Morgana has been a mid laner and a support for years, but in League of Legends Season 11, players are picking her up in the jungle. With recent buffs on LoL patch 11.8, she’s now one of the game’s best junglers. Here’s why.
Plenty of historic picks have roamed the brushes and claimed the camps on Summoner’s Rift: Lee Sin, Sejuani, Rek’Sai, Nunu. For 11 years, Morgana hasn’t even been in the discussion.
That has now changed though. More and more players are picking up Morgana in the jungle. In fact, she’s now picked more often in the jungle compared to her historic stomping grounds of mid lane and support.
All it took was one experimental change from Riot to pique players’ interests, and it looks set to be prevalent in the meta for some time yet. Here’s why you should pick up Morgana jungle now, and what you need to do to master the pick in League of Legends Season 11.
What makes Morgana jungle so strong?
Morgana was one of five junglers buffed in Riot’s huge jungle shake-up on LoL patch 11.8. With the developers trying to increase champion diversity, pushing the Fallen Angel into the jungle was an interesting move that resonated well with players.
Increased damage on her W, Tormented Soil, against jungle monsters helped her out massively. Although it was only an increase from 150% to 200%, it was enough to see a sharp spike in both play rate and win rate.
According to stats site u.gg, Morgana has the highest win rate in the jungle at 54.38% as of patch 11.8. Her ban rate has risen to a whopping 43%, making her one of the most banned champions on this patch, while her pick rate in the jungle is around 7.3% (eighth in role).
There’s two things that make Morgana jungle incredibly strong: Her incredibly fast clear, and her great gank potential. She has one of the fastest full-clears in League right now, and is able to juggle two camps at once thanks to the healing off her passive.
Morgana is one of five #LeagueOfLegends champions being pushed into the jungle on the 11.8 PBE cycle.
The Fallen, along with Darius, Diana, Mordekaiser, and Zed are all getting big buffs to their bonus damage to monsters. pic.twitter.com/tlOIDKimMf
— Dexerto League (@DexertoLeague) April 5, 2021
On top of that, her ganks are lethal. If she lands a Dark Binding, it’s almost impossible to escape the gank. She can also chase enemies down with her ultimate. She’s the perfect all-round jungler with these buffs. The only thing she struggles with is dragon and baron control.
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Best runes, builds for Morgana jungle
Just in case getting bound and burned by Morgana wasn’t enough, you’ll love to hear her preferred runes in the jungle involve Dark Harvest.
The feast-or-famine rune allows Morgana to ramp up her damage across the game. It’s easy to stack, and it gives her access to things like Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collection, and Ravenous Hunter — all strong runes in the Domination tree.
Skill-wise, you want to max Tormented Soil as fast as possible, as it’s your main jungle clearing tool. Then, getting Dark Binding maxed is the next priority, with Black Shield last.
Item-wise, Liandry’s Torment is by far the best. The burn damage synergizes perfectly with Morgana’s kit, ramping up as the game goes on and enemies get tanky. Then, picking up Zhonya’s Hourglass, Demonic Embrace, and Morellonomicon gives a great mix of damage and utility.
How to master Morgana jungle in League of Legends
Juggling jungle aggro is the number one way to play Morgana jungle. It’s like playing Zac or Karthus — Morgana’s clear is sped up when she can clear multiple camps at once using her Tormented Soil area-of-effect.
Just power farming the jungle is the perfect way to play Morgana. Because her clear speed is rapid, she can gain fast experience and gold leads on enemies by just taking her camps off cooldown. She can also command scuttle control because of her high damage.
Doing this until you’re sufficiently ahead — sprinkling in a gank or two — can quickly balloon out a lead that’s almost impossible to stop. Enemies have to coordinate strong counter-jungling pressure to try and shut her down early, but that’s difficult when she can slide away with her Black Shield.
You should look at picking up Morgana jungle before Riot nerfs it into the ground. It’s getting a slight nerf on patch 11.9, but it’ll likely stick around for a bit longer. It’s free LP for those who master her, so why not?
