NOTE: This guide isn't made for newbies, for you to efficently use and aply this type of gameplay with this hero requires at least a preknowledge of his abilities and basic dota knowledge.



0.0 Statistics
Strength 19 + 2
Agility 19 + 3
Intelligence 17 + 1.5

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

0.1 Pros and cons



Pros:

• has an escape/chase skill
• good for harrasing
• good late game hero
• almost unkillable if played right
• changeable style of play
• changeable damage

Cons:

• fragile hero
• low mana pool
• spell dependant
• weak against most inteligence heroes
• hard to last hit

0.2 Skills:

Waveform

Morphling dissolves into his components and surges forward, dealing damage to everything in his wake.

Guide: Morphling's core skill, without it morphling can't efficently gank/escape in early to mid game. It's good damage(350 on level 4 and AoE) and AoE of 280 makes it hard to actualy miss with this spell.

Adaptive Strike

Blasts a target with magical energy, dealing damage and disabling the target based on the Morphling's dominant attribute between Agility and Strength.

Guide: The one of the best spells in the game, not only does it deal damage but pushes your target away. The fact it deals agility based damage only goes in it's favor. It also has a relatively low mana cost.

Morph

The Morphling edits his physical being to fit the circumstances. He can, at will, lose some strength and gain agility, or vice versa. The process is reversible.

Guide: The spell which makes this hero one of the most versatile ones in the game.

Replicate

The Morphling has the unique ability to replicate any target friendly or enemy hero. Although it only deals 50% damage, the hero can morph into his replication, instantly taking its position.

Guide: The spell can have several roles in the game, i will explain them later thouroughly.

0.3 Skill Build:

Levels:
1: Waveform / Morph
2: Adaptive Strike / Waveform
3: Waveform
4: Adaptive Strike
5: Waveform
6: Adaptive Strike/Replicate
7: Waveform
8: Adaptive Strike
9: Morph / Adaptive Strike
10: Stats / Adaptive Strike
11: Stats / Replicate
12: Stats
13: Stats
14: Stats
15: Stats
16: Stats / Replicate
17: Stats
18: Stats
19: Stats
20: Replicate / Stats
21: Replicate / Stats
22: Replicate / Stats
23: Morph
24: Morph
25: Morph

Justification:
If you are sure you can survive without 100/200 HP on the game start you can pick morph as your start skill and switch some strength points for the extra damage you will need to last hit.
Waveform and Adaptive Strike should be maxed out as soon as you can. The replicate skill can be usefull but at lvl 6 you better take Adaptive strike as you have Waveform for escape and a 30 second illusion won't do much anyway.
Why take stats? Because morphling benefits mostly from them and you don't really need a high lvl Morph.
If you really need replicate think of getting it at early levels if you are good in using the actual skill and you think you need it(situation optional).

0.4 Lane Scenario:

1 Melee:
This is to easy, a melee hero can't stand a chance against morphling. His ability to escape with Waveform is precious so don't spam the spell just harras your enemy.

2 Melee:
Might be a bit tricky if they both have high damage nukes, but it is easily overcomed. Use waveform to escape if they start to nuke you. Also harras! Due to the morphling good damage output he can easily harras melee heroes.

1 Range:
This is where the situation changes, you don't have the range of attack as your enemy so don't try to harras him, try to last hit all creeps and watch out for early ganks. If the enemy has strong nukes don't try to gank him, it will probably end in you dying.

2 Range:
Most unlikely scenario, but if you find yourself in it just do the same as the 1 range scenario, don't be greedy, just last hit creeps, defend your tower and stay alive.

1 Range, 1 Melee:
A common scenario, if you are stuck with these 2 you should harras the melee hero and last hit creeps. Don't harras the melee hero if you are going to get harrased by the ranged one, staying alive is your top priority.

0.5 Item Build:

Early Game



Explanation: This will provide you with extra damage you need for the last hiting. You can also switch the wraith bands for bracers if you think you are better off with extra HP.

Goals:

and you should at least have 1 item required for

Now why take Power Treads and not some faster boots? Power Treads will give you the extra + strength we are aiming on allowing you to morph more strength into agility and they give a good attack speed also.

Mid Game:

and you should be aiming to get

Now you may be confused why i put HoT in the build, it comes with an explanation:
Since your damage isn't great in the mid game you should get the extra regen so you won't have to return to base oftenly.
The heart will also provide you with tons of health meaning you can transfer all strength into agility to amplify your damage, attack speed and your Adaptive Strike. With the vitality booster and power treads switched to strength you should be able to survive any suprise gank atempts and escape with Waveform.

Goals:

and

The HotD can later be upgraded into Satanic if the game get too long.

Late Game:

Now here is the part where the HoT shines.
Here are the damage/hp/stats for 2 morphlings, both lvl 16 with same equipment, but one has Butterfly the other has HoT:



























As you see the health/damage difrence isn't really big but getting HoT will ensure that you will never have to leave the jungle, enabling you to farm insane amounts of money as well give you extra survivability. By now you should already have HotD and at least 1 item for the Butterfly.

Once you complete the build the game is pretty much over.
Doing 300 damage with attack and 700+ damage with adaptive strike means 2 things:
You hit fast and you hit a lot(HotD heals you for 15% of that)
You take out more than 1000+ HP in 1 sec with your skills.

