I wish to make this guide useful for everyone: new players that have never played Morgana and wish to look for basic guides on the champion, as well as for Morgana veterans that have played a lot of Morgana, even Morgana jungle.

Depending on your familiarity with Morgana, you can skip the first few chapters and dive right into discussions of runes, items, and game plans.

Morgana's passive is an 18% spellvamp on champions and large monsters & minions. It is not super noticeable in combat, although it can save your life occasionally during fights and help you last just a little longer. Jungle is the only position that really gets to make something out of this passive, as Morgana does a lot of damage to jungle monsters and therefore she has one of if not the healthiest clear in the game.

Morgana's Q is her signature ability. At max rank it is a 3 second long root, which is one of the longest cc ability in the entire game. It is important to note however that it is a root, not a stun. So be wary of enemy counterattacks when they are rooted. It has very decent base damage as well as an AP scaling of 90%.

Morgana's W is an often misunderstood ability. A lot of people see it as a pool that does a tiny amount of damage over time, but it is a lot more than that. It has three unique functions: a 155% damage buff to monsters and minions (very useful for clearing camps and taking objectives), an execute function that deals more damage according to enemy missing health, and the cooldown refreshes when it deals damage to large monsters & minions or champions. The cooldown also refreshes when your passive activates from your Q or R, and as long as there's a large monster or champion in the pool the W will be available before the duration of the pool ends. This ability is the main reason why Morgana jungle is good.

Morgana's E is a black shield that shields only AP damage. However, when the shield is not broken, it blocks the shielded champion from any form of cc. It can be used to protect yourself or ally from incoming AP burst, but is more useful to negate engages by tanks and AD champions that cannot break your shield. It is essential to have a hotkey for self-cast, as sometimes you need precise timing for the shield, such as to negate a Mordekaiser or K'Sante ult.

Morgana's R creates a tether between you and enemy champions within range of 625, and if the enemies fail to break the tether in 3 seconds they are stunned for 1.5 seconds. This seems like a powerful teamfighting ultimate in theory, but it is very hard to pulloff. Morgana is a squishy control mage in nature, and in order to maximize the value of the ult it requires Morgana to be in the very center of the enemy team. This issue is usually resolved by building Zhonyas (stopwatch usage does not break your tether) or building tankier to survive enemy burst. It should be noted that your ult can be triggered even when enemy in range is invisible, and is therefore a soft counter to teemo, shaco, evelynn etc.

Pros of Morgana jungle: 1. powerful farming; 2. good objective securing; 3. good ganking post-6; 4. great late game teamfights



1. Morgana has a very strong clear speed. She is able to keep up with meta junglers and even outfarm many. When Canyon played Morgana in season 12 LCK semi-finals, he was able to get nearly double Oner Wukong's cs. Such is the farming prowess of Morgana.

2. Morgana takes down objectives very quickly. As discussed before her W has both bonus damage to monsters and an execute function. She can solo drake with ease after her first back, and is very good at solo cheesing objectives.

3. Morgana is famous for being the queen of crowd control. Her Q roots for 3 seconds at max level, her R is AOE stun, and her E is a powerful spell shield. This makes her a menace when she appears in lane from the fog of war, although if you do not have your ult up be wary not to throw your Q haphazardly because you are a walking minion without Q or ult.

4. Morgana relishes in lategame 5v5 fights in the midlane, jungle, or baron / drake pits. Narrow jungle passageways and choke points, as well as the chaos in teamfights make her Q and R deadly weapons that are hard to dodge.

Now, you might ask, if Morgana is so great as a jungler, why doesn't everyone play her? Why is she considered somewhat of an off meta-jungler?

Well, first of all, pro players love playing Morgana! She dominated pro-play in season 11, and even in season 12 after massive nerfs to her jungler clear, she was picked by all the top junglers (Canyon, Kanavi, Peanut, Oner) during LCK and LPL semi-finals and finals. If the best of the best plays Morgana, you know she is a powerful pick!

That said, Morgana is not without her weaknesses. These weaknesses are especially easy to be exploited in solo queue environment.

Cons of Morgana jungle: 1. poor 1v1 potential; 2. susceptibility to invades; 3. low mobility.

1. Morgana is not good at 1v1. As a control mage she simply doesn't have the DPS required to 1v1 most champions. If you are fed you can catch and kill enemy squishies such as ADCs with your R stun into Q and W, but that is the full extent of her 1v1 power. Without your ult, you have no 1v1 kill threat at all, even against low health opponents, provided that they know how to sidestep your q. This makes her poor at defending splitpushers or catching enemies out of position on her own.

