Introduction

Learning to play a new character in League of Legends is a tricky matter. When you start fresh with any character you’re going to go through a wobbly learning period with it. During that time you’ll learn how their skills work, when and where to use them and the order in which to rank them up. Perhaps the trickiest element in that process is determining a good item build. Most characters can get along well with their recommended gear but it’s usually unfocused. A jack of all trades is a master of none and in League of Legends is pays to specialize.

In this guide for Morgana I’m going to go over how I like to play her and the way in which I build her gear. I’ll explain what her abilities do and recommend how and when to use them. Most importantly I’ll try to emphases the ‘why’ of my decisions to help illustrate my own logical conclusions. I’m not writing this to tell you how to be a better player but rather its my goal to provide a resource which allows you to improve on your own.

Jump after the break to see the full guide.

*Addendum: Recently Morgana has received some pretty serious balance changes that have shifted her into being a more powerful chracter in general. I’ve reflected these changes in my guide. This guide is based off of patch v1.0.0.94.

I’m also going to be whipping out some elementary grade math in this guide.  I’ll be doing that because, as I mentioned above, my choices are made based on logic and experience. Numbers may seem boring but in a game like this they can highlight troubled areas in your play style or build.

Guide

If I were to sum Morgana up in a few words they would be ‘a support character with teeth’. She has a mix of interesting abilities that synergize very well with each other and she also has a great innate ability. Below you’ll find her statistic progression which you might find interesting.

• Health403 (+86 / per level) At level 18 = 1548 Total 1951
• Mana240 (+60 / per level) At level 18 =  1080 Total 1320
• Move Speed300
• Armor15 (+3.8 / per level) At level 18 =  68.4 Total 83.4
• Spell Block30 (+0 / per level)
• Critical Strike1.9 (+0.3 / per level) At level 18 =  5.4 Total 7.3
• Health Regen0.94 (+0.12 / per level) At level 18 =  2.16 Total 3.1
• Mana Regen0.86 (+0.09 / per level) At level 18 =  1.62 Total 2.48

As for her play style it is usually a poor idea to mix it up on the front lines of a fight because you won’t commonly build her to be a tank. Rather I’ve found great success fighting at maximum range in most hero brawls, relying on quick thinking and smart use of black shield to win fights.  Of course I can’t really ‘talk shop’ until you know about her abilities so let’s begin with their descriptions.

Abilities

Soul Siphon

What the Database says:

Morgana is healed for 15% 25% 35% of any magic damage she deals.

My Take:

Each character in League of Legends has a special, and usually passive, ability. In the case of Morgana it’s a very useful health recovery skill that scales with her spell ranks. The more damage she does the more health she siphons off. That allows her to have a contemporary and ‘stable-ish’ level of health regeneration even as her health increases from leveling up. This ability is core to my gear build which puts a general emphasis on Ability Power, Mana and it’s regeneration over health because its typically unnecessary.

*As of patch v1.0.0.93-ish soul siphon has gotten a massive buff, going form 5% over all levels to scaling between level 1 tough 18 from 15%, 25% and finally 35%. I dont know the level mile stone when it switches over between each incriminate becuase I’ve never paid attention. Suffice to say it’s a nice buff.

Dark Binding

What the Database says:

Morgana releases a sphere of dark magic. Upon contact with an enemy unit, the sphere will force the unit to the ground and deal damage.

Cooldown

12 seconds

Cost

60/75/90/105/120 Mana

Range

Global

My Take:

Dark Bindings, learn to love it because you are going to be using it a lot. This spell combines significant damage and a root into one handsome package. It’s commonly referred to as a skill shot, because it travels in a straight path and has no homing. It must be fired by hand, based on skill, and so has a very long effective range. In short it’s a great spell but very difficult to hit with.

It will affect the first target to be hit by it, be it mob or hero, and so is extremely difficult to use in a hectic situation. It has a deceptively slow travel time and sometimes strange hit detection. It can pass directly though terrain objects, such as forest or rocks, and so can allow you to assist a hero that may be blocked off by terrain.

