Note: This guide is mainly for lower Elo: Bronze, Silver, Gold. It's designed to help Morg do more damage at the cost of support with traditional items, such as Mikael's Crucible. The reason for this is because Morgana, with enough damage, can give you a little more control over the game.

Morgana's usefulness is primarily her ability to bring a LOT of utility to a team. She has the longest possible CC in the game and she can do it all while bringing in a lot of damage and lane control. She's crazy useful, if not a tiny bit squishy. She can be used on a lot of team comps as well. She can disengage well by tossing a Dark Binding or a Tormented Shadow behind her and she can keep vulnerable allies from getting snared/stunned/feared, etc with her Black Shield.

She can also help the team engage really well by punishing enemies who come out too far with a Dark Binding. Her ult, Soul Shackles is also useful because she can gank and ult, which works through Zhonya's Hourglass, causing the enemy team to scatter OR get trapped by a stun.

Pros + Most Potential CC in the game + Crazy utility + Lots of poke + One of the best lane pushers + Versatile pick that can help on indecisive solo queue teams

Cons - Sort of squishy - Terrible catch phrases - Weak against AD heavy teams/champs - Slow - Relies on Skill Shots

Itemization is probably the key point of this guide. Because Morg is heavily reliant on skillshots and good play making, none of which I can teach you. This means that items are the best part of her that you can objectively control.

I focus on a slow burn sort of build. She isn't going to have a noticeable power spike like some champions have (Corki w/ Trinity) but she will have little bumps in power. The most noticeable is with Athene's Unholy Grail where she will start to have fairly spammable skills. The second is with Zhonya's Hourglass where she will gain some tankiness along with MORE utility.

I love Athene's Unholy Grail. What it does for Morg in every lane is make sure she always has a spell to cast. This item is perfect for Morgana, who has notorious Mana issues. It gives you 20% CDR, a bit of MR, a nice chunk of AP, and almost infinite mana. You can't go wrong. I usually build at least Chalice of Harmony on my first back as mid/top and after sightstone as support. I don't build this item when I jungle, because you're going to have blue buff.

Zhonya's is everything that Athene's is not. It gives you Armor and AP, though it was nerfed a bit in patch 5.13 it's still got it's killer active, which can save your butt and you can ult through it. Build second as Top/Mid/Jungle, fourth as support.

This item requires a little explanation. It's rarely used - because people don't get how to use it. It's, in my opinion, only useful on support Morgana, but it gives her a lot of diverse tankiness. It gives the most MR on one item in the game (60), a movement speed buff, 60 armor, and the portals. The portals are useful if you're struggling to push. You can run down and plop one down near a turret and if the enemy is occupied, you can often push your lane right to a turret or even take it down. It is also useful for proxying or delaying a push of a lane you're losing. It's a very unique item that takes a little skill to use, but is very good. The void spawn also grant you any gold they might accrue, so that's nice too.

This is a situational item that you'll want to swap with Athene's if you're facing someone with a lot of self-healing. This can put a severe hamper on Swain or Volibear if you hit them with a puddle as their healing abilities try to work.

One thing I want to mention here is that warding is important - no matter what lane you're in. Upgrade your trinkets, because you're going to be moving around a lot.

Learning to use Morgana's skills is important.

The Q:

Her Q is really powerful, but it's hard to hit. In Top/Bot/Jungle, it's best to use the bushes as cover to land them. Be aware of where minions are and learn the hitboxes. Then you'll know if it will hit a minion or it will land on the enemy.

Also, knowing when to go in after snaring is important, especially bot lane. If your ADC isn't there, don't go in unless you know you can make a hit and get out with minimal damage. Avoid going in very early game at all (lv 1-2) because the lane minions will shred you.

The W:

Morg's W is really, really, really good at farming. At Rank 2, with enough AP, you can kill all of the caster minions, and if you aim REALLY well, you can weaken one of the tank minions. After rank 4 it can clear the entire wave (minus the cannon minions). This can also be used as a zoning tool. It makes the enemy take damage if they decide to stand in the puddle to get some CS. As a support with spelltheif's you can also use it to quickly rack up gold, but it is very many expensive.

The E:

Morgana's most OP ability, it can block all CC and will pop after it blocks enough AP damage. Use this to stop a blitz's pull, ahri's charm, or another Morgana's snare. It can even stop Bard's ult (but only on one person).

It does have limits - it only stops CC, not spell effects. So, if Zed ults on you, it won't stop the death mark from being applied. It won't stop bleed or ignite, either.

Use this on the most vulnerable player, but it has a long cooldown, so try to apply it only when you think it will be needed. Also, if it comes between saving yourself and another teammate, it may be better to save yourself. This is because you may have a better chance of escaping and keeping the enemy from getting a double kill. Your snare is very good at preventing chases.

I build her skills differently according to role.

Support - max dark binding first. You don't want to steal CS, but you want to be able to harass with your puddle. If the enemy team doesn't have much CC or AP, though, don't max your Black Shield second. It'll just end up being wasteful.

Mid/Top/Jungle - Max your Tormented Soil (puddle) first. It gives you the best wave/jungle clear and is a surprisingly large source of poke, especially for melee opponents who have to walk into it to CS (i.e. Nasus). I then build Dark Binding or Black Shield according to how much CC I'm taking.

