A Riot-Style Mordekaiser Rework made for Mordekaiser Mains

Carnicore·10/17/2018, 4:27:30 AM·2 votes·936 views

#Why does Mordekaiser need a Rework?

Honestly it's so obvious that he needs a rework that this is beating a dead horse.

Can't be balanced for a number of reasons. He's designed to be sort of a mage-juggernaut hybrid but he has neither the CC nor mobility necessary to melee attack ranged enemy champions.
The ultimate is as overpowered as it is buggy, and it's one of the main reasons his basic abilities suck.
There's very poor visual clarity on his spells, and visual outdatedness in general.

#What Mordekaiser players Want

A few weeks ago, there was a fascinating post on reddit by a Mordekaiser main listing some features that Mordekaiser mains (or at least him and the other mains he knows) want to keep when Mordekaiser is reworked.

They want him to be a pseudo-ranged champion like Gangplank. Mordekaiser is a melee full AP carry with no gapclosers, but Mordekaiser functions by using his ranged spells. Most Mordekaiser players do not want to see him become a juggernaut that beats enemies with his mace, because they all play him as a spellcasting mage. He has 550+ range on all spells but Q, and it's the only way a melee champion can be balanced without a gapcloser.
They want to keep W. Right now it's the most interesting spell in his kit because of all the different things it can do, and all the ways you can use it. It's a weird spell but would work fine with some visual polish so that players can understand what it's doing. But otherwise, change is not needed.
They want to be playable bottom lane. Yes, years after the juggernaut update, Mordekaiser has remained viable down there and developed a small playerbase. If the rework abides by points 1) and 2), then it should be somewhat easy to make Mordekaiser viable in any lane.

This kind of feedback is fantastic because it gives us some direction for the rework. Mordekaiser rework ideas are all over the place, but this information gives us focus and something to work towards that keeps the old mains happy and preserves the champion's identity.

#Goals

Identity: Tanky melee mage with medium-range spells that can't blink, dash, or run very fast.
Rework ultimate to be less buggy, and eat less of his power budget.
Focused character theme: Ghost Commander. Less emphasis on metal.
Make abilities suitable for a 1v1 or 2v2 lane.
Keep W in some way.
Keep naming scheme of his spells (they're all named after metal songs).
Ditch the buggy ult.
Make a champion that can be balanced with relative ease.

#Subgoals

Keep hybrid scalings, support a wide variety of builds.
Give Mordekaiser features unique from other champions.

#The Rework

Note: I am intentionally vague about many numbers because they must be determined by playtesting.

Base changes:

Mordekaiser now uses mana.

His base mana and regen should be similar to other mages.
Doing this allows me to put more power into his spells, like giving them more range. Compare his old E to the new one below.
A minor benefit is that Mordekaiser can now use items like RoA, Dark Seal, Doran's Ring, Seraph's Embrace, Luden's Echo, Lich Bane, etc. without feeling bad.

Base movement speed increased from 325 to 335.

This puts him on par with most champions.

Base armor increased from 25 to 40

Because he's literally a walking suit of armor.
The values of his shields and healing will need to be much lower than before to balance this change.

Innate: Iron Man

Mordekaiser gains a shield every time he damages champions or large monsters with a spell. It's capped at [X% of his maximum health + Y% of his AP].

Note that you can't get shields from minions.
The shield decays after 3 seconds out of combat, but does not decay when it's equal or less than 15% of Mordekaiser's max health.
Shields scale with AP and bonus health.

Cursed enemies have 20% reduced magic resist, and are slowed 15% if they're moving away from Mordekaiser. This curse can be cleansed.

Sort of a new kind of CC unique to Mordekaiser. It's applied by some of his abilities.

Q: Mace of Spades

Standard: Mordekaiser fires a short ethereal bolt from his free hand to the target, dealing magic damage.

Inside 200 units: Mordekaiser smashes the target with his mace instead, dealing more magic damage and stunning for 0.2 seconds.

