How Riot should approach Mordekaiser's eventual VGU
Oh, what is this? Another Malicious Metal thread, rambling about Mordekaiser?
Yes, and No. With the recent VGU’s setting new standards for what a “good” rework is I’ve come to realize that it was time for another thread to try and outline Morde’s spot in this whole VGU business. Consider this a recap of the past two years since the Juggernaut rework, taking all the recent VGU’s into account and trying to advocate the best possible approach to Morde’s own rework.
In the following few paragraphs I aim to delve into what exactly makes Morde the champion he is. Taking his current situation, his fantasy and finally his Ideal realization into account to try and form a neat little summary of Mordekaiser. But without further ado, let’s begin!
Mordekaiser; Past to present
Mordekaiser is one of the oldest champions in the game, and he’s been through a lot of changes, be it indirect or direct, through his lifetime as one of the less popular champions. Be it 13 HP pot start Mordekaiser, DFGkaiser or JuggerKaiser, he’s remained mostly the same, even after his rework was adjusted to allow him to solo lane.
So,
What’s working as intended with his current state?
-Weakness/Strength profile Mordekaiser’s current weaknesses and strengths align with the whole Juggernaut archetype. He has the heavy damage and durability that serve as the Juggernaut’s primary strengths while also having their weaknesses of very little mobility and crowd control.
-In-combat durability Mordekaiser was always intended as a character that works best duking it out in the midst of battle. His tankiness is heavily linked to him actually fighting and doesn’t realy on just building defensive items.
-Soul Enslavement Children of the Grave currently provides a very high moment in Mordekaiser’s gameplay and it’s his most iconic ability. It gives him a window of power where he completely dominates the battle and creates a very satisfying moment for the player.
-Ap/Magic damage Juggernaut Mordekaiser is THE AP Juggernaut, and it makes him pretty distinctive
Where are the problems?
-Feast or Famine Mordekaiser is one of the hardest snowballers there are, yet he utterly fails to accomplish anything when he’s behind. He relies heavily on getting a lead and he completely destroys the opposition if he does get the tiniest advantage. On the flipside he struggles a lot when behind due to not having enough damage and durability to really be of any use to his team
-Iron Man is an unhealthy mechanic As sad as it makes me to say this, Mordekaiser’s passive is the root of all evil. It makes him even more feast or famine as his durability relies heavily on his damage output. It promotes unhealthy gameplay as a fed Mordekaiser can’t be stopped, his damage making him tank harder than any fed Tank
-Too restricted in terms of best and worst case scenarios Whereas other champions have a lot of ways to contribute to their team Mordekaiser’s success is extremely binary in that he either anhiliates everything and lives or he just dies. He needs to kill in order to get the most use of his ultimate, yet if he fails to do so he can’t really contribute a lot to his team.
-No real outplay potential OR ways of outplaying him Mordekaiser is one of the most binary champions. Most of his abilities are point and click and very straight forward, leaving little to no time for his opponents to react. They also don’t really have any strategy behind them as he’ll just use them whenever they’re up.
Mordekaiser has historically been one of the most unhealthy champions and thus has always been kept in a rather weak state. He’s extremely binary and doesn’t provide a lot of agency over the game, neither for him nor his enemies. He’s extremely snowbally and his entire kit is just loaded with damage and tankiness that he falls short if he doesn’t get to use these strengths. Additionally there has always been the trend of him being built almost entirely FULL AP since he gets a lot of durability simply by building damage when in fact he’s supposed to be more of a bruisers and not a Burst mage.
Mordekaiser’s Identity
Mordekaiser is one of the champions who doesn’t need a rework due to having a confused identity but rather because it doesn’t really translate into the game. He has some pretty strong thematic pillars that support his character but they’re not thoroughly explored in game. To give Mordekaiser the rework he deserves it needs to built upon his Identity and try bringing the larger-than-(un)life Revenant King into the actual game.
Death Knight http://assets.rpgsite.net/images/images/000/003/683/original/World_Of_Warcraft_Wrath_Of_The_Lich_King_05_artwork.jpg
As Reav3 pointed out on numerous occasions Mordekaiser’s archetype, and the one that’s not thoroughly explored in his design, is the one of “DEATH KNIGHT”. Death Knights have always been a reoccurring character in Fantasy, be it the ones in D’n’D tabletop rpg’s or the rather well known ones of Warcraft.
Death Knights are undead warriors who differ from your typical Lich by being powerful warriors in their own rights. They’re masters of their weapons, usually clad in heavy plate armour and wield not only normal weaponry but also dark arts to assist them in battle.
Their battle prowess is increased by them being versed in Necromancy and other more morbid magic, usually resorting to life-draining and curse-slinging effects un battle. Most of their abilities in popular media are portrayed to be related to Death or similar aspects like Souls or Pestilence.
