In response to a Morgana build [Alternative style support-tank]

Doran’s Ring is to give her some AP and extra HP early on. Taking Clarity and Teleport with this build is actually a good idea (gasp! Clarity!?!! Yes; you’re not focusing on building mana) so that you can stay in lane longer.

Guardian Angel is for when she hits level 6 and takes up Soul Shackles. “What does one have to do with the other?” I’m glad you asked! If you start Soul Shackles and die during its duration and Guardian Angel is up, Soul Shackles will continue to tick off. At Soul Shackles level 1, that means you deal 199 magic damage initially, slow those in range by 20% for four seconds, and at the end of the four seconds they’ll take another 199 magic damage and be stunned for 1 second. 398 damage, about 46 HP restored to you thanks to spell vamp. Then you can throw Dark Binding and Tormented Soil on them, dealing 93 damage and 56 damage assuming they get off that Tormented Soil as soon as the Dark Binding’s ended. That means you’ve just hit them, total, for 547 health and restored 84 health to yourself, at level 6. If you’re still near death, that gives you time to run away or for your lanemate (assuming you have one!) to jump in and kill that person who just dropped 547 health.

Mercury’s Treads. If you’re not against a CC-heavy team, go for Sorceror’s Shoes. If you ARE against a CC Heavy team, this is a great pair of boots to get. Black Shield prevents disables and absorbs 95 magic damage at skill level 1. It’ll stay up for 5 seconds or until the shield’s been popped from absorbing the 95 magic damage. If you throw that on a team mate while trying to escape, they’re likely to get away and be alright.

Abyssal Scepter. It has magic resistance and gives you ability power, along with having an aura that lowers the magic resistance of nearby enemies. This is great if you’re running in to use Soul Shackles, and even better if you have another team mate who uses AP-based attacks.

Thornmail will save your butt and maybe even snag you a kill. If you’re against Caitlyn, Ashe, Xin, Tryndamere, Twitch, Sivir, Irelia, or AD Twisted Fate, you’ve just found a way to stand around and let them kill themselves. It’s even better if you’re able to attack them back at the same time.

 

Response:

Doran’s ring is a decent starting item. The reason I say this is because of its efficiency in early game dominance; due to Morgana’s passive healing her through the use of her spells, with enough mana Morgana is virtually able to sustain indefinitely. The added ability power enables the player to last hit better with their spells, and allows for some early survivability before leveling black shield. Stacking a few of these, since you aren’t going Rod of Ages, is an extremely viable way to sustain in the early game, and are all able to be sold later for roughly 1/2 the cost, in effect, paying for themselves through use.

Guardian’s Angel is in fact the opposite of the item that should be attained in attempt to keep the ultimate going despite threat of death. For a mere 500 gold more [That's right, I fucking said 'mere' in relation to gold. 'Sup.] one can attain a zhonya’s hourglass. For the cost of 500 gold, you gain several advantages; the ability to activate the stasis in the position you want, for one, but at a fifth of the cool-down, suddenly the item seems a lot more valuable. Oh, I didn’t say we were done, this is like a fucking infomercial. Sacrificing that little bit of magic resist is fine – you have a black shield, and now you gain 100 ability power. Who noticed the 18 armor missing? I didn’t.

Treads in general: I don’t believe in merc treads on Morgana if she’s tanking. Why? She’s got black shield. I get that black shielding the carry is great, but if you’re the tank charging in and CC’ing the entire team, chances are, they’re trying to get you off of them. Black shield prevents their use of CC, prevents you from blowing up before properly positioning your zhonya’s; furthermore, boots of swiftness [Yes, boots of swiftness] allow for you to land those long range snares, catch up to the carry to save them from Karthus, and keep your ultimate in range of that bastard Gangplank who wasted his oranges on your snare. The fool.

Abyssal scepter isn’t going to satisfy our needs. Why? It gives flat penetration (Well, reduction) and AP – these aren’t things we’re seeking as the tank. They’re nice, but they aren’t needed. There are two reasons to get this item, AP, and MR. For AP (which includes penetration) we go for a void staff. We don’t have a lot of flat penetration, and we don’t need it. Percentage OP. For magic resistance, we have things like black shield. Oh, by the way, void staff makes black shield better. What’s up?

Thornmail -This item is going to serve a purpose if, and only if, you build health. Armor is great, as it makes your thornmail more productive, but in the end you need to have health to burn in order for this item to work. Therefore, adding in an item such as ‘randuin’s omen’ or ‘rylai’s crystal scepter’ [situational] would make thornmail a better choice. We should have enough armor from Zhonya’s in order to neglect the thornmail in favor of a better item, such as a frozen heart. Armor, CDR, mana, and a team-wide debuff for the enemies? Yeah. I’ll take that any day. (Alternatively, a randuin’s to give you that slow, the early GP/5, and a’bit more health, which does equate to more survivability in this case.)

 

I’m sure you can figure out the actual build, and if you can’t, comment, because I’d love to laugh at you. No, seriously.

 

P.S.: Original build/thread creator: http://myrkr.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/tanking-with-morgana-in-league-of-legends/

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