Mordred is the Breaker of the Round Table, and once you've mastered him, your enemies will feel like he's put them through a few Round Tables.
Mordred is a melee god that does Physical damage. He scales off of Strength, Intelligence, and Protections. His most prominent roles are in the Solo lane and in the Jungle, but can potentially be niche flexed into Support and possibly even Mid depending on team composition and current meta.
Your goal with Mordred, regardless of role, will often be finding your way to the enemy backline to do lots of damage and survive with mobility, protections, and sustain. How you do that damage and get that sustain is largely up to your build path, which Mordred has many options with, but before getting to build paths, let's talk about how he's played.
Mordred Abilities
Basic Attacks: Mordred's basic attacks are anything but basic when it comes to Smite 2. He has two swords, called Mourning and Clarent. His attack chain is Mourning>Clarent>Clarent>Mourning, and it's timing is 1/.75/.75/1. Mourning (attack 1 and 4) scale like normal basics with primarily strength (100% STR/20% INT), but Clarent (attack 2 and 3) scales only with 100% INT and 60% STR, which means his basics get value from building some INT.
Passive - Wrath of the Forsaken: This gives you a "Wrath" meter, similar to Smite 1's King Arthur. This meter fills some passively on it's own, but largely fills based on hitting abilities and basic attacks on enemies. Hitting gods gives a bit more wrath than hitting minions. This passive largely replaces the cooldown for the ultimate, which we'll touch on in a second.
The second part of the passive is a little Dash, which hits the first god for a little bit of damage and knocks them up. This doesn't cost Wrath or Mana, so feel free to use this pretty much whenever. It's good as just a little movement ability to get around or dodge abilities too. You use the Interact/Jump button to use this, and it does have a lower cooldown if you build CDR.
Cruel Strikes: Slashes in a small cone in front of Mordred then slams in a short line. The slash is pretty straight-forward: just a simple damaging ability that scales with STR. The line has two parts. The first is also just simple damage that scales with STR, but it has an interesting reaction with the basic attack chain that scales with protections. If the next basic attack would be Mourning (first or fourth attack), the slam does bonus damage based on protections, or if the next basic attack would be Clarent (2nd or 3rd attack), he instead heals scaling with protections. The ability icon changes as well: It's more pink when it's going to do extra damage, and is more orange when it's going to heal. Attacking once then hitting the slam is good for sustain, especially if you've built a lot of protections. The Heal isn't as big if hitting minions.
Bloodrage: This is a classic rage ability at the core, doing damage, that scales with both STR and INT pretty evenly, in a circle around Mordred, and giving an AS% and MS% stim. This ability is very packed though because while Bloodrage is active, you can stack a protection buff onto Mordred, and a protection debuff onto enemies with basic attacks up to 4 times. At max level, this is currently an 8 per hit protection buff/debuff, which means hitting 4 basics while in Bloodrage, Mordred can get a short 32 protection buff and can shred 32 protections off of an enemy.
Severing Slice: A simple line ability that deals damage, scaling on INT and slowing enemies. The fun part of this ability is that when hitting the center of the line, it causes the enemy to Bleed as they move, which scales with strength instead of INT. The Bleed is a DOT on minions rather being based on their movement.
Heart Slash: So like I was saying about the ultimate cooldown, Mordred doesn't have a traditional time-based cooldown but instead has 2 different ultimates based on how full the wrath meter is. One is for when between 40-80 Wrath, called Heart Slash. This is a wide line in front of Mordred that's initial hit scales with STR and Roots any god you hit for 1.5s. During the Root, there's a DOT every .3s that gives healing, both scaling on INT. Mordred also gains a Shield while channeling.
Pursue the Weak: Above 80 Wraths, Mordred's ult becomes Pursue the Weak. When activated, Mordred becomes CC immune and can run through walls. On first god hit, it deals damage scaling on both STR+INT and stuns in a small circle, then everyone stunned will get taken up into the sky with where Mordred hits a few more strikes that also scale with both STR+INT.
