My IGN is red side enjoyer#1337, my peak is Master 429LP.

Strengths +Easy to pick up +Good Mid to Late-Game +Powerful in low elo +Hard to take down +Deals notable damage +Good dueling

Weaknesses -Kiteable -Hard to pull off in high elo -Low skill ceiling -Weak without his Ultimate -Weak early

Always take Conqueror

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Everything Else

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Any other keystone than Conqueror rarely finds play on Mordekaiser, as none of them come close to the synergy that Mordekaiser has with Conqueror. Never take any other keystone if your goal is to win.

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Precision Tree

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The Precision Tree is the best one for Mordekaiser and should always be taken as the primary tree.

Triumph Triumph is inherently great on Mordekaiser, as it lets you dive better, 1v2 better and teamfight better. You should take Triumph over Absorb Life generally, unless you're up against a hard poke matchup. Legend: Haste While Legend: Alacrity can make laning easier, Legend: Haste will ultimately give you more damage as the game progresses and your Q's start hitting harder. It even gives you a bit more tankiness, since it also reduces your W cooldown.

Absorb Life Absorb Life is a decent rune for Mordekaiser and can be of help in the early game by providing you with sustain on top of your W consume. It makes some poke lanes easier to manage. Outside of poke lanes though, you should default to Triumph. Last Stand Mordekaiser makes very good use of Last Stand if he uses his Indestructible correctly, which is as soon as you got the max bonus from Last Stand, or in other words, at 30% HP. The maximum bonus of Last Stand is bigger than that of Coup de Grace and is granted for longer, so take Last Stand in most cases. The only time to take Coup de Grace in my opinion is when facing champions that get stronger as they get lower, such as Olaf or Warwick.

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Resolve Tree

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The Resolve Tree is the second best tree for Mordekaiser and should be taken secondary in most games.

Revitalize Take this rune in most of your games. Revitalize has beautiful synergy with Mordekaiser's kit. It gives you a significant bonus to your already big W shield when you are below 40% hp. It also amplifies your healing, which becomes quite meaningful in the late game. Conditioning Conditioning can be useful in "boring" matchups where you don't ever kill each other and just chill, take Singed as an example. It's also good in lanes where you are confident enough to win without Second Wind's sustain or Bone Plating's burst resistance. Most tank matchups can be easily won without these two. Overgrowth Overgrowth is an okay supplement to Mordekaiser's otherwise low base hp. I run Overgrowth quite rarely though, unless the enemy has alot of true damage, in which case it can be useful, but generally speaking, you will want to go with Revitalize instead of this. Demolish Demolish's value depends on how often you use it. You usually only have access to the enemy's turret if you are ahead of them or if they are missing, because you either killed them or they went roaming. So, take this rune if you are absolutely sure that you will stomp your opponent or if you know that your opponent will be roaming alot, like Shen or Quinn.

Bone Plating Bone Plating is a powerful rune for the laning phase that gives you a sometimes game-changing protection from an otherwise menacing short combo. Take it into champions that can't easily proc it from range, such as Jax, Sett, Darius, Renekton, Trundle and so on. Second Wind Second Wind is mostly useful in the laning phase and should be taken into poke lanes like Gnar, Teemo or Quinn. Don't shy away from using this rune into melee matchups aswell. Champions like Pantheon for example also like to poke you alot, even though he's melee. Shield Bash Shield Bash is a decent rune on Mordekaiser. It gives you a bit of extra tankiness while your W shield holds, and bonus damage on your next autoattack after shielding, which scales with the shield amount and your max hp. From my experience, it mostly helps you in short trades in the lane. With this rune, you can use the shield early, get the empowered auto and disengage after that. It works well into champions like Tryndamere, Gragas or Jayce, who like to short trade and chunk you. Unflinching Unflinching can be useful into teams that have alot of knock-ups. Since tenacity is useless against knock-ups, you might aswell be tanky while airborne. Still, it is usually outperformed by Revitalize's insane synergy with Mordekaiser.

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Sorcery Tree

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The Sorcery Tree is somewhat niche and should only be taken into teams that require more damage instead of tankiness. Against champions that excel at bypassing tankiness, like Vayne, Fiora or Darius, or champions that leech off of you, like Aatrox or Kayn in his red form, this tree can be useful. Aside from those, severely tanky comps also require damage more than tankiness. If you are unsure about which tree to go secondary, go with Resolve.

