Mordekaiser Guide [TOP] [OTP] Ultimate interactions and matchup tier list (Spreadsheet is still in work) V1

Introduction

Hello! I'm a Mordekaiser OTP with over 1.5 million mastery points across all my accounts. I'm creating this guide to help other players master Mordekaiser's interactions, understand matchups, and learn the small details that can make a huge difference in your games.
No matter what your ELO is, even if you're Rank 1 Challenger, the mechanics and interactions covered in this guide can apply to your games.
For now, this guide will focus on Top Lane Mordekaiser, but I plan to expand it in the future by adding interactions with other champions, including Sylas and other champions you may encounter in your games.
I'll cover specific builds, item interactions, champion interactions, and different itemization options for Mordekaiser, because every detail matters when you're playing him at a high level.
I hope this guide helps you improve!
MocnyDB

Remember, if u want to learn a champion, look for other sources not just one. I can recommend other creators like: Federals1 and Meowdekaiser. U can choose what do you want to play, u can mix some ideas or create something new. Keep your mind open, beacuse that is the only way to climb.

If u have a problem or some questions, there is a /MordekaiserMains on Reddit and discord (u can find invitation link on reddit too)

Itemization against a specific class

Bugs

Mordekaiser has a lot of bug and beacuse of that I'm going to write down bugs that really matters in games (I will update this section everytime i have a free time). Other bugs u will find on League of Legends Wiki.

In theory herold can’t be spawned in Death Realm by a player. But there is a rare interaction when if u ult someone and one of u have a herold that is about to will be forced to spawn, it will actually spawn in Death Realm. When Death Realm ends, it dies. U can use that to your adventage so it is worth to track timers.

As far as I remember, all of these champions are bugged in the way, where their abilites can travel between realms (in some way). If singed uses his W on summoners rift, and u ult him, it will be invisible on you but u still be affected by it if u walk throught that. Works in similar way with rest of them but there is one exception. If u do that with cassiopeia it wont work, but when she uses her W on you and then u ult, u will have grounding effect.

Dragons, Baron Nashor, Herold will be visible for like 1-2 sseconds if u ult a target next to them but they can't be damaged (visual bug). When i saw this bug for the first time I was afraid that enemy jg can smite objective.

When Sion charges his Q in one of the realms, and gets transported to another, his Q won't travel with him, but the visuals of him casting Q will. It means, if he gets transported by Realm of Death to Death Realm, we can stand in his "danger zone" and we don't get a single damage after his ability ends. GL HF abusing this interaction to get free kills.

If Yorick dies in Realm of Death and Maiden Eulogy of the Isles is alive at this moment, Maiden Eulogy of the Isles won't get overtime damage after his death as she should and Yorick's Eulogy of the Isles will go on cooldown. It means that in theory Yorick can have a second Maiden on the map.

Check out https://www.youtube.com/@zicktron_x if u want to see videos of Mordekaiser bugs.
He also edits https://wiki.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/Mordekaiser#Notes_

Rune / champion / item interactions

Runes

There is one specific interaction with conqueror with your passiveDarkness Rise. Normally, when u hit a champion 3 times, u will gain 6 stacks. But, for some weird reason, your passive is quite bugged. When u do a combo AA > E Death's Grasp> QObliterate and u get your passiveDarkness Rise up u will gain 6 stacks, But if u instead end your combo with an auto attack to stack up your passiveDarkness Rise, so like E Death's Grasp> Q Obliterate> AA, u will get 8 stacks.

Also if someone has a conqueror and u ult them, u will gain their ad or ap from that.

If u play against a champion, that picked Aftershock for their keystone u need to remember how does your ultimate Realm of Death. If u ult a champion that got temporary stats from their runes, abilites, buffs or items, u will gain 10% from their current stats and it doesn't update when they lose it. Since after Aftershock gives 45 armor and magic resistance (+75% of their bonus armor and mr), u will steal 10% of it, and after this effect goes out, they will lose the same amount of armor and mr, that they gained, so they end up having less stats than they would have if u ulted them before they proc Aftershock

Same thing as it is with Aftershock.

Champions

Every champion in league has armor, mr, hp, attack speed, and attack damage by default. And i will talk about every single stat that has an interesting interaction with our ultimate.

Attack Damage

Base Attack Damage vs. Bonus Attack Damage

In League of Legends, there are two different types of Attack Damage: Base Attack Damage and Bonus Attack Damage.

When you cast Realm of Death on a champion who only has their base Attack Damage, everything works as expected: you steal 10% of their total Attack Damage, and they lose the same amount.

However, things get more interesting when a champion has both Base AD and Bonus AD.

For example, let’s say an enemy champion has:

• 100 Base AD
• 300 Bonus AD
• 400 Total AD

When you cast your ultimate, you steal 10% of their total AD, which equals 40 AD.

But here’s the important part: the stolen AD is deducted from their Base AD, not their Bonus AD.

This means the enemy will end up with:

• 60 Base AD
• 300 Bonus AD
• 360 Total AD

Why does this matter?

