Guide To Morphling

Dota 2 coming out and can't wait to see the new Morphling in action. Not my picture just taken off Official DotA Website fan art.

I have been a Dota player for just over 2 years and over that time span I have played many games ranging from public games to in house games. Whenever I wanted to play a reliable hero I usually chose Morphling and on Playdota.com the guides on Morphling were not really what I look for in a guide so I decided to make my own and hopefully get some feedback from the people here on Playdota.com. Remember this is from my own experience and this isn’t the only way to play Morphling

Hero Introduction

The Morphling is a dynamic hero, capable of giving or taking massive amounts of damage, at the will of the player. His Waveform allows him to escape or initiate fights with ease, while his Adaptive Strike gives him a versatile, powerful nuke or stun. His Replicate allows him to make a copy of a hero, and to take the place of the copy in an instant. Morphling's greatest strength, however, is his ability to transfer his agility points to strength, and vice-versa, allowing him to take on the role of tank or damagedealer at a moment's notice. The Morphling is a dangerously mobile enemy, who must be treated with caution before he takes you by surprise!

Table of Contents

I: Pro’s + Con’s
II: Hero Information
III: Skill Build
IV: Item Justification
V: Laning Phase
VI: Allies and Enemies
VII: Replays
VIII: Closing Statement

Pros:
- Reliable Nuke and Pseudo Blink
- A skill that can heal him almost instantly
- Nuke that can pushback/stun an enemy
- Ultimate that lets you have global map control and also used for mind games
- Unlike most agility carries has some sort early game ganking potential




Cons:
- Requires quite a bit of farm to carry late game.
- Low Range
- Low Movement Speed
- Doesn’t really have a good lane presence
- Low Damage until late game
- Limited Mana Pool so must use spells in a sparingly and logical way.










II: Hero Information
Affiliation: Sentinel
Attack Animation: 0.5 / 0.5
Damage: 38 - 47
Casting Animation: 0.3 / 0.51
Armor: 2.7
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Movespeed: 285
Missile Speed: 1300
Attack Range: 350
Sight Range: 1800 / 800

·
·
·
· Strength
19 + 2
·
Agility
19 + 3
·
Intelligence
17 + 1.5
Now looking at his stats everything seems to be pretty average except little things. The only thing I find a turnoff is his slow starting movement speed and his attack range. Now his attack range is quite low compared to the other ranged heroes in the game that’s why it’s crucial to last hit as much as you can. Also looking at his stats his Strength is decent, Agility quite average for an agility hero and his intelligence is quite low but we solve that problem with a bottle.

III: Skill Build

Waveform: A nuke that does 100/175/250/325 damage, costs 140/155/160/165 mana, has an 225 area of effect, 11 second cooldown and 1000 casting range. Fairly simple nuke that does nice damage and is also considered a pseudo blink. Mainly used for initiating or escaping

Adaptive Strike: Another nuke that does 0.25%-0.75/1.5/2.25/3 of your Agility as damage. It has a 100 mana cost, 20 second cool down and a 600/700/800/900 casting range. The damage is magical now and if your Agility is higher then your Strength then it will deal more damage and less stun time. If your Strength is higher then your Agility the stun duration is longer and the damage is less. It also knocks back your target back 100-300 units.

Morph: A skill that costs 20 mana per second and increases your Agility/Strength 2 points every 1/0.5/0.33/0.25 seconds. This is pretty much used when you either want more damage or when your getting ganked just auto cast it into Strength and chances are is that you will live that gank. If you auto cast this skill and you get disabled you still get your attribute bonus.

Replicate: A skill that makes a copy of another hero. It costs 25/25/30 mana, the cooldown is 80 seconds, the casting range is 700/1100/1500 and the duration is 30/45/60 seconds. The illusion takes 100% damage and deals 50% damage. When you use this skill you automatically get another skill that lets you instantly take the position of your Replicate. Ever since 6.69 came out Morphling cannot use Replicate on his own illusions which really sucks but what you really want to look is pretty much a tanky hero to copy because Replicate illusions are quite tanked.

Morph Replicate: You gain this skill when you use Replicate. When you click this skill you instantly go to the position where your Replicate is at the moment you use this skill. When you use this skill your illusion disappears.

