Mordekaiser Runes & Items explained
Currently Mordekaiser is a GREAT champion to pick up as a Toplaner. He's a pretty simple champion that's amazing for lower elos; just a few games on him and he will fit into anyones champion pool.
He's probably the EASIEST Top laner that deals Magic Damage so I definitely recommend putting a few games on him so you can feel comfortable playing him whenever you find a good matchup (he counters champions like Illaoi or Yorick) or your team needs AP.
The only "difficult" part of him is knowing what items to buy, but that's what this guide will solve for you!
Summoner Spells
This is what I would recommend you to take every game, they're very straightforward to use so it will make learning the champion easier.
There's other options you could explore but I would advise you to only start experimenting once you understand the champion and the game a lot more.
Runes
Runes are very straightforward, there's only 2 minor runes you could change depending on the enemy team comp:
- Legend: Tenacity vs Legend: Alacrity: If they have no CC (that's affected by Tenacity) then you can swap it for Alacrity.
- Second Wind vs Bone Plating: The former is good against ranged or poke champions the latter is good against burst champions.
Starter items
Pretty much your only options, also very simple:
- Doran's Ring if you can fight the enemy laner or they simply can't proc D.Shield's passive.
- Doran's Shield against ranged champions or ones that have a lot of sustain in their kit.
Boots
I would recommend to always go defensive boots. Not much to explain, buy Armor against physical damage and Magic Resistance against magic damage.
Items
Mordekaiser's build is not very cookie cutter, you tend to just build whatever is best in the game you're in and at the time you're buying it, I will explain your options here so you can easily identify what you should build and when you should do it.
This is what I recommend everyone to buy as a 1st item 100% of the time. Your passive applies Rylai's Crystal Scepter's slow letting you stick onto them and just microwave them to death.
The slow works as both an offensive tool because of that as well as a defensive tool, letting you kite people by pushing them away with your E and applying it for example.
There's other items you could buy instead of Rylai's as a first item (like Riftmaker or Liandry's Torment) but this will be a lot more consistent throughout your games. You can test different stuff once you understand the champion and matchups a lot more.
Gameplay
If you want to learn how to play Mordekaiser and carry your games in Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum MMR you can check out this video where I do exactly that. Every decision I take is fully explained as I try my best to teach you everything you need to know to 1v9 your games and climb to higher elo.