As an example, you are on the other side of a forest and an ally with low health is being chased by an enemy. You are too far away to get into a favorable position to use dark bindings, instead you fire though the terrain in an attempt to snag the overly aggressive enemy and  buy your ally time. This is a very difficult shot to make, being at maximum range on a moving target. To hit your target you’ll have to lead it and take travel time into account.

Regardless of the situation Dark Bindings is primarily used as a ‘set up’ skill for your others abilities. Because it immobilizes the target it is ideal for use with a partner, who preferably has a slow or stun of his own. When used together in such a ‘gank’ situation it will allow a melee character ample time to close the gap and pour on his damage while you throw a Tormented Soil underneath the victim.

Finally Dark Bindings has a .9 Ability Power to damage ratio. That means that for every 1 point of Ability Power you have your Dark Bindings will do 0.9 points of extra damage. At rank 5, with the appropriate gear, this can go upwards of 600 damage! Of course that doesn’t take into account the amount of spell resistance a character has, which can mutate the results considerably. To counteract this you will require items with spell penetration, something I will touch on in the item build below.

Tormented Soil

What the Database says:

Infects an area with desecrated soil, causing enemy units who stand on the location to take continual damage.

Cooldown

10/10/10/10/10 seconds

Cost

70/90/110/130/150 Mana

Range

900

My Take:

Each character has a ‘farming skill’ for Nunu it’s Consume, for Twisted Fate it’s Stacked Deck and for Morgana it’s Tormented Soil. But what is a farming skill? Basically it is a skill used to kill minions in a lane or the jungle and through doing so it will give you gold and experience. However in Tormented Soil’s case the damage it does factors directly into your health regeneration because of Soul Siphon.

In a nut shell Tormented soil is in a damage-over-time, area-of-effect spell with a decent cast range and good damage. Because of its relatively low mana cost and cool down it is a good damage on demand spell. A retreating Champion, that has very low health, can sometimes be killed by a Tortmed Soil cast beneath them. It is also an excellent spell for getting kill assists in the havoc of a full 5 on 5 team brawl. Those assists will allow you to build stacks of certain items like the Majal’s Soulstealer very quickly, further empowering your spells with extra Ability Power.

It is also great when lanning against melee opponents because it can be used to complicate their attempts at ‘last hitting’ your minions for gold. Most heroes will instinctively move out of its area of effect because it will do significant damage over its full duration. When combined with Dark Bindings ability to immobilize an opponent it can pile on a heap of damage very quickly. However at rank 1 Dark Bindings only will only hold a target for 2 seconds. That means that at most you will get 3 ‘ticks’ of Tormented soil on a enemy before it attempts to run away.

It is best to cast Tormented Soil on minions that have low health because it improves your chances of ‘last hitting’ your targets. At higher ranks, with a little extra Ability Power, it will outright burn though an entire minion’s health bar. But at early ranks it won’t do enough damage to outright kill them. When casting Tormented Soil it is best to get as many targets in its area of effect as possible. Keep in mind that minions stand still while attacking and if their target is killed they will move on to the next one. If a cluster of minions is about to finish off a target make sure to wait until they have acquired another so as not to waste mana on a useless cast of Tormented Soil.

Tormented Soil has a 0.2, per second, Ability Power to damage ratio. If you consider that it applies its damage over five seconds, at 0.2 a second, it’s more like 1.0 spread over the entire duration. It won’t burst down an enemy quickly but it’s nothing to sneeze at. At rank 5 it will do a total of (85 x 5) = 425 damage total, plus 1 damage for each ability power you have. That can drive Tormented Soil’s damage upwards of 500 if you have the right gear.

As of patch 1.0.0.83 Tormented Soil applies a magic resistance debuff that increase magical damage done to the target. This has given Tormented Soil even further utility and improved it’s over all effectiveness. It also costs less mana and has a reduced cool down to the previous versions, allowing for it to be used more often and so do more damage.

In summary it’s not flashy but it’s handy and if used in conjunction with your other abilities it will win you games and keep you alive while doing it.

Black Shield

What the Database says:

Places a protective barrier around an allied champion, absorbing magical damage until penetrated or the shield dissipates.

