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Mordekaiser Build Guide by Shro

Jungle [12.22] BECOME A 1v9 GOD WITH JUNGLE MORDEKAISER

Jungle [12.22] BECOME A 1v9 GOD WITH JUNGLE MORDEKAISER

Updated on November 16, 2022
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League of Legends Build Guide Author Shro Build Guide By Shro 99 11 222,222 Views 12 Comments
99 11 222,222 Views 12 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Shro Mordekaiser Build Guide By Shro Updated on November 16, 2022
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Runes: Conditioning

Precision
Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Tenacity
Last Stand

Resolve
Conditioning
Revitalize
Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor

Spells:

1 2
Non-Mobile Enemy Champs
LoL Summoner Spell: Challenging Smite

Challenging Smite

LoL Summoner Spell: Ghost

Ghost

Ability Order Standard Ability Leveling

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

Champion Build Guide

[12.22] BECOME A 1v9 GOD WITH JUNGLE MORDEKAISER

By Shro
Author Foreword
Hello! I'm Shro, and I decided to write this guide in order to share with you the pure MAJESTY of Mordekaiser Jungle!

NOITCE: I AM WORKING ON UPDATING THE GUIDE FOR S13, BUT IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

If you end up enjoying this guide, please leave a like! If you want to let me know something or ask a question, please feel free to comment! It's possible I may have missed something, but with your help that could be corrected!

If you'd prefer to ask questions in real time, see me play, or just wanna hang out, feel free to come vibe on Twitch or come hang out on Discord! I am trying very, very hard to make Content Creation my career and would greatly appreciate any encouragement or support!

Thank you!

- Shro
Can I Become A God?
YES! You can become a 1v9 Jungle God! However, there's a lot you need to know before you decide on Jungle Mordekaiser to be your champion! He has many difficult matchups, which I detailed earlier above in this guide!

I'll do my best to be as comprehensive as possible! I've seen plenty of amazing guides for Top Mordekaiser, chief among (us) them being lolkayleee's, Your Desired Username's, and BaLoRi's guides, but I haven't found anything similar for Mordekaiser in the Jungle!
A God, But Fickle
Mordekaiser is an amazing Jungler, however, it must be noted that he was not made for the Jungle. This is apparent in how difficult it is for Mordekaiser to gank. However, Mordekaiser has several amazing tools that help him survive and even thrive as a 1v9 Jungle God!

I've been playing Mordekaiser Jungle since S10 when they increased his damage against monsters, but he only recently (S11) became actually playable within the Jungle when they increased his Darkness Rise damage to monsters again AND allowed for his Darkness Rise to proc on even the smallest jungle monsters (so for example a single Obliterate will proc Darkness Rise on the Crimson Raptor camp and the Greater Murk Wolf camp). If you understand the strengths and weaknesses of Mordekaiser, you will be able to take Mordekaiser from Top into the Jungle with ease!

Pros:
  • Amazingly healthy clear: I pointed out earlier that Mordekaiser has NO NEED for Refillable Potion, and that's for good reason! Mordekaiser has one of the most healthy Jungle clears that I've ever seen! After clearing your first buff, you should immediately level Indestructible. Using Indestructible optimally throughout your clear minimizes all damage from jungle monsters and allows you to even heal while taking camps! All starting at Level 2!
  • Enemy carry isolation: No matter what position Mordekaiser is played in, one thing is always true: Realm of Death is absolutely amazing for taking an important target out of the fight. Whether that be the opposing Jungler preparing to Smite, or the extremely, absurdly fed Top Laner that your Fiora just couldn't handle, Mordekaiser can take them to Brazil to kill or stall them long enough for your team to hopefully take advantage of the situation.
  • Best gank in the game: Mordekaiser has one of the best ganks in the game, but only at level 6. Realm of Death is extremely useful for ensuring a target can't escape back under their tower. The difficulty is ensuring you get into lane fast enough, which is why we take Ghost.

Cons:
  • Low movement speed: Mordekaiser is very, very slow, and this isn't only important for ganking. You must be careful about how long it takes you to move from base to objectives, or how long it takes you to move from camp to camp during your clear.
The Tools Of A God
In order to become a God, you must understand the tools you'll be using. This section is going to be long, but by the end you should have complete understanding of what you're going to be working with when you play Mordekaiser Jungle.

