I would be happy to tell my wall of text thoughts but i last time i got called captain tryhard...
Popular pub opinion is that he requires too much work. Teamwork. And stuff.
He's possibly the most powerful carry if you are really good with him. And I've seen it pulled off. But in pubs I usually hate when he is picked, most pub players are awful with him. All I know is you need retarded levels of farm and have to use your replicate to escape and split push.
Hero is hard, requires a lot and good teamwork is KEY.
I'm not gonna write a lot about the hero cause I'm rather inexperienced with him, but I think you shouldn't try him.
Even if you do I'm sure you'll stop after some few games.
At least play with party with competent players if you wan to try =)
@skolder
ok. Give me up to few hours-day (depends on how lazy/busy i am) and i will find my old writings about morph and i will give you tips on how to play him in solo queue. I was lucky enough to get him six-slotted few times. Even in solo queue. There are no bad hero for pubs. Dont get scared if someone says that hero is hard and should be avoided.
@blackwolf
Thanks. I'm not really afraid of playing any hero. My fav right now is AM and I'm doing quite decently with him even when my team is n00b. Would really like learn some other carries since this is my 2nd role I play besides solo offlane.
Morphling is a hero which needs atleast one another person with you to make the required plays. I'll give you an example.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/661504578
noob tream. shitty two stack doesn't know what they are doing. retarded sven and a good crystal maiden who is blamed at everything. cant do much. ggwp
http://dotabuff.com/matches/660740414
we start at a huge disadvantage with our Earthshaker coming into the game after 5-6 mins, and our axe disconnecting which leaves our primary carry (faceless void) pretty much high and dry. awesome ganks carried out by mirana and me as we execute co-ordinated ganks and split pushes, making room for void to take the jungle.
the thing is, morphling can, at most, clean up 2-3 heroes with ethereal, linkens. after that its the team.but a fully farmed morph can take down the whole team if played rightly (Manta/Daedlus,Skadi,Ethereal,Butter,linkens, BoT)
Ah... the days where I used to go mid with Morph.
Those stomps.
Its always been my opinion to use Morphling where he shines, the mid game. I never understood the concept of sacrificing his huge mid game potential to turn him into one of the weaker hard carries.
mid morph is pretty solid imo, against everybody other than heavy spamming nukers (QoP) even though he can survive almost any gank with str morph. i usually go wraith band>boots>aquilla and ring of health>drums>treads>perse>linkens/Helm Of Dominator(if farm is bad)>ethereal>manta/skadi/butter while maxing my third and first skill
It is solid.
These were all solo mids. I gave up Morph a long time ago though. If you're wondering about the changelog for Morph, he's scales better late now. The difference between Morph now and then:
1. Waveform has 55 less Aoe.
2. Higher cast point.
3. Higher BaT
4. Base damage lowered by 6.
honestly, i dont care :3 i love morphling. Its just that i can get the farm better than most carry players that i play with.
I don't think he requires a lot of teamwork, He just needs a decent mid-game semi-carry (mirana, slark, etc) and a team willing to make room for him while he split pushes. Even if that's not the case, with some basic farm (PT + RoA/Drums + Yasha) he's able to contribute to teamfights much earlier than other farm oriented carries like AM or Spectre.
When i pick morph my team usually goes some carries like void who needs babysitting so i usually go offlane with morph.In my opinion morph can harass enemy carry and support a little also has good escaped mechanism and survivalibilty.Of course safe lane farm morph is best morph
Morph is my favorite hero and he belongs mid lane, levels are insane and bottle crowing is a necessity if you aren't rushing linkens
Morph mid is lame. Whats even lamer is Bottle crowing. It shouldn't be in the game and I think its a tasteless technique. There are always a few things that HON got better than dota and not allowing bottle crowing was one of them.
is sny good on morph? technically ulti orbs aren't that effective as you don't need that much int but sny gives both str and agi and improves his shitty ms so
Ok. On topic, from your personal experience, where is it best to lane him, his early skill build and what items to rush when you're doing good/bad?
best laned mid/safe-lane
max first and third, starting with a point in the third skill generally.
