Dota 2 - Morphling Build Guide

BIO
For dark eons the comet circled. Held in thrall to a distant sun, bound by gravity's inexorable pull, the massive ball of ice careened through the blackness between worlds, made strange by its dark journey. On the eve of the ancient war of the Vloy, it punched down through the sky and lit a glowing trail across the night-a sign both armies took for an omen. The frozen ball melted in a flash of boiling heat, as below two forces enjoined in battle across the border of a narrow river. Thus freed from its icy stasis, the Morphling was born into conflict, an elemental power at one with the tides of the ocean, capricious and unconstrained. He entered the fight, instinctively taking the form of the first general who dared set foot across the water-and then struck him dead. As the motley warriors clashed, he shifted from form to form throughout the battle, instantly absorbing the ways of these strange creatures-now a footsoldier, now an archer, now the cavalryman-until, by the time the last soldier fell, Morphling had played every part. The battle's end was his beginning.

INTRODUCTION

Morphling is a kind of carry that has the most complete definition set of skills. He has high burst damage , perfect escape mechanism, and a decent farm capabilities.
He can participate in every stages of teamfights. With a massive magical damage of waveform to clear out enemies on early-mid game, and with the burst damage of Ethereal Blade + Adaptive Strike + Massive DPS as a carry on the later stage of the game.

With the discovery of a Support Morphling, you can now stun your enemy as of 5 seconds duration with an Adaptive Strike. and also it comes with a very low cooldown.

PROS	CONS
High burst damage	Slow movement speed
High dps on late game	Low distance of attack as a ranged hero
Can also be played as a support
Have a great farming capability

ROLE
Ranged - Carry - Escape - Initiator - Nuker

Ranged
Morphling's attack range is 350, This attack range is less favorable than other ranged heroes, so morphing can't easily harass with his range. You need to play safe on early game.

Carry
In the late game, your role is a carry. Morphling can easily gain damage and attack speed from his 3rd skill Morph Agility Gain.

Escape
Morphling is one of the easiest hero in case of escaping, you can escape using Waveform, replicate, or Morph Strength Gain.

Initiator
You can initiate a teamfight using Waveform. 

Nuker
You have Waveform and Adaptive Strike

STATS

LEVEL	1	15	25
HIT POINTS	511	1,043	1,803	SIGHT RANGE	1800 / 1800
MANA	221	494	949	ATTACK RANGE	350
DAMAGE	37-46	79-88	129-138	MISSILE SPEED	1300
ARMOR	1	7	14

ABILITIES
1.Waveform

Morphling dissolves into liquid and surges forward, damaging enemy units in his path. Morphling is invulnerable during Waveform.

MANA COST: 140 / 155 / 160 / 165	COOLDOWN: 11.0
ABILITY: TARGET POINT	DAMAGE: MAGICAL
DAMAGE: 100 / 175 / 250 / 325

A torrential flood takes enemies by force.
This is your main skill. You can use this to farm fast because it will destroy a creep's wave. You can use this in a teamfight to give a high magical damage to some enemies. You also can use this to escape if you are being ganked. If you are being surprise ganked, you need to use this to wave into area where enemy cannot walks by (like in the trees in the outer of the map), and then teleport far away.

2. Adaptive Strike

Strikes an enemy unit with a blast of water. If Morphling's agility is 50% higher than strength, it deals the maximum damage and the minimum stun. If strength is 50% higher, it deals the maximum stun and minimum damage.

MANA COST: 100 / 100 / 100 / 100	COOLDOWN: 10
ABILITY: TARGET UNIT	AFFECTS: ENEMY HEROES
DAMAGE: MAGICAL	STUN MIN: 0.25 / 0.25 / 0.25 / 0.25
STUN MAX: 0.75 / 1.5 / 2.25 / 3	DAMAGE MIN: 0.25 / 0.25 / 0.25 / 0.25
DAMAGE MAX: 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / 2	BASE DAMAGE: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80

The Morphling calls upon his elements to crush his opponents with waves.
Nice nuke for mid-late game. Because in late game, you will have lots of agility that makes this skill become so much more powerful. If you want to max its damage, you need to convert majority of your strength into agility, the risk is you will have a very low HP and become squishy. But if you can quickly assassinate the enemy, you will be safe. This skill is best comboed with Ethereal Blade. With ethereal Blade and your agility maxed, you will have tons of damage to 1 hit kill the enemy, that's called a shotgun.

3a.Morph (Agility Gain)

Morphling shifts its form, pulling points from Strength and pouring them into Agility. The process is reversible. Additional points in Morph increase the rate of stat change. Passively grants bonus Agility.

COOLDOWN: 0.ffffff	POINTS PER SHIFT: 2 / 2 / 2 / 2
ABILITY: NO TARGET, TOGGLE	SHIFT RATE: 1 / 0.5 / 0.33 / 0.25
MANA PER SECOND: 30 / 30 / 30 / 30	BONUS AGILITY: 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Shifting water makes it difficult to discern the nature of Morphling.
Convert your STR into AGI, makes your attack become faster and deal more damage, but your HP will be very low, you need to kill enemies without getting any damage, you need a surprise gank, or you need your friend to tank the damage.

