Ruthless Morphling

A guide to unlocking Morphling's full potential.

Introduction

Welcome to my Morphling guide. Here I'll show you how I usually play Morphling and what I think is the best strategy.

Morphling is an amazing hero, but difficult to play and even harder to master. Usually he is underestimated and people, especially in pubgames, might get angry when you pick him.

To start off with, Morp is a carry and a tank. His kit allows him to play incredibly ruthlessly. Even more than Timber(which oddly enough is a very samelike hero, but with more limited carrying potential). This is a common mistake I see Morp players make. Morp is not suppose to be played as your usual carry, and should not be afraid to engage for his team whenever and wherever possible.

Morphling goes mid for he needs the xp badly. He's a mediocre ganker, so you might want to just farm mid for as long as you can(unless the sidelanes really need help). Midlane he has somewhat killing potential as he can be very punishing towards mistakes such as diving or ruthless playing by your enemy midlaner. You can often bait the enemy into a 1v1 battle where you simply morp yourself into STR and then finish him off with your Waveform.

Late and midgame Morp is a tank and a nuker. He also has some serious DPS output when he get's the chance to use it. He scales well into lategame but is outcarried by heroes such as Void or Spectre. Compare his carrying power to Magina as you will.

How to play and advanced strategies

To start off with, how do we play Morp?

Well. Morp is to be played passively early game, so he can get himself some basic items. Midgame, as he has his mana regen going, he can be played extremely ruthlessly. His morp ability allows him to survive almost any sticky situation. Remember Morp can be used during stuns!

What should we be afraid of? Only silences bother Morp. You should have no fear of anything but silences. Silences do not only disallow you to morp, but also prevent you from jumping to your illusion. If used properly silences are a real bother and should be avoided wherever possible.

Advanced strategies

Morp is a hero who excels at baiting and initiating. His damage output is serious throughout the entire game. He cannot be ignored and thus will be focused when the enemy get's the chance to.
Baiting enemies into 1v1 mid is something that is easily done, and should be done when possible. Not before level 3 though.

Morphing into STR weakens your damage output, but it's often enough to take the enemy down to 20%(he will continue to attack you as he sees your hp drop to about 20%, where it get's stuck due to STR morp). He may then be finished off by Waveform.

When diving into a very dangerous battle as first man in your team, it might be clever to activate STR morp in advance. So when you get silenced, your STR morp will continue.

Build

The build can be found here
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=279234994

Bloodstone is a waste of gold, why bother getting it?
It is not, by any means, a waste of gold. The stats it grants are superior. The extra hp and hp regen are very useful for Morphling has little of both when morphing to AGI. This item allows you, as only item ingame(otherwise it has to be done in combination with other items to create the same amount of mana regen) to spam your spells without consequences. Which is something Morp should do at all times.

Why is there so little DPS in your build?
There is not. Getting plain damage is a good thing for Morphling as his attackspeed is already very high. Therefor Phase boots are a good pick. Definitely considering his low base damage.

Why shivas? Shouldn't this be built on tanks and initiators
Yes. and that's why we build it on Morp. Morp is both a tank and an initiator. The armor it grants is core midgame, and therefor it has a good buildup.

Why don't you rush Ethereal blade? I want to 1shot people as soon as I can!
Goodluck playing campaign mode. Your team needs Morphling as an actual teammate, not as a selfish ♥♥♥♥ who cares for nothing but kills. Never EVER rush Ethereal blade, it's a fantastic item to finish off enemies, but it's no more than that and is by no means a core item.

This build is odd, I hate it ♥♥♥♥ you
Well it's not. This build focuses on mana regen and overall usefulness. Morp is much like Timber, he needs mana regen, but when he has it he's pretty much going to be a pain in the ass nomatter what he builds next. Morp is to be player ruthlessly and this build allows him to. He's one of the best soloqueu picks in the entire game, for he's not at all team reliant.

Videos of me playing Morp with this build

<To be updated>