My Hopes For Mordekaiser's Future Rework (Also, Morde's birthday!)
It's Mordekaiser's 8th birthday today, yaaaay!
As such I decided to go ahead and make a post about this guy: My personal hopes as to what eventual Mordekaiser's VGU will be like. I will split this post into 3 parts: Design, Gameplay, and Lore. Keep in mind this is my own opinion and my own Mordekaiser fantasy, it will probably be different from many other Morde mains out there.
Part I Mordekaiser's Design (+ Voice)
Malicous Metal already talked about this in his post that can be seen here, and I agree with him in many parts... But not all of them. I also feel that Mordekaiser's armor should look more Overlordy, fit for a warlord KING, however I feel like it can't be overly decorative – we can't forget the WARLORD part.
"Rival to the Ruined King - in ruin." - Maokai to Mordekaiser
Mordekaiser has been gone for a long time before his last resurrection and he lost most of what he gained through ages of counquering Valoran – ages of never-ending battles. He was ruined and now is bulding up his strength again, while carving out more and more of Shadow Isles for himself. I feel like Mordekaiser's armor should reflect that. It should look like an armor of a king, but still an armor that has seen it's share of battles – battle-scarred; had it any decorations or gildings, they should be washed out and gone by now. (If they go for the 'ruined' look on the base skin, they could then make Lord skin Mordekaiser at the peak of his power, instead of a walking Sauron reference)
The one thing I would like to be kept is his helmet, or at least the basic shape of it.
Voiceover: I'd definitely like them to go with a cold, calm voice. Little-to-no shouts – they'd feel out of place. Hopefully they'll also spare cliched and lame lines, like “I cannot be stopped!” or “NO!” when dying. While some references to metal should indeed stay, they can't be too overbearing... And of course – the voice should convey some personality – and Mordekaiser, even if he's an undead evil tyrant, should have a personality. It'd be extremely lame to make him a token bad guy, who sounds like a basic cartoon villain. His laughter should be pretty much as it is now – it's perfect. Maybe add one “Hue Hue Hue” along the other lines, just because. Though maybe add it as Pentakill exclusive laughter? Since PTK is already memish with it being metal, with “Numero Uno” guitar. (And also Karthus has some PTK-exclusive lines as well, so it'd only be fair to make some for Morde.)
Part II Gameplay
Now this part is tough... I think pretty much every single Mordekaiser main has a different idea as to what Mordekaiser should play like... (And Riot seems to have the exact opposite idea to all of them.) First thing... AP or AD? I'd personally go with AP, maybe some AD scallings... Pretty much as it is now. Burst mage or Juggernaut? While I enjoy burst mage a lot, I'd say juggernaut would probably be the better approach... However – even better would be a unique role, instead of pushing him into an existing one. I will try to create my own spin on Morde's kit, but that later. For now I can say few things for certain:
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The “No CC no Mobility” approach to Mordekaiser is outdated and needs to go. Do NOT give him mobility, any dashes or blinks, but by all means DO give him CC. It makes no thematical sense to have him be CC-less. A hit with a mace like that should at least stun an enemy if not launch him several meters away. And for a powerful mage, his magic shouldn't leave enemies unfliching either.
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His passive shield has to be changed somehow... It shouldn't be gone completely, no, but there are ways to make it healthier and easier to balance. I propose one of two ways: I . Lock it behind some toggle ability – for example something that drains his health rapidly, but allows him to generate his shield from ability damage. This is probably the choice Rito will go with, but there is also another way. II . Give Mordekaiser mana – Now, before you go “stopped reading when you said mana” hear me out. Mana would allow Mordekaiser's shield to stay in his passive – it would gate it somehow, so that it doesn't get overbearing in lane, but still let it be strong and effective in teamfights, where champions rarely run out of mana. It would also allow for a better balancing, as mana always does, and let Mordekaiser have more tools to chase and kill his opponents, like some CC, without losing damage from his abilites. Another thing is: Currently a lot of items give shitload of mana anyway, so it's not like it's hard to come by. And with Mordekaiser being a very spammy champion, he could fill up tear quickly and get some of the juicy Archangel AP.