Mordekaiser is no different. He’s a Revenant clad in heavy Black Iron, a darkened soul residing in the hollow shell of his armour with eyes formed of unholy witchfire burning in his helmet. His powers are unholy, desecrating and vile. He wields death and decay as a weapon and uses it to only further increase his battle prowess, wielding a heavy Metal mace in his right and black magic in his left gauntlet.
Conquest of Body and Soul Mordekaiser is a conqueror, in death more so than in life. He was a powerful warlord obsessed with conquering all of the known world, his bloody crusade not evens stopping when he was slain. Hurled on a pyre and burned to the bone he would only rise to continue his quest for dominance. Mordekaiser is relentless, his will to dominate and conquer the only driving force behind the colossal form of his. Every time he is banished from this realm he returns, just to continue his never-ending onslaught on the living.
This is Mordekaiser. He is personified Conquest, a rider of the Apocalypse. His humanity long lost to the ages, still he carries on, driven by his desire to dominate. He is Sauron, having poured all his malice and contempt into the vessel that is his wraith form. This is Mordekaiser’s main driving force, he’s an armoured Tyrant, sworn to eternal Conquest.
But his conquest reaches deeper than just territory and dominion. Oh no, he does not only destroy his enemies, he makes them serve HIM. He conquers their very soul, enslaving them to only follow his command. Servitude to Mordekaiser goes beyond a single human lifetime, it’s for all eternity, damnation and torment without end!
Metal Probably the most controversial theme Mordekaiser has going for him. He used to be THE Master of Metal. He was nothing but a walking, talking Metal reference. And it was great! For when League was still a very small game with over the top goofy characters and caricatures, but those days are over! Yet Mordekaiser and Metal go hand in hand like Vaynes and Toxicity.
A lot of people like Mordekaiser’s metal theme but Mordekaiser doesn’t necessarily have to be a Metal Mage to be “METAL”. Metal lyrics, in themselves, always tell of dark powers and unspeakably evil entities. Mordekaiser is the unholy being a lot of Metal songs sing of, almost every metal song has some “Mordekaiser” in it. Be Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Motörhead’s Orgasmatron, Dio’s Holy Diver or Black Sabbath’s Iron man. He is metal beyond the material, he is the very notion of Metal, and that itself is already enough.
Yet, we can go even beyond that! Mordekaiser’s signature Weapon is the mace “Nightfall”. No Mere tool to crush skulls, but imbued with his own malice and necromantic powers. It courses with dark energies and serves as a conduit of his power, and it is METAL. His Armour and Weapon can be seen as an extension of his power. Metal in itself can serve like a lightning rod, surging with Mordekaiser’s unholy power and amplifying it. If Metal were to remain important to his overall theme it should be in form of his using his ensorcelled Mace and Armour to amplify his spell’s destructive power, cracking his armour and using shards of metal to inflict torment and suffering on his enemies.
In the end, Mordekaiser’s Metal theme was what a lot of people are attached to and it should be preserved in a form that makes it something more than just a meme. He should be Metal by virtue of being a Dark Overlord, with his Armour and Weaponry being fused to his very being, an extension of his power.
This is by far the trickiest part of his Identity to deliver on, and if it does turn out to cause too many problems it should just remain in form of his Abilities being named after Metal songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoyToHOWSV8
The Ideal Mordekaiser
The Ideal Mordekaiser is a Champion that delivers on his themes not only on a visual standpoint but also through his abilities and playstyle. He’s the product of his Champion fantasy being brought to life through his kit, making the player really feel like the Unholy Revenant King he’s supposed to be
Juggernaut Fantasy
Mordekaiser is a Juggernaut. He’s a slow moving, high damage “Carry” who’s extremely tough to take down. A Raidboss, so to speak. As a Juggernaut he’s supposed to share their weakness and strength profile, which aligns perfectly with his Theme.
Lumbering , Slow and with little CC Mordekaiser is NOT someone who’d be running at you, dashing across the battlefield like some crazed Samurai.
He IS relentless, he is consistent on his approach. You can see him from miles away, his march of the damned not going to end until he reaches his destination: The enemy nexus.
As a Juggernaut he shouldn’t have any form of mobility and instead should just wade through the fires and flames and carve himself a path to victory. Just like Sauron in the LotR movie he’d be unmoving and relentless in his march, shrugging off incoming fire like it’s nothing, not being slowed down. His lore paints a very good picture of this, go read it!
http://68.media.tumblr.com/90be9efa777204b101cc5eb61a439ce0/tumblr_nw4jx0wJPN1u9p1xeo2_540.gif
This can be achieved by him having some form of effect to shrug off incoming CC, innate Tenacity so to speak. He SHOULD be slow, he’s a massive behemoth clad in heavy Iron Armor after all! Wouldn’t want him to run at the speed of light.