Cooldown

15 seconds

Cost

50/50/50/50/50 Mana

Range

600

My Take:

Black Shield is perhaps the best support ability in the game. It has single handedly saved the lives of my team mates and I more times than I can remember. It is effectively an anti-magic shield mixed with an ability damage absorption shield.  Any and all negative magical effects that would normally apply to the recipient of Black Shield such as slows, stuns and snares simply don’t while it is active. The shield last as long as it’s duration but it can also be ‘burned off’ if it reaches its maximum damage capacity. If the spell that burned the shield off has a magical effect, such as a stun, this won’t affect the barer of Black Shield.

In general Black Shield must be used preemptively and so it is heavily reliant on your own knowledge of your opponent’s abilities and their ranges. If an enemy is closing the gap between you or an ally he is most like attempting to stun or slow one of you. In such a case it a well placed Black shield can remove the enemy’s initiative, putting a valuable ability such as a stun or slow on cool down and force him to engage in combat at a disadvantage. It is because of that dynamic that I think Black Shield is one of the best support abilities in the game.

While it is a purely defensive ability Black Shield also has offensive utility. For example, if a melee team mate is about to engage in combat with an enemy you can cast Black Shield on him to help mitigate your enemies opening volley of spells. It is also useful for checking the brush on most maps if you suspect an enemy is lurking within in an attempting to set up an ambush. Such a trap can be sprung by a character with a Black Shield and potentially survived however it is risky! And ambush is an ambush no matter how much of its damage is mitigated.

Black Shield has a constant mana cost for all of its ranks , a decent cool down and is Morgana’s best team battle spell. It also benefits greatly from cool-down reduction items and buffs because more casts of it mean more potential damage can be mitigated. It has a 1.0 Ability Power to spell power ratio making it surge in effectiveness alongside your offensive spells. In the end it is the kind of spell that you just need to learn how to use first hand and eventually it’s various applications will become second nature.

Soul Shackles

What the Database says:

Latches chains of energy onto nearby enemy champions, dealing initial damage to them and slowing their move speed by 20%, and then echoing the pain 4 seconds later and stunning them if they remain close to Morgana.

Cooldown

100/100/100 seconds

Cost

100/150/200 Mana

Range

1,000

My Take:

Every character has an ultimate ability and Morana’s is Soul Shackles. In most cases these abilities allow a champion to front load damage every few minutes. Sometimes they can be more utility based like Twisted Fates Destiny which allows his entire team to see their opponents for a few second during which time Twisted Fate is able to teleport to any part of the map. In Morgana’s case her ability falls somewhere in between.

Soul Shackles is a jack of all trades, it’s a slow, an area of effect, a stun and a damage spell. It can only be used on enemy champions and in order to be fully effective Morgana must remain within range of her targets. After 4 seconds it will apply a stun and ‘echo’ damage to its targets. The best use of Soul Shackles is in large team battles where it can do substantial damage while giving your team an advantage by slowing and potently stunning multiple targets.

In most cases enemy champions will attempt to flee the effective range of Soul Shaclkes, forcing you to follow them if you want to hit them for its full damage and stun. This makes using it a gamble without back up as it can easily make you over extend yourself in a fight and get you killed quickly. However you can cast spells while channelling Soul Shackles and a quick Dark Bindings can save you a lot of grief! It is important to note however that the echo damage effect can be negated with he summoner spell cleanse, or escaped with the spell flash. Try to anticipate when the enemies cleanse, flash or ghost are on cool down and hit them then.

Soul Shackles can also be used in a pinch as an escape ability. Because of its slow and stun components, alongside Black Shield, it can allow Morgana to escape a potential gank. When combined with Dark Binding it can allow her to incapacitate a target for up to six seconds, a veritable eternity in League of Legends.

It has a 1.0 Ability Power to Damage Raito. If both the initial and echo damage hit its target at maximum rank, level 3, it will do 700 damage. It is interesting to note that both ‘sides of the coin’ benefit separately from Ability power, making it have the potential to easily do over a 1000 damage! It synergizes well with Morgana’s other abilities and enable her to do some nice burst damage every few minutes.

