This is a tank guide for Mordekaiser. I’ve gone up against other mordekaisers and get frustrated that none have been of equal match and so I’m creating this guide.

Note: You can go solo lane with this build. I’ve done it many games and have been able to harass and keep their tower under constant attack by myself. Most of the time I’m able to take down the tower in my lane first while going against two champions.

Masteries
Personally I’ve got 21 in offensive, 6 in defensive and 3 in utility.

If you want to make a mega tank, put the majority in defensive masteries and the rest in utility, but that would defeat the purpose of an offensive tank.

Runes
The majority of my runes are armor penetration. All my Mark and Quint runes are armor penetration which comes to +29.

My glyphs are magic resist which comes to +13 magic resist.

My seals are armor runes and come to +13 armor.

One of the benefiting factors of Mordekaiser is his shield. That greatly help your defense.

Summoner Spells
Ignite – Hands down this is the spell to have with Mordekaiser. This in combination with his ultimate can deal killing blows and give you an extra champ to work with.
Flash – Great for getting out of hot spots when needed or to catch the last enemy with your ultimate and ignite combo.
Really the important spell to have is Ignite, any other is your personal preference and playing style. I only suggested Flash because it can be used offensively and defensively depending on the situation.

Skills
Mace of Spades – Q – On the next attack, Mordekaiser does extra damage. Extra damage hits up to 3 targets and if there are no additional targets than the damage is doubled.

Creeping Death – W – Throws a buff onto the designated target that increases the magic resistance and armor. It also is an AoE skill which deals damage to surrounding enemies in its radius.

Siphon of Destruction – E – Damage is dealt in a cone in front of Mordekaiser. As damage is dealth, the skill siphons health from the target and adds it to his shield.

Children of the Grave – R – Places a DoT effect on a enemy champ that deals a certain percentage of damage based on the champions life. Also, on top of dealing damage, it steals a certain percentage of life from the champ and gives it to Mordekaiser.

Skill Build
Lvl 1 - Siphon of Destruction
Lvl 2 - Creeping Death
Lvl 3 - Siphon of Destruction
Lvl 4 - Creeping Death
Lvl 5 - Siphon of Destruction
Lvl 6 - Children of the Grave

After lvl 6, you want to prioritize your skills so you upgrade Children of the Grave, Siphon of Destruction, Creeping Death and finally Mace of Spades.

************IMPORTANT************
Why wait to upgrade Mace of Spades till lvl 11?
The damage dealt is related to your base damage. The trade off of not upgrading either Creeping Death or Siphon of Destruction isn’t justified by upgrading Mace of Spades. It’s better to use it in later levels when your base damage is actually high enough to do damage to champs.

Countless times I’ve been able to go up against other Mordekaisers that I’m able to out damage and out shield and they end up running away simply because of their skill choices.

Items
Doran’s Shield
Giant’s belt
Ninja Tabi (if other team has more dps)
Mercury’s Treads (if other team has more casters)
Berserker’s Greaves (if other team is more tank heavy)
Warmog’s Armor (built from giants belt)
Frozen Mallet
Sunfire Cape
Sunfire Cape
Thornmail or Sunfire Cape for final item (Sell Doran’s Shield)

Alternatives:
You can switch out one of the Sunfire Capes with a Force of Nature or Banshee’s Veil if the other team is relying heavily on their casters.
In several instances I’ve been able to get above 5000 HP, 200 armor and 125 magic resist and able to tank all 5 champs focus firing on me and come out alive with a decent amount of health. This isn’t mentioning the added shield which adds about 800 more HP at full capacity.

Game play
Beginning Game lvl 1-8
If you lane with a teammate, you can concentrate on harassing champs. Stick around your minions and keep using Siphon of Destruction on enemy minions to keep your shield charged. Doran’s Shield will give you some extra needed health, armor and health regen so you can stay in the lane longer and take a bit more punishment for tanking. One of the key elements here is to keep pushing the lane and harass the champs and tower. The enemy champs shouldn’t be able to get enough gold and their health should remain fairly low unless they’re only standing right next to the tower.
If you solo lane you’ll want to focus more on farming minions than harassing champs. If they move in on you, you can use Creeping Death in combination with Siphon of Destruction to stay alive. Many champs underestimate the solo ability of Mordekaiser early game and like to think they can gank him fairly easy.

Mid Game lvl 9-14
Here is where you push towers. Mid game you should already have your Warmog’s Armour, boots and possibly some of the items for frozen mallet if not already having it. You can either run with a few of your teammates taking out towers while the others distract to keep all of them off you. You’d be surprised how good Mordekaiser is against towers and can deal pretty good damage early on. Keep going until front and second line of turrets are gone. Here your team should be grouping up and doing ganks now.

Late Game lvl 16-18
You should have one of your Sunfire Capes, on your way to building your second and be able to take a great deal of damage. You should be initializing fights if not be the second in a fight. When going into a fight you should do a combination of Creeping Death, Siphon of Destruction, Mace of Spades and finally Children of the Grave and Ignite. This should guarantee a kill if not leaving your teammates with an easy kill. Again, push turrets…I can’t say that enough. You need to keep pushing towers because towers win the game, not ganks.

General rules of thumb with Mordekaiser
- You’re main domain of combat is the lane. You shouldn’t go into the jungle unless you’re accompanied by your teammates or getting buffs and getting out of there.
- Stay in communication with your teammates so you can arrange ganks and be the one to initialize it.
- If you are being surrounded by enemy champs, try to get out of their fast. You can take a lot of punishment but like any other tank you’re not invincible.
- If you’re low on health and you’re enemies are about to deal the killing blow, use Siphon of Destruction on as many enemies in a single shot as you can. It’s better to sacrifice a little health for added shield since it will take 3 or 4 shots to take out your shield compared to one shot taking out your life.

