Lately I do not have free time to put on the guides, so untill there will be this chapter I will not add new matchups or things like that.

I will only change something if there will be some changes about an item or the champion
(in this case Morgana).

I always loved Morgana, but due to the fact that I am a terrible support,and I prefere playing the lane phase alone, I never really played she.
Until one day I decided to look around for a Morgana MID guide...well, there are some, but usually outdated or that just show the items without any explanatory.
So I decided to "study" a bit this champion and make my own guide* about.

Then, lets take a look!

P.S If you are interested in other guides I made, here it is the Aatrox's one.

*More than a guide this is how I play Morgana in midlane, hope that someone could benefit from that.

NOTE:
English is not my first language, so please exuse any strange sintattic form etc.

"Only those you love can break your heart."- Morgana

Conflicted between her celestial and mortal natures, Morgana, twin sister of Kayle bound her wings to embrace humanity, and inflicts her pain and bitterness upon the dishonest and the corrupt. She rejects laws and traditions she believes are unjust, and fights for truth from the shadows of Demacia—even as others seek to repress it—by casting shields and chains of dark fire. More than anything else, Morgana truly believes that even the banished and outcast may one day rise again.


Morgana is a mage with long duration CC that really shines at teamfights and mid-game skirmishes.
During the laning phase she is a defensive/safe pick who can prevent early snowball from enemies; most of midlaners are, or good in early game, where Morgana denys them the chance to use that advantage, or items reliant, where in this case Morgana denys them the kills/farm/roams to get them faster.
Morgana is pretty good on counter engaging, means you don't go aggressive yourself but wait for your enemy to go in, or on punish mistakes.
But it's really not needed and not your primary focus. Your focus should be to control the wave, get as much gold from waves as possible and bind your opponent to the lane.

Abilities

Maxing R > W > Q > E is the best all around ability for the ledy Morgana. The W is an encridible wave-clear/harrass tool. Q is good to max after W due to the late game high damage and the eternal CC that can, in team fights, secure the kill. Last to max is the E, a great "lifesaver", but since we are mid we have to deal damage and sometimes save a mispositioned ally.

PASSIVE

Soul Siphon:

Morgana restores health equal to 20% of ability damage dealt to champions, large minions and large monsters.

Q

Dark Binding:

Morgana releases a sphere of dark magic that travels in a line, dealing 80/ 135/ 190/ 245/ 300(+ 90% AP) to the first enemy hit and rooting them for 2s/ 2.25s/ 2.5s/ 2.75s/ 3s. Cooldown: 11s Cost: 50/ 55/ 60/ 65/ 70 Dark Binding is a slow medium range skillshot that can, if well landed, garantee a kill. Great engage/disingage tool. It is considered a projectile so it is blocked by yasuo Wind Wall. You should max this ability SECOND for empower its damage and rooting duration.

W

Tormented Shadow:

Morgana infects the target area for 5 seconds, causing enemies who stand on the location to take magic damage every half second, increased by 0% − 170% (based on target's missing health). Cooldown: 12s (Reduced by 5% whenever Soul Siphon triggers. Cost: 70/ 85/ 100/ 115/ 130 Tormented Shadow is an area ability that deal damage over time in a area for 5 seconds. Each HALF second inflict a MINIMUM of 6/ 12/ 18/ 24/ 30(+7% AP) on a max health enemy, to a MAXIMUM of 16/ 32/ 49/ 65/ 81(+19% AP). This is our bread and butter ability to harras, farm and , why not, kill. It can deal a lot of damage, but have a really high cost of mana, so do not spam it until the Lost Chapter. You should max this ability FIRST for empower the damage, and your waveclear potential.

E

Black Shield:

Morgana shields the target allied champion for up to 5 seconds, absorbing 60/ 120/ 180/ 240/ 300(+70% AP) magic damage and rendering her target immune to all crowd control while the shield holds. Cooldown: 26s/ 24s/ 22s/ 20s/ 18s Cost: 80 Black Shield is a really strong defensive skill that makes you hard to gank and that can change whole teamfights. A few things to know: Black Shield has no cast time and does not interrupt Morgana's previous orders(you can cast the shield while moving like the Vel'koz Void Rift). Thresh's Death Sentence will not CC the shielded target, anyways he can still activate the dash-to-target effect. Black Shield will always take priority over regular shields. Except Hexdrinker's or Sterak's Gage one, in this case the first that proc will be the dominant. NOTE: There is a shortcut to cast abilities on us, doing ALT+E you will be shielded automatecly without point your cursor on you.