Ability Upgrade Path
Cruel Strikes: This is the ability you'll want to start with, it gives you the most burst damage from a single ability at the start of the game, which is good for jungle and minion clear, along with boxing if in solo lane. If you're going a STR or Protection focused build, you'll want to max this ability first.
Bloodrage: You'll always want to max this ability between Cruel Strikes and Severing Slice, as it scales well with both STR and INT, and the prot buff and shred are strongest in the mid-game.
Severing Slice: This ability will normally be that last you'll want to max, but if you're going an INT based build, it may be smart to max it first for extra damage on the initial hit.
Heart Slash/Pursue the Weak: You'll want to upgrade this at every opportunity as the base heal and shield on Heart Slash, and the damage increases on both forms is not something you'll want to skip over.
Ability Usage/Combos
Unlike some other gods, there's not many clear "combo's" with Mordred. You really just need to know when and what ability to use for each situation. At a basic level, just cycling through all of your abilities while weaving basic attacks in between them will have you doing well enough as you learn which ability is best to use in any given scenario. The only ability you should really think too hard about at first is that once you use Bloodrage (AO2), you'll want to hit those 4 basic attacks before it wears off to take advantage of the the buff/debuff it provides.
If you're looking to sustain, you can use Cruel Strikes (AO1) after using a basic attack to heal from the Slam.
If you need to prot-shred or stim your MS%/AS%, use your Bloodrage (AO2). This is really good during objectives, letting you shred down towers, phoenixes, or things like GF/FG with autos while your abilities are on cooldown.
If you just want to throw some ranged poke or need to slow the enemy, you can use Severing Slice (AO3).
You can used your Dash on the Interact key for all sorts of different scenarios. Whether it just be dodging abilities, closing distance, or using the knockup for damage/CC/setup, it's all in figuring out when and where you should be using it.
Both forms of the Ultimate (AO4) are really good engage/setup and peel tools for your team, as they are both fairly long multi-target CC abilities. Make sure to not underestimate how good Heart Slash can be even though it's considered the "smaller" form of the ultimate.
Heart Slash (AO4) is a good self-peel and sustain tool as well, giving a big shield and decent sized heal to Mordred as it does DOT to any god's stuck inside of the Root.
Pursue the Weak (AO4) is often times best used through walls when using it this way, as the turn radius is quite poor, making it somewhat easy for expecting enemies to dodge if they see Mordred coming.
I like to think of Pursue the Weak a lot like Smite 1's Ne Zha's ultimate (Wind Fire Wheels) when used for setup; it's a fairly easy for big burst mages like Kukulkan to hit their sometimes difficult to land ultimate abilities when they know when and where the targets you've taken into the air are going to land.
Pursue the Weak (AO4) is also a strong escape tool if you can manage to not accidentally hit a god during it (easier said than done). It gives CC immunity, which is a little more difficult to come by as you don't normally want to be getting the Beads relic on Mordred, and is a long range dash that can go through the walls of the map.
Now onto those build paths!
Mordred Builds
Auto-Builds
These are pretty much all either Solo or Arena builds, but will get you by in those places ok if you aren't comfortable building yet.
Bruiser: This is probably the best auto-build option for Mordred in most cases. This will play similar to my Cooldown Bruiser build without the flexibility or option of counter-building.
Basic Attack Warrior: This isn't great from my experience but can be a fun way to try and play him.
Full Tank: If you know going into the game you'll need Anti-heal (like if the other team has a Hades or Chaac), this can be a good auto-build option since it contains Ruinous Ankh. Outside of that, this is very much a "get in there, and just be in there" build because of low CDR. A lot of your utility in fights will be constant Mystical Mail DOT procs, the anti-heal, and having high base defense stats.
Hybrid Bruiser: This build is probably the worst auto-build because it attempts to be Hybrid in too many different ways, between STR+INT, ability+basic attacks, and damage+defense... and suffers because of it.
Solo
Cooldown Bruiser
Relic:
Sunder. This lets you invade, gives extra damage in a fight if necessary, and gives you good camp and objective secure for your team. You should pretty much be looking to start every game by invading either the enemy Blue/Red with your solo-laner or enemy speed/purple with your duo-laners. If your team doesn't goes to invade with you, you can try to sneak a solo invade on red or speed buff.