buy wraith band and tangoes. then make aquilla>bracers and ring of health>boots>treads>drums and helm of the dominator>perse>linkens>ethereal>manta/skadi/butter/satanic,yadayadayada
the reason morphling's win rate sucks ass in pubs is
1) most pubs (> 99%) have no idea how/when to farm decently
2) most pubs don't play him aggressively
won't get into #1, but i can say for #2 that if ur not using waveform to harass your opponent in lane, you're playing this hero wrong (unless you're against an impossible lane like lich + viper while ur support is doing nothing)
there's other reasons such as not having a flexible item build (don't build eb against naix + pudge + huskar lineup), not replicating/morphing properly, etc. i'm curious who's the top 50 morphling since this hero does take a bit of practice to master and has a pretty high skill cap compared to something like phantom lancer
Morphing. High skill floor and high skill ceiling, arguably best ranged illusion hard carry (screw medusa) with great flashfarming and splitpushing abilities on top of top tier escapes. Oh; and anticarry. Also known as "useless water" by most people.
In this guide i will give my opinion based upon experiences and testing and inflienced by 4.5-6k mmr players that i spoke to and other guide creators.
Some things can be shunned upon lower mmr players but i will try my best.
Pros:
*unlike most other hard carries morphling has great chances of killing someone early game due to nasty nukes/rightclick and then becomes a force to be reconed with by midgame with one or two big items and total destroyer by lategame.
*good solo roshan hero (no one expects it)
*gets online little faster than other hard carries
*fluid when it comes to choosing a lane and build
*morph works through stuns/hexes/silences
*low-ish cooldown nukes
*safe carry option to pick.
*GREAT stat gain per level
Cons:
*easy to counter(pick) him
*easy to shut-down because morph is very timing dependant hero
*should be treated as melee hero due to bad range
*squishy
*requires great knowledge/experience of carry role to play (not easy as 1st carry hero) - he should be built for every game differently as he is situational carry.
*requires solid early game/semicarries to reach late game without many sacrifices
*slow movespeed
*costly nukes
*weak laning stage
*silences totally wreck him
*wonky atack animation you might need to get used to.
All that being said; if you want to perform well with morphling, you should get 95% of last hits in uncontested lane. Also; being good at juking is highly adviced with morph. You can find tons of juking guides here:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/610657-dota-2/68336776
When to pick morphling:
*if your team has heroes/semicarries or even carries that can carry you through for at least 20minutes
*if you want to splitpush (enemies have little counterpush or you cant win teamfights)
*if you (have another) or enemies have good carry
*if enemies have 2-3 squiahy targets you can burst (if you are going eblade)
Don't pick morphling if enemies :
*have lots of silences or are known to build orchid malevolence
*are going for early push strat
*if most enemies have good move speed
*if you have to fight illusion heroes like naga/ck/phantom lancer
Let's look at morphling skills:
1)waveform. Low cd (11sec) strong (325dmg) aoe long range (1000) nuke that can be used as gapcloser, escape or even initiation. High mana cost. (140/155/160/165)
2)adaptive strike. One if the best lategame nukes (requires tons of agi). Offers ministun if you go agi. And long range (900) low cd (10s) generous ranged stun (3secs) if you go str (no farm needed).
While it gains little damage per levels; it is inadviced to level this spell early. Situational pickup if you need to cancel some spells/tps (you lane partner has no (mini)stun)
Also; you can push people on cliffs with str adaptive strike :D
3)morph. Better heal than heart. At lvl 7. During combat.
0.2shift rate with 2points per shift. 10str/sec=190 hp/sec heal.
Can be used to get agi for jungling/ethereal blade
This spell is so stupid ot even works in stun and CHRONOSPHERE. Even if you get silenced/hexed DURING morph (spell cant be silenced) you will continue to morph, but you cant stop it.
4) replicate. Highly versatile spell. Use it for fast farming, escaping, baiting, chasing, splitpushing, fightning, safe initiation (get out of a jail card) and free damage/stun sponge-ragdoll.
Illusions have 100% hp of original target but only 50% damage
Best targets for replicate are aura or passive, radiance/diffusal/gem carriers:
Axe, brewmaster, legion commander, elder titan, broodmother, spectre, antimage, phantom lancer, medusa/drow etcm, fed carries or heroes with tons of stats.
Special mention to axe: if your friend/teammate Can pick axe and stack camps and you replicate him and his illusion just counter helix the creeps; netting you extra tons of gold.
