Hello all! This is my first guide here on Mobafire and I have to say put a lot of effort into this guide!

This is a guide for the champion Morgana. She was the first champion I played and I have to say that she is a lot of fun. She can carry hard or be a support character, and has a lot of uses in team fights. People should fear her if they lane against her mid, because she has a crazy amount of sustain. This is just small amount of the total number of games I have played with her, and for the most part I do very well, either carrying the team or having a large amount of assists.

- Morgana gains 15%, 25%, 35% spell vamp (Level 1,7,13 respectively)
-Very good passive, makes her very sustainable in lane.



- Morgana releases a sphere of dark magic. Upon contact with an enemy unit, the sphere will deal magic damage and force the unit to the ground for a period of time.
-This spell usually initiates all of your combinations. It does great damage, and sets up for easy ganks. Someone out of position? Hit them with this and they are as good as dead.



- Infects an area with desecrated soil, causing enemy units who stand on the location to take
continual damage.
- This is your main farming spell. At level 3 it can take out the minion creep wave (provided you start with some ap). Dark binding + tormented soil is your main combo, can take out half a squishies health easily. Late game people tend to forget of the magic debuff because the damage is little, take that into consideration.



- Places a protective barrier around an allied champion, absorbing magical damage until penetrated or the shield dissipates.
- This spell blocks all cc and magic damage. This makes you almost impossible to gank because if you block a stun, fear, slow, etc, you can run away as if nothing has happened. Place on carry to make the enemy think twice on focusing them.



- Latches chains of energy onto nearby enemy champions, dealing initial damage to them and slowing their move speed by 20%, and then echoing the pain 3 seconds later and stunning them if they remain close to Morgana.
- This ult is AoE, which means in teamfights it is deadly. Since the latest patch reduced the second tick of the ult to 3 seconds, stunning the enemy is much easier to do. There are many ways to use this ult, which will be explained later.

What I Use:

-Flash is very good on Morgana. You can use it to escape, chase someone down, or initiate a teamfight with it.



-Ignite just gives you that extra killing ability, not much else to say about it. The healing debuff is nice as well.

Decent Spells:

-I see a lot of Morganas run teleport and that's fine. You can return to lane quickly, or gank someone a lane away.



- Ghost is useful, but not as useful as Flash in my opinion. It can be used to run quickly to a lane and gank, or even ghost past a minion wave to bind your enemy.



- Clairvoyance is necessary at high levels of play. If no one on your team grabs it, you can. Replace ignite with it, it's not that big of a deal. Ideally supports should grab this spell.



- Clarity is for people that don't have mana regeneration runes or like to be super aggressive from the start. However, I don't like it because if you are not skill spamming you have no need for this spell, and you can produce the same output. Late game it is pointless.

The Rest

- They don't go well with Morgana, no real need to mention them.

As with any AP caster, Greater Mark of Insight is the most useful mark.



Morgana uses up a LOT of mana early game, as well as late game when poking at the enemy before a team fight. These help your mana pool. I prefer Greater Seals of Clarity compared to the flat mana regen runes, but it really is your choice.

or

Morgana's cooldowns are very long. Early game the ability to use spells is very important, so flat cooldown reduction runes work best. However, if you choose to go Ionian boots, the extra AP from the glyphs of force just dominates in lane as the boots compensate for the low CDR. You might have to rush the boots first, however, before you finish up your RoA.

or

Flat AP quintessences work the best due to the recent buff to her movement speed. However, movement quints are not a bad choice either, you can delay getting level 2 boots even later as well as having good chasing ability.

Core Items

The Doran's Ring is a great starting item for Morgana, if you are running AP quints you start off with 30 AP, making your abilities hurt. Also the mana regen and health are a nice boost. If you feel like you are too squishy in lane, stacking them is not a bad option.



For those long cooldowns, Ionian Boots are the best choice. The more you can use your spells, the more useful you are in teamfights.