Transcendence Transcendence grants you bonuses to your ability haste as you level up. Less cooldown equals more damage. If you are opting for the Sorcery tree for more damage, you should always take this rune.

Gathering Storm Gathering Storm provides you with a gradually increasing amount of AP every 10 minutes. Straightforward damage as the game progresses. You should take this rune along with Transcendence in most cases, if damage is needed later on.

Summoner Spells

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You can take any combination of these 4, whichever seems most plausible for the enemy team and your lane matchup. Personally, though, I would stay away from the Ignite+ Teleport combination as it leaves you with zero mobility. On Mordekaiser, this will just make you a sitting duck waiting to be kited in most cases.

Flash Flash is usually pretty important on Mordekaiser as it lets you close gaps in an instant against ranged and kitey champions. It also lets you reposition your Q if you would have otherwise missed it. I take flash in most of my games.

Teleport Teleport is a generally good summoner spell that I take in most games. It's a bit like a get-out-of-jail-free card in the laning phase, letting you recall in awkward situations or letting you catch a wave that you otherwise would have missed. In the late game it arguably becomes even more powerful; whenever there is an objective or generally a fight coming up, you don't need to walk there or be there 30 seconds before just to be safe. Instead, you can farm and push waves on one side of the map, creating pressure, while still being able to join a fight on the other side of the map within 4 seconds.

Ignite Ignite makes you a menace to face in a duel. If you use ult and Ignite on a champion, you will most likely win the 1v1. It's particularly useful in the early game against champions that want to snowball off of you, such as Darius, Olaf, Warwick, Sett, Renekton, and so on. Ignite makes these lanes way more manageable. Its healing reduction is also useful.

Ghost Ghost is good in ranged matchups. It lets you run them down with ease and they will have a very hard time kiting you. It is also extremely powerful in teamfights.

Starting Items

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Doran's Ring Take Doran's Ring into every match-up with little to no poke or with poke where you can retaliate, meaning you can answer with a Q.

Doran's Shield Take Doran's Shield into enemies with poke where you cannot retaliate, such as most ranged matchups.

Early Rush Items

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Dark Seal Dark Seal is a very rewarding item to rush if you are winning your lane and are confident to continue doing so.

Plated Steelcaps Rush Plated Steelcaps aka Tabis against all Champions that deal most of their damage with Auto-Attacks. Perfect examples are Yone, Yasuo, Sett and so on.

Mercury's Treads Mercury's Treads are very effective against AP heavy or tank champions that have some sort of CC that can help them escape, such as Kennen, Ryze, Heimerdinger, Karma, Malphite, et cetera.

Bramble Vest Rush Bramble Vest against ad healing champions like Darius or Irelia.

Oblivion Orb Rush Oblivion Orb vs. ap or tank healing champions like Dr. Mundo or Vladimir.

Seeker's Armguard Currently, there are two matchups that practically force you to rush Seeker's Armguard. Those are Olaf and Tryndamere. Olaf, because you can activate seeker's during his ult to make it run out and significantly improve your chances of winning the duel. Tryndamere, because you can use it during his ult, since hitting him doesn't do anything and running from him is practically impossible. Build directly into Zhonya's Hourglass afterwards.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter Always rush this item if you are ahead and can reliaby fight your lane opponent. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is otherwise also an extremely powerful rush item if you are struggling to stick to a certain lane opponent. These may include most of the ranged matchups or just generally champions that have very reliable escapes, such as Singed, Gragas, Malphite, and so on. It also lets you kite other champions really well with the slow if needed. If you can't reliably fight your lane opponent, look into Liandry's Torment or Riftmaker. See below for which one to rush into which champions.

Liandry's Torment If you primarily need damage against your lane opponent, build Liandry's Torment. It really gives you alot of damage and should be built against champions that have backloaded or very consistent damage and thus need to be killed as quickly as possible, rather than tanked for longer periods of time. Examples would be Darius, Fiora, Aatrox, Illaoi or Jax.