R

Soul Shackles:

After a 0.5-second delay, Morgana latches chains of energy onto nearby enemy champions, dealing 150/ 255/ 300(+70% AP)magic damage. The tethers grant true sight of affected enemies and slow them by 20%. Additionally, Morgana gains 5%/ 30%/ 55% bonus movement speed towards tethered enemies. Targets who did not leave the tether range after 3 seconds are revealed and stunned for 1.5 seconds and dealt the same magic damage again. Cooldown: 120s/ 110s/ 100s Cost: 100 Once casted Soul Shackles cannot be interrupted by any CC or STASIS, furthemore shields like Sivir's E or Nocturne's W will only block the initial damage, not the second. Soul Shackles is a really strong CC spell. However it's also really hard to land a perfect ultimate in teamfight; you have to sacrifice your position in and risk a lot to make it work.

I'll probably pick Morgana versus meele champion and mid/low range mages.

Arcane Comet proc every 20s-8s if we damage a champion dealing 30-100(+35% AD)(+20% AP) adaptive damage. I think that this is a better choice instead of Summon Aery, it's true that Aery always hit the target, but deal less damage after all. Moreover a good positioned Tormented Shadow will make Arcane Comet hit, as well as a Dark Binding. By the way, Summon Aery will put on you a nice shield that will absorb the AD part that your Black Shield dont. Manaflow Band give us up to 250 bonus mana, and after that retore 1% of missing mana every 5s. Since Morgana is mana hungy in early game I think this is the best choice of the three. Nimbus Cloak can be viable, the speed is really good during the ult, but I think having a good mana sustain is better. Talking about Nullifying Orb... we already have it in our kit. Transcendence is usually what I take because I think that cdr it's really important on mages. Also the thing that the extra cdr is converted in bonus AP it's nice. However also Celerity and Absolute Focus are really good, this is an open choice. Gathering Storm give us bonus AP every 10 minutes, if you think that it would be a long game this is the right rune. Instead if you think that will be a short one take Scorch for extra damage. Waterwalking is not good, we will rarely roam and eventually we will usually not fight in the river. So, I prefere and usually use Gathering Storm. Perfect Timing, mmm... a free Stopwatch eh!? Oh, and also a 15% cdr on Zhonya's Hourglass? Sounds perfect no? Well it is, or at least for me, I do not see the situation where a fake flash( Hextech Flashtraption) and some delayed fast boots( Magical Footwear) could be a better idea. Minion Dematerializer give us bonus damage on minions, which make us clear waves even faster. However Cosmic Insight have a good sinergy with Transcendence and Perfect Timing; Cosmic Insight does raise the cooldown reduction cap to 45%, but it also provides 5% cooldown reduction which is converted as well in AP. Furthermore it encrease the cdr on zhonya by 5%, which combined with Perfect Timing put 19.25% cdr on the item. So, after all, Cosmic Insight is better than Minion Dematerializer. However I feel more comfortable with dematerializer. I will take Cosmic Insight only if I think I will have easy times during the game. Sorcery & Precision Arcane Comet proc every 20s-8s if we damage a champion dealing 30-100(+35% AD)(+20% AP) adaptive damage. I think that this is a better choice instead of Summon Aery, it's true that Aery always hit the target, but deal less damage after all. Moreover a good positioned Tormented Shadow will make Arcane Comet hit, as well as a Dark Binding. By the way, Summon Aery will put on you a nice shield that will absorb the AD part that your Black Shield dont. Nimbus Cloak, now that Tormented Shadow have been changed and deal more damage, we can push using less W, which means we do not really need the mana from Manaflow Band. So this is now my first choice, what is better than chase the enemy without being blocked from minions? Manaflow Band give us up to 250 bonus mana, and after that retore 1% of missing mana every 5s. I even after the changes on W you feel like you need more mana this is good for you. Talking about Nullifying Orb... we already have it in our kit. Absolute Focus, since the small changes of Morgana on patch 9.5 I usually take this for increase the damage output. Now that we gain moviment speed while in ult Celerity feels "over-kill", Transcendence it is also good, at this point I think depends from person to person and match to match. Gathering Storm give us bonus AP every 10 minutes, if you think that it would be a long game this is the right rune. Instead if you think that will be a short one take Scorch for extra damage. Waterwalking is not good, we will rarely roam and eventually we will usually not fight in the river. So, I prefere and usually use Gathering Storm. Triumph restore 12% health and grant 20 gold each time we score a takedown. Extra gold is always nice, also the health restoration give us a nice help if ganked or dived(always if we kill someone). I tried Overheal, and for me it's not good since Soul Siphon works only on champions and siege minions, you will rarely get the shield on. Presence of Mind seems good but, since to use our ult we need to go inside the enemy front-line, I think it's not so worth it. My choice is now Triumph. Coup de Grace give us 8% bonus damage on champion below 40% health . I think this is usually the best of the three runes on Morgana; Cut Down is good versus a tanky team, but at this point I would take someone different from Morgana. Last Stand I think doesn't fit at all, we will usually try to stay healthy and deal tamage from the distance. Offence: Ability Power +9 Flex: Ability Power +9 Defense: Health +15-90 This is what I will usually take, in the case I will facing an heavy AD team I will change into this: Offence: Ability Power +9 Flex: Armor +6 Defense: Armor +6 Since there are not so much items that AP casters can take to improve their armor, I sacrifice a bit of AP and health( that I can btw buy) in order to have a valutable ammount of armor.

