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Need help with Silver

Crater Jones·6/26/2016, 2:49:37 AM·2 votes·659 views

So I am currently in Silver 1 and I have been in it for a while now, but it seems I am having trouble with some basic things I should know. I am a Morgana support main (side support is Leona) and I was wondering how should I fix the following things. Here is my summoner name for those who want to see my LOLKING and OP: xXGoldenFoxXx.

  • Positioning: In team fights with Morgana I don't know if I should be back line or front line. When I front line I see the pros as me being able to ult and Hourglass, but I am quite squishy due to my 45% CD build with 2 AP items. So what should I do? (Now I am speaking this as if I didn't have flash)

  • Spell Sheild: Who should I use this on my ADC, Jungle, Mid, or Top? I know it depends on who is the most important for that game but it seems every time I use it on one person instantly some one else needs it. Also I was wondering if I am against a decent Blitzcrank who is able to predict my spell shield who should I use it on me, to save my self, or my ADC, to protect the "important" laner?

  • Warding: I always rush a Sight Stone in my build and then build it into the blue support item to get the slight AP and the 10% CD. The problem is where should I place my wards. I find it very easy and predictable where I place my wards but they are decent spots. These spots are: Tri-Bush, River Bush, 1st or 2nd Lane bush, and finally I usually buy a pink and place it in a hidden corner of dragon pit. Where could I place wards that people really couldn't find with a sweeper, but they still give the vision needed to see roaming laners or incoming ganks?

  • Team Fights: I am decent at hitting my Dark Bindings, but sometimes I do it just for poke before a fight and I end up with my team diving onto the (name) support I just q'd. I try to communicate with my team to not go in because I would perfer to hit a more valuable target such as the ADC or Mid laner, but I usually can't stop the engage from the team. Should I attempt to follow up when my team engages or should I just sit back line and q and w while I don't use my ult since I don't have flash to go in?

  • Being Engaged On: I find myself in a panic when I am engaged on so I just pop my Hourglass and become surrounded. Now I know I could have ulted and then Hourglassed, but I find it point less when I know I am in a stand still position for 2.5 seconds due to Hourgalss because they could easily walk out and then re-engage. What should I do waste the ult and have 1 of them stunned to see if the team attempts to help or save the ult until I am back up?

  • Motivating My Team: What should I say to get high hopes going in the game?

  • Improving: I realize I need to improve on all of these things, but where do I practice them? Should I play normals where I get a Zed ADC or should I just attempt to improve in ranked trying new mechanics in risk of getting picked?

Thank you for any high or low elos who can help me with all of these things it is HIGHLY appreciated. I do know that some of these instances seem very specific, but that is where I find questioning my self. Finally if you cannot tell these instances are all under the fact that I am playing full build Morgana with the following Items: item 2301 item 3165 item 3089 item 3151 item 3020 item 3157 with these summoners summoner 4 summoner 3 with the pot being item 2139 .

P.S: I am pretty bad at grammar so there will be mistakes and I do apologize for them.

7 Comments

RivetAce6/26/2016, 3:46:31 AM2 votes

Hi, I'm currently Plat II and although I'm not a support main, I've played every role (and the game) enough to say that I know a lot about most champions. I'd love to give whatever advice I can, and prepare yourself for a large (yet hopefully helpful) wall of text. :3

Positioning: You have two options here. Option one is safer and more reliable, and option two has the potential to have a lot more impact, but is riskier. Option 1: Stay in the back line by your carry (whether that's your mid or adc, usually adc) and peel for them. If they have diving champions who rely on cc or even if you just want to block magic damage, save your black shield for your chosen target and ignore all other allies 9 out of 10 times. Use your binding on that diving champion and let your carry dish out the damage. If you need to, use your ult to peel for that chosen carry. Option 2: Lead the fight with a 4 or 5 man ult (ping first, or let your team know your plan in chat), and use Zhonyas if necessary. Using Zhonyas is trickier than it seems - if you Zhonyas too early, the enemy will just walk out of your ultimate. If you Zhonyas too late, you could die or you could get picked off by a stray ability since you've already taken so much damage. Usually, the best time to Zhonyas is when 1 to 2 seconds of your ult has gone by and you're still above half health. That way you've kept good positioning for your ult but you're still perceived as a threat to the fight. I'd stick with Option 1 most of the time, but if your team has no engage or if you want to follow up on a hard engage to seal the deal, you can go with Option 2. Also, Option 2 isn't a bad idea if your entire team is far ahead; the enemy won't be too concerned with diving your backline because they'll be more concerned about staying alive.