2. Morgana is susceptible to invades due to both her low 1v1 capability, as well as being a weak champion in the early stages of the game. She does have peel from her Q (difficult to dodge in narrow jungle passageways) and immunity from cc from her E. You can often safely disengage, but have to concede the quadrant to the invading jungler if your teammates are not rotating. Tracking enemy jungler and pathing away from them is often a good choice if you need breathing room to farm, scale, and avoid skirmish.

3.Morgana has no mobility at all, which makes her rotation to fights and objectives much slower. It also makes her positioning awkward in teamfights and jungle / river skirmishes. Junglers with high mobility such as Talon and Kayn will easily run circles around her while dodging her Q and her R tether.

If you look at most pro builds and challenger builds in season 12, you will likely see the same thing: Dark Harvest as their main rune, Liandrys as their mythic, into AP items such as Zhonoyas, Demonic Embrace, and Void Staff. The identity of Morgana displayed in this build is quite clear: Morgana is a high cc control mage that can also dish out a high amount of damage, making her primarily a backline damage dealer.

This build will be discussed in depth this guide, hence referred to as "Liandrys AP Carry" build. Using this build, you can clear camps and solo objectives at blazing speed with liandrys, and you can one-tap squishies with a single spell rotation if you are ahead enough. However, Morgana's kit has far more diversity of character than being simply a squishy, high-cc high-damage contorl mage.

The issue with the Liandrys AP Carry build, is that it is an extremely gold-thirsty build (Liandrys, Zhonyas, Demonic Embrace, Shadowflame, Rabadon are all items priced 3000 gold or more), and is countered by both high mobility assasins & skirmishers that you cannot pin down, as well as tanks & juggernauts that can take on your damage late-game and deny you access to the backline. Furthermore, even when fed and properly farmed, Morgana's damage is outscaled badly in the late game, compared to other meta AP junglers.

Therefore, Liandrys AP Carry build is a highly inflexible build that is extremely powerful given the right circumstances, but can be kneecapped by unfavorable enemy or ally teamcomps.

Morgana's kit, while simple, is highly diverse. She has cc, anti-cc, spell-vamp, and damage. She is useful during all stages of a teamfight, whether it is for initiating, picking, peeling, or protecting. Liandrys limits the width of what you can do in a game, as it always steers you towards a high damage playstyle. Instead, a mythic that enables you to do a lot more is Rod of Ages. At max rank, Rod of Ages provide you with 500 hp, a level up and some passive healing, which will massively increase your survivability, while also providing good scaling and damage.

Items that provides a combination of utility, AP, and tankiness (such as Rylais and Morello) are best suited towards a build with RoA as the mythic. The build is highly flexible with a lot of viable items, and allows you to adapt to the development of the game at hand as it goes on. You can strengthen which ever part of your kit that your team needs most. In general, we seek to provide utility for the team, survive during teamfights so as to provide picks and peels, and enable our carries instead of being the carry. When ahead, you are a powerful champion that can dish out damage, provide cc and utility, while also being very difficult to kill. When behind you are still incredibly valuable. You are no longer as heavily countered by assasins as you would with the Liandrys AP carry build. Most importantly, your ult no longer necessitates the use of stopwatch or becoming a suicide mission. This build will also be discussed in depth in this guide, hence referred to as "RoA Supportive Build".

Main Tree: Domination

The basic suggested runes are: Dark Harvest + Cheap Shot + Eyeball Collection + Treasure Hunter

Dark Harvest is by far the best keystone rune for AP Carry Morgana. It synergizes very well with the Liandrys burn, as well as the execute funcion on your W. You harvest souls very quickly, and by mid to late game it is not uncommon for you to one shot a low health squishy simple by insta-casting W on them. Predator is an acceptable alternative keystone. It has been used by some players to varying degrees of success. Its main goal is to help you chase down opponents to better land your Q or hold your R tether. In general it is not as consistent nor as synergetic with Morgana as Dark Harvest.

One of the most synergetic runes on Morgana. Procs on your Q, your R, and even your W if you bought Rylais.


Both are good. Eyeball collection is a little bit more consistent and better in lower elos. Zombie ward is a powerful rune for any jungler.


All three are acceptable. Treasure hunter allows you to snowball even faster. Relentless hunter helps you chase down opponents and rotate faster. Ultimate hunter is the most consistent rune.


