The Guide for Morphology

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Contents Page
1 ---------------- Introduction
2 ---------------- Foreword
3 ---------------- Mini Guide
4 ---------------- Hero Details
5 ---------------- Hero Abilities
6 ---------------- Advanced Usage of Skills
7 ---------------- Skill Builds
8 ---------------- Item Builds
9 ---------------- Strategy
10 ---------------- Replays

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Introduction

Welcome to my Morphling guide! I wrote this guide because I feel that I should contribute to the Dota community with my knowledge. In this guide, I will try to cover everything about Morphling and therefore this guide would be comprehensive. This is my first time writing a guide, so please help me to perfection

Pros and Cons
Pros
|+| Extreme carrying potential
|+| Strong in both physical and magical attack
|+| Great survivability; good escape mechanisms
|+| Very flexible; adapts to roles easily
|+| Very good agility gain, good strength gain

Cons
|+| Slow base movement spped
|+| Hard to last hit and deny early game
|+| Very mana dependant
|+| Huge learning curve; difficult to play well
|+| Very reliant on items; item dependant
|+| Poor base stats (all 3)
|+| Terrible base inteligence and gain, yet dependant on it

Foreword

Morphling have suffered greatly due to the recent nerfs ( I wonder what happened to Icefrog and Morphling ... aren't both of them made of water?) but he is still enjoyable to play. He is very versatile, being able to morph from one role to another. However, he is hard to play because of his versatility - many people build him wrongly and screwed him up. Anyway, hopefully this guide is able guide you to master Morphling fully. Good luck!

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!

Roles :
* Carry - Your main role. Morphling was once one of the best carries, but got nerfed (kinda badly) and became of the best range carries instead

*Hybrid Carry - As said, Morphling is quite flexible and can morph from a carry to a tank. But you need one or two tank items for this (maybe Heart)

*Tank - With StrMorph, Morphling's hp can increase by the thousands in seconds. Not recommended though, as it doesn't bring out Morphling's full power

*Semi-nuker - Morphling possess 2 nukes alone, and can somewhat become a nuker after buying Dagon and Ethereal Blade

*Ganker - Morphling can gank well himself, or participate in ganks quickly with Waveform. To do this Morphling only need Bottle and BoT

__________

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

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	140	11 sec	1000	225	N/A	100 damage
2	155	11 sec	1000	225	N/A	175 damage
3	160	11 sec	1000	225	N/A	250 damage
4	165	11 sec	1000	225	N/A	325 damage

Notes

Damage type: magical

Morphling becomes invulnerable when traveling in Waveform.

You will not lose control of Morphling while he waveforms.

__________

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

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	100	10 sec	600	N/A	0.25 - 0.75 seconds	20 + 0.25x - 0.5x Agility Damage dealt
2	100	10 sec	700	N/A	0.25 - 1.5 seconds	40 + 0.25x - 0.5x Agility Damage dealt
3	100	10 sec	800	N/A	0.25 - 2.25 seconds	60 + 0.25x - 0.5x Agility Damage dealt
4	100	10 sec	900	N/A	0.25 - 3.0 seconds	80 + 0.25x - 0.5x Agility Damage dealt

Notes

Damage type: magical

Both damage and stun will occur.

If you have 50% more agility than strength, it deals the maximum of the damage and the minimum of the stun.

f you have 50% more strength than agility, it deals the maximum of the stun and the minimum of the damage

Knocks the target back 100 - 300 units.

The higher your strength, the further the pushback is.

__________

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.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Gains two skills to change attribute points
2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Gains two skills to change attribute points
3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Gains two skills to change attribute points
4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Gains two skills to change attribute points

Notes

It will continue to move stats between strength and agility even if Morphling is disabled.

Bonus agility or strength from items can't be converted.

For the purposes of this guide, I shall call Strength Morph, StrMorph and Agility Morph, AgiMorph for easier references. Full Strength Morph means fully Morphing all your Agility into Strength. The same goes for full AgiMorph.

All heroes "true" base hp is actually 150. Therefore you won't have 19hp left after you full AgiMorph.

When running away from an enemy, use Str Morph to deter him from chasing you as your hp bar would increase and make you look harder to kill.

Now with a casting animation, your enemies and allies would now know when you're AgiMorphing or StrMorphing.

Your base armour is 0 when you full Str Morph, so watch out for DPSers. However, you have 20 base armour when you full Agi Morph.

Use AgiMorph to maximize the effectiveness of DD (double damage) rune � If you have a DD rune, don�t use it just yet. First, full AgiMorph, then use the rune before Morphling back your stats. That way, you are able to gain 100++ damage even though your level is still low.

Use StrMorph to combat DoTs � StrMorph is capable of neutralizing DoTs, making you kind of immune to them

Use Morph as your primary escape mechanism � don�t always use Waveform to escape; use Morph instead as its effect is instantaneous and its mana cost is much lower than Waveform. However, don�t forget to deactivate Morph later.

Morph works when you are silenced or disabled � Morph still works if it was activated before you was disabled. The same goes for Doom. Therefore, cast Morph in advance to survive through chain disables.