IGNITE Ignite is a targeted summoner spell that deals true damage( ignores armor and magic resistance, as well as other form of damage reduction) over time, applies grievous wounds( reduces all healing by 40%) and revealing them for the duration. It helps with kill pressure and can make waste an enemy flash. I usually take this if I feel confident.

BARRIER Barrier is a self-targeted summoner spell that shields your champion for 2 seconds. I usually take this if not sure about the outcome of the lane or if I am versus a burst champion. Remember that it can be casted depsite ant any CC (except suppression), it is not affected by grievous wounds, and can be casted even at full health.

EXHAUST Exhaust is a targeted summoner spell that slows an enemy champion by 30% and reduces his damage by 40% for 2.5 seconds. It can be good vs any non-burst champions, and it also helps to land abilities.

Dark Seal is the one of the most gold efficent item in the game and a good snowballing tool. It gives +10 AP, +100 mana and a nice +25% increased potions healing. Also, every time you get a kill or an assist you recive respectively 2 or 1 glory stacks that gives +3 AP for each( up to +30 AP). If you die you will lose 4 stacks, but since Morgana is a relatively safe champion and has to keep good positioning this should not happen really often. If I am vs an hard poke lane I will usually take 3 Health Potion, thanks to the passive of this item you will be healed by 187.5 instead of the usual 150.

Doran's Ring gives +15 AP, 60 health and +5 mana regeneration per 5 seconds. Also a nice +5 additional damage on basic attacks to minions. This is a good standard/safe item, I will usually take it if versus any burst champion. Sometimes if you are forced to back early, and you have spare gold, could be good buy a second one.

Lost Chapter is core for Morgana due to her Tormented Shadow heavy mana cost. It gives +40 AP, +300 mana and +10% cdr. Also, upon leveling, restores 20% of our maximum mana over 3 seconds, preventing us to go out of mana too soon. For this reason I will take it first in every scenarios, even if I'm in troubles with the laner; without this item you will rapidally finish your mana and forced to recall again, losing exp, cs and tower integrity.

Luden's Tempest is our first big item, it gives +90 AP, +10% cdr, +600 mana and a nice passive that synergise very well with the Sorcery tree, late items such as Liandry's Torment or Morellonomicon, and in general increase our Tormented Shadow harras.

Sorcerer's Shoes are usually took by many mage to encrease the burst potential. Said that, I will take those only if ahead or if there is low magic resistance in the enemy team; since for receiving its full value we have necessarily to hit with Dark Binding and Tormented Shadow, which is not so easy vs some mobile champ that play in mid lane. So, in those other scenario, I will usually take Boots of Swiftness or Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

Boots of Swiftness synergise well with Soul Shackles and Celerity(if you have choose it). Those will permit you to do not let escape people simply walking away from you, and it will help if you have to dodge a lot. Also if you land a long range Dark Binding you will spend less time to walk in the cast range of Tormented Shadow, which mean your opponent will take more damage.

Mercury's Treads this item gives a nice CC resistence and some magic resistance. I will usually take it if I fall behind in a match with a lot of AP champions or if there is a fed high AP burster.

Ninja Tabi are really nice versus champions who rely on basic attacks such as Yasuo, Kindred, Tryndamere. Also give us a nice ammount of armor which helps when facing an heavy AD team without losing to much in damage output.

Liandry's Torment it's a really big second item for Morgana. It gives +75 AP and +300 health, which is nice, and great passive that synergise really well in our kit: madness work wondefully with Tormented Shadow, plus it stack even with Luden's Tempest passive and Arcane Comet. Besides torment will deal bonus damage when we use Dark Binding or Soul Shackles. I will usually delayed this item if they have too many healer like Soraka, Vladimir, Warwick etc. In those cases I will buy first a Morellonomicon.