Secondary Tree: Sorcery

The basic suggested runes are: Nimbus Cloak + Waterwalking

Absolute focus is a scaling rune and is an acceptable rune for Morgana.

Gathering storm is the premier late-game scaling rune of the game and is acceptable for Morgana. It should be pointed out however that by the time gathering storm becomes powerful or even relevant, Morgana's damage will already be outscaled. This rune will not change that fact.

Nimbus cloak helps you chase down enemies and have good synergy with smite, which already slows enemies. Overall a versatile rune.

More ability haste is always good on Morgana, this is a very consistent rune for Morgana, although you have enough ability haste with Liandrys anyways.

A very good jungling rune, and especially since Morgana is good at river / drake pit team fights.

Liandrys has been the premier mythic for Morgana for a long time. It is quite easy to understand why: like all lost chapter mythics it gives mana, ability haste, and AP. However, Liandrys also provide more ability haste in its passive which means more Q/E/R usage. Liandrys' signature burn damage is also quite easy for Morgana to proc. It is an easy to use item that dishes out a large amount of damage. Unlike support Morgana, jungle Morgana has more than enough farming capability to obtain this expensive item.

If you are your team's primary damage dealer, or at least primary AP damage dealer, no doubt you would want one or both magic pen items. If you can afford deathcap it is obviously the most powerful AP damage item in the game.

Zhonyas is perhaps the most iconic Morgana item. Since Morgana's tether is not broken by the usage of stopwatch, this item is very frequently bought to synergize with Morgana's ultimate. However, aside from the stasis affect, it is an item that is on the weak side, while also being quite expensive. It prevents you, the damage carry of the team, from maximizing your powerspikes. It should also be noted that while your ult has the potential to stun all five enemies, it is also a fantastic tool for peeling, disrupting enemy formation, or catching single out of position enemies. It is not necessary for you to try for flash + zhonya + ultimate plays that is detrimental more often than not. It is still an item that provide armor, AP, and ability haste and should be regarded as a generally good item, although it is not as essential as it is often considered.

Banshee is very similar to Zhonyas: it is a defensive item that protects you from getting one-shot. It is however cheaper than Zhonyas and more gold-efficient. Similar to Zhonyas, it has MR, AP, and ability haste; the spell shield also allows you more freedom to cast your E on allies. A situational item that is very good in the situations that call for it.


Cosmic drive provides the most amount of ability haste out of all viable legendary items. Health, ability hate, movement speed, and AP are all good stats for Morgana. Unfortunately you cannot proc the item from multiple hits with your W, or multiple stuns with your ult. With the Liandrys AP Carry build Morgana is quite squishy and can occasionally find it difficult to get the cosmic drive passive into motion in time.

Anti-heal is currently very weak as of 12.23, and has been for a while. However, Morello remains a great item for Morgana, as it is highly gold efficient and offers 300 hp and 90 AP. Morgana can also proc the anti-heal quite easily on multiple targets with her W.

Rylais is another gold-efficient item that provides both AP and a little bit of tankiness with 400 hp. It has very high synergy with Morgana, as Morgana can proc it very easily with her W, and it adds value / utility to Morgana's W when it is not combined with an enemy rooted or stunned on top of the pool. Furthermore, cheap shot is a guaranteed rune on AP Carry Morgana, and rylais procs the true damage from the rune.

❌❌❌ This item is listed here in the guide not because it should be bought, but because it is often bought and is frequently listed as a recommended item for Morgana jungle / mid. If you are playing as Liandrys AP Carry Morgana, do not ever buy this item. Its passive is currently over-nerfed for ranged champions, and 0.8% max health burn is often barely noticeable. Even against tanky teams, other AP items or magic pen items will allow you to deal more damage to tanks as they buff your Liandrys. Demonic Embrace's other passive (converting hp to AP) is also wasted as AP Carry Morgana will not have much bonus health. This item is currently a trap and a major waste of gold and item slot.

Main Tree: Inspiration

The basic suggested runes are: Glacial Augment + Magical Footwear + Futures Market + Cosmic Insight

Glacial Augment is the perfect keystone for a build that leans towards providing utility for the team and taking control over teamfights. The icy zones created by glacial augment will stay for 3 seconds + 100% of immobilization duration. Meaning at max rank a hit from your Q will create a slow and damage reduction zone for six full seconds. This rune is especially powerful in teamfights and all-ins, which as a jungler you will be looking to do frequently.