Morph uses only 20 mana a second � the mana cost is per second, not cast, so it is very mana efficient. Don�t be tricked by the false illusion that it uses lots of mana because your mana pool ticks down quickly. However, still be wary when using it, for when activated for a while, it would had consumed lots of mana.

Use AgiMorph to help you with your last-hitting � more agility means more damage and faster attack speed, and more damage and attack speed = easier last hits. However, only Morph tiny amounts (5 stats at most) or your hp pool with decease quickly.

Both your hp and maximum hp is affected by Morph � both of them (say 300/500) will decrease (to 100/300) and increase (to 500/700); use this fact to lure your enemy. In a 1 v 1 situation, right-click StrMorph then quickly deactivated it after a second. That way, your hp pool will remain more or less the same and your enemy would soon succumb to you. Note that this only works against semi-nukers (PotM, Tinker) who have powerful bursts but long cooldowns and poor auto-attacks (sorry, Mirana )

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

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	25	80 sec	700	N/A	30	Creates an Illusion of the target unit
2	25	80 sec	1100	N/A	45	Creates an Illusion of the target unit
3	25	80 sec	1500	N/A	60	Creates an Illusion of the target unit

Notes

When the Illusion is created, this skill is temporarily replaced by another skill (Morph Replicate} until the illusion disappears.
The replicate illusion deals 50% of the original's damage and receives 100% damage.
The replicate illusion has all the properties of a standard illusion.
Cannot target your own units.
For the purposes of this guide, I will call the illusion crested by Replicate Replica

Morph Replicate

__________

The Morphling morphs into his replicate, immediately taking its position.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	150	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	Immediately takes the position of the illusion
2	150	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	Immediately takes the position of the illusion
3	150	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	Immediately takes the position of the illusion

Notes

The Illusion disappears when you use this skill.

Skill Build

The Stats Build
Level 1. Waveform
Level 2. Stats
Level 3. Waveform
Level 4. Stats
Level 5. Waveform
Level 6. Replicate
Level 7. Waveform
Level 8. Morph
Level 9. Morph
Level 10. Adaptive Strike
Level 11. Replicate
Level 12. Adaptive Strike
Level 13. Morph
Level 14. Adaptive Strike
Level 15. Morph
Level 16. Replicate
Level 17. Adaptive Strike
Level 18 - 25. Stats

This build is typically for beginners. The extra stats help beginners to overcome their mana problems and farm better. Waveform is your primary nuke, lane-controlling skill and escape mechanism, and should therefore be leveled up first. Morph is leveled up 2 times after that so that Morphling can survive more brutal ganks. Adaptive Strike is then leveled up next for more nuking power and to complement your Ethereal Blade. Replicate is leveled up as soon as possible to prolong its duration.

Items Build

Starting Build
If you picked Morphling

3 Ironwood Branches for extra stats

Due to Morphling's base armour nerf, an RoP early is more like a necessity than a luxury. It helps improve your resistance towards physical harass (which is very common) and can be upgraded into a RoB later

To help you stay longer in lane

Mid Game

Rush this ASAP

Don't forget this

Get Sobi to complete RoB (remember to click RoB once)

Then get your wraith and bracer in lane (note that wraith automatically becomes Ring of Aquila

)

If you're the more gankaholic type, get

first for the ability to runewhore

Otherwise, get

Completed core

Post-Core Items
Get

IF :
* You can get it easily
* There aren't many nukers on the prowl
* There are quite some dps gankers (Riki, Slardar, Gondar, etc)
However, DON'T get IF :
* There are 3 heavy nukers or 4 spellcasters on the other team
* There are at least 3 Dagon users

Otherwise, get

IF :
* Your life/streak is threatened by nukers
However, DON'T get IF :
* There is almost no spellcaster on the other team

If not, then get

IF :
* Your team is pushing actively
* You need the extra ms (desperately) to escape gankers

Get an items to counter a particular problem (like BKB against disablers) then complete the rest.

Complete Core + Post-Core

Total Item Discusson
Morphling is a flexible carry, and his choice in items is numerous. Therefore, I want to have this discussion so that Morphling players don't buy the wrong items.

Don't get this items; they just suck on Morphling

Bonus damage is wasted on range heroes with poor base damage; just learn how to farm properly (it's easy once you get the hang on it)

What's sooo good about double blink?

You don't need the magic resistance; just get BKB

Learn how to de-spam and your mana will be fine

The regeneration and hp+mana increase is totally wasted

You are the (main)carry and shouldn't be absorbing the damage, though you can be extremely tanky

Definitely NOT for Morphling

It looks real nice right? But can you imagine Morphling carrying a nice shiny gold axe, cutting off people's head? Nope

You have to keep it activated at all times for the extra 475hp so that you can AgiMorph, but after you deactivate it, your hp will fall so fast, you'll die in a second

Why do you need the invisibility for? You can escape well yourself, and the suprise backstab won't help you much

You already have enough attack speed, and you'll just increase your fragility

Perhaps being invulnerable twice is awesome, but you wan to spend 2800 just for invulnerability? I rather spend 2500 on BoT and save the extra 300

Fine, it gives you more mana, some damage and attack speed, but so what? It's better to spend the 2200 gold on an Ultimate Orb, which also gives you an extra 10 agility and strength

Even if you're able to stun someone for 3 seconds, Necronomicon still doesn't complement you well at all

Stats are kinda wasted, and your ulti don't get upgraded at all

If you think you're soooo smart you can insta-gib two guys, wake up from your dream and realise the sheer mana cost to carry it out (375+165+100+50+165+100+50=1005 mana)

You're a semi-nuker, so the de-magic resist should work well for you, right?
Think again about the cost of the item and consider again

Nope

The attack speed is too much, and Chain Lightning is redundant.

