What’s up guys it’s me Jeremy!
In the four months or so since Mordekaiser’s rework in August, he’s changed a lot, and
now he’s ended up in kind of a weird spot, comparable to how he was completely before
the rework.
And it brings up the concept of what his rework accomplished.
Also, a heads up I’m doing a 200$ RP giveaway with some friends, and It’s super easy to
enter, just check the link in the description.And If you enjoy the video don’t forget to hit
that like button, and if you didn’t enjoy the video, click the dislike; either way,
if this video hits 10,000 ratings, I’m gonna buy myself a pizza.
Anyways, let’s get started.
The Mordekaiser rework was unique compared to all of the other reworks by being one of,
if not the actual, first attempt by Riot to change what defines the meta by creating this
character that clearly fits outside of the standard roles and team compositions that
the meta we have come to know are defined by.
He was marketed and remade to fit the role of this bruiser carry in a duo lane that hasn’t
really existed in the meta outside of some random cheese strategies.
He was supposed to be this revolutionary champion that set the stage for the meta that we have
been accustomed to, to start changing completely.
Ever since the Season One World Championships, the bottom duo lane has consisted of a support
and ranged AD carry, and aside from lane swaps, this hasn’t changed competitively.
There’s no doubt that the league of legends meta is heavily limited by team composition
and roles, and Mordekaiser was intended to throw that out the window and succeed in spite
of it.
Giving Mordekaiser great AD and AP scaling, the ability to gain full experience while
laning with an ally, and introducing the Dragon ghost if he assists on the kill, all made
him a prime candidate for the bottom lane.
Having the kind of flexibility to take a melee fighter bot freed up a spot for a marksman
in the jungle or a solo lane and really brought a lot of potential to team compositions in
the game… for a time.
For about the first two months or so after his rework, it was definitely successful,
creating a competitive pick for the duo lane, that wasn’t an ad carry or a support.
However, the reason why he succeeded wasn’t really optimal at all.
He essentially succeeded in breaking the meta by being completely overpowered, which is
of course, not the ideal way to do that kind of thing.
At the time of his rework, the numbers on his Q and W were far too high and giving him
full experience allowed him to hit level 6 while his lane opponents were still level
4.
And so although at first it did accomplish its goals set out in the design, it did so
for the wrong reasons, and after his resulting, and well-deserved nerfs, well he’s struggled
a bit to find a place, and has lost all sight of what was intended for his original design.
Before the rework, Mordekaiser was an acceptable niche—solo laner.
His rework moved him into the bottom lane, as his W’s active and passive were relatively
useless without an ally nearby.
Recently, after some buffs, some players have found a place for him in the jungle utilizing
his great sustain and countergank potential.
However, as much as I enjoyed playing a bit of Mordekaiser jungle, the statistics show
that he’s not that good of a champion right now, with a win rate sitting at about 46 percent
at the time of making this video, and more importantly, he’s lost the tools in his
kit that made him ideal for the duo lane role.
On paper, the Mordekaiser rework was an incredible idea.
There’s no doubt that the League meta is limited, and for the average casual player
like you and me, that sucks, because it means a large amount of champions and strategies
are just unplayable, and trying to make your own builds and strategies work is a lot more
difficult than it could be.
Even with almost 130 champions, League feels limiting as the sub-optimal, sometimes more
fun strategies become even less likely to win games.
Mordekaiser was supposed to give that decision to players, to go in the bottom lane as a
melee juggernaut and act as an anti-carry, but it really fell flat once Riot removed
the initial power that made the pick so popular.
However, the idea still stands, and it’s something I really want to see develop further,
and Mordekaiser is a victim of poor execution more than anything else.
With new character designs, items, or other changes, the meta can easily begin to revolutionize
and evolve past the stale pre-existing setup.
Unfortuneately the past has shown that the meta isn’t going to revolutionize by itself.
Sure, there might be minor changes here and there, but the League meta is too cemented
to have any major changes without the assistance from Riot, so I can at least applaud them
for showing that they are trying to do that with the Mordekaiser rework.
And so although Mordekaiser might not have accomplished what he intended to at the end
of the day, he was such a bold step in the right direction towards a more open and free
meta compared to what we have today.
And an example of someone who likely took inspiration from the design philosophies of
the mordekaiser rework was actually Kindred.
Similar to how the Morde rework was designed to break the meta in the bottom lane, Kindred
was designed to break the meta by being an Ad carry in the jungle.
Up until her release, we had always seen tanks and fighters as the popular meta options in
the jungle.
And Kindred’s design so far has shown to be quite successful.
Her win rate in soloqueue isn’t an obnoxious 56 percent like mordekaiser’s was, and although
she is a reasonably contested pick in the LCS and LCK, her winrate across the board
is below 20% in competitive play at the time of making this video, so although she’s
definitely a strong champion, I don’t think you can say that she’s overpowered, and
even if she is overpowered, it’s by a relatively small margin, unlike how mordekaiser was,
because she succeed’s in a different way.
Ad carries in the jungle haven’t been successful in the past, mainly because they lack tankiness,
which you generally want a jungler to have at least a bit of, to be able to fit team
compositions, as a squishy jungler usually correlates to a squishy team, and a poor team
comp.
But Kindred gets around that because her ultimate gives her a form of tankiness that allows
her to not only make herself unkillable, but the rest of her team as well.
Her ultimate completely covers up the weakness that picking an ad carry in the jungle normally
would, and thus allows her other strengths to shine through, and her to be a competitive
pick.
And she’s an example of the design concept that we saw in the mordekaiser rework, but
with a little bit better execution.
She succeeds because her kit allows her to bypass the main weakness of the off meta pick.
Kindred is an example of this idea done right, and she successfully breaks the meta, and
is strong, without being obnoxious sly overpowered.
And as more champions and reworks with unique and distinctive playstyles are released, we’ll
have even more options on how to play beyond the current meta, which should keep the game
interesting for players who are beginning to burn out.
And with their design, Riot has shown that they are interested in changing up the meta,
and I am definitely looking forward to their future creations.
And that’s just about it.
Here are some of my favorite comments from a previous video, where I asked what you item
you hoped to get from the hextech crafting system.
For a chance to be featured in a future video, leave a comment about what your favorite champion
rework was.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time!