Morgana Build Guide : Morgana - CCing All Day :: League of Legends Strategy Builds

Introduction

Hi my name is Damian, and I'm very pleased to publish my first ever guide on Mobafire on - the Fallen Angel. I'm very excited to make this guide as she has been my favourite champion for quite sometime in League, thanks to her amazing damage output and sustainability.
Morgana is an AP Carry champion that has extremely good farming skills and survivability. She is banned frequently in ranked games because of the heavy crowd control abilities that she brings to a team.
This guide will discuss how to play Morgana in general, her ganking potential, role in teamfights, and match-ups against various champions.

Pros/Cons

PROS:

1)Very good Sustainability and survivability thanks to her Passive skill.

2) Excellent farming skills because of .

3) Hard to gank because of
and .

4) Heavy Crowd Control abilities.

CONS:

1) Weak to champions who deal physical damage which ignores her .

Creeping

Creeping on is not hard. When playing her, you should focus on getting as much last hits as you can at levels 1-2, and worry less about harassing your opposing champion.
is your primary farming skill and it should be maxed first on .
When you are level 1, use your auto attacks to get last hits on your creep wave.

*NOTE*You should not use to get last hits as you are only level 2 since it's good to start off with at level 1 in case your team plans to invade (which will be discussed further on) or to escape from an early level 1 gank. You can lose alot of last hits so this skill would not kill those creeps as yet.

Additionally, you do not want to push your lane by spamming as you would lose out on a lot of CS (Creep Score / Creeps Slain).

At level 2, grab a point in but you should start using it at level 3 when the damage per second is a bit stronger.

*NOTE* costs alot of mana and you do not have a sufficient amount of mana to be spamming it as yet.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU FOCUS ON WHEN FARMING?
The main way you should farm on is to use on the Caster minions and use Auto-attacks on the Melee ones. This way you do not spend a load of mana and at the same time, you are not rapidly pushing your lane. Later on (maybe around level 6+) you can use 2 casts of to clear melee and caster minions respectively if you wish. This will push your lane pretty rapidly. When this occurs and your lane is pushing faster than the rate at which your enemy mid is pushing, then this will allow you to start roaming and looking for openings to gank with .

Morgana's Skills

(Innate) - A very useful passive that allows to survive in her lane and it also saves her from using her health potions often. When enemies harass you, you can always heal back up and stay out of their range, while getting your last hits still.

(Q) - Morgana's skillshot that requires accuracy and patience to use. As a player that mains on Morgana, people often judge your skill level based on your individual ability to land this skill shot. Because it requires some good skill to trap enemies, you should always save this skill if you catch your enemy champion out of position. Never use this skill to farm (unless you have a blue buff perhaps) because even though you might gain 1 last hit with it, you would do so at the expense of a chunk of mana which you desperately need during your first few levels.

(W) - Your primary way of making gold on Morgana. The more it is maxed, the faster you will clear waves obviously, but keep in mind not to overuse it as your lane will become susceptible to ganks if you overextend. You will have a decent creep score because of this skill, but always keep in mind that junglers could be lurking anywhere.

(E) - I cannot stress how important this skill is in escaping ganks or general initiation (and also in teamfights). Sure it absorbs some magic damage which is good as you take less damage, but the important aspect about is that it prevents all disables on whoever it is cast upon. This can save the life of an ally or yourself without having to burn which is another key point.

(R) - Morgana's world of destruction. The use of this ability in teamfights is so vital that she can initiate teamfights with this skill as it is a Horror of an AoE (Area of Effect) damaging, slowing, and stunning spell. Although it is an easy spell to invade if the enemies have flash or proper abilities to escape it, it is also a game-changing ability that can definitely put your team back into the driver's seat.
The other great thing about is that it reveals stealthed units who are sneakily lurking nearby, which is similar to .

Reliant Runes

SEALS

- Although you'll most likely be facing a champion who uses Ability power as their main source of damage, these runes will give you some extra armor against the physical damage champions when it comes down to teamfights allowing you to take barely less damage.

- A good choice of seals. This provides you with mana regeneration combined with more mana regeneration from your masteries which gives you an additional 6.7 mana regen every 5 seconds which is not bad at all. Being a highly reliant skill caster champion, these seals provide great use if you are running low on mana, you may just have enough to cast that final skill to rack up a kill or to get away in the nick of time.

