Morphling is one of those carry heroes which is agile and terrific, and at the same time, difficult to master and horrific. Over the years, Morphling has undergone numerous changes but somehow it has managed to stay relevant in the meta majority of the time.
Remember Sylar’s unstoppable Morphling at The International 2012? Teams thought they had the answer to his Morphling but found themselves on the receiving end of Sylar’s wrath. On the back of Sylar’s Morph, LGD Gaming went defeated in the group stage, and then it somehow dawned upon the teams to seriously consider banning it.
How about Miracle, or Nisha or Ame’s Morphling plays over the years at prestigious events including The Internationals? That’s right. Morphling has always found a place in the meta, especially in the past few patches where his Aghanim's item build allows the watery fella to transform into an opponent or an ally.
Now consider the epic Morphling-Earthshaker combo that transformed the former into a “1 SHOT” monster?
What makes Morphling so special that even in the current DPC season, it is highly contested? Let’s find out.
Morphling: Agility
With the “agility attribute shift” ability, Morphling can transform into a hero having the highest agility in the game, providing him with increased attack speed as well as damage since it falls under the “agility” heroes.
It makes him an agile and highly damaging hero to play against, and with proper inventory build, he can delete any weak hero at a moment’s notice. Aggressive, no
The other side of the agility attribute shift is the “strength attribute shift”. During moments of weakness or when caught off-guard, Morphling can switch to strength attribute and gain massive strength thus making him tanky owing to increase in health.
That not only makes Morphling agile but also tanky as he can be aggressive as well as passive when the situation demands.
Morphling: Escape artist
Morphling’s waveform has the ability to dish out huge amounts of damage, clear out creep waves, and aggressively/passively manoeuvre to initiate or escape a tricky situation. It can help set up fights when in favour or help escape fights when the odds look dicey.
It is yet another tool for Morphling to ramp up his farm and make quick progress towards item builds.
Transforming into allies/enemies
Morphling and his ultimate; Morph, can transform himself into allies or enemies. Morphling can replicate into any enemy of his choice, but to transform into allies, he needs to build Aghanim’s Scepter– a decent build that provides higher versatility due to its bonuses such as cast range increase.
This is where it gets scary. Higher the agility, higher is the damage that Morphling can dish out. With the help of itemisation such as Ethereal Blade, Black King Bar, Eye of Skadi, Butterfly and Aghanim's Scepter, Morphling becomes unstoppable.
Morphling: Conclusion
To conclude, Morphling takes a while to scale up and be really effective in a game for which the time period is relatively decent. Upong building basic items and gaining early levels, the hero becomes a nightmare to deal with.
Have you ever seen the Ethereal Blade + Adaptive Strike + Agility Attribute combo completely deleting a weaker hero? See it for yourself, and then you’ll know why Morphling is relevant even today.
All in all, a versatile pick.
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