Hi, my name is Bizzleberry and I am a longtime League of Legends player, playing since before Season 1. Over the years I have achieved high ranking in solo queue, from Platinum in Season 1 (the highest at the time) to Challenger multiple times throughout the years. I used to stream in season 4-5 and stopped playing League for a year during season 6. I have now returned and am currently in Diamond 1 on EUW as a support main. You can catch me on my stream or my Youtube channel. I try to explain what I am doing in most situations; feel free to ask any questions on stream or leave a comment on the guide!

Morgana is currently one of the best picks against aggressive supports (such as Blitzcrank & Alistar . This is due to one ability, her Black Shield. Shielding an ally will block all cc on the target until the shield has been depleted. Even doing more damage than the shield will block that CC, however any further CC will still land.

Her laning harass is decent, and if you are able to land a Dark Binding you have very good kill potential. Her ultimate Soul Shackles can be devastating, but usually requires a Stopwatch or a Zhonya's Hourglass to pull off.

Morgana's Advantages

Able to snipe snare targets from a good range with Dark Binding.

Black Shield blocks all CC until it falls off.

Soul Shackles disrupts the enemy team, and if they do not respect it they can be locked up easily for further CC, whether its into Dark Binding or other teammates CC.

Able to build up Manaflow Band and Spellthief's Edge stacks easily with Tormented Shadow.

Good counter to aggressive support champions, such as Blitzcrank.

Morgana's Disadvantages

If you fall behind, it will be hard to use Soul Shackles aggressively.

Max range Dark Bindings are easy to dodge.

As a support Morgana you will not have as beefy Black Shield as if you were playing in a solo lane, which means you won't be blocking as many skill shots with one shield.

Sometimes requires very fast reflexes with Black Shield to block more vital cc, such as Alistar combo.

Sorcery

Summon Aery allows reliable harassment with auto attacks and Tormented Shadow in lane and gives a little shield on whoever you Black Shield. This rune is nothing crazy, but will help force the opponent to use at least one Health Potion during the laning phase.

Manaflow Band is easy to stack with Tormented Shadow. I would recommend waiting until the next stack of Manaflow is ready before harassing with Tormented Shadow as you will want to be done with Manaflow Band stacking by your first back.

Absolute Focusis a decent AP buff at the start of the game and will give you a little more harassment. Transcendence is also good mid-game to help you get towards 40% CDR.

Scorch will be applied with Tormented Shadow for extra lane harassment.



Inspiration

Inspiration can be viable due to getting a free stopwatch and an extra 10 Ability power level 1, however you will be more squishy in lane.

Perfect Timing Provides you with a working stopwatch during the end of laning phase. Can help for one of your early ultimates in the game, however, it does take a bag slot for a long time which may cause issues while you work on building a Zhonya's Hourglass.

Biscuit Delivery a nice way of being able to continue Tormented Shadow harassment with the mana regeneration. Also provides extra lane sustain if you are on low on health. You are able to sell each cookie at the shop for 30g, and still get the maximum mana increase it provides.

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Bread and butter, use Ignite before they use Heal to prevent half of the healing on target. Use Flash to help engage with your ultimate / land a good binding or to disengage.

Soul Siphon

Soul Siphon The only real relevance this passive has for you is 20% healing from spells on enemy champions. This isn't a great deal but provides minor self healing, nothing crazy. It was more recently changed to enable jungle Morgana to be a thing. Also if you use Tormented Shadow and it gives you a tick of health, it will reduce Tormented Shadow cooldown by 5% per tick.

Dark Binding

Dark Binding Is a slow, long range skill shot that binds the first target hit. Duration is increased when leveled. It's damage is respectable and has very good AP scaling. You will have a better chance landing the skill shot if you are able to close the gap between yourself and the target you want to Dark Binding. Another tip is to place a Control Ward in a brush (to ensure enemy has no vision), and throw Dark Bindings from there as it will be harder for the enemy to react with the projectile coming from the fog of war.



Tormented Shadow

Tormented Shadow is in a weird place for support Morgana but is usually primarly used for harassment during laning phase for Manaflow Band stacks and gold stacks on your Spellthief's Edge. You can use Tormented Shadow to try and get enemy Marksmen to miss last hiting by placing Tormented Shadow under their feet just before they last hit, which they will either miss CS or take a bit more damage. Doran's Shield will basically nullify this damage if left at 1 point.


Black Shield

Black Shield is the reason why she is played support. You can opt into taking a couple of points in this early so the shield isn't consumed, to help block enemy crowd control. Being able to help your Marksman be immune to crowd control is a vital tool to stop most hard engages on anyone on your team. Forbidden Idol will increase shield value, if you wish to buy an Ardent Censer or Redemption. AP scaling on Black Shield is also very good, so that is something to also take into consideration.

Black shield is incredibly strong against Physical crowd control, as the person will still take damage, however because they won't be popping the shield, they won't be crowd controlled!


Bare in mind, Bard's Q Cosmic Binding if he breaks your shield AND if you are a good distance away from a wall or minion but still in stun range, you will still get stunned. This is because it does a damage check, then a stun check, it's one of the very few strange interactions with the shield.



