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Morgana, the Fallen Angel
![[image loading]](http://img1.leaguecraft.com/uploads/K4tEe/wallpapers/200_preview.jpg)
Wikilink: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Morgana_the_Fallen_Angel
(I decided to copy Yiruru's format since it seems to be the most convenient)
Description: Morgana is a high-utility AP champ that has one of the best AOE ults in the game, which can change the course of a teamfight when used properly. Along with her ult, her dark bind and spell shield provide great initiation as well as team utility. Due to her shield, she also counters many AP mid champs as it blocks CC/spell damage. She has been perma-banned in solo Q for a long time after her buff, but has seen somewhat of a dropoff in play mainly due to kennen rising in popularity, and small nerfs to her abilities. Still, she is a great AP mid that can carry games.
From my own games, I have had much success with her in Solo que, and I've incorporated most of my playstyle from Bigfatjiji after watching his morgana streams. However I'm sure other better players on this forum such as locicero can provide more input/corrections to this guide.
I almost always play Morgana mid, allowing me to gank sidelanes after pushing the creepwave to their tower.
Runes
Marks: Magic Pen
Seals: HP5/lvl OR MP5/lvl (I use MP5/lvl)
Glyphs: Flat MR or scaling MR or AP/lvl (I use Flat MR)
Glyphs: Flat AP
Masteries
9/0/21 I've been using this mastery because the CDR and summoner CDR is essential for Morgana moreso than other AP champs
I haven't tried 21/0/9, which would trade the CDR for more AP/dmg, but I feel like Morg's playstyle is augmented more from the utility tree than the offensive tree.
Summoner spells
Flash - ALWAYS
Ignite - Standard AP summoner
teleport - Esp if you take top lane
Skills
Soul Siphon (innate) - Morgana is granted 10 / 20 / 30% spell vamp.
Great passive that allows you to trade against your lane opponent and heal back lost HP by using tormented soil on creeps, especially when you have lvl 3+ tormented soil.
Dark Binding - Morgana releases a sphere of dark magic. Upon contact with an enemy unit, the sphere will deal damage and force the unit to the ground, making it unable to move.
Cooldown: 11 seconds
Range: 1300
Cost: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 mana
Magic Damage: 80 / 135 / 190 / 245 / 300 (+0.9 per ability power)
Duration: 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 2.75 / 3 seconds
Great initiation/anti-gank skill that roots the enemy to the ground. Unlike a stun, the enemy can still cast spells and auto attack anything that is within range, as well as use summoner spells except for Flash. What distinguishes a bad Morg from a good one is the proper use of this spell.
Tormented Soil - Infects an area with desecrated soil for 5 seconds, causing enemy units who stand on the location to take magic damage and lose magic resistance every second they are standing on the area.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range to Center of AoE: 900
Radius of AoE: 350
Cost: 70 / 85 / 100 / 115 / 130 mana
Magic Damage Per Second: 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 (+0.2 per ability power)
Magic Resistance Reduction: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 per second
The main AOE DPS skill for Morg, as well as the main source of spell vamp from her innate ability. Since it’s an AOE skill that lasts for 5 seconds, you can basically clear ranged minions once you get lvl 3 soil, and also DPS down enemy champ who is trying to last hit by casting it over your own minions. If properly cast, you can hit all 6 minions in each creep wave, and this allows you to push hard to their tower, after which you can gank sidelanes/take blue/BP.
Black Shield - Places a shield around target friendly champion, absorbing magic damage and preventing disables while the shield holds. Lasts 5 seconds or until the shield is broken.
Cost: 50 mana
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Range: 600
Shield Strength: 95 / 160 / 225 / 290 / 355 (+0.7 per ability power)
IMO the best shield ability in the game. Great against CC heavy teams that will save yourself/teammate from death, and it has a fairly decent AP ratio, allowing it to absorb a huge chunk of burst late game.
Soul Shackles (ultimate) - Morgana latches chains of energy onto nearby enemy champions, dealing initial damage to them after a brief delay of 0.5 seconds, and slowing their movement speed by 20% for up to 3 seconds. If the target(s) stay in range for the full duration of the slow, they are dealt the same magic damage again and are stunned for 1.5 seconds.
Range for activating: 600
Max range after activation: 1000
Cost: 100 / 150 / 200 mana
Cooldown: 120 / 110 / 100 seconds
Magic Damage: 175 / 250 / 325 (+0.7 per ability power)
Great AOE ult that does decent damage, and provides significant disruption to enemy team formation to allow your teammates to focus down enemy champions.
