01.11.2011

League of Legends - Morgana Guide

Posted by Jindooo on Dienstag, November 01, 2011


Morgana is a powerful AP damage dealer and support champion, similar to her sister Kayle. Morgana is a great asset to any team with her long range (and long duration) snare ability, she is also capable of shielding herself or allies from enemy spells. Morgana is made even more deadly by her amazing farming abilities and her passive spellvamp.

This Morgana guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Morgana, it is recommended for people just starting to use Morgana.

Abilities


  • Morgana Soul Siphon (Passive): Morgana has an amazing passive that keeps her in lane for extended periods of time, making her an amazing solo lane or middle lane champion. It is also quite effective throughout the game.

  • Morgana Dark BInding: A great defensive and offensive snare with long range and a long duration. This helps Morgana bring more support to the battlefield and can set-up kills very easily for her team.

  • Morgana Tormented Soil: Morgana's damage over time skill that works very well with her snare ability, the soil also reduces enemies magic resistance, helping Morgana's laning partner (if they are AP based). This skill also gives Morgana amazing farming ability throughout the game.

  • Morgana Black Shield: An amazing support skill, that is similar to a Banshee's Veil shield, blocking stuns and snares while also shielding against a decent amount of magic damage. Morgana can use this to protect herself or an ally and can be quick casted on herself by pressing "ALT+E". However, I recommend using the smart + self cast option in the League of Legends key bindings, this will automatically cast it on yourself unless our cursor is over an allied champion.

  • Morgana Soul Shackles (Ultimate): Morgana's ultimate has a very powerful area of effect stun and can devastate an enemy team in a team fight, when combined with the active from Zhonya's Hourglass. This ability also works well defensively as it slows enemies and can prevent them from chasing you.

Ability Order

morgana_skill_order
Generally the best way to level abilities as Morgana is:

Ult > Tormented Soil > Dark Binding > Black Shield

Dark Binding at level 1 is your best option, allowing you to hold an enemy in place for your lane partner potentially picking up an early kill, its also a great asset in level 1 team fights. You should focus on maxing Tormented Soil first as it gives you amazing farming ability and can completely kill enemy caster minions at rank 3. Dark Binding is best maxed second to increase its snare duration, making it very powerful mid-late game. Black Shield is usually maxed last but a point is still placed here at level 4 to prevent lane harassment and protect allies against crowd control effects. In same games it may be beneficial to max Black Shield second if you or your team takes alot of enemy harassment.

Runes

morgana_runes
Red (Marks) - Magic Penetration
Yellow (Seals) - Mana Regeneration Per Level
Blue (Glyphs) - Cooldown Reduction
Purple (Quintessences) - Flat Health // Movement Speed // Ability Power


Morgana uses your typical caster/support rune setup. Magic penetration on Marks helps her damage, with mana regeneration on Seals to keep her mana levels up. Cooldown reduction Glyphs helps reduce the cooldowns on Morgana's skills, allowing her to snare and shield more often. I like to run Health on Quintessences to boost Morgana's lane staying power, but you can also use Movement Speed or Ability Power (Morgana has nice ratios).

Summoner Spells

summoner_spells 
Best Summoner Spells:
-Flash
-Teleport

Flash and Teleport are great summoner spells for Morgana, Flash gives you a strong escape mechanism and can even be used to Flash into the middle of a team fight, pop your ultimate and then hit Zhonya's. Teleport is great for map control and keeping Morgana near her team where she is most useful, if your team already has a Teleport consider an alternative.

Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Ignite
-Clairvoyance
-Ghost

There are several other summoner spells that work really well on Morgana. You can take Ignite for a damage boost and to counter specific champions like Vladimir or Dr. Mundo and is a great choice if your allies do not take Ignite. Clairvoyance allows you to fulfil more of a supporting role in your team. Ghost can also be used to replace Flash or even combined with Flash to help you use your ultimate.

Masteries

morgana_masteries
Morgana uses your typical caster mastery setup of 9/0/21. This provides her with magic penetration, mana regeneration, cooldown reduction and improved summoner spells (as well as cooldown).

Item Build

morgana_items 
Final Item Build:
-Sorcerer's Shoes
-Rod of Ages
-Abyssal Scepter
-Zhonya's Hourglass
-Rabadon's Deathcap
-Banshee's Veil


Steps/Reasoning:
-Start with a Doran's Ring, this gives you a nice health boost, some mana regeneration and ability power to get you started.
-On your first trip back you want to grab Boots of Speed and another 1 or 2 Doran's Rings if you cannot afford a Needlessly Large Rod. If you have a tough lane also consider a Catalyst
-On your next shop you want to build a Rabadon's Deathcap or a Zhonya's Hourglass (if you need to initiate for your team), while also building your Sorcerer's Shoes.
-From here you should build whatever Needlessly Rod item you didn't build before and then move onto defensive item choices like Rod of Ages, Banshee's Veil and Abyssal Scepter.

Alternatives:
-Mejai's Soultstealer (Morgana can build up alot of assists, making this a strong choice.)
-Guardian Angel (balance out your resistances and revive after your ultimate.)
-Void Staff (A must have if the enemy starts stacking magic resistance.)
-Frozen Heart (A nice cooldown boost with some mana and armor.)

General Morgana Tips

  • Pay attention to who the enemy targets in team fights, generally this will be consistent throughout the game. This person is your main priority for Black Shield (especially when its your carry).
  • Be sure to use your Dark Binding both offensively and defensively, it has extremely long range.
  • Concentrate on being near your team as much as possible, Morgana has great team fight presence.
  • Conserve your mana, there is nothing worse than not being able to save an ally because you over used your abilities.

Early Game (1-6)

  • Early on you want to grab as many last hits as possible, be careful of Morgana's low auto-attack range.
  • If you are in a side lane you should be focusing on only using your mana to snare an enemy champion either for offensive or defensive reasons.
  • Once you hit level 5 and your Tormented Soil is level 3, you can kill the caster minions with it. Use this on them every wave, it will start building up your gold and keep you healed up thanks to the spell-vamp from your passive.
  • Morgana's snare and pool is a deadly combo but will eat through your mana very quickly, be sure to use it sparingly. It is much more effective in a side lane with a lane partner.

Mid Game (7-12)

  • You can now deal some serious hurt with your spell combo, leading with Dark Binding > Tormented Soil > Soul Shackles.
  • Depending on how well the early game went for you and your team you will start either taking on a damage or support role.
  • Gank other lanes, especially if you are in middle lane, your strong snare and slow (and possible stun) on your ultimate will generally result in a kill.
  • Having a partner help you grab Blue buff is a great boost during mid game, you can hold it for a long period of time with 21 in utility mastery tree.

Late Game (13-18)

  • Concentrate on shielding your team and initiating after the tank. Casting your ultimate, Tormented Soil and activating Zhonya's Hourglass.
  • Grabbing the blue buff is very effective, giving you maximum cooldown reduction (depending on items) and a chunk of mana regeneration.
  • Stay behind your allies to reduce any poking damage, this allows you to focus Black Shield on your allies and use your long range snare to trap enemies that over-extend.
  • If the enemy team has lots of crowd control consider grabbing an early Banshee's Veil so that you can focus all Black Shields on allies. 
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