Dota 2: How to play Morphling Yatoro

Here’s a tutorial by xuisoko on Reddit:

I decided to write this article because the way Yatoro plays Morphling is very different from other players. It works when I try it and you will immediately feel the difference. Here’s what he does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9QFkqKaJ0

Start the game

Yatoro starts the game without a heal item. He starts with: Magic Stick, Branch, Branch, Cirlet + Slippers of Agility (to gain Wraith Band)

He blocked the creepwaves from the start so that the creeps would encounter each other right below his turret.

If the enemy is an Earthshaker, don’t start like this, as he will use Fissure to block the creeps so the creeps won’t collide on your turret and you won’t get the turret lane heal. Advantages of letting creeps meet each other on their turrets:

• Standing under a turret, you get a healing aura, you don’t need to heal in the first wave
• First wave dies fast to level 2 fast
• You will bring up Tango after the team wins the first bounty runes.

Skill build is usually as follows E>Q>E>Q>E>R>E>Q (continue to max Q after E, sometimes you don’t need to util at level 6 if you don’t feel it is necessary)

Item level up in laning phase

If lane is balanced, or slightly better/worse, Yatoro will gain:

• Wraith Band > Magic Wand at times (depending on opponent) > Ring of Health > Elvenskin > Gloves of Haste > complete Power Treads > Linken Sphere

If lane is beneficial, ie you are 1-2 levels higher than the opponent and get a lot of lives, Yatoro will go up:

• Wraith Band > Magic Wand (as above) > Ring of Health > Boots before going to Gloves of Haste and Elvenskin > Linken’s Sphere

The reason is pretty clear. When you don’t have a big advantage and overwhelm the lane, you want to make good use of last hits instead of killing people. You also have a backup plan to enter the forest with these items.

How to build different items

Yatoro does not have a traditional Morbid Mask like we usually see in every Morphling game. Instead, even if the opposing team only has 1-2 heroes with the target spell, he still rushes the Linken Sphere first. That means, instead of Morbid Mask, he rushes Perseverance (Ring of Health). This speeds up Morphling’s item build time (Yatoro doesn’t need the Falcon Blade since he already has mana regeneration from Perseverance)

Go to Linken’s Sphere > Etheral Blade/Eye of Skadi > BKB/Blink/Shadow blade

He goes on Linken’s Sphere in nearly every game. The times when he doesn’t level up is when the opponent doesn’t have a target spell. In this case, he chooses Manta, Falcon Blade or Falcon Blade, Eblade, or rush Eblade. But 90% of the games are still Linken’s Sphere.

People assume that the reason he got on Linken’s Sphere was because of his ability to activate it because Yatoro has super fast reflexes. But that’s not true, because it’s mana recovery that matters. You farm much faster with Perseverance instead of Morbid Mask thanks to mana regeneration.

250 CS at 20 minutes??

Yatoro hit 250 CS at 20 minutes and got Eblade, Linken’s Sphere 20 minutes ago. Morphling farm as fast as Luna. So how did you achieve that?

• Use Q between camps. Drags Neutral Creep health down to the point where they will die from Waveform and Waveform hits both camps.
• Don’t let die
• Go to Windlace to increase movement speed between camps. Morphling moves extremely slow
• Stack each time if possible. Sometimes stacking multiple camps with Waveform. Teammates can also sub-stack.
• Farm offlane + triangle + large enemy camp, small camp + mid, instead of safelane after the tier 1 offlane Turret is gone.

I used your build and got 190 cs at 20 minutes. I noticed 2 times I died which slowed farming by 2 minutes. Therefore, don’t die, don’t over-dive in the laning phase.

Play plan and when to fight?

You can fight even before Linkens if your teammates push mid T1 turret, defend mid T1 or push T1 turret offlane.

Overall, this is what Yatoro does:

• If the enemy offlane is dangerous, or the enemy mid can rotate to the safelane, Yatoro will rotate towards the offlane (especially when the offlane T1 turret is gone).
• He also joins the team if they push the offlane turret
• He rarely fights in the safelane after that point.
• After the enemy safelane Tier 1 turret is gone, this is your zone. Plug wards, push lanes, get into triangles, repeat.

When you get Linkens, you can participate in combat a little more. But if you feel you don’t need it, focus on Eblade. Once you get the Eblade, it’s time to join the full episode. Eat Roshan, fight 5 people.

This time should be 20 minutes. The faster the better. This is when you start snowballing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9QFkqKaJ0

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