Everywhere at once - Phantom Lancer Codex

Azwraith the Phantom Lancer

Pros & Cons

Credits & Shoutouts

This guide is hardly one of personal craft. Over the years many players have played and refined Phantom Lancer. I have read MANY guides over the years and can't help but quote the greats before me. In this section of the guide I will list credits for a few of the greats. Without them there might not be the Phantom Lancer build I know and love.

Azwraith, The Phantom Lancer Guide by ~HoneY~

Kwanz4's Guide to Phantom Lancer

Juddernaught's Guide to Azwraith

Skill Explanation

aka

• Throws a magical spirit from his lance at a target damaging it and slowing it down for 3 seconds. An illusion is created attacking the target.
  Level 1 - Deals 100 damage and Cripples for 10%. Illusion lasts 2 seconds.
  Level 2 - Deals 150 damage and Cripples for 20%. Illusion lasts 4 seconds.
  Level 3 - Deals 200 damage and Cripples for 30%. Illusion lasts 6 seconds.
  Level 4 - Deals 250 damage and Cripples for 40%. Illusion lasts 8 seconds.
  The projectile can't be evaded by blink or windwalk.
  Mana Cost: 125 / 130 / 135 / 140
  Cooldown: 7

This is your ranged harassment tool for all game. The damage isn't bad, but the slow is awesome for PL. Chasing couldn't be easier when you land one of these on your oppenent, so remember to take advantage when they overextend. Its mana cost is fairly high so you should avoid using it too much.

DOPPELWALK aka

• Allows the Phantom Lancer to become invisible for a period of time, leaving behind a duplicate of himself to confuse enemies. 10% movement bonus at all levels. Lasts 8 seconds.
  Level 1 - 150 mana.
  Level 2 - 120 mana.
  Level 3 - 90 mana.
  Level 4 - 60 mana.
  Mana Cost: 150/120/ 90/ 60
  Cooldown: 30/ 25/ 20/15 seconds

This is your survival/chase/ambush spell all rolled into one. Use this to avoid ganks, gain distance on your enemies and surprise your enemies when the time comes. The mana cost of this spell is EXTREMELY high at early ranks, so you should avoid using it as much as possible. Never cast dopplewalk for no reason.

aka

• Whenever the Phantom Lancer attacks he will have a 12% chance to create a duplicate of himself. Duplicates last 20 seconds.
  Level 1 - Limit of 2 images.
  Level 2 - Limit of 3 images.
  Level 3 - Limit of 4 images.
  Level 4 - Limit of 5 images.
  Illusion deals 25% damage and takes 450%.

A passive skill that allows you to totally dominate lategame. With the number of illusions surrounding you your enemies won't know who to focus. Your images will burn enemies mana on strike (once you have Manta) making it impossible for enemies to ignore them.

PHANTOM EDGE aka

• Gives the Phantom Lancer an edge in combat by increasing Juxtapose's image generation and increasing magic resistance. Additionally, it enables his images to generate their own images.
  Level 1 - 10% magic resistance, 3% chance illusions will duplicate, 2% increase in Juxtapose.
  Level 2 - 15% magic resistance, 5% chance illusions will duplicate, 4% increase in Juxtapose.
  Level 3 - 20% magic resistance, 7% chance illusions will duplicate, 6% increase in Juxtapose.

This is where the sh*t hits the fan. Besides increasing your own chance to generate an illusion, now your clones have a chance! This is what enables PL to carry SUPER hard lategame. The passive magic resistance isn't bad, but the fact that your enemies won't be able to tell the real you from the fakes is what enables you to carry.

Skill Sequence

This is the priority in which you rank your skills. We focus on spirit lance and take a single rank in dopplewalk early for our time in the lane. The truth is that you do not need to create illusions while laning early. Ranking either Juxtapose or Phantom Edge before 9 is just not efficient when your focus is to be last hitting.

Why 4, 6, and 8?

• "It adds a nice boost to all attributes and helps increase your HP, damage and attackspeed so that when you do get Juxtapose you create images much faster and they are stronger and more helpful. Survival is the most important part in this stage of the game and the extra HP from stats is needed to increase PL s low HP." - HoneY

HoneY says it best so I won't bother rephrasing it. We max spirit lance for lane harassment and take one rank in dopplewalk for escapes. A good PL doesn't need illusions to farm early.

Why did you get stats over Juxtapose?

• "It adds a nice boost to all attributes and helps increase your HP, damage attackspeed so that when you do get Juxtapose you create images much faster and they are stronger and more helpful." - HoneY

Why did you learn only 1 level of Juxtapose and then Phantom Edge?

• "Phantom Edge does not grant the real PL a chance to make illusions unless you already have atleast 1 level of Juxtapose. So learning 1 level of Juxtapose is worthwhile so that when you do learn Phantom Edge you get all the benefits possible from it." - HoneY

Why did you max Dopplewalk at levels 16,17 and 18? Why not leave it till levels 23,24,25?