ABILITIES:
RUNES:
  • Conqueror

    This is the BEST Keystone for Mordekaiser to take. Conqueror gains stacks during fights, 2 per each ability or attack for melee characters. At max stacks, Mordekaiser will gain 24-54 extra AP (depending on level) and will also be healed for 9% of the damage done to enemy champions! This is the PERFECT Keystone for an AP brusier like Mordekaiser!

  • Triumph

    This single rune is capable of restoring 10% of your missing health and grant an additional 20 gold per takedown! This is CRUCIAL for Mordekaiser because of how much focus is going to be on you while you're doing 1v5s. The enemy team will use Ignite on you, you will lose health while beating people up in Realm of Death, and you need as much healing as you can get from any source. Triumph has saved me by just a hair so many times it's impossible to keep count. Highly recommend this pick over anything else in this slot.

  • Legend: Tenacity

    This rune is by far the single best rune you can take in this slot, as Tenacity on a slow and immobile tank like Mordekaiser is invaluable. Tenacity is one of the hardest stats to purchase for in the game, and this one rune gives you up to 30%! By contrast, the only other somewhat viable rune to run in this slot is Legend: Alacrity which only gives you 1.5x the value of a single Dagger. Make the right choice, and take Legend: Tenacity!

  • Last Stand

    As for the last rune in this tree, Last Stand is the best possible choice for Mordekaiser! Mordekaiser is an AP brusier that has TONS of healing, however, there will be plenty of fights where you'll be low on health. This is because as Mordekaiser, you should be holding your Indestructible until it's fully charged, at which point you can activate it and gain a shield of stored damage that will keep you fighting even when your health is low! You'll do more damage in this state with Last Stand and if you manage to kill someone, you'll be procing Triumph to heal back a bit more health to prolong the fight!

  • Conditioning

    We take Conditioning in this slot because as Mordekaiser Jungle, we're power farming until 6 for Realm of Death and we aren't planning on fighting much until our second or third clear. Around this time, Conditioning should be close to coming online, giving us some much needed extra tank stats!

  • Revitalize

    Lastly, but arguably more important than Conditioning, we take Revitalize because it increases both healing and shielding! It even grants bonuses when you're low on health, syncing well with Last Stand and healing from Triumph! This is perfect for Mordekaiser who is able to use Indestructible for both! This also pairs well with both Riftmaker, Spirit Visage, and Gargoyle Stoneplate to make for a very difficult to kill Jungle tyrant!

SPELLS:
STARTING ITEMS:
FIRST ITEMS
EXTRA AP ITEMS
  • Demonic Embrace

    Oh, YES. This is our item. Demonic Embrace is a must have no matter what Mordekaiser build you're using. It should always come second, right after Tier 2 Boots. Demonic Embrace gives you a nice bit of AP and health, but more than that, it's Unique Passives are why we're getting this item. The first Unique Passive rewards Mordekaiser for building tanky, gifting Mordekaiser with AP equal to 2% of his bonus health. The second Unique Passive is really why we're here though. Every 4 seconds, enemy champions will lose 1.8% of their health. The longer the fight goes, the more health they lose! For a tank champion like Mordekaiser, adding yet another health burn on top of what he already gets from Riftmaker or Iceborn Gauntlet is INVALUABLE. And don't worry about other players on your team also building Demonic Embrace such as Brand and Swain, because now as of 12.13, Demonic Embrace stacks between users!

  • Zhonya's Hourglass

    In the right circumstances, this item is a godsend. See, when you use the active on Zhonya's Hourglass, Darkness Rise continues to stay active and do damage during the stasis. What this means is that if you are in a big fight with several foes with Darkness Rise going and you get low on health to proc Last Stand, and you have Riftmaker, Demonic Embrace, and Spirit Visage in addition to Zhonya's Hourglass, you can use the acitve and do INSANE DAMAGE WHILE HEALING FROM ALL OF IT WITHIN STASIS! If you get a kill, you'll also proc Triumph and heal even more! This healing is done through Riftmaker, and then amplified by Revitalize and Spirit Visage. This can be incredibly busted alone, but Zhonya's Hourglass also offers good armor, good AP, and a little bit of ability haste, all of which are great on Mordekaiser!

  • Rylai's Crystal Scepter

    The bane of high mobility champions, Rylai's Crystal Scepter is capable of completely ruining the lives of champions like Hecarim, Udyr, Akali, and many others. This item is perfect for slowing down enemies, as well as buffing your AP and health. Once you get someone caught within your Darkness Rise with this item, they will not leave alive. Darkness Rise with Rylai's Crystal Scepter applies continual slow and damage to enemy champions, making it so that it's far easier for you to auto and land Obliterate.