GLYPHS

- The name says it all. Very useful for facing enemy champions mid lane who deal damage via ability power. This will give you slightly more defence against them.

- The second best choice after . Combined with this will start you off at -9.85% Cooldown Reduction which is not bad at all. Being able to use your skills more often will always have advantages but at the expense of mana.

MARKS

- Magic Penetration in itself is a big boost to 's damage output. Combined with , this can devastate enemies early game if you choose to be more aggressive from early on.

QUINTESSENCES

- The most frequent runes used by any Ability Power champion. This is definitely the best choice of Quintessences for Morgana to deal that extra damage against enemies and farm her lane successfully.

- A second to . These can come in handy if you are chasing someone to land that last or even to bait your opponent in mid lane by having them cast a skill and with quick anticipation, you can dodge that skill with the extra movement speed.

Menacing Masteries

This is a good setup to use for .
The full 3 points on can be very useful as well because it gets your cooldown on flash is now 4.5 minutes instead of 5 minutes (as repeated in the next section as well) which is useful for to initiate safely if she has .
This build may be useful if you are using since this adds to your movement speed bonus as well as a bit from . The spell vamp from may come in handy as well for that extra healing in lane for a little more sustain, although her damage will not be as high obviously as running the usual masteries.

Summoner Spells

- Flash is a skill that works wonders. It is used by almost every mid laner. Combined with , this gets your flash cooldown to 4.5 minutes instead of the regular 5. This can come in very handy especially if you want to escape from ganks or flash in to get that final hit on an enemy. Most people know this and use this skill often in games, so there isn't much to explain. One of Morgana's most famous plays is to initiate with followed by to really displace the enemy opposition and pick out the important ones in team fights.

- Ignite is a great skill to use if you catch someone with followed by . Ignite can get the kill often times when enemies take continuous damage per second from and can give you that early lead which can put you ahead.

- This choice of a summoner spell can work well if the opponent's is on cooldown, or if your jungler decides to gank your lane. It is not needed on based on the heavy crowd control capabilities that she possesses. If you think you may need it more than then you are always welcome to try it out.

- This spell brings advantages to the team based on your ability to gank a lane and return to your lane by casting it. Consider it as a "free gank"" in that if your gank fails, you return to your lane afterwards, so you do not miss many creeps unless your lane is heavily pushed. It is also useful to cast to a sight ward which can be very rewarding in that many enemies do not detect it and you can surprise them from the brush and pick up some easy kills.
*NOTE*A smarter way to use this spell is by teleporting to a sight ward that is located behind the enemy (let's say bottom lane), so when they do realize that you are coming, by the time they decide to run away you would already be there in close range of them to land your and/or and pick up some kills or assists.

Order of Skills

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

I know many people max at level 13 and at 18. I used to follow this skill order as well. Although it may best to max at level 13 so that you can save a team mate or yourself, it is really up to you.

Only recently I have been personally maxing at level 13 so that I can have that full duration on the snare and deal more damage when I keep enemies inside .

If you prefer to max at 13 though, then go for it. Else, you can always alternate between putting points on and , i.e. put a point on one then the other with each consecutive level AFTER is maxed out.

Items Items Items

: Overall, a great item to get on . It gives her substantial lane sustain, allows for aggressive plays, and gives you more offensive and defensive capabilities each minute.
This purchase won't go wrong.

: I'd say this is an absolute MUST. While it does give her a little defence against bruisers and AD carries, it has a very good active that forces enemies to switch focus for that duration and also grants a heckload of ability power.
This should be the first main purchase on her (if you are not considering a ) but if not, you should complete this item second.

: A great item to get on her. Having this item will rip through half of their 30 magic resist (which most AP casters have from runes) so it is a pretty decent buy, and should be the first choice of boots on her.
You should get these boots around 15-20 minutes into the game after completing your or .

OR

: You are free to get this one if you like, as it would help with the cooldown on her skills especially if you have a full set of .

: The primary source of damage on or any AP carry. Packed with ability power, this item will sure to give you the maximum damage output that you wish to achieve by mid game (or late) and this should be completed as your fourth major item.

: If you are having trouble mid-game in terms of low magic resistance, then this item can work pretty darn good. It has a nice passive which enemies may take unnoticed and they may blow one of their more critical skills on you to find out that your negated the attack. Overall, a good defensive item on and also adds of course, to her tankiness.

