i love how everyone is like "the morde rework sucks"

Cass completely lost her passive too.

Before her passive was that consecutive casts of a spell reduced the mana cost of her spells.

Now her passive is this odd Time based, hyper carry focused thing, and she suffers more than ever from mana issues.

Even so there are more interesting way to spin the name even if they are as lazy as to directly translate it. Murder Emperor, The Emperor of Murder, Lord of Ruination, Lord of the Grave, The Tomb King. Or even some nudges, The Deathless King.

For one there are ways to "Play" all of his abilities now. Old morde's Q and E were basically interchangeable. All you needed to do with his old W was make sure whoever you used it on was touching an enemy. His old Q would do bonus damage if you isolated a target (and if I recall that also included isolated from minions), but he is no Kha'Zix, and so there was no reliable way to do that.

Sure, his E was weakened to make his Q stronger, but now he can actually get the full damage from his Q every time without relying on him and his enemy dueling in a desert somewhere. You can play it to it's full potential. Instead of just walking up to someone, hitting Q and hoping for the best, maybe you'll Q a minion once, twice, and then W the jungler coming in for a gank, speed up to your lane oponnent, and crush them with your mace while your W grinds away at them. At the very least, it's not so interchangeable with his E anymore.

Actually compared to Kha'Zix Morde Q is more reliable in lane, for the sheer fact that his E can reach a point to insta clear nearby minion for an isolation, and even if it wasn't isolated it still does good damage in aoe. Q full power is also in the wrongs aspect. Instead of Morde making the decision to clear minion or change space of dueling to obtain isolation Q, now to hit third Q, Morde needs an ally, in your scenario, NEEDS an ally to use his full power with the W speed up and grind, which is alot more situational than his old Q was. What is better, to have access to your full power and make the decision to optimize it yourself (whether to hit them in melee range isolation for massive damage, or to hit one in a crowd for range and shield generation), or to rely entirely on an ally or an enemy being dumb?

he can actually get the full damage from his Q every time without relying on him and his enemy dueling in a desert somewhere

No, you don't get people standing still in melee range with you for a full 3 hit. EVERYTIME? At least old Q non-isolation was still powerful, trading single target damage for aoe damage and shielding, while new Q is simply third hit deletion or nothing, which only happens with an ally nearby

His W allows him to enter a fight quicker, or leave it, or save his friend, or bring an ally, like a ganking jungler into the fight quicker

And might I remind you his old W ALREADY has the movement toward each other mechanic? And the Amor and MR buff to save an ally, which is better than W healing since new Morde doesn't even buy that much AP.

As far as consistent AOE melee damage being mordes thing, I am just going to have to disagree. With Riven, and Diana, and Sion, Gnar, and ravenous Hydra, he is not unique in that regard, and he was really never picked to fill that niche (or ever, really). The list becomes massive if you include "short range mages".

It wasn't just consistent aoe melee damage, it was short-mid range consistent aoe damage in combination with his tankiness that is the result of said aoe. Even Riven couldn't match Morde pure damage out put and tankiness, she has her mobility and utlity over him but pure damage and defense Morde trumps, Sion is a tank, doesn't do nearly as comparable damage to Morde, and only Dianna come close, but she is mostly played as an assassin and her tankiness depends on only one of her spell, W and her mana, while Morde shield off of everything in combination with his ult healing. He was picked because said AOE allowed him to be a lane dominatior, and scaled really well in the same way Karthus does with both of their aoe damage, only Morde way of survival isn't life after death, it was not dying in the first place. Bring me up another tanky short ranged consistent high aoe magic damage champion.

Speaking of, the fact that his Q does most of the damage, and that it scales well with both AD and AP, morde has more interesting build paths than ever. He can build AD, AP, tank, and anything in between.

His build path is a sham. Time and time again League has proven that hybrid scaling is a joke. Kayle, Akali and Jax, all hybrid, all still only build one stat because they scale well with that, Kayle Akali AP, Jax AD. His build path isn't an advantage its a disadvantage. He goes half way for everything and doesn't concentrate on anything well. Look at his winrate, it drops off dramatically because he scale with everything but doesnt scale well with anything

He probably NEEDS the dragon to actually push down towers, what with being both AP and melee and completely replacing your AD carry (Jinx/Tristana). People say he does too much damage while being hard to kill, which is what he's always done.

And all two of these problem were created by the rework. Him replacing your adc and being completely melee focused? Rework made it that way. Push his damage too much while being hard to kill? Rework made it that way

As far as people saying they should have just made a different champion, I think they were smart to recycle morde for the job of being Riots first "bot lane melee carry". They have champs coming down the pipe, Morde was basically a joke of a character (huehuehue BRBRBR numero uno), and all things considered, they changed him the least amount necessary to make this completely unprecedented archetype.

So because Morde is a joke for you that he should be sacrificed for Riot's little experiment? So a champion can't have things that's funny and memorable about them, made by the community no less, in fear that they be considered a joke? And I can tell you Morde might considered an unviable pick in competitive LCS (along with 75% of the champion pool because lets face it, LCS only play optimized pick), but he is not a joke in your everyday queue. He wasn't a punching bag that people laughed about like Yorrick, he was the Master of Metal that people laughed WITH as he 1v3 unsuspecting opponent or 6v4 the team. It was not a mean spirit joke about how he is terrible, it was a good-natured joke for the insane stuff that Morde can pull off by being awesome. People Hue when he's picked because you don't pick Mordekasier unless you are really good with him, so buckle up for some hue-ing.

And why is it smart? Why instead of creating another character tailored to the specific meta-breaking role they intended, theme kit and all (Kindred), they have to take an already established, VERY iconic champion, try to squeeze the experimental kit in, limiting both themselves in the confine of an existing champion AND angering the fan base of the existing champion AND create identity issue because they try so hard to force unfitting kit it into Morde's identity that everything has gone to hell, both kit, balance, lore and theme. This isn't just Morde player crying out for help, this is the entire board up in arm if you looked around. He is not fun to play as or against or even with or is good for the game, and the only people that like using him are people who only care about winning.

the least amount necessary

Kit changed, VFX changed, Title changed, Theme changed. Low quality changes at that