Mordekaiser, the Iron Revenant (Update)

Mordekaiser, the Iron Revenant (Update) Mordekaiser has been a troublesome champion in a multitude of areas for years and as someone who has enjoyed him for years I thought I could offer up my concept for a potential update to our favorite Iron Revenant.

P.S. I’ve played league since June of 2010 and although I’ve never really been a ranked player I like to think I have a good understanding of this game. I have looked at the League forums before but this is my first time posting.

--Foreword-- When you read Mordekaiser’s lore you are told about this Sauron-like character, a revenant that can shrug off mortal blows like they’re nothing and reanimates the souls of its foes against their will. To me that says that I should expect a champion that plays like a juggernaut but I last time I felt like that playing Mordekaiser was when you could stack sunfire capes but even then I felt more akin to a tank than today’s “Juggernaut.” What Mordekaiser has felt like for a long time now is some very strange melee mage assassin with a random slightly tanky upside where you often feel useless when your flash is on cooldown. Currently Mordekaiser has viability even being strong sometimes because of his W providing high sustain and waveclear and his ability to acquire a ghost dragon to take additional objectives. That being said he suffers from the same strange play patterns but they are able to be bypassed because of the dragon gimmick and his single good ability. My goal is to make him the juggernaut he is intended to be along with portraying his character from within the game for those who have not read his lore.

The following is theoretical and as such all numbers included should be treated as a reference for how powerful I hypothetically think something should be because I am unable to test this for myself.

--Abilities-- Innate: Iron Man & Harvester of Sorrows Iron Man Mordekaiser shields himself for 25% of the damage dealt by his abilities, halved to 12.5% against enemy minions and capped at 20-30% maximum health. (Based on level) After a 1.5 seconds delay, Iron Man's shield decays at a rate of 1.5% base health per second down to a minimum of 「 6.25% maximum health 」.

Harvester of Sorrows Mordekaiser generates a stack of “Sorrow” every ? seconds (total ? every minute) as well as one for whenever he damages an enemy champion with an ability, up to a maximum of ? stacks. Mordekaiser’s basic abilities gain additional effects when reaching a certain number of stacks. Tier 1 stacks: Maximum size of Iron Man increased by 10% maximum health Tier 2 stacks: Delay before Iron Man decays increased and rate of decay reduced Tier 3 stacks: Minimum size of Iron Man increased to ?% maximum health

Visual update - Mordekaiser gets a sort of ethereal glow depending on how full his Iron Man shield is

Q: Mace of Spades ACTIVE: Mordekaiser's next three basic attacks deal bonus magic damage. The third hit is the damage of the previous two combined.

Mace of Spades resets Mordekaiser's autoattack timer.

Harvester of Sorrows bonuses Tier 1: Mordekaiser can no longer be crippled while Mace of Spades is active Tier 2: The third hit of Mace of Spades deals three times the damage of the first or second hit Tier 3: The third hit of Mace of Spades has increased range and deals a percentage of the damage in a small area around the initial target*

*At tier 3 the third hit is no longer guaranteed to connect and is similar to Twitch's basic attacks while he is under the effect of Spray and Pray where they are still targeted but can be flashed out of.

W: Creeping Death ACTIVE: For the next 3 seconds Mordekaiser surrounds himself with the energy of cursed souls dealing magic damage in an area of effect around himself every second.

Harvester of Sorrows bonuses Tier 1: For each unique champion Creeping Death deals damage to the duration is extended by 1 second (Up to a total of 8 seconds) Tier 2: While Creeping Death is active it reduces the effectiveness of slows on Mordekaiser by 35%. Tier 3: While Creeping Death is active Mordekaiser takes 15% reduced damage from projectiles that come from outside of Creeping Death’s area of effect

Visual update - Instead of swirling bits of metal it is a vortex of unformed souls

E: Siphon of Destruction ACTIVE: Mordekaiser deals magic damage to all enemies in a cone in the target direction.

For each enemy champion hit, Mordekaiser generates a bonus percentage of Iron Man shield.

Harvester of Sorrows bonuses Tier 1: Siphon of Destruction’s projectile speed is increased Tier 2: Siphon of Destruction has slightly longer and wider range Tier 3: Mordekaiser sends out a second wave 1 second after the first that deals reduced damage and does not generate a bonus percentage of Iron Man shield

Damage is no longer instant but instead dealt in a wave. Visual update - Mordekaiser sends out the cursed souls of his army to charge at the enemy similar to the spectral riders that accompany Hecarim during his ult.

R: Children of the Grave ACTIVE: Mordekaiser blasts the target enemy champion, dealing magic damage as well as Cursing them for the next 10 seconds. Cursed champions take magic damage every second, with Mordekaiser healing for 100% of the damage dealt by the initial blast and the Curse.

CURSE: If Mordekaiser's team scores a takedown on a Cursed enemy, he temporarily enslaves their soul as a controllable ghost.

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

Champion ghosts have (Under 100% of their total AD + (X% for every 100 bonus AD mordekaiser has) and ?% of Mordekaiser's maximum health as bonus health, and while Mordekaiser has a champion enslaved he gains ?% of their bonus health as bonus health, ?% of their AP as bonus AP, and ?% of their total AD as bonus AD.

--Explanations-- Innate: Iron Man (& Harvester of Sorrows) The biggest problem from a design perspective in my mind when designing a juggernaut is trying to give them a “powerhouse” feel without having them be walk over the entire game 1v9. This is especially difficult with Mordekaiser because he has no mobility or control and has situational utility leaving him in a unique position in League as a champion that can only do damage and be tanky. The problem with this combination is having him be tanky and deal damage at all parts of the game without just being strictly overpowered at some part of the game. This secondary innate means Mordekaiser isn’t required to have high base damage or be obsolete but also doesn’t make him a ticking time bomb just waiting for gold or level 18. Mordekaiser’s current live passive Iron Man is great and is super fun to play around so it didn’t need any fundamental changes.

