This guide is not really ready for criticism yet (it's not finished), so keep that in mind.
Non-competitive guide to Morphling
Table of contents
1. Introduction
This is a guide to Morphling that's meant for players who play in informal games, such as public games. If you play in competitive games, there probably isn't much you can learn from this guide, and you'll probably be annoyed by all the "obvious" things that I say.
That said, this guide will touch briefly on competitive play, because even if you play only public games, you should know how to play effectively on an organized team so you can take advantage of those rare times when your teammates are cooperative, or when you are playing with friends.
You'll also notice that unlike most other guides, this one has the "Gameplay" section before the skill and item builds. That's because it's more important to play intelligently than to choose the perfect skill and item builds. If you all you want to read about is the skill and item builds, then just skip ahead to those sections.
Throughout the guide, less important remarks will be written in green. If you're short on time, you can skip these.
2. About Morphling
Morph is an agility hero with good power in the late game and high survivability. He is unique among heroes in being able to adjust his Strength and Agility as needed, which opens up many strategic possibilities. Let's look at Morph's stats:
Waveform
Waveform is like blink and an area nuke rolled into one. When you use it, you click at the spot you want to move towards, and Morphling will turn into a massive wave of water that moves from your location to the target point and deals damage. When the wave arrives, Morphling will be standing at the point you targeted. The spell has an 11 second cooldown, costs 140/155/160/165 mana, and deals 100/175/250/325 magical damage.
Waveform has a cast range of 1000. While you are in waveform, you are invulnerable, but you can still take actions, including casting spells and using items. You can also "steer" the wave slightly by repeatedly right-clicking to the left or right of the target point during the wave, but it really has very little effect.
Adaptive Strike
Adaptive Strike stuns, knocks back, and damages a single target. Everything effect of this spell depends upon the amount of Strength and Agility you have. If your Agility is higher than your strength you will deal high damage but stun for a short duration and knock the target back a long distance. If your Strength is higher than your Agility the damage will be low, but the stun and knockback distance will be long.
Knockback ranges from 100 to 300 units at all levels. The stun ranges from 0.25 to 0.75/1.5/2.25/3.0 seconds, and the physical damage ranges from 0.25 to 0.75/1.5/2.25/3.0 TIMES your current Agility. At all levels, the cooldown is 20 seconds (longer than a typical nuke) and the mana cost is 100.
Adaptive Strike can push enemies over cliffs and through other units. If there are trees in the way, they are knocked down.
In case you are wondering how Adaptive Strike works in detail, here's how. We'll look at how the stun duration is calculated; the calculation for the damage multiplier is exactly the same but with Strength and Agility reversed. Let S be your strength and A be your agility; then let T = S + A. The stun duration is the maximum when S / T = 0.6 (in other words, 3/5 of your stats are in Strength). Increasing S / T further has no effect on the duration. When S / T = 0.33 (in other words, 1/3 of your stats are in Strength), the stun duration is the minimum, and decreasing S / T further has no effect. I'm not sure why Icefrog decided to make it asymmetrical in this way, but it is.
Morph
When you learn the first level of Morph, you get two new buttons: "Agility Morph" (blue) and "Strength Morph" (green). If you set Agility Morph to autocast, each second you will lose 2/4/6/8 Strength but gain 2/4/6/8 Agility. This drains 20 mana, and if you don't have the mana your attributes will be changed. The white numbers change, not the green ones, and your base (white) Strength can never go below zero. Strength Morph works in the opposite direction. Importantly, these abilities function even while you are disabled, and can be activated or deactivated while you are disabled.
For more precise adjustment, you can left-click the icon instead of autocasting. This adjusts your stats by one tick.
The Morph abilities are among the most irritatingly inconsistent in the game. For example, the Strength Morph cooldown is slightly different from the Agility Morph cooldown (it's shorter), at least at some levels. Also, if you autocast Agility Morph, and then left-click Strength Morph, the Strength Morph will function, costing mana and increasing Str and decreasing Agi, but if you autocast Strength Morph and then left-click Agility Morph, absolutely nothing will happen. None of this matters if you just autocast the abilities like a normal person.
Replicate
This skill creates an image of the target, which can be any hero except yourself. The image does 50% damage (but see below) and receives 100% damage. The image lasts 30/45/60 seconds. Once you cast Replicate, you instead gain the "Morph Replicate" ability, which causes the image to disappear and you to take its place. If you die, the image immediately disappears. Cooldown is 80 seconds, and the casting range is 700/1100/1500. The mana cost is 25/25/35 for Replicate and 150 for Morph Replicate.
Note: Although the image takes 100% damage and therefore "feels" like a real hero, it still is subject to the same problems as other illusions, including:
Note 2: Although you cannot Replicate yourself, you CAN Replicate your images. We will get Manta Style for exactly this purpose.
And that is it for the general introduction to Morphling.