Rune Build Options

When I started writing this guide I had played about 40 games with Morgana. Skip ahead to the present, a  few months later, and I’ve played a 109 with her winning 64. For most of those games I mostly used three types of runes. I suggest that if you are working towards level 30, as most people are, to stock pile your IP and skip past tier 2 runes. Instead purchase a set of tier ones and wait till level 21 and then purchase tier 3 runes, which will give you better bang for your buck.

Marks: Almost every magic damage based character should use marks of spell penetration, or “Marks of Insight”. They provide you with an extra 2 or 3 percent damage in the early game. At level 30 using tier 3 marks you can get 8.5 of magic penetration. The mathematical formula for armor and magic damage reduction is the numerical resistance, divided by (It’s self + 100). So for example lets say you have 50 resist, that would negate 50 / 150 = 33%. So lets reduced that by 8.5. 41.5 / 141.5  =29.3%. Throw sorcerer’s shoes on there and you’ve got 28.5 magic penetration, which would give you 21.5 / 121.5 = 17% That’s a lot of extra damage to be doing 10-ish minutes in to the match. Bare in mind however that all characters gain increased magic resistance with each level, keeping every thing on reasonable parody.

Seals: I mostly use mana regeneration seals, namely Seals of Clarity. They increase their effectiveness each level and the total mana regeneration at maximum level is higher than flat regeneration runes. They even out with their stock counter parts around level 10 and surpass them soon after. Mana regeneration is always useful and these guys stay in most of my builds.

Glyphs: Thee words, cool down reduction. You can go with stock or progressive runes, either will suit you well enough. They allow you to case spells more often which means more damage. I use greater glyphs of celerity, which are progressive and provide 8.5% cool down reduction at level 18. I tend to build myself for the end game which works out just fine for me.

Quintessences: I also go for Clarity for my ‘quints’ as it provides with an extra kick of mana regeneration that helps me stay in lanes longer early game and gives me staying power later. A good alternative for super aggressive early game play is straight extra health runes, which if you have 3 tier three’s will give you an extra 90 health. get a Doran’s ring on top of that and you have an extra 210 hp to throw around and a bit of mana regeneration. That strategy only really pays off if you can score a first blood and generaly I like the mana regeneration more in the long run.

Item build

Now that you know a few things about Morgana and her play style you are going to need to know which items to get for her. More importantly you need to learn why these items are good for her. Below is a summary of my normal build and beneath that are full descriptions of all of those items and the reasons why I choose them.

On an important aside I just want to share some facts on how gold works. In League of Legends you get 7 gold every 5 seconds, that means you have 12 ticks of gold every minute totaling 84 gold. 84 X 5 = 420 so in five minutes, four if you kill some minions, you can get nearly 500 gold. As time passes both the experience and gold value of minions increases along side their health albeit to a lesser extent.

Start off with the following.

1: Sapphire Crystal: 400 gold

Health Potion: 35 gold

Mana Potion: 40 gold

2: Meki Pendant: 390 gold

3: Null-Magic Mantel: 400 gold

4: Combine Meki Pendant and Null-Magic Mantel into a Chalice of Harmony: 100 gold combine cost

At this point you have some options.

I would highly recommend getting a pair of boots first. Not only will they improve your survivability they will also give you extra punch!.

If you have a confidant team and are making early game kills go for the Soulstealer after getting your boots but before the Guise.

Ideally you’ll want all of these items, but only 1 boots!

Option 1

Boots of Speed: 350 gold

5-a: Combine boots of speed into Sorcerer’s Shoes: 750 gold combine cost

Sorcerer’s Shoes are better for damage output

Mercury’s Trends are better for survivability

Null-Magic Mantel: 400 gold

5-b: Mercury’s Treads: 450 gold combine cost

Option 2

Amplifying Tome: 435 gold

6: Combine the Amplifying Tome into a Mejai’s Soulstealer: 800 gold combine cost

At this point you need to decide whether you want more Mana, Ability Power and Mana Regeneration or a better mix of health, Ability Power and Mana. The choice is between two items, the Rod of Ages or the Arcangel’s Staff. Both of these use that Sapphire crystal you already have!

