6.86 Morphling

Hi all, TheSofa here.

With the 6.86 changes to Morphling (Adaptive Srike Base damage increase, Morph rates), will he be a viable pick again?

And would you actually buy Dragon Lance on him to help his short range?

Does the 30 more base HP mean he can shift 2 more to Agility at the start of the game?

Thanks all,
TheSofa

I honestly think he might be viable again. morph strength gain is INSANE right now, it gained 60% morph speed (!!). A hidden buff is actually that morphing also costs way less mana, since the mana cost wasn't increased. Glow green like real men do and still be unkillable <3

But the biggest buff I think is Ethereal Blade and adaptive strike mana cost reduction. His shotgun costs 80 less mana now. This means...that you can finally rush eblade first item after wand/wraith band (yay!). 415 mana to 335 mana, seriously that's a huge change.

And Dragon Lance. Yes it's sick on him in the manta/skadi build.

Only slight downside, Morphling can't go mid anymore. Bottle is literally **** right now, so he can't regen from harass. So safe lane Boots of Travel rush it is, into either straight up eblade or manta/skadi.

Sorry for being offtopic(again), but does Dragon Lance even make impact? I don't see it as anything other than a placeholder item for heroes that make their progression into Aghs/BKB/SnY and Buttefly is a viable option for them. I.e Luna, Razor, Weaver etc. Morph doesn't go early BKB nor SnY, and Aghs is **** on carry Morphling so Ogre Club is pretty much wasted, and Morphling has Wavefor to initiate to an almost melee range anyway so Dragon Lance makes even less sense on him.

Or is it actually useful and makes an impact compared to, say, Drums that are in the sake price range and can serve similar purpose?

Morphling weakness as a carry is his range.

There is an item that increases your range.

Morphling buys Dragon Lance.

:)

On the serious side though, it seems like the games you'll buy Dragon Lance (meaning you're hoping for late game and trying to carry) are the games you'll go BKB. And Butterfly isn't half bad on Morphling.

Dragon Lance is worth 1875 gold, it does not solve Morph's range issues because it has no place in his inventory. Range problems an ranged heroes are solved with Eye of Skadi, and Morphling has Waveform which is basically a blink aside from it not being instant + Replicate. He has no range issues lategame.

Never said Butterfly is bad on Morphling, it;s just Ogre Club can't be built into anything useful early-midgame.

On a 350 range AGI carry who is pretty much a glorified melee creep, 130 additional range is a 37% increase in range. So yes it's a big impact.

Morphling, Templar Assassin, Luna, these kind of heroes. It's pretty strong.

Not to mention Enchantress of course.



He goes Butterfly and should go late Black King Bar in most games, because BKB is the most value you can get out of a 5th slot or 6th slot (and because BKB is the best rat dota item in the game bar none). Since it's about disassembling an item, you don't need to disassemble it early, only when your inventory is full, around 45 minutes or even after.

BKB on Morph only starts being really good once his right-click is high, so in the late game.

Generally I'm a huge fan of late BKB's on 4/5-slotted carries. 10 seconds of facewrecking. Medusa is also a great example of late BKB hero.



But waveform has a cooldown. And when he doesn't have it up he's pretty much a melee creep. With the item he becomes almost Shadow Fiend. That's a big deal.

Makes sense, so is it Dragon Lance after Yasha or before?.

That's what I was going to ask next.

Where does Dragon Lance come into his item progression?

We agree that if he want's to shotgun he goes Boots Drums/Wand Eblade, but carry?

I'm guessing Treads >> Yasha >> Lance >> Skadi >> Manta?
Or Yasha >> Skadi >> Lance >> Manta?

I honestly don't know the order yet. But even if you get it after manta/skadi it's still worth it, there's no rush to get it early. I guess experimentation is in order. I intend to pick Morph quite a bit in this patch, not because he's amazingly strong, but simply because he's finally playable and what a hero.

Oh and because he dumpsters Pudge pickers. Yes, Pudge picker is going to be an insult in this patch, like Troll picker or Lesh picker used to be. Just wait :)

Yeah, I'm going to play a lot of Morphling too. I played him when he was at his weakest, so why not play him now? :D

I'll try some stuff today, I'll let you guys know what's up.

Cheers!
TheSofa