FAQs on Items

Why do you place Buriza on "Excellent Items"? Melderv had written otherwise, with good reason, so why?

According to Melderv, "It's all you're going to build after you finish it, and you'll be inefficient if the game lasts any longer. It provides raw power, but not the survivability to take advantage of it." What he written is true, but he I feel otherwise. Supposing the game lasted for some time already. You want more dps, so you sold BKB/Linken and that compromised your survivability. BUT, you are already beefy yourself. With the typical build + Buriza, you'll have around 1900hp and that's beacuse you only have 1 base strength. Not forgetting your lifesteal from Satanic. If you dealt a 800 damage crit, you will lifesteal 200 hp! Therefore I feel that Morphling has the survivability to carry Buriza.
Why is Cranium Basher and Abyssal Blade rejected? The bash may come in handy in 1 v 1 fights, and it has the same chance to proc as Buriza. Not forgetting that Abyssal Blade gives you a colossal 100 damage and a nice 10 bonus strength.

"Come in handy in 1 v 1 fights?" Fine, stunning someone gives you a chance to attack more often, but Buriza gives you more dps than either Cranium Basher and Abyssal Blade. As said, you can score 800++ crits, and that's a real stunner (no pun intended)
Come on, give Maelstrom and Mjollnir a chance. I have tried it before on Morphling and it rocks! Why not?

Yeah, it rocks when you against AI bots. Maelstrom and Mjollnir doesn't give any survivability at all, and the attack speed is redundant.
Should I rush Skadi? After all, you said it is "the BEST item for Morphling". Nothing wrong with it right?

Generally, NO. It's rrreeeaaalllyyy difficult to farm Skadi, and by rushing Ethereal Blade, you will actually get more gold through kills. Skadi's slow helps you chase and kill too, but it's slower that way. However, rushing Skadi gives you tons of hp and survivability, making you real hard to kill.
Conclusion : No, but rush Skadi if the opposing team's carry might suddenly get all-powerful and farmed up, so you will need the extra hp.

Strategies

Item Strategy

The problem with Ethereal Blade is when you're in ethereal form, you're more susceptible to nukes, disables and silences.

Nukes - When you're in ethereal form, you take 40% extra magic damage. Which means if that Slayer/Lion managed to survive your combo, you'll be pwned in no time. Seriously

Disables - Some disables deal damage, some don't, but they all serve one purpose : disable you. When you're disabled in ethereal form, you can't use your full combo, so your damage is compromised.

Silences - When you're silenced AND in ethereal form, you're useless; you can neither attack physically nor use your spells. Fortunately, almost no silencing spell that deals damage.

Therefore, you must use BKB before using Ether Blast (Ethereal Blade's active) to prevent yourself from dieing stupidly.

= Map Control
1) Replicate any other hero (preferably someone with high ms) then tele home.
2) Send your Replica to some lane, while you go jungling or laning
3) When time's almost up, Morph Replicate

Remember, this neat little trick allows you to return to your fountain for some quick healing before going back to battle. Just make your Replica sit at the fountain!

Escaping

Ahhh, it's time to discuss "how to escape with Morphling". As I said before, Morphling has great survivability and can escape pretty easily. I'll try to list down as many escape routes as possible. Have fun reading!

A. Telemorph

Telemorph? What's that? That's teleporting with Morph Replicate. So... how do you do it?
- Replicate any hero you desire (R + Click)
- Morph Replicate immediately (Double tab R)
Do note Replicate's range (700, 1100 & 1500) and Morph Replicate's range (Global!) is totally different, so you might want to move your Replica somewhere else first before Morph Replicating. You can also scout around with your Replica. (be quick, for some ganker is hot on your heels)

B. WAIT... Give some time!

Say your BoT's cd is 10 seconds away. So what do you do? Buy some time! You can do so by :

B.1 Wait, i'm morphing...

Use StrMorph to increase the chances of your survivability. (while buying some time, of course)

B.2 Slow down a bit, can't you?

Remember, your target is slowed by a heavy 60% when you use Ether Blast on him.

B.3 GET AWAY FROM ME!!!

Use Adaptive Strike to push the enemy back and Waveform away. Do note that AS's pushback and stun duration is increased when your Strength's higher. Therefore, you might want to StrMorph a bit before using AS.

C. Waveform

Waveform makes you invulnerable; how do we exploit it?

Morphling the Morphling
Author: Mesothelioma
Map Vers.: 6.73c

The Complete Guide to Morphling

The Guide for Morphology

Date Posted: 06/29/11
Last Comment:29/06/2011
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