How to play Morgana jungle in League of Legends Season 11

Morgana’s popularity has risen since Riot Games started working towards it’s goal of moving the champion into the jungle role. The mage mainly played as a support before Season 10. But now, with her recent buffs in 11.8, and nerfs announced in 11.9, this is the perfect time to jump into the jungle with Morgana.

The champion does have niche uses, but should be a good addition to players’ champion rotation as she is easy to play and has a fast clear.

When to play Morgana jungle

Morgana on jungle is like any other ability power jungler. She is great in team compositions that have tanks and attack damage dealers. Her closest comparison in terms of clear speed and function is Fiddlesticks. Just like the scarecrow champion, Morgana excels at early clears and scales well into the late game. Unlike Fiddlesticks, she also has great supportive mechanics like her Black Shield to help her team in fights.

Many of the current jungle meta champions can bully Morgana. If invaded early by Olaf or Udyr, she could fall behind significantly. When picked against champions that like to scrap early, Morgana players have to be smart about their jungle clear path and clear as fast as possible. She can also outfight these champions with a teammate. Her supportive abilities make it so any two vs two in the early game does go her way.

Morgana also excels with lanes that have stuns or knock-ups that chain into her Dark Binding. Top laners like Sion and mid laners like Zoe are champions that can chain abilities well for a Morgana gank. She does not need to have these lanes to be effective, but it helps when in a solo queue environment.

First clear for Morgana jungle

The champion’s first clear is currently in the running for the fastest in the game, just under three minutes if completely optimized. Players should pick up the usual jungle items: Refillable Potion and Hailblade. Morgana jungle starts with leveling her Tormented Shadow ability first. The area-of-effect ability is core to her clear and heals her in the jungle. The ability reduces its cool down whenever her passive, Soul Siphon, activates. The passive heals Morgana for a percentage of the damage done to champions, large minions and large monsters. When used in the jungle, the cooldown can be reduced to the point that the ability is available before its duration competes.

For a Blue Buff start, players should try to take down two camps at a time with Tormented Shadow as pictured below. Start with Blue Bluff into the Gromp, take down Raptors then Red Buff and finish with Krugs into Rift Scuttler. Players can also make a decision about whether to gank on first clear around level 3. Leveling up Tormented Shadows twice –instead of Black Shield– early can help in a post-first clear gank.

For more advanced Morgana players, a Red buff start is the more optimal play. Players can do both Raptors and Red Buff, which gives more gold and experience than a Blue Buff start. The clear is a tad harder as the Raptors can easily reset and ruin the setup. From there the clear is largely the same.

Morgana items

The jungle Morgana build is similar to Fiddlesticks: full ability power into a Zhonya’s Hourglass. She does have options for her Mythic item. The standard for the champion is Liandry’s Anguish for the burn stacking, but players can mess around with Luden’s Tempest and Everfrost. She almost always picks up Sorcerer’s Shoes and Zhonya’s is her stock second item because it allows stasis during her ultimate. From there, builds can be situational as players can counter other champions or lean into more supportive or carry items.

Morgana scales well into the late game, so item breakpoints are a priority to use the champion effectively.

Here is an example of a Morgan full build:

• Liandry’s Anguish
• Sorcerer’s Shoes
• Demonic Embrace
• Morellonomicon
• Rabadon’s Deathcap
• Banchee’s Veil