Spectre, Medusa, Void

*sigh* I really hate this build (not the Skull Basher), Hand of Midas and Maelstrom are much better Farming Items on her, not to mention, they allow her to fight earlier.

Except in certain situations, I'd rather see a Mekansm on a Phantom Assassin than a worthless Battle Fury (not that I'm saying you should build Mekansm, just that it's much more useful)

It just means that the other 4 players have to Carry her (thank the gods for people with Skill 8{D )

http://dotabuff.com/matches/685929761

N00b Phantom Assassin in it's most common form -_-

Haha, I had to carry it with a Brewmaster before he got his stuff. :D

Anyways, the Drums + Vlad's + BKB build is much more suitable if you want to do early aggression, but that doesn't necessarily mean the BF build is bad. EternalEnvy from C9 gets a BF every time he plays mid Phantom Assassin, and even though I think Drums and Vlad's would be better, he can outcarry most of the Heroes in the late game that way. It's a noob build for pubs since (usually) you're not gonna play with people that let you farm for 25 minutes before joining fights, but if you can get it early (16 minutes including finished Boots) and still have ten more minutes to farm, it's decent.

I'd say the "mid-game" playing style is better, since the hard carry BF build does little to nothing both in pubs and in current tournaments: if I wanted to play a BF Hero, I'd go for Anti-Mage who also farms quicker.

yea i know lads ... what im trying to say is that she is a 20-40 min impact hero... if she doesnt have the impact in that time frame then she falls off against other hard carries. but all she needs is one crit thats the difference people forget.. yea a bit of damage and blink and her evasion are good and going up against a 10/10 late game carry usually means she dies but i agree with the thing said where there should be a tier for Chance based carries...one crit and she can insta kill most heroes barring wraith. as i said before without the crit ... useless ... if she gets the crit ... well then thats different.

i usually get bf because the farming speed helps plus it lends her some teamfight ive seen a 5 man reverse polarity blinked in and got a 1.8k crit and got a rampage before. the ability to transfer crits to a AoE shouldnt be underated. i also have built a maelstrom before and it does reduce her start time a bit.

all in all i think she is underated ... ive been smashed down by a spectre before 1v1 and i had basically no hp and i got a 1.2k crit and she was dead .... its all about chance.

Hand of Midas is wasted on Phantom Assassin as she's primarily a mid-game hero. I'd rather spend that gold on something that is going to help me constantly pick people off.

Power Treads
Drum of Endurance
Skull Basher

(If you're skipping the Drum of Endurance then I'd opt for Phase Boots for the chasing potential.)

Great 1 v 1 pick off potential there. Midas for me is only worthwhile if you're trying to make the game go 35 minutes+.

I think its decent anyway becouse of your faster leveling, she depends pretty hard on level 16.

^ This is pretty much the reason I take it onmost Carries. Being 2 levels higher than the highest levelled Hero on the other Team really shows in Teamfights, especially when you're lvl16 and they're barely lvl14. It is actually a good Item for ensuring a STRONK Mid-Game.

I'm not saying I would take it every game, it's always Situational for every Hero imo. It's great on any Carry for getting ahead of the other Team, that's why I even favour it on a Luna when I'm confident I can end the game 20:00 - 30:00 or even 40:00 in, when lvl3 Eclipse is a dominating factor in Teamfights.

Personally, I prefer Phase Boots, Drum of Endurance, Maelstrom. Chain Lightning Procs ftw 8{D

I guess Phase Boots + Drum of Endurance would make you extremely quick, but I can imagine missing the attack speed from Power Treads. More attack speed = More crits, after all.

Then again, the Maelstrom would give you the attack speed that Skull Basher lacks I guess.

Regarding the Hand of Midas, I agree that the exp is a huge factor, but I guess it depends how actively you are going to be picking fights. If you're mostly running into lane creeps, the exp advantage isn't going to be quite as sizeable. If however you find yourself in the jungle often when your off cooldown, then I can see how it would be worth it.

You don't need to head into the Jungle all the time, just nip in use it on the nearest Creep, i.e. Top - Dire Hard Camp, Mid - Radiant Medium Camp, Bot - Radiant Medium Camp. I guess there's a bit of an advantage for Dire, but you can always Last Hit the Lane Creeps with Dagger to avoid losing out on Last Hits

It also helps more as a 5 vs 5 Item, since Chain Lightning can hit everything. Skull Basher is only useful against 1 Hero, although sometimes that's all you need. <}3

quick question? ...

lifestealer? where would he fit in the carry tier?

Lifestealer becomes very strong early after an armlet, peaks off in the late mid-game, but falls off late game against agility hard carries (tanky hard carries get countered by feast), but is a formidable support slayer with his magic immunity. Which is why lifestealer is best played with another hero that can "carry" with him, so to speak. I would say he belongs somewhere in the middle.