How the ♥♥♥♥ do I play Morphling? (7.21 Guide)

An In-Depth guide about Morphling, which teaches you how to play him, early-game, what build path to choose and how to deal with certain heroes.

Introduction

So, I guess you're here after playing a match or 2 as Morphling and you have no idea how the ♥♥♥♥ you play that hero...

Some of you may be asking: Why is he so weak? His winrate this patch is under 50%. How the hell do I play this hero properly?

Well, bois and girls, morph gay-mains and people who are interested in playing this hero, this is my guide on how to play Morphling properly (or like a pro player even if i cannot consider myself one). I am pretty skilled with Morph and I am doing this guide especially for one of my friends, but also for the Dota2 Community. Also, in case if you're wondering "Who is the creator of this guide? Does he even know how to play Morph? Yes, I do: http://prntscr.com/mcftar. Not a smurf btw.

Disclaimer: The guide contains swear words and really dumb "comedy". The guide is also about how to build items on morph and how to act in situations. I will not teach you how to use your Q or W properly or ♥♥♥♥ like that. That's for you to learn.

P.S: The guide is kinda long, but it covers almost everything you should know, so take your time my dude. GLHF

1. Early game, Starting items and Basics

-Early game is sometimes the time where you are so afraid of taking damage you will have to spam ping your support in order to make the enemies stop attacking you.

-For the start I recommend you to go for these items:


-Make sure to go for your attribute shift at level 1 so you can gain some damage. Try to stay at 62 dmg so that you can farm and not be too squishy. As morph lvl 1 you should avoid fighting, you are very weak in the beginning. Only go for it if your supports have long stuns.

-What morph needs is a supp which doesn't stay behind the tower like a ♥♥♥♥♥ and actually helps you deal with the enemies. Use the tangos with your branches to make sure you stay alive in lane.

-First thing you want to do is to farm. Make the circlets into wraith bands and now you got some nice dmg! It's time to farm more! Go for kills only if the offlaner makes a mistake or if you're sure you can do it without dying.

-What you want to do next is to max your attribute shift and your adaptive strike. DO NOT MAX WAVEFORM. It sucks, and if you miss it you lose 300 damage which you could deal to the enemy, also maxing this ability to farm faster isn't a bad idea by the way, it still uses a lot of mana though. Having adaptive strike helps you deal more damage and cancel channels like tps. Don't use the stun if the enemies don't channel something or try to hunt you.

-If you are 1v1 against the offlaner since the supports are playing on top or mid, then go for ulti lvl 6. Against a centaur and axe this is actually great and can grant you a free kill, also the opportunity to 1v1 the ♥♥♥♥. Do not fight them too much before finishing treads, you will not hurt them that much.

-If you got these items by minute 15 then you are doing great! (P.S Dragon Lance is a personal preference, you don't have to buy it). You can also go jungle once you got morbid mask and farm at an incredible speed without dying.

- Also, a quick tip: When do you go full agi? Well, most of the times, but dont go full agi as long as they got pudge and centaur, you dont want to get oneshotted. I recommend you to stay around 1k hp, cuz with treads you will be able to farm nicely and give you the chance to run away if something happens.

2. Magical or Physical?

-I see many pros going for the E-Blade + W shotgun build, it's a good build for Morphling MID, NOT SAFELANE MY DUDE. If you make the huge mistake of rushing Linkens and then E-Blade on safelane carry morph then you can make sure your team is going to have a bad time. If they cannot deal with the enemy it's a lost match, if they deal well with the enemy then you're useless af. It will take you 10K GOLD to go online, and that sucks. However, if you're Midlane, then magic build can DOMINATE your enemies. Firstly finish Treads, get your 2 Wraith Bands (or even 3 since you're mid), Bottle *personal choice, tons of regen* and a Morbid Mask. Next go for SaY or Manta AND THEN go Linkens. The amount of protection you got from these items is huge, you will be really hard to catch.

