Mordekaiser/Strategy

Skill usage

 * can make excellent use of his shield at all stages of the game, from absorbing harassment to giving powerful survivability during team fights, letting him stay in the field longer than most other champions. However, keep in mind that spamming skills will result in consistently low health without sufficient health regeneration or spell vamp.
 * When health falls below the cost necessary to use a skill, his health will drain to 1 HP. Any subsequent spell casts will bring him down to 1 HP, meaning that he cannot kill himself through his own abilities. Keep this in mind if you are confronted when at extremely low health, as you may still be able to survive through absorbing damage with your  shield.
 * While you can block damage with your shield during laning, it is generally wiser to farm very conservatively during the early game instead, as lacks any form of escape mechanism and pushing the lane in order to charge your shield increases the risk of an opposing gank.
 * is usually the best ability to gain shield health, due to its consistent AoE damage.
 * large array of damaging AoE abilities lends him to be a formidable teamfighter. His shield is a powerful asset, letting him remain in combat for extended periods as long as he makes constant use of his abilities.
 * should primarily be cast on strong autoattackers (particularly the opposing carry) in order to maximise your damage output and maintain your shield, but do not be afraid to use it on lesser champions in order to secure a kill.
 * However, avoid casting on champion clones or champions with death-preventing abilities (ex. ), as the ability will only be wasted.
 * does not necessarily have to be cast on yourself. It can often be more beneficial to cast it on an initiating tank, who will greatly enjoy the increased resistances and may often be in a better position to damage multiple opponents with the AoE, helping you build your shield more quickly.
 * Do not underestimate synergy with Mordekaiser. The Ability power and Health Regen are good for him, and it beefs up your minion from . Do not rush it, however, as it should be built late-game.
 * abilities offer different quirks depending on which is prioritized for leveling.
 * Leveling up gives you the ability to poke and is excellent for absorbing harassment due to building up his shield. Its health cost can become prohibitive at later ranks, however, leading to consistently low health if it is recklessly spammed.
 * Leveling up gives him exceptional damage if he finds himself regularly exchanging autoattacks with his opponent, as it resets his autoattack timer. This is especially so if the target is isolated. It offers practically nothing against strong ranged poke, however.
 * is most damaging basic ability, giving him an advantage in prolonged duels, and the AoE lets him push and farm creep waves with extreme impunity. As it pushes the lane so strongly, however, it should be carefully used in lane to avoid inviting jungler ganks.
 * Like most other secondary units, the soul you've stolen with can be controlled using Alt + Right Click. However, unlike most secondary units, your ghost acts as an allied champion, and will be affected by abilities that can only target champions, such as, , and.
 * The ghost from can also be used to block, the primary damage/effect of , or.
 * Try and wait until your target is fairly low health before casting, as most people will run when they see they have the debuff on them.
 * The combination of and  is deadly to almost any wounded enemy.
 * If you do choose to use, keep in mind that its range is much shorter than , and so you should try to use it first. This also has the added bonus of triggering the effect of the mastery - using  first gives a bonus 5 ability power, causing  to do more damage.
 * ghost will attract tower aggro first, but if it attacks a champion while you are in range, you will become the new target. If you cast on the ghost and it hurts an enemy champion, you will draw aggro instead of the ghost. Be wary of this when attempting to tower dive weakened enemies.
 * The same virtues that let teamfight effectively also lets him farm and push extremely quickly.
 * is very capable of taking a solo lane against two enemy champions while maintaining his farming income, as his kit lets him easily freeze the lane at an comfortable point while simultaneously harassing his opponents. With a sufficient level advantage, he can even fight a 2v1 and obtain a double kill with his ultimate.
 * strong pushing ability can be an asset during laning by letting him roam effectively - he can quickly push the lane to his opponent's tower, and then leave to either assist another lane or farm the jungle for additional gold.
 * Although his kit is better utilised in a teamfight, can also act as a reasonable split pusher due to his sheer wave clearing speed. As always, it should be ensured that you do not run the risk of becoming a victim of a gank.
 * Take advantage of the fact that many people underestimate damage once he gets his ultimate. When combined with  and his other abilities, he can burst down and enslave enemies who get in range of him deceptively easily.
 * is a powerful duelist, due to his, the natural spell vamp from , the bonus armor and constant damage from and the greatly increased damage on.