3b. Morph (Strength Gain)

Morphling shifts its form, pulling points from Agility and pouring them into Strength. The process is reversible. Additional points in Morph increase the rate of stat change. Passively grants bonus Strength. 

COOLDOWN: 0.ffffff	POINTS PER SHIFT: 2 / 2 / 2 / 2
ABILITY: NO TARGET, TOGGLE	SHIFT RATE: 1 / 0.5 / 0.33 / 0.25
MANA PER SECOND: 30 / 30 / 30 / 30	BONUS STRENGTH: 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Shifting water makes it difficult to discern the nature of Morphling.
Convert your Agility into Strength, you need this skill in a difficult situation where you need to run or getting  killed by the enemy. This helps you become a tank and save your life.

4. Replicate 

Morphling replicates any hero, friend or foe, although only dealing 50% the original hero's damage. At any time, Morphling can instantly take the position of the Replicate.

MANA COST: 25 / 25 / 25	COOLDOWN: 80.0
ABILITY: TARGET UNIT	DURATION: 30 / 45 / 60
CAST RANGE: 700 / 1100 / 1500

Staring into Morphling produces a reflection that mimics the beholder.
Create an illusion of someone, enemy or friends, cannot replicate self. The replica can only attacks, and cannot use skills. The replica will deal 50% of the real damage, it will be enough to help you annihilate opponents. You can jump into the Replica anytime in the skills duration.
You can also set up your replica somewhere safe, and then if you are in danger, you can jump in your replica.
Or you can send your replica into another lane and you can jump to that replica to get creeps there quickly and faster your farm. Remember your job is to farm. To get the items to carry your team. Or you can send your replica to follow your 4 friends while you farms the creeps, this is to make you can jump into the teamfight anytime you want while you are still farming.

Morph Replicate

Morphling switches into his replication, instantly taking its position.

MANA COST: 150 / 150 / 150	ABILITY: NO TARGET

Jumps into your replica. Can save you when you are in danger.

SKILLBUILD

Level 1: Waveform
Level 2: Morph
Level 3: Waveform
Level 4: Morph
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: Adaptive Strike
Level 14: Adaptive Strike
Level 15: Stats
Level 16: Replicate
Level 17-25: Stats

Why maxed Waveform first?  This is your main nuke, you will need this for  farming, ganking, and killing on early mid game. You can also use this to escape from enemies.

Why maxed Morph before Adaptive Strike?  You need Morph to be able to survive in any dangerous situation that may happen. With fast Strength gain, you can become tanky and can run safely because enemies will have not enough damage to kill you. And the Adaptive Strike is an ability that requires high stats to reach it's maximum damage potential. So on early game it won't give any significant impact when casted. So it would be more wise to increase the Morph first.

STRATEGY
Early Game:
Farms 24/7. Last hits every creep.
You are a carry, what you need to do is to farm all the time. You need lots of golds. You need to buy that expensive items to makes you can carry the game. So from the beginning of the game, you must keep focus and last hits carefully. 

What to do to prepare an escape plan while farming:
1. Always have a Teleport scroll. If enemy is approaching, waveform into the trees in the outer of the map and use teleport scroll immediately
2. You also can prepare a replicate to escape. By placing a replicate somewhere safe, you can escape from enemy's gank by jumping to your Replica.
3. You should use the Morph STR gain in a bad situation, also make your power threads into Pt STR to helps you survive

Mid Game
Mid game is the time where usually everybody is finding early kills. You need to be careful here. You need farm, but you need to be safe. Don't forget your TP scroll to escape. Also ask your Support to always replace the wards. You need the vision so you won't get ganked.

Late Game
Teamfight Strategy

1. Before the teamfightyou need to use shotgun to eliminate one of your opponents. This will very helps your team because teamfight will be 4 vs 5. 
2. And then after that use all your clickable item, like Manta Style or Bkb, 
Manta Style will confuse your enemy and you can kill your enemy in his confusion. If you have satanic, you should use it if your health is already low.
3. If your team is losing the teamfight, use trength gain or replicate, you can prepare replicate before teamfight to escape or use replicate to fight enemy. Your part in teamfight is clear, to deal damage as much as you can, you need to focus your attack one-by one and kill all of your opponents.

After your team won the teamfight, you have two options:
1. You can get the Aegis for your team's main hero or
2. Your team can push enemy base and destrouy their buildings. Choose wisely!

ITEM BUILD
1.  Power Threads
Total cost: 1400
Recipe: Gloves of Haste, Boots of Speed, Belt og Giant Strength/ Robe of Magi/ Band of Elvenskin

Active: Switch Attribute - Changes selected attribute between Strength, Agility and Intelligence. Flat movement speed bonuses from multiple pairs of boots do not stack. + 55 Movement Speed + 8 Selected Attribute   + 30 Attack Speed

Why Power Threads? It will gives you attack speed, that's what you need to carry the game.
Power threads is a flexible shoes, you can change it to STR, AGI, or INT for what you need. I recommend PT AGI for normal situation, and in a difficult situation, i recommend PT STR.
if you need more mana for waveform or something PT INT is the soluution.

