Morgana - Official Team EZ Guide by EZ Zythian

Introduction

Hi, I'm EZ Zythian and I'm the AP carry player for Team EZ. This is my first of many AP guides. One thing that's important to note about a lot of my core AP heros is that my builds are pretty static. It's very rare that I stray from the builds I'll put on my guides, not that it never happens. I simply find the builds here are typically best in virtually all scenarios.

On to Morgana! So I find Morgana to be both one of the most fun and strongest AP's in the game. She provides massive utility, probably more than any other AP in the game since she well... does everything. She has a root, a stun, a snare, a debuff protection shield, damage shield, aoe, magic resistance reduction, and plenty of damage... that's a massive kit for one hero.

This is how I play Morgana (to 2k+ elo with a 66% win rate as my highest played AP)

You can see my stream at http://www.twitch.tv/zythian and follow me on facebook http://www.facebook.com/Zythian and twitter @EZZythian and our entire team at http://www.teamez.com

Pros / Cons

Pros + Strong Team Fight Control + Strong Farming in lane + Above average roaming + Extremely easy to gank her lane + Great pickoff champion + Strong initiation and Utility

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Cons - Passive Laner - Doesn't outright beat any lanes - High Risk/High Reward abilities

Masteries

Summoner Spells

Flash
Flash is absolutely essential on Morgana. It allows you to flash in and ult for team fights which is absolutely essential to win many teamfights. Being able to position yourself perfectly, ult, and then zhonya's with no chance of escape for the enemy team is absolutely huge. It also allows you to stay in range while chasing someone who has a dash after you ult.

Ignite
I choose ignite to combo mainly in lane, but also at many other times throughout the game. Without ignite it's next to impossible to solo someone down in lane in your full combo. With ignite you can 100-0 pretty much anyone in a combo.

Runes

• Greater Quintessence of Potency: Flat AP is pretty standard on AP carries right now.
  
• Greater Mark of Insight: Magic Pen is the only real option in red slots.
  
• Greater Glyph of Force: AP per level scales great into the later game.
  
• Greater Seal of Replenishment: Early game mana regen is extremely important to Morg to maintain her laning phase through Soul Siphon

Skill Breakdown

Soul Siphon
// Passive Spell Vamp
// The key to Morgana's laning phase. The Spell vamp(Lifesteal) from her pool allows her to lane forever due to this passive. As long as you have mana in lane, this passive allows you to stay in lane.

Dark Binding
Binds the target in place (Skillshot)
Dark Binding is Morgana's key ability most of the game. Dark binding allows for pick offs, kiting, initiation, and is typically the key to her entire kit.
Tormented Soil
Drops a damage over time AoE on the ground, reducing enemy Magic Resist
Your main farming and sustain tool throughout early game. At rank 3 you can one-shot the ranged minion wave and even at level 3 you can one auto attack them down after pool. The key to Morgana's laning phase.
Black Shield
Shields a target, blocking magic damage and causing them to be immune to harmful effects (slow, root, etc.)
One of the biggest parts of Morgana's toolbox. Black shield blocks stuns, slows, knockups, etc. This ability makes you virtually ungankable in lane and allows you to cast your ult in team fights without fear of being knocked back or stunned before it can be casted.

Soul Shackles
Slows all enemy heros in a short range around Morgana. If she stays within the leash range, it will stun after a couple seconds.
One of the strongest ults in the game. When used in the middle of a team it forces them to all spread out in different directions to avoid being stunned or to stay grouped and all get stunned and eat a ton of damage. It's a win/win either way.

Ability Order Reasoning

Tormented Soil - Most guides you'll see will tell you to max tormented soil first for the farming power. While that's certainly an option, I find only getting 3 points and then maxing Dark Binding to be far more effective in the end. 3 Points allows you to farm the ranged minions and from there you can use more points in Dark Binding to increase its duration.

Explained mainly above, but ranking binding forces the enemy to eat Tormented Soil for longer and allows more flexibility in play as a whole when you land them.

Only one rank is taken early to immune slows, stuns, and snares.

Items

Boots of Speed The reason I start off with Boots of Speed over a Doran's ring is after the Morgana nerfs her sustain isn't strong enough with just Doran's and pool. You can be bullied out of lane. Also boots are essential for dodging skillshots (brand, cass, karthus, etc. etc.) against most of the strongest mid laners.


Doran's Ring I always get atleast 2 Doran's rings, sometimes 3 depending on game. The reason being it allows you to self-sustain forever from just mana regen. Since I don't believe RoA is a good item pickup on Morgana, this also gives you the health you need since you won't have a Catalyst.