Regular Morphling Build

Level 1: Waveform
Level 2: Stats
Level 3: Wave Form
Level 4: Stats
Level 5: Waveform
Level 6: Stats/Replicate
Level 7: Waveform (Maxed)
Level 8: Adaptive Strike
Level 9: Adaptive Strike
Level 10: Adaptive/Replicate
Level 11: Replicate
Level 12: Adaptive Strike
Level 13: Adaptive Strike
Level 14: Adaptive Strike/Morph
Level 15: Morph
Level 16: Replicate
Level 17: Morph
Level 18: Morph
Level 19: Morph/Stats
Level 20 – 25: Stats

This is pretty a regular build for Morphling. Waveform is for an escaping tool and for a nuke that shouldn’t be spammed because of your already low mana pool. Stats are taken because you don’t really need Morph because you can just use Waveform away from ganks and Adaptive isn’t really good until mid – late game where you have lots of agility. At level 6 you can either get your Replicate if you feel like your Waveform isn’t enough to escape from ganks or Stats if you feel like you need the extra hp/mp. There is a question frequently asked by Morph players whether or not if you should grab just 1 point into Morph or max it. Personally I max Morph because I find that level 1 Morph is quite slow and if I need a burst heal I cannot rely on just 1 level of Morph.




IV: Item Justification

Starting Items:

Gold: 596

Explanation: This is quite a balanced build for Morphling. Gives nice stats to last hit and some Tangoes and Salves that are for when you get hurt and need the regeneration.











Core:

Gold: 2,579
Explanation: The bottle is to rune whore because Morph’s nuke and Ultimate cost quite a bit of mana. Boots is self-explanatory. Magic Wand is there because of the burst heal and the Wraiths are there for the needed damage. I have been trying and experimenting with getting Wraiths on Morph and indeed they are good because of the recent damage buff on them and for the mere 25 extra gold cost. You can also Morph the stats into agility so thats also a plus.

Extension:



Explanation: Getting any of these items or any combination of items means that it will be very tough to kill you. I usually just go Manta, Satanic and then Skadi and then Morph everything into Agility and that’s usually when the game is over. Linkens is also there because of the stats and the invaluable Spell Block because the chances of when you Waveform into your enemies they will try to disable you so Linkens can’t make sure you won’t instantly get stunned and gives you more time to wreck havoc on the enemies team. Butterfly is quite risky because you won’t get any hp/mp from them except large amounts of damage but nonetheless if you can kill them before they can kill you who am I to object?

Special Mention:



Explanation: I have never really used to think much of Ethereal Blade but now since Adaptive Strike damage has been changed from Physical to Magical I now ponder then fact of actually making this item right after my core. If you actually get enough Agility you can instantly kill squishy intelligence heroes and frail agility heroes. You can get this item right after core but it makes you a pure glass cannon. The only draw back I really find about this item is chances are you will be targeting the intelligence hero who will likely be behind his teammates. As soon as you Waveform in and try to pull off your combo you might get nuked/stunned to death. I will usually get this after I get another item like Skadi or Linkens but it's purely your choice.








Situational:

Explanation: Heart is for insane pushing because whenever your out of your enemies sight you heal 2% of your max hp which is godly. Black King Bar is for when your getting disabled and Linkens won’t really help you much. Mjollnir gives nice attack speed and damage; I have never tried it before so I don’t really know about it. The static charge can help when people are focusing you. Diffusal I personally don’t like because I prefer Skadi because of the superior stats and slow. Plus the mana burn doesn’t work with Morph’s images so your pretty much just paying for 22 Agility and to be able to purge get it if you want, but Skadi is much better in my opinion.
















Rejected:



Explanation: Sange and Yasha in my opinion is one of the worst items in the game because of the sheer cost of the item and the ok stats and orb effect you get for it. Skadi is only just a bit more and it gives you a lot more survivablity and a 100% slow. The hp you can turn into Agility but I just don’t see Sange and Yasha to be a reliable way to kill another hero. Damage per Second items like Buriza and Monkey King Bar are great for every Agility carry except for Morphling. Morph is more of an carry that needs damage from stats. Some examples are Skadi and Manta. They give nice damage Agility and other stats that you can turn into Agility. Mask of Madness I find bad because you will probably get it early game where your quite squishy so as soon as you Waveform in the battle and activate Mask of Madness if they decide to fight back your in trouble. I usually stick to Helm of the Dominator if I want lifesteal.






