morphling: a 'guide' to item choices post-patch

this is a repost of what i wrote on a thread asking for help with morphling, then i realised that's already sunk pretty far down and only like 3 people will ever read it so why not make it a full post.

disclaimer: these are purely my personal thoughts when playing him and if anybody has any suggestions then chuck em out.

i play morph more than i play most carries(which isn't much, i fucking hate ricing) but i hope what i say gives some insight(and peeps can criticise my tunnelvisioned ass)

your skill build is standard as fuck throughout, morph/waveform first(hold skillpoint until you need it, with his 6.75 nerf i guess it's even more required to go morph first unless you're confident as fuck at lasthitting) then max both. then get a point in adaptive, 2 replicate and max adaptive/stats and take replicate at 16. there's generally not much reason to stray away from this as adaptive scales based on agility and morph has fuck all agility early game.

starting items can vary but i like slipper/circlet/branch/tango/salve. i don't remember the math but i think you can get 2 tangos with this but 1 is usually enough. for earlygame i usually go aquila/treads which is why i go slipper/circlet so i can get a really quick wraith band for better last hitting and less reliance on the morph lvl 1 if aggression is needed(which is why you hold skillpoint). consider a wand if you're against spammy heroes or if you're needed for more than your fair share of teamfights, shit will save your life/help you kill other people.

nb: bottle if you're mid, but i think mid morphling sucks huge dick after the patch but it's still doable. i've not played morph post-6.75 mid but whenever i've gone against him i've completely dominated the lane in terms of both cs and keeping him on extremely low hp. maybe i've gone against bad morphs but idk, i don't like the idea of him not in a safelane farming.

for mid/lategame, this is where morphling has a LOT of options and it really depends on what you want to do and what's happening in the game. i like to think of the items i want to get on morph as a toolbox, so ima lay it out:

• primary items you want to think about are manta, linkens, eblade, butterfly, skadi and satanic. you will most likely get at least two, if not three of these items during your game as they are pretty fucking good items for morph because they're good items for agility carries in general(as for why that is, i guess i'll elaborate later when i go into which items i get for which situations).

• secondary items to think about are: black king bar and monkey king bar. you'll probably get one of these in your game, and probably not even mkb but there's a reason(a rather obvious one too) why i included mkb in this list.

so when would i personally get these items and why?

• eblade: you get this if you like to burst people quick as fuck(it's slower than it used to be but it's still pretty fucking bursty and works). that's what you want to do with eblade. when do you want to do this? a) when you're ahead and b) when their heroes are squishy enough for it to be effective. eblade pretty much as to be your first item after aquila treads and you pretty much have to get before 25 minutes for it to be worth it. it's only fine as a second item if you're significantly ahead(not necessarily as a team, but yourself relative to the rest of the heroes on THEIR team) as people will generally be a lot more tanky at the 35 minute mark. the point of shotgun morph is to get ahead and stay ahead in terms of levels and farm BY KILLING PEOPLE. you don't get eblade to rice hard and stay ahead by outfarming, you get it when you've figured you're done ricing and want to give farm to more of your teammates while you rape face. as a secondary note, the combo is eblade -> adaptive strike -> waveform. usually eblade + adaptive strike will work fine on squishy supports but the waveform is a good gap closer/finisher if the person you combo'd isn't dead. if you want to be really cocky/aggressive, you can do this combo into like 5 people, snipe somebody you know you can kill straight away and replicate out, but it's less effective as it's not an instant kill anymore.

• manta: this you get for many reasons. first off, the active is amazing for both farming and split pushing, plus it dispells negative debuffs AND confuses your opponent/forces them into using an aoe nuke just to figure out who to focus. that alone is good enough to replicate straight out of a bad situation. secondly, the +stats give you amazing survivability and dps. if that's not good enough, it's got good +ms and +as to increase your already amazing chase ability and dps even FURTHER. and if you're still not convinced, you can dodge skills with it. how fucking good is that? it's just an incredible item for any agility carry and especially those who can already gapclose effeciently. when do you get it? anytime you want, but you have to get it before the game is effectively decided in most situations. i can't think of a situation where you wouldn't want manta over another item. i usually get it first if i don't think i need a linkens and i'm not getting eblade. i'll pretty much always get it as my second item if i do get one of the two. manta is fucking great.

• skadi: why do you want this? it's a good item and the reason it's a good item is because it gives +25 to all stats. this is usually nothing to shout about but +allstats is really good on morphling because of the nature of his statswitching, i.e. you can't morph bonus stats. so if you morph all agility and you have a naked ulti orb, you will still have BOTH the sum of your base agility and strength plus 10, and 10 strength. so getting +allstats increases your dps and gives you more room to morph more strength into agility to get even more dps. the +200hp and +150 mana is nothing to shout about but it does help out(the hp moreso as you get even more room to morph strength into agility). now take all of this good shit and combine it with a 30% ms slow and 20% as slow that STACKS WITH LIFESTEAL. this item is so fucking good on morphling lategame it's not even funny. it improves an already amazing chasing ability and allows you to cripple the enemy carry(ies). when do you want it? after you get a manta. unless you think you have good enough tankiness and you want to cripple the enemy carry, i see not much reason to get this before manta.

