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Why the Morgana rework is going to (probably) disappoint

VampiraVonRoyal·1/27/2019, 6:29:07 AM·2 votes·1,626 views

With Kayle’s and Morgana’s reworks coming up, I might as well give some thoughts on why keeping Morgana’s gameplay very similar is a terrible idea. This is not going to talk about the new visuals, as I’m sure that departments going to knock our socks off, but will serve as an analysis, and vent on why Morg’s gameplay is terrible, from a person who loves the idea of Morgana, but find themselves falling asleep when they play her.

Morgana’s passive boils down to healing her whenever she damages cannons or champions, along with a secondary effect when mixed in with her w. This passive is not only boring, as you don’t have to do anything to proc it, just play the game exactly as you would if you had no passive at all, but on a long-range mage, it promotes the idea of using your spells and backing away as they heal you. This is something Rito has tried to discourage and should be reworked into something like Lux’s or Xerath’s passives, where you need to interact with opponent in auto-attack range to offset the inherent weakness in your kit (Lux’s waveclear and early damage is weak and she needs to proc her passive to clear waves and trade meaningfully until she gets items, while Xerath needs to frequently proc his passive to make up for his high mana costs)

The rest of Morg’s kit is simple, you hit q to root, then place w and maybe shield you or your adc to prevent cc, rinse and repeat. There is no meaningful interaction with Morg in mid or support, as her whole character is use spells and walk away. Her ult is some weird mesh of her q and w that makes you want to go into auto attack range, even though her entire kit says no to that, and rarely stuns more than one person, or even goes off in fights. You need zhonya’s to not get one shot, but if your hourglass people tend to walk away. Morg’s w also has some interaction with her passive, which again boils down to do what you would normally do and sometimes it's rewarding. Using her w as a means of proccing spell thieves reduces the cooldown so you can do it again sooner and using it as a damage or waveclear spell does the same thing, you hit a champ or a cannon by the virtue of the game works, and you can w again sooner.

Hearing from Rito that Morg’s gameplay has held up fine because she has a good play rate and win rate is bull because her q and e are so overpowered in the support role that you could remove all her other abilities and she would do fine. Morganas gameplay works, but it isn’t fun for either player, and doesn't work for the right reasons. Playing her is waiting for a q to hit and sometimes placing w to proc spell thieves, while pressing e to save your adc if a fight happens. Her ult is a empty threat outside of laning phase and her passive promotes this un-interactive playstyle. As Morg stands right now she’s a support Neeko, as both have an aoe damage and waveclear spell, a root and an aoe stun that takes time to ramp up. The only thing separating Morg from Neeko is her e, and the fact that her ult is harder to hit, which is why she goes support instead of mid now.

TLDR: Morgs kit works because it invalidates other players, and is not fun, interactive gameplay that should be kept during a rework and unless by "we are keeping her kit pretty much the same" Riot means "we've done a complete Warwick level rework where she still functions the same but everything is different" I'm going to be very sad when the rework comes out.

P.S sorry for spelling -I'm not esl or anything- I'm a tired university student who has to get up in like 7 hours to paint faces for a carnival I got guilt tripped into signing up for and really wanted to vent about how new Kayles gonna feel when she comes out and Morg's gonna be like this sick new paint job you really want to be seen with but its on a 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer that still gets you where you want to go but is never going to be able to compete with all the new cars coming out but still get's used because "people still drove it" and thats a good enough reason not to change it.

16 Comments

Tormentula1/27/2019, 7:12:49 AM3 votes

Morgana's gameplay has never really been an issue.

Actually Morg historically has been really solid, never overbearing, never unplayable/unviable. Usually gameplay updates are meant to be aimed for champions that can't get their foot in (or when they do, its so overwhelming that it doesn't last, ex; urgot was never good unless he was so oppressively strong so he qualified for a different kit). Morg on the other hand is consistent and never one or the other.

The only thing about morg's kit is her passive and W are kinda stale to use.

SSmotzer1/27/2019, 6:58:49 AM2 votes

Well, they are probably going to tweak to mechanics of her shield, give her a new passive, change what her W does while keeping it an aoe, making the duration of her Q less abhorrent, and giving her a new, but similar, ultimate.