3. Gameplay
3.1 Overview
Morphling has some strengths in the early game, unlike most carry-type Agility heroes. He has a powerful nuke that does good damage in a large area, so he can contribute early in the lane, in skirmishes, and in ganks. However, your main job in the early game is to farm so that you can get the items you need before your team loses. Once you have bought your Boots of Travel, you can start to farm multiple lanes. At this point in the game (we'll call it the midgame) you are very weak in fights; your nuke is beginning to lose effectiveness, and you have invested a good deal of money in your boots rather than in combat items. You should probably stay out of harm's way as much as possible. When you get Manta Style, the Late Game begins. You are now equal in power to other heroes, and as you continue to farm you will only grow stronger.
3.2 More about the Early Game
Morph can take a dual lane or a solo lane, but I highly recommend a dual lane.
A dual lane means you will be less likely to be harassed and more likely to be able to control your lane. Morphling should always lane with a hero with good lane-control (that is, one who can force the enemies to remain at a distance to avoid being killed). There are three reasons for this. First, you need to get relatively close to the creeps in order to farm, so you will need your enemies to be at a greater distance from the creeps compared to other ranged heroes. Second, if the other hero cannot help control the lane, you will not be able to stop the enemies from farming (and even worse, denying). Finally, a good lane-controller means that you can get early kills thanks to Waveform. Take the bottom lane if you are Sentinel, or top if Scourge, because this gives you more escape routes in case you get ganked.
In a competitive game, you will be laned with a support hero. Try to get an aggressive supporter (Venge) rather than a passive supporter (Warlock).
If you are lucky enough to have two allied stunners with one in your lane (for example, Vengeful Spirit and Earthshaker), you can call for a first-blood gank. You can easily account for 50% of an enemy hero's health because Waveform will place you right next to your stunned enemy, allowing you to get many hits. In a non-organized game, you should only do this if you think your allies have a clue -- check their item builds.
If you choose a solo lane or have it thrust upon you, I suggest soloing the bottom if sentinel or top if scourge. Soloing mid is difficult because of your short range and low damage. Typical opponents in mid will have longer range, higher damage, and at least equal burst damage capability. Soloing is also risky because you might face a dual lane with the ability to kill you early (for example, a dual stun lane). This will force you to stay back and prevent you from farming, so you will be weak late-game.
3.2.1 Last-hit and deny
Every hero must last-hit to some extent, and Morphling is no exception. You need to take as much of the farm as possible. I don't care if your ally complains.
This paragraph is in red because it is important. If you don't last-hit the creeps, you are not playing well. It doesn't matter how pro you are or think you are -- if you're not last-hitting with Morphling, you are playing badly. Start last-hitting right away.
If your lane ally is a support hero, especially a ranged supporter such as Vengeful Spirit or Crystal Maiden, encourage him/her to take charge of denying so that you can be free to last-hit at will. Don't sacrifice last-hits for denies -- the gold is much too important to you. In a competitive game, your lanemate will deliberately not last-hit the creeps that you can reach to maximize your farm, and will deny for you.
For those who don't know what last-hitting is, here is an explanation. Last-hitting means refraining from attacking the creeps except to deliver the killing blow. This has three beneficial effects.
Denying is the same as last-hitting, except you get the last hit on your own creeps in order to reduce the amount of experience and gold the opponents gain, and to keep the lane near your tower.
3.2.2 Harassing
As Morphling, you should not harass very much, because your damage is low, your range is low, and your hit points are low. You could get in some harass hits to discourage enemy melee heroes from farming, but you will probably get attacked by the creeps and it may not be worth it.
Never harass with Waveform unless you have a source of huge quantities of mana (like Keeper of the Light or Crystal Maiden's aura).
Never harass with Adaptive strike. No matter what.
3.2.3 Using Waveform
Waveform is one of the most dangerous nukes in the early game because the damage is high. You need to use it intelligently.
1. Kill the enemy
This is pretty much a no-brainer -- if an opponent is at low enough health and is dumb enough to come within waveform range, you might as well waveform and kill him. If your opponents have no stun, then you can also get a few hits in. Be aware that your opponent may be baiting you. It's no fun to waveform over someone, leaving him at 50 health, only to realize that you just ran right into the stun range of the Sven who was ganking your lane.
2. Kill a lot of creeps
In the laning phase of the early game, don't use Waveform to farm unless you can kill at least 3 creeps AND hit the enemy hero. Your mana pool is not large enough to spam it.
3. Gank
You can start ganking when you have a bottle and boots. You definitely shouldn't gank until you are level 5, and it might be better to wait until level 7. To gank properly with Waveform, approach the target lane from the side. Wait for a stunner (or at least a slower) to initiate before you use Waveform, especially if you are entering from near the maximum range. Try to aim so that you are in the path that the target would use to escape. If you have Adaptive Strike, use it after positioning yourself properly with Waveform; otherwise, just get in as many hits as you can.
4. Receive a gank
If your allies gank your lane, you can initiate with Waveform. Often, the enemy hero(s) will attack you, which delays any attempt to escape by a few critical moments. Use your head, though; don't initiate with Waveform if it will put your life at risk. For example, if you are facing Tinker and have full health, then you can initiate with Waveform. He will probably nuke you, you will survive the nukes, and then he will die to the gank. If you have only 300 health, though, you should wait for a stun before you Waveform in.