Riftmaker If you primarily need tankiness against your lane opponent, go with Riftmaker. It's omnivamp helps you survive for longer and extend the fight. Build it into champions like K'Sante, Garen, Renekton or Urgot. As long as you survive their damage, you will win the fight.

Boots

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Note: You will want to go with either Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads in most games. The other boots listed here are fairly niche and should be avoided when in doubt.

Plated Steelcaps Plated Steelcaps are mostly good against auto-attackers and are almost a must-buy if the enemy ADC is fed.

Mercury's Treads Mercury's Treads are good into high magic damage and/or high cc comps. Do not underestimate the importance of tenacity. Getting stunlocked prevents you from using your W and your ult, most likely resulting in your death.

Boots of Swiftness Swifties are pretty underrated on Mordekaiser and can be very useful against teams with tons of slows or generally teams that like to kite you.

Sorcerer's Shoes Sorcerer's Shoes are a very niche buy on Mordekaiser. There are two scenarios that would warrant buying these: 1. The enemy has ways to ignore your tankiness, be that through true damage or %hp damage. 2. You are the only AP champion on your team, meaning the enemy isn't building any MR. Still, these boots are usually risky and should generally be avoided.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity CDR boots are also very niche and should only be built if no other boots come into question.

Core Items/Most Games

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Rylai's Crystal Scepter As already explained above, Rylai's Crystal Scepter gives you infinite sticking potential vs. champions without dashes; it essentially forces them to fight you for as long as you please and this is just priceless on Mordekaiser. Ranged champions can no longer kite you once your passive is activated. Pick it up as your first item if you are winning, otherwise as second.

Riftmaker Riftmaker is great on Mordekaiser and should be built pretty much in every game. The item perfectly compliments Mordekaiser's playstyle in all aspects.

Liandry's Torment Liandry's Torment is good at dealing tons of damage. The burn from this item adds up after a while, so build it if you need damage.

Zhonya's Hourglass Zhonya's Hourglass is another very strong item on Mordekaiser. It allows you to survive a lot of ugly situations. If you have this item, you can use your W early, then use Zhonya's after it breaks, and then use W again. Using W twice in one fight makes a hell of a difference and this item allows you to.

Anti-Heal

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Note: Try not to complete these items until the very end. You should usually just sit on the Bramble Vest/ Oblivion Orb for the healing reduction and build your other, more important, items first.

Morellonomicon Morellonomicon is good when you're against tanks or AP champions with strong healing.

Thornmail Thornmail is better if you are vs. ad healing champions.

Defensive Items

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Spirit Visage Spirit Visage is the best MR item for Mordekaiser. It synergizes very well with his massive shield, the consume heal, conqueror heal, riftmaker heal and maybe even heals and shields from your supporter.

Jak'Sho, The Protean Jak'Sho, The Protean is a good late item if the enemy has alot of damage in general and is even better if you already have an armor item and an mr item.

Force of Nature Build Force of Nature if you're up vs. an AP heavy team. Build it after Spirit Visage preferably.

Randuin's Omen Randuin's Omen can be very effective at dealing with a crit carry, like Jinx, Jhin, Yasuo, Tryndamere and so on. Against multiple crit champions in the enemy team it does even better.

Dead Man's Plate Dead Man's Plate can be very good against champions that are hard to catch up to. It's slow resistance can also come in handy against champions like Ashe or Anivia that like to slow you for longer periods of time.

Offensive Items

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Note: These items are very situational and are only useful in the specifically stated cases. Avoid them otherwise.

Hextech Rocketbelt Hextech Rocketbelt is a very underrated item that does really well against champions that want to keep a distance from you, for example Xerath, Hwei or Vel'Koz, or just generally champions that like to kite you. It gives you a dash that shoots out missiles to the front of you. These missiles trigger your Rylai's Crystal Scepter slow, which then allows you to hit your E with ease. This combo feels so illegal sometimes because the enemy usually feels safe when they have some distance to you but if you have this item, they are wrong.

Nashor's Tooth Nashor's Tooth is a situational item that can be built against champions that you struggle to 1v1 or that can easily dodge your spells, for example, champions like Bel'Veth or Riven are really good at dodging your stuff, so getting that point and click dps can be game-changing.

Mejai's Soulstealer I recommend not getting this item in most scenarios. It is good if you are very ahead and are sort of solo-carrying. Only get this item if you really need to snowball because your team is inting. Avoid dying at all costs if you build this item.

