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FOLLOW-UP to @MaliciousMetal and other Morde players; What is Morde's ideal identity?

AHarmlessTaco·10/26/2016, 3:16:28 PM·7 votes·1,287 views

IMPORTANT NOTE: As someone who is developing hobbyist rework skills, please let me know what you LIKE about this, if anything. I am fine with things not being great overall or even having to scrap ideas entirely, but if you LIKE something please let me know. Direction-wise, knowing what works helps.

Hey everyone, After reading through a lot of feedback, here is my first iteration of a Mordekaiser rework. Here I try to maintain Mordekaiser's current identity as a soul-enslaving metal master with minimal CC and mobility. This kit was designed to give Mordekaiser the tools to aggressively march on his Cursed target, as well as ample AOE to dissuade enemy champions from getting between him and his target. I tackled Mordekaiser's ult a little differently than some may have liked, making it feel more like a curse than a Rylai's enabling tool. I did take the liberty of maintaining Mordekaiser's mixed damage and made it possible for Mordekaiser to pick up items like Black Cleaver and Thornmail and Rylai's with little conflict.

Passive: Iron Man

Mordekaiser takes up to 25% reduced damage from projectiles based on the distance between himself and his aggressor on impact (Max@1000 units). Additionally, Mordekaiser does not gain magic resistance per level. Instead, a percentage of his bonus armor is converted into magic resistance.

Q: Mace of Spades

ACTIVE: Mordekaiser’s next three basic attacks are enhanced and modified to deal half magic damage. These attacks deal massively increased damage on every third hit against Cursed opponents (resets when the Curse fades, not when Mace of Spades ends).

If an enemy champion is afflicted by Mordekaiser’s Curse, basic attacks empowered by Mace of Spades knock other enemy champions aside on hit (perpendicular to the linear divide between Mordekaiser and his Cursed target), briefly stunning them if they collide with terrain.

Mace of Spades resets Mordekaiser’s autoattack timer.

W: Harvester of Sorrow

FIRST CAST: Mordekaiser surrounds himself and each of his bound specters (melee and caster minions have a smaller AoE) in clouds of shrapnel for up to 6 seconds, gaining bonus resistances and dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies each second based on his ability power and armor. When Harvester of Sorrow ends, each enemy in range takes bonus magic damage equal to the damage taken while this ability was active and Mordekaiser gains 40% of the total premitigation damage dealt to enemy champions (reduced to 10% against minions and small monsters) by this ability as a shield (up to 50% of his maximum health) that lasts until Harvester of Sorrow is reactivated.

SECOND CAST: Mordekaiser hurls the shrapnel from himself and his specters forward, reducing the armor and magic resistance of all enemies hit and dealing damage based on the time remaining on Harvester of Sorrow’s duration when cast. The shrapnel then returns to Mordekaiser, dealing magic damage on its return and granting Mordekaiser a shield based on the total damage done by this ability. This shield is capped at 50% of Mordekaiser’s maximum health and rapidly decays to 25% of its original value over 5 seconds, but remains until broken thereafter.

E: Rein the Weak

ACTIVE: Mordekaiser wrenches the souls of enemies in his gaze for 3 seconds, harming them for (a percentage of their maximum health) magic damage each second. While active, Mordekaiser enslaves the souls of minions and monsters below 5% of their maximum health, executing their mortal bodies and forcing their spirits to fight for him. Enemies enslaved this way are resurrected as specters with modified health (-2.5% maximum health for every 100 health) that slowly decays over 60 seconds. Does not apply to champions or Epic Monsters.

R: Children of the Grave

PASSIVE - DRAGON FORCE: Mordekaiser's basic attacks and abilities Curse the Dragon and Rift Herald for 10 seconds.

ACTIVE: Mordekaiser blasts an enemy champion, dealing magic damage and afflicting them with an increasingly debilitating curse over the next 10 seconds, ending if Mordekaiser dies. After 2 seconds of being cursed, Mordekaiser’s target becomes grounded for the duration. After 5 seconds of being cursed, Mordekaiser’s target receives an increasingly powerful slow for the duration (from 0% to 20%). Finally, after 8 seconds of being cursed, Mordekaiser’s target is nearsighted for the final 2 seconds of the Curse. Mordekaiser laughs at each interval of the curse. All summoned specters actively chase down Mordekaiser's target for the duration, gaining bonus resistance for the duration.