Rod of Ages is necessary on Morgana. She is more squishy than most people take her for, so having an RoA is a nice boost to health, as well as AP and Mana.



Zhonya's Hourglass has great synergy with Morgana's ultimate. When activated, you are untargetable for 2 seconds, and your ultimate takes 3 seconds for the stun to occur. So pop your ult, activate Zhonya's, then watch them get stunned, or scatter. Your team should be able to mop the floor after.



Rabadon's has a LOT of AP, which is nice on any AP caster.


With Zhonya's you get some armor, and with Abyssal Scepter you get magic resist as well as a nice passive that goes well with your Tormented Soil.

Other Items

If you want more output, then you might find these shoes more useful. However, with those long cooldowns, I find that Ionian is more useful. If you constantly have Golem buff or an Elixir of Brilliance, go for it.



Void staff gives you that magic penetration if you chose to go with the cooldown boots, and also works with Sorcerer's Shoes. It has some nice AP too, and is relatively cheap. Also gives good synergy with your Tormented Soil



The aura provided by Will of the Ancients is nice, +25% spell vamp and +30 AP to nearby allied champions. Also relatively cheap. Works well with your passive if you want to stay in lane forever. A thing to note, aoe spells such as your soil and ultimate only give you 50% of your spell vamp.


Morgana uses spells alot, so if you feel like more damage output, you can rush Archangel's over RoA. However, you will be squishy early game and thus not as reliable if a teamfight breaks out.


If you are confident with Morgana, Mejai's is not a bad choice. If you have 4 or more stacks, it is worth the money. As Morgana you should not be dying much, and assists are easy to come by.


The cooldown is nice, as well as the decreased attack speed of nearby enemy champions. Grab this if you are facing an AD heavy team, as if gives you a large amount of armor as well.



I haven't really used this item, but its bonuses seem to work well with Morgana, Mana regeneration, CDR, as well as a decent amount of AP.



Some people like Rylai's on Morgana, but personally I am not a fan. For me it is too expensive in a build that already requires a lot of money. However, the bonuses it gives are some nice HP and a slow that for the most part, is only 15% slow due to her AoE spells. Imagine a 35% slow on her ult compared to a 20%, and a 15% slow on her pool. Food for thought.

Dark Binding

This is what makes people hate Morgana. Her snare is a nuke; a squishy with no magic resist (usually a carry) can be reduced to half his/her HP by late game. The snare duration increases for each level invested in it, starting from 2 and going up .25 seconds each level. People may wonder why I leave tormented soil at level 4 while I finish maxing up bind. That is because at level 4 Tormented Shadow plus some AP should be more than enough to take care of the entire creep wave. So If you max out soil first by the time you reach level 9, your snare holds them for 2.5, compared to 2.75 seconds, which while small, can be significant whether it be creeps attacking the enemy champ or time for you to ignite them.

The main problem with this skill is that it is a skill shot, which means you have to aim it. That means that it will not always hit your intended target, so one has to learn how to be efficient with it. It is noticeable when a Morgana is setting up a snare, so this is where your experience comes along. Throughout the laning phase, pay attention to the pattern your opponent moves in. Does he move in a circular pattern? Does he zig-zag right to left? Or does he just wait there without moving. Paying attention to these small details can help you land your skill shot.

Use your bind to check brushes, as you will see the projectile stop if it hits an enemy. If not, it will sail through the brush.

Also, BINDING GOES THROUGH WALLS.
Please, please, please use this to your advantage. You do not even have to appear from teh side brush to greatly help your teammates.

Tormented Shadow

This skill is your farming skill, as well as the second skill in your 1-2 combo. If you land a bind, hit W right after to attain the maximum amount of damage. For each time the enemy is standing in the pool and takes damage, their magic defense is reduced, making later magic attacks deal more damage (i.e. your ultimate)

Do NOT spam this skill. It is mana intensive at early levels; it should be used sparingly. Once you get this to level 3, then you can start farming efficiently. At level 3 you can take out the caster minions in 1, and later levels take out the entire wave. The above picture is an ideal location you place your pool to farm all the creeps.

