- Tittle: Public Guide to Morphling
- Author: BTInTiMiDaTe
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.
Skills
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.
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.
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.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com