Cosmic Drive Cosmic Drive can be useful against champions that like to kite you but only get this item if Rylai's Crystal Scepter isn't enough and you are plenty ahead. Usually, you will be lacking damage and tankiness on Mordekaiser, so only get this item if you lack movement speed primarily.

Shadowflame Shadowflame is a very offensive item and should only be built either when ahead or if the enemy has lots of champions like Vayne or Kog'Maw, that are good at circumventing tankiness and that need to be oneshot instead of statchecked. Still, I would generally avoid this item, as you don't usually need to deal with these champions yourself and can just ult someone else.

Item Set

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If you want these items as a set ingame, you can copy this text and import it into your client:

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Early Game

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The laning phase decides the way your game plays out. Knowing when it's better to just stay back and miss some cs to avoid getting killed can be priceless.

Fake-Leash

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Fake-Leashing is the act of not showing on lane before 1:45 when your jungler started bot-side. This way, the enemy team cannot exclude the possibility of your jungler starting top-side. Of course, showing up late requires you to sacrifice some lane-prio. Usually, this sacrifice of lane-prio ends up not making much of a difference, because Mordekaiser sucks early on and your opponent will take control of the lane either way.

Pre-Level-3

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Mordekaiser's base stats are terrible and you skill your W at level 3, so you get one-shot before that. Pretty much everyone beats you in this stage, so play safe and don't get engaged on, otherwise you will probably lose half of your HP or more. You can use this stage to poke down your enemy with Q's to prepare for an all-in as soon as you hit level 3, but I recommend just getting as much CS as possible. Even better, if you can poke the enemy AND get CS, do it.

Levels 3-5

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You will still lose against most toplaners during these levels, unless you have poked them down enough. If your enemy is not that strong early-game or poked down, try for an all-in. If both is not the case, keep poking and farming from afar. You can go for trades but keep them short, your all-in is not that strong yet. Use the Basic Short Trade if the enemy comes close in this stage of the game. I have explained the Basic Short Trade in the Mechanics/Combos-Tab.

Post-6

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This is where you get really strong. Your Realm of Death makes you an insane duelist. You can 1v1 most toplaners at this point, so try forcing all-ins. Just make sure they are plenty poked down, since there are many toplaners that can escape you rather easily otherwise.

Consolidate your lead by...

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Freezing

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Freezing is an insanely effective method of consolidating a lead by starving out your opponent. If a freeze can be pulled off, it's really strong and should be done. Freezing requires 3 prerequisites. These include:

Your ability to freeze
Obviously, a freeze can only be pulled off if you know how and what a freeze even is. If you don't, a freeze is essentially a wave state where you have the waves crash into each other on your side of the lane and to keep the waves there by always having the enemy wave have 3 caster minions more.

You being stronger than your opponent
If your opponent is stronger than you, he will simply "thaw out" the wave by killing your minions and having them crash into your turret. This way the waves will reset and crash in middle of the lane again. If you are stronger than your opponent, you can punish them whenever they try to touch the wave/cs.

The wave state allowing it
You can only initiate a freeze if the enemy wave is pushing towards you. You can manipulate the wave to push toward you either by crashing multiple waves into the enemy tower with a slow push, or to briefly tank a reset wave in front of the enemy turret so that the waves crash on the opponents side of the lane. This will cause a slow push towards you.

The beauty of a freeze lies mostly in the fact that you are ungankable and if the opponent tries to even get xp, they will be prone to a gank. The only problem with freezing as Mordekaiser is that you risk breaking the freeze yourself if you bully the opponent. So, if you want to bully the opponent, be sure to always leave the wave first so you can hit them without hitting the wave, or all-in them, otherwise you will be left with a thawed out wave. If you kill them, hard shove the wave and back. When you are back to lane, the enemy wave will slow push into you again, allowing you to freeze once more.

Here's a diagram to better understand the wave state that is required for a freeze: (It's a bit older but it still applies)

Perma-Shoving

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This strategy is pretty simple and essentially consists of this: You hard-shove every wave under the enemy's turret and poke your oppponent with isolated Q's as they are farming the minions you just shoved. Once they are low enough, dive them, preferably using the E-R combo. This strategy has 2 prerequisites:

1. You are ahead/stronger than your opponent
In order to shove the waves, you obviously need to be stronger than your opponent, otherwise they will just kill you.