Morellonomicon gives +70 AP, +300 health and +15 magic penetration, a good mix I could say. The best thing is that inflict grievous wounds for 3 seconds, which can be extended up to 6 seconds if you have bought Liandry's Torment. Morellonomicon's passive also applies with items( Luden's Tempest) and Arcane Comet.

Twin Shadows is an extremely cheap item that helps you control the map providing pick potential and better control of dragon and baron fights. It also work well with Liandry's Torment and in general helps you with Dark Binding and make more effective Tormented Shadow and Soul Shackles.

Rabadon's Deathcap is obviously the best item in terms of raw AP and damage output, it gives 120 AP and encrease by 40% our AP. The passive works on it self, so Rabadon's Deathcap gives 168 AP alone. However it consists of 3 parts that are over 1000 gold and sometimes building it can take too much time without any powerspikes. I will usually buy it if ahead or after the 4th item.

Zhonya's Hourglass is a good defensive items that make us able to Flash R in the middle of the teamfight without risk to much. Soul Shackles will continue even if in stasis, so if well positioned you will do great damage while being invulnerable to counterattack. I will probably rush it if versus many assassins/burst champions (in this case I will had took Perfect Timing), else depending of the game it would be my 4th item or later.

Void Staff if your targets are buying magic resistance this can be a great item, else buy something other; Void Staff becomes more effective as the target's magic resistance increases.

Abyssal Mask is a good situational item versus AP compositions. It gives +10% cdr, +350 health, +300 mana, +55 magic resistance; really useful stats plus a nice passive that increase by 15% the magic damage dealt at nearby champions(incluse Liandry's Torment's).

Adaptive Helm is a really useful defensive item versus AP compositions that deals damage over time like Teemo, Brand, Malzahar etc. Besides the good defensive stats it reduces all subsequent magic damage taken from a spell or effect by 20% for 4 seconds.

*Items not explained are the ones that I think could be good but I haven't tested yet.

This part of the game will probably tire you up, you will be the Nasus of the situation trying to farm, farm...

In the early levels you will try to farm and to do not spam too much Tormented Shadow, since in that case you will going out of mana really soon.

At level 4 you will be still focussed on farm, but you will also start to harras and eventually setup ganks.

If you choose Minion Dematerializer remember to use it and that is best utilized if you have used it at least one of each type of minion.


After Lost Chapter you can start use Tormented Shadow more freely, remember to ward and to pay attenction about enemy jungler; at this point you will probably be under the other tower, so you will be ganked. Good for us ,our kit makes realativelly easy avoid ganks, however an unseened jungler can always be a problem.

Remember to do not force things. Killing your opponent is not your priority, for now you just have to push and make pressure. Your focus should be to control the wave, get as much gold from waves as possible and do not let your opponent roam to other lanes.


Mid game usually starts after most people are finishing their first/second item and towers have started to drop.
From now we will probably have fun time during skirmishes and later on teamfights.

At this point, if you played correctly, the enemy midlaner will most likely be behind or at least not ahead, which most of them rely on. This makes you more effective than them and also help team mates to do not get one-shotted.

During teamfights/skirmishes will be much easier to hit Q's, people do a lot more mistakes and of course W and R can be quite devestating.
Also, even if you are not the support, you can really save the life to your adc or in general your carry thanks to a good Black Shield or binding the major treat.



Late game starts when there are around 4-5 full items on champs. Here is where teamfights start to break out all the time.


Morgana will want to do the same she did in mid game, but with a good ammount of damage. Dark Binding at this point deal something like 900 damage and root for 3s, which are an eternity during a fight. Also in teamfight it more difficult to avoid Tormented Shadow, so in general you will deal a lot of damage and help your team with root, stuns, and shield/CC immunity.

Just remember that Soul Shackles it's a double edge sword, be careful when you use it and remember that you do not have to take all 5 enemies, since this will probably make you die. Stun for 1.5s 2/3 enemies and deal 800 damage is already good, isn't it?

Thanks to Vicious Skittle and AZZAPP since I used their guide as references.

Thanks to XXFeatherPawXx/FeatherPaw (League of Legends Wiki user) that posted in the comments of morgana a really interesting point of view about how to play she.

Thanks to you that read this jumble of words and that left a comment to improve this guide.

Here I'll write what I've change in every patch so that you do not have to read all the text again.