Morphling is a carry hero who is notoriously difficult to kill in the mid and late game if you don’t have heroes that can deal with him and if played well. His ability to naturally shift attributes between agility and strength makes him capable of dealing, or soaking, tremendous amounts of damage. Attribute Shift does not allow for stat shifting from stats provided by items.
For these reasons, Morphling usually buys as many stat items as possible, to make up for what he lacks when fully shifted either agility or strength. Waveform and Attribute Shift are maxed firstly as they make you much harder to kill in the mid game and allow you to move in and out of fights almost entirely freely.
@ Valve
[/column]What Skills to Build on Morphling
- Attribute Shift
- Waveform
- Waveform
- Attribute Shift
- Waveform
- Attribute Shift
- Waveform
- Attribute Shift
- Morph
- Talent
- Adaptive Strike
- Morph
- Adaptive Strike
- Adaptive Strike
- Talent
- Adaptive Strike
- –
- Morph
Read Also: Is Dota 2 Dying?
Morphling surges forwards, becoming invulnerable and dealing damage to any enemies he passes. You should max Waveform first because it gives you the most kill potential in the early game. If your lane opponent isn’t present or if you have a free-farming lane, you can instead max Attribute Shift. You can use Waveform to disjoint or dodge projectiles such as Storm Hammer or Homing Missile. When aiming Waveform, target it a bit behind the enemy so that it’s more likely to hit them. Doing this will also place you in their escape route and allow you to hit them a few times as well.
Morphling targets an enemy dealing damage or stunning and knocking back the target depending on which part of the spell is cast and the value of the respective attribute. There are 2 parts to this spell; Agility and Strength. Agility deals more damage the more agility you have, and Strength stuns and knockbacks the target depending on your strength value. The spell reaches its maximum effect if the respective attribute is 50% higher than the other. When you cast one of the spells, the other goes on cooldown for 3 seconds, in addition to the spell itself going on cooldown for 10 seconds. This spell is maxed lastly because Waveform is a more reliable and useful spell in the early and mid game and the stat shift rate from Attribute Shift is required to use this spell effectively.
The knockback from Strength can be used in some creative ways, such as pushing pursuing enemies over a cliff, or just pushing heroes like Pudge away so that he can’t get close enough to Rot your allies. Keep shifting your attributes so that your casts will be effective when they’re off cooldown.
Morphling gains strength or agility based on which stat he chooses to shift. This is usually skilled first and maxed secondly as it makes you much harder to kill when being ganked and can give you more damage to last-hit with in the early game. You can use these spells while you are channeling, but not while you are stunned. However, if you are stunned before you used Attribute Shift, you will continue to do shift, which makes it quite risky to shift to Agility if you are likely to get stunned.
If you’re low on HP, you can Shift between full agility and full strength to manipulate the percentage HP you have and to effectively heal up. This is mostly only effective at level 4 Attribute Shift because of the rate it shifts attributes. If you get silenced while shifting, you will be unable to deactivate it and continue to Attribute Shift. You cannot shift attributes from stat items. However, these items are very important despite this because they give you more HP, armor, mana and damage that will not be removed when shifting attributes. This means that you’ll always have a bit more HP if you’re morphed full agility and won’t be killed as easily as a result, or a bit more damage when fully morphed strength. The extra mana also allows you to use Waveform more and the extra armor is always helpful against physical damage.
@ Valve
Morphling copies the basic spells and stats of the target enemy hero. Upon switching back to Morphling’s form, you regain the HP and mana you had before Morphing. You can still use your items while you are Morphed and you can morph between the target and Morphling freely, for the duration of the spell. Upon returning to your own form, you disjoint projectiles, which means it can be used to dodge several spells and attacks. In team-fights, look for heroes with strong basic spells that you can use to get kills or sustain your team with. Morph back when you get low to make sure that you aren’t killed, but be aware that you can change back to the Morphed target at any point, which is useful when the spells come back off cooldown. High skill ceiling, but with enough practice this skill can turn you from a newbie to one of the best Dota 2 players in the game.
The extra Waveform Range can be good if you need to escape or chase enemies more easily. If you have lots of slows or stuns on your team, or if you are in very little risk of dying, then you can get away with the extra agility. The agility from this talent is considered bonus stats and as such cannot be shifted into strength.
