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Mordekaiser Build Guide by Rhoku

Top [S11] Iron Stands Eternal! Ω Rhoku’s Morde Guide

Top [S11] Iron Stands Eternal! Ω Rhoku’s Morde Guide

Updated on November 3, 2021
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Rhoku Build Guide By Rhoku 241 15 617,189 Views 29 Comments
241 15 617,189 Views 29 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Rhoku Mordekaiser Build Guide By Rhoku Updated on November 3, 2021
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Runes: Aggressive (Conqueror is always best)

1 2 3
Precision
Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Tenacity
Last Stand

Domination
Taste of Blood
Ravenous Hunter
Bonus:

+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2 3
Default
LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

LoL Summoner Spell: Teleport

Teleport

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None


I am
I've been a League of Legends player ever since the 6th Season, with me maining and learning the game through Darius. Right now I am a Darius Onetrick with Mordekaiser being my reliable second pick. My main is usually somewhere in Master/Grandmaster on the EUW server. I have peaked high Master before the end of Season 9 after which point I could no longer play properly due to my PC being broken. Season 10 I played well for a bit more than the first month and peaked Top 400 (almost Challenger). At the moment, I constantly swap between accounts but I will be making the run for high elo again. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask me through the Discussions section of this guide, through private messages on MobaFire, through my stream or through any of my socials which I will link below.


I do not wish to claim that I am some amazing high elo god by putting my opgg and all these plays here. I simply want to provide SOME credibility to this guide. Know that you are receiving advice from a person with enough game knowledge to give you good advice. Though I am more so known for my Darius, Mordekaiser has been my secondary pick ever since he was reworked and I am able to play him at a high level due to how similar the two champions are. I've seen cases where someone picks Mordekaiser, thinking he is an easy champ to play, only for them to fail miserably as they don't know a thing about the character. Mordekaiser is not the most difficult champion ever but you do need extensive knowledge of the matchups and whatnot in order to play him effectively. Learning Mordekaiser gives you a very powerful pick for Toplane.

Be sure to check out my Darius Guide as well!


If you wish to add me ingame, here are my usernames:
Rhόku(EUW)
Rhoku(EUW)
King Rhoku(NA)
very creative aren't they

For now, I exclusively play on the EUW server. I have an NA smurf but I am not actively playing on it at the moment. I apologise if I am rude to you. I am sometimes just tilted. However, do not let that discourage you from asking any question that you might have. I really enjoy teaching newer Darius players. You are also free to add me if you want to download some of my games. I will be playing more seriously once the season starts.


Youtube


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgFs4nq79tvdbFtAkthvSQ

Here is my Youtube Channel. I don't have a regular schedule at all, as I only put videos on there when I can be bothered to make them. I'll mostly be uploading plays, guides and memes. Right now I only have Darius videos up but I’ll try to make a Mordekaiser guide soon. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Twitch


https://www.twitch.tv/rhokutv

Here is my Twitch account. I stream there every now and again and I have linked it to this guide so you will know whenever I am live. At that point, feel free to come on and ask me questions live at any point in time. I stream mostly around midnight GMT.


Twitter


https://twitter.com/rhokutv

A while ago I was talked into opening a Twitter account so here it is. I mostly just post low quality Darius memes, make unfunny/rude jokes and screw around with my friends. If this method is convenient for you, then feel free to DM me on there.
If you are sensitive to certain topics/dislike edgy humour, then I suggest not visiting my Twitter.


Discord


https://discord.gg/QYZqT3b

Here is the Discord Channel for my stream where all of my content will be announced. I will always be on there all the time so you may contact me through there as well. I'd like to see you come and be a part of the community I am trying to build.
These are all the socials that I check regularly. I'd link more but honestly, some are just a waste of time as I am almost never on. Enough about me then. Let us begin.


Pros


+ Can deal incredible amounts of damage.
+ Difficult to kill due to his tankiness.
+ Very powerful around objectives.
+ Guarantees 1 person’s death on the enemy team.
+ Unkillable monster when ahead.
+ Snowballs incredibly hard and scales better than most bruisers
+ Can easily come back into the game. Useful when behind due to his ultimate

Cons


- Immobile and Very Easy to kite.
- Missing E can sometimes mean certain death in some lanes.
- Though his scaling is decent, it gets very difficult to 1v1 lategame champions even in Death Realm.
- Very difficult to play vs better elo toplaners. Q and E can be difficult to lane sometimes.
- Not a good tank. Has bad peel.
- Misusing W will lose you matchups.
- Some matchups are a nightmare to deal with.

PASSIVE ABILITY
DARKNESS RISE


♦︎ Mordekaiser's basic attacks deal 40% AP Magic damage bonus magic damage on-hit.

♦︎ Damaging abilities or basic attacks grant 1 stack per enemy champion or large monster hit, up to a maximum of 3. At 3 stacks, Mordekaiser gains Darkness Rise for 4 seconds. Further basic attacks and abilities against enemy champions and large monsters refresh the duration.

♦︎ DARKNESS RISE: Mordekaiser deals 5 − 15.2 (based on level) (+ 30% AP) (+ 1% − 5% (based on level) of target's maximum health) magic damage per second to all nearby enemies and gains 3% bonus movement speed. The damage against monsters is capped at 28 − 164 (based on level).

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ Darkness Rise is a very strong passive and is a large portion of Mordekaiser’s DPS, especially later on into the game due to how well it scales. It is also a great way to deal with tanks as it helps wither them away. The movespeed on this item is also really important in keeping up with more slippery champions. There aren’t many tricks there is to know about this ability. You just need to land your abilities and activate it. Just know that if you fail to activate your passive in a fight, you won’t be having a good time.

Q
OBLITERATE

♦︎ Mordekaiser smashes the area in the target direction, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit, increased if it hits only one enemy.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ Obliterate is your main source of damage to both champions and minions. It lets you poke your opponents due to its good range and, in more difficult matchups, missing it can sometimes be the greenlight that your opponent needs to go in for a trade. So try not to miss it.
♦︎ When using it in lane, try to position it in a way so that you get the solo damage in order to maximize your damage. If you have no other choice but to hit minions, try to hit as little as possible when using it on your opponent. Pre-6, you are VERY vulnerable to ganks so try not to brainlessly shove your lane.
♦︎ The hitbox is actually a little bit bigger than how it appears. Mordekaiser himself kinda counts as part of the hitbox too, so sometimes when you are DIRECTLY on someone, the Q will land anyway unless the enemy is a sidestepping god.
♦︎ You can Flash in the middle of the Q. This is very good to know, as most people won’t react to a Flash Q. It is a very good way of killing an enemy under turret. Another thing you can do is have the Q land and Flash away in the middle of the animation in order to get yourself out of a stickier situation. Don’t be afraid to Q over walls too.