Tier 1 stacks: This is so his base shield size can be decreased and make laning against him more bearable while not sacrificing his mid and late game tankiness. Tier 2 stacks: Skirmishes in the mid to mid-late game can be very long and drawn out and even if there is a break or chase during it, it remains intense throughout and this is meant to lessen the punishment Mordekaiser feels for lacking the ability to lockdown or chase his enemies. Tier 3 stacks: In the late game when everyone is full build, fights can be over in an instant and this is to help him potentially survive a wombo combo without having to maintain such a high upkeep cost.

While this secondary passive is just a different version of Cassiopeia’s old passive I think that my version has more viability because it fits in with Mordekaiser’s character better, enhances his abilities instead of his items, and is less of a balance hassle because he is melee while she is ranged. When I was designing this I used Cassiopeia’s optimal stacking rate for when the tiers were unlocked but I have no idea how this would translate in to numbers with Mordekaiser being melee and in a different primary lane. Tier 1 stacks: 15~ minutes Tier 2 stacks: 25~ minutes Tier 3 stacks: 35~ minutes

Q: Mace of Spades Overall I think Mace of Spades is in a pretty good spot my only qualm being that later in the game I don’t notice the first two autos anymore and the third hit becomes underwhelming but that is a balance issue not a problem with the fundamentals of the ability.

Tier 1 stacks: Slowing Mordekaiser’s attack speed is not a crucial counterplay option to him and your attack speed slowed as Mordekaiser feels awful. As Mordekaiser you’re not going to build a Quicksilver Sash to counteract an attack speed slow however the debuff is somewhat niche and so the first tier seemed like a good spot for this. Tier 2 stacks: This is around when the third hit starts to feel underwhelming so I felt like this buff wouldn’t be too over the top. Tier 3 stacks: When everyone is 5-6 items Mordekaiser has much shorter windows to deal damage this will hopefully give him larger windows and give those windows larger impact.

W: Creeping Death (Harvester of Sorrow) My intention for this rework is for Mordekaiser to become a top laner and as such he will not need the bonus experience passive anymore. On live this ability is a large portion of his strength but I think it's for the wrong reasons. From a lore perspective I’ve always been confused why a necromancer surrounds himself in a storm of metal and why on live that storm heals him. I believe that Mordekaiser should be more about not caring that he is taking damage vs healing it all back. About the removal of an ally benefiting from this ability I just don’t really see Mordekaiser as the sharing type.

Tier 1 stacks: I wanted to reward Mordekaiser for being in the thick of fights instead of skirting around the edge waiting for his opportunity Tier 2 stacks: Since Mordekaiser lacks mobility or the ability to keep people he has caught next to him I felt like this was a good way to reduce how frustrating getting kited can be as well as portraying how unfazed he is by Tier 3 stacks: Sometimes even with flash in the late game Mordekaiser just gets gunned down while he hopelessly walks towards his targets or retreat. Adding this little perk hopeful will allow a Mordekaiser to not feel useless in the late game.

About bringing back the old name of the W and moving the current one to his second passive, it kinda fit and I don't know much about metal so I didn't wanna mess with looking for a suitable metal related name replacement.

E: Siphon of Destruction In theory this ability seems fine but when it’s instant it becomes incredibly obnoxious to lane against so it gets nerfed into the ground and does very little damage. With possible counterplay to it hopefully the damage can safely be increased and with the updated visual it will help flesh out Mordekaiser’s character. Tier 1 stacks: Once out of lane it’s no longer obnoxious for the enemy and doesn't need to be as easy to potentially dodge Tier 2 stacks: As the game goes on traditionally this ability falls off pretty hard because it's so hard for Mordekaiser to get into a fight Tier 3 stacks: This was inspired by Viktor’s Hex Core laser upgrade and I felt like it would be an interesting addition to late game

R: Children of the Grave I love this ability and it's the reason I pick him but currently when you get the ghost it feels pretty lackluster and I hope that changing around the stats exchanged between Mordekaiser and the ghost will make it feel worthwhile again. As far the dragon soul goes while it is pretty unique it makes Mordekaiser feel like a gimmick and limits his potential within the rest of his kit. I opted not to give his ult bonuses from Harvester of Sorrows as it is already a very strong ability from a gameplay and lore perspective.

“Champion ghosts have (Under 100% of their total AD + (X% for every 100 bonus AD mordekaiser has)” To elaborate on what I intended with the previous, I was thinking about it being similar to Nami’s ratio on live for “Ebb and Flow” where bounces are less effective at first but with enough AP become stronger each bounce.

--Conclusion-- My endgame here is to make Mordekaiser play like a secondary or occasionally primary frontliner that has damage instead of crowd control versus being a non-optimal melee mage assassin like he is on live and often has been in the past. My intention is that he would be rewarded much more for wading through combat and dealing damage instead of camping on the edge of a fight waiting for his opportunity to flash in and one-shot a carry. Also Mordekaiser is a warrior and a necromancer so his ratios should reflect his hybrid status and reward balanced builds over being strictly being AP or AD.

Regardless of anything I have said, Mordekaiser needs a lot of help with bug fixing as the list is quite extensive and if you check out this post you'll see how large of a problem it really is. (be warned that post is massive) Thanks for reading or skimming through and comment below letting me know what you think.