Hero Discussion: Morphling

Hey all,

I haven't been on DotAfire for so long, I apologizes for my absence.

I've heard a lot of things about Morphling, mostly from Hamstertamer.

How does Morphling fit in this meta?
What is a good build on Morphling?
How viable is 6.83 offlane morphling?
Is shotgun viable at all?

Thanks y'all,
TheSofa

He doesn't



Standard illusion manta skadi



Not even once



Situationally

Haven't we had like 3222222 threads on water gun rat already? XD

Offlane strength Morphling was really for the instant stun. It used to be an instant long range initiation skill. Now that adaptive strike is no longer an instant stun you'd probably rather pick Beastmaster, Legion Commander or something instead.
Essentially there are other offlaners with instant hard disables that also do something else besides...just have a stun (Morph has really nothing else).
There's also Doom if you need a hard disable.

Lotus Orb also deals with it now.

Essentially offlane/support strength Morph got nerfed really hard with the projectile and it hasn't recovered from the nerf.

Offlane Morph could maybe make a reappearance if his Aghanim's Scepter was good. But for now I'm not really sold on Hybrid. Right now it feels a bit like a Spell Steal on teammates, but it can't steal ultimates and it has a punishing cooldown. Rubick Morphling does sound cool however, but I think it needs a few buffs.

People call this the Frankestein build
Well with the recent buffs to him i think he can be meta when playing with 2 guy : Alchemist and Undying
I Start Tango + Wraith Band or Wraith Band + 2x Iron Branch, and skills Morph first so i can start with almost ~~60 base damage and easy last hit, with a lane support of course, as my alchemist have Soul Ring, i rush Bottle and pick all the runes bot ( just sometimes alch picks the rune when it is gold rune, after this i buy boots, Magic Wand and tps, then i start my Etheral blade rush, when hit six i tp base and get back with mah ult again.
b-but how do i farm with morphling ? in the 12min window when alch already have the Radiance thing then you ult him and use his clone to farm the enemy jungle with his radiance, all this and you safely farming lane- medium camp jungle and your alchmist will be farming ancient stacks and large camps/ lane, remember the undying ? he is stomping top with a agressive support there
So what i have with 20 minutes game ? a Radiance- Manta Style-bots alchemist, bots-etheral- Yasha morphling and a Guardian Greaves Undying, time for some aghs
So, about 30 minutes you would have a greaves-pipe aghs(Alch gives him one) undying, morph with bots etheral manta and about 25 min a Blink Dagger(just to shotgun in the face of some targets) , and then other aghs given by alchemist which keeps those 10 min farming it, now its the Rape time, undying would be unstoppable, with morphling you would have a second tombstone with aghamins decay undying, and when he is killed you would have a morplhing waiting to full shotgun you
I can see no counters to this, only if you get a team try hard as ****, remember you have 2 support slots to do this
I am not the creator of this strategy, it become popular with vici gaming but with very poor gaming this strategy didn´t became a thing, saw on reddit, actually i changed the morphling offlane to a morphling carry as i think it has more impact this patch ( See Kamikaze gameplay)
So, can this be a way to play morplhing ?
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1954077191 this is a game with me as morphling and a alch, i offlaned and did the etheral rush by myself and could easily farm with alchs clone

The idea of using replicate to farm by using it on the right teammate isn't new. The only question is : why Alchemist over, say, Axe?

A carry Morphling doesn't really benefit from Aghanim's Scepter in general, so I don't see the synergy of having Morph and Alch in the same team. Besides, generally when you play a hard carry like Morph, especially a slow farming one, the *last* thing you want to have in your team is an AFK farmer like Alchemist that doesn't create space in any way and steals all your farm.
Also having two AFK farmers makes your team extremely weak to pushing. Alch isn't Naga, he's extremely easy to push into, and Morph is notoriously garbage against pushing. Sure, pubs suck at pushing, but even then that's a big weakness of the draft : if the enemy team just 5-mans down mid you lost.

If you just want a free Radiance you can simply have a Wraith King or something instead of Alch, essentially any radiance buyer that doesn't AFK farm for 30 minutes.

Actually there is a situation when a carry Morphling would benefit from having a free Aghanim's Scepter, it's if there is an illusion carry in your team. Hybrid on Terrorblade or Naga Siren sounds stupidly strong. But then you can't have TB, Morph and ALch in the same team, you're playing dota and not creep extermination : the game. So maybe having only Morph and TB in the same team could work...maybe After all TB illusions farm really fast already.

EDIT @Lofy : Flame Guard is a skill. replicates can't use active skills. Only Hybrids do, but it's a 140 second cooldown so it's not worth it.

What about Ember with his Build in Radiance?

Do you guys think replicate is comparable with flame remnant? Replicate looks kinda trash after seeing some Flame Remnants in competitive play.

It really does. But replicate is a perfectly fine skill, especially on a hero with high tower damage like Morph (he's a far better rat than Ember). And the illusion can split farm and split push.
Activate Fire Remnant is just overpowered IMO, that's why Morph ult looks bad in comparison.

Because Axe sucks this patch, and the replicate would have a 10-12min Radiance so you can farm etheral, and replicate gives Alchemist Grevil's greed procs so it is interesting for both
Nevet though of morphling + [terrorblade]] combo, seems nice illidan have Metamorph which is his ult and Morph can abuse this abilitys with hybrid
I understand your point, usually 5 man deathball could run this down(actually deathball usually destroy all the strategy), but bear in mind we have 2 suppports slots AND a undying offlane, and then i play morph more as a ganker spliter soon as i have my ult, so its more the alch which will be farming and both splitting
Morphling carry is not the main aghs lover, but the main guy here of this strategy is undying, the idea is him have a early greaves or any situational like Blade Mail, and be a monster as a alchemist gives him a aghs and then he would have 4200 gold to spend early on, undying has the Best aghs improve as Decay is a spammable skill
The point of morphling is to alch gives him the aghs and , with Hybrid, you would have 2 tombstones and aghs decay
Anyway hope you havw understood me, my english is ****

Even disregarding the general unviability of all this because of obvious flaws in this strategy, how is Axe **** in this patch?