Morgana, no matter where you're laning, is going to be played as a "Support." What this means is that she brings a ton of utility. Learning to support with Morgana is essential for laning well with her. You'll be using a lot of the same skills.

As a support you're probably going to start with your Dark Binding, unless you're laning against a support with a pull.

Your Dark Binding in support bot has a few uses:

The best use is to snare an enemy that has stepped out and catch them out. This can be hard to do because of lane minions, but with practice you can snare an ADC that has stepped in front of the caster minions to CS. The best place to be is in the bushes to do this.

The second is to poke. Dark Binding does a lot of damage, especially to an ADC. Even if they're back, this can deny them CC and force their support back to them. This can give your ADC time to farm or time to close the gap and begin making a kill.

The Third is to stop ganks. Morgana runs one of the safest lanes in game. When you get ganked before you can buy a sightstone you can toss a Q at the ganking jungler and possibly even turn a gank into a kill.

Your Tormented Soil has a little bit less use:

1. You can use it to farm when your ADC backs. This can help you get ahead and get a little gold.
2. Use it to help push the lane back a bit. This is great if the enemy is freezing the lane. Sometimes this is useful if your ADC isn't very good or isn't familiar with the role. With this extra pushing power you can weaken the minions to help your ADC cs.
3. Gold with Spelltheif's gold. You can get 15/30 gold really fast.

Your Black Shield has few uses but they're awesome:
1. Mitigate magic damage from the enemy.
2. Stop some nasty cc. This is all about timing. You have to be able to predict when Blitz is going to pop his grab.

When you're solo laning get your Tormented Soil first. This is what you're going to max first. If you finish Athene's you can kill all three caster minions at rank 2. If you're playing against someone (and a jungler) without much CC or AP it's smart to forgo your black shield for a level.

CSing

Very early your cs is going to be weak. Your AA does very little damage, but if you learn to time it right, you can get a lot of CS. If you set up a custom match and just go against wave after wave of minions you can learn to get a lot of CS early game.

After you get lv 2-3 in your Tormented Soil you can clear the caster minions. When you clear them, try to make sure the first tick hits the enemy laner. After a while, if they don't have sustain this will rack up considerable damage.

A

Combos

[*] The basic combo for Morgana is Dark Binding --> Tormented Soil. It guarantees a few ticks of your puddle dealing damage. Early game it's not very strong, especially if you're supporting, but it can deal a lot of damage at max rank of torm soil and dark binding, holding the enemy there for at least 3 of the five seconds 5 seconds.

Once you get your ult you can do some fun combos.

[*] Flash --> Soul Shackles --> (opt.) Dark Binding --> (opt.) Torm Soil) --> (opt.) Zhonya
This can be used in a lot of situations with a lot of variation. Sometimes it's best to just flash into the enemy team and Zhonya after ulting. The enemy team will either scatter or wait it out. Only do this if your team is going to come in after you. I've gotten killed many a time by a reluctant team. If you're just going in on your lane partner, don't be afraid to throw a snare to keep them from flashing away. You can also flash into any of the combos listed after this.

[*] Her easiest ult combo is Dark Binding --> Torm Soil --> Soul Shackles --> Dark Binding.
This requires a bit of timing and it rarely goes through, especially if your enemy has flash. At level six, your snare doesn't hold long enough to ensure the ult goes off. Also, your cooldowns might not be enough for your Dark Binding to be back before the enemy can get under turret and you certainly can't get another tormented soil off.

[*] The best combo Morgana has is Tormented soil --> Dark Binding --> Soul Shackles --> (optional) Zhonya --> Dark Binding --> Tormented soil.
This is incredibly hard to pull off. Soul Shackles is easy to dodge if they have flash. It helps to put tormented soil down first, because it causes the enemy to move, and they'll likely move backwards, opening up space for a snare. This is similar to the combo above, but with just a slight variation because by putting your tormented soil down first, you'll have it on cooldown to use it at the end. This can deal at LOT of damage at level 18 and much of the damage is AOE so you can really wreck the enemy team.

Because I pointed out that you can jungle with Morgana, let me explain:

Jungling with Morg can be rewarding, because she provides very strong ganks. If she can land a snare, it can give a laner the time to get to their enemy and start killing their enemy. Morg can also protect that person with her black shield and apply her puddle for damage (that only gets worse the more HP they lose).

She, however, is obviously not a jungle tank. She is VERY susceptible to counter jungling early on and her early clear (pre 6) is bad. So here is how you jungle with Morg.

How to Morg Jungle:

Morgana relies on the new Runeglaive enchantment. This is going to be your source of mana and damage in the jungle. It gives you good AOE damage that makes your puddle do even more damage.
Start at blue buff. You need the CDR and the mana, end of story. Then move to either Gromp or the Wolves. I usually go for the wolves, because they do less damage if you kill one of the baby wolves first with a snare and then puddle.

You HAVE to kite early jungle. Morg can't take a beating like Udyr or Shyvana can. So, focus on using your snare well, move away from that creep, and puddle to damage all of them. Remember, the lower health a monster has, the more damage they take from your puddle.

Post 6, you should be able to clear the jungle VERY fast. Faster than almost any other jungler I know of (maybe not Yi). Your puddle will tear them to bits and your snare will be terribly effective.

Play Morg because she can go anywhere. She's fun and she adds a lot to any team.