Option 1: Arch Angles staff

Faerie Charm: 180 gold

Combine Faerie Charm and Sapphire Crystal into a Tear of the Goddess: 400 gold combine cost

Blasting Wand: 860 gold

8: Combine a Blasting Wand and a Tear of the Goddess into an Archangel’s Staff: 1000 gold combine cost

Option 2: Rod of the Ages

Ruby Crystal: 475 gold

Combine a Ruby Crystal and a Sapphire Crystals into a Catalyst the Protector: 450 gold combine cost

Blasting Wand: 860 gold

8: Combine a Blasting Wand and a Catalyst of the Protector into a Rod of Ages: 850 gold combine cost

Sapphire Crystal: 400 gold

Chain Vest: 700 gold cost

9: Combine a Sapphire Crystal and a Chain Vest into a Glacial Shroud: 575 gold combine cost

Cloth Armor: 300 gold each

10: Combine a Glacial Shroud and two Cloth Armors X 2 to make the Frozen Heart: 800 gold combine cost

Item Descriptions

1: Sapphire Crystal: 400 gold

+200 Mana

The first items you purchase at the begging of any match are going to drastically affect your play style early in the game. In the case of Morgana, as well as most other characters, it is critical to stay in your lane during that time to gain experience! While combat will inevitably deplete your health all is not lost because of Morgana’s core ability ‘Soul Siphon’.  This makes ‘lanning’ with her easier if she can sustain an adequate level of mana. And that’s why I go for a Sapphire Crystal first.

Now most people will say go with a mana regeneration item, personally I’ve found that the +200 mana from a sapphire crystal is just as effective early game, especially if you have the mana regen runes to back it up. I feel that the extra mana a Sapphire gives you allows for more initial casting stamina. In the first five minutes of the game you should be able to get to about level 3 and get your second rank of Morgana’s Corrupted Ground spell. That should both allow you to regenerate your health at reasonable rate and help you gain enough gold to purchase the mana regeneration item that’s going to keep you going for the rest of the game.

Health Potion: 35 gold

Click to Consume: Restores 200 Health over 20 seconds.

For the price potions are a good investment at the begging of a match and just like the Sapphire Crystal they keep you in the fight longer. Because they allow you to recover from low health faster they reduce the chances of you getting killed my enemy champions that are hungry for early kills. Morgana is not a tank and the word to keep in mind with her, with regards to health, is ‘prevention’ rather than ‘cure’.

Mana Potion: 40 gold

Click to Consume: Restores 100 Mana over 20 seconds.

I take a mana potion ‘just in case’. Sometimes I might have to lane longer than I expected, for any number of reasons, and I can’t take the time to travel back to the shop to purchase a Meki pendant.  With a mana potion I can get some mana on demand, something that can save you or an ally’s life in the first ten minutes.

2: Meki Pendant: 390 gold

+7 Mana regen per 5 sec

This is the first and most important component to the Chalice of Harmony, it’s a basic mana regeneration item and it’s cheap. However unless you need to travel back to base I would advise waiting for the full 890 gold needed to purchase the Chalice.

3: Null-Magic Mantel:400 gold

+24 Magic Resistance

Magic resistance is a kind of magical armor, it reduces the damage you take from spells by a percentage. Look at the rune section to find out how damage reduction works.

4: Chalice of Harmony: 100 gold combine cost

+35 Magic Resistance

+7.5 Mana Regen per 5 sec

Unique Passive: Increases your Mana Regen by 1% per 1% Mana you are missing.

The Chalice of Harmony is one of the best mana regeneration items in the game and is a must have item for most casters. There are of course exceptions to that rule but in general the statistics speak for them selves. If you are playing another ability power based chracter, like Nunu, that needs some health regeneration I would suggest getting a Philosopher’s Stone.

Amplifying Tome: 435 gold

+20 Ability Power

More ability power means more damage, enough said.

6: Mejai’s Soulstealer: 800 gold

+20 Ability Power

UNIQUE Passive: Your champion gains 8 ability power per stack, receiving 2 stacks for a kill or 1 stack for an assist. This effect can stack 20 times; you lose a third of your stacks if you die. At 20 stacks, your champion’s cooldowns are reduced by 15%.