Magical footwear and perfect timing are both acceptable for Morgana. While Morgana is a frequent Zhonya purchaser, perfect timing only contributes 250 gold towards the complete item. Magical footwear on the other hand contributes 300 gold towards a boot and gives 10 additional movement. In general, magical footwear is slightly better and more gold efficient.

Futures market is a good rune for quickly getting power spikes and enables better back timing.

Cosmic insight is a standard jungling rune as it provides you with more smites to use. It also provides Morgana with more frequent usage of flash as well as Zhonyas. Approach Velocity is rarely seen but is absolutely viable for Morgana. Not only does it provide additional movement speed towards enemies hit by your Q, it also procs on your ult tether, on glacial augment rays, and even on your W if you have Rylais.


Secondary Tree: Sorcery

The basic suggested runes are: Transcendance + Waterwalking.

Since we are not the primary damage dealer with the RoA build, it is less optimal to go for absolute focus or gathering storm. Transcendance becomes especially important as we want as much ability haste as possible to provide utility, and RoA gives less ability haste than Liandrys. After that, either nimbus cloak or waterwalking is viable.

Rod of Ages is often cnosidered a scaling item good for late-game hypercarries such as Kassadin. For Morgana, it is instead a jack of all trade stat-check item that allows us to have the flexibility into building whatever the game necessitates. At max rank it provides 500 hp, 100AP, and passive healing. It allows us to build AP items while having some tankiness, or tanky items while having some damage. At max rank it also provides a level up, which (in a standard game this would occur around the twenty minute mark) is often at a crucial moment, where you'd want your level 16 powerspike. This is especially good for junglers as junglers are behind solo laners in xp. Its main weakness comes from the weak item powerspike it provides, and the game might already be over before the item reaches max rank.

The extra tankiness in this build meant that we have a better chance of pulling off our ult without dying and thus we are not as reliant on Zhonyas. Still, it is an item that provides armor and ability haste in addition to AP, and is among the few viable items for Morgana that provides both tankiness and AP.

These cheap and highly gold efficient items that provides some combination of AP, utility and tankiness will always be great items for Morgana, as discussed in previous chapters.

Cosmic Drive is an even better item for this build compared to Liandrys AP Carry, because our tankiness allows us to proc the item passive easier. In return, the extra AP and movement speed is more valuable for us since we seek to maneuver more in teamfights and we are more lacking in damage.

Demonic Embrace is a marginally better item for the RoA supportive build. It is still a niche item, but both of its passives become more valuable to this build. We build a lot of hp items, and demonic embrace's hp to AP conversion will often grant us 35-40 additional AP at full build. This alone makes demonic embrace at least gold efficient in terms of stats. If we build tank items and are lacking in AP, demonic embrace's burn passive will help us deal some extra damage, especially against hp tanks, since its passive (unlike Liandrys) does not have any AP scaling.

Frozen heart is a highly gold efficient item that provides utility for the team with its cripple passive, provides ability haste, as well as armor and mana. Although Morgana does not have resistance or hp scaling, it is often worth building some tank items as the additional tankiness will allow us to do more during teamfights.

A great tank item that allows you to lock down a single enemy carry. It provides ability haste and tenacity reduction which are both incredible for Morgana.

Summoner Spells:
The suggested spell is Flash + Gustwalker Smite

Flash is very important to Morgana, as she is among the champions with lowest amount of mobility in the game. Ghost has been taken by some Morgana junglers with success, as it can be used to help you chase down opponents for your Q and your ult. Unless you are very comfortable with Morgana, flash is more versatile and a safer choice.

All three smites are viable for Morgana and can be picked under favorable circumstances. However, gustwalker smite is in general the strongest as it provdes Morgana with some much needed mobility to rotate faster, chase down opponents, or run to safety. Mosstomper is great against high cc teams or for providing some extra survivability. Scorchclaw is in general a weaker choice.


Boots:

All four boots are acceptable. In general defensive boots (merc treads and plated steelcaps) are the most effective. Even if you are building liandrys, the highly gold-efficient extra defense from your boots can allow you to output damage much more effectively than ionian boots and sorc shoes. Sorc shoes is decent for snowballing and achieveing damage quickly, but should never be picked for the RoA build.


Jungle clear:
Morgana should in general full clear in her first clear. She has a fast clear speed and can easily full clear leashless before 3:30. This allows her to hit level 4 by the time a potential scuttle skirmish arises. Regardless of build, the first four levels you should level up your ability in this order: W -> Q -> W -> E. This allows you to have 2 points in W and thus clear efficiently, while having you blackshield up for scuttle skrmish and your first gank.