His approach would be telegraphed, yet if he does wade through your entire team you’d be feeling his wrath! As a Juggernaut he should not have an easy access to the backline but instead should be able to just march towards his prize.
Mace, Necromancy and Shredding Juggernauts are lethal, having tons of damage at their disposal and being able to take on almost anyone foolish enough to get into their way. Mordekaiser is no exception, his heavy Swings of his Mace being able to make even the toughest of enemies reel in pain as they are crushed by his immense might.
Juggernauts, in order to be impactful should not be restricted to dealing their damage in bursts or simply single target as they could simply be ignored and kited out. That’s where Mordekaiser’s sorcery comes into play.
His W in particular has always been one of his coolest abilities, creating a Vortex of metal shards and dark energies, radiating off his titanic form. His mere presence should be enough to corrupt even the purest of hearts, translating into the game through powerful melee-mid ranged AoE damage. But I’m digressing, I do NOT want to go into actual mechanics. In the end Mordekaiser should still deal a lot of damage as Juggernauts are valued for their mix of defences and powerful offensive abilities.
Ample Counterplay and Skill expression Mordekaiser is a really binary champion and doesn’t allow for a lot of skill expression as he’s extremely straight forward. This doesn’t mean that he should be Azir-levels of complex. But for a champion to be healthy there should be ways to play around them as it allows Riot to give them powerful abilities without making them overbearing. Mordekaiser SHOULD feel powerful and good Mordekaisers should be rewarded, yet the enemy shouldn’t feel completely helpless when playing against him, which sadly, is the case right now.
High impact abilities and meaningful counterplay makes or breaks champions. Rewarding Mordekaiser to play his cards right and giving his enemies options to outplay him IS needed to make Mordekaiser a healthy champion whole also giving him a higher skill ceiling.
In the end the Ideal Mordekaiser would basically be the Ideal Juggernaut. He’d be tough as nails, he’d be destroying the opposition as if it were nothing, yet, just like any Dark Lord he’d have his fair share of weaknesses. Giving Mordekaiser and his enemies more Agency over the game should be Riot’s main priority when working on his VGU while also making a lot of his themes be linked to his abilities.
The Ideal Mordekaiser would feel powerful, he’d make you feel like a Heavy Metal Juggernaut, A Revenant King living for eternal Conquest. He’d offer ways to outplay and be outplayed, yet when he does succeed it’ll feel great, and battling him would be akin to battling any Overlord; Abusing his weaknesses and anticipating his moves.
Closing Remarks
The last three reworks were some of the best I’ve ever seen, all three being champions that are dear to me. Watching them get their reworks and rekindling my love for them made me see why this approach to Reworks is the way to go. They introduce new mechanics while preserving the old themes of the champion, no, even EXPANDING on them. They give them high impactful, satisfying abilities that tie in with the character’s portrayal in the lore and truly deliver on their champion fantasy. You FEEL like you’re playing as them, the champions tell their stories through their Kit. Be it Warwick struggling to control his thirst for blood, Yorick trying not to succumb to the mist and trying to free the Isles or Galio’s honourable nature as the Magic-powered Protector of Demacia, they all make me feel like these champions are alive and not just random skills on a bland cookie-cutter kit.
Mordekaiser’s rework should be from the same vein. It needs to follow the same principles, bringing his Archetype to life through his kit, giving him all the skills befitting League’s Death Knight Overlord. He should tell his story through his gameplay, visuals and VO while also offering an unique experience in form of a solid kit. On a mechanical level he should finally have more Agency over the game while also being really rewarding when mastered. He should, in short, be the BEST he could be.
I have no doubts Riot will achieve this once they come to rework Mordekaiser. What I believe they should do is simple, and in order for Mordekaiser to be what he’s supposed to be, without shackling riot to trying to preserve a broken design, is:
To scrap everything about Mordekaiser and rebuild him from the ground up while delivering on his themes through gameplay. Champion Fantasy and how he FEELS like should be valued more than actual (current) gameplay mechanics.
I don’t need Mordekaiser to convert a portion of his damage dealt into a shield in order for him to be Mordekaiser as long as he FEELS like the champion I fell in love with!
-MM
http://origin.codemasters.com/img/uploads/1d8715dbc6abc156a703903e63fb28174854fa2d_crop1600x1200.jpg
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, it's something else he can be balanced around. The current kit is essentially "Do you do enough damage?" and the answer is whether or not you're useful. If you're not doing damage, you bring nothing else.
