Welcome to my Morgana Support Guide. Morgana's strengths come from her extremely long CC and her safe laning phase, with Black Shield being one of the best peels in the game, comparable to Thresh's Dark Passage. Her scaling is among the best supports in the game, and she is a strong counter pick to the most popular supports at the moment ( Thresh and Braum).

Pros

+ Safe laning phase + High CC + High scaling + High kill potential + High peel

Cons

- No Sustain - Relatively weak laning phase - She is heavily reliant on being able to hit binds - Low auto-attack range

(Lane Dominance) Ignite + Flash

(Scaling / Counter Assassin) Exhaust + Flash

Ignite is the best summoner for laning phase, it significantly increases your lane's kill potential.

Exhaust is the best scaling summoner, and is used as often as a counter for champions such as Yasuo.

Take Heal if your ADC does not. He usually should, but might take Cleanse sometimes.

Morgana does not benefit that much from defensive stats. This leaves 9 in offense for the CDR/AP. For utility you basically get every mastery that is any good at all for support champions. Inspiration is terrible, it just does not give enough experience to be relevant at all. Expanded Mind is not really useful on anyone except for possibly Ryze. Scout is not worth it, you really do not need the added range. Strength of Spirit is not worthwhile since you do not build any flat mana items.

(Recommended) Used to protect against autoattack harass especially since we aren't running armor in seals or quints.

(Recommended) Gold seals are used since Morgana does not need tankyness to apply pressure in laning phase (her skills are long range enough to be used without being forced into all-ins).

(VS Strong AP) MR blues protect against magic damage in lane and burst later in the game. Take more of them against magic-heavy teams.

(VS No AP) If the enemy team has no magic damage threats, take more CDR glyphs to lower the cooldown on your bind and other abilities.

(Mandatory) Morgana has very good AP ratios so the flat AP quints do a lot of work.

(Passive) Soul Siphon

Gives you spell vamp. Negligible.

(Q) Dark Binding Cooldown: 11 seconds

Your bread and butter spell. Long range Snare that lasts 2-3 seconds depending on level, and has a short cooldown. Spam this for harass, use it to lock people down and all-in them, use it to gank people. USE IT FOR EVERYTHING.

(W) Tormented Soil Cooldown: 10 seconds

Some random damage and Spellthief's Edge proc-er. Throwing this under an enemy will net you gold from your spellthief. It is also useful for pushing the lane.

(E) Black Shield Cooldown: 23/21/19/17/15 seconds

Shield that only blocks MAGIC damage. It also stops all CC abilities on the target as long as it is unbroken. The scaling on this skill as you level is quite high (going up by 65 every point, and lowering in cooldown).

Use this to mitigate magic damage and block CC as it hits you or your allies. Use it on your ADC during sieges so he is safe enough to hit the enemy tower. In team fights, use it on the highest priority target on your team (usually the most fed person, or the ADC if it's late game).

Soul Shackles Cooldown: 120/110/100 seconds

Creates a shackle between you and all enemy champions within 600 range, slowing them as long as they are within 1050 range. After 3 seconds (if they stay within the range) it stuns them for 1.5 seconds.

This can be used in many different ways. The most basic way is to hit a bind and walk into range and follow up with your ultimate. Another way is to walk up, ult, and wait for the stun to guarantee a binding hit, though you can only do this if you have the advantage in strength in the fight. Flashing into the middle of an enemy team, using ult, and then using Zhonya's Hourglass is a strong way of initiating a fight, as it forces the enemy team to scatter away from you or risk being stunned.

(1st - Q) Max Q first for the longer snare duration. Also gives the most burst damage.

(2nd - E) Max E next for a stronger shield that's harder to break. Also lowers the cooldown. Get Black Shield at Lvl 2 if you need it to be safe from an incoming gank. Get a 2nd point of Black Shield at lvl 4 if you are against a heavy magic damage bot lane. Max Black Shield first if you are against a full AP team.

(3rd - W) Max W last because it doesn't provide any utility and the damage isn't significant.

(Starting Items) Start with a Spellthief's Edge, 3 Health Potions, 1 Mana Potion and a Stealth Ward. The Spellthief gives you some early damage and gold income and is really easy to proc with Tormented Shadow.

(First back) Your first back should be some combination of Frostfang, Boots, Sightstone, Pink/Green Wards and Pots. It is very situational, and you should buy what you need for that specific game.

(Mid Game) Later in the game you'll want to finish Frost Queen's Claim, upgrade your boots to Ionian Boots of Lucidity - Alacrity and get Zhonya's Hourglass or Banshee's Veil depending on the enemy team. Against magic teams, get the Banshee's first. Against physical teams, rush Zhonya's Hourglass after Sightstone and build Randuin's Omen next. Your build order should change based upon the enemy team.

(Damage) Rabadon's Deathcap Buy this after your core if you want lots of AP.

(Catch) Twin Shadows Buy this instead of upgrading Frostfang if you want the catch potential and have the money for it.

(VS Magic) Locket of the Iron Solari Buy this instead of upgrading Frostfang if the enemy team is very heavy Magic damage and your jungler is not building Locket.

(Counter CC) Mikael's Crucible Buy this if the enemy team has an extremely large amount of CC, or is especially countered by Mikael's.

(Moderate) The Morgana vs Thresh matchup is almost completely a skill based matchup. Due to his short range and the long wind-up time on his auto-attack you can go up to him and auto-attack. If he responds with an auto-attack you can land a bind on him fairly easily. If he responds with a Hook you can self-cast black shield on yourself before it hits, and respond with a bind.

(Moderate) Due to Braum's innate tankyness, it is very difficult for you to get any real damage on him. You should try to focus your binds on the enemy ADC. Even though Braum is much easier to hit, binding him does not accomplish enough. You can use your auto attacks to harass Braum back and make sure he cannot get in range to harass your ADC. Attempt to draw his attention and dodge/shield as many of his Q's as possible while you are zoning him with your auto-attacks and attempting to hit binds on the enemy ADC.

(Dangerous) Due to Nami's sustain, longer auto-attack range, and ability to stand behind creeps and still harass effectively, this lane is very difficult for Morgana. You should attempt to go for binds on either Nami or the ADC in an attempt to counter their harass. Do not walk into range of Nami though, because she will out-trade you heavily. Use your black shield on your ADC as much as possible to mitigate poke damage. Go for all-ins once you and your ADC are strong enough (likely at lvl 6).

(Hopeless) Sona's strong harass and ability to stand behind creeps destroys Morgana. Similar to the Nami matchup.

(Hopeless) Zyra's strong harass and ability to stand behind creeps destroys Morgana. Very similar matchup to Nami/Sona, but her harass is even more brutal.

During laning phase you should be using your Q to harass the enemies. Use your W whenever you have 2-3 Spellthief's Edge procs saved up. Use your E defensively. Using your W on the ranged creeps as well as hitting the enemy laners is optimal to push and harass at the same time. When it is possible for a gank to happen, make sure to stand behind your ADC with Black Shield ready.

Your Black Shield makes you one of the safest roaming supports in the game. Use this to effectively get deep wards with your Sightstone and apply as much pressure on the map as possible. Map control is extremely important, even if it means your ADC loses some CS while you are gone. Morgana is not as strong as a roamer as some more popular supports, such as Thresh, but if you are able to find a good time to go mid and land a bind it can completely turn the mid lane. Only leave bot lane to do this if you are sure the roam will work, or if your ADC will not get zoned during the time you leave.

Thank you for reading my guide