Introduction
Morgana is a fairly strong AP mid. So strong, even, that she's usually banned or picked in ranked games. She can deal a fair amount of damage while also being quite resilient herself, and her passive ability
Soul Siphon provides her with excellent health sustain. In addition, she has an excellent kit for utility purposes. Overall, a champion worth playing if you can!
Skills
A short section explaining what Morgana has to work with, including what I've found to be the best uses for her skills.
Soul Siphon
Free spell vamp! Since you should be using one of your skills to help you farm minions from level 5 onwards, this is pretty much guaranteed bonus sustain in lane. You won't have to spend 1200g on a
Hextech Revolver with Morgana. Of course, you can opt to build a
Will of the Ancients regardless since the vamp stacks with your passive.
Dark Binding
Your skillshot nuke. It deals excellent damage and snares the opponent for 2-3 seconds depending on its level. If you land it on an enemy champion, try putting your
Tormented Soil underneath them so they'll take at least 3 hits from it before they can move away. Its biggest drawback is that it's slow. You have to either predict where your target will be moving or slow/stun them first in order to reliably land a
Dark Binding. It will hit whatever enemy crosses its path, so minions can block it too.
Because of its long range,
Dark Binding can also be used to farm if you're being dominated in lane. Woe your mana sustain if you have to do this, though.
Tormented Soil
The only reason Morgana can push her lane. This skill turns a part of the ground into a poisonous bog of sorts, damaging and reducing the magical resistance of all enemies inside it every second. The magical resistance debuff stacks but disappears after about 1.5-2 seconds if it's not refreshed. The skill can hit up to 5 times, so there's no way you can get 6 or more stacks of this debuff on one enemy. You can use this skill on an enemy that's stunned, snared or otherwise forced to stay where they are to guarantee multiple hits. Also take note of how the first hit of
Tormented Soil occurs the moment you cast it, not after one second!
Tormented Soil deals enough damage to kill the caster minions when it's level 3 and the melee minions when it's level 4 or 5 and you have some AP, so use it when the minions start attacking and you know they'll stay on the soil for its full duration. This is your main source of farm. Whenever possible, try placing it in such a way that the first hit will also hurt your enemy! Usually, you can place
Tormented Soil so that it also hits (some of) the melee minions.
Black Shield
This skill is AWESOME. Not only does it provide the recipient (you can cast it on yourself or allied champions) receive a substantial shield that absorbs magic damage, they're also protected from any and all forms of CC while the shield lasts! With its 0.7 AP ratio and 355 base shield health when maxed, it is pretty hard to get past for your enemies. Some people might find it annoying that this shield doesn't protect you from physical damage… the way I look at it, people who deal physical damage simply can't use any slow, stun etc. on the person that's shielded until the shield runs out after 5 seconds. Cast it on an ally that's trying to initiate, on your AD carry if they're in danger of being focused, a teammate that's trying to escape from the enemy or on yourself when you need it. Alt+E is your best friend, remember it! Any enemy gank is doomed to fail if you have this beauty available. One final note, if your
Black Shield is destroyed by a spell that would normally inflict CC then that CC will still be blocked.
Soul Shackles
A.K.A. Why We Ban Morgana. The main reason my second build contains
Zhonya's Hourglass and
Rylai's Crystal Scepter. It deals almost as much damage as a
Dark Binding upfront and slows the poor saps that were hit while they remain near Morgana. If any of them stay within range (about twice the range for activating the skill) for 3 seconds, they're dealt another hit for the same amount of damage as the first and receive a 1-2 second stun. Use your
Black Shield on yourself, walk or flash into the enemy team, ult and use your
Zhonya's Hourglass if necessary. If the enemy doesn't seem like they'll (be able to) burst you down, save the Hourglass active for later and try to move about so as to keep the
Soul Shackles on as many (high-priority) targets as possible. If you have them available, place your
Tormented Soil under a stunned high-priority target and land your
Dark Binding on them when the stun is about to wear off.
Fun tip: Try combining this skill with Amumu's or Galio's ult so enemies are forced to stay in range of the
Soul Shackles for the duration.
Optional Items
Void Staff
Sure, if you need it. This item can replace your
Deathfire Grasp, your
Abyssal Scepter/
Banshee's Veil or even your
Rod of Ages in the late game. Take a second to consider which of the three is more important, though: your own resilience, killing off one priority target fast, or doing better damage to the (off)tanks. This item becomes more viable if you don't use
Sorcerer's Shoes and
Abyssal Scepter.
Will of the Ancients
You don't need it, I told you that. Having said that, this item does provide you with even more health sustain and provides wanting teammates with one of the best auras there are. Worth considering, maybe use mres/lvl glyphs and replace your mres item with this.
Boots of Lucidity and other CDR items
Getting to cast spells more often is always nice. CDR is of lower priority for the Offensive Caster build since your first priority is short-term damage. It can be quite useful to have your ultimate on a lower cooldown in the mid game, but it should be up in time for team fights anyways once you reach late game and death timers go up. Consider
Morello's Evil Tome if a
Dr. Mundo is proving hard to kill.
Moonflare Spellblade/ Mercury Threads
You have a
Black Shield, don't you?
Archangel's Staff/
Athene's Unholy Grail
Decent items, I guess. Athene's is a good item all around, replace your mres item with it if you like.
Mejai's Soulstealer
Like it matters what you build if you're getting that many kills and supports as
Morgana. Silly little item that only offers straight-up damage amplification.
Lich Bane
If you already have a
Deathfire Grasp and still need more burst. Purchase at your own risk.
Nashor's Tooth/
Guinsoo's Rageblade
…Really now?
Epilogue
Well, that's it for now. I might add more chapters if I feel like it or at request. On that note, feel free to rate and comment my guide if you want. I'd be happy to hear whether I've been of help to you.