: What better way to end off this build than with an item to further penetrate the magic resist of a champion? The passive that this item grants can truly demolish tanks with little or somewhat good magic resist and your overall damage output will now be exceptioanl with this finishing touch.

: This can be bought if needed, especially to help if you are being harassed often by the enemy AP carry. A should work and then it can be upgraded later going into late game into .

: This is another good item to buy on for early game if you are being harassed as well. The magic resist combined with should allow you to take minimal damage and an is a great help when you decide to upgrade it, as it can lower an entire enemy team's magic resistance if they are all in the radius, especially during teamfights.

: This is not an extremely bad item on , but it is not required on her. Sure it might grant her some tankiness with the extra health, but its passive doesn't really help based on skills. She already has a slow and a snare so the slow from this item won't play a part really in her final build.

Purpose of Sight Wards

Now I know that I did not include the option of sight ward in the main build because I do not consider it as part of a "build." However, these are HIGHLY IMPORTANT on any mid laner so that you know when it's safe to engage or to back away from certain instances.

On your first recall, if you have AT LEAST 75 gold in your pocket, you should definitely purchase a sight ward. They have multiple purposes:

1) You may see the enemy jungler coming to gank you and you should therefore back off.
2) It lets your team know where the enemy jungler is and so they can play a little more agressive.
3) It lets your jungler know where the opposing jungler is and so he can decide if to steal the enemy junglers' buffs or other monsters or prepare for a counter-gank.

Even if the enemy jungler does not appear in the area that your sight ward reveals, it still is a big plus for your team, as the more vision you have on the map puts you at an advantage that is quite often underestimated.

Doran's Ring VS Catalyst

Sustainability is the key to playing .
x2 helps you achieve this as well. it provides you with enough health to keep you in lane for a long time. You may notice as well that you may not even need a blue buff when you have 2 , but it is still better to get it. The mana regen is pretty good as well together with as well as its passive which just encourages you to stay in lane for a bit longer as you notice that your mana hardly drops below 25%.

If you prefer to get catalyst the protector, it is solely up to you. The passive from this item allows you to play more aggressive especially if the enemy is hardly harassing you.

***THIS PART IS A GOOD STRATEGY***
Consider it as "free casting" each time you level because if you are hardly taking damage, and you gain a level within those 8 seconds that your health and mana are regenerating, you should try to land a and and you'll notice that the mana you spent for those skills will be recovered after the 8 second passive.

Of course it doesn't hurt to get both 2 as well as a catalyst the protector. If you are winning your lane by a landslide, then I won't recommend getting the catalyst the protector.
Instead you should get the 2 and rush into a for your next major item, followed by a .

If you are having a tough time though, then getting an early may come in very handy.

Zhonya's Morganaglass

An EXTREMELY important item to get on any player.
The followed by + the active from is one of the most popular combos on .

It allows you to initiate and dictate fights, deal heavy AoE damage and then make yourself invulnerable from any damage or crowd control (while slowing enemies) and finally locks then up for a 1.5 second stun. This combo can turn a game around and cause other enemies to blow their skills on you if they don't realize when you activate the or if they anticipate it too early. When this is done, your team should be able to pick off enemies who are out of position and clean up the rest and come out on top of a teamfight.

Role in Teamfights

is exceptional at initiating team fights. Usually it is better if the tank goes in first but she can assist largely in this process. Initiating with can make or break a teamfight. If you push a wave up to an enemy turret and 5 enemies are defending against your 5, then this is the time to throw out a. You should not engage however, if it catches the enemy tank. On the other hand, it the enemy AD carry or AP carry get caught out, your tank should lead the fight.

If your is on cooldown, go in with to try to lock up AS MANY CHAMPIONS as you can. Most likely you will become the focus of the fight as your AD carry should be sniping from behind and with your ultimate active, you will be positioned at the front.

This is now the perfect time to activate . Being invulnerable for those couple of seconds will cause the enemy team to switch focus to someone else and after the duration of , your will stun all those who remain in the radius near you.

This is now the time to pick off the important ones in teamfights, primarily the enemy AD carry and AP carry. If this is done in the right order, your should have the upper hand in teamfights and come out victorious.

Morgana versus other champions

: has good farming capabilities and can really harass you early game with . Based on the fact that it deals true damage on its way out allows it to ignore . You should try at LEAST as possible to position yourself in front or to the side of your minion wave as you can get hit by her and she can chain combo from there. A good way to counter this however is with a well-timed so that her has no effect. This requires expert timing however, so it is advised that you set your to smart-cast in your options bar in-game.