5. Tower dive
Because of the long range of Waveform, you can sometimes kill a hero behind the enemy tower. However, you must consider the costs. Assuming you survive, you may still take enough damage to force you to go heal at the fountain, which means you will miss out on gold and experience. Also, you might get ganked and die yourself. For this reason, I think it's better to play defensively and not dive.
3.2.3 Using Adaptive Strike
Adaptive Strike does really low damage in the early game. It is not a nuke. Its stun duration is not that great either. Therefore, remember the Golden Rule of Adaptive Strike: Adaptive Strike is mainly a knockback spell. Because of the low damage, some players choose not to take Adaptive Strike until later in the game.
So, if we have Adaptive Strike in the early game, what do we do with it?
1. Cancel TPs
This is pretty self-explanatory.
2. Save allies
If Axe is running up to your stunned ally for a Berserker's Call, just knock him away with Adaptive Strike. It should give your ally enough time to escape.
3. Gank
After you Waveform into the target's escape route, you can use Adaptive Strike to knock the enemy closer to your allies and further from the escape route. Even though the stun duration is short, you should chain it like any stun -- wait for the previous stun effect to almost expire before you add yours.
4. Receive a gank
After initiating with Waveform and getting on the far side of the opponent, you can push your target back towards your tower to make it just a little harder for him to escape. Remember the Golden Rule and never push your target away from your allies "just to do a little more damage." It doesn't pay.
5. Cancel salves
Often players will assume that you didn't get Adaptive Strike, since many Morphlings don't, and try to salve up within XP range. If you got Adaptive Strike you can make them pay. You have to cancel them right away for it to be worth it, though. Don't cancel a clarity potion with Adaptive Strike because it's probably not worth trading your 100 mana for their 100 mana.
6. Save yourself
While Waveform is better for escaping, sometimes you don't have that much mana, or it's cooling down. Just kick your opponent away with Adaptive Strike to gain a small respite. Of course, this works best if you have already done some Strength Morph.
7. Kill fleeing heroes
The damage of Adaptive Strike is REALLY low, so this is not easy. As a general rule of thumb, you can count on only 30 damage per level of Adaptive Strike in the early game, and that's before armor reduction! So this is only for those situations where the hero gets away with the tiniest sliver of health possible. If you fail to kill the target you will not get another chance because the target is knocked away from you (Golden Rule again), so make sure it works. In general, this is not a good use of Adaptive Strike in the early game.
3.2.4 Using Morph
In the early game, morph is mainly used to save you from a gank. Keep an eye on your mana, because you will probably need to Waveform in addition to Morphing. Make sure you stop Morphing with enough mana left for Waveform. Once you have escaped, remember to morph back in the safety of your base so that you can actually deal damage.
Remember, you can use morph while disabled, so if you become the target of Fiend's Grip, don't just sit around! Right-click Strength Morph so you don't die.
3.2.5 Using Replicate
Replicate is not very useful early, but it does have some purpose.
1. Quick fountain trip
Send the Replicate back to the base while you farm. 29 seconds later, press "R" again, go heal at the fountain, and then TP back to the lane. You can minimize the amount of missed farming. You can also combine this with Tip #2.
2. Dive safely
If your opponent is at low health, make a Replicate and send it home. Then you and your lane ally can initiate on the opponent, tower diving if necessary, and you can escape instantly if things turn sour. Remember that Morph Replicate costs 150 mana. You should probably be at full mana to ensure that you don't run out.
3. Chasing
Make a replicate before you gank or receive a gank, and send it ahead. When your enemy tries to escape, Morph Replicate and intercept him.
4. Avoiding ganks
When you hear "mid missing," just make a replicate and send it home. If you get ganked within 30 seconds, you have a much surer way to escape than Waveform. Make sure you don't get ganked 31 seconds later, though.
5. Harassing / Combat help
You can make a replicate to harass your enemies, but it isn't really that effective because the damage is low. Still, it only costs 25 mana. This works best if you have a Rooftrellen or other high-damage hero in your lane. Alternatively, you can fight your enemy with the aid of a copy of him or your ally. Remember that if you die, the Replicate dies, so you can't count on it for posthumous revenge.
3.3 More about the midgame
I defined the midgame above as starting when Morphling gets his Boots of Travel. That definition doesn't always make sense, because you might not get travels at all, but usually you should (see Item Build, below). If you got another item instead of travels, go directly to the Late Game section below.
Morph is at his weakest in the midgame because Waveform is losing effectiveness and Boots of Travel don't help you much in combat. You still have good survivability, but you are not that helpful in team fights, so it's probably not worth the risk to enter them. Instead, you must focus on farming.
3.3.1 Effective farming with Morphling
The basic routine for farming is to move to a lane using your travels and then clean up the creeps with last-hitting and/or Waveform. You then leave the lane quickly to avoid being ganked. There are a few variations on this theme, however.
1. Collect runes
If your team has a dedicated ganker carrying a bottle (for example, Nerubian Assassin), then that hero should probably take the runes. Otherwise, it's your job to collect them with your bottle and thereby replenish yourself to farm another lane. If you happen to get a double damage or invisibility rune, you should think about ganking someone. Use illusions to scout for your allies or to help you farm neutrals for extra gold. You can use haste to run to the fountain or to gank, but your mobility is so high anyway that haste doesn't help a gank that much. It's not the greatest rune for you, really. Regeneration is pretty self-explanatory.
