Some constructive criticism on the Mordekaiser Rework (@Meddler/CertainlyT)

I've already made a thread on my stance on the proposed changes from my perspective as a Mordekaiser main simply saying what I like and what I absolutely loathe about the rework. So how about doing something a bit more useful than to simply bash the changes like everybody else is currently doing and propose what changes Morde should receive with the goal of pushing him more towards the "Juggernaut" fantasy and make him a bit more healthier. The subjects I want to look deeper into are his thematics and champion identity by taking a look into his abilities and gameplay pattern.

Iron Man: This is what Morde really is! He is Iron Man! His passive suggest him to be a bruiser, being inherently tanky allowing him to get a great mix of damage and survivability. This is what his identity should have been but effectively lead him to build pure damage and still be way too tanky to be considered healthy.

The new shield is better in every way; Not decaying under 25%, scaling in 25% of your maximum health in shield strength, only decaying 2% per second. His shield gain was lowered to 25% from 35%, which was the right choice, making him less of an invincible bully if built damage but encouraging him to build bruiser or even TANK.

Overall I feel the passive change is the best thing about the rework!

Mace of Spades: Currently a very stale and boring ability serving as an AA reset as well as dealing some decent AoE damage as well as great isolated damage. A combination of this and a Siphon would instantly annihilate entire minion waves but also serve as a powerful dueling tool by effectively making it 66% stronger in a 1v1.

The proposed changes would change it for the better, giving it tremendous damage if given the change but having to be used three consecutive times in order for the damage to be meaningful. What irks me the most is the fact that it's no longer AoE, making his waveclear pitiful in comparison and not really feeding into his passive making his shield gain weaker overall.

What I'd suggest is giving Morde the newer ability but with a TWIST! (queue dramatic music) = Give it splash damage on the empowered hits similar to a hydra or Malphites W, effectively giving him means to push out waves but still making him a thread to be reckoned with when duelling the big guy, which would fit him thematically, having to ramp um his damage but hitting like a truck if left unchecked.

Creeping Death/Harvester of Sorrow: Like every basic ability on Morde's old kit his W feeds into his passive, charging it perfectly if standing amidst enemies. The current W gives him Armor and MR, which suggests him to be a tanky frontliner, charging into enemy lines to fill his shield while buffing his defenses as well. The MS buff is pretty great to do so, simply following your engage tank into the fray. The CD is too long though on live.

The new one *HARVESTER OF SOULS" has some really, really great concepts but effectively murders the Murder Emperor's solo laning. I love the idea of it giving him sustain since it solves the issue of him basically killing himself using his abilities but tying him to only being usable while with an ally champion makes it pretty, pretty bad!

Either make it usable on yourself/minions or scrap it alltogether. If it would be allowed to be used in a solo lane the heal should be toned down significantly though. And give it the defensive stats back!

Siphon of Destruction: Morde deals damage in a cone in front of him, charging his shield. This ability is Mordekaiser's bread and butter ability, being his farming tool, charging his shield, poking and dealing damage. It's a straight forward ability but it's way too oppressive when used right as it doesn't give your enemy windows in which they can fight you. I love this spell but this is where most of his problems come from.

The new ability got an ad/ap ratio but its base damage has been gutted immensely. I get that if you build some ad it's on par with the current one but you will never, ever max it completely GUTTING his waveclear. The good thing about it is the fact that he get 15% max shield for each enemy champion hit.

I suggest to leave the spell alone BUT!!! make it only give one third/half the effective shield on minions, making him less of a lane bully but giving him the edge when fighting champions with the increased shield gain from champions.

Children of the Grave: This ultimate is probably Morde's other most iconic ability. People simply think about the clone he gets but it's more, way, way more than just that. It gives him a hefty heal, shield gain and deals % max health damage making it overall as effective to use against tanky and squishy targets. (Ulting a tank gives you the heal you need to survive focus fire in certain situations while still weakening the enemy frontline.) The clone also scales pretty well with ult ranks and gives him the whole feel of Metal Bruiser who enslaves your SOUL!

New ult's pretty much the same but nerfed immensely all across the boards: Range 850->650 making it harder for him to kill stragglers and back liners damage 24/29/34 % max health-> 20/25/30 % making it harder to kill tanky units and hurting his damage overall Damage buff to the clone 25/75/150 damage-> 10/20/50 making the clone way weaker But hey, you get a DRAGON! While it's cool it eats up his power budget while rendering him unable to ult while the clone follows him, leaving him vulnerable.

I suggest leaving the ult alone but still include the idea of him cursing the dragon but give him the ability to use his ult regardless, killing off the dragon in the process though.

Suggestions on my part: Additionally to the proposed changes to the current rework I still have some ideas of my own; Make his W deal % damage on top of a heavily nerfed flat damage to make it better for fighting in the midst of their frontline. Also make it a toggle, having increased health cost stacking up over the duration like a swain's ult since it gives morde a lot of survivability due to his constant shield gain. (Also give him some more resistances on top of it for a better payoff Shield/damage/tankiness=health) An other idea is to increase his health costs but make it so that his shield's decay heal him for a % similar to Tahm's grey health, giving an incentive to poke down his shield since he won't heal himself but rather poke himself due to increased health costs. To address his bully nature we could change his passive to start out weaker in terms of shield conversion starting at maybe 15% and scaling up to 50% at level 18

But these are just my ideas on the in my honest opinion, worst possible rework for morde. I'm not opposed to give him some incentive to go down bot but don't FORCE him FFS!! Give him some benefits to work with teammates rather than make it impossible to work alone. I'd love if some red would actually take some time to discuss these changes with people who actually played Mordekaiser so that they could address his problems together and make it the best possible rework. Shoehorning him into bot and gutting his waveclear and overall damage/tankiness only because you're too lazy to rework him so that he won't be as unhealthy as he is currently is not a permanent solution. It's simply put a prisoner Island for Mordekaiser where he'll be left to die until they eventually rework him once again.

(On another note: Please make his abilities more Metal-ly. He's the master of Metal and not the master of ghost farts-.-)