If you do time it properly, you can catch her out of position from here and lane followed by . If you are experienced at doing these things, you MAY win your lane, else she has the better early game and harass so you should be careful when laning against her.

: is not a hard mid-laner to face against especially before she hits level 6. Her main harass is which basically tickles your health unless she takes a chance and runs up to you to autoattack to deal further damage. If she does this, she is putting herself in harm's way of your into . Her won't be a problem for you as it has a very small range and you'll notice she will mostly use it to farm more instead of harassing you with it, else she would again, have to get pretty close to you.

She can be zoned out easily the more you place points in so if you decide to push your wave rapidly so that your ally creep wave gets to her tower, she will have to rely on last hitting minions while her tower is attacking them.
When she gets to level 6, most of the time if she's getting pushed back a lot, she will decide to gank other lanes to try to obtain an equal amount of gold that you have in terms of minions kills, by farming off of champion kills or assists.
Sure a can reduce some of her damage, but if you find yourself playing passively when she hits 6, just focus on farming as always and ask for a gank.

Her ultimate, takes a while to build up (unless she gets champion kills/assists) so if you notice that she engages on you (or elsewhere) 3 times with her ultimate, you should be ready to jump in on her as her damage output would be significantly reduced.

: This can either be a tough matchup or a simple lane. At level 2, usually has her main combo which is followed by . This combo, if timed properly, can deal a devastating amount of damage since deals double damage to chilled targets. At level 2, this can get your hp from 100% down to 50% easily.
You'd also notice that won't be using her skills to farm, but rather poke at you. She consumes a large portion of mana so she would most likely by autoattacking to last hit before level 6, which gives you the upper hand on farming before level 6.

Before level 6, you should watch out closely for when she uses . Try to dodge it if you can or properly it. If it hits your shield, you should start running away from her, so that you'd be out of range from her . This is the best way to deal with he before level 6.

At level 6 and further, her harassing and farming potential takes a big spike as she is now in what I like to call SUPER-BIRD mode. Her ultimate, has extremely good farming capabilities and she can also use it to harass you and follow it up with . She'd no longer have to cast to initiate on you, since it is a skillshot, so you should definitely play alot more passively on her (especially if she has a blue buff).

: is a relatively easy matchup against . It is easy to tell when her stun is ready based on the aura around her and if you see her coming towards you, be ready to use . This will prevent her stun and you should be able to counter the threat with your into assuming she exposes herself in front of her minions. Since Annie needs to cast 4 spells to be able to use her stun, smart players would cast 3 and then quickly do the into combo when you won't expect it so you get stunned on her second spellcast. As long as you stay out of her AoE range on this should be an easy lane win for you.

: can be a problem mid as well. He has high burst damage and AoE nuking skills that can demolish enemies and clear waves pretty quick. His main farming/harassing tool is . If you get struck by this, he will cease the opportunity to chain it into for some extra damage. Never approach him in front of your minions when hit by one of his spells because he has a skillshot stun which can lock you in place allowing him to chain more combos which you cannot counter with your as you are stunned.

As said previously, play passively for the first few levels (maybe 1-5) and when you have enough items that grant you more mana regen or even flat mana (even the blue buff which makes farming so much easier) then you can afford to harass alot more.

: is considered a good pick against . Throughout early game, she will try to harass you with her which she uses to last hit the caster minions since they are out of her melee range.

At level 2, she has a pretty strong combo with which can shield her and replenish and refresh if she decides to go all in on you. Her passive, deals even more magic damage to you so getting into a duel with her at level 2 is very dangerous, since you won't have your as yet. Just continue to play the farm role and punish her from distance if she exposes herself too long in front of her minions for your to seize an opportunity.

At level 6, she now has her ultimate, which she can use as a gap closer if she strikes you with allowing her to double cast . This skill has quite a long range so she will try to land the above mentioned combo on you so that her next cast on is ready so she can safely jump out if she plans on tower diving you. You can counter this combo with if the turret is on her (only if she plans to go aggressive onto you if you're low health) and can maybe result in a trade kill.

Overall the best way to play against her she is level 6 or higher, is to dodge her and if you're hit by it, pop your on to absorb some damage and ignore the slow from her .