A thing to note:
If you are chasing someone with less hp than your soil's initial damage, instead of trying to catch them with dark binding, which is relatively slow and easy to dodge, cast a tormented soil. It does instantaneous damage.

Black Shield

This is, in my opinion, the best shield in the game. Although it blocks magic damage and not physical damage, it also blocks ALL negative spells cast on you. Is Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow approaching you? No problem pop a black shield up and walk away. Is Warwick coming from the bush to land an Infinite Duress? Again activate your shield and piss them off to no end. They wasted their precious crowd control on you to no avail! (What I find the most amusing is blocking Karthus' Requiem with this... heh)

In teamfights, Black Shield can make or break the game. If you cast this on your carry, the enemy team may waste a CC on the shield. If the fight falls apart and you are retreating, use this to save yourself or a teammate. The fact that you can cast this on an ALLIED champion is what makes it so useful.

Soul Shackles

Morgana's ultimate is an amazing amazing skill. It deals a LARGE amount of damage with a 100% ability power ratio along with its base damage. It can hit all 5 enemies, and is 2 for 1 crowd control monster.

With a 20% slow when attached to a champion, you can either use it on the offensive or defensive. Offensive wise you just follow them until the second tick goes off, which deals the same amount of damage as the first tick. Defensively, you can use it to run away, and if they are stupid enough to follow you, be stunned to make your escape inevitable. As mentioned before, this ultimate works GREAT with hourglass, which is why I recommend building that before a Rabadon's.

How to use your Flash to the best of your abilities

As mentioned before, Flash can be used to initiate a teamfight with your ultimate. However, there are more uses to Flash that meets the eye. In the laning phase, if your opponent is hiding behind his creep waves, if you are certain you can get a kill, Flash PAST the creeps and land your combo. This catches many people offguard, resulting in an easy kill. If you use your ultimate and they flash to try and break the distance, if you are fast enough, Flash and chase them down! The shackle does not break instantaneously for some reason, so use this to your benefit. Also, Flash past walls to catch them by surprise, much like how you can Flash past a creep wave.

If you want to save your flash, the safer option is to have the tank initiate, and then cast Black Shield on yourself so you do not get interrupted, and then activate your ultimate, followed by Zhonya's.

The Math Behind Magic Penetration

Magic Penetration (and armor penetration) is calculated like this:

Enemy Champ MR- - YOUR Magic penetration. If you have a % based penetration,it does not calculated from their ORIGINAL MR, but rather the new TOTAL from the first calculation.

Example (following build): 100 MR, say you have magic pen marks and masteries. pen marks are applied first,
100 - 8.55 (runes) - 20 (abyssal) = 71.45.
Multiply 71.45 by the 15% ( Archaic Knowledge ) = 10.72
71.45-10.72 = 60.73 MR!


That is why the more flat Magic pen you have (and abyssal), the more void staff percentage based magic penetration becomes less helpful because the amount you are multiplying it by decreases substantially. This is where shoes come into play

The Big Boot(y) Debate

Which do I choose? Sorcerer's or Ionian?

A little math:
CDR Glyphs + Masteries gives you 14.85% CDR starting. CDR Reduction you can get constantly is Elixir, which is -10%, so a total of 24.85%. If you get Blue Buff, you reach the 40% cap. However, with just Ionian Boots, runes + Masteries, and elixir, you are sitting at 39.85 percent! In fact if you want you could replace your CDR glyphs for some more AP to wreck your opponents. The choice is up to you, I prefer the early game CDR though because blue buff will not always by in your possession.

In my opinion, Ionian boots is the SAFER route (More black Shield and snares for those nasty nasty ganks), but your attacks have a little less pow in them until you get your items. However, if you are doing well, go for the magic pen shoes, they help a great deal. Also, if the enemy team seems to be stacking MR, get magic pen shoes. Choosing which shoes are better is almost ENTIRELY situational.