This is a item you have probably seen quite a few times in your time playing League of Legends. It’s great on any number of characters and is generally top prioirty on an experienced players shopping list. While Morgana is not a burst damage kind chracter her damage over time effects allow her to get a lot of assists, which in turn gets her stacks of the Soulstealer.  If you play cautiously with her you can easily get 10 plus stacks by the end game and some times even max it out. Great fun for the whole family.

Boots of Speed: 350 gold

UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 1

Getting to where you need to be and away from where you shouldn’t, that’s the job of movement speed. If you need to push a lane a pair of Boots of Speed are almost mandator0y. If an enemy champion, with a pair of his own, is chasing you and you don’t have a pair he will catch you and wreck you hard. The only thing better than Boots of Speed are it’s upgraded incarnations.

7: Sorcerer’s Shoes: 750 gold combine cost

+20 Magic Penetration

UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 2

In a nutshell Sorcerers Shoes are faster and stronger than boots of speed, making them better. They have Magic Penetration which will allow your spells to bypass a certain amount of an enemy champion’s Magic Resistance on a percentage based level.  If you are fighting a tank heavy team magic penetration is almost as important as damage. With out it you’re spells could be doing 50 to 80 percent less damage! Regardless, Sorcerer’s Shoes are a great buy for in almost any match.

OR

Null-Magic Mantel: 400 gold

+24 Magic Resistance

I already covered this item above.

7: Mercury’s Treads: 450 combine cost

+30 Magic Resist

UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 2 Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, sleeps, and immobilizes by 40%.

Mercury’s Treads are great if you are fighting what I like to call a ‘Striker’ style team.  That is a team which is light on tanks but heavy on straight damage dealers. An a-typical striker team is usually fragile and relays on life steal, attack speed, slows and stuns to win most fights.  So with it’s extra magic resist and it’s special ability to decrease the duration of all ‘imparting’ effects Mercury’s Treads are shoes not to loose.

Ruby Crystal: 475 gold

+180 Health

Extra health is always good as it gives you a greater margin for error.

Amplifying Tome: 435 gold

+20 Ability Power

Again covered above.

8: Haunting Guise: 575 gold

+20 Ability Power

+180 Health

UNIQUE Passive: +20 Magic Penetration and 10% Spell Vamp (5% for area spells).

Haunting Guise is a hot little item, it combines health, ability power, magic penetration and spell vamp into one neat package. Spell vamp is effectively the same ability as soul siphon, expect in this case it’s 10% on direct damage and 5% on area of effect. Of all the attributes on the Haunting Guise by far the best for Morgana is the life steal. It effectively doubles her area of effect life steal and triples her single target steal. This item is a ‘jack of all trades’ and it does cost a pretty penny, if you need extra mana and damage over the extra damage penetration consider going for an Archangle’s Staff or Rod of the Ages before you get the Guise. It’s also good to note that this item was just patched into the game, it’s probably going to be modified in some way, so keep an eye out.

Faerie Charm: 180 gold

+3 Mana Regen per 5 sec

An inexpensive mana regeneration item, mainly used as a component for better items.

Tear of the Goddess: 400 combine cost

+350 Mana

+5 Mana Regen per 5 sec

UNIQUE Passive: Each time your Champion uses an Ability their Maximum Mana will increase by 4 Mana, up to a maximum of twice in a six second period; bonuses cap at +600 Mana.

The Tear of the Goddess is the primary piece needed to build the Archangle’s staff and by it self is an all around good caster item. It combines the sapphire crystals you bought at the begging of the game and a Faerie charm to make and thats not much for what you get in exchange. The Tear of the Goddess will max out at an extra 950 mana and the ‘charges’ you accumulate with it will stay ‘charged’ when you upgrade to the Archangle’s Staff, which has an identical unique power. In any decently long game you’ll get up to level 18, at which point your spells will require some serious mana to cast. A Tear of the Goddess will give you long term battle stamina. and allow you to support your team in their final pushes. It’s also important to note that the Tear of the Goddess improves the effectiveness of the Chalice of Harmony becuase the more mana you have the better that percentage based regeneration becomes.