2. Your opponent does not have anti-poke/sustain or is too tanky
If your opponent can't be poked down low enough and just keeps sustaining your damage, you can't dive him. Similarly, tanky champions take way too long to reach an adequate amount of HP to be dove. These champions include most tanks, such as Ornn, Sion, Tahm Kench, Dr. Mundo or Cho'Gath. As an example for Champions that simply sustain your poke you can take Sett. In addition to all this, Champions that can CC you while you are poking them under turret are also immune to this strategy, as they can simply CC you, such as Darius' Apprehend, and have you take more damage than them or even kill you. If you are ahead against any of these kinds of champs, try freezing to press your lead.

If your opponent under turret ever just recalls and does NOT Teleport back, try getting at least one turret plating and make sure to clear one more wave, even if that means going behind the enemy turret to clear it.

Taxing Enemy Jungler

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If the previous 2 strategies (freezing and perma-shove) don't work, assuming you can't hold and/or initiate a freeze and your opponent can't be poked down under turret, you can simply slow push 2 waves into the enemy turret, then proxy one wave to buy yourself time to take camps from the enemy jungle. Of course, proxying a wave is risky and should only be done when ahead or when you are sure that the enemy jungler is not near. This is extremely crippling to the enemy jungler and will require your enemy laner to give up the 2 waves you just pushed into his turret in order to protect his junglers camps. Obviously, in order to do this you need to be stronger than your lane opponent (in order to push the waves) and the enemy jungler (in order to fight him in case he happens to be there).

Taking Voidgrubs

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If you have lane prio, your jungler is topside and grubs are up, feel free to take them. Make sure to shove the wave before you do that, though.

After Killing your Lane Opponent

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Generally after you kill your opponent, you want to shove the wave to make your opponent lose cs and to have the wave push toward you as you come back to lane and guarantee the enemy toplaner to not be able to fully shove it, so that you can set up a freeze and consolidate your lead. In this case, you want to always try to come back to lane at the same time as our opponent, to not allow them to shove before you arrive, as this would cause the wave to reset. For this, we need to simply recall when the opponent's death timer is at 8 seconds or more. This will guarantee for both to return to lane at roughly the same time. All this, though, does not apply when you are making use of the "Perma-Shove" Strategy. Here, a reset wave doesn't really bother you, as you will just be shoving it again, so you can get more platings, as long as the opponent is not there. Also, if you are ever really ahead, what you can do is, after you kill your opponent, shove the wave and walk into the lane bush closest the opponents turret. This will make them think you recalled, but in reality you were just waiting for them to come back. When they walk past you, just kill them again.

Game Plan

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Generally, and simply put, your game plan as Mordekaiser will be to look for fights whenever your ult is up, and push sidewaves whenever your ult is down. You are painfully weak without your ult and should not even bother fighting unless you're super ahead.

Objective Macro

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If you didn't take Teleport or it's on cooldown, always be early to the drake fight. Try being there at least 15 seconds before drake spawn. Prio and vision control around the pit is important. If you have TP, push out the top wave before TP'ing to drake.

With Baron Nashor, being a little late to the fight is usually not an issue since the enemy team can't rush Nash as quickly as Dragon. As with Dragon, try pushing the wave on the opposite side of the map before then TP'ing to Nash, if it's available.

Teamfighting

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Teamfighting with Mordekaiser is fairly straightforward.

Before the fight
Before anything happens, choose your preferred ult target. I've explained the process in the Ability Usage-Tab.

Engaging
You can be the one to engage, but I would strongly advise against it. Your only "Engage"-Ability is your E, if you can even call it that. Your E, though, is not reliable at all and will most likely not hit more than 2 people. If, though, you can be sure to hit at least 3 people with an E, definitely go for it. If you absolutely need to be the one to engage and are not sure to hit E, chances are you won't be able to ult your preferred target, as you will have to immediately ult someone to not be oneshot.