: This is not one of the tougher champions to lane against as . His main poke is his hextexh micro-rockets but you can expect when he's going to use them once he starts walking past his creep wave to get in range to hit you with them. He can also throw his CH-1 Concussion Grenade to stun you followed by his hextexh micro-rockets to guarantee that he does the maximum damage on you. This grenade is a skillshot so it is not hard to avoid.

Do not go in range also of his else you will take further damage.

: Laning against a is not too difficult to deal with, but it doesn't make it extremely easy. His main harass is which alot of players tend to spam at you when they have no idea what they are doing and find themselves mana hungry frequently. At levels 1-6, will not use his often unless he has the mana to have it on, or unless his jungler is near. He also can slow you with which you can easily counter with . Most of the times he will cast the wall behind you so that you run into it when he starts to chase.

Smart players know how to properly use their to farm since it is a very strong farming tool. Others use it to harass based it on its very very short cooldown. When he has a blue buff, his harass will be much stronger than yours. You would have to dodge his multiple times which can get pretty annoying as he has you like his puppet running around the lane.
You should concentrate on your creep score and less on harassing him too much early game.

: is a strong pick to . She has good and constant harass based on the fact that she uses no mana. Her typical combo is after which she would cast to deal extra damage and consume the mark on and finish off with sinister steel. This is a strong combo which is difficult to evade because they are mostly targetable skills and not skill shots. It is hard to land a since sinister steel grants her movement speed which she can easily utilize to quickly run behind minions with. Do not waste mana on casting against her, because you would find yourself casting it alot when you get hit by and expect her to chain into the rest of her combo.

Just focus on your farm and if you clear a couple waves before she does, you can chase her down a bit and try to land your combo before she casts into her approaching allied wave.

: This is another difficult lane for since he also uses no mana and a very annoying and heavy harass. His main harass is which he would more or less spam whenever you are in range when you try to last hit some minions with basic attacks. This skill of his allows him to clear waves pretty quickly as well as tear your health down. He also possesses a very good passive: which he can use to absorb any damage you throw at him and retaliate with vengeance with his chain combo. His Q: is easy to evade by staying away from his melee range as the damage from it will bounce to nearby minions. On top of this, he also has short cooldowns, which is a big set back as a .

However, on the bright side, his skills cost health so you should look to trade with him to get an early kill before he casts his first recall because most players who use will rush a which will grant him back health when he uses his skills.

An early on may be useful as well if you find him difficult to deal with.
Ask for ganks because has no escape route besides if he is running which most players will use on him.

: This is a difficult lane for based on the fact that can harass constantly with . It also has a short cooldown so she can use it often especially if she starts with a . She will often use to damage your caster minions, much like how you damage the enemy casters with . also has a shield that she can use to absorb some damage so harassing her would be pointless and quite hard, and you would lose most of the trades against her. your primary goal on is to focus on farming and less on poking at .

If you find yourself losing your lane and getting heavily zoned out, you may want to consider getting an early to heal up some extra health or perhaps a . Of course, you should ask for ganks as well and play passively until your jungler arrives to your lane.

: is not as hard as he may seem. He is one of the easiest mid-lane champs to play and he can really get some sneaky damage in with . This skill has a short cooldown so he can use it to harass you often. Once you stay out of his range, he cannot really be a pain for you. Alot of players like to run past their minion wave so that they can get some good burst damage in with the typical combo which is into then followed by a final , (if he is still in range).

When does this, he is exposing himself to a and you should stay within his range and get ready to use so that his damage will not hit as hard, and you will not become snared. If he makes a move like this be prepared also to initiate with and . These 2 skills should be enough to make him run away and maybe chug a health potion or play less aggressively.

EDIT: Will add more later during this week.

Credits

I want to personally thank jhoijhoi's guide to bbcoding: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/wiki/mobafire/bbcode-guide
Also thank you for the Mastery Calculator available at: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/mastery-tree-planner

EDIT: I still have much to add to the "Morgana vs Champions" section and need to create some tables to make the guide look a little..."prettier". After that's done, I'll remove this message.

Morgana - CCing All Day

Morgana - CCing All Day

Recommended Items

Spells:

Ignite

Flash

Items

Ability Order

Soul Siphon (PASSIVE)

Dark Binding (Q)

Tormented Shadow (W)

Black Shield (E)

Soul Shackles (R)