Morgana, known as the Fallen Angel, is a versatile champion in League of Legends with a rich set of abilities that make her a formidable opponent. Whether you’re new to Morgana or a seasoned player, understanding her strengths, weaknesses, and optimal build paths can significantly enhance your gameplay. This guide will delve into Morgana’s abilities, her best builds, counters, and strategic tips to help you excel in your matches. In this League of Legends Morgana Guide, discover builds, counters, strategies, and tips to dominate as a support or mid-lane champion.

Understanding Morgana’s Abilities

Soul Siphon (Passive)

Morgana’s passive, Soul Siphon, allows her to heal herself for a percentage of the damage dealt by her abilities to enemy champions, large minions, and monsters. This passive grants her significant sustain in lane, especially when trading with opponents or clearing waves. The healing scales with the post-mitigation damage, making it more effective as Morgana builds ability power (AP).

Dark Binding (Q)

Dark Binding is Morgana’s signature ability. She hurls a sphere of dark energy in a straight line, rooting the first enemy it hits for up to 3 seconds at max rank. This ability has a high damage output and one of the longest root durations in the game, making it a powerful tool for crowd control and setting up plays. The long cooldown and mana cost mean it should be used strategically, ideally when you have a clear shot at an enemy or to peel for your allies.

Tormented Shadow (W)

Tormented Shadow desecrates an area, dealing damage over time to enemies within it. The damage increases based on the target’s missing health, making it an excellent tool for finishing off low-health enemies or shredding through tankier foes in prolonged fights. This ability also synergizes well with Morgana’s passive, as each tick of damage can trigger Soul Siphon, providing substantial healing in team fights.

Black Shield (E)

Morgana’s Black Shield is one of her most impactful abilities, especially when played as a support. It grants a magic shield to an ally, absorbing incoming magic damage and rendering them immune to crowd control effects as long as the shield holds. Proper timing of Black Shield can completely negate critical enemy abilities, such as crowd control ultimates, turning the tide of a fight in your favor.

Soul Shackles (R)

Soul Shackles is Morgana’s ultimate ability, which tethers nearby enemy champions, dealing initial magic damage and slowing them. If the tethers are not broken within 3 seconds, the targets are stunned and take additional damage. This ability is particularly powerful in team fights, where Morgana can engage or counter-engage by locking down multiple enemies, allowing her team to capitalize on the crowd control.

Best Builds and Runes for Morgana

Runes

Morgana’s rune choices vary depending on her role and playstyle. However, a common and effective setup is as follows:

• Primary: Sorcery
  • Arcane Comet: Provides additional poke damage with her abilities, especially when combined with Dark Binding and Tormented Shadow.
  • Manaflow Band: Helps with mana sustain, allowing Morgana to spam her abilities more freely.
  • Transcendence: Grants cooldown reduction, which is crucial for Morgana to have her abilities available more frequently.
  • Scorch: Adds extra burn damage, synergizing well with her poke-heavy playstyle.
• Secondary: Inspiration
  • Biscuit Delivery: Provides sustain in lane, keeping Morgana healthy until she can recall for items.
  • Cosmic Insight: Reduces cooldowns on summoner spells and items, giving Morgana more opportunities to impact the game.

Core Items

Morgana’s itemization should focus on maximizing her crowd control, sustain, and ability power. The following is a standard build path for Morgana:

• Luden’s Tempest: This item provides AP, mana, and cooldown reduction, along with an additional burst of damage that procs when hitting enemies with abilities.
• Zhonya’s Hourglass: A must-have for Morgana, especially when using Soul Shackles. The active stasis effect allows her to dive into the middle of the enemy team, cast her ultimate, and avoid being burst down before it completes.
• Liandry’s Anguish: Enhances Tormented Shadow’s damage, especially against tanky enemies, by dealing additional damage over time.
• Morellonomicon: Provides grievous wounds to counter healing-heavy compositions and boosts Morgana’s AP and health.

Situational Items

Depending on the enemy team composition and game state, Morgana can adapt her build:

• Banshee’s Veil: Offers magic resist and a spell shield, ideal against AP-heavy teams.
• Redemption: Adds utility by providing healing to your team in fights, often a good choice when played as a support.
• Shurelya’s Battlesong: Provides movement speed to engage or disengage, useful when your team needs more mobility.

Counters and Matchups

Understanding Morgana’s counters is essential for mastering her in any role. Some champions naturally counter Morgana, while others she can dominate.

Champions That Counter Morgana

• Thresh: Thresh’s Death Sentence can catch Morgana off-guard if she misses her Black Shield timing. His Flay can also knock Morgana out of position, making her vulnerable.
• Leona: Leona’s chain CC can break through Morgana’s Black Shield with her multiple stuns and roots, making it hard for Morgana to protect herself or her ADC.
• Blitzcrank: Blitzcrank’s Rocket Grab can pull Morgana or her allies into danger. While Black Shield can block it, a good Blitzcrank will bait the shield out and then engage.

Champions Morgana Counters

• Lux: Morgana’s Black Shield can negate Lux’s CC combo, making it difficult for Lux to burst down targets.
• Nami: Morgana’s Dark Binding outranges Nami, allowing her to poke and root Nami before Nami can react with her own crowd control.
• Yuumi: Morgana can easily root Yuumi and her ADC with Dark Binding, and Yuumi’s low mobility makes it hard for her to dodge Morgana’s abilities.

Tips for Playing Against Morgana

When facing Morgana, try to bait out her Black Shield before engaging. Champions with multiple crowd control abilities or high burst damage can pressure Morgana into using her shield early, leaving her vulnerable. Additionally, avoid clustering together, especially in team fights, to reduce the impact of her Soul Shackles.

Strategic Tips for Morgana Players

Early Game

During the laning phase, focus on hitting key Dark Bindings to set up kills or force your opponents to play defensively. Use Tormented Shadow to push the wave and gain lane priority, but be mindful of your mana pool. Black Shield should be reserved for critical moments when the enemy engages or tries to land a powerful crowd control ability.

Mid to Late Game

As the game progresses, Morgana’s role shifts towards utility and crowd control. In team fights, position yourself to land a multi-target Soul Shackles, but ensure you have Zhonya’s Hourglass ready to survive the enemy’s counterattack. Vision control is crucial; use your wards to secure objectives and protect your team from flanks.

Warding and Map Awareness

Morgana’s vulnerability when moving alone makes it essential to maintain vision around key objectives. Stick with your team when warding and use your abilities to check bushes from a safe distance. Your Black Shield can also help protect allies who are warding, reducing the risk of getting caught out.

Conclusion

Morgana is a champion with immense potential when played correctly. By mastering her abilities, understanding her counters, and optimizing her build, you can become a powerful force on the Rift. Whether you’re supporting your team with well-timed Black Shields or locking down enemies with Soul Shackles, Morgana offers a unique blend of damage and utility that can turn the tide of any game.