Fighting
If your team has an engage, just walk to your target and ult. If your target is not already in your melee range, use the E-R Combo. If you don't know, what the E-R Combo is, look it up in the Mechanics/Combos-Tab. If both teams are even, the result of the teamfight depends heavily on you killing your target in Brazil. If you don't, you're basically hoping that your team wins the 4v4. Also, if you do kill your target inside Brazil the fight will turn into a 5v4 in your favor. After leaving Brazil, always try to E the backline if it still exists. They are the only ones that can bring you down. If you hit, try killing the enemy you hooked. If you miss your E or there is no backline, just fight the people in front of you and try surviving for as long as possible.

Farm, Farm, Farm!

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Keep up your CS! Even if that means taking some jungle camps. CS is the biggest and most reliable source of gold, and can sometimes even bring you ahead of someone with many kills if they are not farming too well themselves. For this reason I heavily recommend taking Teleport in most of your games. It lets you cs way more and you don't have to worry about walking to any fights on the other side of the map, since you can just tp. If you are ever moving somewhere, always make sure to take CS there, or get at least 1 kill, otherwise moving there will be wasted. Rule of Thumb is to never go below 7CS per minute.

Keep up in XP!

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Arguably even more important than your gold, especially when considering that Mordekaiser has a few level scalings in his kit itself, so make sure you are NEVER behind in levels. The stats a champion gets with one level is roughly equal to one kill or two waves worth of gold. When you are ahead in levels, you feel like a raid boss. Equally, when you are behind, you feel useless.

Q - Obliterate | Positioning

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Isolating Q

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As you already know, your Q deals 160% damage if it hits only 1 enemy. When fighting near or inside minions, try aiming your Q so that it hits only the enemy champion. Not only will this deal more damage to your enemy, but also will you not push the wave this way. Depending on your game plan, this will be a huge benefit.

Free Q Hits in Lane

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Whenever you see your opponent going for a last hit you can get a free Q hit on them during their attack animation.

W - Indestructible | Timing

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Timing in short vs. long trades

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In a long trade/all-in make sure to ALWAYS use your max shield. If not, it's wasted potential and it often makes the difference in early fights. Short trades are different. If you try to go for the max shield in a short trade, chances are you won't even get to use it until the trade is already over. So, try using it as you are still fighting, without laying too much value on getting the max shield. Obviously, you need to make sure to NOT carry it over into a long trade if your shield was too small. Another thing to keep in mind is to only go for short trades if your shield is already at least half full, otherwise it will take too long to stack up, and the enemy will just deal their damage and get out before you get a good shield.

Early to Mid-Game

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On Mordekaiser, you will be taking Last Stand. If you shield at around 30% HP, you gain the most out of Last Stand because it will be active for longer than if you use W any earlier. This only applies to all-in fights.

Using W twice with Zhonya's

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If you have Zhonya's Hourglass, you can use your W shield early in the fight. After it breaks, use Zhonya's. Afterwards, use W again.

Consuming W

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If you can know for sure that a fight won't be happening for the next 8-ish seconds, you can consume your W shield for healing.

E - Death's Grasp | Come Here!

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Normal Usage

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The normal usage of your E is to obviously bring people closer to you so you can beat the **** out of them. It's hitbox is pretty thin and it's cast time is rather slow, making it hard to hit.

Placement

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As you might already know, your E works like this: It gets spawned on the ground and a hand swipes from top to bottom. Enemies only get dragged if they are hit by the hand, meaning that the further away they are from the top of your E, the easier it will be for them to dodge it. If you want to increase its chance of hitting, place the top of your E as close to your opponent as possible while also excluding the possiblitly of them escaping towards the top of it.

The E Self-Peel

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Many already know this one but most of the players execute it the wrong way, by having their cursor too far ahead of Mordekaiser when using E. This often leads to the E not even hitting the champion that is chasing them. For those who don't know, as you are running away from someone, you can plant your Death's Grasp right in front of you so that it essentially spawns below you. The enemy chasing you will either have to walk back or get pulled back, both resulting in you getting away from them. Higher skill level players will expect you to do this, so they will try to chase beside you. When they do this you can try to place the E on the side he is running.

Here's how it looks: Play Video

R - Realm of Death | Brazil

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Usages of Ult

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To win the 1v1
The most obvious reason. You steal 10% of your targets stats and gain those stolen stats, effectively becoming 20% stronger than your target. Some champions, such as Trundle, also have a stat stealing gimick, just like Mordekaiser. It is preferable to steal their stats after they steal yours, so that you gain some of the stolen stats back.

