Mordekaiser Rework Idea
Riot has already said that they plan on reworking Mordekaiser again. This rework focuses on making him back to his original state as a AP bruiser mid.
Before we talk about the abilities I would like to describe my vision for how he would look. He is still a wraith with his suit of heavy armor. But instead It would be cool to have the peaces more separated, floating directly next to each other, kind of like a less fragmented Xerath.
Passive (Metal Shell): Mordekaiser had 2 parts to his body, the suit of armor and the wraith inside. The armor will always be his hitbox and where his health bar appears. Where the wraith will be where you cast abilities from. When Mordekaiser is hit with immobilizing cc he will be able to keep moving as a wraith, but he leaves his metal body behind. Once the cc ends his body will quickly float towards him and rebuild around himself.
This passive allows Mordekaiser to not be taken out of the fight by stuns and knock backs. However since his health and hitbox is the metal body, he is still able to be locked down, cc chained and killed.
Q (Mace Of Spades): This ability is a short (250) ranged point click ability. Mordekaiser swings his mace towards the targeted opponent dealing max hp damage with % magic pen. behind the target a high range wave of energy fans out and deals flat damage to all champions hit.
Mordekaiser Q In lane this ability is your source of poke. you q a nearby minion and use the cone behind them to deal damage to your opponent. In team fights this q will be targeted on a front line tank (dealing max hp % pen damage) and then the cone will spread to the back line to deal flat damage.
W (Iron Man): Passive: Mordekaiser stores 25% of damage dealt as a resource in his resource bar. The max amount stored scales off of bonus health Active: Mordekaiser consumes all stored damage and gains a shield equal to the amount. The shield decays by a flat amount of hp per second. if the ability is recast within 2 seconds Mordekaiser will deal a good chunk of damage to himself and gain a burst of movement speed.
This is a clear imitation of his current passive. The idea was to include a more interesting and interactive defensive mechanic to Mordekaiser. Instead of gaining free shielding you must react to shield yourself and the ability can go on cool down allowing opponents to capitalize on it. Additionally it gives Mordekaiser the option to sacrifice health to move faster, making him more fun and powerful in team fights.
E (Harvester of Sorrow): This ability can be cast on yourself or an ally champion. It will create a AOE dot that follows the target. A smaller ring of metal develops close to the target champions model. When an enemy champion collides with this they will take additional damage and be stunned for 1 second. Each champion has a stun cool down similar to Udyr's E. Additionally this ability can be cast while Mordekaiser's metal body is under cc, and is cast from his wraith body.
Mordekaiser E This ability adds a lot of options to Mordekaiser's kit. The ability will be used for damage often but the use of the stun works in 3 different ways. Mordekaiser can cast it on himself to threaten and prevent melee champions from diving him, or it can be used on a initiator on your team, so when they dive in they stun all targets directly next to them, Lastly It can be used to peel allies who are being attack by other low range opponents.
R (Children of the Grave): Passive: If Mordekaiser gets a kill or assist on a champion he has not gotten a kill or assist on within 4 minuets, he will permanently gain 5% spell vamp. Active: Mordekaiser curses a target applying a 10 second damage over time to them. While they are under the effects of the curse they receive 50/60/70 % less shielding and healing. (Its worth noting that this ability in game CURRENTLY can apply spell effects and keep a rylai's perma slow, doubled Liandry's torment and dft on his opponent for 13 seconds. As well as procing luden's 3-4 times)
This Is very similar to his old ultimate. However the healing/shielding reduction has the potential to push an adc out of a team fight for 10 seconds, which is not a good mechanic to put on a point click ability. That being said it would make sense to increase the cool down a lot and make it only scale only 50% with cdr. I personally like the idea of a very impact full but long cd ultimate, like Karthus's. It adds a lot to one fight but is not available for all of them, and allows each team to play around it over a long period of time.
Its a compete rework of the champion, but in my opinion it holds good similarities to the current Mordekaiser. The old Mord liked to charge up his q on the front line, then flash 3rd auto the back for a 1 shot. Though this is not directly in his kit, a similar play stile sticks with him. He will hit front line with q's and whittle down the back line in the proses. then W-W for move speed to dive the back line with E stun and dot, Q burst and if needed, his ultimate.
His ultimate feels more like an actual curse rather than just a long dot. It sits on the opponent and in some cases can cripple their opportunities to go in. It really adds a burden to the target, like how a curse should be. And it adds a clear strength to his kit, He can be considered a counter to healing / shielding champions.
But he still has his clear weaknesses, like being a melee champ mid, who will get poked out of lane frequently if played poorly and in bad match ups. Where he will excel against assassins like Fizz, Zed and Akali. His build path allows more tanky / bruiser items that prevent him from being bursted down. When he is jumped on he can stun them, shield. as well as having his Q poke spam in lane, being much harder for meles to avoid, and over time their low health threatens their all-in potential.
His ultimate passive promotes him to roam during laning phase, because later in the game you will often get kills / assists on all of your opponents, slowing down his stacking.
Lastly his passive (in my opinion) is very creative. It makes him really feel like your playing this powerful unstoppable wraith wielding his possessed armor. It also complements his low range and lack of mobility by allowing cc to not hinder his position in a team fight. And I think it would also just look really cool to see something like lee sin kick his armor back, then to have all the parts of his armor fly back towards his wraith body, to form around his and create this enchanted suit of armor.
Tell me what you think, thank you for listening, have a good day < 3