The attack speed will help you to farm in the mid game a bit faster and deal a bit more damage in team-fights. However, if there are heroes on the enemy team who have strong spells such as Tiny or several supports, then the extra duration can also be very strong. If you are certain that you will choose the Morph Targets Allies talent at level 20, it could potentially be good to get the extra duration, but there are few situations where this is the case, and the attack speed is almost always a better option.
Ultimately, the extra duration usually hinders you from attacking and killing enemies, and it doesn’t really fit the inherent style of Morph. That is, where you usually Morph to use a specific spell or combo in the middle of a fight to get more utility out of the hero and then Morph back after a few seconds.
Morph targets allies can be a strong talent choice if you have allies with strong basic spells. If you have a Tiny on your team, for example, it may be worth it. You’ll also be guaranteed to be able to copy someone from full HP, which is probably not the case if you use it on an enemy as you’ll be fighting them. In addition to this, you’ll be able to use more spells in more situations which is usually very strong. However, the Waveform talent allows you to farm creepwaves very easily as you almost, if not completely, one-shot them if you have enough agility shifted. This is naturally very strong as it massively increases your farm rate, but also increases the damage you can deal in fights, especially to illusion heroes.
The Multishot Adaptive Strike chooses 2 random nearby enemies and strikes them with the Strike that you choose (strength or agility). This can be good if you need more control on your team, or if the enemy team is very vulnerable to magical damage. The 2 Waveform charges is very strong in almost all situations as it makes you much harder to kill and helps you to chase down enemies in team-fights. If you chose the talent that makes you attack enemies during Waveform, you’ll also be able to deal a lot more damage in fights as well, especially against illusion heroes. The extra Waveform Charge also allows you to farm a lot faster, as you can use the spell through creep-waves and jungle camps a lot more often.
Morphling’s damage at level 1 is very low, so in addition to attribute shifting to agility, you will greatly benefit from having more stats. Any stat items that can be built into your early game items are helpful, for the same reasons as stated under the section of the spell Attribute Shift. You’ll need less regen if you go mid with Morphling because you can get a Bottle. In most games you don’t need very much regen because you can shift to full agility and regain a large percentage of your HP pool before shifting back to strength.
A Magic Wand gives you a bit more sustainability and mana regeneration which can be used to Waveform when you might not otherwise have the mana to. The HP regen it provides is more significant if you morph lots of agility, as it will restore a larger percentage of your HP pool faster.
A Bottle gives Morphling lots of mana regeneration for you to spam Waveform to last-hit creeps, push the wave out and to harass or potentially kill the opponent. You can restore a large portion of your HP if you have lots of points in agility rather than strength as well.
A Ring of Aquila provides Morphling with lots of stats, some armor and damage and mana regeneration. This is great on Morphling because it offers you very cheap and effective early game stats.
Power Treads are always the boots of choice on Morphling because of the stats and attack speed that they offer. These help you to farm faster and deal more damage in fights, and also provide more damage which cannot be lost to Attribute Shift.
Read Also: Best Dota 2 Heroes to Climb Ranks With
A Linken’s Sphere is a great item on Morphling because it provides lots of great stats to each attribute, provides lots of HP and mana regeneration, and gives you the spell block passive. As if you weren’t hard enough to kill as it is, the spell block passive gives you even more survivability and allows you to move about the battle-field, Waveforming and Attribute Shifting as you please.
A Dragon Lance gives you more strength and agility which are great for Morphling, and also increases your attack range. This is great against heroes that you need to kite more easily, but also because Morphling has very low attack range for a ranged hero.
An Ethereal Blade is one of the core items on Morphling, as it allows you to “Shotgun” enemies. By having 50% more agility shifted than strength, your agility Adaptive Strike will deal full damage. The Ethereal Blade will deal a massive amount of damage because of your agility value from having shifted most stats to agi, and the fact that you have lots of extra stat items. The reduced magic resistance debuff on the enemy will also make the Adaptive Strike deal more damage. You will be able to 2-shot most enemies, and usually a Waveform will finish them off if they survived the initial blast. If the enemy also has a magical damage nuke, you can Morph into them to quickly finish them or wait for the Ethereal Form to end and hit them regularly.
Besides the very strong active Ethereal Blade gives you, it also provides +10 strength and intelligence and +40 agility, which is a massive amount of stats and damage. Not to mention that this item easily turns Morphling into one of the hardest Dota 2 heroes to beat.
