like this item 3116 item 3111 item 3065 item 3146 item 3053 item 3001 item 2138 Based solely on the matchup and disregarding the other conditions.

You'd be able to tank all of his burst and heal up rather easily. The bulk of MR will make his damage powerless against you and the nice chunk of AP/AD will make you dish out enough damage to kill him if he gets too close due to the relays slow and Gunblade active.

With these items you'll even get 50% tenacity, making his snare less effective.

RocketRelm1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Malicious Metal,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=t7sF0BZn,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2015-11-16T21:05:30.917+0000)

AD Mordekaiser's early and mid game are one of the strongest but the lack of AP will eventually bite you in the ass^^

AD items themselves aren't all that useful on Mordekaiser anyways seeing that he doesn't profit from life steal, crit chance and AS all that much.

If AD isn't so useful on Mordekaiser then why would it have the stronger early/mid game, by a wide margin?

If AD Mordekaiser has a super strong early game, how would starting out AD and transitioning into AP for the mid-late game work? You already have some AD items in your build, so it should work out.

Malicious Metal2 votes

AD morde was great back when Trinity force was a great rush item for him but the recent Itemisation changes did hurt his AD build a bit.

Still, the thing making pure AD builds less attractive is the lack of good AD options on Morde since he can't use crit and ls effectively :S

Nebuul2 votes

Why don't you build the new item 3124 on him? It is cheap and even with 0 stats, morde gets huge benefit from it. If he stacks it up fully, wouldn't it be completely insane on him?

Malicious Metal3 votes

I tried it a few times and the snowballing on the item is insane. Yet... You do lack the tankiness, utility and general stickiness to make good use of it as opposed to the likes of Jax and Irelia.

Definitely a good item though.... and I feel filthy just by saying it... It's a great rush item as a duo laner seeing that you'll get all the cc you need to make the best out of it.

Tl;DR; Great item in its current form but inhibits Morde from getting his durability items early and it'll likely be nerfed soon(tm)

UTIDAWA2 votes

Wait how is Runic Armor broken? I haven't heard anything about that. Also, I'm confused on the wording of "You're against either one of those;" You're saying these are good champions to pick Morde into or no.

Malicious Metal4 votes

Runic armor does only increase Morde's healing, Grasp of the undying, Gunblade etc. at the moment. His shield doesn't increase by the supposed 8% of the mastery and riot's looking into fixing just that.^ ^

Yes, Morde is a great anti-dive/assassin and can go toe to toe with many other melee fighters.

Jacknife2 votes

I'm a little surprised there's no mention of item 3135 MM. I mean I know Morde isn't exactly lacking in scaling, but late game it makes his damage un-ignorable. Not to mention his shield conversion is still damage-based, so penetration items would help immensely

Malicious Metal3 votes

Welp, I would like to build some more offensive items but Morde relies on getting tanky and survive long enough ro withstand focus fire and get his damage off.

Still, with eventual changes to his base tankiness I'd consider getting a Void Staff but an Abyssal scepter should do the trick atm :9

Chicken4dinner2 votes

Best post btw

Narasimha2 votes

The guide itself is good, but to be honest, some of your matchups seem suspect for anyone thats not a super dedicated main. Darius, Garen, Irelia, and Zed all at the least have the advantage over the Huekaiser.

4koj2 votes

What do you think about item 3748?

Tinkus2 votes

Can we get married?

Malicious Metal1 votes

Maybe :^)

fugatotabued911 votes

No I don't want to play morde top, I think I speak for most.

Kaeblen35 votes

you don't.

Traxinator5 votes

I want to play mordekaiser mid. :)

P.S. Why open this thread if you didn't want to play mordekaiser?

Malicious Metal8 votes

Ah Mordekaiser mid's a tricky one actually^^'

It's a matchup that's won in champ select but Morde can do pretty well mid against assassins.

Still, I'd only recommend Morde mit to masochists :^)

Chespin20134 votes

Can Confirm I play Morde Mid still after the changes am a masochists

Chicken4dinner1 votes

Saw a good one actually, everytime viegar would get close he would chunk him for 1/3rd of his life... He afk'd after 12 minutes

Dragnamous1 votes

Hey M.M.! I have a challenge for you. Try playing devourer Mordekaiser jungle. It used to make his Q proc in 2 hits, though I think they might have patched that out recently. Even so, I've been playing this fairly often as of late, and it's really a lot of fun. Just build devourer into BotRK, maybe triforce after that, then finish your build with hp. Titanic Hydra is real good for the AA reset. I have found though, that it's necessary to build either boots of mobility or swiftness, with alacrity. You really need it just to make up for his base MS. It's not so bad tho, with all that and triforce you get around 430 movement speed.

MealReadytoEat1 votes

It's never made his q proc in 2 hits, and titanic hydra has never reset his auto during his q.

I've posted about this since his rework hit PBE, and I'm fairly sure those interactions are intentional.

Dragnamous1 votes

Really? Damn, I must be remembering wrong.

MealReadytoEat2 votes

It bothers me a bit Xin Zhao's coding on his q was specifically changed from on-attack to on-hit with the release of sated, and he, Rek'sai, and everyone else gets to reset their auto with Titanic, but Morde can't do either. Either would be be super cheesy on Morde for sure, but that's kinda the whole point of those items.

Sated is completely non-functional during Morde's Q - it doesn't double ANY on-hits during his Q. Like Morde, Rek'sai's Q isn't doubled from sated, but at least sated still doubles on-hits on every other attack. It's actually kinda funny with morde's Q - it animats from sated like it's your next attack, even though it's purely graphical, eg if you auto attack once then activate Q, all three Q's will show the sated ghost, as will the next auto attack afterwards, but it will use and consume it.

Ideally, Sated shouldn't work with any auto-attack modifiers, and Titanic shouldn't reset auto attacks. Maybe Titanic should be shifted to an animation canceler, like Tiamat and Ravenous?

It's total bullshit that Xin Zhao with nothing but sated and Titanic can get off all three of his Q's in less than .25 seconds: Q - auto - activate Titanic (resets auto) - sated doubled auto for knockup. I've had people say they had death recaps as low as .18 seconds with that combo, and usually when someone tries to flash away from it you've started the second auto, so you knock em up anyway. For more damage at the cost of .2 seconds or so, you can use your Q as an auto reset itself to get off another auto real quick, for example E (dash) - auto - Q (resets auto) - Sated doubled auto - activate Titanic (resets auto) - auto for final Q. That combo can 100 - 0 squishies in .5 seconds pretty reliably for much of the game. Throw in a Rageblade, and that combo will burst them ALL game, and heal you a fuck ton while it's at it.

I just checked TItanic's functionality with Morde on the newest PBE patch, and it's still not resetting Morde's Q. About to check sated.

ZT Xperimentor1 votes

That explains how xin zhao was stunlocking better than leona & nautilus while instakilling people.

Burnt Iron King1 votes

How Metal are you?

Malicious Metal8 votes

I'm so Metal I rust in the shower.

Pale Pirate1 votes

Um, picking Mordekaiser into Vladimir ?? Also, can't Darius and Riven beat morde in lane easily?

Malicious Metal2 votes

Vlad has no kill pressure on Morde and when you play correctly you can pick fights once you're 6. I usually run ignite anyways.

Darius is a matchup that's highly experience reliant. I've played enough games against him to dodge his Q and abuse my E range to poke him. You can easily outdamage him in melee range but beware his Noxian might. Ig ite helps in duels to cut down his q heal.

Morde is an anti assassin and fairs well against riven due to her being weak against poke and her having to go all in helps get your q procs off on her. Starting cloth makes this lane even easier.

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