CURSE: If Mordekaiser's team scores a takedown on a Cursed enemy, he temporarily enslaves their soul as a controllable ghost. Enslaving the Dragon or Rift Herald will kill Mordekaiser's current ghost and prevent him from summoning a new one while it survives.

SECOND ACTIVE: While a ghost is active, Children of the Grave can be used to move them to the target location.

Let me know what you think, I'm very open to scrapping things if they look terrible.

34 Comments

Harry Dresden10/26/2016, 3:31:05 PM4 votes

Change the name of E from Rein the Weak to Master of Puppets. Fits the naming scheme better.

Decrit10/26/2016, 5:27:32 PM3 votes

Oook, let' s do this. A foreword: i don' t speak in professional terms regarding balance, so i am not extremely focused on tournaments or high elo ( the latter should actually be a focus of mine, but i am just relaxing my judgment there because we are all her efor funsies and ar enot professionals after all) but i speak in terms of what can make a player click, what can be engaging and creative from a player view.

Passive:

Mordekaiser takes up to 25% reduced damage from projectiles based on the distance between himself and his aggressor on impact >(Max@1000 units).

I find this nice. Not what i was expecting from mordekaiser honestly, and probably too much stat-checky and hard counter-yi, but is a tool that can allow Morde to have a proper niche as the anti-poke melee champion, both top and botlane ( if that will ever be again the case, which i don't mind). There are surely way better ways to put stuff like this so it can be more flexible ( only a small subset of damage is done by AA's only aniway, so finding a way to extend it to single target spells or such wound not be bad ) and have windows of opportunity to interact with ( rather just being like "hue i resist"), but the core concept of it is not that bad at all.

Additionally, Mordekaiser does not gain magic resistance per level. Instead, a percentage of his bonus armor is converted into magic >resistance.

Puts down glasses This is shit. In more gentle terms, i don' t know what this part of the passive is supposed to do, and why this should be a nice choice for anything. While i do personally not flavour stat-increasing passive i can see reasoning behind it: Ryze has mana scalings to allow him realize a mage-spammer fantasy without getting too much free stuff and by letting him scale hard in late game, Vladimir has HP scalings so he can have a play pattern more focused on endurance rather nuking people ( even thought he still deals a fuckton of damage). What is this supposed to do? I can see the thematic correlation between Morde being a possessed armor and the armor stat but the correlation ends there. This basically seems to me to exist only to make less palateable half of the damage mitigation items avaiable, which include scepter of the abyss and spirit visage, which do not only restrict his pick choice but also shortens his build depth. The fact that also Morde doe snot gain MR with level only makes him more feast and famine, forced to get armor as soon as possible before he starts getitng blowed up by random magic damage in mid game or forced to get straight up magic armor forsaking this part of the passive entirely. I don' t even think that he needs to be so much anti-ad focused, since we have already a bunch of champions that scale properly already with armor that are ok and rock hard at their job, and do it much better than Morde in this form. If you really want to make Morde scale out of some items, maybe mana is a better suggestion so he can make an use of it?

Q: Mace of Spades:

ACTIVE: Mordekaiser’s next three basic attacks are enhanced and modified to deal half magic damage. These attacks deal massively >increased damage on every third hit against Cursed opponents (resets when the Curse fades, not when Mace of Spades ends). If an enemy champion is afflicted by Mordekaiser’s Curse, basic attacks empowered by Mace of Spades knock other enemy champions >aside on hit (perpendicular to the linear divide between Mordekaiser and his Cursed target), briefly stunning them if they collide with >terrain. Mace of Spades resets Mordekaiser’s autoattack timer.