Starter:
Bluestone Pendant because it's damage procs on abilities will synergize well with the high CDR nature of this build.
Starter items:
Axe to give you a little extra damage for the early camp and lane clear and damage in early fights.
3 Health Pots since you shouldn't need mana sustain from pots because you should be able to invade the enemy blue or secure your own blue buff for that sustain.
Solo Strategy: If you have enough gold during a back at some point around your first item, a Health Chalic can be really good and make your sustain through most of the early-mid really hard to deal with.
Hybrid 1st item
Helps you clear early without making you too squishy.
Gladiator's Shield will synergize and scale well with the rest of the build with the passive, while the strength will help the damage on the first basic attack and the AO1.
Helm of Radiance will give INT to give extra damage on your 2nd and 2rd basic, and the immediate damage on the 3, along with a lot of physical prots. This should only be built when the solo-matchup is a god that does Physical damage.
Triton's Conch will give you a lot of health on top of STR and INT and a scaling STR and INT aura that will help your team once you start team-fighting.
Phoenix Shield for lots of sustain when using abilities.
NEXT 3 ITEMS
Your first item here should either be to counterbuild the enemy solo or add more protections and CDR. The next two items can either be counterbuild for the rest of the enemy team, Actives to help the team, or more protections/CDR.
If you don't need to counterbuild:
Breastplate of Valor for more physical defense and CDR.
Genji's Guard for magical defense and CDR.
Mystical Mail for physical defense and a good constant damage tick around you to further help with clear and long drawn out fights... however you lack CDR.
Amanita Charm (Mushroom) for hybrid defense and an Active that gives your team an AOE heal that can also be really strong for you while boxing.
If you do need to counterbuild:
Ruinous Ankh for antiheal.
Leviathan's Hide for anti-AA.
Spectral Armor for anti-crit.
Hussar's Wings can be good if you're getting slowed too much.
If they have a lot of CC to set up damage on you, you can go Spirit Robe (if not banned) for extra defense when CC'd, or you can go Talisman of Purification for an Active that gives a small AOE CC Cleanse and Immunity for 1 second.
6th Item:
Glorious Pridwen gives a lot of CDR and hybrid prots. It also has an Active that gives a big shield, slow, and extra damage that synergizes well with all the tanky items you've built.
Perfect Scenario Build where you don't need to counter-build:
Bluestone>Gladiator's Shield>Phoenix Shield>Amanita Charm>Genji's Guard>Breastplate of Valor>Glorious Pridwen
Jungle
Triple Stack
This build takes a little bit of time and farming to get online and doesn't give much flexibility for counter-building, but once you've got all three items stacked, Mordred will be doing an absolute ton of damage with all of his abilities and basic attacks.
Relic:
Sunder. This lets you invade, gives extra damage in a fight if necessary, and gives you good camp and objective secure for your team. You should pretty much be looking to start every game by invading either the enemy Blue/Red with your solo-laner or enemy speed/purple with your duo-laners. If your team doesn't goes to invade with you, you can try to sneak a solo invade on red or speed buff.
Starter:
Bumba's Cudgel because you're going more ability focused and you want to be able to clear the jungle quickly.
Starter items:
Axe to give you a little extra damage for the early camp clear and damage on early ganks/fights.
2 Health Pots and 1 Mana Pot since you aren't guaranteed blue buff sustain like in solo.
FIRST 3 ITEMS:
Devourer's Gauntlet, Transcendence, Book of Thoth
Triple flat penetration once they evolve on top of your AO2 prot shred. These are some of the only ways to get flat pen, which is usually stronger than %pen against squishy targets.
The mana synergy on Transcendence and Book of Thoth give you a ton of INT and STR on their passives once evolved.
Go Devourer's Gauntlet first for the lifesteal to sustain during camp rotation, then Transcendence because the STR scaling is better on you primary two clear abilities (AO1 and AO2) and first basic for AA-cancelling, then Book of Thoth to complete the triple stack.
Tekko-Cagi gives strength, cooldown, and a passive that gives movement speed and extra CDR on ability usage, this let's you get your damage off and rotate around faster for clear and ganks.
