Phantom Ass***in

I'm back with more questions. A lot of you may have read my other thread about laning and I have decided to try out the Phantom assassin. Her stifling dagger allows last hits from a safe distance, her blur plus a stout shield allows her to tank most harass, and her blink strike allows safe last hits by either blinking in and taking it or blinking out after securing a last hit. I have a question about her item choices though. I was wondering Mjolnir or Battle Fury? Or neither? I know battle fury is more common due to its extra regen, farming power, and ability to spread crits. But would a mjolnir be a viable option too? It gives farming power with its chain lightning and bonus attack speed but most of all, the bonus attack speed allows for more chance for your crit. You also have to factor in that phantom strike provides a bonus attack speed as well. Do you guys think that would be enough? Which item do you prefer? And if you don't go for either could you suggest another one in the comments below?

honestly it really depends on your game situation.

example 1:

you have a mid magnus on your team and you are getting some serious farm in your safelane trilane with their offlaner basically just glaring at you from behind their tower as you rake in that gold.. since you have a grouper (MAGNUSSSSSS) where he brings the enemy heroes together in a bunch (also enigma and darkseer are quite good at this) then i would build a battle fury... it has great synergy with them and if you pick it up under 10 mins you will be able to help out even more in team fights. plus a good 1k crit ontop of a reverse polarity feels like heaven.

Example 2:

your line up is facing a collection of gankers and single target heroes, not much AoE, and a decent amount of damage early game you dont have any groupers or AoE disables. this is where you need attack speed and extra damage. i would pick up a Mjolnir, the active helps when going up against a solo targets and the extra attack speed increases your chance to crit. i also pick it up sometimes when facing a nuke line up as i can pick up a mithril hammer first and if im getting nuked too much i can forgo it for a quicker BKB then build it up again after.

Farming power:

Both rely on chance to increase your farming speed, where one does a small AoE damage the other increases your AS enough that crits become more common as well as chain lightning helping a lot... though single hit wiping out a triple stacked pull camp is decidedly satisfying with a BF...

as with most item and skill builds you should "Build to you enemy and Build to your team"

if i had to pick though i would grab a BF just for the damage and passive regen. i can always build into a Mjolnir halfway through if i feel it would be better against the enemy. and hey 800 gold for a ring of health helps a lot in lane no matter what your building :D

I always pick up maelstrom as farming item, proc synergises very well with phantom strike and item is actually more useful in late game (how often will you hit multiple heroes with cleave).

It depends on the pace of the game, you dont even have to go for a farming item, you can just go for a fighting build with phase BKB.

I think battle fury is still decent if you get good farm and dont have to fight, if you have to fight a bit then treads mealstrom is nice to have.
Dont go both a farming item and dominator, it leaves your impact low, and you dont benefit from the lifesteal that much.

my theory is either get lifesteal and maelstrom or battlefury, really depends on the situation and on pubs I sometimes get bored and go radiance :)))))

I always get Drum of Endurance and Vladmir's Offering: they offer a lot of early game presence and, while you won't farm as fast as with a Battle Fury, you'll be granted HP regen and a lot of useful auras for your team. It's a build that boosts your mid game presence, instead of being a useless afk farming Hero.

If I had to play the farming role and couldn't repick I'd probably go for a Maelstrom, though I don't think this is the way PA should be played.

I wouldn't get either of them. Battle Fury is a farming item on every hero except maybe Ember, and PA is not a farming hero and shouldn't be played as one.

Mjollnir is decent but again, it's mainly a farming item. It can be good situationally, mainly against heavy DOT lineups that will proc the hell out of the static charge.

I geenrally go phase medallion into basher/bkb. Drum is a good option as well.