-I rarely see people in pubs go for physical build which is made out of Morbid Mask, Dragon Lance, Manta, Treads and Wraith Bands in early-mid game. Let me tell you why physical build is AMAZING. Firstly, Morbid Mask after Treads gives you the chance to stop being babysitted, it lets your support go and gank other lanes, since you can just stay full agi and afk farm jungle, or stay alive in lane by farming creeps and abusing the offlaner. Going Dragon Lance allows you to have more Str, Agi. and a bigger attack range. The item is so amazing on Morph since he has a ♥♥♥♥ attack range, and many heroes like Axe can abuse Morph's small attack range. The next item you go for is Yasha which builds into SaY or Manta. Manta is always the superior choice here because you can purge tons of debuffs from you and makes you harder to deal with, also the illusions hit hard and push nicely.

3. Mid-Late Game

- Let's say your team is doing nice because you can deal with the enemies nicely, congrats! Time to get your next item: Eye of Skadi / Black King Bar. How do I decide which one I get? If the enemy team goes long stuns and magical damage combo then you're in a lot of trouble, cuz a simple manta will not be enough to keep you alive, you NEED that BKB to be able to fight without getting focused by the enemy team.

- If the enemy team has a hard time focusing you, then go for Skadi. The item is SO AWESOME, it allows you to ♥♥♥♥ THAT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ PHANTOM ASSASSIN ♥♥♥♥ , slow her to DEATH and finish her with Adaptive Strike. Also going in with your lvl 20 Talent "Waveform Attacks Targets" then you can just go through all of your enemies and slow them while they try to run away from you. The item also gives you AWESOME stats, a ton of mana and hp! Also, if you got Skadi and Morbid then you can just 1v1 rosh. Just go somewhere the enemies have no vision, waveform inside the roshpit and be a total ninja.

- Also, let's not forget, you can sell one of your wraith bands once you got the skadi, since it will just stay in your backpack otherwise.

4. Late game

- If you're physical go satanic, you will have around 2k HP while being full agi. The status resistance you gain is really good, it makes undispellable debuffs last less, such as AA's ulti which everyone hates. The active of satanic will just fully heal you in 2-3 hits. You can also use the active and then waveform in your enemies, you will be insta-healed (if you have the "Waveform Attacks Targets" Talent).

- If you're magical I suggest you to go for something like a butterfly if you can abuse E-Blade. The movement speed, the agi and the evasion you gain from the item is really cool.
Remember: if one-shotting doesn't work well anymore, you can disassemble the E-Blade and make your Butterfly faster. Like this you can save money and you can adapt to the situation with another item.

5. Situational

- How do I deal with Faceless Void? Vision, Manta, Skadi, Satanic, Butterfly, relying on your team etc. Dealing with Void isn't hard, a talented Morph can do it with ease.

- How do I deal with Lion? Simple, go whatever build you wish, but stay above 1k hp and then increase your HP with items or just do it with attribute shift. Just avoid getting oneshotted. Do exactly the same if you're mid against one.

- How do I deal with Lina? Ban her LOL. Jk, try to go BKB, Linkens and avoid getting stunned by her.
Also laning against a Lina on mid is tough. Get a bottle, it may help. Infused raindrops as well, but equip them when you want to fight her. Remember to juke her stun, that will leave her defenseless.

- How do I deal with AA? Dodge his ulti, run away or just try to avoid taking damage. DON'T SHIFT ATTRIBUTES, IT WILL NOT WORK AND YOU WILL HAVE NO CHANCE TO ESCAPE IF YOU SURVIVE THE ULTI. You will basically lose ALL the HP you get from shifting. Try to build some more strength as well so you will still be able to fight if you have to.

- How do I deal with Bristleback? If you go Magical get a Magic Stick, if you're Physical just ignore him and hit the creeps until you get so many stacks on you that you can't deal with it anymore, you will waste the guy's mana and time, and you will keep farming and then run away with waveform. Just be careful tho, if someone ganks your lane right at that time and you are confident enough to tank bristle you will end up dying probably. Also dont focus him in late, you can't do ♥♥♥♥ against him alone. Try to go behind him and kill his team while he is trying to keep your team away.

- How do I deal with TiNkEr? Manta, vision and maybe Shotgun Build. Also BKB if he is a ♥♥♥ late game when u try to push HG. Also take care early game, he will one-shot you with ease. Infused raindrops and morphing into him may help you 1v1 the guy. Some "Tinker-Wards" will help you kill him.

- How do I deal with Axe? From axe's call you will take more damage from his passive than from blademail, since you got a lot of armor, you will not take too much damage. Having lifesteal is nice, also having vision is pretty sweet. And be careful, magic build users, E-Blade may kill axe but it can also kill YOU *via Blademail*.