• linkens: why do you want this? the regen is amazing for farming. it allows you to flash farm waves pretty much indefinitely and increases your gpm fairly significantly if you are constantly tping to other lanes to push them out too. this allows your team to pressure the enemy team because you are permanently keeping their lanes pushed, thus creating space to farm. also it gives +15 to all stats, and i already explained why that's fucking great on morphling. also spellblock is fucking great too and makes you incredibly survivable(is this a word?). when do you want it? you want to rush this generally, but it's a very defensive pickup. don't get this if your team relies on you solely for dps midgame as this isn't what linkens is for. i remember watching barny playing morph and he said something like 'linkens is an item you get to get another item'. that pretty much the gist of it, you get this if both teams are playing fairly passively and you want to tip the farming war into your favour. if you don't get this after aquila and treads by 25 minutes, stop the rush and get a manta. this will not make you useful to your team in a losing game.

• butterfly: why do you want this? because it's one of the best lategame items for agility carries. +30 agility, +30 attackspeed and +35% evasion SCREAM dps and partial survivability. this item is the item you get when you already have good dps and survivability and need that wildcard to tip the edge. when do you want this? after manta at the earliest, but i like to get this item after skadi if i'm considering it, as you add evasion to -20% as and you have a morphling that cannot be touched by an enemy carry. generally don't rush this. it doesn't give you much midgame in terms of stats, rush this if you REALLY want evasion and don't want a manta for whatever reason(earthshaker and you have a ck/meepo/pl in your team? idk i've never needed a reason to rush butterfly and NOT get a manta).

• satanic: why do you want it? the strength isn't really much to shout about as morph is pretty naturally tanky by virtue of his skills, the effectiveness of satanic comes purely through its active. +175% lifesteal for 3.5 seconds can allow you to take a fight alone vs multiple heroes easily and/or save your life in a 5v5 engagement when you're dropping low. when do you want it? it's pretty obvious that this is a lategame item. if you for some reason can't farm lane(or really want some lifesteal), then i suppose getting hotd after aquila treads is okay but don't ever rush this. again, if i want this at the earliest i will get this after manta, but usually i only consider satanic when i'm choosing between it and butterfly(i.e. usually after skadi). it depends on whether you value the ridiculous lifesteal over the evasion and dps buff that butterfly gives you. the reason i don't consider this straight after manta usually because if you've got skadi and satanic, it makes it significantly easier to man the fuck up when fighting multiple heroes as the hero you're focusing both has -20% as and you're lifestealing at least 25% passively and 175% when you drop low and use the active. skadi is awesome because of the fact it stacks with lifesteal and this effect of pretty much invicibility that it creates combined with lifesteal means that it's the only unique attack modifier you want to consider on morph.

• black king bar: why do you want it? magic immunity for 10-5 seconds. shit's fucking gamechanging and allows you to do damage against lineups that don't want you to ever fucking touch them. i put this as a secondary item purely because you don't always get it on morph as he's so slippery anyway(i.e. he has many ways of negating the effect of being stunned) so you only really want this if you feel you can't deal with the amount of stun they opposing team has and you just die if they focus you. when do you get it? when teamfights begin and the set of circumstances that you will get it has arised. this can be anything from your first item to your third, but usually if you have 3 items you won't need a bkb as you already give no fucks about their magic. also bkb + linkens makes you pretty much immune to every spell in the game during that immunity(i can't think of a spell that goes through bkb but isn't blocked by linkens).

• monkey king bar: why do you want it? when the enemy team has some kind of evasion/an active that makes you miss, whether it be a butterfly/tali(tali not so much but still) or they are riki/pa/windrunner/brewmaster/broodmother/kotl/(i would include nightstalker and tinker but you can manta out of fear/laser). you don't get this for damage(even tho it's nice) as morph's dps comes from the fact that he can get a ridiculous amount of agility. the bash is fine but tbh i wouldn't get bash on morph as skadi is a way of helping you get an edge over the enemy carry and syngergizes with morphling as a hero a lot better. when do you get this? after manta. you need to do damage to make miss chance something you should give a shit about and manta is your first dps item(it's not a major dps item but it gives dps nonetheless).

i hope this helps, but remember that this is a compilation of my thought processes when playing morph and not a comprehensive guide to playing him.

edit: i might go into what exactly i think when i play him but i want to run this past reddit first i suppose edit2: corrected a line and added some shits