2. Replicate teleportation
If you send a Replicate image to one lane, you can go to a different lane, farm it quickly with Waveform, and then Morph Replicate to farm the other lane as well. This is not usually possible in public games, where there are multiple heroes who want to farm, but it is very important in competitive play. Another option is to send an image to a lane, teleport home for a quick refill and to buy items, and then Morph Replicate to quickly return to the lane. This can be done in public games.
3. Pushing
If your team wants to push down a tower, you might as well go with them. Send a Replicate image back so that you can escape, and fearlessly initiate with Waveform and Strength Morph (hoping to draw some focus fire) when the enemies come to defend.
4. Farming neutrals
If you approach a camp of neutrals and Waveform it, they will scatter and often go out of sight around the trees. This can be used to your advantage to kill larger camps (since they don't attack you while they are fleeing), but it is also annoying because dealing with it takes up time. If you want to farm a camp quickly, hit the creeps a few times before Waveforming so that the spell kills them.
5. Roshan
If your team kills Roshan, the extra gold will help you, but you can't help out that much since you don't do very much damage. If this happens before you have a major item, you should probably let someone else take the Aegis, since you are not very powerful yet.
3.4 More about the late game
The late game begins when you get your first major item, which is probably a Manta Style. You will continue to farm and build items until the end of the game unless it goes very long. For more on the items, see the the section on items.
3.4.1 Team fights
In a team fight, Morph should enter (possibly initiating if there is no one better) with Waveform to try and damage as many targets as possible and position yourself close to the opponent who is most dangerous to your team. Once you have done this, quickly click Manta Style and tell all images to attack the target. Next, Replicate one of your images. The next thing to do is to decide how the fight is going. If your team is winning or likely to win, use all four copies to help clean up the opposition. If you are likely to lose, though, you should send the Replicate out so you have an escape ready.
1. Cancel channeling spells
Because Adaptive Strike has a relatively long casting range, you can cancel a Black Hole, Dismember, etc. without having to move very far. This is very important to winning team fights. If you are facing a hero with an important channeling spell, save Adaptive Strike for that hero.
2. Fun with images
If your opponents realize that you always send the Replicate out, they will quickly figure out who you are and target you with lots of nasty spells like Laguna Blade. You can fool them by walking out yourself, leaving the Replicate behind to be the target of those nasty spells.
3. Choosing your Agility and Strength
Depending on exactly who your opponents are, you may want to set your Agility and Strength differently. If you are facing heavy nukers you should set your Strength higher than usual, but remember that this will lessen your damage. If the main danger is agility carry heroes, you should set your Agility high. The difference is that with the Agility heroes, you will have time to Strength Morph in combat before you die, whereas when you are facing nukers you won't, so you must do it beforehand.
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4. Skill Build
4.1 My recommendation
1. Waveform
2. Adaptive Strike
3. Waveform
4. Morph
5. Waveform
6. Morph / Replicate
7. Waveform
8. Morph
9. Morph
10. Replicate / Morph
11. Replicate
12-14. Adaptive Strike
15. Stats
16. Replicate
17-25. Stats
4.1.1 Adaptive Strike alternative
1. Waveform
2. Adaptive Strike
3. Waveform
4. Adaptive Strike
5. Waveform
6. Adaptive Strike
7. Waveform
8. Adaptive Strike
9. Replicate / Morph
10. Morph / Replicate
11. Replicate
12-14. Morph
15. Stats
16. Replicate
17-25. Stats
4.2 Explanation
Waveform is taken first in all builds because it is more helpful than Morph in escaping an early gank. I recommend Adaptive Strike at level 2 so that you can save your allies (see Strategy #2 in the section about Adaptive Strike). After that, Waveform is always maxed first, and I recommend maxing Morph next so you don't die. Replicate can be taken at level 6, but the duration is not long enough to do the most useful things, and you can't yet replicate yourself since you don't have Manta, so it can be delayed. Regardless, level 2 replicate is essential to get as soon as possible because of the 45 second duration. Adaptive Strike is then maxed, since the damage will be large enough to actually be useful. Finally, Replicate is taken at level 16 for obvious reasons.
The alternative build is for people who like Adaptive Strike. I find it more fun than the Morph build, but I think it is probably inferior. With this build I take Replicate at level 9, since I would rather have level 1 Replicate than level 1 Morph, but it could be done the other way around too. I recommend using this build only if you are confident you will not need to use Morph early.
Non-competitive guide to Morphling
Table of contents
- Introduction
- About Morphling
- Gameplay
- Skill Build
- Item Build
- Additional Notes
1. Introduction
This is a guide to Morphling that's meant for players who play in informal games, such as public games. If you play in competitive games, there probably isn't much you can learn from this guide, and you'll probably be annoyed by all the "obvious" things that I say.
That said, this guide will touch briefly on competitive play, because even if you play only public games, you should know how to play effectively on an organized team so you can take advantage of those rare times when your teammates are cooperative, or when you are playing with friends.
You'll also notice that unlike most other guides, this one has the "Gameplay" section before the skill and item builds. That's because it's more important to play intelligently than to choose the perfect skill and item builds. If you all you want to read about is the skill and item builds, then just skip ahead to those sections.
