[Morphling] Nothing ethereal here (morph)

[flieskiller]

nothing ethereal here



alt-tab mini guide

stats.jpg

increase stats (or morph if you like it) and get adaptive strike level 4 and 1 level of morph before you get radiance

starting:

core:
extension:

luxury:

foreword:

It is my first guide about a very cool hero. There is a lot of morphling guides, but for the strength side isn't anywhere. My idea came of doing this guide is coming from thread: http://www.playdota.com/forums/40805...role-core-etc/. No ethereal will be used. This strat works very well in pub, maybe in competitive. Descriptions of spells, builds and gameplay will be on the strength side

basic information:

Morphling is considered a top-tier hero, banned and picked in a lots of game. His farming capacities can make him unstoppable late game. he can escapes ganks pretty easily. After the 6.71 nerfs to adaptive strike and ethereal blade, the build I will show is less shadowed from the shotgun morph.

• stats
• advanced

19+2

19+3

17+1.5

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

pros:

• have 2 escape mechanisms
• above average stats gains
• nice pushing and carry capacities
• can change from dps to tank or vice-versa in less than 20 seconds
• High damage aoe nuke, and 1 long stun or high damage nuke

cons:

• low intelligence and intelligence gain
• item dependant
• He can die easily if chain-disabled


When to make a str morph:

• When the enemy team don't have a lot of physical damage and a lot of magical damage.
• your team need a tank/initiator
• When you want to trick the enemies by making a tank morph instead of an agi morph (they will adjust their lineups for the agi morph [in -cm mode])
• If you don't like to make ethereal blade

When no NOT make a str morph (fortunately, you can change to agi morph easily)

• When they have a armor reduction team (something like vengeful, tide, slardar and dazzle)
• when they have tank eater (N'aix, Necrolyte, Huskar...)
• When you need the nukes and dps and you already have a tank/initiator

skills:



usage:
Morphling's main spell. Used for ganking, for escaping ganks, to farm, all that with a high damage, low cooldown and high casting range. the only downside is the high manacost.



usage:
morphling's lategame spell. By using the strength side of Morph, it is now a mid-game spell knockback stun instead of a high damage late-game spell. Spell that need the most aim from the player because of the knockback (str side). Utilities and how to use it properly later in the guide. Adaptive strike have a high cooldown, it should be used wisely.



usage:
Morphling's role designer skill. Any good Morph, during a chase, will put all their strength to survive. If this skill is level 4, he will gain 152 hp per second. It's pretty high. With this skill, he can become from a unkillable tank to a monster dps glass cannon.



usage:
Morphling's most annoying spell. It gives the same mobility as furion (hmm maybe almost) and a 100% damage receive amplification (that's no received extra damage). Use it like any other Morphling, nothing else to say. Will explain it a little in the gameplay section.

build:

1. waveform
2. adaptive strike
3. waveform
4. morph/stats
5. waveform
6. replicate
7. waveform

This is the basic. After level 7, you can get anything you prefer. The most important is to get at least level 4 adaptive strike and 1 level of morph before getting your radiance (main item). Max morph you will get some lifesteal (check item builds section) and some mana regen.

item builds:

starter:
chicken branch salve salve tangos clarity

or

observer branch salve salve tangos clarity

reasons: You don't need circlet or +3 items, all you need is to survive and farm 3800 gold. You can get some support items to help your team. You get a lot of salves and clarities to stay the longest possible in the lane and farm.


core:



10 050 gold

It is the basic core for str morph. Radiance is the first item you farm. After it, you can choose between these two items to get first. I suggest to get boots of speed (if you decided to get after radiance), and go for blademail then boots of travel

reasons:
• Radiance is good on any tanks. Some heroes like centaur or bristleback are a pain to fight against when they have a radiance. You are a ranged tank with 1 pseudo-blink and a 3 seconds stun, and a better mobility overall.
• Blademail is taken for the same reasons as windrunner: great stats and an annoying active. It gives everything you need, intelligence for spamming the spells, raw damage and armor. I also noticed that the spikes are very small, so it's harder for the ennemies to notice that you activated this item.
• Boots of travel is mainly for chasing, and the global teleport. You won't have problem to farm this with waveform and radiance

after-core:

After these 3 items, you are pretty free to take anything you want.

list of possible items. you can skip this part and go to the possible combinations here (anchor needed)


This item is awesome. If you don't rely on your blademail to return physical damage, it gives everything you need. Lots of armor, attack speed, pushing power (- armor reduction on tower) and more magnet from enemy heroes. The cheap parts give armor (15 armor with 1950 gold) is very good.


Nice item. With that, you can push faster, initiate with less problems (with the static charge), you have very good attack speed and nice damage. You feel more powerful by sending lightnings everywhere. Your only problem is the physical damages, and with the static charge they will be punished to attack you. If the ennemies ignore your static charge, they will be hurt a lot.

This item is purchased for it's synergy with radiance and the survivability it gives. For juking, these meat shield can block them and you can tp safely to another lane/fountain. During a fight, send the illusions away (they will poke for 30 dmg) and the fleeing enemies will still get burned. Very useful before a fight by sending them to disable daggers (how they will be able to kill them without hex?)


The only other viable orb effect. Risky, but may be rewarding. use the active before a fight, 4 seconds before it wears off, wave in and active blademail. Everybody will receive more damage from the amplified side effect. It can also be used to chase, and the increased attack speed is never bad. After a fight, if you hp is low and you morph skill is high (3 or 4 to not lose too much mana), you can all morph to agi and farm neutrals to full your hp, then morph all into strength again, and be ready for another fight without returning to fountain.


Kinda nice item. If you don't rely on your blademail (evasion ruins it a little), it gives nice damage and attack speed.

or :
You should get these items for 2 reasons: you need the disable/silence or you like to use mask of madness; you should really get some high mana regen. Reason: after a fight, (lvl 4 morph is recommended) transfer all strength into agility, go in jungle and full your hp, then remorph into strength and you are ready for another fight without returning to fountain. If you don't know which one to take, just think that: If you want to do more damage, get orchid. Else, you get guinsoo.


This item have a lower price and guinsoo and orchid, and you get very nice armor and intelligence, enough for spamming. The active is very good in fights and and passive gives you another reason to get attacked. The only downside is you get 0 damage to your attacks.

cheap items

you might need these items if you want a more powerful midgame with a non-carry push team that have a non-powerful lategame.



That cheap item can be purchased if you have a bad game in general. The attributes and damages are good, but you only really benefit from the aura, so let somebody else get it.


If you want to do a -armor morph with assault cuirass and medallion, you go more for the support side, helping another carry by reducing the armor of the enemies. You will be sure to help your ally to the very end of the fight with these armor reductions.


Yasha is easy to build, give nice stats and movespeed, which you really need. You can get other items or upgrade it into a manta style.

optional items:


The only reason to buy that is the % regen. The 1060 hp is not really much and some other items may be better with the money spent. If you really want to try out, don't forget that you will have a "hole" of money until you get that regen. If you don't understand, it's like expanding in an RTS: you will have less money than the enemy, but after some time you will earn from that spent money.

or
If you don't want to farm more than 5000 gold, you can always get one of those items. For their bonus to mana/other bonuses, they are the best. Soul ring, you have "infinite mana" and with your very high hp, it will be a minor hp lose. With oblivion staff, it gives nice damage and attack speed with the mana/mana regen and you can upgrade it later into a oblivion staff, if you need it.


You are a ranged tank with 2 escape mechanisms, you can get it! You must get 2 things: armor and attack speed. Maybe a platemail and a hyperstone would be the best. If you want a divine rapier on a str morph, good luck!
You should not get manta style if you go for that item (yasha is fine, illusions don't get raw damages)

early game

your early game is nothing special. Lasthit, farm, harass, try to kill in your lane. Your mid game will really start when you will have your radiance. Here's a tip for the early game:

Don't fight too much, focus on farming. Be sure you get the kill if there is a fight in your lane. You can easily live with waveform, don't get trapped.