A Butterfly gives you lots more agility and damage, which is very strong, especially if you already have the Ethereal Blade. The evasion tanks you up against physical damage dealers and the movement speed will help you to re-position yourself after using Waveform aggressively or you can just use it to help you escape.
An Eye of Skadi is one of the strongest late game items for Morphling. It provides you with more stats than any other item and this means that you will have more HP, damage, mana and armor regardless of which attribute you have shifted more of. The slow it provides also helps you to chase enemies down more easily and fight enemy carries 1v1, due to the MS/AS slow.
A Satanic is another great option for strength stats. It will give you another 500 HP, 50 damage and allow you to heal back up through the lifesteal it provides. You’ll be able to have lots of points shifted to agility without worrying about being burst down as easily, as you’ll lifesteal through the massive amount of right-click damage you deal.
@ Steam Workshop
A Silver Edge can be a very strong item on Morphling, especially if you’re facing heroes with strong or annoying passive abilities. The stats it provides you are great, and it gives you a lot of damage and attack speed to increase your DPS. You can Shadow Walk in the enemy jungle while Attribute shifted lots of points in agility and with an ethereal blade ready to look for victims to your ‘Shotgun’ combo and get lots of easy kills.
Boots of Travel can be a good late game item to pick-up on Morphling because you can Waveform creep-waves and clear them very easily. Mostly they should be picked up when you are running low on inventory slots. The movement speed it provides is also pretty useful on Morphling as it helps you position Waveforms more easily and escape with Attribute Shift.
A Moon Shard should be picked up as a 7th item to increase your DPS when you have no more space in your inventory and don’t need to swap any additional items out.
A Manta Style is an ideal item if you need to purge yourself of silences. It provides lots of stats to all of your attributes and is easy to build into. The illusions will also be incredibly strong because you tend to buy lots of stat items and due to the fact that you can shift your Attributes to make some very highly damaging illusions. Top-tier pick for Morphling and the majority of other heroes in Dota 2 esports.
In some games you will need a BKB to survive silences, stuns slows or magic damage nukes. In most games you can get away with not having one because you are usually very hard to kill due to Attribute Shift, Waveform and Morph. However, if you find yourself taking too much damage in fights, then you will probably need a BKB.
A Hurricane Pike provides a large amount of stats which is great, increases your attack range and gives you a very strong active against heroes who you otherwise might not be able to fight 1v1 very well. Although you don’t usually need the ability to Force yourself out of danger very often because of Waveform, the ability to be able to hit a farmed carry from a distance can be very strong in some situations.
A Diffusal Blade can be a decent item on Morphling if you need the mana-burn against heroes that rely on mana, such as Wraith King or Medusa. The ability to slow heroes can also be very strong against heroes with very high movement speed. Diffusal Blade provides lots of agility and a bit of intelligence, which helps you to cast spells more often.
Read Also: Best Dota 2 Captains
Ice Blast will prevent you from gaining any HP which is very detrimental for 2 main reasons on Morphling. Firstly, you won’t be able to gain any HP when Attribute Shifting, which means that essentially you’ll have to have lots of strength almost the entire time. You’ll also need to watch out if you ever have lots of agility shifted, because if you are scouted with a ward while farming, AA could hit you and potentially kill you very easily. AA also somewhat counters your ultimate as it prevents you from restoring any HP upon returning to your original form.
Silences prevent Morphling from using any of his spells which he relies upon to survive ganks and team-fights. You can be silenced while Attribute Shifting to strength however. This will force you to keep gaining HP and ultimately will still make you hard to kill. If you are facing several silences, you should get either a BKB or a Manta Style, and in some games both.
Any squishy hero who does not have above average magic resistance is very vulnerable to Morphling. The Ethereal Blade and Adaptive Strike combo in the mid and late game can easily kill them.
Nyx Assassin can use Spiked Carapace to deal a large amount of damage back to you. It can also interrupt your ‘Shotgun’ combo. His Mana Burn is also very effective at preventing you from using Waveform as much in team-fights.
Burst magical damage, such as spells and items like Dagon or Laguna Blade are very effective against Morphling. This is because they can burst Morphling down before he has much of a chance to Attribute Shift strength and keep himself alive. This is especially true if coupled with silences or hexes.
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