Blasting Wand: 860 gold

+40 Ability Power

One of the better extra ability damage items in the game, fun at birthday parties and weddings.

9-A: Archangel’s Staff: 1000 gold combine cost

+400 Mana

+25 Mana Regen per 5 sec

+45 Ability Power

Passive: 3% of your Max Mana is converted to Ability Power.

UNIQUE Passive: Each time your Champion uses an Ability their Maximum Mana will increase by 4 Mana. This effect has a 3 second cool down. Bonus caps at 600 mana.

This item is a bit different so lets take a nice look at it shall we? First off you got extra mana, that’s awesome on a caster. Second you have 25 mana per 5! That makes this item the perfect companion to the Chalice of Harmony which gives you great mana regeneration when your tank is empty but loses effectiveness as it gets full. This item effectively give you the extra punch you need to top off your mana fast.

Next we have +45 ability power which is sexy all by it self. But the sexiest part of this item is it’s passive damage bonus, an extra 3% of your maxim mana converted to Ability Power.  Let me just throw out some of that math I mentioned earlier.  Morgana’s maximum ‘naked’ mana is 1320, now this toy( with it’s maxim charges) that shoots her mana up to 2320 and 2320 X .03 =49.6! That’s takes this items total stock damage to 94. Sure there are items that will give you more damage, but for the cost and utility you get with the Archangle’s staff it’s hard to find elsewhere. The one distractor to this is that if you go straight to it you wont have any extra health. That makes Morgana sqhishy as hell and ripe pickings for any striker with a good long stun. If you get this item I suggest you get the Haunting Guise after wards and then a Glacial Shroud after that. If the game is full of a lot of strikers and you need extra health bypass the Archangle’s Staff in favor of a Rod of the Ages or Ralais Crystal Scepter.

Ruby Crystal: 475 gold

+180 Health

Again, went over this item above.

Catalyst the Protector: 450 gold

+290 Health

+325 Mana

Passive: Restores 300 Health and 250 Mana upon leveling up.

This is a good all around item that requires a both a Ruby Crystal and a Sapphire Crystal to make. It’s particularly good at the begging of the game as it passive recover ability will have ‘more punch’ thanks to your lower statistics. It’s the key component to the Rod of Ages.

Blasting Wand: 860 gold

+40 Ability Power

The rod also takes a Blasting Wand, a lot of higher end caster items do.

9-B: Rod of Ages: 850 gold combine cost

+380 Health

+425 Mana

+50 Ability Power

Passive: Your Champion gains 18 Health, 20 Mana, and 2 Ability Power every 1 min. Bonuses cap at +270 Health, +300 Mana, and +30 Ability Power.

The Rod of Ages is pretty straight forward its got extra health, mana and ability power but where it breaks the mold is it’s special ability.  It will passively give you extra health, mana and ability power as time wares on, taking 15 minuets to reach it’s peak effectiveness. If you can snag it at the 20 minuet mark, right after you get your shoes, it’s a great item. If you get it later its still a good choice but only time will make it an awesome one. Most games last around 40 minuets, so you should be aiming to get it by the 25 minuet mark, allowing you to get the most bang for you buck. It’s a poor choice to get past 35 minuets unless you expect the game will drag on. If you have a Archangle’s Staff then a Rod of the Ages wont really do much more for you. You’ll already have plenty of power from you Archangles and  Soulstealer and so don’t need the damage of the Rod of the Ages. There are also better health and mana items out there, like the Haunting Guise and Glacial Shroud.

Sapphire Crystal: 400 gold

+200 Mana

Same great taste, same old item. See full description above.

Chain Vest

+45 Armor

Not much I can say about this expect that armor makes physical based attacks and abilities hurt less, by a percentage. Much like Magical Resistance I don’t have a clue how what the formula is to calculate armor points into damage reduction percentages. All I know is that armor reduces damage by a percentage and hey thats a good thing!

Glacial Shroud: 575 gold combine cost

+425 Mana

+45 Armor

UNIQUE Passive: Reduces ability cooldowns by 20%.

