He was one of the first Champions on the League of Legends roster, and it has taken some time before the champion team to come back around to the Iron Revenant. Today, Riot Games revealed the champion’s new abilities and shared a brief behind-the-scenes video of their process.
“He’s like a walking fortress,” says Neal Wojahn, one of the Mordekaiser DNA team -- a group of narrative, design, and art people who are at the core of the champion rework.
Among his new abilities is the highlighted new ultimate move. Mordekaiser’s “R” is now the Realm of Death. With it, Mordekaiser can bring one enemy champion into another plane of existence on the realm. Here, there are no other champions, no minions, and a strict circular barrier (almost one full screen).
Within the Realm of Death, is a one-on-one battle that will end on the death of either champion or if 7 seconds passes. It may seem like a short amount of time, but having nothing but an enemy with you in this realm for 7 seconds feels like an eternity.
When Mordekaiser casts the Realm of Death, he steals a percentage of his opponent's core stats. Should he manage to slay that opponent, he “consumes their soul” which allows him to keep those partial stats for as long as the opponent is dead, going away when the enemy respawns.
Other notable abilities include his “W” Indestructible, in which Mordekaiser casts a shield on himself that will absorb 25% of incoming and outgoing damage, he can consume this shield to heal for up to 50% of the weight of the shield.
“In the VGU we really wanted to approach making sure there’s a throughline, while also keeping those things the old players liked about the champion,” says Jonathan Fuller, Game Designer. Heading into this rework, the champion team had a lofty amount of finely-tuned work in front of them. Plenty of players, mostly ones that have been around for a while, absolutely love or hate Mordekaiser. There’s no middle-ground there. How he looks now, refreshed, plays into both camps very well.
Riot Games has yet to reveal when the Mordekaiser rework will hit the client, but it doesn’t look like it’s all that far away. Chances are, we will be able to get some time in with the metal lord of darkness, on the PBE at least, in the next few weeks.
