Counterpicks for Morphling in Dota 2

Morphling is a potent and versatile character in Dota 2. You can encounter Morphling in the lanes, mid, and at Roshan – the hero is mobile and swiftly changes locations.

Morphling is functional when choosing a game direction – he can function as support, in the carry role, or distract the opposing team from the main gameplay.

Overcoming Morphling is challenging, the character has formidable damage and powerful magical effects. Players need to use Morphling's counter picks – heroes that can block the elemental's abilities.

Morphling is a water elemental, a master of the Elements, with an enhanced mobility that enables him to either evade combat or catch opponents unawares. Morphling is largely self-reliant, frequents solo match-ups and escapes from group battles. As stated by Dota 2, Morphling has a "Maximum" difficulty level. Maneuvering this hero is a challenging task requiring an understanding of character progression nuances, artefacts and gear selections, along with activation of magical abilities.

In professional Dota2 tournaments, Morphling is a frequent pick among e-sports athletes, but amateurs rarely prefer him due to his intricate handling. Morph wields eight magical abilities:

1. "Waveform" morphs the hero into a wave for a brief moment, significantly increasing his movement speed and making him immune to enemy attacks for a while.
2. "Adaptive Strike" shoots a water jet at the enemy causing piercing damage and, for a short period after activation, increases the agility stats.
3. "Adaptive Strike II" launches a wave at the opponent who gets pushed back and stupefied, and after activation, increases strength parameters for a while.
4. "Adaptive Strike III" temporarily boosts agility stats.
5. "Attribute Shift" transfers strength points to agility.
6. "Attribute Shift II" transfers agility points to strength.
7. "Morph" reconfigures the hero's form, mimicking selected opponent, bestowing their primary abilities, and allowing Morphling to switch his form back and forth while the effect is active. 8. "Morph II" creates a clone of the selected enemy that's slightly inferior in stats and protects the hero from opponent’s attack.

Morph's unique ability to swap strength and agility allows him to adapt to all bouts - against mages, damagers, and illusionists. His ability to create illusions makes the enemy waste their super strikes on them, whereas "Waveform" enables him to dodge unfavorable conflicts.

Morphling thrives on enhanced stats – without agility points, the character weakens. The hero actively farms in the game's early stages to level up and enhance agility. The collection of artefacts that further boost agility points can make Morphling nearly invincible.

Resisting Morph at the initial stages of the game is pointless – with the activation of "Waveform", the hero can dodge any conflict. 

Setting a counter pick against Morphling is no easy task - the hero can independently choose its role and at any moment, change its characteristics.

Choosing units against Morphling, post the first skirmishes with the hero, should be based on the identified abilities of the elemental. Before heading to the mid, the strategy is to provoke Morph by constantly attacking and making him stack strength points. With a lack of agility, the hero is no more dangerous than a monster in the Forest.

Usually, Morph bypasses farming obstacles with the help of allies with great physical damage. If an attack is initiated against the elemental, allies bring the opponent into a duel, and Morphling, with the help of the "Waveform", retreats into the forest. Upon reaching mid, Morph is not a maximum threat - the hero avoids serious confrontations. Any characters with boosted strength and impressive physical damage can perform counterpicks against Morphling in mid.

But if the player controlling Morph is experienced, in most cases, the elemental will escape using "Waveform" and teleport away from mid. You can "bind" Morph in mid - deprive him of the chance to run away with characters with abilities to stun. An experienced team puts a tank against Morph at mid.

A hero with an elevated health level can withstand many attacks from the elemental and block the way for the enemy to the lane. It is not advisable to use a tank against Morph on the lane - the elemental will easily kill through lightning-fast attacks with good agility.

On the lane, it’s essential to suppress the strong sides of Morphling quickly - stun the hero with quick attacks deal area damage. If the elemental takes a lot of penetrating damage, Morph cannot inflict serious harm to enemies. It is optimal to use against Morphling heroes who know how to knock off the timing of the elemental's abilities.

Morph does not have basic passive abilities. The hero can only gain boosts through artifacts. Often, the elemental purchases Power Treads to increase agility and a Bloodthorn to enhance the chance of critical hit.

When playing against Morph, passive effects can be unset by any dispel artifact that dispels the enemy's magic.

The optimal counter pick for Morphling is Ancient Apparition. This Ice Elemental stuns the Water Elemental hero, slows, immobilizes, freezes and quickly shatters him. Ancient Apparation's super hit deprives Morphling of the ability to swap abilities - playing against the water elemental is straightforward with this device. Based on rate indicators (the ratio of kills and deaths in duel battles), you can distinguish other characters who counter Morphling:

- Nyx Assassin shows promising results in the jungle and in the mid due to high base damage;
- Queen of Pain deals area damage and paralyses Morphling, she might not always be able to kill him, but she can avoid combat and cause discomfort to the elemental;
- Lina is a good counter pick for Morphling when playing in the lane due to her fast attacks and increased damage;
- Skywrath Mage decreases Morphling's weak armour and deals a series of critical super hits to the hero.

While playing against Morphling, it's not necessarily to kill the hero; it's enough to immobilize and neutralize - deprive him of the ability to deal damage to allies and hinder them from taking the lanes. It is easier to force Morphling out of the lane than to kill him.

Shadow Fiend, Razor, Viper, Phantom Assassin, Venomancer - they're just lambs to the slaughter for Morphling. These characters presented the most heartbreaking win rates when going heads up against Morphling, whether solo duels or team fights. Their sluggishness is the chief failing that can't hold a candle against the swift attacks dished out by Morphling.

A hardened Morphling player has the potential to counter virtually any foes and barrel down on tanks. Teams use Morphling to expose the Achilles heel in their enemy's defence.

When playing on the line, it's critical to understand what to purchase against Morph. Artifacts and gear can aid in making the counter pick of a hero more effective:

• Heart of Tarrasque boosts life reserves and increases resistance to magic damage;
• Abyssal Blade increases health and reflects part of the piercing damage, allows to stun the opponent;
• Orchid Malevolence blocks Morph's ability to pump abilities.

Morph is a complex adversary. When playing against this elemental force, it's crucial to assemble the proper selection of artifacts and pick counter-heroes for dueling clashes. In the early stages, Morphling presents a minimal threat - having a minimalistic reserve of HP. As agility and strength attributes increase, Morph takes down the most potent Dota2 tanks in 1v1 fights and commands a significant portion of the map.