  • Nashor's Tooth

    This item is extremely underrated on Mordekaiser, as is attack speed in general. Nashor's Tooth not only stacks with the AP damage per auto that your Darkness Rise gives you, but it also gives Mordekaiser an insane amount of both AP and attack speed. Running this item basically invalidates the need to actually land your Obliterate, as you can auto them three times within the span of time that it would take to hit your Obliterate (not quite, point is that it's very fast). However, running this item makes you very squishy in comparison to any of the above items.

  • Cosmic Drive

    This item can be abolsutely GAME BREAKING on Mordekaiser, so let me explain: One of Mordekaiser's biggest issues in the game is his lack of mobility. Cosmic Drive can fix that easily, and it also sync's VERY well with Darkness Rise. In order to proc Cosmic Drive you need to land three separate attacks or abilities (which is the exact same case for Darkness Rise, and doing so will give you a 15% bonus movement speed buff (which will decay to 5% in 2 seconds) as well as 40 AP on top of what the item already gives! This is MASSIVE in addition to the health, movement speed, and AP that the item already gives! Definitely a super amazing item to build on Mordekaiser, but I recommend against it in most cases. Mordekaiser needs to be tanky and the damage he gains from Riftmaker and Demonic Embrace is already enough. However, Cosmic Drive is PERFECT for dealing with fast champions and should not be ignored!

ARMOR ITEMS
  • Thornmail

    This is our anti-heal item, we take this over Morellonomicon. The reason we take Thornmail is simple: not only does it "reflect" a small amount of magic damage back at enemy champions that attack you, but it also offers great armor and health, as well as applying grevious wounds/anti-heal to anyone that attacks you. HOWEVER, the only time Mordekaiser can benefit from the full 50% grevious wounds/anti-heal is if he lands Death's Grasp. Yes, you heard right, technically Death's Grasp immobilizes as it is a very, very brief knockup! That being said, if you do miss your Death's Grasp, you will only be benefitting from 30% grevious wounds/anti-heal.

  • Frozen Heart

    The first of the two anti-crit items, Frozen Heart is something that most wouldn't immediately build on Mordekaiser on account for the 400 Mana going to waste. However, what we're really building Frozen Heart for is the unique aura, the 20% reduced attack speed of nearby champions. This, in combintion with the unique passive, make it VERY difficult for champions like Yasuo, Yone, Tristana, and Jinx to kill Mordekaiser before he can even proc his Darkness Rise. You could look at Randuin's Omen below and see that Frozen Heart SEEMS to share its unique passive with it, however, Frozen Heart actually has the stronger of the two unique passive upon closer inspection.

  • Randuin's Omen

    The second recommended anti-crit item, Randuin's Omen is REALLY good for handing crit champions like those listed above. The unique passive on Randuin's Omen is similar to Frozen Heart, though a tad bit weaker. However, the active on Randuin's Omen is VERY helpful for slowing down crit champions for just a moment, while reducing their overal damage by 10% and their crit damage by 20% for 4 seconds! In addition, the extra health that Randuin's Omen gives pairs up nicely with Demonic Embrace as well as Iceborn Gauntlet! As for choosing between Randuin's Omen or Frozen Heart, it's situational. If you're into more crit/attack speed ( Tristana, Jinx) then I recommend Frozen Heart. But if you're into pure crit ( Yasuo, Graves) then I recommend Randuin's Omen.

  • Dead Man's Plate

    Not really one that sees a lot of use, but can work well on Mordekaiser depending on the situation. Dead Man's Plate gives Mordekaiser a bit more speed, granting stacks after moving uninterrupted for roughly 4 seconds. These stacks grant extra AD damage on the first auto attack on another champion, however, at maximum stacks, it also slows the enemy champion by 50% for 1 second! Again, not really something to use every game, but it can work!

MAGIC RESIST ITEMS
  • Spirit Visage

    Ah yes, sustain. Spirit Visage is what we'll be using to keep ourselves nice and healthy in the middle of a 1v5. This item offers good magic resistance, health, and ability haste, but what we really want it for is the unique passive and the 100% health regen. Spirit Visage will increase all of the healing you get from Riftmaker, turning you into a massive omnihealing monster! Further, any damage you do with Riftmaker and Demonic Embrace translates to more healing through Riftmaker, right? But then Spirit Visage increases that healing, as well as making your Indestructible more effective! You can essentially use Riftmaker, Demonic Embrace, Zhonya's Hourglass, and Spirit Visage to heal back almost half of your health through the damage done by your Darkness Rise!