Soul Shackles

Soul Shackles can potentially change the fight with its respectable damage, stun duration and the fact that it is cast on multiple champions. The downside to this however is position it puts you in will likely make you a very quick focus target and you will likely die, even before the channel ends, UNLESS purchase a Stopwatch or Zhonya's Hourglass. The tether from Soul Shackles will still be there during statis, but you will be unable to move, giving the enemy a chance to move out and not receive the stun. So if possible, try not to statis too quickly! Purchasing Shurelya's Battlesong will help you get into the middle of the team, and speed up a few teammates to help follow up!

Spellthief's Edge

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Spellthief's Edge has now changed to auto-upgrade to Frostfang (500 gold collected) and Shard of True Ice (1000g collected) from the Tribute gold quest. You are now allowed to receive gold from hits on enemies / turrets without an ally nearby. You can also 'accidentally' get cs from throwing out skillshots in lane without being punished (Until you meet the Support Rule CS Limit which won't kick in until around 30-40 Creeps Taken, depending on what time it is in the game). Tormented Shadow is a great way to generate gold charges.

Shard of True Ice

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The final Support Quest upgrade. You will no longer generate tribute gold, but the stats on this item for 'free' are very good for mid-game and also supply you with 4-ward charges that can be refreshed when you go back to the fountain.

Sorcerer's Shoes

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Provides Morgana with extra magic penetration to increase her damage with her mage item build. Get these completed at the latest after your Mythic Item.

Zhonya's Hourglass

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Zhonya's Hourglass An Important item if you care about getting a good ultimate off. Currently the DPS items are stronger, but if they get weaker then Zhonyas rush could become meta again.

Liandry's Anguish

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Liandry's Torment is currently the best Mythic choice. This is because the damage is easily applied with Tormented Shadow. The downside is it is expensive, and you will need to choose between getting this first or Zhonya's Hourglass. Generally if I find myself with a lead I will opt to snowball more by purchasing the Liandry's Torment first. Goes well in combination with Demonic Embrace

Demonic Embrace

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Demonic Embrace is an anti-tank DPS enhancer. It work's similar to Liandry's Torment and that is why it is a decent pick-up. If you feel like you either do not need grievous wounds (anti-heal) or your team already has enough, choose this for more damage output in fights.

Morellonomicon

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Morellonomicon great for anti-heal (grievous wounds) if your team needs it. Liandry's Torment can extend the duration of the grievous wounds on multiple enemies and is a really nice viable option for Morgana - Note feel free to purchase Oblivion Orb first then complete other items before finishing Morellonomicon as you will still have the same anti-heal effect.

Vigilant Wardstone

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Vigilant Wardstone Generally a decent last slot choice for spots as it allows you to continue having control wards in your inventory & you also get stats for doing so. Vigilant Wardstone is very cheap and allows you to have TWO control wards on the map at all times rather than the normal one. Can be handy at controlling objectives this late into the game.

During the early stages of the game you need to keep on multiple things. Firstly, you need to poke the enemy with Tormented Shadow, this is for, damage harassment, gold stacking, Manaflow Band stacking and attempting the zone the opponent to force them in certain directions for easier Dark Bindings, to deny cs and finally to remove buffs such as Guardian and Bone Plating. To deny CS of an enemy marksman, you will want to place the pool as they are running up to last hit, so they have to either take damage or get the gold.

It is possible to simply Black Shield yourself, walk directly into an enemy and Dark Binding for a very easy skill shot land. Otherwise if you want to play it safer, be on the lookout of when to use Black Shield and don't be caught out by the long cool down of the spell.

Only start level 1 with Tormented Shadow if you feel its perfectly safe to do so, otherwise you will be caught out with early engages as you will not have both Dark Binding and Black Shield at level 2. (What I like to do is when starting Tormented Shadow level 1, is to level Black Shield next to prevent any possibility of being engaged upon.

Make sure you have Black Shield on rank 2 by level 4. This will help prevent your shield being popped too early during an engage.

Being able to flash Soul Shackles at this stage of the game is very powerful and will do a lot of damage if pulled off. It also help as the enemy may only have Tier 1 boots at this point so they have less chance of running away from your ultimate.

If your lane is heavily falling behind, or your Marksman is obviously very tiled and behind, ensure you have the option to roam to mid and work with your jungler to help that lane win. It might be possible to do this, even if your Marksman is ahead, if they are playing a safer Marksman such as Caitlyn or Sivir.

You can use Tormented Shadow to face check brushes before warding. Your Summon Aery will fly out, and/or you will receive gold to notify you if an enemy is in the bush. You can also do this with Dark Binding however, in bigger brushes, it is easier to dodge and an enemy still might be there!

Only use Black Shield on yourself if you are about to hard engage with Soul Shackles. Otherwise look for picks with Dark Binding and peel with Black Shield. There may be times against assassins you will have to use everything you have to help peel for your back line, this is perfectly fine as long as the person/people you are peeling survive! (If you are going Redemption and/or Ardent Censer, this peeling role is most likely be what you will be doing most of the game).

After taking bot turret and hopefully Dragon, rotate to top lane and take that tower and Rift Herald. Always buy multiple Control Wards throughout the game to ensure you have map control.

I hope this Morgana Support guide helps you win more games as Morgana!

If you would like more support League of Legends guides / advice, please check out my profile for Support Tier lists / other support guides, or even my Youtube channel www.youtube.com/bizzleberry for Daily Support Content! :)

If you have any questions feel free to ask at www.twitch.tv/bizzleberry