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Let's Discuss Mordekaiser's Kit

Skoonie·10/25/2014, 6:44:33 PM·4 votes·1,078 views

Let me start by assuming that I, as well as many of you, love to play Mordekaiser a great deal. The Master of Metal, the founding member of Pentakill, the Hero of Brazilians everywhere, whatever you like to call him, there's no denying Morde is one of the most unique champions in LoL's roster. Where other champions rely more on crowd control effects and repositioning spells to aid them, Mordekaiser eschews these to bring delightful pain to everyone around him. As the game--and subsequently the champion pool--has become more advanced and diverse, however, Morde is having a harder and harder time keeping pace with them. Riot has stated that he is up for a visual update soon(tm), so let's see if we can convince them to add a gameplay rework along with it.

Below are some ideas about Mordekaiser's kit that I think can benefit him with the changing landscape of the League of Legends. Keep in mind that I'm not particularly skilled at the game (SIlver V for life!), nor do I have any experience with game design or balancing. I'm just a concerned player who wants his favorite champion given the attention he deserves. Any suggestions and criticisms you guys have are welcome.

Mordekaiser, as he is now, is usually built to be immensely bursty, taking out a single champion out of the fight and using their ghost to clean up the rest. And yet, his VO and lore paint Morde to be a very cruel champion, taking pleasure out of the pain of others. Does instagibbing someone really fit with that aesthetic? My belief is that Morde's new kit should trade some of his burstiness for survivability; let his damage rack up over time, giving him time to bask in the agony of his enemies before inevitably killing them and bringing them back as his slaves.

As an aside, another thing I like about Morde is his complete lack of crowd control or mobility spells, the thing that will forever keep him away from the LCS. I know a great many of you want to see Mordekaiser get some form of CC in his kit. You won't see it here. I firmly believe that Morde's distinct lack of any slows/stuns/what-have-you in addition to his immobility is what makes him truly unique in League; no other champion lacks CC or a movement spell like Morde does in the game. Call me silly, but keeping Morde CC free is one of my goals for this suggested rework.

PASSIVE: Iron Man Morello commented in an earlier thread that out of all of Morde's kit, his passive and his ultimate would be left as is. While I have some issues with the ulti that I'll get into later, I agree 100% that his passive is just fine as it is. The second health bar it provides makes Mordekaiser the premier counter to most assassins, a valuable niche that keeps him somewhat viable in higher tiers even today.

Q: Mace of Spades Of all of Morde's basic spells, this one is giving me the most trouble. Should it stay the same? Not necessarily. While it's a fantastic dueling spell, I think we can come up with something a little more interesting than just some extra damage. I suggest that, while it can still keep its AoE component, we could get rid of the single target nuke in favor of a damage amplification debuff: when Morde strikes an enemy champion or epic monster, his damage towards the target is increased by a small amount for a few seconds (I'm thinking somewhere in the ballpark of 10% at rank 1, with an increase of 5% per rank for 5 seconds at the most). If Mace of Spades is used while the target is nearby other enemies, it will echo out as usual, though they will not receive the debuff. This still keeps Morde's dueling potential, but doesn't punish him nearly as much when he inevitably gets ganked or uses his Q during chaotic team fights.

Also, maybe MoS can proc on towers and structures as well? Have it deal reduced damage if you must, but considering Nasus can Q towers, TF can proc his blue cards on them, and Azir can even spawn his soldiers in them for extra damage, is it really so far out there that Morde can start pimp slapping towers like the badass he is?

W: Creeping Death And now we come to Morde's best skill, which amounts to a item 3068 that deals more damage and has 1 1/2 item 1033 thrown in for good measure that can be put on any allied champion or minion. It's come to the point that, if I'm up against a melee champ in lane, I'll max it over E for the additional damage it provides during trades. This spell has also always bothered me; an ability named Creeping Death that...only protects someone? Yes, it does damage to nearby enemies, but it always felt like a disconnect for me flavor wise.

This is why I suggest that we split up the components of the ability: when cast on himself or an ally, it gives the same defensive buffs it used to, but no longer deals damage. If cast on an enemy champion, however, it transforms into a powerful DoT that eats away at their health, dealing half of its damage to all other enemies around the afflicted champion. With this, I hope to give Morde some meaningful choices that he sorely lacks. Do you protect your low health Teemo , giving him the resistances that may help him survive, or do you throw it onto the Zed chasing him to clean up as you sacrifice your comrade to pad out your KDA? The numbers of the damage portion will have to be tweaked a bit. I highly doubt Riot wants any champion to have a spell that does upwards of 800 damage to a single enemy champion with no hope for counterplay.

E: Siphon of Destruction Another problem with Morde is his absolute reliance on item 3145 to survive...well, anything. While he remains the only champion with no mobility spell or crowd control, Morde is also the only champion who uses health as a resource and no way to reliably gain health back (not without using his ultimate, anyway). While this was counteracted with Morde's passive when he was first released, the shield has since been nerfed and now he struggles to deal with both his health costs and keeping it up in the face of champions that will have longer range or just more damage earlier on than him.

This is why I suggest that we reduce the damage of Siphon, but have 5/10/15/20/25% of all damage it deals be returned to Mordekaiser as health, with the amount doubling against champions. This will lessen his reliance on item 3145, allowing him to let his early build path expand.

R: Children of the Grave The other iconic part of Morde's kit, the live version devours nearly 1/4 of a target's max health late game, effectively acting as an execute against low health champions. It also heals Morde equal to the damage dealt. With my suggested changes to Siphon of Destruction, however, I feel that the heal is no longer needed. Instead, Morde and his allies should gain vision whiles the champion is afflicted with his curse, allowing them to more reliably kill someone if he's forced to pop it early (or just needs to use it before level 11, since its damage at rank 1 is rather pitiful). The ghost's AI also might need to be tweaked, as I find when I select a target for it to attack, it will usually wander around the target before doing so. Anyone else having this problem?