  • Force of Nature

    Usually not better on Mordekaiser than Spirit Visage but DEFINITELY worth stacking into heavy AP, Force of Nature is the penultimate magic resist item. Running Force of Nature alongside Spirit Visage will make you essentially unkillable into high AP, though it should be noted that a good team comp usually has mixed damage. If you find yourself into many mages, consider building both!

  • Gargoyle Stoneplate

    Usually one of the last items to build, Gargoyle Stoneplate is a great item to run into mixed damage teams. While it does offer both good armor and magic resistance, it also offers an awesome active effect: a big shield. This shield is buffed by both Revitalize AND Spirit Visage! You should use this item AFTER you use Indestructible! Your goal is to save the active for when Indestructible is on cooldown. The shield will hopefully keep you alive to use Indestructible one more time, which should be enough for your to walk out of any fight, provided you aren't killed by burst damage.

  • Abyssal Mask

    Lastly, while this certainly isn't a common build item, running Abyssal Mask on Mordekaiser can be extremely beneficial into tank comps. This item isn't usually part of the build because it doesn't offer much base magic resistance, though it does offer a fair bit of health. However, the unique passive on Abyssal Mask grants you 7 bonus magic resistance per enemies, meaning that if you are in the middle of their entire team, you have a total of 35 extra bonus magic resistance! But that's not all it does! It also reduces the magic resistance of other enemy champions by up to 20 magic resistance! What this means is that your Riftmaker and Demonic Embrace are going to absolutely shred anyone that is standing within your Darkness Rise!

OL' RELIABLE AND ELIXIR
  • Anathema's Chains

    Ah, Ol' Reliable. This item shouldn't be on every build and should only be used in specific circumstances. Put simply, after using the active on this item and selecting a "nemesis", they have reduced tenacity when around you, on top of also negating up to 30% of their damage towards you! This is perfect for dealing with the hyperfed Jax, Camille, Vayne, etc. Sometimes, it's really just one person on the enemy team that's ruining your entire game. Use Ol' Reliable to solve that problem.

  • Elixir of Iron

    The best Elixir item for Mordekaiser, this item offers MORE TENACITY and MORE HEALTH, as well as leaving a trail behind you that lets allies move towards you faster! This is the perfect Elixir item for a tank build on Mordekaiser, however, you could optionally run Elixir of Sorcery instead if you feel that you are tanky enough and just need more AP.
The Path To Godhood
As Mordekaiser Jungle, you have specific rules that you need to follow. For example, if you're trying to force ganks before Level 6, you're playing wrong. I will go over exactly how you should be playing in order to 1v9 carry all of your games!

Early Game:

RED START: Red Brambleback, level Death's Grasp for the extra 5% magic penetration, Smite Ancient Krug + Krug, Crimson Raptor, Greater Murk Wolf, Start Blue Sentinel then Smite Gromp at the same time, Scuttle, look for enemy Crimson Raptor if Scuttle is uncontested or their Jungle shows topside for a gank. I've made a video covering the clear here:


BLUE START: Blue Sentinel until roughly 180 health + Smite Gromp (instantly level Indestructible after using Obliterate to hit both Gromp and Blue Sentinel at the same time to kill Blue Sentinel), Greater Murk Wolf, Crimson Raptor, Red Brambleback, Smite Ancient Krug + Krug, look for top gank. I've made a video covering the clear here:


NOTE: The RED START is faster and is recommended. This is because it is much easier to do Blue Sentinel and Gromp at the same time at the end of the clear than it is to do it at the beginning. Doing it in this manner will allow for you to clear by 3:15 in time for Scuttle. If you use BLUE START you will be a tad bit late.
  • During the early game, you should be focused on farming until Level 6 so that you have access to Realm of Death. You can start clearing from either Blue Sentinel or Red Brambleback, make sure you're pathing towards a lane that has Crowd Control. After Obliterate, you should immediately take Indestructible, as you'll be able to tank all of the damage throughout the rest of your clear and stay insanely healthy.