Just like with all the reworks, even Ezreal's, they are going to lower her upfront effectiveness but give her more tools to use, even if they are the same tools with different effects. It's all about reallocating her power to make her fun.

Then there is the interactions she is going to have with Kayle that could really bring something new to Morgana's playstyle. If it's anything like the interaction between Xayah and Rakan, Morgana might have a different focus in her gameplay when playing with or against Kayle.

On My Kill List1/27/2019, 8:43:21 AM2 votes

i honestly think morgana's fine. kayle on the other hand definetly deserves a rework.

Foxynth1/27/2019, 7:55:18 AM1 votes

Isn't morgana one of the oldest champs in the game? Why wouldn't her kit be boring or unilateral if she's never had work done? [sg-lux-2]

Wulfston1/30/2019, 11:53:25 PM1 votes

I disagree with almost ALL of this, frankly.

Morgana's passive is excellent where it is, and as it is. Because of where cannon minions position in a minion scrum, you need to put yourself into a position and range that at least makes it possible for your opponent to interact with you. Her W is extremely weak at low levels and low itemization, really being reliant on low opponent health to do meaningful damage, and the reduced healing from AoE works with this to ensure you can't use it as an over-powered sustain tool. Landing abilities on champions provides a little more, but not terribly much until you're leveled and itemized. This interacts with her slower-traveling CC that only roots (not stuns, so allows counter-attacks) that only strikes one target. This IS her interaction with her passive - Lux is proccing, Xerath is proccing, but both of these champs have much easier target access, so their game is that they have to work to make it a truly meaningful interaction. Morgana has far worse target access, so her game is dodging and weathering until she can capitalize on a mistake. Forcing her to interact to get her passive benefits is putting too heavy a yoke on her neck.

Her kit is NOT simple, for that reason. Her Q is situational, either very strong, or unusable. It also has a large cooldown appropriate to what it does - it's not quite as dangerous as a hook for catching you out of position, but it IS a long root, so it's treated like it should be, re; cd's. If she misses her hook, you have a large window within which you can harass her, or freely push lane or attack turret.

Her W has a slow power curve, and is a good way to waste mana if you're not using it on low health champs. A few seconds in her W doesn't mean much otherwise, it has little early waveclear potential. But it has a relatively nuanced application - free damage is free damage, and no-one wants to give that away. It can convince enemies to come out from behind wave, something they otherwise have no reason to do, allowing her to actually interact with her opponent. This means that it's a good reward for a high-damage play, or an aggression tool, but not both and lacking in broader utility to keep it balanced. And using it as an aggression tool and then missing your Q means that you've burned large amounts of mana, got 2/3 to 1/2 of your CD's going, and are getting no passive sustain from your play whilst being open to interaction. If you DO land your Q, you don't have the option to stack more damage and you've just performed a high-cost maneuver all the same. That her E offers her a small amount of mitigation and escape is necessary - because again, other champs without escape have better target access.

And her E. It's got a LONG cooldown. It protects against CC, yes, but only one kind of damage - ranged AD has an easy time with her. High burst AP still hits her. It's got a good mix of strengths and weaknesses that make it interesting, able to be played around, whilst remaining viable.

The only thing I partially agree on is her ult. And that's about it being a fairly empty threat outside of lane, because of her ability to be burst. And even then I have issues, because part-way, THAT'S the point. That's the risk-reward, that you need to get into interaction range with her opponent. And that's the game, making your opponent commit to trying to finish you, and THEN using your Zhonias, to prevent them just leaving. It's a good and fair ult save for the fact that she has to risk herself and then rarely has a way out because of the situation she put herself into, going into it. Well, that, and it makes a zhonias a near mandatory first item, regardless of lane, which hurts her carry and her (most folks want a little mana upfront, you know?).

This is why Riot is talking mainly about her R. It's the broken piece of the puzzle. The rest of her kit is functional, reliable, fair and has deeper mechanical interaction than you're giving credit for. The fact that it LOOKS simple and is easy to understand for even new players is a testimony to it being well-designed, not vise versa.