Some champions have abilities that scale with Base AD, while others have abilities that scale exclusively with Bonus AD.

Because Realm of Death reduces Base AD rather than Bonus AD, you can directly reduce the damage of certain champions’ abilities, while having little to no effect on the damage of abilities that scale exclusively with Bonus AD.

Keep this interaction in mind when deciding which champions to ultimate.

The same principle applies to certain items as well. I’ll explain those interactions in the Items section.

Health Points

Understanding this interaction will help you a lot when limit testing or trying to secure a kill.

How does maximum health stealing work?

When you cast your ultimate, Realm of Death, you steal 10% of the target’s maximum health. However, it doesn’t work exactly the way you might expect.

Mordekaiser gains 10% of the target’s maximum health and adds it to his own. This means your W (Indestructible) becomes stronger, since it scales with your maximum health.

However, there’s an important detail: when you steal maximum health from an enemy champion, the health you gain is coded as a heal.

For example, if you steal 500 maximum health, you will gain 500 HP and heal for 500 HP. But if the enemy has applied Grievous Wounds to you, you will still gain 500 maximum health, but your healing will be reduced. With 40% healing reduction, you will only heal for 300 HP.

This interaction also works the other way around.

If you have Spirit Visage, which increases your healing and shielding by 25%, stealing 500 maximum health will heal you for 625 HP instead.

How does the enemy lose maximum health?

When you steal maximum health from an enemy, they lose that amount of maximum health as well. However, this doesn’t work like normal damage.

For example:

• An enemy has 2000/2000 HP.
• You steal 200 maximum health.
• They end up with 1800/1800 HP.

But what if the enemy has already taken damage?

• An enemy has 1500/2000 HP.
• You steal 200 maximum health.
• They end up with 1300/1800 HP.

As you can see, the enemy loses the same amount of current HP and maximum HP, regardless of how much damage they have already taken.

This health reduction also cannot be prevented by shields, meaning the target will always lose the corresponding amount of health.

An exception: Targets below 10% HP

There is one important exception to remember.

If you ult a target whose current HP is below the amount you would normally steal, they won’t lose all of their remaining health. Instead, the health reduction is capped so that Realm of Death cannot kill its target directly.

For example, if an enemy has 190/2000 HP, you will only remove 189 HP, leaving them with 1 HP.

However, you can use this interaction to secure kills.

Let’s say:

• Your Ignite deals 120 damage.
• Your target currently has 200 HP.
• Their maximum health is 1100.

If you cast your ultimate, they lose 110 maximum health and their current HP is reduced accordingly. This leaves them with 90 HP.

Your Ignite will then kill them, provided they have no way to heal, shield themselves, or prevent the damage.

Bonus: Health-scaling champions

Remember that champions who scale their damage with maximum health can also lose damage when you steal their maximum health.

This means your ultimate doesn’t just make you tankier — it can also weaken your opponent’s damage output.

! ! ! Stealing maximum health doesn't work in the same way as it does with attack damage.

U are stealing their bonus hp if they bought it, so it means some items like Sterak's GageOverlord's Bloodmail will lose some value for example: Sterak's Gage shield will be smaller (it scales with bonus hp).

Crowd Control Immunity / Unstoppable Effects

Both Crowd Control Immunity and Unstoppable effects can interrupt Mordekaiser's ultimate, Realm of Death.

If you're playing against a champion who has one of these effects in their kit, you should always keep this interaction in mind.

When casting your ultimate, there is a short casting time before the target is transported into the Death Realm. If the target gains Crowd Control Immunity or becomes Unstoppable during this window, your ultimate will fail to pull them into the Death Realm and will still go on cooldown.

Examples of champions with abilities that can prevent your ultimate:

• Dr. Mundo – Passive Goes Where He Pleases
• Olaf – R Ragnarok
• Ornn – W: Bellows Breath
• Illaoi – R Leap of Faith

Pay attention to your opponent's ability timing. Sometimes waiting for them to use their immunity or Unstoppable effect before casting your ultimate is the difference between securing a kill and wasting your R.

Items

When you cast your ultimate, you steal 10% of their total AD, which equals 40 AD. But here’s the important part: the stolen AD is deducted from their Base AD, not their Bonus AD. Remember that champions who scale their damage with maximum health can also lose damage when you steal their maximum health.

It means it also reduces item passives / actives:

Same thing with items that use AP ratio. The one problem is, if a champion doesn’t have AP but the item has AP scaling, it won’t reduce damage output.

There is also a unique interaction with Mordekaiser and Shojin that works in reverted way of how does a conqueror work with mordekaiser passive.

In theory, shojin shouldn’t be applied by passives to prevent some champions stacking it really fast without using their abilites. But since passive is coded in a way, where it isn’t classified either as an aa or ability, u can say it takes the form of thing u used to activate it.

When i was explaining conqueror interaction, u should remember that it gave additional stacks only when u used your AA to proc your passive, but it didn’t work with your abilities.