Build usage

 * Early purchases of items that can refund the health cost of abilities should be strongly considered.
 * A bought during laning can greatly increase  sustainability and lets him harass more freely, in addition to increasing the damage of all of his spells and improving his shield generation.
 * Later in the game, it can be upgraded into a, or  for further improved spell vamp. A  provides more ability power for his spells and a team-enhancing aura, whereas a  grants useful cooldown reduction.  has both an extremely useful active CC which  greatly appreciates, and attack damage, boosting the damage of  significantly.
 * A more defensively-oriented build may opt for the significant regeneration provided by a or the armor-providing .  offers  a lot of extra health and an  can help him support allies and can later be upgraded into the powerful pushing item, which also provides ability power.
 * Health items should not be overlooked. Armor and magic resistance will make shield more effective, but without the addition of a health item or two, he will remain rather fragile.
 * Common items include (to add needed CC to his abilities while also increasing his magic damage) and  (which stacks well with, in addition to armor it provides).
 * As has no form of CC whatsoever, items that can help prevent him from being kited easily are important.,  and  all provide itemized CC for him and their own unique benefits. A  can help prevent him from being kited by autoattackers by slowing them on hit and augments his survivability enormously.
 * A lot of magical damage comes from the base damage on his spells, as his ability power ratios are fairly low. Consider prioritizing magic penetration and cooldown reduction over pure AP. This is doubly important on  as increased offensive prowess directly translates to improved survivability through his  shield.
 * An is a very useful item for, as his short range means he can usually take full advantage of its magic resistance-reducing aura as well as providing some of its own.
 * Stacking runes and early  allows  to harass much better and obtain early kills more efficiently, and can still help during late game against those champions who do not have any magic resistance above 30. The full power of  ultimate can be extremely devastating to squishies.
 * An early grants health, magic penetration, and a small amount of ability power which greatly improves his midgame performance. Later on, it may be upgraded into a  or  depending on the map.  in particular stacks extremely well with, to lethal effect, as both will burn the target for a percentage of their maximum health every second.
 * For sources of cooldown reduction,, and  are three powerful sources. Purchasing the boots allows gold to be reallocated to more useful items for  build, but a  pairs well with  by shredding a percentage of the target's maximum health, in addition to greatly improving his overall output with the 20% damage amplification. A  has a great synergy with  and with spell vamp, giving him more health and sustainability to aid him. Cooldown reduction runes can be used in lieu of these items if they are deemed unsuitable.
 * is a practically a necessity for any high damage build due to the massive boost to ability power it provides.
 * Despite having no mana, buying a or  on  can cause him to deal very high damage with  due to the autoattack consuming the proc immediately. Unlike many other  users,  actually benefits from magic penetration more here as the ability transforms the proc into magic damage.

Countering.

 * Move away from the minion wave when facing, as his shield generation from makes him a formidable opponent.
 * Be wary of dueling him, as his deals more damage against lone targets.
 * Stack magic resistance to mitigate all of damage.
 * It is also advised not to stack health when facing as it increases the damage(and not only that, oh the heal he will get!) of.
 * Take note that is one of the few champions who doesn't have any crowd control.
 * Be extremely careful about dueling as the damage from  is very high,  has very short cooldown,  has constant damage and  will deliver massive damage and heal.
 * is extremely resilient to pokes because of his shield.
 * The pet that gets from  is considered a champion. It can not be affected by abilities that target only minions. That also means all abilities that target only champions will work on the pet as well.
 * While does not remove the  debuff, a  will. You can use the active part of the item to remove the debuff and denying  his pet and kill.
 * pet benefits from the items the respective champion buys. Therefore the respective champion should not buy anything before the pet dies.
 * If buys items like,  or  he is a lot more dependent on getting into melee range. Keeping up range between  and yourself will help a lot.
 * If builds mostly heavy damage items such as, , or  he can easily be focused down. If he goes for purely defensive items such as  or  his damage will remain rather low, making it easy to ignore him with some Magic resistance.
 * Be very careful when hits level 6, as  combines with his other abilities deals massive damage, and the health regeneration from  will give him a heavy advantage in prolonged fights.
 * While low level you can counter with health potion.
 * Commit to taking down.  can easily drain away, but will block quick pokes. Crowd control effects such as a silence or stun will also prevent him from growing his shield back for a short time.
 * can become surprisingly tanky when surrounded by enemies, as his  will constantly heal him and refresh his shield, while  and  will constantly allow him to deal nice damage.  can also grant him a constant amount of healing, especially when enemies with high Health or low Magic Resist are targetted. Champions like  or  can easily keep their distance from him but also continue to damage him in the process.