2. Ring of Aquila
Total Cost: 985
Recipe: Wraith Band + Ring of Basillus

Passive: Aquila Aura - Grants mana regeneration and armor in a 900 AoE. Active: Toggle whether the aura affects other non-hero units. Multiple instances of Aquila Aura do not stack. + 9 Damage    + 3 All Attributes    + 3 Agility    + 1 Armor AURA MANA REGEN: 0.65    AURA BONUS ARMOR: 2

Why Ring of Aquila? It gives you mana regen. You need mana regen to morph, to escape in dangerous situation. This items also gives damage and stats.

3. Linken Sphere
Total Cost: 5175
Recipe: Ultimate Orb + Preserverance

Passive: Spellblock - Blocks most targeted spells once every 20 seconds. + 15 All Attributes                   + 6 HP Regeneration + 150% Mana Regeneration    + 10 Damage

Why Linken Sphere?
-Great survivability item for escape and  for teamfight
-Linkens Sphere becomes more powerful the more late the game because teamfights becomes longer and you can block 2 spells in a teamfight.

4. Ethereal Blade
Total Cost: 4900
Recipe: Eaglesong + Ghost Scepter

Active: Ether Blast - Converts you and your target into ethereal form. Target unit is slowed and cannot attack or be attacked, and takes 2.0x of your primary attribute + 75 as damage. + 40 Agility + 10 Strength   + 10 Intelligence   DURATION: 3 Manacost: 150   Cooldown: 30

Why Ethereal Blade?

It will give you shotgun. Here is the way:
1. Increase your agility using morph (agility gain)
2. Shot your enemy using theethereal blade. it will gives tons of magical damage because of your high agility from morph and also from your original stats, and also from your items. It will make your target become a ghost form and increase the magical damage they receive
3. Use adaptive strike. The damage is high because your enemy is in Ghost form and also because, the same as before, you have the high Agility.
4. Use Waveform
5. And right click if the enemy still survive.

Tips: Choose the most squishy enemy. Example: 
1. Crystal Maiden
2. Ezalor
3. Chen, etc.

5. Manta Style
Total cost: 5050
Recipe: Yasha, Ultimate Orb, Recipe

Active: Mirror Image - Creates 2 illusions of your hero that last 20 seconds. Melee illusions deal 33% damage and take 250% bonus damage. Ranged illusions deal 28% damage and take 300% bonus damage. Percentage based movement speed bonuses from multiple items do not stack. + 10 Strength + 26 Agility    + 10 Intelligence    + 15 Attack Speed    + 10% Movement Speed Manacost:165    Cooldown:50

Why Manta Style? Creates 2 illusion of yourself to attack the enemy. Because your damage is high, this item will reach its maximum potential beecause your illusion will also deal some high damage. This items also provide a defense mechanism for you because your opponent will be confused and don't know whose to attack, they should guess where is the real you. So while they are confused, kill them.

6. The Butterfly
Total cost:: 6000
Recipe: Talisman of Evasion, Eaglesong, Quarterstaff

+ 30 Agility            + 30 Damage + 35% Evasion      + 30 Attack Speed

Why Butterfly?
It gives you more damage and more attack speed that makes you become much more powerful. It also gives evasion to helps you survive in teamfigh.t This item also makes shotgun become more powerful because of the + Agility.

7. Eye of Skadi
Total Cost:

Recipe: 2x Ultimate Orb + Point Booster + Orb of venom

Passive: Cold Attack - Attacks slow the movement and attack speed of the target. Eye of Skadi is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers. On ranged heroes, Eye of Skadi can be combined with Lifesteal Attack Modifiers. + 25 All Attributes + 200 Health    + 150 Mana    MOVE SLOW: 30%    ATTACK SLOW: 20%

Why Skadi? It will gives you more survivability and a slower attack to destroy enemies. The attack animation will looks cool with skadi. It also gives you stats to helps you increase your shotgun damage.

8. Satanic
Total Cost: 5850

Recipe: Tarrasque + Helm of the Dominator + Recipe 

Active: Unholy Rage - Increases Lifesteal by 175% for 3.5 seconds. Passive: Lifesteal - Gives Lifesteal on attacks. Satanic is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifier. + 20 Damage    + 25 Strength    + 5 Armor    LIFESTEAL: 25% Cooldown: 35

Why Satanic? It will really helps you to survive in a hard condition in a teamfight. It will gives you lifesteal, Strength, and Armor, thats all what you need to survive in a teamfight. If your HP become low, immediately use unholy rage, and attacks your enemy and your HP will be full again in seconds.

Best Friend 
1. Phantom Lancer

Use replicate to phantom lancer, and your replicate can makes illusion while attacking, just like Phantom Lancer. This will gives you lots of Phantom's clones and can helps you deal lots of damage in teamfight.
Tips: You can replicate enemy Phantom Lancer too.

Worst enemies
1. Magina - Anti Mage

He will burns your mana. Very bad if your mana become low because all of your skill is mana dependant. Especially the Morph, if you cannot Morph, you can't increase your survivability and can die quickly.