Often the last item I get the Glacial Shroud is a ‘cheap-ish’ and effective item. It gives Morgana the survivability she needs to see her though the end of a match. Teamed with a Archangle’s Staff it will boost your mana up to (2320+425=)2745 and increase your extra damage bonus by an extra 10 ability power, totaling 54 extra damage. It also reduces her cool downs by 20%, allowing you to spend your mana faster and reducing the chances of getting caught in a situation where Dark Bindings or Black Shield is on cool down. The only thing better is what this item becomes, the Frozen Heart, but I rarely play a match long enough to get the gold to purchase that item.

Cloth Armor: 300 gold

+12 armor

Not much to say about this, it’s like the chain armor but not as good, costs about half though.

Frozen Heart: 800 gold combine cost

+99 Armor

+500 Mana

UNIQUE Passive: Reduces ability cooldowns by 25% and reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies by 20%.

This is the last stop on the item train for my Morgana build. It costs a arm and a leg, it’s only really awesome when used in a team battle setting and it allows you to take a hit and not instantly flat line. Beyond some extra armor and it’s attack speed reduction aura it’s not that much better than the Glacial Shroud, which is much cheaper. If survivability is your focus you might be better off buying a Force of Nature or a Warmogs Armor. It’s really your call, in my case the game is almost always climaxed by the time I can get a Frozen Heart.  Special note, it requires TWO Cloth Armors to make this item.

This video is a recording of a complete 5 on 5 match and is 42 minutes long. In it I play as a support casted named Morgana. I’m currently working on a guide for her that should be up tomorrow.

As an addendum to this post it was brought to my attention that there was audio over lap issues with this podcast during the break. I fixed the issues and uploaded the new version.

Direct Download

You can subscribe to us via Itunes or our own RSS feed.

So a few days ago I began looking around for coloring tutorials and found a ton.  I liked one of them very much and decided to test it out. In order to do that I penciled and inked a very detailed piece of concept work. The result of this test can be viewed past the break.

Now, before you go judging this piece know that I’ve already begun to make changes to these characters. Most notably are their proportions, which I will be refining. I’m also going to work on muscle tone and costume design. The goal of all this art work is to polish their design and practice my skills.

On a side note there will be a new data-cast up in a few days.

This other project (tentatively titled Red Journey) is a story driven web comic. For a long time now I’ve been meaning to start one up, but my life has been hectic. Anyhow, I figure there is not time like the present and I need to produce content to keep data-cube alive so here goes nothing.

Past the break I’ve posted a narrated video of me doing some character concept work on Red Journey. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Working on another version of this chracter, took down the color for now. I’ll post V2 in a bit.

The second thing I’m going to be working on is improving the general site design. Things like type facing, features and such. This is an area where I need your feedback. If you have any design recommendations or requests please post a comment below! If you have any problems with the site please say so, I need to know about those kinds of things in order to fix them. I’m always looking to improve the browsing experience of my site and feedback is essential to that process.

Thank you in advance, <3.Lots more after the break guys, check it out!

Just as a brief aside, I’m planning on releasing a Company of Heroes replay pack in a few days. It’s going to be about 5 to 10 games in size and one of them is going to become the next Tips and Tricks. Basically I’ll post the pack and then hold a user vote. Whichever game has the majority of votes will become the next Tips and Tricks. Of course I can’t do it first person play style, it’s a replay after all, but I can document my strategy and tactics. Should be cool, I’ll keep you posted.

One final bit of news, I’m going to be starting a web comic. I’ve tried making them in the past, mostly as art projects, but they’ve never really taken off. This time I think I’ve got a pretty solid idea to work with and the time necessary to produce it. It’s most likely going to be a full page once a week style job. Full color, hand penciled and inked. I’ll post a preview image in the following week.

Also it would be awesome if you could post a review on Itunes for the Data Cast! Would help spreading the word.

http://www.commandandconquer.com/classic

This weeks music is “Step Off My Flower Bed: A secret of Mana Remix” by Nase

Direct Download

You can subscribe to us via Itunes or our own RSS feed.

http://opertoon.com/2009/05/ruben-lullaby/

You can subscribe to us via Itunes or our own RSS feed.

Direct Download