Meep No!

Maybe I'm not thinking smart right now...but why is no one using Manta or Drum as core on Meepo. He's a Stat monster, so what's with all the Meks I keep seeing? Honestly if I played Meepo I'd be going: Treads - Drum - Vlads - Manta - Ethereal - Heart /or/ Aghanim's

If I would random Meepo, I would automatically repick :p

The problem with Meepo is that he is extremely easy to kill at all stages in the game, you just focus one Meepo, unlike when you fight a PL or some illusion hero. Honestly his passive is outrageously good, I wouldn't mind leaving the other Meepos at the base late game.

I think manta is a pretty good option. Better than mek. Vlads is also a very good option.

I usually go for Vladmir's Offering + Blink Dagger on Meepo because the Mekansm is, in my opinion, not good for him: you already have to blink + poof, which requires a good amount of micromanagement, plus you have to use various gropus (one for the main Meepo, one for the others that need to poof to the main Meepo, one for the meepo in your base if needed, etc...) and, after the combo, either you live with more than half HP or you get so much damage that a Mekansm wouldn't have saved you either. So, instead of wasting a slot and a keybind for this item (which is the most common pick on supports, too) I think that items which give flat stats are a way better option.

Honestly I've never tried Manta Style on Meepo, but I know you can poof to illusions: it can be very effective if you don't want to waste your Blink Dagger or you want more safety while initiating, but you don't really need the attack speed nor the movement speed increase (you already have Geostrike) if not in late game.

On the other side, the Drum of Endurance looks like a valid option but I think that going for "expensive" items is more efficient on this Hero: the Heart of Tarrasque, for example, is a lot more useful than Drums + Mekansm + Yasha in my opinion.

Yep, he also can do some seriously dmg with poof + endless net + 5x auto attack, but anyway he will die instantly if he meet true carry or hero with bkb.

There are better options that's why, maybe after getting items like aghs, heart, blink dagger then it's ok

If the answer was that simple I wouldn't have asked, but that's not the case. I'm not seeing it picked up at all, never mind a luxury. If these items where that important, what makes them that much more important then their counter parts; essentially Manta is filling the place of both the extra aggression from Agh's Clone and the initiation from Blink Dagger or its initiation counterpart Shadowblade (Which neither really benefits Meepo other then a simple Poof spree).

What bothers me is that Mek seems to be a popular core for him, but really you're better off with a Jango and/or Vlads. I'm feeling that Mek is just something that was easy and popular in WC3 and not much experimenting was done afterwards. Either one of them is cheaper and are each more beneficial to most teams, and you can't forget that Mek is generally something the support would want to pick up anyways.

So is there something I'm missing, or am I just overthinking it?

The answer is that simple, getting manta over let's say aghs or hearts means that you and your team has an advantage in gold or levels/picks. What do you get Manta for? You buy Manta for it's power to push and it's ability to cause some disturbance in teamfights but the latter only works if they have little AoE power or weak single target dps. Meepo already has no problems with that, he needs to be able to survive especially in teamfights but if you somehow dominated the game with ease then manta can be bought earlier. You can get it later after these items but by the time you get it you might of already won or lost.

All that gold spent on manta could of be towards Heart or Aghs and these two items help Meepo survive.

No one mentioned Armlet of Mordiggian?