Early ganking:
It is incredibly important that you do not waste your Q when ganking. This becomes even more essential when you do not yet have your ult. Always try to walk your opponent down (in combination with your black shield, although don't use it too early as it is only effective for 5 seconds) and Q when they have no angle to side-step anymore. Long lanes are your friends, and red buff is also very effective for you as it allows you to slow enemies down with auto-attacks. "Don't waste Q" will be your best motto anytime you play Morgana before (and even after) level 6.


Levelling up abilities:
For both builds you should put 3 levels in W, after which max Q. The reason that we put 3 levels in W is to boost our ability to clear camps and take down objectives. After that however we reach diminishing returns and should no longer level up W. Q is our best scaling ability in terms of levelling up, as it increases the root duration. Regardless of build we should always max Q first to maximize our impact in teamfights. For Liandrys AP Carry build it is acceptable to max W after Q, to maximize our damage. For RoA Supportive build we should always max E afterwards, as levelling up our E lowers the shield cool down in addition to shield strength. Even with 3 points in W we will be quite strong at clearing camps and taking objectives throughout the game and we do not need to worry about maxing W in general. Maxing W first is almost never the optimal play.


Power-spikes:
Liandrys gives Morgana an incredible powerspike. Unlike some other mages that use liandrys, Morgana is at her strongest after this single item. You have very strong kill pressure (with dark harvest, W execute, and liandrys burn you can finish off low health targets easily). At this stage few champions have enough burst to kill you. As mentioned before Mogana's damage scaling is mediocre. You need to seize the opportunity and snowball in order for mejais, shadowflame, void staff and rabadon to make you an actual threat. Actively look for kill opportunities whenever your ult is up. You also melt drakes and heralds quickly with liandrys if there's no fighting opportunity available.

RoA does not give great powerspike but with futures market you can immediately back after a full clear to get catalyst of aeons at the 3 minute mark. While this is usually not the optimal play, it allows you to be a bit stronger and tankier in the early stages of the game if there's no good opporunity to be seized after your first clear. The lack of obvious powerspikes, the additional tankiness, and the availability of futures market means that with the RoA supportive build we are not nearly as obsessed with backtimers, getting kills, and snowballing so that we can carry. Instead we can stay on the map for much longer, hover teammates, be patient, and maximize our macro.

Morgana's kit allows for extremely diverse build paths. These items here are very niche and not included in either builds. However, they can be nonetheless useful in rare situations.

A tank item that essentially provides your entire team with magic penetration. It also provides mana and passive heal. Unfortunately, you cannot build both this item and RoA.

An AP damage item that has some synergy with Morgana but is in general not good enough to replace other AP items listed in the Liandrys AP Carry build.

Mikael's is a cheap item that provides a strong utility active, ability haste, tankiness and heal & shield power. Morgana actually scales very well with heal & shield power. It boosts not only the power of her E shield, but also her spellvamp passive, as well as glacial augment slowing power.

Another heal & shield enchanter item that can be very useful in niche situations.

This item is really pushing towards the edge of viable theory crafting, putting a lot of weight on using your ult to initiate teamfights. It can be used in that way, although as analyzed before Morgana's ultimate is very diverse in usage and does not need to be forced to become a second-rate Amumu ult.

Unlike enchanter items, spirit visage unforunately only boost your shield power on yourself. This is not great as we seek to provide our team with utility. Still, the increase on your spell-vamp and the shield on yourself is worth around 100-150 AP in value at normal full build.

Morgana is not a burst champion, and honestly should never be built as a burst champion. Night harvester is the best burst item for Morgana, as unlike Ludens its passive only procs on enemy champions. It provides a lot of ability haste and its lack of mana is somewhat mitigated by junglers' mana regen passive.

Thanks for reading my guide! Here are some of the most important points to playing Morgana summarized for you:

1. Do not waste your Q by trying to throw it at long range when ganking. Walk your opponent down and use red buffs to slow them and only use Q when they have little room to dodge.

2. You are weak at 1v1 and it can be wise to track the enemy jungler and path away from them.

3. Your ult is not only useful for multi-champion stuns. It can be a great tool to disengage, peel, or disrupt. Be creative about using it and don't always force a flashy ult with zhonyas.

4. You have great farming power! Abuse it!

5. Be creative about your builds! Recognize the width of Morgana's kit and adapt to the game situation. Do not stick to one build all the time.

Best of luck in your journey playing Morgana as a jungler!! Remember to always have fun!!