Throughout the guide, less important remarks will be written in green. If you're short on time, you can skip these.
2. About Morphling
Morph is an agility hero with good power in the late game and high survivability. He is unique among heroes in being able to adjust his Strength and Agility as needed, which opens up many strategic possibilities. Let's look at Morph's stats:
This means that Morph's Strength and Agility are pretty good, but his intelligence is not great. His poor attack range haunts him throughout the game, unfortunately, but at least he isn't melee. Let's look at his skills:
Base Damage: 38-47
Movement Speed: 285
Attack Range: 350
Base Armor: 2.7
Strength: 19 + 2 per level
Agility: 19 + 3 per level
Intelligence: 17 + 1.5 per level
WaveformWaveform is like blink and an area nuke rolled into one. When you use it, you click at the spot you want to move towards, and Morphling will turn into a massive wave of water that moves from your location to the target point and deals damage. When the wave arrives, Morphling will be standing at the point you targeted. The spell has an 11 second cooldown, costs 140/155/160/165 mana, and deals 100/175/250/325 magical damage.
Waveform has a cast range of 1000. While you are in waveform, you are invulnerable, but you can still take actions, including casting spells and using items. You can also "steer" the wave slightly by repeatedly right-clicking to the left or right of the target point during the wave, but it really has very little effect.
Adaptive StrikeAdaptive Strike stuns, knocks back, and damages a single target. Everything effect of this spell depends upon the amount of Strength and Agility you have. If your Agility is higher than your strength you will deal high damage but stun for a short duration and knock the target back a long distance. If your Strength is higher than your Agility the damage will be low, but the stun and knockback distance will be long.
Knockback ranges from 100 to 300 units at all levels. The stun ranges from 0.25 to 0.75/1.5/2.25/3.0 seconds, and the physical damage ranges from 0.25 to 0.75/1.5/2.25/3.0 TIMES your current Agility. At all levels, the cooldown is 20 seconds (longer than a typical nuke) and the mana cost is 100.
Adaptive Strike can push enemies over cliffs and through other units. If there are trees in the way, they are knocked down.
In case you are wondering how Adaptive Strike works in detail, here's how. We'll look at how the stun duration is calculated; the calculation for the damage multiplier is exactly the same but with Strength and Agility reversed. Let S be your strength and A be your agility; then let T = S + A. The stun duration is the maximum when S / T = 0.6 (in other words, 3/5 of your stats are in Strength). Increasing S / T further has no effect on the duration. When S / T = 0.33 (in other words, 1/3 of your stats are in Strength), the stun duration is the minimum, and decreasing S / T further has no effect. I'm not sure why Icefrog decided to make it asymmetrical in this way, but it is.
MorphWhen you learn the first level of Morph, you get two new buttons: "Agility Morph" (blue) and "Strength Morph" (green). If you set Agility Morph to autocast, each second you will lose 2/4/6/8 Strength but gain 2/4/6/8 Agility. This drains 20 mana, and if you don't have the mana your attributes will be changed. The white numbers change, not the green ones, and your base (white) Strength can never go below zero. Strength Morph works in the opposite direction. Importantly, these abilities function even while you are disabled, and can be activated or deactivated while you are disabled.
For more precise adjustment, you can left-click the icon instead of autocasting. This adjusts your stats by one tick.
The Morph abilities are among the most irritatingly inconsistent in the game. For example, the Strength Morph cooldown is slightly different from the Agility Morph cooldown (it's shorter), at least at some levels. Also, if you autocast Agility Morph, and then left-click Strength Morph, the Strength Morph will function, costing mana and increasing Str and decreasing Agi, but if you autocast Strength Morph and then left-click Agility Morph, absolutely nothing will happen. None of this matters if you just autocast the abilities like a normal person.
ReplicateThis skill creates an image of the target, which can be any hero except yourself. The image does 50% damage (but see below) and receives 100% damage. The image lasts 30/45/60 seconds. Once you cast Replicate, you instead gain the "Morph Replicate" ability, which causes the image to disappear and you to take its place. If you die, the image immediately disappears. Cooldown is 80 seconds, and the casting range is 700/1100/1500. The mana cost is 25/25/35 for Replicate and 150 for Morph Replicate.
Note: Although the image takes 100% damage and therefore "feels" like a real hero, it still is subject to the same problems as other illusions, including:
- Orb effects do not function properly
- Pure bonus damage does not function properly (though bonus damage from ability scores does work)
- Many effects from items (such as Heart of Tarrasque's regeneration) do not function properly
- Hex instantly kills the Replicate
- Roshan instantly kills the Replicate
Note 2: Although you cannot Replicate yourself, you CAN Replicate your images. We will get Manta Style for exactly this purpose.
And that is it for the general introduction to Morphling.