When u die in league u can see how much damage did u dealt in a fight. When u activated a passive with an ability, it gets bugged and it looks like your ability dealt a lot of damage but there isn’t an icon with your passive, but when u activate your passive with an AA, u can see damage dealt by your passive after u die.

So when u active your passive with an ability, it stacks up by itself whenever u are hitting an enemy with it. So with 1 usage of Q u can get 12% AMP.

AD items on Mordekaiser

Since they added AD scaling on Mordekaiser Q, a lot of Mordekaiser mains debated about items u can buy. And I think there are 2 items that fits mordekaiser really well. others are just OK but u shouldn’t buy them every game

Since everyone knows Mordekaiser is a slow champion that hates champions that moves really fast, and he can’t hit any ability beacuse of that. Experimental Hexplate deletes all of the problems u might have. After u use Realm of Death u gain a lot of movement speed and attack speed. It means u can just walk up to the target and AA them do death. If i have Rylai, u can activate your passive that way to get a target slow enough to hit them with abilites.

One of the best items in game. Prevents u from dying fast when someones all ins into you. Gives a good value, when we compare it to other items and u might need it when u have to 1v1 their biggest carry.

Approach velocity

This rune is really good on Mordekaiser. I wouldn’t say it is the best one but in certain matchups u should pick it. After u buy rylai, whenever u hit a champion with ability or your activated passive, he gets slowed. Beacuse of that we get A LOT of movement speed and we can run as fast as ghosted champion.

Mordekaiser abilites

Most of you knows his kit. But still there are some things that a lot of you don’t know, so I recommend to read it.

Passive - Darkness Rise

Passive effect: deals on-hit magic damage that scales with AP

Active: whenever u hit a champion 3 times (by ability or AA) u activate Darkness Rise. It creates a circle around u, in which u deal flat damage (modified by AP) + 1-5% of target max health damage (modified by mordekaiser level). Mordekaiser gains 3/6/9% movement speed (modified by level).

Q - Obliterate

Mordekaiser’s mace falls in straight line towards coursor and deals damage to everyone it hit. If it hits only one target, it will deal bonus 50% damage at max rank.

If u Flash in the middle of Obliterate animation, the position from which u casted Obliterate will change, but not a direction it was initialy casted. Watch the video to understand it easier.

W - Indesreuctible

Passive effect: Mordekaiser stores a portion of the damage he deals and takes in a secondary resource bar, which represents the shield he can generate. This stored value gradually decays over time when Mordekaiser is not dealing or taking damage.

Active: Mordekaiser consumes the stored value and converts it into a shield of equal strength. The shield gradually decays over time.

Recast: Mordekaiser ends the ability early, consuming the remaining shield and converting its value into healing.

E - Death's Grasp

Passive effect: Mordekaiser gains 5-15% magic penetration.

Summons a claw that pulls enemies to Mordekaiser. It can also be used to pull enemies from Mordekaiser.
This ability works as a pull, it means it also airbones an enemy for small amount of time. It means, champion like Yasuo can ult a champion that got pulled by Mordekaiser Death's Grasp

If u use your E right before Realm of Death ends, it will pull champions when u exit Death Realm. U can use that to surprise champion that waits till u come back. U can do the same trick when u need to run away. This way they don’t have time to react.

R - Realm of Death

Mordekaiser drags enemy champion to Death Realm for 7 seconds. Mordekaiser steals 10% of the following stats:
-Maximum Health
-Ability Power
-Total attack speed
-Armor
-Magic Resistance
-Size
If he kills an enemy champion during Realm of Death, he keeps stats until a killed champion respawns.

Laning phase - trade pattern, matchup knowledge, all in.

Trading Pattern and All-ins

Mordekaiser has a relatively straightforward trading pattern. Most of the time, you want to land your Q or
E → Q combo and then disengage to win the trade.

One important thing to remember is that Mordekaiser is very good at punishing enemies who are already low on health.

For example, if your opponent is sitting at 70% HP while you're at 100% HP, you should generally have a good opportunity to all-in and kill them, especially if your ultimate is available.

However, this depends on the matchup, your items, and the enemy's cooldowns, so don't blindly force every all-in.

Difficult Matchups

Mordekaiser struggles against ranged champions with high mobility and reliable crowd control, especially stuns.

If you find yourself playing against this type of champion, expect the laning phase to be difficult. They can consistently kite you, avoid your abilities, and prevent you from getting close enough to deal damage.

Your main goal in these matchups should be to survive the laning phase, look for opportunities to land your abilities, and avoid taking unnecessary damage.

Also there are some matchups where u can’t walk up to your own wave lvl 1 beacuse Mordekaiser isn’t that good in early game.

Sometimes u can rush tank items such as spirit visage or randuin in hard matchups.

Updates

If I can update this guide, I will add more information that I haven’t included for now. I tried to make it as fast as I could so I can start working on other things like getting videos of the matchups I play and upload them on Mordekaiser channel that I will make in the future.