I both don' t get it and find it scary at the same time. So first of all the skill is almost useless before 6. I don' t get the reasoning behind this unless you want to make Morde at all costs to be weak early and scale from mid game onward, if that' s the case while i don' t agree i understand it and i can accept it. Different POV, different ideas after all. But then again, why the knock aside? I mean, thematically is cool while being absurdly overpowered ( a knockup every Q basic attack?!) but at the same time is useless - Morde both theorically and apparently in this version is supposed to fight close to his enemies, why should he put targets away from him? By your passive he event gets armor, he is supposed to stay close and face the enemies to make good use of it, especially if they are autoattackers! You can' t even use this to peel for your adc, unless rare and weird cases, and the knock aside feels too much out of control and present to be useful fopr other allies too!

W: Harvester of Sorrow:

Snippet. too much long :P

The first part is nice, it' s basically an alteration on the already existing W that gives a shield instead of health. The reactivation part doubles on that on flexibility, which is nice too.

But overall, it does too many things. it is confusing, it' s a mixed bag of nice ideas put all together. I am not saying it is overpowered because of course there are no numbers, but if it were a real ability then something would have been trimmed out else it would act and feel like a blunt ability with really low numbers, first and foremost the armor and magic resistance bonus since it is an effetc barely noticeable on short terms ( the condorum about stat increasing abilitie sis that unless they ar every strong they make little impact, since those are stats meant to be used over long periods of time). For example i do not get why the damage should be increased based on the remaining duration, unless you want it to scale non-linearly, and i don' t see why it should grant somehow the same benefits ( they are very similar, even thought one is more long-term based and one short-term) of the end duration. Personally i would find it a much more entertaining ability if it had 2 different effects on the effect end and reactivation, putting the player ina position where he must choose between the best use to do in both cases or being able to put himself in that case. Your proposal does that in a very blunt way, where the question basically is not a broad "what is the best use?" but rather a more narrow "can i afford to be a boss?/Can i execute him?"

E: Rein the Weak: ( master of puppets is better tho)

ACTIVE: Mordekaiser wrenches the souls of enemies in his gaze for 3 seconds, harming them for (a percentage of their maximum health) >magic damage each second. While active, Mordekaiser enslaves the souls of minions and monsters below 5% of their maximum health, >executing their mortal bodies and forcing their spirits to fight for him. Enemies enslaved this way are resurrected as specters with >modified health (-2.5% maximum health for every 100 health) that slowly decays over 60 seconds. Does not apply to champions or Epic >Monsters.

So, i like the gaze-like effect. Been waiting for it in the Sion update, even thought i was not disappointed in the end. The minion effect - much less. Basically is a crude version of Yorick passive crossbred with the old Yorick kit, onlt that it can get enhanced even more by his W. I like that he is able to reach out for far enemies, but the minion aspect clashes on what he is supposed to do, and how he does that. In many phases of the game, the minion aspect of the spell is useless and since it would end up balanced around that it would feel really weak. In lane either makes him oppressive or proves to be totally useless, barely allowing him to CS. Also i overall don' t like it because it does not make me feel like having agency on minions. it is very crude, in short. It would have felt better if W allowed him to chase his minions better than giving them shield, but barely better IMO.

R: Children of the Grave:

snippet

I like how it interacts with rift herald, gives him more purpose on being top early game! Overall this spell is pretty much the same, i don' t like the overload of CC on the passive besides maybe the grounded effect ( which i don' t know how matters much) because it' s rather light and the blindsight that fits well if you want to make him more focuse don being an anti-ranged champion. Bonus cool points for the laugh.

So, this ends it. Damn i was harsh, sorry for that :P I hope i have been useful in my explanations however, whenever or not you agree with them.

In short, i find this rework a mixed bag of different nice ideas (not everyone stares at armor scaling passive) that is not cohese. It doe snot feel to have a proper direction, with the champion being so much focuse don stacking armor without much to do with it, basically becoming a barrel of iron that summons minions. I do not think that this would make for a more interesting morde, let alone a better one :P

still, it was a nice read. it' s nice to see different opinions sometimes.

Stars Shaper10/26/2016, 5:30:24 PM1 votes

I always envisioned Mordekaiser as the unstoppable death which comes for you, he might be slow but he will get to you eventually and your only option is run.