3. Gameplay
3.1 Overview
Morphling has some strengths in the early game, unlike most carry-type Agility heroes. He has a powerful nuke that does good damage in a large area, so he can contribute early in the lane, in skirmishes, and in ganks. However, your main job in the early game is to farm so that you can get the items you need before your team loses. Once you have bought your Boots of Travel, you can start to farm multiple lanes. At this point in the game (we'll call it the midgame) you are very weak in fights; your nuke is beginning to lose effectiveness, and you have invested a good deal of money in your boots rather than in combat items. You should probably stay out of harm's way as much as possible. When you get Manta Style, the Late Game begins. You are now equal in power to other heroes, and as you continue to farm you will only grow stronger.
3.2 More about the Early Game
Morph can take a dual lane or a solo lane, but I highly recommend a dual lane.
A dual lane means you will be less likely to be harassed and more likely to be able to control your lane. Morphling should always lane with a hero with good lane-control (that is, one who can force the enemies to remain at a distance to avoid being killed). There are three reasons for this. First, you need to get relatively close to the creeps in order to farm, so you will need your enemies to be at a greater distance from the creeps compared to other ranged heroes. Second, if the other hero cannot help control the lane, you will not be able to stop the enemies from farming (and even worse, denying). Finally, a good lane-controller means that you can get early kills thanks to Waveform. Take the bottom lane if you are Sentinel, or top if Scourge, because this gives you more escape routes in case you get ganked.
In a competitive game, you will be laned with a support hero. Try to get an aggressive supporter (Venge) rather than a passive supporter (Warlock).
If you are lucky enough to have two allied stunners with one in your lane (for example, Vengeful Spirit and Earthshaker), you can call for a first-blood gank. You can easily account for 50% of an enemy hero's health because Waveform will place you right next to your stunned enemy, allowing you to get many hits. In a non-organized game, you should only do this if you think your allies have a clue -- check their item builds.
If you choose a solo lane or have it thrust upon you, I suggest soloing the bottom if sentinel or top if scourge. Soloing mid is difficult because of your short range and low damage. Typical opponents in mid will have longer range, higher damage, and at least equal burst damage capability. Soloing is also risky because you might face a dual lane with the ability to kill you early (for example, a dual stun lane). This will force you to stay back and prevent you from farming, so you will be weak late-game.
3.2.1 Last-hit and deny
Every hero must last-hit to some extent, and Morphling is no exception. You need to take as much of the farm as possible. I don't care if your ally complains.
This paragraph is in red because it is important. If you don't last-hit the creeps, you are not playing well. It doesn't matter how pro you are or think you are -- if you're not last-hitting with Morphling, you are playing badly. Start last-hitting right away.
If your lane ally is a support hero, especially a ranged supporter such as Vengeful Spirit or Crystal Maiden, encourage him/her to take charge of denying so that you can be free to last-hit at will. Don't sacrifice last-hits for denies -- the gold is much too important to you. In a competitive game, your lanemate will deliberately not last-hit the creeps that you can reach to maximize your farm, and will deny for you.
For those who don't know what last-hitting is, here is an explanation. Last-hitting means refraining from attacking the creeps except to deliver the killing blow. This has three beneficial effects.
- It maximizes the amount of gold you get (since you hopefully succeed at killing a lot of creeps).
- It minimizes the amount you push the lane. In general, it's good to have the lane near your tower. If you do, it means you are closer to safety in case you get ganked. It means that the creeps will not dive under your opponent's tower, allowing him to kill them with impunity. It means that you will not be forced to back away from the creep battle and lose experience.
- It allows you to attack any opponent who comes within range. If you autoattack, your attack may be cooling down during the small window you have to harass your opponent.
Denying is the same as last-hitting, except you get the last hit on your own creeps in order to reduce the amount of experience and gold the opponents gain, and to keep the lane near your tower.
3.2.2 Harassing
As Morphling, you should not harass very much, because your damage is low, your range is low, and your hit points are low. You could get in some harass hits to discourage enemy melee heroes from farming, but you will probably get attacked by the creeps and it may not be worth it.
Never harass with Waveform unless you have a source of huge quantities of mana (like Keeper of the Light or Crystal Maiden's aura).
Never harass with Adaptive strike. No matter what.
3.2.3 Using Waveform
Waveform is one of the most dangerous nukes in the early game because the damage is high. You need to use it intelligently.
1. Kill the enemy
This is pretty much a no-brainer -- if an opponent is at low enough health and is dumb enough to come within waveform range, you might as well waveform and kill him. If your opponents have no stun, then you can also get a few hits in. Be aware that your opponent may be baiting you. It's no fun to waveform over someone, leaving him at 50 health, only to realize that you just ran right into the stun range of the Sven who was ganking your lane.
2. Kill a lot of creeps
In the laning phase of the early game, don't use Waveform to farm unless you can kill at least 3 creeps AND hit the enemy hero. Your mana pool is not large enough to spam it.
3. Gank
You can start ganking when you have a bottle and boots. You definitely shouldn't gank until you are level 5, and it might be better to wait until level 7. To gank properly with Waveform, approach the target lane from the side. Wait for a stunner (or at least a slower) to initiate before you use Waveform, especially if you are entering from near the maximum range. Try to aim so that you are in the path that the target would use to escape. If you have Adaptive Strike, use it after positioning yourself properly with Waveform; otherwise, just get in as many hits as you can.