Skill Order
Q -> W -> E -> W -> W -> R
R> W> Q > E (alternatively max Q first after 3 levels in W)
Item Build
Start: Boots x 3hp pots
I prefer starting boots over DR because you need the sustain early levels, when you can't spell vamp from your soil to heal. Boots also allows you to harass the enemy champion with AA better between CD of your spells. With these starting items, I generally farm enough until I can buy catalyst, which provides endless sustaining potential in lane.
Core:
Sorc Boots -Shouldn’t need mercs because you have OP shield
Rod of Ages -Provides everything Morg needs: HP, mana, AP. Morg needs to have enough HP to get into the midst of the enemy team and ult. Granted the mana isn't as essential, but the added HP is just too useful on Morg.
Zhonya’s Hourglass – Get your full ult off without being focused down, and allow time for Q/W to come off CD
End game:
Rabadon’s Deathcap
Void Staff
Abyssal Scepter
Play style
• When ulting 1v1, Always initiate with R -> ignite -> W just before stun -> Q after stun maximum damage. Use shield immediately after R if they have hard CC.
• In teamfights, don't initiate with your ult. They can simply flash/run out and you put yourself in danger of being focused quickly (However, if there is a perfect chance to hit all 5 with flash and your teammates are near, you can flash in- > ult -> zhonya for good effect)
• Learning to activate your zhonya’s during your ult is important- too early and they just run out of your shackes; too late and you do no dmg while they are all stunned.
• Always use shield before you ult in teamfights to allow yourself better positioning for the stun
• As mentioned previously, landing Q’s is what differentiates bad vs good morgs. Practice makes perfect
Notable Matchups
Katarina - Her shunpo basically makes it a nightmare matchup, as her high mobility makes it hard to land Q's and subsequently W. Her ult also cannot be CC'ed by Q, and your shield doesn't block its damage. The only thing you can do is to push as hard as possible while staying away from your creepline to ensure that you don't get wittled down from her blades. If she ults you, don't engage but just pull back immediately.
Kassadin- Easy matchup. Your shield blocks his slow-ass Q, and you push to his tower all day, forcing him to stay and clear the creeps or letting the tower fall early.
Cassiopeia For some reason I hardly face cass when I play Morg, but it's not much of an issue if you can shield from her spells at the right time. If you decide to 1v1, you need to play the mind game of deciding when she will ult you, and when to time your shield. Most likely, she'll do a knee-jerk reaction and ult the moment you ult her, so self-casting shield right after your ult is your best bet.
Annie - Again it all comes down to the timing of your shield. Since Annie has a very dangerous burst combo that WILL kill you from 100% hp after lvl 6, you definitely need to be ready to shield quickly. If your shield blocks Annie's stun-charged spell, then Annie's burst damage is crippled as she needs a stunned target to combo effectively. Blocking Annie's flash/ult with shield will make you feel like a bawwwws.
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United States37500 Posts
Good overview of Morg. I like the tidbits you included about how/when to use her Ulti.
I prefer early Zhonya's over Deathcap with my NLR. My usual opening is Ring Ring NLR Zhonya's. I don't really think RoA is core on her though. Her spells aren't that mana intensive and usually Ringx2 and Blue solves any mana issues she has.
One thing to note is that some players like to put 3 points into W then max Q first. 3W is enough to clear the ranged minions and you auto to finish the melee ones.
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I disagree with the way you fight in a 1v1. I'd rather ensure damage when I use the ult, so I wait to be sure a Q will hit, follow immediatly with W, and use the snare to get near them and cast the ult. If you do it while you're near enough, the second tick of your ult will benefit from the full MR reduction from tormented soil, which allows for substantial additional damage.
Also, considering Q travel time and W instant cast, when you're sure that your Q will hit, casting W before it happens can net a little bit of damage since your target will first receive the first tick (and reduction) from W.
I like RoA because the catalyst gives you even more sustain in lane (Morgana is quite mana hungry as soon as she does anything besides one W per wave), and the tankiness it provides allows you to take some hits. Morgana is quite good at escaping (a snare, a shield to prevent her from being cc'd) but her cooldowns are long so if she have enough HP to live until another round of spells, it's never wasted.
As for engaging in teamfights, I noticed (awhile ago, before her E and R were nerfed... never stop QQing about her permaban status!) that a Q-W combo can easily take out more than 50% of a squishy's health. So I tend to try and get some CDR (against an heavy AD team I have no qualms about getting a Frozen Heart as 3rd-4th big item if nobody else does it) and use Q to poke, trying to catch someone for the team to focus. If that happens, you don't even need to flash: simply walking towards them, threatening to finish them off with your ult is enough to force the enemy team to commit.