Spell Shield: Keep in mind what your spell shield does - it blocks some magic damage, but most importantly it allows the shielded ally to continue using actions. The choice ultimately comes up to you, but I'll list the champion roles you want to use it on and why, from best to worst.

  1. Marksmen - ADCs need to auto attack a lot and need to move between those attacks. They have the most actions per second and need to keep these up to do their job effectively. Mages with high actions per second (Cassiopeia, Azir) are also in this tier.
  2. Assassins - Assassins and divers are going to be the first person the enemy team looks to CC defensively. Often the only thing that can stop an assassin from doing his job is the CC from an enemy tank or support. If you know your assassin can get the job done if he doesn't have to worry about CC, go ahead and let him tear apart the enemy carries with your black shield.
  3. Fighters - Fighters are generally auto-attack reliant like Marksmen, but they often have more durability and less damage. They have high actions per second as well, but typically can take more punishment than a marksman, and if you have to choose between a carry or a fighter getting CCd, shielding the carry is always the better choice.
  4. Mages - You probably thought your mid-laner would be higher on the list, but more often than not they will have already used their abilities and are just waiting on cooldowns. Sure, you might save them and it's fine to do so if you see an opportunity, but you're not actually helping your team's damage a ton by shielding a mage, especially a burst mage.
  5. Supports - Backline supports (which would be you if you take the safer positioning option) will often be ignored by divers in favor of a carry. Also, like mages, they are very cooldown reliant and don't lose much from getting CCd.
  6. Tanks - A tank's entire job is to absorb enemy abilities and cooldowns (as well as providing CC of course). If the enemy team wastes CC on your tank, your tank did their job and won't suffer much from it. Again, it is up to you to make the choice. But in general, that list should be your priority of targets to watch.

Warding: Pro supports will often roam out of lane (sometimes giving up experience) to ward farther from the lane. This could mean warding the entrance to blue buff, warding the small brush between dragon and mid lane, or even warding in the enemy jungle. The one thing low elo players seem to do is stay plastered to their lane - remember, as a support your job is mostly utility, not damage. Once you're level 6 all you really gain from levels is damage and base stats. With morgana, if you max binding, you'll have your utility maxed out at level 9. Experience isn't all that necessary for a support. Use this knowledge to your advantage and take time to ward deeper up the river/in the jungle. Everyone will sweep the tri or the river brush because they don't want to lose experience. Not only that, but deeper wards give way more time to react - I'm sure you've had plenty of times you've died to a gank even though you saw them coming. That is a more important reason to ward deeper, the experience thingy is just a reason not to feel bad about leaving your lane. Here's where I would ward: If you're blue (left) side, ward the entrance to blue buff (so you can see someone coming from blue buff or from mid lane) and ward the brush on the right of red buff (so you can see if a mid laner is ganking you from behind or if the enemy jungle is invading). If you're purple (right) side, ward the small brush in the river above the dragon pit (to have more time to know if mid is ganking or if they're invading your jungle) and ward either the tri brush or the brush beneath the red buff (tri is safer, red buff gives more information).

Team Fights: In the late game, you're most effective as peel. I think your damage build is giving you the wrong idea of your role - you're not here for poke or for damage, but for utility. The only time you should ever use your binding (outside of laning phase) is 1) you see a target that is out of position, or 2) you need to peel an enemy off of an ally. You don't have to use an ability every time it's off cooldown, and saving your utility spells until the right moment can actually give them much much more impact. Feel free to spam your w if you'd like :3

Being Engaged On: Like I explained in the Positioning section, it's best if you save your Zhonyas for 1 to 2 seconds if possible, the longer the better while still retaining enough health to be a threat. This is another reason you should consider changing your build as support morgana. If you have item 2301 item 3190 and item 3157, you'll have enough health, armor, and magic resistance (as well as a shield from locket) to survive most engage for a second or two. The best chance you have to turn the fight around is to ult, zhonyas, and ping your team to get their butts back in there. Communication really helps!

Motivating your team: People will always like compliments. However, negativity will always go further (in the opposite direction) than positivity. Because of this, you need to keep negativity at a minimum. And honestly, the best thing you can do chat-wise for your team is give them directions. Jungles and Supports don't have to focus on last-hitting, and jungles don't have a lane partner to dance with, so that's why they will typically be the shot-caller of the team. If you can give your team a plan, they can focus on their job and not have to worry so much about strategy. And here's a little known secret - being tilted doesn't lower your mechanics much, but it lowers your strategy a ton. Helping your team with strategy is the best counter-agent to tiltation. Also make sure your plan involves not getting picked off late game. Picks throw games a lot more often than bad teamfights or bad baron/dragon calls.