4. Receive a gank
If your allies gank your lane, you can initiate with Waveform. Often, the enemy hero(s) will attack you, which delays any attempt to escape by a few critical moments. Use your head, though; don't initiate with Waveform if it will put your life at risk. For example, if you are facing Tinker and have full health, then you can initiate with Waveform. He will probably nuke you, you will survive the nukes, and then he will die to the gank. If you have only 300 health, though, you should wait for a stun before you Waveform in.
5. Tower dive
Because of the long range of Waveform, you can sometimes kill a hero behind the enemy tower. However, you must consider the costs. Assuming you survive, you may still take enough damage to force you to go heal at the fountain, which means you will miss out on gold and experience. Also, you might get ganked and die yourself. For this reason, I think it's better to play defensively and not dive.
3.2.3 Using Adaptive Strike
Adaptive Strike does really low damage in the early game. It is not a nuke. Its stun duration is not that great either. Therefore, remember the Golden Rule of Adaptive Strike: Adaptive Strike is mainly a knockback spell. Because of the low damage, some players choose not to take Adaptive Strike until later in the game.
So, if we have Adaptive Strike in the early game, what do we do with it?
1. Cancel TPs
This is pretty self-explanatory.
2. Save allies
If Axe is running up to your stunned ally for a Berserker's Call, just knock him away with Adaptive Strike. It should give your ally enough time to escape.
3. Gank
After you Waveform into the target's escape route, you can use Adaptive Strike to knock the enemy closer to your allies and further from the escape route. Even though the stun duration is short, you should chain it like any stun -- wait for the previous stun effect to almost expire before you add yours.
4. Receive a gank
After initiating with Waveform and getting on the far side of the opponent, you can push your target back towards your tower to make it just a little harder for him to escape. Remember the Golden Rule and never push your target away from your allies "just to do a little more damage." It doesn't pay.
5. Cancel salves
Often players will assume that you didn't get Adaptive Strike, since many Morphlings don't, and try to salve up within XP range. If you got Adaptive Strike you can make them pay. You have to cancel them right away for it to be worth it, though. Don't cancel a clarity potion with Adaptive Strike because it's probably not worth trading your 100 mana for their 100 mana.
6. Save yourself
While Waveform is better for escaping, sometimes you don't have that much mana, or it's cooling down. Just kick your opponent away with Adaptive Strike to gain a small respite. Of course, this works best if you have already done some Strength Morph.
7. Kill fleeing heroes
The damage of Adaptive Strike is REALLY low, so this is not easy. As a general rule of thumb, you can count on only 30 damage per level of Adaptive Strike in the early game, and that's before armor reduction! So this is only for those situations where the hero gets away with the tiniest sliver of health possible. If you fail to kill the target you will not get another chance because the target is knocked away from you (Golden Rule again), so make sure it works. In general, this is not a good use of Adaptive Strike in the early game.
3.2.4 Using Morph
In the early game, morph is mainly used to save you from a gank. Keep an eye on your mana, because you will probably need to Waveform in addition to Morphing. Make sure you stop Morphing with enough mana left for Waveform. Once you have escaped, remember to morph back in the safety of your base so that you can actually deal damage.
Remember, you can use morph while disabled, so if you become the target of Fiend's Grip, don't just sit around! Right-click Strength Morph so you don't die.
3.2.5 Using Replicate
Replicate is not very useful early, but it does have some purpose.
1. Quick fountain trip
Send the Replicate back to the base while you farm. 29 seconds later, press "R" again, go heal at the fountain, and then TP back to the lane. You can minimize the amount of missed farming. You can also combine this with Tip #2.
2. Dive safely
If your opponent is at low health, make a Replicate and send it home. Then you and your lane ally can initiate on the opponent, tower diving if necessary, and you can escape instantly if things turn sour. Remember that Morph Replicate costs 150 mana. You should probably be at full mana to ensure that you don't run out.
3. Chasing
Make a replicate before you gank or receive a gank, and send it ahead. When your enemy tries to escape, Morph Replicate and intercept him.
4. Avoiding ganks
When you hear "mid missing," just make a replicate and send it home. If you get ganked within 30 seconds, you have a much surer way to escape than Waveform. Make sure you don't get ganked 31 seconds later, though.
5. Harassing / Combat help
You can make a replicate to harass your enemies, but it isn't really that effective because the damage is low. Still, it only costs 25 mana. This works best if you have a Rooftrellen or other high-damage hero in your lane. Alternatively, you can fight your enemy with the aid of a copy of him or your ally. Remember that if you die, the Replicate dies, so you can't count on it for posthumous revenge.
3.3 More about the midgame
I defined the midgame above as starting when Morphling gets his Boots of Travel. That definition doesn't always make sense, because you might not get travels at all, but usually you should (see Item Build, below). If you got another item instead of travels, go directly to the Late Game section below.
Morph is at his weakest in the midgame because Waveform is losing effectiveness and Boots of Travel don't help you much in combat. You still have good survivability, but you are not that helpful in team fights, so it's probably not worth the risk to enter them. Instead, you must focus on farming.
3.3.1 Effective farming with Morphling
The basic routine for farming is to move to a lane using your travels and then clean up the creeps with last-hitting and/or Waveform. You then leave the lane quickly to avoid being ganked. There are a few variations on this theme, however.