Similar to Talon's Q.
Scales with 120% of AD and 40%/60% of AP.
Applies both on-hit and on-spell effects. Can draw minion aggro.
Max range is 550.
Cooldown is 4 seconds. Mana cost is 25, 60% refunded if the target is killed.
Ranged attack is non-projectile.
Enemies in Mace range have small mace indicators over their heads.

W: Harvester of Sorrow

Mordekaiser casts whirlwinds of souls on himself, or a nearby ally if there is one. Enemies standing in them take damage over time. After 4 seconds, or Mordekaiser reactivates Harvest of Sorrow, the souls are recalled to him, stealing health from all enemies in the whirlwinds at that moment and Cursing them for 3 seconds.

If cast on an ally champion: they gain a shield equal to what Mordekaiser gains from Iron Main, and receive their own whirlwind of souls. That whirlwind has the same effects but heals for a lesser amount.

Cast range lowered to 800.
The healing amount is not affected by enemy resistances. It can heal for more damage than was dealt.
The healing isn't split between the two champions, there's just extra health if you have a bound partner.
I removed the bonus xp. passive because it was a very forced way to make him viable bottom lane.
Mordekaiser and his bound partner (minion or champion) still get moderately increased movement speed towards each other.
Costs 60-80 mana, but refunds 30-50 for damaging enemies with it.
Cooldown is unchanged.
The damage over time doesn't proc Iron Man.

E: Tornado of Souls

Mordekaiser summons two ghosts that sweep in front of him, dealing magic damage and Cursing enemy champions hit for 3 seconds. Enemies hit by both ghosts take only 30% more damage.

Scales with AP and Bonus AD.
Costs 70 mana.
Maximum range would be about 700 units, cooldown would be around 10 seconds.
2 ghosts don't give 2 shields.
The ghosts' hitboxes would be wider than my drawing makes them appear.
Main source of waveclear.

R: Chains of Misery

Mordekaiser throws a chain in the target direction. It will tether and deal magic damage to Cursed champions, and the Curse remains until the chain is broken. The chain holds for up to 3 seconds, dealing magic damage every half-second and slowing them by 30%. Mordekaiser can press R again (only once) to pull the target 250 units towards him. If the chain kills the target champion, Mordekaiser receives 50/75/100 bonus AP for 60/75/120 seconds.

Bonus stats do not stack, if you have the buff and kill another enemy during that duration it is simply replaced.
Chain damage scales with AP and AD.
The bonus AP received is adaptive; it becomes 25/40/70 AD instead if Mordekaiser has more Bonus AD than AP.
Chain throw range is 800, and the enemy champion must run 1000 units away from Mordekaiser to break the chain.
Note the level 16 powerspike.
120 second cooldown, costs 100 mana.

#2v2 Bottom Lane

Now that he has proper ranged abilities, he can trade with ranged champions. As opposed to playing passively until there's an opportunity to all-in.
His spells are AoE, so they can hit both enemy champions (especially E).
His base armor, Iron Man, and Harvester of Sorrow give him all the tools he needs to withstand harass. He also has long attack range to avoid taking harass to begin with. If this is too much, features can be nerfed or removed.
His W is still great in 2v2. Instead of free experience, it has bonus features for casting W on ally champions.
His new CCs are great in a 2v2 lane.
Most supports benefit from Mordekaiser shredding magic resist.

#Balancing

The reason you see so many different scalings on Iron Man, Mace of Spades, etc. is so that different Mordekaiser builds (AD bruiser, full AP, AP bruiser) can be balanced independently from one another.
Most of Mordekaiser's 2v2 strength comes from his W. Which means if Mordekaiser is much stronger in the 2v2 lane than either 1v1 lane, or vice versa, then functionality of W can be buffed/nerfed/added/removed to correct this.
If Mordekaiser is too oppressive against melee champions, then Mace-Q can be nerfed and that power can be shifted to other spells like W or E.

#For Your Consideration

Do these abilities make sense for Mordekaiser?
Does anything look like a serious balancing issue?
Does this look fun to play as? How about against?

A Riot-Style Mordekaiser Rework made for Mordekaiser Mains

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