Ideas about the direction of the Mordekaiser rework

Hello I'm a big fan of Mordekaiser's narrative, and over time became acclimated to his current game play (Mordekaiser was my first purchased champion, who I mained since season 1 to season 3). Currently I have a modest amount of 167612 mastery points on him: https://i.gyazo.com/57a1ea2eed077eac6a46e2d9c11c5e49.png so I believe I has enough experience to talk about him.

Anyways, about Mordekaiser.

Visuals: Images are worth a thousand words, so instead of going too deep I'll link the following: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/XR1kHsLc-mordekaiser-visual-update-2017-riot-art-contest I'm sure most people have already seen this beautiful piece by Dylan Hall. For me this has exactly the key aspects of Mordekaiser:

-Fully clad in armor: he's a wraith inside a suit after all (except in Pentakill)

-A cape

-A large mace: Nightfall is one of the few named weapons that are held by a champion)

-A helmet with crown accents (combined with the cape, it gives him a the regal look of a conquering king)

Narrative: If it were up to me, post rework Mordekaiser would have exactly the same lore, maybe expand a little on his life before becoming undead, or alternatively expand on his conquest post undeath. Still, I believe that Mordekaiser's key aspects are as follows:

-Ancient Evil: He is still spoken about today in hushed tones, and it was his the effort of defeating him that paved way for Noxus.

-Terrifying and confident presence: ''The booming of his laughter echoed through the darkness - he had no reason not to believe he would be reborn anew, as he had been many times before.''

-Willingly became a wraith: I'll expand more in the voice lines.

-Powerful warlord king: In life he was a brutal conqueror, in the dark centuries where he had a presence in Valoran he was feared , and now he's the ruler of the Shadow Isles, he's even powerful enough to not need the Dark Mist, but recognizes it's usefulness.

Being a champion from early 2010, Mordekaiser has a humble collection of voice lines https://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Mordekaiser/Quotes Some of them are silly, such as the one about life being overrated and the one where he breaks the 4th wall, they give charm in the same way old Gangplank was a silly drunk pirate and it makes sense that they will be removed. However: For me the most important aspect about Mordekaiser's lines is that he is not sad, regretful or upset about being undead in any way. While Mordekaiser's lore quote says "All things must die... and yet I live on." (which can be interpreted as regret for what he has become) both ingame and in his short story he displays confidence (with hints of arrogance), and composure:

-'' Weaklings all. His gaze swept over them as he sought a foe worthy of his attention. His undying gaze settled on a silver-clad knight that stepped out to meet him, sword drawn. '' -'' "This one's soul is mine", Mordekaiser said, holding the eager spirits at bay. His voice was deep and sepulchral, the timbre of death itself.'' -'' "Demacian steel", sneered Mordekaiser. "It will not save you." '' -'' "You thought you could protect these mortals", said Mordekaiser. "But know that it will be you who slays them." ''

Mordekaiser's quotes combat quotes should reflect the idea of facing oblivion: He will kill you, not like Aatrox out of rage, but because you stand in his way. He sees all as beneath him, so he doesn't need to display anger while fighting, if anything it should be more akin to disdain.

Mordekaise's movement quotes could be more introspective. Him pondering his new life would be reasonable, but not in the same vein as Yorick, who is in a state of deep sadness. Mordekaiser is a warlord foremost, there are already many other champions who have to deal with being in a state that they dislike (for example Aatrox, Nautilus and Yorick), Mordekaiser's fantasy is that of dark conqueror (almost evil for the sake of it).

Gameplay:

Now I believe that a champion rework has to keep what makes the champion unique, first I'll compile a list of mechanics that Mordekaiser has that stand out: -Trading medium amounts of hp for a large temporary shield. -He's a juggernaut that has dual scaling on most spells. -He has a 3 hit mechanic that doesn't force him to actually hit the same unit 3 times. -He has a spell that becomes stronger when he has an ally nearby. -He has a very long duration DoT ability that also has the undeniably unique mechanic of creating a clone of what it killed.

Analysis:

-Passive: While Mordekaiser is much older than Tahm Kench, his shield mechanic is very akin to the grey health that TK has, except it's done in a more aggressive way. While TK takes enemy damage to later generate a shield, Mordekaiser trades max hp for a temporary but stronger shield. This doesn't necessarily mean that Mordekaiser has to keep his current passive, for example he could have a spell in which he drain a flat amount of hp in order to gain a large shield.

-Scaling: It's not very often that a Juggernaut has dual scaling on it's spells, however, I believe that Mordekaiser could be shifted to offensively scale purely with AP. Most champions with both AD and AP scalings usually stick with just one anyways, since they can't afford to have many different stats as they need a mix of defense and offense (not to mention that there are almost no hybrid items in the game anymore) Lastly, and AD Mordekaiser doesn't play very differently from an AP one, to the point where AP is always superior.

-Q: One of the biggest changes to Mordekaiser in his 2015 rework was the new Q. Previously Mordekaiser's Q was just an on hit effect that would deal a large amount of damage to an enemy (even more so if the enemy was alone). There's no need to bring back old Mordekaiser's Q, since the ''isolation'' mechanic is far better on Kha'Zix than on Mordekaiser. Current Mordekaiser's Q could just be salvaged to his rework, since it has the Juggernaut philosophy of a slow but highly damaging threat, and since all Melee champions need to have strong auto attacks, Mordekaiser's Q is a great spell for that class.

-W: I'll preface this by talking about Mordekaiser's current E, ''Siphon of Destruction'' is a spell that leaves very little interactivity to the enemy since it deals instant ranged AoE damage. As such, Mordekaiser's W is a far more interesting lane harassment tool Mordekaiser's W is a very strong spell, as it provides him with large amounts of AoE damage and sustain, it's also unique because it requires an ally to be near him in order for the spell to truly work, making Mordekaiser far more effective in lane than in the jungle, and also giving him an incentive to go to a duo lane. I don't have many ideas on what to change about his W, specially since almost every Juggernaut (and all champions with HP costs) have a spell to recover HP.

-R: Arguably Mordekaiser's most iconic spell (to the point where his lore even states that one of his key abilities is to enslave the soul of those he kills). While also one of the buggiest abilities in the game, Mordekaiser's ability to turn team fights into a 6v4 is a staple of his character. I believe the Ghost Dragon passive has too much power (I understand it's another incentive for bot lane Mordekaiser) and it being removed would be better for game health. Now while I understand that a 10 sec DoT is excessive, for me at least, few things are as satisfying in this game as punting Mordekaiser's R and ignite on someone and a few moments later hearing them die. It's something I miss from old Swain (disclaimer: I really like current Swain) and I believe that there aren't many DoT spells left in the game. As we move into a more instant damage oriented gameplay it feels a bit stale that all the high damage champions provide damage in bursts (which in turn also leads to the sensation that there's too much upfront damage in the game).

Lastly, when naming the new spells it's imperative that he retains the heavy/thrash metal song/band references.

I would love to hear other opinions Mordekaiser, be it what you like about him, what you think needs changing, if you agree with me in any point, etc.

Edit: up until today I wasn't aware that you could post on the NA forums with an account made somewhere else, so I'll use my main account on EUW (Opop) from now on.