This build really helped me, thanks. I had a similar build to it but it didnt work out. In my last game, i took out 2 Champ, 1st left me with around 150hp and i still killed the 2nd one who was at full.

Woah Woah Woah! If your going to do masteries its best to split it 21 main 9 sub. The 3rd tier in all trees (minus utility really) its better to invest towards rather then split it off between all 3. The low tier goods just dont give enough umph unless its like Exhaust or Teleport benefits. Other talents in each just aren't that benefitial.

If focusing pure tank by far 9/21/0 is the BEST tank build. Investing on utility, specially with Mord, is just a complete waste. 9 In offensive gives CDR which is invaluable to him and the 15% Magic Penetration for a tank that thrives off earning more shield with Abilities is incredibly useful. It makes him much more of a tank then 0/21/9.

Again... wtf? I can take it if you build offensively with him, but overall Mord takes benefit from Magic Penetration. Armor Pen doesn't do anything for him. With Mord if hes going to be a 'tank' at all he should have dodge runes ideally or health, with dodge in his case proviidng most benefit. With higher Armor and MR he will have with item build, having such small additions of MR and Armor just don't hold benefit.

Red: Magic Pen
Yellow: Dodge
Blue: CDR (The less CD, the more he can spam his shield back on)
Quint: Depends. HP per Level is incredibly powerful quints. Dodge can work here or even possibly Magic Pen.

I have to disagree with Ignite. It can be useful, but really I don't find it to be 'hands down' best spell for him. Chances are if your popping to finish someone off, you should already have them. Ignite later on just doesn't give to much benefit to really be worth wild later. Again its by far not the worst but I wouldn't call it the best.

Flash I do agree with being valuable. Flash can catch up to people in which he can provide another quick Siph can finish off a running champion. Flash also allows him to run out should the tides be turning and escaping the middle of a fight should he be pushed into it. Either flash or cleanse can help a lot.

If your going offensive, I highly recomend getting Rally. In team fights rally can keep mords health raising and boosting team damage. The boosted AP will increase his damage to some degree (though unfortionately his low AP rations won't give to much benefit) and most of all it helps the entire team.

Exhaust is another great spell in order to reduce damage from a carry and to allow more hits in with both his abilities should someone try to run. Teleport works great for him to quickly move and farm and stop tower pushes. Summoner spell though it varies depending on taste.

I have to disagree. I think mace of spades is worth some investment in over shield. Its another source of generating more shield and can help out with farming. Otherwise I do agree in leveling it last.

I disagree with your item build. Seeing as you want a "Offensive Tank" I notice you lacking what makes him do such. CDR is a big part in keeping his shield up and doing damage. Frozen heart gives both the CDR, Armor, and attack speed debuff giving him more tank power and providing more damage.

Warmonger's is a bad item on Mord. His shield allows him to take hits and keeps his health topped. With Warmonger's your just buffing the HP that should never be teached and lowering the damage his shield can take. Force of Nature by far plays a much more effective weapon giving more Health regeneration and a chunk of MR lowering damage recieved. When his shield is up his health will be healing up much more.

If your going to get any offensive boots, by far the best boots to get are Sorcerer shoes. The Magic Penetration is invaluable in increasing damage output and thus giving his shield more bang for the buck as abilities do damage. Beserking are just not valuable on him at all.

Other items you have I won't talk against since it is your own build. It works for you and all so as far as that goes I'll leave it open. Its by far not my item choice but none the less i don't want to completely bash your guide

Seems like the best way to get a good guide on the forums lately is to post a really crappy guide (or in this case perhaps, less-than-optimized) and read the comments.

Everything Azing posted seems sound. I don't play Morde, but he interests me, might pick him up soon.

Just gave Azing's build a try, worked pretty well. It is better than the other one, but the other one did help me approach morde a different way.

I agree, Warmogs is horrid on Mord. I owned a Warmogs Mordie so bad last night I made him quit after taking him down VERY quickly in a 1v1. Guess he thought his 3k HP made him unstoppable. Nothing a little magic resit (from Spirit Visage) and magic penetration (from Sorc boots) couldn't handle. Force of Nature is another one that is just perfect on him with mega health regen and magic resist. Can easily laugh at a Rhyze coming over to gang you. Typically if I'll take both of these and go with an MR build, I'll get exhaust to help with physical carries that could tear up my low armor.

If the other team is heavy physical, warden's mail is another perfect item.

I do like Sorc boots on an offensive mord since all his spells are magic damage except Q. I find that I'm usually about 50/50 on the physical/magic damage, so really either are good, but you want your spells pumping out as much damage as possible for your shield.

Another often overlooked item is Guinsoo's rageblade which if my team has enough CC (that I can ditch phage/forzen mallet) is often my only weapon. The AP/AD/AS boosts are really sweet.

I've wondered about working in a brutalizer for more cool down, and it's cheap as well!

Usually my build ends up something like:
Spirit Visage
Sorc Boots (or Ninja Talbi if opps heavy physical)
Force of Nature
Guinsoo's Rageblade
Sunfire Cape (or other +armor/health)

It really depends on the opponents for his build as he really has a VERY versatile build as so much of his damage is magic and not AP dependent he can build to defend while his skills are his offense.

I'll often get it if the game goes on long enough, the mana is a waste, but you'll get over it