More Math:
Example (Ionian Shoes + Void Staff + Abyssal): 100 MR, say you have magic pen marks and masteries. pen marks are applied first,
100 - 8.55 (runes) - 20 (abyssal) = 71.45.
Multiply 71.45 by the 15% + 40% ( Archaic Knowledge + Void Staff) = 39.3
71.45 - 39.3 = 32.15 MR!
Gold Cost: 6045

Example (Sorcerer's Shoes + Abyssal): 100 MR
100 - 8.55 - 20 (abyssal) - 20 (shoes) = 51.45
51.45 x 15% = 7.72
51.45 - 7.72 = 43.73
Gold Cost: 3750

Example (Sorcerer's Shoes + Abyssal + Void Staff)
100 - 8.55 - 20 (abyssal) - 20 (shoes) = 51.45
51.45 x 55% = 28.3
51.45 - 28.3 = 23.15
Gold Cost: 6095

If you wanted to add Tormented Soil Debuff (Max amount is 48, not 40, because there is first the instant hit and then the 5 seconds after) into those calculations, sorry guys you are on your own. Just know that their MR will be VERY LOW in almost all those cases!

Smart Casting

When you use Flash, all you have do is point and then click your Flash button! It's very simple and cuts back on timing. But did you know that you could do it with skills as well?

For example, Morgana's Dark Binding can be smart cast by pressing shift+Q. You do not have to click on the direction it will follow, it will instead just go towards where your pointer is! Smart casting also works with her Tormented Soil. At advanced levels of play each second counts, so learning to do this is beneficial. It may take some time to master, but practice makes perfect.
Play Video
The first 2 spells are cast without smart casting, the second 2 spells are smart casted.

Early Game

Morgana can either duo or solo lane. I'll describe what you can do in both and your roles in both lanes.

Solo Lane
Grab a Doran's Ring and head off to your lane. If you have a jungler, be sure to protect or leash if they are starting where the enemy might come to gank (Leashing is attacking monster to make it go towards you, and therefore let the jungler attack it without being attacked himself for a moment). I generally start with Dark Binding, but Tormented Shadow is not a bad choice either. Do not spam skills until your Tormented Soil reaches level 3. At this point you should be level 5, and farming should come easy. If you see an opportunity to land your 1-2 combo, go for it. It does a great deal of damage early in the game. Once you have the gold for a Catalyst of the Protector, head back to base and grab that as well as Boots. Farm up to your Rod of Ages and Ionian Boots of Lucidity and help your team by placing sight wards at essential points on the map.

Ward Map:
Duo Lane

Your role in a duo lane is to be more of a support. Farming is going to be harder because you have to split creep kills with your lane partner, and also the threat of 2 enemy champions. Start with Dark Binding and farm/last hit the creeps. Try to coordinate some combinations with your partner, because if you land a bind it is easy for the enemy champ to be damaged a large amount if not killed entirely. Ranged AD champs probably have the best synergy with Morgana. Farm up your items as you would in a solo lane.

Mid Game

By this point, either solo or duo, you have pushed your lane and taken their tower. This is the time when small teamfights occur, so pay attention to your minimap. COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM, call mias to prevent a costly death on your team. The next item you need is your Zhonya's Hourglass, followed with a Rabadon's Deathcap. After this point your next items are situational. Heavy AD? Grab a Frozen Heart, and if they have a lot of AP Abyssal Maskis nice. If they are stacking Magic Resist grab a Void Staff. Help your team by placing wards on essential points such as Dragon and Baron.

Late Game

Games usually end by the time you get a Rabadon's or maybe even the next item after that. However, if that is not the case then be sure to finish up your build. Your next items are completely situational depending on the enemy team composition. Be sure to grab blue buff as often as you can, as well as purchasing Elixir of Brilliance. Hopefully the game will end soon after.