I've never be a fan of him getting CCs or engage tools in his kit, I'd rather see him as not-CCable so that the "counter" to him would be the mobility of his enemies because if he gets in range you are toasted.

Diamond Key110/26/2016, 7:15:33 PM1 votes

well at this point the only things I need are the old passive and ultimate (preferably the pre-juggernaut rework ones)

THE RlVER KlNG10/26/2016, 7:55:59 PM1 votes

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QszJUdBN8fl6K8dpXSthjWG9T6PvtcCrzgjcvZ3qOyc/edit?usp=sharing

Mordepool10/26/2016, 9:04:53 PM1 votes

Empowered Q applies a curse the. E triggers it and applies grounded for 1sec

Backup4now10/26/2016, 9:41:39 PM1 votes

This rework certainly would put him on the track to become a proper juggernaut, but since I do not think the juggernaut path is for him I would not go with it. I will, however, judge the kit without relating it to Mordekaiser.

Passive- No clue why the magic resist part is there, or what purpose it serves. The restriction to projectiles makes it worthless against a very large portion of the roster, including characters like Lux and Morgana whose most powerful attacks don't count as projectiles.

Q- Unfortunately, with the rest of the kit changes, the overall damage he brings might have to be reduced massively.

W- You can cut the description down a bit. This ability assumes the user doesn't die instantly, before they can reap the benefits (current morde already has the problem of being unable to doubletap w for the heal in a pinch).

E- May want to rethink how that reduced health thingy works, or simply say "has reduced health". Otherwise good.

R- You underestimate the power of the grounded effect, especially point and click for 8 seconds. The amount of utility you're adding with that and the stuns absolutely forces a much slower kill pattern, which is impossible when the effects of Q are still limited to only three hits; either a super low cooldown is required, or enough damage to kill in one rotation (super broken). This also forces the kit to be mainly base-damage oriented with a tanky build, because being able to scale well with AP/AD with this much utility is bound to be ultra broken.

GULAG 4 U10/26/2016, 10:33:54 PM1 votes

1v2'in ganks of course ;)

Huehuehue mordekaiser es numero uno always sheild nevir die

AHarmlessTaco11/2/2016, 5:28:24 PM1 votes

Passive: Iron Man

Mordekaiser passively charges a magnetic shield that takes up to 25% of all damage that would be dealt to him based on the distance between himself and his aggressor on impact. If this shield is broken, it remains disabled until it is at 50% of its maximum strength.

Q: Nightfall Approaches

FIRST CAST: Mordekaiser’s next 3 basic attacks within 7 seconds deal bonus physical damage on-hit. While active, Mordekaiser also gains the ability to knock away nearby enemies once.

SECOND CAST: After a brief wind-up, Mordekaiser knocks all enemies beside him in the direction of his choosing, limited to a 90 degree cone in front of him. Enemy champions that collide with other champions or terrain are stunned briefly, and any champions that are collided with are stunned for half as long. Enemies knocked away this way may not be knocked away again for 10 seconds.

Mace of Spades resets Mordekaiser’s autoattack timer.

Praise the Son10/26/2016, 3:34:37 PM1 votes

Yo, long time Morde main here (Season 2), what I want for morde is that they make him a good juggernaut. This means he needs the stats to be comparable to other juggernauts and have a bit of cc/mobility to enable him to do a juggernauts job while still remaining kiteable (think darius).

The most important abilities to keep similar in a rework are his passive (though a lot needs to change to make it healthy as discussed by riot) and his ult, which makes more sense as a powerful debuff as you had envisioned. The live iteration of mace of spades is also pretty cool.

What I'd like to see riot do to morde's passive is simply to change it to: Morde gains a shield upon dealing damage with his abilities equal to a percentage of his maximum shield. This shield rapidly decays out of combat (but doesn't decay in combat) and has a maximum shield value of 25% of Morde's maximum health.

These changes would make it so that his passive is still the same, but addresses the issues with snowballing, where it is almost useless when you are behind and cannot do damage to generate shield, and where it is oppressively strong when you are ahead and it shuts out counter play opportunities.

P.S. Riot needs to address all of the bugs.