One of the weaknesses of her kit in lane is the length it takes to damage people: you aren't an instant burst like Annie or Brand, and you aren't a sustained dps mage either. Which means someone like Ryze or Cassiopea may hurt you more than the opposite in the timespan to cast your full combo, while if you and Annie can 100-0 one another when you pour in all your damage she'll kill you far faster than the 3-4s you need.
For these reasons, champions like Katarina can counter her (she has no ways to escape Kata's ult since her only interruption takes 3 seconds to kick in, Lotus Blade's duration, and Shumpo allows easy escapes from Q and R, along with the sustain Katarina can get from rushing revolver, and her harass and pushing power coming from maxing her Q).
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On February 17 2012 05:13 NeoIllusions wrote:
Good overview of Morg. I like the tidbits you included about how/when to use her Ulti.
I prefer early Zhonya's over Deathcap with my NLR. My usual opening is Ring Ring NLR Zhonya's. I don't really think RoA is core on her though. Her spells aren't that mana intensive and usually Ringx2 and Blue solves any mana issues she has.
One thing to note is that some players like to put 3 points into W then max Q first. 3W is enough to clear the ranged minions and you auto to finish the melee ones.
I feel like 2 DR doesn't give enough HP for teamfights, and it significantly delays your other big AP items. I'd probably get 1 if I had to back early and was losing badly, but otherwise I'd rush catalyst.
I included your tip about maxing Q after 3 into W- thx!
+ Show Spoiler +I disagree with the way you fight in a 1v1. I'd rather ensure damage when I use the ult, so I wait to be sure a Q will hit, follow immediatly with W, and use the snare to get near them and cast the ult. If you do it while you're near enough, the second tick of your ult will benefit from the full MR reduction from tormented soil, which allows for substantial additional damage.
Also, considering Q travel time and W instant cast, when you're sure that your Q will hit, casting W before it happens can net a little bit of damage since your target will first receive the first tick (and reduction) from W.
I like RoA because the catalyst gives you even more sustain in lane (Morgana is quite mana hungry as soon as she does anything besides one W per wave), and the tankiness it provides allows you to take some hits. Morgana is quite good at escaping (a snare, a shield to prevent her from being cc'd) but her cooldowns are long so if she have enough HP to live until another round of spells, it's never wasted.
As for engaging in teamfights, I noticed (awhile ago, before her E and R were nerfed... never stop QQing about her permaban status!) that a Q-W combo can easily take out more than 50% of a squishy's health. So I tend to try and get some CDR (against an heavy AD team I have no qualms about getting a Frozen Heart as 3rd-4th big item if nobody else does it) and use Q to poke, trying to catch someone for the team to focus. If that happens, you don't even need to flash: simply walking towards them, threatening to finish them off with your ult is enough to force the enemy team to commit.
One of the weaknesses of her kit in lane is the length it takes to damage people: you aren't an instant burst like Annie or Brand, and you aren't a sustained dps mage either. Which means someone like Ryze or Cassiopea may hurt you more than the opposite in the timespan to cast your full combo, while if you and Annie can 100-0 one another when you pour in all your damage she'll kill you far faster than the 3-4s you need.
For these reasons, champions like Katarina can counter her (she has no ways to escape Kata's ult since her only interruption takes 3 seconds to kick in, Lotus Blade's duration, and Shumpo allows easy escapes from Q and R, along with the sustain Katarina can get from rushing revolver, and her harass and pushing power coming from maxing her Q).
Well I feel like the stun portion of your ult is wasted if you proceed with Q -> W -> R, and you necessarily wouldn't want to commit fully once you land a Q due to jungler nearby. I don't think this method also has more damage output, as the decreased MR from pool doesn't last when they get the ult stun damage (2nd tick of the ult) as they'll have moved far away (correct me if I'm wrong).
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It depends. I guess if you max Q late and are too far they can get away from the pool fast enough thanks to R's slow—I personally tend to wait until they get into kill range, then bait some harass or or stop pushing to force them to take risks so that when I go in we weren't too far apart, but that may just be bad play from my opponents.
Regarding the stun, since it only comes after 3 seconds, when it's a 1v1 where I want to kill and not to cripple it doesn't bother me to pass up on the stun just so my (already long) combo is more compressed in time.
I may be wrong though, and I'll try your way next time I manage to grab her.
Regarding Annie from my experience if you manage to E her initiation, on top of the boss feeling you mentioned ( ) it's enough to make you survive it (you should have catalyst or at least a ruby by the time you hit 6), while your own combo can 100-0 her. That was before her ult and shield ratios' nerf, so I'd have to play against Annie again to check if this still holds true.