Common Misconception:
The description of Realm of Death says 10% of the target's CORE stats. This leads many to believe that Mordekaiser is simply stealing their BASE stats, meaning the stats they would have without any items or runes, only from levels. THIS IS FALSE. In this context, CORE stats stands for a select few stats, which include Attack Damage, Ability Power, Max Health, Armor, Magic Resist and Attack Speed, of which 10% of their TOTAL value is stolen, NOT their BASE values or BONUS values.

Effectively, what this means is that whenever you are fighting an enemy that has some form of stat boost in their ultimate, such as Renekton, Nasus or Volibear, ulting them AFTER they have used ult gives you an advatage over ulting before them, as you steal part of the stats they gained from ulting.

To remove other champions/To make a X>1 vs. 1 a 1vs1
Also fairly obvious. Better to fight 2 1v1s than to fight a 1v2.

To stop the enemy's retreat
Your target cannot walk outside the bounds of the Realm of Death, so he can't run away from you.

To save a teammates life/To peel
When you see the fed Kha'Zix jump onto your ADC, ult him and save your ADC's life.

To deny the enemy jungler from smiting/stealing an objective
If you ult the enemy jungler before the objective's health bar drops to around 2000 HP, you effectively guarantee your team to get said objective, as he can no longer interact with it inside the Realm of Death.

Understanding Death Realm Arena spawn position

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When you cast Realm of Death, there is a pattern to where the border of the Death Realm will spawn relative to you. It will always spawn in such a way that Mordekaiser is in the first third of the circle, with his back facing the closest wall. Here is a minimalistic image drawn in MS Paint to help you understand (the white circle is the border of the Death Realm):How can we use this information efficiently? If possible, try to ult your enemy so that the border spawns in such a way that they cannot escape you. This, for example, is done by ulting the enemy when he is between you and a wall, or your turret. Now, the border will spawn in a way that forces the enemy to run into your turret or into a wall if they were to run away. This essentially forces them to fight you.

Choosing Ult Target in Teamfights

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Choose the target that has the most priorities checked without skipping any from top to bottom.

1st Priority
Your target needs to be useful to the enemy team. Your ultimate is essentially wasted if you use it on the 0/17 Nunu that has been rolling it down mid the entire game. Ulting the Diana, for example, who is really good at teamfighting, would be way more effective.

2nd Priority
You should be able to kill your target in the Realm of Death, otherwise they get out.

3rd Priority
You should be able to reach the target/catch up to them. If the target jumps over a wall or perma kites you, you will not be able to kill them unless you have Flash.

With that said, ulting the enemy carry and simply trying to survive them for as long as possible (preferably with Zhonya's) can often be the deciding factor of a teamfight. Imagine a 10/0 Viego that wants to trample your team but can't because he is stuck with you in your ult. Outside of the death realm, chances are you team is actually winning the fight because you removed the enemy carry.

Ult Timing

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Make sure to time your ult in such a way that makes full use of its duration. Immediately ult if you think that the fight will go on for 7 seconds or less. If you ult a tank that is full hp, chances are you won't kill them before your ult runs out, often allowing them to escape. On the other hand, you should also not wait too long to ult someone, since, if you're too low, the enemy can usually kill you quickly. Half of the stats you steal are defensive, after all.

Fighting inside your Ultimate

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Note: Always assume the enemy you ulted has Flash up, unless you specifically know that they don't.

If your target is actively fighting you inside the Realm of Death:
Nothing to add to the usual fighting, just fight like you would fight outside.

If your target is running from you inside the Realm of Death:
Do NOT use your E as your target is running from you, you will miss it 90% of the time. The target is going to expect you to throw your E and run in a wavy line. Instead, use your Q; it is much easier to hit on a wiggling enemy. Save your E for when they are running after you already activated your passive.

Regarding Mechanics and Combos, Mordekaiser does not have much to offer, there are a few mentionable ones, though.