W
INDESTRUCTIBLE


♦︎ Mordekaiser stores 35% of damage he deals and 15% of damage he takes, reduced by 75% against non-champion sources, as Potential Shield on his secondary resource bar, up to 30% of his maximum health. The Potential Shield decays by 8 − 25 (based on level) every second after not dealing or taking damage for 1 second, down to a minimum of 5% of his maximum health.
♦︎ ACTIVE: Mordekaiser consumes all his current Potential Shield to shield himself for 4 seconds for the same amount. At start the shield decays very slowly but exponentially increases near the end. After 0.25 seconds he can recast the ability.
♦︎ RECAST: Mordekaiser consumes the remaining shield, Heal power healing for a percentage of the amount

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ Indestructible is often times wasted and neglected but its proper usage separates the good Mordekaiser's from the bad. You ideally want to use it in all ins when it is at its maximum and you do NOT want to use it when you are standing in a position when you can be all inned. A few champions that struggle when fighting you can actually beat you quite easily if you do not have your W to back you up. And you have low cooldowns so try not to waste it when you are on autopilot. It is still not bad to spam it for HP when you are poked down in a bad matchup. Just don’t waste it before it gets to a point where you’ll need it.

E
DEATH'S GRASP


♦︎ PASSIVE: Mordekaiser gains magic penetration.

♦︎ ACTIVE: After 0.5 seconds, Mordekaiser pulls enemies in the targeted area for 250 units, dealing magic damage.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ You really don’t wanting to be missing this ability as it is the difference between being kited to death like a dog or getting on someone for a chance to kill them. Especially vs annoying ADCs that have a lot of mobility.
♦︎ His E does damage on its own so you can use it as a finisher on low HP targets that are out of your range or even to steal objectives.
♦︎ Sometimes, you can use your E to pull people over walls. But this is hard to do due to how slow the E is.
♦︎ You can use your E closer to yourself. A good trick you can do, is to use your E backwards but on yourself, so that whoever is chasing you gets knocked backwards.
♦︎ It is vital to combo it with your Q and then an auto attack to instantly trigger your passive.

R
REALM OF DEATH


♦︎ ACTIVE: Mordekaiser slows the targeted enemy champion by 75% for 0.5 seconds. If the target is still in range and targetable by the end of the duration they're banished together with Mordekaiser to the Death Realm for 7 seconds.
♦︎ Units between realms see each other as spirits, considering each other dead and negating any interactions between the two. Only the target and Mordekaiser will enter the realm; other champions cannot follow them. Everything that occurs inside the Death Realm is hidden, and all non-champion pets still inside are destroyed at the end.
♦︎ For the same duration, Mordekaiser also reduces the target's current attack damage, ability power, total attack speed, maximum health, armor, magic resist, and size by 10%, in addition to gaining them for himself. If Mordekaiser kills his target while inside, he keeps their partial stats until they respawn.
♦︎ If one of the two affected champions leave the Death Realm, because of having died or having it dispelled, the other will do so as well, but the stats will remain stolen for the full duration.

Tips & Tricks

♦︎ This is a very powerful ability for Mordekaiser and proper usage of it is really key. This ability has so many uses and can be used to outplay so well. The limit is essentially your imagination.
♦︎ You mostly wanting to be using this ability to target a fed enemy champion that is going to be a problem for your team, taking them into the Death Realm and taking care of them.
♦︎ You can use the ability in order to keep the enemy jungler from smiting the objective, allowing for your jungler to get an easy smite.
♦︎ You can use the ability to ult a fed enemy champion as a way to peel them off of your backline.
♦︎ Your ultimate will be VERY useful in 2v1s as it lets you have 2 1v1s instead, which is significantly easier to win and is very doable if you play it right.
♦︎ Another trick is to use your ultimate to outplay abilities. Basically, if anything has a travel time(skillshot) or any champion spawns something in the normal world(ghouls, tibbers etc.), or uses some kind of lingering AOE ability (Rumble R, Singed W)ulting them will lead to both of you leaving the normal summoners rift, letting you avoid that ability/spawn. Ulting Yorick once he summons Maiden lets you fight him solo and wind hard for example. Ulting Cassio while in her Miasma will free you from it as it will not come with you into the death realm.

FLASH
Flash is vital on Mordekaiser. It makes you a threat to the enemy backline, it saves your life when you get caught which will be often as an immobile champion and it allows you to outplay your opponents in lane and in almost every situation. Not taking Flash is a very bad idea.
Teleport
Teleport is a great summoner spell for most toplaners and Mordekaiser is no exception. It lets you comeback into lane from ganks, it lets you go back to base for quick buys, stop the minions in a favorable position and make cross map plays to impact botlane which Mordekaiser is very good at. It is overall the best summoner spell to take with Flash

Ignite
Ignite is a very aggressive summoner spell that you want to take if you want to win your lane and snowball. It actually makes a lot of your difficult matchups like Darius and Kled very doable, as the Ignite helps you quite a bit. It is very risky though and it doesn’t scale too well, meaning that if you don’t win lane with Ignite, you are screwed.

Ghost
Though as a Darius player I love Ghost and use it for fun on Mordekaiser too, Ghost is actually not the worst choice for Morde. If you are up against ranged laners that are killable and a team that can kite you very well, Ghost will actually help you a lot in teamfights. It is like taking Ignite but for teamfights. You will be weaker in lane but if you survive and get your 2-3 items, you will be a serious teamfight threat, ESPECIALLY with how the new Ghost resets on kill.


Primary Tree




Precision

Precision offers you power in many areas that other trees simply cannot compare against. It is so good that by taking anything else, you are losing out. For Keystones, Conqueror allows you to scale much better and be a lot stronger in all fights. It also is vital a lot of the time early game to the point where if you are fighting someone with Conqueror when you yourself don’t have Conqueror, you are at a disadvantage. It, when combined with other healing runes, will give you a considerable amount of spell vamp which, on top of your shield, makes you very tough to kill.



There is no debate or question over which one is the best here. The other runes don’t work and Triumph is honestly the most powerful rune in the game if you don’t count keystones.
For the most part, you want to go for Tenacity. You do not need attack speed or lifesteal. And as an immobile juggernaut, CC will be your worst enemy.
Take Last Stand as it is MUCH better. It increases your damage so much more than Coup de Grace. I’ve had points where I’ve had thousands of more damage given to me by this rune. And all that extra damage translates into more shields, more lifesteal and etc.


Secondary Tree




Domination

Taste of Blood is very good for Mordekaiser. The long range of his Q lets him use it for sustain within lane. The amount of HP gained scales with AP as well which means it scales to a degree. It is mostly important in lane though.
Ravenous Hunter, combined with Conqueror, makes you a healing monster that lets you heal up quite a bit in fights. It also lets you heal off of minion waves while clearing them which is very useful. Though your abilities being aoe makes it not heal so much, it does ramp up once you get it stacked off of a single teamfight to the point where your healing becomes insane. Domination is definitely the way to go if you are playing aggressively.





