Core Dota Items For Meepo
Make a Headress, then rush Treads. Treads are awesome dota item for Meepo, they add 12.5 str to your clones and 10 str for your main, which is invaluable, as it is the only reliable and cheap way to increase your clones hp. Attack speed and movement speed early on all your clones are also really really good for your combat and chasing abilities, something you will want since we'll be ganking early. After Treads, farm Basilius then rush Meka. Basilius is bought for the mana and armor, so that we can prolong jungling/farming without having to go back often. Meka is for the heal that can affect all your Meepos. You can get Meka first before Basilius if you got the money to buy it straight.
Recommended Dota Items vFor Meepo after Core
In competitions or more serious games, Blink Poofing is one way to give you an edge when playing Meepo. You can still play a decent Meepo without this, and you can safely ignore this item in most games, but you will need to learn to use Blink on Meepo if you want to get the most out of Meepo.
Whatever bad things you say about Vlad, it's still one of the best items for Meepo. For it's low price, it grants a lot of benefits. With this you can camp in the jungle almost indefinitely and keep your mana high enough for fights. The lifesteal might not be very helpful in battles, but it's great against creeps and lets you solo Roshan at Level 11, although with some effort. The armor aura gives your clones a decent survivability boost, and the damage aura adds to your DPS as well.
400 damage block from spells for all your clones is almost required in certain games, and will be useful in all games. Meepo's greatest fear are heavy nukers, and this item will help you a lot against them. With this you can kill nukers easily and safely, use your mass-poof much more safely in team battles, and it can let you rush in to fight without dying to spells instantly. Being a great support item that doubles as a shield for all your clones is really what make this great on Meepo.
Desolator and Assault Cuirass are the best dps items for Meepo, and after much testing and better experience, I've come to the conclusion that Desolater is the supperior one. In terms of dps, Desolater is only very very slightly (And i do mean very) better then AC, but in terms of cost, it is much cheaper. If you think Meepo doesn't need damage items, then you would be wrong. Late game Meepo will have trouble competing with agi dpsers without a damage item, and you do want to own that pesky Phantom Assassin even till late game. Also it lets you kill faster, making the divide and conquer (with earthbind) strategy extremely effective. Also, a rushed Deso after the Core Build would let you dice up even the toughest of tanks.
Get these if you're having trouble with fat lategamers, or skill-dependant Meepo-counters (which in a decent game, will probably happen quite often). They may seem strange at first glance, but when you think about it, they really are good items for Meepo. The reason is simple, most items don't work well on Meepo because they don't work on your clones, but the disable on these items work just as well. Guinsoo is nice as it helps defeat carries as well as casters, but against casters Orchid is better due to the duration.You already have net to keep them from running. Generally Guinsoo is better against DPSers (Troll, Void, Etc), while Orchid is better against tanky heroes with AoE disables (Centaur, Axe) as well as anything that relies on spells (from Earthshaker to Lina).
Yes, it is recommended. With Meka, Treads and Vlad’s, Meepo can solo roshan at Level 11 and take this almost for free, while giving your team a gold advantage over your opponents as well. Be wary of ganks though if you decide to go at Level 11. You can choose to take it at Level 16 so that it's much safer. You can give it to your allies if you think it would be more useful, but personally I’d only consider giving to my team’s carry if he is really really farmed.