The Crusher: This gives a little bit more cooldown since this build is lacking it a bit. It also gives you some %pen later in the game to punch through natural protections and do better damage to tankier targets. The passive gives you a good bit of extra damage to your targets as well.
Heartseeker: You're building this to get some more %pen and the passive helps do some extra damage, especially to tanks.
The Build: Devourer's Gauntlet>Transcendence>Book of Thoth>Tekko-Cagi>The Crusher>Heartseeker
Ability Burst
This build gets online a lot quicker than the Triple Stack build, and scales well throughout the whole game despite being slightly weaker at full build. You definitely want to look to be getting active on ganks early with this build and trying to snowball early pressure into a win for your team.
Relic:
Sunder. This lets you invade, gives extra damage in a fight if necessary, and gives you good camp and objective secure for your team. You should pretty much be looking to start every game by invading either the enemy Blue/Red with your solo-laner or enemy speed/purple with your duo-laners. If your team doesn't goes to invade with you, you can try to sneak a solo invade on red or speed buff.
Starter:
Bumba's Cudgel because you're going more ability focused and you want to be able to clear the jungle quickly.
Starter items:
Axe to give you a little extra damage for the early camp clear and damage on early ganks/fights.
2 Health Pots and 1 Mana Pot since you aren't guaranteed blue buff sustain like in solo.
Tekko-Kagi gives you strength, cooldown, and a passive that gives you movement speed and extra CDR on ability usage, let's you get your damage off and rotate around faster for clear and ganks.
Jotunn's Revenge: More strength and early CDR. Let's you chain together kills on ganks because of the cooldown resets it gives you.
3rd Item
Mana Sustain: At this point you've got a lot of CDR, but unless you're constantly invading their blue buff successfully, you're going to start strugging with mana sustain because you're cycling your abilities a lot.
Hydra's Lament is a classic safe jungle item for this in this slot, gives good sustain and gives you extra damage on your first auto after an ability which synergizes well with Bumba's.
Transcendence could be good with a ton of mana and sustain, and the flat pen on evolve, but the stacking takes a while and you don't have a ton of mana synergy in this build.
If you need anti-heal in your build, it's not a terrible idea to go Divine Ruin here, the mana sustain and intelligence works well on Mordred in this slot while Brawler's Ruin doesn't as well.
Rushing Heartseeker could also be ok, but it's a little early to be buying such an expensive item that scales a lot better in the late game.
Last 3 Items:
Your last items should really be %Pen items. You want to be able to punch through some of those natural protections squishies have at the higher levels and also be able to damage the tankier targets when you need to fight them.
There's a lot of solid choices in the first slot here:
The Crusher gives a little extra CDR and some good extra damage in the passive when you hit abilities.
Serrated Edge can be good here to give you a little more sustain, and lets your autos hit really hard with the STR and LS% buffs for when your abilities are on CD.
Titan's Bane can be a really good just giant stat-stick on penetration if you're really struggling to burst people down.
Oath-Sworn Spear's flat protection reduction on ability hit can synergize super well with the prot shred on your 2,
If you didn't build Divine Ruin in the mana sustain slot and need anti-heal, you might want to look at Brawler's Ruin in one of these last 3 slots.
One of the last two items should probably be Heartseeker. It's very good at this later stage because the passive is proccing pretty hard at 300+ STR, especially against high max health build targets.
Actives
If you want to replace one of the last 3 items with an Active Item, you can build:
Pendulum Blade to get a pretty quick CDR reset on your 3 main abilities or
Avatar's Parashu to turn you into a mega-damage machine for 10s every 180s. This will probably get Mordred up to near 500 damage, especially if you have any STR buffs or an Elixir of Strength.
Example Build where you don't need to counter-build:
Bumba's Hammer>Tekko-Cagi>Jotunn's Revenge>Hydra's Lament>Oath-Sworn Spear>The Crusher>Heartseeker
As you can see, Mordred can seem like a simple character on the surface but has many, many ways to build to utilize different parts of his kit, which has a few in-depth mechanics added on. Now it's time to Pursue the Weak and slay some Titans.