Now let's look at the stats:
Damage: 192-201 + 112
Armor: 24 + 13.7 (69% reduction)
Health: 1818 (that means another +18 HP per second)
Strength: 1 + 71
Agility: 173 + 62

Now that means that you will regenerate about 100+ HP per second because you attack like hell, get HP from it(roughly 45 HP per hit) and regenerate 18 HP per second, uf you get Satanic the life gained per second will go sky high.
The damage reduction and 1800 HP will help you survive against any other Agility hero except the perma basher ones(Troll, Void).
If you play right it is possible to get heart till 25th Minute and focus on getting HotD and Butterfly.

Dream Build:

and you should get or

Alternate Build:

An alternative build which is utilized mostly if you decide to get replicate early.

Early Game:




Till the end of early game you should have 2 wraith bands and Boots of Speed.

Mid Game:

and you should decide whether to start making or

Getting Manta will provide you with bonuses to your stats, increase your attack speed and give you the ability to create illusions which can then be replicated for maximum damage output.

Getting BoT will give you high movement speed and ensure you can escape/farm more efficently.

Late Game:



This is the core build you will need if you decide to use early replicate.
If the game isn't over yet here is a list of items you could get:
and or or

Most of the other items aren't as usefull as the listed ones. You should aim in getting items which enhance your illusions as well.
If you can survive without any kind of life steal getting Difusal blade is recommended, as the illusions will burn mana as well.
HoM will give you extra attack speed which is always a good thing.
Monkey king bar for enemies with butterfly or evasion, making their evasion useless.
Don't get both difusal and Monkey King Bar, you will only need MKB if you want to use true strike, else avoid it.
Helm of the dominator will provide you with life steal but isn't good in this build, mainly because if you do upgrade it to Satanic enemies can recognize you when you use satanic or MoM, so i would rather get Diffusal blade in this build as it is the far most better item than the other orb choices.

Dream Build(2nd):

and or or

Rejected items:



Morphling can have much better orb effects than this one. The fact it has cooldown now ruins it's usefullness in most builds.



Doesn't give stats, attack speed nor teleport. Phasing? You can waveform...



These items give damage, not agility/strength which is morphlings main strength. Always aim to get items which enhance morphlings stats, not his damage only.



Caster items. You don't have any use from this items.



There are far better orbs. Mjolnir is good but Difusal blade/Satanic is far better choice depending on which build you took.



Gives HP/Mana but no actual stats. The bloodstone is good because of kill dependent mana/hp regen and less respawn time but it costs 5000 gold total, might as well save for HoT/Butterfly.



Absolutely useless. You don't need the summons and they are only usefull at lvl 3 which means that it costs about ~5400 gold. If you got money don't spend it on crap like the necronomicon.

0.6 Gameplay Guide:

Now playing with morphling isn't really hard but requires good reflexes, you need to know when to use Waveform and how.
The best possible outcome is to use Waveform to get behind enemies as they run away and use Adaptive Strike to push them back. Now the most important thing is that for that you need 160 Mana which means if you don't pull it off the first time you won't be getting another chance probably.
One of the most important things about morphlings it: Don't die.
You have Waveform to run, there aren't exactly heroes who can kill you if you run on time(25% or less HP is a sign that you should be heading back to the nearest tower).
The most common mistake is using Waveform to go simply in front of your hero, use it across clifs, as there are only a number of heroes that can follow you there(blinkers) most will give up from the chase. Your primary goal is to gather money but don't be greedy killing 1 hero is about equal to last hitting several creeps.

0.7 Enemies and Allies

Worst enemies:



Now explanation:
Magina can chase you for eternity, given the fact he has mana burn he can even prevent you from using Waveform.
Nerubian can kill you with his combo if you don't get Power Treads/Vitality booster early, he can also harras you by burning up your precious mana.
Storm spirit can disable you for a few seconds and chase you with his ulti as long as he has mana.
Bloodseeker can silence you and easily track you down with the help for Rupture + his movement speed.
Lion can prevent you from escaping by siphoning your mana so if he starts doing that break the bond. He has a devastating ultimate skill and a stun which combined with mana siphon and hex means he is your worst possible enemy.
Rhasta can hex and shackle you, combine that with some other hero and you are good as dead.

Late game enemies:

and heroes with

These guys can perma bash you and then you are screwed, you only heal the amount of HP which heart gives you.
Enemies with hex are your nightmare, for 3.5 seconds you can't do anything, which again means you can't heal through attack or run with Waveform.
For permabashers use your Adaptive strike and haras them with your devastating attacks, once they come near you Waveform away.

Also if know your enemies got Hex farm for or .
In most of cases they will try to hex you instantly and it can save you from devastating spells like laguna blade or Finger of Death.

Allies:

Any hero who can slow/stun/disable your enemy is your ally.
Example:
A 3 second stun will make you deal about 2000+ damage if you got your Butterfly and HoT and Adaptive strike.

0.8 Replicate Spell




The replicate got many functions depending on the players skill. The illusion deals 50% of damage and there are severak cases in which it is usefull:

• You can replicate heroes with special skills and and them for farming(Counter helix will trigger on the illusion for example).
• You can use it to escape easily or scout and teleport to runes
• You can replicate enemy caries or heroes with passive skills like command aura and help your team.
• You can use it to quickly change lanes and earn more money.
• Works well with manta, enabling you to replicate yourself.
• Enables instant teleport to illusions place which can save you and confuse your enemies.
• You can use it to confuse enemies making them use their spells on the illusion.

The End

Unfourtanetly i don't have any replays/videos to back up this build as i decided to write this after i tested it out.

This was my first guide and i hope a good one also.