How to build morphling:
There are two popular ways of building him:
1)carry morph (stat morphster)
2)pseudo gank support/initiator supporphling. (not a 5# ward b****!)
1) is the traditional carry playstyle way. 2) uses the reasoning that adaptive strike str version doesnt require items (like waveform) and has looong range for such long duration stun.
How to lane morphling:
If you play him as carry you should either put him in mid lane (more on this later), defensive safe trilane or even aggressive/defensive duo safe lane (in pubs you most often see 2-1-2.
While morph indeed have chances of killing someone with his nukes, due to his poor laning it is adviced to run defensive, and not aggro trilanes/duo lanes.
I cant comment on supporphling (as i am not a fan of it, but he works) but in theory he can solo offlane. RTZ done it:
www.twitch.tv/sing_sing/b/450408769?t=3m10s
www.twitch.tv/sing_sing/b/450418442
How to skill morphling:
1)if you play him as carry, level morph-waveform-morph/wavefom (until both are maxed, but it is recommeded to max waveform earlier)-then level ult-max adaptive strike.
Basically put one point in morph, then waveform>morph>ult>adaptive strike. You can get ult at level 6if you wanna replicate some axe or tp to base, escape some nasty ganker. Most of the time you want to level ult at lvl 9.
Like: morph-waveform-waveform-morph-waveform-morph-waveform-morph-replicate-adaptive-adaptive-ult-adaptive-adaptive-stats-ult
Or
Morph, waveform, morph, waveform,
Morph, waveform, morph, waveform, ult, adaptive, adaptive, ult, adaptive, stats, ult (if you have troubles last hitting)
If you are totally bad/having hard time, then you can leave waveform at lvl 1 and max morph and put stats but this is highly inadvised.
2) for supporphilng i heard that you put one level in morph and max waveform/adaptive strike.
How to build morph items:
(this info is little outdated -branches cost less, you get more starting gold and tangoes heal/cost more. But ideas stay the same)
Morph is situational carry - his role depends upon what items you build. And morph should be more of less built differently in every game.
1)Max stats : 3 branches, slipper of agi, circlet, tango. That leaves you 31 gold left and gives you 5str, 8agi, 5int, 460hp worth of regen
My favourite build. Helps with lasthitting problems.
2)armor start: ring of protection, circlet, 3branches, tango. That leaves you 6gold left and gives 5 of all stats, 2 armor and 460hp worth of regen
3) fast aquila : ring of protection, slipper of agility, 3x branches, tango. Leaves you most vulnerable but allows for faster aquila. Gives 2armor, 3x str, 6agi, 3int, 460hp worth of regen.
Was highly reccomended by one 5k guy
4)fast wand : magic stick, 2x branch, circlet, tango. 4x all stats, stick charges in lane, 460hp worth of regen. Leaves you 34 gold ans lets you get wand in 1-2 min. But stealing courier from mid is bad! Only viable if there is no bottle mid (invoker, od, lone druid and etc). Also; often wand is bad item to rush (except for spammy heroes) - stick is enough
5)pooled start: 2x tango ir tango+salve + 3x branches, circlet. Gives 5x of all stats and 920hp worth of regen if you go 2x tango and 860 if you go tango+salve. 2x tango leaves you 56g and tango+salve leaves 66.
I recommend going for max stats build for good mix of damage and health. If you are against smart opponents (3tangoes sre never enough in pro scene) or expect a difficult lane opponents then go for pooled build.
We buy so many starting items because we dont want to go to lane with 300hp :D
In lane you should have ring of health|>persevance OR bottle, ring of aquila and brown boots.
Magic wand is situational, but greatly helps.
Even if most people say that morph is one of the linken trio heroes (weaver, medusa, morph) in reality it is not a total core.
Chinese proven that bkb can be built in place of linkens. Besides, there are compositions you dont need linkens.
Check my tips and guides thread for linkens/bkb spell countering atticles to know for yourself.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/610657-dota-2/68336776
Heck; in some games you want to get both (playing in a stack; low bracket) :D
http://dotabuff.com/matches/625732668
As a rule of a thumb; you mostly get bkb to counter feedback/am mana burn for starters.
Then instead of persevance you buy bottle for sustain and build one of the big items: eblade/butterfly/skadi.