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I really don't understand why you would go for the utility tree on morgana. She's an ap carry, the offensive tree is really too good, the utility tree is going to give you what..? Some cdr and lowers summoners cd ? For which you'll lose a ton of damage. Same for the runes I've never felt the need to run mana reg runes with her, catalyst into roa is all I need. As for the way of engaging 1v1 the safest way is always to engage with ult, how could you know you're going to hit Q for sure ?
tl;dr how I play her:
21/0/9
mpen reds
ap lvl yellows
ap lvl blues
flat ap quints
boots potx3, catalyst, roa, sorc, large rod, zhonya, rabaddon, void staff, [insert 6th item here]
Also I feel like adding the fact that morgana is really very very easy to play AND very strong, probably one of the best champ to gain ELO. I'm always disgusted when I look at my win % in rankeds and realize that it is way higher with my morg than with my karth despite karth being my main and despite the fact that I don't really play morgana that much.
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At which Elo isn't she permabanned? Oo
And I don't engage with Q, once I'm looking for a kill I engage when Q hits. Safer commitment.
Matchups btw:
Gragas can give her trouble because after some levels and AP he can start one-shotting waves (at least the ranged minions), disrupting her ability to farm a still minion wave. He also has some kind of sustain himself and a better poke (less cd, more damage since you max it first) as well as damage mitigation. He's rather safe against ganks himself, and can ult-body slam out of your ult rangeif he so wishes.
Your lack of harass doesn't allow you to punish him with much more than auto-attacks during the levels where being melee hurts him. Your E should make you safe from his kill combo if you've got good reflexes, tho.
Basically any pusher able to clear a wave in less than 3-4s can be troublesome because he won't let you pool farm, and they often have short cds than you, allowing them to roam effectively or harass you.
Sion is obnoxious if he can one-hit the wave, and totally hapless if you can hit Q-W combo early on (destroys his shield, even if you pay more mana for it if he can't farm up to one-shot status you can keep on bullying him).
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I play at 2K elo and she is far from perma-banned. Too much champs to ban nowadays  .
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Now I'm jealous. I wish they'd ban Kassadin/Shaco/Shen/WW/Tryndamere/Amumu or some other retar... non-sensical/sheep stuff at my 1200.  Time to grind!
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On February 17 2012 19:40 Alaric wrote:
At which Elo isn't she permabanned? Oo
Morg is banned in around 1-5% of my games with 1800-2100 players.
Whether you engage with Q or not depends on the circumstances. When you're poking and sieging you're throwing Q's out trying to lower their HP or create an opening to initiate. When you're team fighting and the fight is already commited, you want to be more sure your Q's hit, which often means waiting until your ult proc or someone else lands a CC. However, considering you often have to Zhonya's mid-ult, you may want to use it beforehand to get the CD rolling or just hold it for a better opportunity since the CD is fairly long.
It can be extremely effective to flash ult a team with yourself shielded and then W+Q after the proc.
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On February 17 2012 19:15 RouaF wrote:
I really don't understand why you would go for the utility tree on morgana. She's an ap carry, the offensive tree is really too good, the utility tree is going to give you what..? Some cdr and lowers summoners cd ? For which you'll lose a ton of damage. Same for the runes I've never felt the need to run mana reg runes with her, catalyst into roa is all I need. As for the way of engaging 1v1 the safest way is always to engage with ult, how could you know you're going to hit Q for sure ?
tl;dr how I play her:
21/0/9
mpen reds
ap lvl yellows
ap lvl blues
flat ap quints
boots potx3, catalyst, roa, sorc, large rod, zhonya, rabaddon, void staff, [insert 6th item here]
Also I feel like adding the fact that morgana is really very very easy to play AND very strong, probably one of the best champ to gain ELO. I'm always disgusted when I look at my win % in rankeds and realize that it is way higher with my morg than with my karth despite karth being my main and despite the fact that I don't really play morgana that much.
As I mentioned previously, I feel like she benefits more from the utility tree because her playstyle is built around helping your teammates get the kill, because your kit lacks the burst or dps of other AP carrys. She doesn't carry games in the sense that she racks up 10+ kills and gets godly damage. So Having flash up nearly every teamfight, as well as getting your spells back up a little quicker is so much better than doing a little more damage. This is my opinion, and I mentioned that 21/0/9 is also an option in my guide, although I never use it on her. Since I've also had success with her in my games, I guess both ways are totally viable =P
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Russian Federation164 Posts
Hi there
Have a question regarding mid pushing...
I know with most champs it's suicidal (Jesus, I hate early feeds >:[ ), but.. you know, Q+E...