Improving: Normals is for practicing mechanics, which for Morgana is mainly landing bindings. Since you're already a Morgana main, this shouldn't be much of a problem. It's really hard to mess up strategy-wise compared to mechanically-wise, because more often than not the problem is that we just don't have any strategy thought out at all. Any strategy is better than none, and you should see a rise in win-rate if you bring your mind into the game consistently, and if you communicate that strategy with your team. Communication, even on the smallest things, is what brings consistency (and therefore wins) to the realm of solo dynamic queue.

As a final note, I would highly recommend changing your build. The fact is, supports get a lot less gold than anyone else, which is why they're picked for their utility a lot more often than for their damage. This is my recommended build: item 2301 item 3158 item 3190 item 3157 item 1029 item 1033 The cloth armor represents an armor item of your choice and the mantle a magic resist item of your choice. Of course you can always switch out lucidity boots for a defensive choice or even for Sorcs, but you'll still want to make sure your 5th or 6th item has at least 10% cdr to maximize your utility potential. Notice I said at least - there's nothing wrong with having 50% cdr (say if you really think item 3110 is needed). Sure it's a wasted stat, but remember Trinity force used to be core on Yasuo and he wasted the mana stat. You want to avoid wasting stats if possible, but sometimes the passive/active of the item is more than worth a lowered gold efficiency. If you really feel like you need damage, feel free to build AP instead of armor or magic resistance as your last two items. I would still run with the first 3 core items and boots though.

If you have any questions about Morgana or any other champion, feel free to make another post or to add me in game and message me!

Moneymonster76/26/2016, 4:08:27 AM1 votes

I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm Silver 3, and you have absolutely no obligation to listen to my advice, I know that some people think that if you're a lower rank you're automatically disqualified from being able to give good advice - I disagree with that notion. I used to main Morgana and like to think that I understand the game well, just am terrible at applying that knowledge way too often. I also want to say that you wrote a super well-thought out post and it's the first I've seen so far in my time on Boards so thanks :D Alright, moving onto your points.

Going to try and hit a few with my first idea. You said you're good at hitting dark bindings but that as soon as your team sees you hit someone, regardless of who it is, they all go diving in on them. It's great that you're hitting dark bindings well, but if you're hitting someone who's intentionally trying to block them for their squishy teammates it isn't going to do much for you. Try only going for dark bindings when you:

  • are catching someone out who isn't so tanky that they're going to last 10 minutes against your whole team, giving the enemies time to show up and crush you
  • see a squishy target like the ADC or that 10/0 Viktor walk too far forward and know you can land that binding on them
  • need to disengage for your team to be able to run away (hit anyone who has good engage at this point)

Next, your build. I don't see anything wrong with your summoner spells, that's what I would run as Morgana support as well. However, with your build, you don't need so much mana regeneration. Personally, I think that just the blue support item provides enough mana regeneration for what your goals will be throughout the game. The only time you should be running out of mana are when you're aggressively poking the enemy bot lane out of lane during laning phase or you've just hit your dark binding on someone squishy and you go in and ult 3 people for hitting item 3157 . Here is what I typically like to build when I play Morgana support: item 3303 item 2003 x3 > item 2049 item 3341 > item 3092 for the first ten minutes or so. My complete build, in order of which items I go for first, would look similar to this, though it changes for some situations: item 2045 item 3092 item 3157 item 3285 item 3020 My sixth item is usually some sort of defensive item like frozen heart, spirit visage, or locket, but it depends on who hurts the most on the enemy team. If my team is super far ahead I'll just go crazy and get a deathcap or void staff. Obviously remember to upgrade to item 3364 as soon as you can after you have your sightstone.

I actually completely forgot about your bullets about warding and motivation. Whoops. I honestly am not sure what to do about motivation, just compliment anyone who does something even remotely positive, from dodging a skillshot to getting a 1v5 pentakill. As for warding, there isn't anywhere that's guaranteed not to be swept, but as long as you keep warding the places your team needs vision, you should be fine. Most silver/bronze don't sweep anyway, at least not in my experience, so you should be fine.

BluePolarizer6/26/2016, 4:41:51 AM1 votes

My question is this: how are you full build with a support so frequently, and why are you not getting item 3092 which removes the luck out of hitting Q binds?