Akali is extremely annoying to deal with. She has high burst and is more than capable to take you down quite easily. However, she is also squishy, and easy to counter. Since her combo mainly involves her charging at you headfirst, pop a bind then a pool. If she shrouds you can actually use your ult to show her approximate location! Grab a pink ward for this champ.


Anivia's passive, Rebirth, is essentially a Guardian Angel. Her spells hurt ALOT, and she can be quite aggressive from the get go. She comboes her Flash Frost or Glacial Storm with the spell Frostbite. However, Even though you can block Flash Frost'sr stun with your Black Shield, be aware that you are still in danger of her next spell because Black Shield does NOT block the frost effect.


This champion is most well known for her ability to stun easily, as well as the massive amount of burst she can deal. Every 5 spells grants her the ability to stun with her next ability. However, she is also extremely squishy, and does NOT have Black Shield like you do! If you feel her approaching you, pop your spell shield and then counter hard. The most annoying thing about her is her flash and then Summon: Tibbers, or flash and then any spell (not her shield obviously). If you see her flash you better be really fast or you are going to be dead or close to dead.


You don't see many AD carries in middle lane anymore because they tend to be very squishy and little escape ability. On the off chance you do meet one however, in this case Ashe, you can deal with it very calmly. YOU FARM BETTER AND FASTER THAN ASHE CAN. She will harass with Volley, but that's pretty much it. Don't be afraid to push the lane, because it is harder for her to last hit the minions with the tower killing them. Just have map awareness and ganking shouldn't be a problem. If you see her ult Enchanted Crystal Arrow, flash out of the way or pop a Black Shield.


This champion is a pain to deal with. Brand has a large amount of burst and great poking ability. However, most of his damage comes from combinations, so preventing extra damage is easy. Dodge his skill shots and Pillar of Flame, and con't clump up when he uses his ultimate Pyroclasm, and you should not have much of a problem. Farming wise he is the same or maybe faster than Morgana.


There are not many Cassiopeia players, but she is a very strong champ with a good amount of burst. Watch out for her Miasma, because if you get hit by that your health can be wittled down by her Twin Fang. Her ultimate, Petrifying Gaze is a 2 second stun if and only if you are FACING her, and a slow if you are facing away. However, you also have the most overpowered shield in game so feel free to use it and make her waste her ult!


Caitlyn, nowadays, is probably among the few AD carries that can excel in mid without the need of a support. Her Piltover Peacemaker deals a large amount of damage early game, and if you get caught in her Yordle Snap Trap be prepared for your HP to vanish. Her ultimate, Ace in the Hole has huge range and deals quite a large amount of damage. Your black shield canreally only be used on her traps, as everything else is physical damage. Her passive is quite annoying, pretty much a crit on every 8,7,6th autoattack, and if she stacks a critical hit on top of that it hurts. She can zone you out and farm faster than you. Play passively and land your comboes to kill her.


Ezreal is a viable solo laner. His spells scale mostly on AP, but in my opinion does best as an AD. A good Ezreal player will likely rush Sheen because it works well with his abilities. His Mystic Shot hurts more than you think it does. He has a flash of his own, Arcane Shift, so be careful when trying to land binds. To make up for the spell it has a pretty long cooldown, shorter than you Dark Binding. His ultimate, Trueshot Barrage, has global range, and hurts quit a bit if you are hit by the beginning of the skill! Each opponent it passes through deals less damage, so take that into consideration if being approached by it. He is pretty squishy, but highly mobile.


Fiddlesticks in mid lane is really a joke. As Morgana, you should be able to counter him hard. He is a much better jungler than he is a laner. His combo usually is Terrify, followed by Bountiful Harvest, though honestly it is easy to dodge. Just shield his fear and walk away as if nothing happened. His Reap silences you, but it is slow traveling and bounces of creeps. Walk away from bunched up creeps and you should be fine. His ultimate, Crowstorm, is a pain to deal with. It takes some time for him to channel, but it is essentially a flash. Since it is an AoE ult though, block his fear and bind him! He won't be able to follow you and therefore wasted his ult.