Mid game

This is the part when you have radiance and boots of speed. You have 2 choices now: farming/pushing or ganking. You can now put your autocast on +str morph to be sure not forgetting to morph when you level up.

Farming: You get boots of travel first, then blademail. You will go often in the jungle, creep stack and push when your allies are fighting. You will wait for at least 1 item after your core before fighting. Don't forget to use replicate to escape ganks. You can send this illusion in your jungle while pushing a lane, so you can have a very fast way to continue farming.

ganking: before ganking, you will need at least 1 chainmail, and the best would be chainmail, because the auto-attacks can be a pain without bonus armor. After getting chain/blademail, the ganking now begins. Your job is to initiate, tank magical spells and survive from physical damage enough for chasing fleeing opponents with radiance. You should get a cheap item and boots of travel.

late game

Compared to the mid game, you have increased your power, but not that lot. If you have the right end-game items, your initiation is unstoppable with your high armor and hp and you will not be able to be killed if you solo push with your replicate and waveform. Focus the supports and let the hard-to-kill carry to your allies.

during a fight

Your goal is to:

• tank magical damage, but not physical
• survive to chase the fleeing enemies
• stun the most dangerous enemy (carry, imba stunner)
• make the more damage possible with radiance

How to fight:

1. replicate an ally(this can be done later to an enemy) and send the illusion to another lane, so if the fight goes bad, you can continue to push without being gankable for enough time.

2. waveform in, active blademail and adaptive strike an enemy to push it closer of your allies or farther of the fight. Hope you will get a lot of magical spells, it is you shine moment with blademail.

3. after the blademail, continue to poke your enemies and burn them (even if you're made of water) with radiance.

4. Like centaur, first to enter, last to exit the fight. Your radiance will do most of your damage and try to defend your allies.

5. After the fight, use boots of travel in another lane and push alone while your team push the same lane the fight happened.

If you only have radiance and low attack speed, just hit, walk, hit...

Good allies

special mention It might be good to take him if you play -cm mode


His wards heals a insane amount of hp (if you have 2500 hp and the ward is lvl 4, you will be healed of 125 hp per second. Even if the ward stays for 5 second, it's 2 nukes removed). During a fight, with your knockback and stun you can isolate an enemy and jugg omnislash him alone. He makes the fight longer, increasing your power.

armor increaser


These heroes help you a lot. They almost remove your armor problem, so you can focus on more dps and less tank items, increasing a lot your efectiveness.

MS/AS buffer


For chasing, the MS buff will let you stay next to them and hurting with radiance. The AS buff will make you more a threat, if there is no other allies to receive it/die too easily.

For other synergies:

a long slow than a short stun
a weak damage aoe with slow than strong damage single target nukes with stun
longer fights with heals and chases than a short fight that everybody die.
a pushing/early defense team than a ganking/late game team

bad guys

anti-tank


these heroes, from their spells, can reduce your hp with a percentage. They are also hard to dodge during a fight. They are nasty and must be focused during fights.

armor reducer

these heroes can reduce your armor a lot, and it makes your puny armor nothing. Make sure you have enough armor to counter these.

special mentions go agi morph if there is one of them:



You must not make a str morph if there is a Slardar in the enemy team. All his damages are physical, with his sprint he is hard to chases and his amplify damage reduces your armor a lot.



His mid and late-game physical damage output is very high with his illusions and his lower base attack time. His ultimate will remove all your tankiness. Even if you have radiance to kill his you will die before doing any signifiant damages to them.

[DocMcBrown]

This definitely needs more bacon.

[wapakerz]

I think you need to put some mathcraft to show that the strength build is viable.

Naix would be very happy with that though.