Whats so good about Drum of Endurance?

Jawbreaker please, bongos is the only item in that price range that gives you the following:

Bulk and utility.

The bulk is not only in the form of Hp, but armor from agi as well.

Utility in form of great increase in not just flat mana, but mana regeneration aswell, not to mention the move speed.

Lets see what heroes can put this to the best use:

Agi heroes that are spell / positioning reliant, EX: Gyro, PL, Mirana, Razor, Xin etc...

Str heroes that really need mana, EX: DK, Tiny, Naix

Int heroes... None really, can't think of any ontop of my head.

So we can see a pattern here, yes drum is **** late game, but it is incredible on Early - Midgame agi heroes that need to get up close and personal to deal damage.

And not to mention how good it can be with Phase boots

So Drum of Endurance is really good...

So, since Linken's Sphere is situational, can drums be a good alternative along with Ring of Aquilla and other items for Morphling or other heroes?

yes

Heroes like Morphling and Weaver can usually go well with just Treads and Aquila, this means you don't have to afk farm your Linken's Sphere but can get gold from tower pushes and smoke ganks. For this reason, there's no point in skipping Linken's on them (usually), but if you're really behind I've seen pro players going for Black King Bars as first item. Personally, I've never seen any pro player buying Drums on them, but I used to go Phase and Drums on Weaver when soloing the off-lane; it doesn't sound bad on Morphling either.


I don't know if you remember, but there was a time during which the Vanguard was overpowered and everyone bought it on any Hero just for the cheap HP and damage block. After it got nerfed, many Heroes that usually built Vanguard for survivability were left with either an early game with low HP or an item that costs too much for what it gives. Especially on Heroes like Spectre (unless going for Radiance), Terrorblade and even Phantom Assassin sometimes, given their low HP, buying one is recommended since it's so cost-efficient.

You can also buy it on STR Heroes, since movement and attack speed are a big problem for them sometimes: Lifestealer and Doom are (were?) common Heroes to build Drums on, same for Chaos Knight and Tiny. Notice how all these Heroes also benefit from the extra mana.

No mention of the newly-emerged veteran after 2 years of not here?

Windranger, Invoker, Leshrac
Windranger bongos is situational, but pretty good since Windranger is a midgame hero anyways. Leshrac bongo is something I don't see a lot, but it's so stronk on this hero.

Windranger and Leshrac don't need agility, making Point Booster far better on them than drum. Gives more HP and more mana and costs far less.

Essentially any INT hero has a better option with a fast Aghs rather than drum if he just wants HP/mana. Wind, Lesh, Invo...they all have really good Aghs. Even Puck now has a good Aghs.

Drum is a right-click item at the core so INT heroes generally don't benefit ftom it.

I always try to get bongos on Windranger and Leshrac if noone on my team builds it. It's just too good to let it pass. While Point Booster does give better survivability it doesn't give the move and attackspeed bonus. Since a core Windranger will build around her ult to hit harder more attackspeed provides a good boost when the ult is on cd.
On Leshrac the movespeed is so important because he needs so much positioning. Not building something for movespeed on Leshrac is like not building something for movespeed on Luna

I used to go Phase + Eul's on a core Leshrac, but I'm starting to get Drums before the Eul's as well not only for the attack speed but also for the pushing power and early teamfight presence. If anything, Drum charges are underrated, not overrated.

But since 6.82 an early Aghs on Leshrac is just so broken! Level 1 DPS was increased from 100 to 160! With only a level 1 ult, you get the DPS of the level 3 ult for only one third of the mana cost. Arcane boots -> Aghs rush is a really good option now. It's so cost-efficient you can even do that on support Lesh.