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E-Q Combo vs. Q-E Combo

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Most Mordekaiser players always use the E-Q combo, which is not bad, but the Q-E combo is better in some situations and here's why:

1. The Q-E Combo is faster

Assuming you start walking toward your opponent after you've hit the first spell of your combo, you can start walking after Q'ing because your E does not need you to stand still. In the E-Q combo, after hitting E you would still have to stand still once again because of your Q. Additionally, Your Q ending frames overlap with the beginning frames of your E.

2. The Q-E Combo is easier to land

People do not expect you to throw your E right after your Q, making it easier to hit. When you are chasing someone, they will expect you to use your E first and we all know that hitting your E is practically impossible when they know you will be using E. Your E is harder to hit than Q because of its long cast time and thinner hitbox. If you Q them first, which will more probably hit than E, they will reveal their dodge pattern or maybe not even try dodging anything else afterwards, thinking you do not have E up, because if you did, you would have used it first, making it easier to hit E.

When is E-Q better?

If the enemy you are intending to hit is not within your Q range, forcing you to E first in order to be able to hit Q.

Watch the 2 combos in-game and decide for yourself:

Q-E: Play Video
E-Q: Play Video

Is the opponent running from you in wavy lines?

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Everytime they do this it seems like you can't hit any spells, and that's exactly why we won't use any spells. Them running in a wavy line makes them slower, allowing you to catch up to them and AA them until they notice that their strategy isn't working and will start running from you in a straight line again. Now you can hit your spells.

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Basic Short Trade

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In the laning phase, especially early, this combo will come in handy if you only want to Q-E-AA without extending the fight further. It consists of Q'ing the enemy, then using your E behind you so that it pulls the enemy away from you. While your E is still on the ground, autoattack the enemy. This will guarantee the enemy to be pulled away and to not be able to extend the fight. Use this combo vs. early game powerhouses like Darius, Trundle, Sett, Warwick, and so on, that you would rather not fight for longer. Play Video

You can also choose to auto-attack first: Play Video

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The E-R Combo

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If you are fighting a fast champion post-6 that makes it hard to hit E, use the E-R combo to guarantee it to land.

Why does it guarantee the E to land?
Your R has a 0.5 second cast time, during which the target is slowed by 75%. If you immediately R someone after planting your E right below them, it is practially impossible for them to dodge it. This is obviously ineffective vs. champions with dashes.
Play Video

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R-Flash

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If you Flash early enough during your ult animation, you can cleverly manipulate the position of the ult border in your favor and prevent the enemy from escaping. The way the border spawns is explained in the Ability Usage Header in the Realm of Death header.

Here's how it looks: Play Video

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Q-Flash

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Most will know this already, but you can Flash in the middle of Obliterate's animation to extend its range or correct an otherwise missed Q. This interaction, however, does not behave like most [Ability]-Flash combos: After flashing, your Q will not retain its original direction, but rather its original aim location, which you need to keep in mind when making use of it. This will lead to some very weird looking interactions. The only good scenario I can think of where the functionality of this interaction actually benefits you is when someone throws an important skillshot at you while you are Q'ing and it looks like you will hit the Q. This way you can flash somewhere else, with that location still being in range for hitting Q. You would stand somewhere else but still hit Q and you dodge the skillshot.

Q-Flash Interaction: (Watch the cursor closely) Play Video

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Masking R Animation with Q

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"Masking" might not be the most accurate word to describe it but it is applicable to some extent. This mechanic is mostly used against a champion that has a spell that briefly makes them unstoppable or gain a spell shield, such as Ornn, Volibear, Kled, Nocturne, Fiora or Sivir. Your R animation hast a cast time of 0.5 seconds, which allows for the enemy to cast their CC-Immunity spell right before your R goes through, putting it on cooldown without actually going through. Most players don't expect you to R right after Q so they won't be as alert.

Note:
This interaction does not guarantee your opponent to not cancel your R, however it can increase its chance to go through.

Here's how it looks in-game: Play Video

Greetings! You, yes, you. Thank you so much for reading my Mordekaiser Mobafire guide! I've put alot of work into this, so I hope you found this guide helpful and learned a few things. If you did, make sure to give this guide an upvote, it would mean the world to me. If you didn't like this guide, please let me know why and I will try to improve it in that regard. Have a nice day and good luck in your SoloQ games! Also, feel free to ask me any questions in the comments, I usually answer within a day.