Resolve

You mostly want Bone Plating here. It does well into the champions Mordekaiser does badly against. Second Wind is an option but Bone Plating is definitely the way to go. Try not to get poked and have it be easily dealt with though.
Revitalize is the go to here. It buffs your shields and your healing which gives you much more sustain. And into combat lanes, the 15% boost in shield will comein handy when low HP.




Sorcery

Nimbus Cloak is very fun for Mordekaiser. This basically lets you just run up to people with the movespeed it provides and it lets you basically catch people in your Rylai slows, even if you miss E. Definitely a great combo with Ghost and Ignite as they have lower cooldowns.
Overall, you mostly want to go for Celerity out of these three if you want to have all of your movespeed amplified. Mordekaiser can benefit quite a bit from this rune if you are running Ghost. With no mobility spells, you will mostly be relying on superior movespeed to catch up to people.



Stats



You mostly want to go this setup as the Armor will also be helping you against the a lot of the bruisers and fighters Toplane. You can change it to MR if you need to fight AP opponents.



STARTING ITEMS


Doran’s Shield
Doran's Shield essentially good into every matchup. Doran's Shield works well into unfavorable matchups that trade well into you, and is DESIGNED to fight ranged toplaners which is when you should be buying it. Just do not buy this item later on in the game, as it is just a waste of money.

Doran’s Ring
Doran's Ring is the item you want to take if you are confident in your lane, are good at Mordekaiser and/or need the early stats to fight your lane opponent. Doran's Ring is great if you are planning to be aggressive. You lose out a bit due to not having any Mana but it gives you AP to work with AND it lets you buy an extra health potion.

Health Potion
You want to be buying Health Potions with whatever money you have left. They are pretty self explanatory. Just make sure that you do not waste them. A common mistake is spamming the Health Potions the second you take damage which only wastes them. A good guideline that I personally use is to take them only when I am below 60% HP IF my enemy laner can exploit my low health AND if I am not planning on going back to base soon. If you find yourself buying a lot of health potions, consider picking up a refillable potion in your first back.

FIRST BACK


Refillable Potion
Refillable Potion. This item is not mandatory by any means. I personally get it semi often. It gives me an extra bit of health that is useful when I take bad trades. If you have spare gold, pick one up and try it out to see how you like it.

Control Ward
Control Wards are vital. You should be helping your team out and also yourself out with vision, as doing so leads to you knowing better where the enemy jungler is and adapting your playstyle off of it.

Blasting Wand
Blasting Wand is Mordekaiser’s strongest first back item. If you get a kill or if you manage to get quite a bit of farm, Blasting Wand will be very powerful as it gives you a lot of AP to work with. It also builds into both Rylai’ and Liandry's which are both core items for Mordekaiser.

Amplifying Tome
Amplifying Tome is what you want to stock up on if your first back is weak. Tome + Boots and a Control Ward for instance, is a very solid first back. It also builds into both Haunting Guise and Seeker's Armguard which are incredibly powerful early purchases in lane. Get Tome with Ruby Crystal or with Cloth Armor depending on which one you are planning on rushing. Otherwise, if you have the gold to spare, Blasting Wand is the much bigger first back powerspike.

Ruby Crystal
Ruby Crystal is a good item to pick up on first back if you are going for Haunting Guise or a Protobelt Rush. It also builds into Rylai which makes it a nice pick up to have. Only get it if you are rushing something though. Otherwise, armor or mr are better stats to have on their own.

Cloth Armor
Cloth Armor is a mandatory pickup into the more difficult lanes. Kled, Darius and etc, all require Cloth Armorto survive in. It builds into Seeker's Armguard and Ninja Tabi which are amazing armor items that can make you tanky enough to win essentially. And if you do die in lane, you want to beef up ASAP.

Boots of Speed
Picking up an early Boots is great. It lets you kite better. It lets you stick to enemy champions better and it allows for you to dodge skillshots much more easily. I love being able to move around so I usually pick it up on my first back. Doing so also allows me to more quickly upgrade it into one of the two very powerful upgrades.

EARLY RUSH


Haunting Guise
Haunting Guise is probably the strongest rush item you can get. It synergises immensely well with Mordekaiser AND it builds into one of his strongest items, Liandry's Torment. If you are winning your lane hard and want to snowball, then rush this item and get your core ASAP.

Seeker's Armguard
Seeker's Armguard is a very powerful early rush item. You pretty much NEED it into all of the difficult AD matchups that are giving you trouble. This item is underutilised. It is VERY strong so make sure to get it ASAP if you are having a tough time. You don’t need to complete Zhonya’s immediately. Just buy it and keep it as it is until you get your core items.

Ninja Tabi
Ninja Tabi are amazing. They essentially work into every AD matchup in the book. And into some, it is mandatory. Kled, Jax and Jayce are great examples of champions that you need Tabis against if you do not want to be destroyed. Ninja Tabi give you a decent bit of armor but the passive is what makes this item shine. The reduction of AA damage makes this great into any and all autoattackers. If the enemy team has a strong auto attacking character, say a fed ADC or a fed Yasuo, you will probably be looking to pick up Ninja Tabi.

Mercury's Treads
Mercury's Treads are great items as well. The tenacity that they provide can be great into matchups where they have stuns that you cannot counterplay. Champions like Kennen, Ryze or even Neeko where dodging her stun is possible but very difficult. Treads work very well into high CC teams with champions like Sejuani, Morgana or Braum where you getting stunned is an inevitability. Overall though, unless the matchup specifically requires it, Mercury's Treads aren’t the best early rush. Still a good option though.

Bramble Vest
Bramble Vest is a great into Fiora. That is it. Along with Seekers or Tabis, you begin standing a chance against her.

Hextech Revolver
Hextech Revolver is only good if you are building towards Protobelt. The extra damage is very nice but overall, it amounts to an extra auto attack worth of damage.

Fiendish Codex
If you are losing lane hard and need to rush Hourglass or Veil, then Fiendish Codex might be an okay option. But by this point, you’ve already lost and need someone else to carry.

ITEM CORE


Liandry's Torment
Liandry's Torment is an amazing item. It makes you tankier and it gives you a LOT of damage. It carries over the immensely powerful passive of Haunting Guise, with it having a new passive that, combined with Rylai’s, will do immense amounts of damage. Get it together with Rylai’s EVERY GAME.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Rylai's Crystal Scepter is cheap, provides a good amount of AP, makes you tankier and synergises INCREDIBLY WELL with Liandry’s. It also allows Mordekaiserto stick to people VERY WELL. Basically, if you get onto someone, you will be staying on them with this item. It also gives a big boost to Liandry’s damage. Get these two items every game.

AP ITEM POOL


Hextech Protobelt-01
Protobelt is a very powerful item. It is cheap, it has AP, HP, CDR and it gives Mordekaisera bit of mobility, something he has none of innately. Though its usage is situational, you mostly want to be getting into more mobile teams as first item as it does tend to not scale very well. It is strong, but not as necessary as your core.