What type of Boots should you get:



Boots of Travel: This is my main choice because of the fact that you pretty much get global map control with this item. It’s usually used as pushing oriented because Morph just solo pushes and whenever the other team comes to gank you, you can just Waveform into the trees and wait until they leave and just go back to that lane and go back to pushing.

Power Treads: These are for when you need the extra hp/mp or damage to last hit. Less expensive and quite useful but I find that Boots of Travels is the best out of all the boots.

Phase Boots: The damage is nice but that’s all it gives. You don’t need the phase ability because you’ll mainly be Waveforming through the creeps anyways.

Arcane Boots: I personally never tried this item on Morphling but I can already tell the mana boost is a waste because I rather have damage/map control then be able to Waveform a couple of extra times.





V: Laning Phase

Early Game: Usually I ask for a solo because getting a 2 level advantage over your opponents is crucial because Waveform hurts a lot early game. You can either choose to solo middle or bottom. What you really want to do is get as many last hits and denies as you can because that way you can get your early game bottle and boots and go ahead and start ganking with your allies. If you do not get a solo lane then you must have to get lots of last hits and denies. Usually if you are forced to be in a dual lane try to lane with someone who does not need the farm. For example Vengeful Spirit has a nice stun that does decent damage, a nuke that reduces armor and an aura that gives you 36% more damage.




Mid Game: This is usually the time where everyone is constantly ganking. By this time I assume that you have your Bottle, Boots of Travels, Poor man Shields and Magic Stick so you should be able to kill most Intelligence or Agility heroes. This is where Morphling shouldn’t die because of the fact that he is going to need to carry late game and you need to make sure you get as much gold and lose as least gold as you can. Usually Morphling needs a ally to have a successful gank because as soon as you use your Waveform you need something to keep them in place so that you can constantly hit on them until your Waveform is back and you can take the kill.

Late Game: By now you should be pushing like mad. You solo push while your teammates push the other lanes. Whenever the enemy team goes for you just hide in the trees until they defend the other lanes, that’s when you come back out and continue to push. If your team ever needs you just teleport back to where they need you and stop that push. By the time you finish that push your Boots of Travels cooldown is over and you can again continue to solo push. By now you should and be able to spam Waveform. All if you have to do it just Waveform creeps because it takes all the melee creeps to red and the mage creep to red hp, also by now you should be able to take most heroes 1v1 so it's safe to use Waveform on creeps.

VI: Allies and Enemies:

Allies:


Babysitters: If you don’t get solo these people can make your life so much easier because with the exception of Necrolyte they don’t usually need the farm and have a heal so whenever you Waveform into your enemies, they are right behind you ready to heal you. Every single one of these baby sitters also have another skill that could prove useful for you as well. Examples are Dazzle: Poison Touch Omniknight: Repel and etc...


Aura Based Heroes: These people give you auras and this build focuses on getting Agility items more then raw damage items. So more stat damage equals more damage gained from their auras.

Enemies:


Blinkers/Pseudo Blinkers: These guys are quite annoying because as soon as you Waveform in and get ready to rape them they can just use their escaping skill and then you have to wait 11 seconds and A LOT can happen in 11 seconds. With the exception of Anti-Mage and Faceless Void these heroes are gankers so they might mess up your early game which will mess up your mid and late game.


Heavy Nukers: These people can instantly kill you in early game. Your only hope is that you can Waveform away before they can kill you. Late game these people are just food for you except it might be hard to kill Queen of Pain because of her 6 second 1200 range blink skill.


Obsidian Destroyer: He gets a special mention because when ever he is about to die he can just astral you and just walk away. But if you decide to fight him get ready to eat 100+ arcane orbs in the face and his ultimate can instantly take out your manta illusions and half your hp.


Doom Bringer: He can almost make you lose 50% of extra damage because you cannot use Manta, Replicate or even Morph so that means you can’t run from him and you can’t take him because likely he is using his Scorched Earth skill so you have little hope except probably get a Linkens or jump him when his ultimate is on cooldown