I personally tend to disagree with skadi as 1st big item- while item itself is cost efficient; it is not great 1st item. I can see it only against bkb/avatar heroes or/and if you have manta (manta orbs).
Ok; now i have totally confused you :D
Usually you always want to have aquila and boots (optional wand). Then, depending if you get linkens or not you either buy persevance or bottle. If you had a great start; you can get midas - it is great on morph. Then, you either build linkens>manta or persevance>manta>linkens if you dont go eblade.
If you go eblade; you try to get it ASAP. i saw xbost getting treads and eblade on 12 min. In mid lane you can get it by ~14min. But then you ask - how about midas? Linkens?
This is up for you to decide. In reality, you want to get eblade fast because once enemies (mostly supports) get bkb or fat; your eblade becomes useless. But you also want linkens to not to die from 1 nuke :D
Decisions, decisions...
I tried linkens into eblade (get both by ~25min or earlier), boots into eblade (get it no less than by 17min. With axe trick you can get it few minutes faster). I saw high level players going midas into eblade (got it by 16-19mins). Straight eblade rush worked out the best.
Im not gonna lie to you - eblade morph was the most fun i had gotten out of any hero. And i had finished a-z challenge for comparison. But most of the time manta build is better and safer bet. With better buildup.
Back on eblade - try to get it if you are having a good start. Don't be afraid of buying ghost scepter first instead of eaglesong - stats help and you get one extra escape. Once your rightclicks become strong, you dont want to wait 4s to start killing - it is often adviced to dissasemble eblade into butterfly. But if you want, you can keep it. +40agi is scary.
Usually you want to go eblade if you go midlane. Speaking of mid lane. You want to start with wraith band components and little regen. Get bottle, finish wraith band, brown boots and get fast 14min eblade. >:D
What sucks that i found out that enemies often escape (sinply outrun you or stun and outrun you) if they survive full shotgun combo due to low morph movespeed.
Morph usually loses mid lane to most heroes; maybe escapt some melee mid heroes. I suggest that you read some mid lane guides i had linked to in "tips and guides megathread"
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/610657-dota-2/68336776
Think of morph as of shadow fiend : you are farming mid BUT you can gank. Morph has rune controll spell (waveform) so if you see a good chance and/or rune, go for it. But stay in lane for the most of the time. Clock is ticking.
Now there comes the part where most 3k pubbies will rage (no offence, i prefer to listen to advanced players). "if morph is bad mid hero, why put him here?". This is new meta. Farming carries in mid with bottlecrow. Midlane is safest lane and morph already have bad laning as it is.
This is probably the best option for him. But in pubs you most often will duo/trilane.
Ok; now back to other items.
Now; eblade morph
Is usually played as a ganker.
But if you dont like eblade or cant make it in time then go manta style. It fixes his movespeed problems, adds silence dispell option (2main cons fixed!) and gives you insane splitpushing ability. Morph illusions are best in game. Also; manta morph can teamfight a little by midgame; unlike eblade morph.
Then probably the best item after manta (linkens/bkb) is butterfly. Eye of skadi, satanic is nice item to finish the package.
Most people are against early helm of dominator (hur durr small lifesteal) but if you had a rough early game, you can jungle with it if you pump
Tons of agi (get your jungle warded and be afraid of smoke ganks if enemies are missing!). Also, you can rosh with few items and hod. And if i am not mistaken, you can use boots of travel on dominated creeps for even more splitpish (atleast in wc3 dota you could)
Heart, daedalus, monkey king bar, rapoer are situational late game items.
While daedalus increase your dps a lot; it doesnt add survivability or helps illusions.
Mkb might be gotten against phantom assasin.
Drums of endurance, sange and yasha , diffusal blade are situational early game items
Drums let you participate in fights earlier. Decent item if you had crap start.
Sny should be gotten on very rare
Occasions - 99/100 times manta is better for him.
Diffusal can be gotten as early game orb but it has few drawbacks:
1)ranged manta illusions cant use feedback
2) you cant get skadi+satanic orbs if you go diffusal
Saw someone suggesting bloodstone. I was like "wtf". Never tried it. Maybe some chinese run it....
2)afaik supporphling builds mana boots. Maybe drums, too?
