Dragon Lance Morphling, v.2.0

Hey guys, Sofa here.

Remember the last time I brought this up, dragon lance was still Ogre Club + Quarterstaff and didn't build into anything and was a waste of item slots?

Well now it isn't.

The stats are wonderful (you get an extra 4 Str and 2 Agi for no reason), the buildup is sweet, and it provides Morphling everything he needs - longer attack range, and Strength and Agility.

Now we come to a question: is it still a waste of an item slot on Morphling?

Really, this means "Is Hurricane Pike viable on Morphling?"

Food for thought.

Cheers,
Sofa

I am personally of the opinion that Hurricane Pike is viable on everyone. Especially now that it gives the extra attack speed with the active... basically a mini farm accelerant.

Bunkan get in here with your Luna theory

Dragon Lance Morph is good, I don't think there is a debate anymore here. It's pretty much the new Drum of Endurance, a cost-efficient item for early fighting, and it completely replaces drum in every game now that drum was essentially nerfed into oblivion on AGI heroes. It's the best item to buy on Morph when you're forced to fight early against an aggressive lineup and when it's not an Ethereal Blade game.

Hurricane Pike however, I'm more skeptical. Morph has already 2 positioning skills, which is more than any other hero in the game. Feels a bit overkill to get a 3rd one. But then, Blink Dagger Queen of Pain is legit, so it's not a reason ; maybe going full mobility on Morph does something.
Maybe there is a place for it when playing against a pushing lineup and when both Ethereal Blade and Linken's Sphere suck in this game. Like when you need to play right click Morph and split push all early game, and join teamfights to defend towers. Pike helps to rat, and is good in teamfights as well. Could be a decent buildup to standard manta/skadi right click Morph that partially solves his early game issues.

I expect lance getting pretty nerfed in some of next patches... It awesome item on Drow Ranger, Sniper, Luna, Terrorblade and suprisignly best item to stack stats on Meepo I tried it on several other heroes with lesser success such as Gyrocopter, Huskar, Medusa, Razor, templar assasin, Weaver, Vengeful Spirit but I didn't find way to accomodate lance into their builds.

Honestly this item works wonders if you have a hero who builds BKB, Sange and Yasha or Manta Style. You can disassemble into BKB then build Yasha into Manta and then even use the last Band of Elvenskin into another Dragon Lance which will build into a Hurricane Pike eventually. It's basically an investment of 1900 gold to speed up your other item purchases later and give you great stats while you have it. 280 HP, 14 damage and 14 attack speed on Agi heroes, and 2 armour. PLUS the range on top of that... seems pretty OK to me.

Like you just bought an item that builds into 3 other items, without wasting basically any gold at all.

I would probably buy this on literally every ranged hero that buys S&Y, Manta and/or BKB at some point in the game. So under this logic, it probably works fine on Morph, can buy a Manta Style with it later on whenever you want, and a BKB or whatever.

Dragon Lance morphling is indeed really strong now. Hurricane Pike is a bit meh since there are better items to get on a morph. I think you should just build a Dragon Lance and sell it later when your 6-slotted.

I don't think it feels right to disassemble a early game item for another early game item though :P

Although here's what we can disassemble Lance for:

Black King Bar
Yasha
Power Treads

All things that morphling usually buys (except maybe the pts, travels is super good on him)

Maybe something like this (for right click morph ofc, no shotgun here).

Boots of Speed > Ring of Aquila > Dragon Lance > Eye of Skadi > (disassemble lance) > Black King Bar > Yasha > Power Treads/ Boots of Travel > Manta Style > Butterfly > Bloodthorn

Whaddayatink?

Sofa

^
But but shotgun :\

As for the build, I would get manta>bkb>skadi

Not to derail the thread, but wasn't eblade built so that morph had some damage midgame and could actually contribute? Also, but could someone give me a build centered around e-blade?

I mean yeah, don't have to remake the Dragon Lance again with the leftover Band of Elvenskin, I was just trying to think of a way to utilise ALL of the components. It's basically just an investment for later. Still think it's fine on a lot of heroes.