A bad Heimerdinger will push your lane all the way to your tower with his H-28G Evolution Turret. They hurt a bit so don't get caught in them. He does have a blind and a stun, ch-1 concussion grenade, but the stun is only if it detonates exactly on you. His main poke ability is Hextech Micro-Rockets, which have long range and fairly decent damage output. Heimer can block your Dark Binding with a well placed turret, so be wary of the timing of his skills. Mainly just focus on farming, but don't over commit because his ultimate UPGRADE!!! makes his skills hurt even more.




You won’t often see Katarina in mid. In fact, you don’t see her that often because her skills really only work with a certain team composition. However, if you do see one, fear not. Her skill Bouncing Blades is her main farming tool; she is melee. At low levels it does little damage. A lot of her damage comes from Shunpo, which allows her to flash to either any enemy or allied character. Shunpo hurts early game, easily taking 100-200 damage. Her ultimate is Death Lotus, which hurts A LOT. Be aware that her passive allows her to reduce her cool downs by 15 seconds for each kill or assist. Fighting her 1v1 shouldn’t be a problem though. She has no crowd control abilities and for her to get you usually means to shunpo to you, which is a mistake against a Morgana. Just dark bind and soil and watch her health whittle down.








This son of a ****. Against most squishy characters, Mordekaiser is impossible to kill. His passive essentially gives him an extra hp bar; you must deplete that bar first before you can actually hurt his HP. All Mordekaiser’s run ignite and then either flash or ghost. That is because Morde usually has to end up chasing his opponents, and since he is so ******* tanky he is capable of it. He has two spells that does a lot of damage, Siphon of Destruction and his ultimate Children of the Grave. Siphon is an AoE spell that has a really high AP ratio. His ultimate, is a spell that drains your health over time. In conjunction with ignite his ult works really well, and if you die while his ult is active he controls a ghost of your champion (He cannot use the skills, just move and autoattack). He has a skill, Creeping Death, that grants him magic resist, armor, and if you are close deals magic damage to nearby enemy units. Also his Mace of Spades is worthless if you have more than 3 units taking the hit, as the damage is spread out between them, but 1v1 expect it to hurt. As Morgana honestly all you can do is farm up and do the following:
1. You hit him with a lot of 1-2 combinations to whittle down his hp.
2. Be more aggressive than usual when he has no metal shield.
3. Once he gets Rylais back the hell off. He now has a slow that works with all of his abilities, just play cautiously.











Guides versus these champs will be completed later.

Morgana shines best in a teamfight. Her ultimate can devastate their position making it easy for your team to kill them. Since there is usually a lot of poking before a fight actually occurs, Morgana can also start the fight not only with her ultimate, but a well placed bind can give you the opportunity to jump on them.

Pros

- Good Damage Output
- Can initiate a fight relatively well
- In my opinion, best shield in the game
- Can dominate solo lanes, also works well in duo lanes for some nasty combinations
- Not easy to gank because of her shield

Cons

- Takes some time to get used to her abilities
- Squishy early game, countered hard by some champions such as Caitlyn or Orianna
- Tends to get focused alot in teamfights (Hence Zhonya's :D)

In short, thanks to the most recent patch, there have been many new Morgana players. This is a guide meant to enlighten the public on how I think Morgana excels the best. Morgana was the first champion I have played, and I can say that she is my favorite champion to play. Please rate/comment and critique me, as this is my first guide. Thank you for reading this!

- RememberNovember

P.S.: I am always open to play with random people as long as they are chill, feel free to add me and refer to me that you read my guide!

09.07.2011 - Guide Created
09.08.2011 - Updated How to Use Skills, added debate on Shoes, added new viable runes.
Added new section "Things to Pay attention to"
Added guides on Cassiopeia and Caitlyn
09.11.2011 - Added guides for Ezreal, Fiddlesticks
9.12.2011 - Added matchups for Katarina, Mordekaiser
9.14.2011 - Added Heimer, edited Anivia and Ashe