Nashor's Tooth
Nashor's Tooth is a very fun item and it makes Mordekaiser a very powerful duelist. If makes his Autos have even more damage and it gives a decent amount of AP combined with a TON of CDR. It is viable if you plan on a more split push heavy playstyle. If you plan on Teamfighting more, it might not be the best option.

Banshee's Veil
Banshee's Veil is an item you will be buying rarely. But it is very good at what it does. Stat wise, what the item lacks for in AP, it makes up for with MR which is when you would be wanting this. It is very good for when the enemy team has a fed AP carry, tons of CC and you have to build Tabis for your AD laner. And with how vital Tabis are to survive, you can imagine the kind of circumstances in which this item is useful. The passive is also very good but it can be knocked off by tiny bits of poke so be sure to get a nice flank off. Overall, very niche so you won’t be getting it mostly but it is a viable option in certain situations. The CDR also works well with Mordekaiser’s CDR depraved core.

Morellonomicon
Morellonomicon is another niche item. It ramps up your damage GREATLY so if you need another AP item when you want to build towards damage, it is a good option. The lethality helps you eat squishies and ADCs and it beefs you up with its HP. Not to mention how this item is vital into healers such as Aatrox, Vladimir and etc.

Zhonya's Hourglass
No introduction needed. This is the most iconic mage item and the bane of assassins everywhere. While Mordekaiser is no weak, squishy mage needing protection, he can make use of this item greatly. One thing to note is that if you have your passive activated, activating Zhonya’s will NOT stop it. That’s right. So if you go deep into the enemy team, and then you get into an inescapable situation where you are about to get oneshot, then using Zhonya’s will keep you safe long enough for your cooldowns to come back up WHILE allowing you to do damage with your passive. This item also has Armguard as a component which is a very powerful early rush item. This item works too well with Mordekaiser to NOT get. Trust me. Unless you need specific counter items, you NEED this item straight after your core.

TANK ITEM POOL


Dead Man's Plate
This is a great tank item for Mordekaiser. It gives you great tank stats and it gives you an okay slow on your next auto attack which lets you better stick to your targets. The damage is somewhat negligible but it being AP means its amplified with your penetration. The slow on the AA is not the main reason we build this item though. The movement speed is. The movement speed lets you chase people down better and, more importantly, it allows for you to rotate much faster. It lets you splitpush way better, it lets you quickly shove waves before grouping up with your team and it makes your life easier overall macro wise.

Spirit Visage
The tank stats of this item are great. There aren’t any other viable MR options to regularly go for but thankfully, Visage synergises very well with Mordekaiser. You have no innate healing but the healing you take through your runes is heavily amplified. It turns you into a monster and is a very good option if the enemy team has AP threats. The CDR is appreciated too. If you have a healer on your team, you HAVE to get this item.

Randuin's Omen
This item is great if you are up against champions that build crit. Yasuos, Tryndameres and fed ADCs come to mind. The slow on it is amazing in teamfights and when catching people out for your team. With this item, Rylai’s and Zhonya’s, you become a very annoying source of slows and damage for the enemy team.

Righteous Glory
Turbo Chemtank is a very nice item. It gives you a powerful active, decent tank stats and is quite cheap. It allows for you to catch up to characters who would normally kite you out. It helps you teamfight better, so it is a great 3rd of 4th item to pick up. If you are up against some cheese champion like Zilean or a Vayne, then Turbo Chemtank might be your only hope of reaching and killing them. The item has wasted stats in terms of mana though so only get it when you are getting kited like a dog and Deadmans’ movement speed isn’t good enough.

Adaptive Helm
Adaptive Helm is somewhat inferior to Spirit Visage but if you are up against an AP champion that spams abilities like Ryze or Cassiopeia, then you need to go for this item. Adaptive Helm also works vs the AP damage portion of Corki’s autoattacks, Kai'Sas passive and Kog'Maw’s percentage health damage. It works against ANY SOURCE OF MAGIC DAMAGE THAT IS REPEATED. The champions listed, will otherwise beat you down very easily, even WITHIN the death realm.

Thornmail
Thornmail is a very niche item but it is great at what it does. Though for most of the game, you will be sitting on a Bramble Vest, upgrading it to Thornmail is not a bad idea at all. The massive amount of Armour helps greatly when you are stacking it against a full AD team. This item is optimal against an enemy team that has healing autoattackers( Fiora, Draven with Bloodthirster). It also SOMEWHAT helps against those that build on-hit but on-hit builds tend to be nigh impossible to deal with once the one building them gets ahead. Overall, Thornmail is a great pickup if you are up against a full AD team.

Sunfire Cape
Now, as a Darius player, I dislike this item but it works on Mordekaiser to an extent. It basically adds a bit more damage to your kit and lets you do more damage with your passive. The thing is, the only opportunity you have of getting this item is when its an easy game and you have no counter items to buy. And in those cases, straight up damage would be better anyway. It is an early game item too. They buffed it meaning that landing your E lets you do more damage though. Overall, it is VIABLE but I wouldn’t recommend it

As an early game lane bully, this period of the game is going to be the most important one. Mordekaiser spikes very hard during early-midgame fights where nobody has the damage to burst him down. Gathering a lead in lane will allow for you to be the main carry of your team up until the very end of the lategame. The most important thing you need to know going into the laning phase is the matchup. How does it play out? Are you up against a Sion who you can endlessly bully? Or are you against a Vayne who will be harder to deal with. Take a look at the matchups in order for adjustments to your playstyle. As Mordekaiser, if a melee enemy mispositions in the first level, you can very easily cheese an amazing trade of them as most people underestimate Morde early. But this is only against bad players though. In general, you want to be playing very carefully, as some champions who are supposed to be easy to beat, are actually difficult to play around during the first 2 levels. One tip that I can give you is to utilise Honeyfruit. It is the green plant that spawns in the river, which will drop 5 fruits that you can collect for HP and Mana. In our case only health. Once you push a wave onto the enemy turret, you have a bit of time on your hands which you should use to ward up your brushes. You can also use this time to look for a Honeyfruit if you took a bad trade in lane, want to sustain up but don't want to use your Health Potion. Their spawning is somewhat RNG but generally, the first Honeyfruit spawns between 6:00 and 6:30 somewhere near the Baron Pit.



Jungle Pressure

Although shoving the wave is great for getting lane priority, you have to keep in mind that junglers LOVE ganking Mordekaiser, especially before level 6. And as a toplaner, you have to accept that you are on your own, as good junglers in soloque are rare to come by. Fighting a 2v1 is very difficult as it requires you to have knowledge about both your enemy laner AND how powerful the enemy jungler is (a Kayn will be free food compared to an Olaf). Your ultimate makes fighting off jungle ganks easier but once you get fed enough, you can win 2v1s very easily regardless. Before getting ahead, fighting off ganks is just risky and I’d just recommend trying to avoid ganks. Do not shove your lane in too hard. It is even better if you let the enemy push to you. Try to keep your bushes warded. I have a very basic image in the warding section where I have the warding positions but I will release a warding guide video out sometime. Generally speaking, once you get level 2, keep in mind that the enemy junglers might be wanting to gank you so adjust your playstyle to be more passive if you think that the jungler is on your side of the map.. Some junglers like Twitch, Jarvan IV and etc, like to gank you IMMEDIATELY after doing their red buff so keep an eye out for those.