Zhonya's Hourglass Hourglass first, 95% of games. Why? Because your ult is what you're there for in team fights. If you pop it and get bursted before the stun goes off, you are now useless. Every game I watch a Morg go RoA before Hourglass they lose midgame to the morg dying before the stun goes off. Hourglass is especially important against AoE comps.

Rabadon's Deathcap: Standard AP choice. Pump out the damage. Makes you a massive threat in team fights.



Void Staff: Typically at this point in the game the other team has picked up MR. Make their gold useless.



Will of the Ancients: Typically the strongest buy at this point, especially in double AP comps. Because Soul Siphon provides spell vamp already, this item could be replaced with Guardian Angel, Frozen Heart, Abyssal Scepter or any more defensive item, or you can use one of those items for your last slot after WotA.
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Laning

Morgana's early laning phase is extremely strong in that it's extremely hard to lose a lane as Morgana. Soul Siphon allows you to stay in lane for basically as long as you want to. You want to use your mana as liberally as possible without running yourself out of mana.

Between runes and masteries your mana regen is typically good enough to use Tormented Soil on almost every wave in the early laning phase. Once you hit level 3 you want to begin using it whenever you're able to hit all 3 caster minions as well as the enemy hero. Every time you're able to land what seems insignificant levels of damage from this, you're slowly getting the enemy into kill range in your combo.

Whenever your mana is doing good and you see an opportunity to land a Dark Binding it's always a strong choice. If you can land 2 bindings with Tormented Soil to follow up you should be able to kill virtually any hero with Ignite and auto attacks.

Morgana's auto attacks tend to be a core part of her laning. Because she can easily spell vamp back any minion aggro she gained from auto attacking, attacking the enemy with normal right-clicking tends to really help bully your lane around.

Once you're level 5 you should have 3 levels in Tormented Soil. This allows you to kill the entire ranged minion wave in one pool.

Pre-6 ganks can be very effective with any Crowd control to allow you to guarantee Dark Binding. Post-6 however can easily be ganked by any hero. Any hero without Flash is a free kill with Morgana. Simply walking up to a hero and using Soul Shackles then staying in range for the leash, you then throw your Dark Binding Tormented Soil and Ignite.

Once you're able to easily clear creep waves with a couple Doran's Rings and level 3 Tormented Soil you're then able to roam. Once you push your lane you can look for ganks in either top or bot lane very easily. Moving to either lane and using your combo with or without ult can result in a lot of kills for either lane.

Black Shield

Black Shield

Black Shield is one of morgana's strongest abilities. The ability to block virtually any ability thrown at yourself or a teammate can prove invaluable in every aspect of a fight.

Black Shield is one of the only abilities in the game that I don't use smartcast on. It's simply too important to prepare in advance to use black shield and rushing it with smartcast can be very costly.

You typically want to shield once projectiles are already in the air on the way to a player or you risk being knocked back or silenced. Alt-E is the default keybind to black shield yourself. It's typically always safer to use this bind than attempt to click on yourself during teamfights.

This video demonstrates the potency of Black Shield in a real game scenario.

Team Fighting

The moments before a team fight you typically throw Dark Binding/ Tormented Soil out off cooldown looking to pick someone off and give your team the advantage when initiating. With blue buff the cooldown is typically around 4 seconds and you can spam until you finally catch someone for strong initiation.

The goal for Morgana is to land Soul Shackles as many players as she can and then make sure the stuns land on the carries. When you're going in for your ultimate use Black Shield on yourself. This prevents you from getting knocked back, silenced, stunned, or anything else that would prevent you from landing the ultimate you want. If Flash is up, use it to position yourself more quickly and in a better spot overall before you ult. If the enemy team splits into different directions you want to stay with the carries and ignore their tanks with the stuns. Once Soul Shackles stuns you Dark Binding/ Tormented Soil their carry again to remove them completely from the fight.

If the team turns on you or if you're in danger of being AoE'd down, knocked out from your ult, or otherwise harmed, this is why you brought along a Zhonya's Hourglass. Once you used Soul Shackles you can use Hourglass without losing your ult leashes. With you not moving, however, it's easier for the enemy team to move out of range so it does have its downside. Use as necessary!

Once your ult has popped Morgana falls into a more passive role. You back out of the middle of the fight and just throw binding/pool combos while shielding whoever you need to (preferably your AD carry most games).

Conclusion

Basically, Morgana has the power to be an absolute menace in team fights. She has the utility of an entire team at her fingertips.

As always on my guides, comments, criticism, and questions are all welcomed in the comments section below. Please +1 the guide if you found it useful!

You can see my stream at http://www.twitch.tv/zythian and follow me on facebook http://www.facebook.com/Zythian and twitter @EZZythian and our entire team at http://www.teamez.com

Credits to jhoijhoi for a lot of the formatting, which you can find here.