This is my first guide ever on a champion so bear with me! I am a high Gold player hoping to make it to Platinum this season. I have been Gold since Season 3 playing Morgana mid since Season 4. I play a different style of Morgana in which it's a very strong support that is more useful during the mid game. By playing mid, you are able to build more AP items quicker than you can as a support. It utilizes slows, binds, and a healthy life pool to peel the ADC or catch enemy champions.

For the most part. I will keep this guide short and crisp until I learn how to be fancier like the other guides.

I highlighted a lot of important points in green if you don't want to read the whole guide

Morgana is the type of champion that isn't fancy and has a straight forward play style. Farm up, hit some binds, ult when necessary. However, these actions have huge potential to be a hindrance to many and an impactful asset to the team. Morgana is a very relaxed, calm type of champion that can be useful even when behind. Farming is easy in the mid-game, being able to one-shot the caster minions. Her bind is incredibly long with a 2-3 second bind, catching out-of-place carries or making tanks a sitting duck for poke. Her shield makes for a CC-immune defensive ability to save herself or a teammate. Lastly, her ult makes her shine in the teamfights being able to damage and possibly stun a whole team.

Soul Siphon is the passive ability of Morgana. It is a sustain ability that heals Morgana 20% of the damage dealt to champions, large minions, and large monsters. In lane, this ability is not very impactful. It will heal a small amount when you use Tormented Shadow on a cannon minion. However, in mid and late game, this ability will heal a substantial amount when you have a lot of damage. If you land a Dark Binding and Tormented Shadow combo, it will heal a couple hundred HP. Your Soul Shackles hitting multiple people will heal a good amount as well.

Dark Binding is the bread of Morgana's kit. It has a large hitbox but moves a bit slow. Landing this skill means being able to root enemy champions for 3 seconds (at level 5) and comboing into Tormented Shadow.Making sure to be patient and picking out your target is very important. If the enemy team has a dive composition, it is advised to stay with your carry to Dark Binding whoever is going to jump on the them and finish them off quickly to get back into the fight. If the other team is waiting for something to happen, it's fine to toss out a few Dark Binding to catch an unsuspecting carry or poking the tanks.

Tormented Shadow is the butter of Morgana's kit. It allows for a slow ticking damage pool to hurt enemy champions in the area, dealing more damage the lower their health. This is best used in a scenario where enemies are in a small area or trapped by CC like Dark Binding or Jarvan IV Cataclysm. This also benefits from hitting many champions because the cooldown of the ability is lowered by 5% when Soul Siphon is activated. Pairing this with a Rylai's Crystal Scepter allows for a pool that damages, is spammable, and slows enemies in the area significantly.

Black Shield is one of the more recognizable skills in league for how good it is. A well timed Black Shield can bait enemy single target ultimates that CC and negate the CC effect. The shield only blocks Magic Damage but that just means that multiple Physical Damage CC effects won't work. The shield itself isn't super strong against Magic Damage until it hits higher levels, around 3 to 5.

Soul Shackles is Morgana's ultimate. It is an ability that is a little difficult to successfully pull off on your own, but very impacting in a team fight or skirmish. This ult will hit every enemy champion nearby and tether them to Morgana, slowing them in the process. Morgana gains a burst of movement speed towards those enemies and stuns them after 3 seconds for 1.5 seconds if the tether is maintained the whole time. This is best achieved with Flash or using Dark Binding to get close and using Nimbus Cloak to stay near. Zhonya's Hourglass helps if the enemies are grouped up and try to focus you down.

Starting Items

I have explained this in the notes above, they aren't too complicated to understand.

Core

Rod of Ages is the item to rush in this build. If you're doing well in lane and aren't pressured too hard or even pressuring the enemy, start building the item with Blasting Wand. This will snowball your farming until you get your Rod of Ages. If you're taking a lot of damage, build the Catalyst of Aeons first and get a Refillable Potion. Remember to buy Control Ward if you are getting camped. Having a Rod of Ages really scales you into mid game with damage, health, and mana to spam when doing skirmishes or roams.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are my favorite choice. Your damage is significant in the late game but it's not my main focus. Being able to shoot out as many Dark Bindings as possible is worth much more than extra damage. The CC is too good for peeling and catching enemies. It also helps with getting Tormented Shadows out and having pools that slow all the time. More Black Shields means more aggressive play. All together, the 45% CDR is important to me. I've tried full damage and not having CDR really makes the character feel useless for a couple seconds in team fights.

Zhonya's Hourglass is a standard in all Morgana builds. It allows for defensive maneuvers against bursty champions, especially Physical burst since Zhonya's Hourglass gives armor. It allows for aggressive Flash Soul Shackles plays without dying and losing the ult. If you are losing to a burst enemy champion or a Physical Damage enemy, build Zhonya's Hourglass before Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is the item in the core build that separates my guide from everyone else's. Go for this item before Zhonya's Hourglass if you aren't dying. This items allows Tormented Shadow to be incredibly useful. It's a Singed Mega Adhesive that does damage... and you can spam it in team fights. It's not as strong of a slow, but it is noticeably annoying for the enemy to deal with when they're chasing or running away. You can also use it to momentarily slow enemies for Soul Shackles or landing a Dark Binding. Best paired with Liandry's Torment for extended slow.

Liandry's Torment is the best synergy for Rylai's Crystal Scepter. When someone is impaired, Liandry's Torment does a percent damage burn to that target, as well as reapplying the Rylai's Crystal Scepter slow for 3 seconds after being hit by a spell. The enemy champion will be affected by all of this for as long as they're in the Tormented Shadow and 3 seconds when they leave the pool making for an annoying combo.

Last Item/Alternatives

Rabadon's Deathcap is not common to have in the finished build because the build is so expensive. Games are usually over by now, and that goes for the alternate items. However, if you're doing incredibly well you might not even need Zhonya's Hourglass and build a Rabadon's Deathcap after getting your Liandry's Torment. This item will boost your damage through the roof and could one-shot a squishy carry from one Dark Binding Tormented Shadow combo.

Morellonomicon is one of those items that are situational. This can be built before Rylai's Crystal Scepter if your team is in dire need of Grievous Wounds. Overall, it has good damage and Magic Penetration. However, the ADC should be getting Executioner's Calling since it's way cheaper.

Abyssal Mask is an interesting last item. It shares the same unique passive as Rod of Ages so it's useless in that aspect, but the increase magic damage to enemies is incredibly good if your team is AP heavy. If you do get the jump on the enemy, you will probably be in the middle to Soul Shackles them all, getting value off the Abyssal Mask. The magic resist is good too since there isn't much other than the rune page.

Thank you for taking the time to look at this guide. I just wanted to get something out and possibly see some feedback. I will add on more as patches come in and add more detail for playing in the Early, Mid, and Late game.

9.15 - Nothing Changed
9.14 - Guide Created