Again, if you have any suggestions or changes of your own you would like to field, comment! Let's see if we can give Riot some ideas for everyone's favorite Master of Metal!

39 Comments

Centuros10/25/2014, 6:53:05 PM3 votes

Inb4 whiners complaining that "you changed it, now it sucks".

Onto actual feedback: I dislike the idea of removing the heal from his ultimate; that would greatly reduce his dueling and survival potential, even with a heal on his E (especially if the damage on E goes down...) Creeping Death would need something extra, like a speed boost or aoe damage (heh) on an ally cast, since just granting resists doesn't feel impactful most of the time (a shield would also do it, but resists are too invisible). Maybe it should remain as it is, but be castable on an enemy (sans resists, and with damage reduction on enemy cast if it would be too strong)

TheRainInSpain10/25/2014, 7:11:41 PM1 votes

For a champion whose a big suit of armor and swings a giant steel mace, he isn't particularly known for either.

Sincarnation10/25/2014, 7:30:22 PM1 votes

My only stipulation is that his ult should keep the heal and give vision anyway.

edit: also I think i would prefer if his w was basically the same on ally and enemy cast. AoE DoT + Resists on ally, and AoE DoT + Flat Resist Loss with a shorter duration on enemy cast

Worgslarg10/25/2014, 7:49:02 PM1 votes

One point-

I highly doubt Riot wants any champion to have a spell that does upwards of 800 damage to a single enemy champion with no hope for counterplay.

Full build malzahar E. Ap tristana ult.

That said, I love the changes.

RowGo10/26/2014, 1:53:26 AM1 votes

What if an ally could take the w off you and put it on themselves by clicking on you (kinda like a thresh lantern) opening up for some interesting play for the enemies.

Kowe The Ewok10/26/2014, 2:33:37 PM1 votes

I'ld simply update his kit to have more interaction, like most new kits have. He is immobile, so considering how most new kits are created he should at least have some sort of CC to make up for it.

Q (Changed): Morde smashes his club into the ground, shattering earth. (Range 700) Deals damage instantly. After a 0.5s enemies who still stand in the rail are knocked up for 0.5s.

W (Additional effect): Now also draws champions in a 300 randius around the target to it, slowing them down by 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%.

E (Additional effect): Now creates a cone in front of Mordekaiser and behind him. If Mordekaiser faces his target and hits it mid air target it gets knocked back by 250 units. If Mordkaiser faces away from the target and hits it mid air it gets pulled towards him. (May the Force be wil you)

R: Unchanged.

DropFill10/26/2014, 6:16:33 PM1 votes

Mordekaiser likes to make them suffer , but in the lore it is clear that he likes to give pain after their death too. I think being bursty is fine for him

Ale non è male10/26/2014, 8:50:49 PM1 votes

I don't like the suggestions, at least not a good part of them

MoS is fine except for the part where it doesn't trigger on structues(where of course should give back a shield and shouldn't echo), as it defies the purpose of having an enhanced AA. The fact that he deals damage means also that he gains the shield, so it is effectively the way he can proc the passive. If you just swap it with a bonus damage towards a certain target he basically lose one way to proc his iconic shield

Creeping Death is by far Morde worst skill as it stands right now. It has a too big CD on early levels, it gives too little armor and magic resistence and deal too little of a damage to any clever enemy. It's a jack-of all ability that gives nothing really good(the damage is meh if the enemy is smart enough to understand that he can wait for Morde shield to wore off before battle or disengage and reengage since Morde has little mobility). This is the ability that need to change the most, and that needs to take a clear direction, either going more towards damaging(and thus triggering the shield, maybe allowing to get extra shield strength during its duration or to gain health if druing its duration your damage fills completely the shield bar during its duration) or towards tankiness diminishing the damage

SoD is as fine as it is, it gives Morde a way to overcome his lack of mobility, so it make no sense to reduce the damage and the possibility to farm and harass enemy for distance at cost of little health gain. It just make little sense as its cost isn't even that high at level 1 and 2

Ulti is fine as it is,...except AI improvement on the ghost is always well accepted, I think the ghost should automatically follow Morde on movement and then you should be able to choose if move the ghost without moving Morde(I find difficult to see if there's a ghost in the first seconds of their appearence if I have applied the ulti on an enemy, he has escaped - flash or dash - . and he dies after that or after mates have chased him and the kill is given to me)

Ale non è male10/27/2014, 10:33:02 AM1 votes

I think giving him a good slow on the Q main hit or on a selfcast W would be a good kind of buff for Morde, tbh. Morde doesn't have to necessarily have great CC, imho, but he needs a way to keep the enemy in close range to keep dealing damage and get the shield8aside from E use) Given that movement buffs or even dash doesn't fill his character, give him a slow is the way to go, especially since he could stack it up with Rylai slow(especially if applied at Q)

The OP idea of giving different effects on W is not bad(even though Morde shouldn't be able to apply it to an enemy champ), but in that case, you need to strongly emphasize and either empower the damage part or the defensive part depending on the target of it. Apply it to an ally it should give considerably more armor and MR than now and less damage and apply it to Morde should give more damage than applying it to an ally and less armor/MR (P.S. the armor/MR on selfcast could still see a buff imho, since they are ridicoulously low right now, they barely keep it up with Graves passive, and Graves is an ADC)

Ale non è male10/27/2014, 10:18:39 PM1 votes

Bump