The first 10 minutes of the video cover how to track enemy Junglers. The rest of the video has many more tips on other topics.

Tough Matchups

Some matchups are just tough and impossible to beat sometimes. That is okay. Remember that Mordekaiser still spikes midgame, and is super useful in teamfights regardless of whether you are fed or not. Just try to play safe. IT IS OKAY TO GIVE UP CS FOR HP. A lot of players glorify the usefulness of CS and while it is true that simply farming better can win you more games, what ISN’T true is that you should be tunnel visioning on CS. Is getting that cannon minion really worth having half of your HP being chunked out? Because most of the time, it isn’t. The general rule of thumb that I use is that if you take less than around 80-100(a single autoattack) damage for every CS, it was worth it. If you take ANY more damage, then it wasn’t worth it. So do not put yourself in a position where you just eat an entire combo and have the enemy laner chase you down with their ranged Autoattacks. Farm up to get your items ( Ninja Tabi]) and once you get your hands on them, try to see whether you can kill them or not. Even if you can’t kill them, you should still be looking to farm safely so that you have the strength to contribute to mid game teamfights. If you are in a favourable matchup though, just try to keep a good amount of CS. (7-8 CS per minute is okay)

Mid Game Playstyle

The midgame is arguably the most important part of the game and most of the time, it is when the game is on its way to finish as overall game length has been very low lately. The length of a game gets lower the higher up the ranks you go, as people tend to be better at closing games out and knowing what to do with leads. The midgame is when Mordekaiser spikes the hardest. As long as you haven’t died more than 5 times in lane, you should be one of the key players for your team so keep focus. And even if you did feed, getting multiple kills in a single teamfight can get you back into the game so you should always keep your eyes open.

Mid game is all about snowballing the lead you accumulated through the laning phase into a win. Your biggest priority should be taking down your opponent’s first turret but that alone isn’t enough to win you games. The tricky part of this stage is balancing how much time you spend pressuring you are going to do toplane together with how much time you spend getting kills and/or objectives around the map. I myself play primarily around Top and Midlane, as I tend to regularly go back up top to farm, pressure my opposing laner AND to protect my own turret. This is simply my playstyle though. Sometimes, conceding your toplane t1 turret is worth it for a triple kill, a turret and a drake botlane. For example, if the enemy bot looks like they are pushing up, it might be a good idea to go back and then use TP to gank botlane. Speaking of which, USE YOUR TELEPORT TO MAKE PLAYS AND SUPPORT YOUR TEAM AROUND THE MAP. You almost always have to be there for the elemental dragons as they are another win condition on top of Baron now so it is always a good thing to keep the bottom side of the map in mind. If you use more than 1 teleport to get back into your own lane, you are wasting it. Don’t be too hesitant to use the summoner though. Rift Herald is also a powerful objective so if you get ahead early, take it with your jungler or even alone if you aren’t afraid of the enemy 2v1ing you. If a fight at dragon breaks out and you are too far away to impact it, you can continue to push down the enemy T2 with the Herald. But you mostly want to use Herald in order to take down the mid turret.

Work with your Mid and your Jungler to 3 man the enemy midlaner and knock the turret down. The rest of it just comes naturally. But you HAVE to make sure to go back toplane to take the CS that your opposing toplaner has inevitably pushed to your turret. If they are taking your turret, then go kill them. The examples I’ve explained here vary greatly from moment to moment. Sometimes, the enemy laner is so strong that you won’t have the lane pressure to take the enemy turret down. In situations like these, it might be better to continue pushing or to go help your team if you think that your laner will be able to destroy your team without you. It is all about the specific situation and it is up to you and your knowledge of Macro to pick the correct decision.

Mid game is when teamfights occur most often and it is also when you could start splitpushing. Before we get into these concepts, there are a few more things that you should know. One of these things is the importance of your summoner spells. You might’ve noticed that after playing a bunch of Mordekaiser, WITHOUT your Flash, you can’t really do much to the enemy backline. This is why it is better to save your flashes for big teamfights instead of solo kills. Sometimes, devastating a backline is worth more than killing the same guy the 5th time. Know when to keep your Flash as you WILL need it. It is up to you to decide really. Just be aware of your limits as a Mordekaiser who has no summoner spells as overstepping into your own death. Another key tip is to NOT DIE. Seriously. Dying throws away such a massive gold and XP lead. If you just focus on not dying and you keep farming properly, you will eventually build up a 3-4 level advantage over the entire enemy team, especially in low elo. This is how some toplane smurfs win games in lower elos without revealing themselves by crushing the game with 20 kills. That is not to say that it is ALWAYS bad to die. But it is just bad MOST of the time. With how bounties work recently, if you have a lead, then the game is going to slap a bounty on you which will make death even more punishing.


Here is a Coaching video from me which explains a lot of concepts at once.

Teamfighting

Teamfights in most elos are a chaotic mess where nobody really knows what’s going on. And that includes you at times. To keep focus in teamfights and not do stupid things, you have to, first off, clear your head when a teamfight is coming up. Concentration is key. The next thing is to establish what your goals for a teamfight are. What is your role for this current game? Are you acting as a peeler where you will be sticking to your carry, stopping everyone from getting to them, melting assassins and divers who step forward? Are you a tank frontliner who will be the one engaging and facing the enemy tanks, taking the brunt of the focus from the enemy? Or are you a squishy yet dangerous threat to the enemy backline who can use his summoner spell or careful flanks to decimate the enemy backline? Whatever your goals are, keep them in mind but do not adhere to them too much. It is a dynamic game and sometimes, unpredictable things can happen. Do not tunnel vision too much. Know when to switch targets and know who is the biggest threat on the enemy team that you must take out. Keep a general overview of how the fight is going. And if it looks like you guys are all gonna die, it might be better to fall back and mitigate the losses.


Splitpushing

Splitpushing is one of the most powerful tactics that you can utilise as a strong dueling champion. A lot of bruisers, including Mordekaiser, fall into this category which means that it is something you can do too. It is quite difficult to do properly due to Mordekaiser having low mobility and it is done improperly by most people in general. Splitpushing teaches you a LOT about Macro and how the game works. Mastering this skill is going to essentially give you a free ticket to high Diamond/Master if you combine it with other skills.


What is Splitpushing?

