How does the community feel about Mordekaiser now? (Inquiry + Some complaints)
Talking mostly from a thematic standpoint, with a little bit of gameplay involved since I want to ask Mordekaiser mains and frauds people who play him now, how do you think this rework has panned out, from a general satisfaction level?
I'm mixed about it. On one hand, they opened up the AD set of items to Mordekaiser, mainly for purpose of utilizing the newest Juggernaut sets, though. This gives him a more flexible way to build and plan around both his own comp and the enemy's; go AD if you need physical/mixed damage or need to be more durable, go AP if you want to focus on AoE poke and nukes at the cost of (some) tankiness. This should, in theory, open up other positions for him in teams, but sadly, this is not really the case...
The main fault I think everyone has with the rework is Riot's backwards logic; their attempts to "diversify" the meta is actually stifling a fair amount of hopeful creativity. By making him entirely sub-optimal as anything but a duo lane, the potential that he had to be a meta pick top, mid, bot, and jungle is gone. I get that if Riot didn't directly force people to take him bot lane, they probably wouldn't ever, but a new champion would have been much less protested while still having the same result of the long-deserved dethroning of ADCs in bottom lane.
I'm gonna tackle my two big issues with his rework -- Mace of Spaces and Harvesters of Sorrow.
Mace of Spades is sort of secondary concern, but I honestly feel really uncomfortable being in the minority of people who don't like it. Riot's got this weird fixation on things requiring three hits to have an effect; and that's fine and dandy, but it makes no sense on Mordekaiser. This guy has a huge, metal spiked mace, and you're telling me it takes three hits before it actually hurts? I'm a giant metal warlock, not the god damn Tootsie Pop Owl. The sound effect just irritates me endlessly -- it needs to sound heavier and not like I'm hitting someone with a pipe. I want to hear a crunch that makes me cringe when I hear it.
If you wanted to make it a powerful melee spell with meaningful counterplay, there's a lot of ways you could have done it without making it so.. generic. Personally, I'd love the idea where instead of being a direct attack, it modifies the next AA to target an AoE around the targeted unit's model, where he'll smash them into the ground. If they don't move out of the way, then it applies damage as it used to; moderate damage with an AoE if they aren't isolated, but HUGE damage if they stand alone in his wake. If he misses, then he briefly roots himself as he forces his weapon from the ground, giving them time to escape from him, but he does AoE damage in a half-circle around him when he unroots his mace from the floor. The attack modified is given a lot of wind-up to further telegraph his intentions, but if you try to stand and fight, even when in a minion wave, he'll hit hard.
Harvester of Sorrow I think we can all agree that this is the deal-breaker for a lot of people. For making it so pathetically useless (literally, unusable) when Mordekaiser is alone, they HAD to make it extremely powerful when he's with an ally, and thus were forced to limit it even further by making their radii connect before any damage whatsoever is dealt near them. I think most people will agree it feels terrible to use and is the main reason Mordekaiser probably won't be able to be balanced easily.
HOWEVER, there arises problems if they do see their error in judgment and give him this new W to play with in solo lanes; Mordekaiser, a champion who replaced any natural sustain with his shield, now has sustain, and it's pretty damn good if he pops the heal with a champion or monster nearby. This is not a problem for Jungle Mordekaiser; in fact, I think it'd be perfectly healthy, because his ability to sustain and farm should be his benefit to poor ganking skills and the fact that trying to kill Scuttlecrab without any CC or mobility is infuriating
So what do we do? If we make him unable to pop the heal, then it's a flat nerf to what he used to have. If we reduce its damage or its heal, then it still feels bad for solo-kaiser to level. If we do nothing, then he becomes more oppressive in solo lanes than anyone could have ever claimed he was before. Personally, I think that it was a mistake to tie his sustain to an active ability; with a kit like his, it creates too many problems. (Especially because he heals no matter what if anything is in the radius during the 4 seconds, not to mention that it's probably the biggest reason Riot had to take a hammer to most of his base stats) I think his lack of sustain should be a defining weakness and a reasonable trade-off for his sheer durability.
However, if Riot sees fit, I think a good idea would be to attach it to his passive; where if he fills up his shield, the next decay will convert that into a small amount of health (very small; almost negligible early game). If he refills his shield by casting another ability while he's turning the pain he's acquired into health, then the heal stops entirely and goes on an internal cooldown; if his shield is brought down by enemy damage, then he doesn't heal. It forces him to interact more; in order to fill the shield quickly, he has to push his wave harder than many other champs with the same requirement ( Zac, Aatrox. ). If he plays too safely, he won't be able to access his sustain.
tl;dr I went off on a tangent about my own idealistic Mordekaiser rework (and I have a lot to say about it, especially in terms of satisfaction) but I think the original point is still there. How do the rest of you think this rework turned out?