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Mordekaiser shouldn't rely on his ult as much as he does now, especially with it being as unreliable as it is now – his ghosts often don't make sense - Vayne's W applies, but Teemo's E doesn't. Swain's passive works when he is a ghost and it allows some weird interactions. All of the ghosts feel cluncky to control, with them often more willing to attack minions rather than champions or turrets, and their complete disobedniece when it comes to wards, etc. His Dragon is even worse, often being pretty much uncontrolable, turning 180 degrees to attack some random minions or steal a camp from your jungler, when you're trying to push a turret (Yes, Junglers always farm camps when you're pushing.) He should most likely get some template ghost with anything – ADC ghost, Mid ghost, Tank ghost, Fighter ghost and a Bruiser ghost. Each with a bit different abilities and stats... That is – if not remove it all together. While Mordekaiser's ult is pretty iconic, I, for one, wouldn't mind a different one at all – and I think most wouldn't, if it's replaced by something even more awesome.
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Mordekaiser's gameplay, I feel, should still be mostly easy when it comes to mechanics and mostly come down to positioning and decision-making. Microskills don't fit Mordekaiser too much and not every champion has to have insane outplay potential. Mordekaiser is about knowing your champion and how much exacly he can do, not about making flashy plays – he doesn't have to. It already feels good enough to be able to kill enemies, who underastimate your power.
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When reworking him, rewrite his code from the grounds up. Currently he still has an insane number of bugs, with some being pretty gamebreaking.
Part III Lore Mordekaiser lore is pretty interesting. It has a lot of good in it and some bad (It's a bit too cliched and completely not fleshed out.) and his short story Shadows Of Damnation has mostly bad in it, with some good – Mordekaiser backhand punch, for example, is pretty damn epic.
My first and MOST important request for the lore team is to read this, before writing his backstory: The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord.
With that out of the way, lets discuss the rest.
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Give him a personality Don't get me wrong, Mordekaiser should be evil, however there are ways to write evil characters with interesting personality, that doesn't feel overly clichéd.
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DO NOT give him any tragic backstory League has enough of these as it is – if he indeed needs one, at least make it not impact his evilness. He shouldn't be redeemable, he shouldn't be corrupted by anything. He should be an evil dude.
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Give him a motivation and a set goal, even if it's something ambigous This actually was touched upon in League Podcast – Inside Shadow Isles – in it Mordekaiser is said to desire humanity pretty much as much as ruling the world, and I feel like it's a very interesting storyline to follow. Mordekaiser wanting to rule the world as an immortal human, rather than as an undead, feels really cool and also makes a lot of sense – Why be on top, if you can't feel the pleasure of drinking, eating, etc. Mordekaiser's mind, unlike other undead in the game, wasn't warped, wasn't corrupted by the black mist, to seek only pain and destruction. He, even if he has lived for thousands of years, still is a human, so he should desire things a human would desire. Also it's pretty unique – a villain, who doesn't just settle for extreme power and immortality, but seeks something more. I would REALLY want everything that was talked about in this podcast to be implemented.
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Please, do not make him overly paranoid about his bones. The way it's phrased in the lore caught my attention even during the first read – and not in a good way. Mordekaiser should be cold and calculating when it comes to stuff like that. He should have a plan and ten back-up plans in case his bones go missing again, but he shouldn't be paranoid. I can't imagine Mordekaiser, walking around his chamber, muttering “My bones, where to hide my bones!?” to himself. That would break the character for me.
That's really it for now. I will try to post some designs, kit ideas, lore propositions, etc. in the future. I hope that at least a part of Morde's playerbase agrees with me on some of these points.
And just as a bonus - I recently tried to imagine Mordekaiser how he could've looked like when he was alive (Maybe even before taking over much of Valoran) and I drew this: https://i.imgur.com/IAfArqz.png