Splitpushing is basically when you move to a side lane(preferrably one that is on the opposite side of the map when compared to the major objective that’s available, e.g. botlane when Baron, toplane when Elder Dragon.) and then start clearing waves in order to create pressure. This puts the enemy team into an awkward position as they are forced to deal with both you and your team. Although you might have fantasies of pulling off a crazy 1v3 and taking a turret and an inhibitor by yourself, most of the time, splitpushing is just going to be used to waste the enemy team’s time and resources so do not be too sad if you do not get anything when splitting. Just make sure that you do not die. I mentioned this already but dying is not great for you at all, so if the choice is to die but take 2 people down with you OR to retreat but waste people’s time, go for the safer option. Splitpushing is dangerous because it is a very risky strategy. It essentially gives you control of the game. This also means that if you lose the game, then it was probably because you ****ed up and didn’t rotate to your team for a teamfight.


When should you Splitpush?

Knowing when it's a good time to splitpush and when its a good time to group up with your team is purely based on your specific game. Splitpushing might be worse against a team with a hard engage but it might also be the only way to win against a team with a crazy amount of waveclear with champions like Anivia. There are just general conditions that, when checked, will most likely lead to split pushing being a good idea. The biggest thing when it comes to splitpushing is to make sure that your teammates can handle a 4v4 or not get crushed in a 4v5. If you know that your team will get slaughtered if you leave them alone, then do not splitpush. As Mordekaiser, you should be looking to stomp and carry teamfights in the Mid Game, with you taking objectives afterwards. Splitpushing should mainly be a consideration for Lategame where your teamfighting is weaker but your 1v1 is still strong. Just make sure that your team can at the very least waveclear and SURVIVE in a 4v5. You should also only be splitpushing if you have the damage to easily clear the wave. Splitpushing is also MUCH easier to do when you have Teleport. With Ghost or Ignite, although you can be very dangerous against anybody who comes to stop you, you won’t be there for your team if they get caught out without Teleport. This part is pretty self explanatory but please make sure that you can reliably beat anybody on the enemy team before splitpushing. You do not want to be a free kill. It also helps to take a few wards with you and upgrade your ward to the blue trinket in order to keep sight of the enemy and leave before they collapse on you. Sorry to repeat this but it SUCKS to DIE. DON’T DIE. One more thing to keep in mind is to communicate what you are trying to do to your team. Let them know that you are going to split push and tell them to not pick fights when you aren’t there, but also tell them to force things when the enemy team is starting to rotate to you. You ideally don’t have to explain all this if they know what splitpushing is. But it IS soloq afterall...

There are multiple things you can do while splitpushing. As I mentioned before, you want to be wasting your enemies’ time as your own team gets objectives/a better position on the map. You basically want to draw people to you and then quickly run away before they can get to you in order to waste their time. It is simple, it doesn’t require you to be too fed and is what you should be doing if the enemy that is protecting the turret against you is not someone you can dive. Be careful when doing this against champions like Camille who can EASILY trap you. My personal favourite thing to do is to use splitpushing in order to split up the enemy team, and then flank the rest of the enemy team to get a very easy and a favorable teamfight OR have your team catch someone off on a rotation as the enemy team will be disorganised from having to move around the map. If you are fed enough to dive and kill whomever is sent to defend against you then do so by all means and then take the turret. This is the last time I’ll repeat this but seriously. DON’T DIE.


Apologies for not being able to use my own video. NEACE is great at explaining this concept and if the above text is not doing the job, then watch the video below. A splitpushing guide is not really on my to do list atm unfortunately.
If you haven’t carried the game to a victory by now, know that it is no longer up to you to win the game. Mordekaiser is by no means a weak lategame champion but most carries and mages will have the damage to just oneshot you so you don’t even have the time to kill them, regardless of whether you use your ultimate or not. Although a more tanky build will allow you to do more than a build with more damage, you will get shredded to bits either way by the enemy backline. You have to work with your teammates and if your teammates are feeding, then the game is essentially lost. If you are planning on splitpushing, do so with caution. Always be sure to rotate to your team before teamfights break out so that you can peel your carries. Your ultimate is your only use lategame. That is essentially all you can do to have impact. Teamfighting lategame is very difficult as one misstep results in your immediate death. If you do not have Flash, then you will not be able to do any killing in a teamfight if the enemy carries know how to kite properly. You can melt tanks fairly quickly yourself though. I'll write this again but remember, don't tunnel vision on attacking the enemy.
PROTECT YOUR BACKLINE.
I’ve mentioned wave control and things like “freezing” and “shoving” many times throughout this guide, especially in certain matchups where doing so is vital. You might be thinking that spamming Q to damage the enemy might not be a great idea. You’d be right. Your opponent, if they have but a shred of intelligence, will want the wave to push into their side of the lane which leaves you in a very gankable position. Thinking about things like where the minions are, the amount of damage the minions do and how to manipulate the minions so that they work FOR you instead of against you is a massive part of toplane. And with how much pressure Mordekaiser has in the lane, mastering lane pressure on him is important to exploiting easy to beat lanes and VITAL to surviving more difficult lanes.


Why learn Wave Control?

If you are throwing a Q, it would be better if you make sure that you hit as little minions as possible. But sometimes your level 2 is just too important. If you are playing against a laner like Renekton where playing around powerspikes is important, then you should try your best to kill minions as fast as possible and then use your additional ability to take a good trade. What I am basically describing here is how the way you should interact with the minions changes from game to game. A great yet simple tip is shoving the lane after you kill your lane opponent. You have to make sure that the minions crash at the enemy turret and are NOT frozen just outside the turret range(this is suicide just make sure that at least most of them are under the turret range). That way, the wave will slowly bounce back to you, with you being in a spot that allows you to escape ganks. This is just the beginning though. There are many more subtle things you can do and if you master your interactions with minions, you will be dictating how the lane plays out. Add split pushing and mid game into the mix and knowledge of minions is essentially going to allow you to control where your opponents will be.


The Basics

Before you can learn how to run, you must first learn how to crawl. Let us start with the very basics. There are 4 types of minions in the game: Melee Minions, Ranged Minions, Cannon Minions and Super Minions. A small side note but the word “Creep” is just another way of referring to a minion. CS just stands for “Creep Score”. Minions give more and more gold as time goes on, especially Cannon minions. All minions are counted as equal in terms of CS. But some minions are more important than others. Cannon minions for instance, are very important as they give much more gold than any other minion. This means that you should make sure to get the last hit on them. Whereas last hits on Ranged Minions, though still good, are not as important. To summarise, Cannon>Melee>Ranged in terms of what you should be prioritising. Keep in mind that if you are up against a difficult matchup, sometimes it might just be better to not go for a cannon minion if you are going to eat an entire combo for it.