1. Collect runes
If your team has a dedicated ganker carrying a bottle (for example, Nerubian Assassin), then that hero should probably take the runes. Otherwise, it's your job to collect them with your bottle and thereby replenish yourself to farm another lane. If you happen to get a double damage or invisibility rune, you should think about ganking someone. Use illusions to scout for your allies or to help you farm neutrals for extra gold. You can use haste to run to the fountain or to gank, but your mobility is so high anyway that haste doesn't help a gank that much. It's not the greatest rune for you, really. Regeneration is pretty self-explanatory.
2. Replicate teleportation
If you send a Replicate image to one lane, you can go to a different lane, farm it quickly with Waveform, and then Morph Replicate to farm the other lane as well. This is not usually possible in public games, where there are multiple heroes who want to farm, but it is very important in competitive play. Another option is to send an image to a lane, teleport home for a quick refill and to buy items, and then Morph Replicate to quickly return to the lane. This can be done in public games.
3. Pushing
If your team wants to push down a tower, you might as well go with them. Send a Replicate image back so that you can escape, and fearlessly initiate with Waveform and Strength Morph (hoping to draw some focus fire) when the enemies come to defend.
4. Farming neutrals
If you approach a camp of neutrals and Waveform it, they will scatter and often go out of sight around the trees. This can be used to your advantage to kill larger camps (since they don't attack you while they are fleeing), but it is also annoying because dealing with it takes up time. If you want to farm a camp quickly, hit the creeps a few times before Waveforming so that the spell kills them.
5. Roshan
If your team kills Roshan, the extra gold will help you, but you can't help out that much since you don't do very much damage. If this happens before you have a major item, you should probably let someone else take the Aegis, since you are not very powerful yet.
3.4 More about the late game
The late game begins when you get your first major item, which is probably a Manta Style. You will continue to farm and build items until the end of the game unless it goes very long. For more on the items, see the the section on items.
3.4.1 Team fights
In a team fight, Morph should enter (possibly initiating if there is no one better) with Waveform to try and damage as many targets as possible and position yourself close to the opponent who is most dangerous to your team. Once you have done this, quickly click Manta Style and tell all images to attack the target. Next, Replicate one of your images. The next thing to do is to decide how the fight is going. If your team is winning or likely to win, use all four copies to help clean up the opposition. If you are likely to lose, though, you should send the Replicate out so you have an escape ready.
1. Cancel channeling spells
Because Adaptive Strike has a relatively long casting range, you can cancel a Black Hole, Dismember, etc. without having to move very far. This is very important to winning team fights. If you are facing a hero with an important channeling spell, save Adaptive Strike for that hero.
2. Fun with images
If your opponents realize that you always send the Replicate out, they will quickly figure out who you are and target you with lots of nasty spells like Laguna Blade. You can fool them by walking out yourself, leaving the Replicate behind to be the target of those nasty spells.
3. Choosing your Agility and Strength
Depending on exactly who your opponents are, you may want to set your Agility and Strength differently. If you are facing heavy nukers you should set your Strength higher than usual, but remember that this will lessen your damage. If the main danger is agility carry heroes, you should set your Agility high. The difference is that with the Agility heroes, you will have time to Strength Morph in combat before you die, whereas when you are facing nukers you won't, so you must do it beforehand.
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4. Skill Build
4.1 My recommendation
1. Waveform
2. Adaptive Strike
3. Waveform
4. Morph
5. Waveform
6. Morph / Replicate
7. Waveform
8. Morph
9. Morph
10. Replicate / Morph
11. Replicate
12-14. Adaptive Strike
15. Stats
16. Replicate
17-25. Stats
4.1.1 Adaptive Strike alternative
1. Waveform
2. Adaptive Strike
3. Waveform
4. Adaptive Strike
5. Waveform
6. Adaptive Strike
7. Waveform
8. Adaptive Strike
9. Replicate / Morph
10. Morph / Replicate
11. Replicate
12-14. Morph
15. Stats
16. Replicate
17-25. Stats
4.2 Explanation
Waveform is taken first in all builds because it is more helpful than Morph in escaping an early gank. I recommend Adaptive Strike at level 2 so that you can save your allies (see Strategy #2 in the section about Adaptive Strike). After that, Waveform is always maxed first, and I recommend maxing Morph next so you don't die. Replicate can be taken at level 6, but the duration is not long enough to do the most useful things, and you can't yet replicate yourself since you don't have Manta, so it can be delayed. Regardless, level 2 replicate is essential to get as soon as possible because of the 45 second duration. Adaptive Strike is then maxed, since the damage will be large enough to actually be useful. Finally, Replicate is taken at level 16 for obvious reasons.
The alternative build is for people who like Adaptive Strike. I find it more fun than the Morph build, but I think it is probably inferior. With this build I take Replicate at level 9, since I would rather have level 1 Replicate than level 1 Morph, but it could be done the other way around too. I recommend using this build only if you are confident you will not need to use Morph early.
Morphling the MorphlingAuthor: unsigned char
Map Vers.: 6.64
Non-competitive guide to Morphling
Non-competitive guide to Morphling
Last Comment:21/08/2010
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