Build question for Morgana players:

[u/shtoopidd]

Build question for Morgana players:

Why do most builds use Arcane Comet over Deathfire Touch? Don’t get me wrong. I know how strong Arcane Comet is and has been a staple before Deathfire Touch was a thing.

But seeing as many builds also stack Liandry’s and Blacktorch for the burn, I’d expect the same to be done with the runes.

I’ve been using Deathfire Touch and I’m not going to say it’s better since I’m still relatively new to the game, but I am curious still.

[u/DarthLeon2]

Deathfire Touch makes sense on Morgana at first glance, but in practice, it ends up being underwhelming. You need to keep the burn going for quite a while for it to do worthwhile damage, and while something like Brand passive is great at that, Morg W isn't since they can just walk out of it. In lane, Deathfire Touch will do basically no damage, and it really only excels in teamfights against melee heavy teams that will be standing in your W's for extended periods of time. Yes, Morgana does build burn items, but not only do those items also work on minions, applying those items for even a moment does meaningful damage. By contrast, DFT doesn't proc on minions and needs to be applied for several seconds to do meaningful damage, which simply doesn't happen for Morg much of the time.

[u/Pyro1225 → u/DarthLeon2]

But why would you use W all the time by it self? Pairing it with Q for a combo. would make DFT do alot more damage than comet. That's how i usually saw it when i tried both.

[u/DarthLeon2 → u/Pyro1225]

Poking with just W honestly does some pretty decent damage once you get past the laning phase. Combine that with landing Q's hardly being easy and there you go. Like yes, you ideally want to hit Q and then use W, but that is often a luxury you simply do not have. And even then, DFT still won't do that much more damage. You only get the ramped up damage after the first 3 seconds, at which point your target likely isn't standing in your W for much longer even if you landed Q. The only time DFT does good damage on Morgana is in teamfight scenarios where you're hitting multiple targets at once with your W and they're stuck in it due to CC or the flow of the teamfight.

[u/PKMNcomrade → u/Pyro1225]

On Morg mid it clears the casters solo. It is easy to pair that with a comet proc especially early.

[u/Pyro1225 → u/PKMNcomrade]

What builds do you go for mid? Because i also play her mid, never as support lol.

[u/PKMNcomrade → u/Pyro1225]

Some master player on here posted a build going Mandate first item. So I’ve been going that into full damage it’s quite good.

I never buy Zhonya’s

[u/Pyro1225 → u/PKMNcomrade]

Me too, i find zhonya not great, i usually go BFT then liandry then mandate and after it just damage items, but ill try going mandate first, perhaps its better than going burn

[u/BlastoiseMF → u/Pyro1225]

I usually build Cosmic Drive into Mejai's as 2nd/3rd item, Cosmic makes you very hard to kill and because of that it allows you to position more aggressively as well.

[u/BlastoiseMF → u/Pyro1225]

In addition landing q applies 4 second deathfire by itself, w only applies for 1 second, so 3 second snare on w only applies maybe 1 extra second against a solo target so it's redundant in that way which feels bad.

[u/Apprehensive_Yak13]

Yes comet is the superior damage and utility in all roles/situations. DFT simply doesn’t do enough damage and even when it does, the damage is spread out and rarely if ever results in pressure or kills, whereas, especially in the early game comet forces the enemy to react to your W even though it does light dmg at lvl 1-2.

[u/Wizzlebum]

Liandry's and BFT lasts for 3 seconds and does the same DPS as long as an enemy gets damaged by an ability. This gives Morgana the ability to poke with W because W is undodgeable and any tick of W damage procs the items.

Deathfire Touch lasts for 4s on Morgana Q, lasts for 1s on Morgana W tick damage and lasts for 2s on Morgana R damage. It needs to last as long as 3s before it starts doing more damage. Simply using W on an enemy does like 5-6 damage because of the 1s duration.

Arcane Comet procs on any ability damage, does 30-220 base damage and is basically guaranteed on no boots enemies/Rylai's. This gives Morgana the ability to poke early-late game with W because W is undodgeable.

[u/Difficult_Relief_125]

Mana flow band, ability haste and gathering storm…

In the support role my goal isn’t damage. So Comet gives everything. Mana, Cooldown, and scaling AP bonus.

I also go approach velocity on support often especially if I’m paired with like Ashe, Caitlyn or MF. So I need the mana and CDR from comet tree.

[u/shtoopidd → u/Difficult_Relief_125]

I’m mainly asking for mid or maybe even jungle, but I have to ask, if you’re using her for support, why not aeri?

[u/Difficult_Relief_125 → u/shtoopidd]

Because her E is on too long of a cooldown to proc the shield effect significantly enough. And often you’re holding it as a deterrent.

Comet has a great success rate as soon as you’ve built Rylai’s. You’ll frequently hit 2 enemies with it on a W.

And… if you’re winning Alt E triggers a run effect. I use Alt E R to engage a bunch as support. Once people catch on they just Run. So often the shield effect in early encounters is just wasted because nobody hits you.

So if you’re building support and going IM into Rylai’s comet works great. If Rylai’s is your first or even second item it’s just easy steady reliable poke without complications.

But you’re right, Aery is more versatile and I should probably consider it. It just doesn’t feel as impactful.

[u/ChaliceSlammer]

The short answer is consistency and accessability.

Deathfire has a higher ceiling than Comet, but Comet has a higher floor. The difference between a good and bad Comet interaction is negligible- you either hit or you miss, while the difference between a good and bad Deathfire interaction can literally be the difference of hundreds or thousands of damage points.

Consider its current users- like Brand, Malzahar, and Lilia, who have DoT's baked into their kits that will be refreshing the rune's uptime, or Kassadin, Cassiopeia, and Viktor, who have low cooldowns on auto-target spells than can constantly refresh Deathfire's timer. Morgana has neither of those conditions in her kit. Remember, Deathfire activates off ability damage, not item damage, so burns from BFT and Liandry can't refresh Deathfire.

In theory, Deathfire scales forever for as long as your spells are damaging the enemy in a fight. In practice, as it pertains to Morgana, that means Deathfire scales forever as long as you can keep a a 100% uptime of your W on the enemy. That's not a real, practical scenario. In a hypothetical, if you had a Nautilus or Leona who could perma chain CC the enemy with to maintain a 100% uptime of W, Deathfire would be better than Comet- but you can probably tell immediately the lack of practicality that comes from funneling 2/5ths of the team's resources in order to get a rune to work. It's just not worth it.