In terms of DPS, the Cannon minion obviously does the most damage followed by the Ranged minion and then the Melee minion. This is why if you are going to freeze a wave, it is better to keep Melee minions alive as dragging them is going to cost less of your HP.(when you have to freeze your lane, instead of letting the minions hit your turret, you sometimes take aggro and drag them away from your turret and let them crash with your minion in order to keep them frozen outside your turret range)
In order to know how to effectively farm minions under your turret, you need to know how many turret shots it takes to kill each of them. Keep in mind that damage from your own minions and damage from yourself will change this so try to make sure to use your abilities to get all the minions. Until you get some additional AD through items, a melee minion is gonna die to 2 turret shots and 1 auto attack. A ranged minion will die to 1 turret shot and 2 auto attacks(Try to use your Q and, in cases where it won’t be useful in the next 25 seconds, E to last hit properly). A cannon minion will take 7 turret shots and then an auto attack to kill. If you aren’t fighting your opponent and won’t be fighting them, you can use your W to mitigate some of the damage you take from minions when freezing


Minion Aggro

Minion Aggro is a very important thing to understand as well. If you auto attack an enemy champion or hit them with a point and click spell, the minions will aggro on to you and start attacking you. This is why fighting inside an enemy minion wave is a bad idea, especially in the early game where their damage will make a huge difference. This is also why ranged champions are so oppressive in top lane. Their range allows for them to poke you and then walk away to avoid minion damage whereas a melee champion would never be given such luxury. Mordekaiser Q is great though. It is AOE meaning that if you hit the enemy with it, you do not attract minion aggro. Turret and Minion aggro are far more complex but this basic understanding is good enough.

Though it is not very high up on my to do list, I might get a CSing guide video out at some point where I can better explain some of these concepts. But what I have explained here is enough.


Manipulating the Wave

Although in many videos and guides, even this one, manipulation of the wave is going to be split up into a few categories but in my opinion, this isn’t strictly speaking the truth. It is simply a guideline to make it easier to grasp minion control. Wave control is very difficult to understand and is honestly more like a spectrum. How much damage you deal to the minions, which minions you deal the damage to and etc. all contribute to this. I will try to give you an easy introduction to minions in a digestible format which you can use to get a beginner’s understanding of this concept. Know that more often than not, a “beginner’s understanding” is more than good enough for a majority of ranks. I’ve faced high Diamond toplaners who have had very bad wave control.

Basically speaking, wave control is all about how and when the minions are going to get reinforcements. If you look at your map, you see the next minion wave(the minion waves are mirrored. If you wave is at your T2 turret, the enemy wave is also at his T2 turret) and where in the lane both minion waves have crashed is going to change which side is going to get the next wave of minions first.



This image is a basic guideline as to how many MORE minions a wave needs in order to continue overcoming and pushing against the enemy. You simply have to keep a basic count of how many minions there are in your head. This imagine is going to be very important to explain our first concept, Freezing.


Freezing

Freezing is very difficult to pull off but also very rewarding when done right. Freezing is BASICALLY when you last hit the minions when they are about to die(at the very LAST second. Easier with high attackspeed) and also match the damage that the enemy does to your minions in order to make sure that the minions stand in a certain position in the lane(if the enemy does damage to your minions, then they will die faster so you need to do around the same damage to his minions). The position in which you should be freezing the wave, ideally, should be right outside of your own turret. In the image above, it would be the area between the yellow and the blue zone. Freezing the lane puts you in a very difficult to gank position, you can get every single CS whereas the enemy champion will struggle to do so, the enemy laner is in an easy to gank position and in higher elos, a perfectly executed freeze shuts lanes down. In lower elos, you can starve your opponent out very effectively with a good freeze. You mostly want to be freezing against lanes where you are massively ahead and/or the enemy champion misstepping would result in their death. Unless their IQ can be displayed using a single digit, they will most likely back off and try not to fight you. If that is the case, executing a freeze is an amazing way to slowly put together a massive gold lead as you can zone them off of all minions(do NOT let the enemy CS. make sure they get destroyed every time they try). Freezing against ranged toplaners is much more difficult as they have ranged abilities that they can use to thin out the wave. You can try to simply replicate their damage onto the minion wave to keep it even. Another great thing about freezing in a position like this is that the enemy champion is far away from their turret, landing your E will almost always equal a kill.



Shoving/Hard Push

Shoving the lane is basically when you want to be doing as much damage to the enemy minions as possible with both your abilities and autoattacks. Learn how Mordekaiser’s abilities work and try to practice taking down entire waves. If you want the wave to push quickly on its own(Fast Push), you can kill all minions except the ranged ones as this will lead to the lane pushing on its own (this is good for when you want to roam as it will lead to a larger wave that you enemy laner has to deal with which gives you a lot of time to roam and participate in skirmishes outside your lane). But most of the time when shoving, you do not have time to do that. After killing your opponent, you need your minions to crash at the enemy turret ASAP. And during the midgame, you need to shove sidelanes very quickly so that you can participate in teamfights. More on this specific point in the Mid Game section.
Shoving the lane during a normal laning phase when both of you are in lane is not the best idea as it leaves you in a very vulnerable position.UNLESS, you are planning on killing the enemy with a dive. And even then, a slower push is better as it lets you have more minions. Otherwise it's bad because it gives the enemy the opportunity to freeze the wave against you which, as we discussed before, can be very difficult to overcome. You should probably only be pushing when you are ahead and can handle a 2v1. Shoving the lane to the enemy does have its advantages though. If the lane crashes at the enemy turret, it will eventually bounce back to you. If you thin the wave properly on its way back, then you will be able to execute a freeze. Shoving minions also keeps your opponent in lane which gives you time to roam and help in river fights that are about to break out. Overall, you should not be permashoving the lane as it is a very easy way to just get destroyed by ganks. Shoving is a useful too to utilize though. What you should be doing more while laning is Slow Pushing.




Slow Pushing

Slow Pushing refers to two things. The more complex thing is basically when you kill all the minions in a wave except for the melee minions. This will lead to your minion wave pushing slowly but it will do so in a way where it builds up a massive friendly minion wave that HAS to be dealt with. This is a great midgame tactic to employ if a teamfight at an objective is about to happen. Leaving a side lane to do this a minute or so before a teamfight will lead to the enemy team having to deal with the pressure created from the massive minion wave AND the pressure created from your team having to contest the lane. It is basically a version of Splitpushing where the minions are the ones splitting. Be careful though as you should ONLY do this if your team is going to take a major objective. Otherwise, you will be feeding a ton of farm to the enemy for nothing.

The other definition of a Slow Push, the more popular one, is when your minion wave is slowly pushing towards the enemy and all you do is last hit the minions. This type of pushing works great as it means that the enemy will not be able to trade into you due to you having more minions. This is what you want to be doing most of the time in lane so get used to last hitting. It crashes large minion waves at the enemy turret that are difficult to deal with and is excellent for setting up dives. Remember how minions aggro onto the enemy laner if they auto attack you? It also applies to dives. If you have a massive minion wave crashed at the enemy turret and the enemy champion auto attacks you, then your minions will start attacking him, leading to the dive being even easier to pull off.


Here is a great video to explain Wave Control. Make sure to pay attention to the video and listen to what it covers.