6. Talent path?

I suggest you going for the waveform range. It allows you to gank, initiate and escape easier.





The attack speed is so great, it will help you farm and kill faster.





The talent you choose here depends on the situation. However, the "Waveform attacks targets" one is more reliable and usually the one I'm going for. Still, having a double invoker combo is amazing.





Go for the "2 Waveform Charges". It helps you deal more damage, be incredibly mobile, hard to catch and push creep waves really hard.

7. Conclusion

It's gonna be hard to get to master Morph, I had to feed a lot and buy blademail on morph and do so much dumb stuff to get to learn this hero. Now he is a comfort pick for me and even if they have heroes that counter me, I learned how to deal with them and the match is always winnable. Go ahead, play the guy, LEARN him. Playing some turbos, unranked or even against bots can help. I wish you guys good luck and fun while learning morphling.

Update: 7.21 is out and I decided to update the guide a bit as well. Thanks for the suggestions.

Feel free to ask me anything in the comment section! I can take any kind of criticism in order to make this guide better.

Update: It's patch 7.21d, meta is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up so hard rn I dont even know if I should buy midas and atos on morph. I will update the guide by a lot when the new patch comes up.

[friendly]

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[Voxy]

OMG! Thank you for maiking this guide!!!!.. It really changed my life...., After reading this guide i went straight from crusader to anceitn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am relaly gald that you have made this guyide.... but after reading it around 9 times both vertically and horizontally, upside down and downside up.., i still couldnt fgigure out who the fuck asked

[Taimo]

Hey, really surprised people still check this guide. Thanks for the feedback! You really got a point. I sent you a friend request, we can definitely have a talk :)

[nyer]

Hello, not sure if you're still replying to this guide but here are my two cents as being a scrub who only spams Morphling.

Overall, very valid points made and very comprehensive! Definitely shows that you have a good grasp of the hero and you show that you can itemize properly against enemy lineups. However, especially in the Legend > Divine bracket, The physical build, while absurdly strong in the lategame and is extremely hard to counter, requires a lot of time, money and an extremely passive role in the first 30 minutes of the game. I'd prefer picking Morphling when the entire draft has heroes that have powerful non-ultimate abilities and rushing an Aghanims Scepter to abuse them. I'd love to have a nice chat with you about Morphling in particular though, as Morphling has gotten more complex over the patches, and I can't really explain more than the word count limits in a single comment.

[Taimo]

Hey, thank you for your comment, I know the meta has changed a lot, new morph builds are viable like rushing skadi or buying diffusal blade. I haven't really checked out Solar Crest but I might try it.

[SiStapotAtis]

Real hero, <3

[Schulti mit Sahne]

oh ye and solar crest can be sometimes good aswell if you play vs low armor heroes. gives you massive damage and some minor mana regen + stats, some utility capabilities, (save your teammate during a chrono by giving him some armor) and you can disassemble it later on for a skadi/linkens

[Schulti mit Sahne]

Great guide, allthough i think the talents are more situational, the Multiple adaptive strike one works Epic with grimstrokes ulti, you'll end up casting 2-4 Adaptive strikes on 4 targets. aswell as the waveform range is situational, good vs heroes like invoker or sniper that are sitting far behind the enemy team in fights, otherwise you can go for the +10 agi, but thats just my opinion and depends on how good you are with positioning/situational awareness

[Taimo]

Hey there! Ty for the comment, it really makes me happy to see that my guide helped someone understand the hero better. Also, thanks for the in-depth feedback, it really means a lot to me. If you got a question about morph which I didn't mention in the guide feel free to PM me.

[***Lord***]

Hey Taimo! the way you wrote it and then taking the shitty criticism, I really like you. I have been to 3K and still your knowledge at 2K is very good for me. You went in to good enough depth. The guys who saying something about your MMR are shitheads and the ones talking about your less than 500 games... I have 250 or so games on Axe, LC, sniper, PA and jugg and I am so at ease with these heroes that I can lane against people with 2K MMR more than me. Your guide helped me a lot in learning basics but the problem still is the control in shifting attributes which needs at least 50 games to have some sense of and probably 100 more to feel comfortable with. I wrote this all to appreciate you and FUCK haters. You go!