Basically what I do is sometimes delay Q till lvl 2 (WQWEWR), and use Tornment to not let opposing summoner make last hits. I rarely use Q since it never works against any competent player, instead spam couple extra W. It gains me a nice gold advantage and sometimes grants a kill or two @6. But it pushes me to the 'red zone' (his tower) a lot. So far E + Q + emergency Ghost/Flash never led me down. but.. Maybe it's still better to stick to my tower? Any thoughts? I insist, I DO NOT die ever, by 7-8 lvl get like 20-30 minions more and may also make a kill or two, which is a huge gold advantage, but maybe it's just that gankers aren't good (unranked game :D :S)?
TL;DR: Herp derp I out-farm mid with W, push, never die. Noob opponents or ez Morgana?
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On May 14 2012 20:52 Elefes wrote:
Hi there
Have a question regarding mid pushing...
I know with most champs it's suicidal (Jesus, I hate early feeds >:[ ), but.. you know, Q+E...
Basically what I do is sometimes delay Q till lvl 2 (WQWEWR), and use Tornment to not let opposing summoner make last hits. I rarely use Q since it never works against any competent player, instead spam couple extra W. It gains me a nice gold advantage and sometimes grants a kill or two @6. But it pushes me to the 'red zone' (his tower) a lot. So far E + Q + emergency Ghost/Flash never led me down. but.. Maybe it's still better to stick to my tower? Any thoughts? I insist, I DO NOT die ever, by 7-8 lvl get like 20-30 minions more and may also make a kill or two, which is a huge gold advantage, but maybe it's just that gankers aren't good (unranked game :D :S)?
TL;DR: Herp derp I out-farm mid with W, push, never die. Noob opponents or ez Morgana?
That's what makes morgana so strong.
Put pool down, back off to your tower. Impossible to gank due to shield.
Deny enemy cs and never missing a single one yourself.
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On May 14 2012 20:52 Elefes wrote:
Hi there
Have a question regarding mid pushing...
I know with most champs it's suicidal (Jesus, I hate early feeds >:[ ), but.. you know, Q+E...
Basically what I do is sometimes delay Q till lvl 2 (WQWEWR), and use Tornment to not let opposing summoner make last hits. I rarely use Q since it never works against any competent player, instead spam couple extra W. It gains me a nice gold advantage and sometimes grants a kill or two @6. But it pushes me to the 'red zone' (his tower) a lot. So far E + Q + emergency Ghost/Flash never led me down. but.. Maybe it's still better to stick to my tower? Any thoughts? I insist, I DO NOT die ever, by 7-8 lvl get like 20-30 minions more and may also make a kill or two, which is a huge gold advantage, but maybe it's just that gankers aren't good (unranked game :D :S)?
TL;DR: Herp derp I out-farm mid with W, push, never die. Noob opponents or ez Morgana?
take it 1 step further and shove mid lane to gank top/bot. If you're fast/efficient with your time, you can get a gank in with minimal creep loss. Works especially well vs champs that can't push back very fast.
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You should basically be ganking bot everytime your R is up since you can push waves so quickly. Ask your jungler or support to pink the river.
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Russian Federation164 Posts
Tnx for advice! 
Well, I think I struggle mostly vs. good mids with TP..
They are smart enough not to feed me, and are able to put pressure back after a recall and TP.
Should I still try to gank (gang? o_O) or is it okay since my mid rival is not really able to harass either?
I mean, If fail to gank them I lose the advantage I gained in my lane, and some tower hp, etc.. Kinda difficult to evaluate risk/reward ratio
Guess it can not be answered quickly, I'll figure it out eventually!
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It depends. If it's again a champ that scales harder than you should you give him freefarm, or that pushes harder than you (basically all instaclears, Morde, Malzahar, Gragas, etc.) you should consider all factors before you decide. But a champ that can't push back that fast? Either he loses cs, or you put pressure on one of the two other lanes without significant loss for you.
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If you wanna carry and win games consistently in solo queue you have to gank gank gank gank. If your ganks are efficient, you should not be losing too much farm, much less your mid tower by leaving every 2-3 waves. It also forces their mid to make a choice of either farm mid or counter gank when you are MIA.
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Just went 14-3-38 as her on my first attempt, thank you very much for the guide!
Also, I had a question: Would it be a good idea to get Athene's Unholy Grail late-game? I did, and it worked, but I don't know about all situations.
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On June 04 2012 15:05 plasmidghost wrote:
Just went 14-3-38 as her on my first attempt, thank you very much for the guide!
Also, I had a question: Would it be a good idea to get Athene's Unholy Grail late-game? I did, and it worked, but I don't know about all situations.
Absolutely not. She doesn't have any mana problems, especially late game
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EPT