Proxying

Proxying is not really something you will be doing too often but it is good to know about the concept anyway. Proxying is when you go behind the enemy turrets and kill the minion wave by yourself before they can reach your own minion wave. You might be seeing Singed players do this a lot. This tactic is VERY risky as it puts you in a very gankable position AND killing the minions without your own minions will mean that you will be left at lower HP as you will have to tank the minions. But this tactic is the ultimate way of applying pressure on the map as the enemy team will HAVE to deal with you. I’d only recommend you do this if you are strong enough to 2v1 or even 3v1, as the enemy midlaner will be on their way to get you as well as the jungler. I overall wouldn’t recommend you use this tactic as a beginner.

Warding

It is very important to utilise your wards in order to avoid ganks. By proper wave management and vision control, you should be impossible to be beaten in a gank. And learning to do all that properly will allow for you to be a very powerful soloq player. Mordekaiser being an immobile champion only makes this skill all the more important. You mostly want to ward around 2:30-3:00 as that is the time period where most junglers will have finished their level 3 clear and be looking to gank top. However, there are some junglers like Twitch or Jarvan IV that are able to gank at level 2 which is why it might be a better idea to play carefully early on in lane when you face such junglers. Predicting these level 2 ganks and more mostly comes down to knowledge on different jungle champions and their clear speeds.


The image itself is drawn from the perspective of you being on the bottom half of the map but the places where you should be warding remain the same essentially. Generally speaking, the places marked in red are where you want to be warding most of the time, with the others coming in handy in different situations. Tribrush is a very important bush that you want to be warding most of the time, with a control ward or a stealth ward depending on which side of the lane you are on (place the control ward closer to yourself so that you are able to protect it). The bush on the other side is also a great choice and it needs to be warded in most cases. I personally would ward further down the river(closer to the yellow point) to also cover both the ward entrance and get more vision of scuttle crab as this helps both you, your jungler and it gives you more time to react if you see the enemy coming your way. Do this vs champions that cannot cross walls though. Because if you are caught doing this vs a Zac, then you will be screwed as he can simply jump over the wall from where the blast cone is. If you ever push up, it might be a good idea to go into the enemy jungler and take both the vision plant and the blast cone while setting up vision(if you are on the top side of the map).




Macro

Macro is what sets most players apart. The most mechanically talented player in the game will only get to low Diamond with no macro. Game sense is very important, especially in League. Whichever player thinks more and has more knowledge on what the limits of every champion are and where everyone is, is going to be the one to come out on top most of the time. What should you be doing at any given point in time? Is it better to farm in lane or go help with an early skirmish(its almost always better to help your team out if a fight is happening near the lane btw. Don’t go if its a lost fight though. Like when there are more enemy champions and your jungler just got caught) Though it is good to be active around the lane to pick up kills and snowball, with Mordekaiser, you do not want to be roaming all that much. Staying in your lane and drawing pressure is how you use your champion optimally. Drawing pressure from the enemy jungler to you and allowing your team to 3v4 the rest of the map while you 2v1 up top. The bad thing about macro play is that there is not much you can do to immediately improve it. It is the hardest skill to improve as it requires you to have experience, read a lot about the game, watch a lot of instructional videos, and watch your own demos to question your deaths and take note of how the enemy jungler rotates around the map and etc. You can make it a habit to look at the map and register where the enemy jungler is and so on but this skill just takes time to learn. Do not be impatient. Just try to play the game and STAY OFF AUTOPILOT. Think consciously about the things you are doing. Do not go in after a teammate if they are stepping into certain death. You too will die. Do not get tilted and if you do find yourself frustrated after a game, stop yourself from playing another game. I personally always take a break after a frustrating loss.



A tip I can give you is to watch videos of high elo players as they explain things. TFBlade does an okay job giving you a general idea of how to play toplane but in my opinion, they are not really the best ways to learn the game out there. The way I myself improved my Macro was watching the videos from NEACE and some analysis videos from LS. NEACE is probably one of my favourite instructional League videos as I enjoy his “no bs” style of explaining things. He has many guides for you to go through and he has a splitpushing guide. Both LS and NEACE has a few good coaching videos that you can view where they break down a LOT of the mistakes the players in those matches make. I suggest finding a video of them coaching a player at your rank and just looking through the gameplay as they explain concepts. You want to keep your eye out for the same mistakes you make and keeping your mind open for the players with the better macro to tell you how to get better. I myself coach Darius players live on stream and I will be uploading my coaching sessions to Youtube. Though it is a different champion, a lot of the macro things I discuss will carry over. Overall, any toplane coaching video WILL help you if you pay attention. Here is the most recent one. Special thanks to Sir_Obliterator! He makes a lot of great Darius Content on his Youtube and he streams sometimes. A wide range of topics were covered in this video which makes it a great all purpose video to study.

/league-of-legends/champion/mordekaiser-46
The most important part about climbing is attitude and mentality. How you view your games and whatnot is the defining factor of whether you are going to play 10 games a day and be hardstuck or if you are going to be slowly but steadily climb over a month or so. You have to be patient, consistent and positive. Though I am not exactly positive, below I have written a list of rules for myself that forms a somewhat good attitude.
Ω You only get the right to flame if you are doing well. Don’t talk if you are playing badly. Shut up, adjust your playstyle and get carried.

Ω If you died X amount of times to a jungle gank, it is not your jungler’s fault. It’s yours.

Ω If you spend more than 3 seconds typing then it is time to mute all chat.

Ω If climbing is a goal for you, make sure you are calm and focused before playing. If you are not able to concentrate, if you are having a bad day or if you are upset/tilted, either stop playing or know that you will not be able to play at your best.

Ω Do not have herd mentality. Don’t just follow your teammates. Think for yourself. It is a team game but don’t run in to a massively unfavourable situation that will certainly lead to your death.

Ω Never surrender. Especially if you are low elo. A lot of games can be thrown.

Ω Be confident enough to know you will beat everyone who opposes you but don’t let your ego stop you from recognising your mistakes.

Ω Excuses are for the weak. You can blame your team for being bad, you can blame Riot for having terrible balance and you can blame the matchmaking system being broken and putting you up against smurfs. Know that none of those reasons is why you are not climbing. Its you. You are the only common factor in all of your games. If you are stuck at a rank for a long period of time, it’s your fault. Only by recognising your own flaws can you begin improving.
Thanks a lot for reading my guide. It took me a while to get this out. I hope that it was of some use to you and it helped you improve in some way. If it didn't then I hope that it was an entertaining read at the very least. I tried to contain everything you need to know in this guide. If you do have any specific questions or need something explained in more detail, then simply contact me and I will try my best to help out as quickly as possible.

My profile picture for Twitter account was drawn by my good friend. If you are a fan of the style and want to commission her/bother her, you can do so on her twitter at @Jrabanito.

Many thanks to Jovy for the Headers! Makes my guide look much better :>

Be sure to check out my Darius Guide as well!



-Rhoku

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