Build examples:
Ganking eblade morph:
Treads-eblade-bkb/linkens-butterfly/manta-satanic
Splitpushing manta morph:
Boots-persevance-manta-linkens-helm of dominator-boots of travel-skadi/butterfly
Then ofc you can build whatever you like - even max stats treads-eblade-linkens-manta-butterfly-skadi morphling. I just gave you list of items. You should think how to build this FLUID hero :D
Just make sure you get one big item FAST, two items before 25-30mins and be ready to fight with 3-4items by 35-40mins.
Morphling supports:
If you make trilane, witch doctor+crystal maiden works wonders. But other defensive supports like bane, treant, dazzle, abbadon, jakiro work too. Having supper aggressive midder like nightstalker or pudge, viper ensures enemies being kept busy for first 20mins of game. Offlaner like natures prophet to assist in ganks and jungler like axe to replicate help greatly; too.
If you can only afford one support (pubs duo lane) ask for a healer like warlock, dazzle, witch doctor; disabler or strong laner like vengeful spirit, venomancer, disruptor, crystal maiden. Io and kotl is great, too. My favourite suppports are witch doctor, venomancer, crystal maiden, vengeful spirit. Aa is great if you shoutgun someone.
If you go mid, then treant and kotl, chen helps a lot.
How to play morph: in fountain morph agi until you get 55-56 dmg.
If possible (it doesnt put you into danger), then use waveform to ks. You are carry, you need the gold.
While it is good to walk in more agi form; dont walk around with 1str (unless you shoutgun) - have at least as much hp as your squishy support does (for comparison). If you are atacking someone; morph str. It looks like you are low hp but it stays the same... And anemy is taking damage and dies.
If you cant catch enemy, replicate him and ult again to use it as pseudo gap closer.
If enemies are chasing you, split ways with replicate. If they chase you, then ult again.
Waveform through threes/cliffs to escape.
Juke+waveform while they walk in circles around trees.
How to shotgun:
Morphling who doesnt cast during waveform:
-waveform in to shotgun someone
-gets hexed the moment it ends and dies, trading kills at best
Morphling who can cast during waveform:
-waveform and shotgun + replicate away before it ends
-squishy hero dies, no way to respond
Basically you waveform someone and while you are waveforming you throw eblade before waveform hits, then you adaptive strike them and replicate out just when you hit them with waveform if they are with teammates. If not, then rightclick him if he is alive.
Morphling tips:
If you will teleport to your Replicate during the wave, it will look like Morph just got dissolved.
During the wave we can see through the trees on close range around morph.
If you will activate Town Portal Scroll during the waveform, teleports model will be on the spot where you started your wave, but morph will be on the end point, that can confuse your enemy a lot.
You can use abilities and items during Wave Form. (if you havent read already).
ALWAYS CARRY A TP. It is a must for every hero; but for morph it is even more needed. I escaped hundreds if ganks by waveforming into trees and laughing at them while tping.
Also; if you are in lane, leave replicate so you can get back there like ember. Or just leave replicate and walk back to base without tp. Always leave replicate in safe position so in case of random gank you can escape.
Notable enemies (besides aforementioned illusion/manaburners/silencers:
Ancient apparition, doom, queen of pain.
Some of pro players who play morph (spectate them): Zhou, aiui2000
fell asleep while making a guide...
Melody please dont ban me for tryharding :D
Might have forgotten few things... If you have more questions; then ask so.
Oh; and i often see cm+morph+aquilla / morph+kotl fail because morph just waveforms with that mana into 1-2 enemies and dies (even woth morph). If you can; try walking around enemies or waveformong from side - so that you waveform to your tower and not to enemy tower location. if enemies have low hp (50% or less in LANING stage) then go full rambo and waveform to them and right click! Just think smart, be carefull.
@sir
dont laugh... Got banned once for things (walls of text) like that.
Still; what did i wrote wrong??? :/
In some forums i make friends (And we trade knowledge) ; in others - enemies. One sided enemies. Depends how personally they take my advice.
If anything, you can fill out what i left out/said wrong :p
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Yellow everyone. Me again. What are your thoughts on Morphling, when is he viable, what lane, which item builds and what skill build. Would really like to get to know how to play this guy more since he seems kind of fun but I need some advice first.
Thanks