  • The reason you should be power farming until 6 is because it is often very difficult for Mordekaiser to gank without Realm of Death. If you are going to attempt a gank prior to Level 6, you should use Ghost and sprint into whichever lane you're trying to impact, directly towards your target, being careful to dodge any Crowd Control. The best lane to repeat gank is botlane, as getting two players ahead is better than just one. It is more effective in all encounters to auto attack, hit Obliterate, and then follow up with Death's Grasp. This will get your Darkness Rise up, which you should be aiming to keep up as much as possible.

  • If you can't gank any lanes, you should be farming as much as possible. In order to make up for how tough it is to make ganks happen, you should be especially focused on getting objectives. You must effectively track the enemy Jungler and stay on top of all objectives.

  • It's important to keep in mind that just because ganks are hard, it doesn't mean you can completely ignore them (though there are cases where that is more effective). Highly mobile champs such as Akali, Fizz, LeBlanc, etc. are impossible to gank and there is 0 reason to even try (UNLESS THEIR LANE OPPONENT ON YOUR TEAM HAS GOOD CROWD CONTROL). If their entire team is capable of high mobility then your best bet is to farm as much as possible and just do your best for objectives until you have Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Mid Game:
  • By mid game, you should have three items: Riftmaker or Iceborn Gauntlet, Mercury's Treads or Plated Steelcaps, and Demonic Embrace. From that point forward, your build should be entirely dedicated towards tanking. You are VERY strong with your current items and should be capable of fighting 1v2 so long as nobody is extremely fed or directly counters you.

  • At this point, you need to be playing with your team. It's easy to get into the habit of power farming, but Mordekaiser thrives in battle and should be helping his team do what they need to do.

  • As stated earlier, you should begin building to counter the damage spread of the enemy team. If they're healing a lot, build Bramble Vest. If they have a lot of crit, Warden's Mail. If they have a lot of AP, start Spectre's Cowl, etc. For most of these items, it is very important to start building one item and then finish it. In some cases though, it may be worth building something like Bramble Vest only and then switching over into Frozen Heart or Randuin's Omen.

  • No matter how easy or hard your game started, mid game is going to be tough. Enemies will be desperate for an objective if they're behind, and if they're not, they're going to be playing very aggressive to keep their lead. Use your pings (NOT SPAMMING ???) to communicate what you need your team to do. Make sure you're looking to Realm of Death the most impactful person on their team (but be mindful of Quicksilver Sash and Crowd Control freeing abilities). If you keep your lead during the Mid Game, the game is almost certainly yours.

  • Make sure you're denying the enemy Jungler as much of their Jungle as possible through use of Control Ward and by taking all of their camps.

Late Game:
  • Your priority within the late game is the same as it's always been. Ensure that you're peeling for your carries while being a carry yourself. You should NOT be splitting with Mordekaiser because he is awful at splitting unless you're running Nashor's Tooth and Hullbreaker (which you shouldn't since you're playing Jungle).

  • If you're struggling to end, make sure you're staying grouped and look for picks (people on the other team that are out of position). Remember that an opening will show itself eventually so long as you stay consistent!

  • Reminder that if the only problem standing between you and the end of the game is one person, sell your Mercury's Treads or Plated Steelcaps and purchase Anathema's Chains. Unforuntately, Anathema's Chains doesn't extend the duration of your Realm of Death, but it does reduce their damage by up to 30% at max stacks! Also be sure to start purchasing Elixir of Iron once you finish your build!
Last Word
I have enjoyed Mordekaiser for several years now and he is one of my favorite champions. For a long time, I played Mordekaiser Top, but I often found that I just couldn't make as big of an impact on the game from Top.

I tried many other champions after Mordekaiser, primarily Jungle champions to address my want for more control over the game, but I keep finding myself coming back to Mordekaiser. He's a huge, hulking tyrant that does insane damage, is hard to kill, loves lengthy fights, and thrives in the heat of battle!

I hope that you all find as much enjoyment out of Mordekaiser as I do, and I hope this guide is able to help anyone out there that might be struggling! Further, if you found this guide to be helpful, please consider giving it an upvote! I would absolutely love that and it would mean the world to me!

If you're interested in chatting, watching me play, or want to talk to me about the guide, feel free to catch me on any of my socials! It's easiest to find me on Twitch, Twitter, and Discord at the moment! I'd love to have you be part of our community!

Thank you for your time!

- Shro
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[12.22] BECOME A 1v9 GOD WITH JUNGLE MORDEKAISER

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