• "This is the part of the game where you may need to chase fleeing heroes more often, after team battles/encounters. The much faster cooldown will will be necessary as you may find yourself in trouble more often than in earlygame. Also, you can use the Dopplewalk illusion to help you create many illusions much faster." - HoneY

Once again, HoneY is right. Don't ever prioritize Juxtapose over Phantom Edge. Dopplewalk really only comes into play while enemies heroes are around, which happens more frequently mid-late game.

Core Item Build

At this point in the guide I might lose some people who are Dota vets. Many Dota players believe they have the 100% best build out there. Let me assure you there is never a 'perfect' build. Early game builds have been argued over for forever and I have left my arguments in the 'item arguments' chapter. This section will simply explain each item and its use.

These give you a all around stat boost, but a little heavier strength pool. We grab these for early game survival to counter PL's low HP.

Boots of travel (BoT) give you the solid ability to win chases. PL's base movement speed is low and these really solve the issue. The teleport, when used correctly, can enable you to push multiple lanes at the same time. Backdoor!


Bonuses are +26 Agility, +10 Strength, +10 Intelligence, +15 Attack Speed, and +10% Movement Speed with the ability to make 2 illusions of yourself. On top of all that your images will burn mana. (aka shenanigans)

*Manta Style is an absolute must on PL. The orb effect from diffusal alone is worth the buy. Fighting spell casters just got easier, on top of them having to locate the real you. The all around stat gain is amazing and the active doubles your juke potential.

Yasha is great at providing useful stats for a decent gold cost. Agility, attack speed, and movement speed are all MUST stats on PL. I personally choose this item for my midgame core and let butteryfly carry me into lategame.

Your first luxury item and one that I consider core. Heart of tarrasque gives you a massive 965 HP boost and makes your illusions very bulky. On top of that it provides really great regen.

Luxury & Situational Items

• "The item that almost any agility carry should have. And of course, it synergizes with Juxtapose and Phantom Edge because of the immense attack speed bonus that it offers. Evasion is also a great lategame skill. I shouldn't even have to explain why this is a good luxury item for PL." - Kwans4
  
  
• "The downside, it's expensive at $6,000. This can be skipped in favor of other items in this section if you go the Radiance route as your damage output will be already increased." - Juddernaught

• "Buriza is worthwhile, but only after Heart and Butterfly. Images do critical, althouth the criticals deal much less damage. (a % of the real PL's critical depending on what type of illusion they are) You do not really have to worry about your higher critical damage giving you away because PL usually has so many images and it is very difficult to tell which PL got that certain critical, especially when all the PL's are moving and other actions are occuring in battles." - HoneY
  
  
• "Buriza offers a lot of DPS on PL. But getting Buriza kind of defeats the purpose of playing a deceitful hero. You are supposed to confuse your enemy with your illusions - buriza doesn't let you do this because your illusions will crit in smaller numbers." - Kwans4

• "Radiance is excellent because of the Immolation. Images do not get the +60 damage but they do get the immolation. Excellent when pushing as immolation will cover the whole lane and all the enemies." - HoneY

• "It's just a great item in general, and people with escape mechanisms like PL are especially good holders of magic wand because it provides that burst mana and health for more survivability (along with cheap stats)." - Kwanz4

• "Is awesome on Phantom Lancer in the early-mid game, because it allows you to spam your lance more freely in-lane, and is also good for regening your mana for doppelwalk to avoid ganks." - Kwanz4

Item Arguments & Items to avoid

• "Ironwood Branches: For stats and to later upgrade to a magic wand. Stats obviously provide better survivability as opposed to no stats, and starting out with branches is much more cost-effective." - Kwanz4
  
  
• "The Circlets are a great starting stat booster for Azwraith plus they upwards convert into either Wraith Bands, Bracers, or Nulls." - Juddernaught

• "Bracers are much better than Null Talismans or Wraith Bands for almost every hero, including PL, in almost all situations. You have two active spells and together they use 200 mana, you have sufficient mana to use them without any extra intel items, hence Nulls are unnecessary. Bracers are much better as they give you much better survivability and HP, the thing PL desperately needs more of. However, if you are in a easy lane and do not get harrassed much then Wraith Bands will be a good option instead of Bracers as they provide good damage and are cheaper." - HoneY

• "Treads should be in your core because it provides cheap stats and is more lategame dps oriented. (you should obviously have BOTs at some point too - treads just come first)" - Kwanz4
  
  
• "Boots of Travel are a necessity on PL. He needs the Teleport ability to defend/push and to increase his and his images pathetic base MS. Power Treads are not a good item for PL. The attack speed does not benefit his illusions, the movespeed is also too little. PL is a pushing hero and he has low base movespeed of 290. BoT are much better than Treads on PL." - HoneY
  
  
• "remember, we are not trying to make illusions early game and so it is not needed." - HoneY

• "Sange and Yasha (SnY), while usually decent on agility heroes, is terrible on Azwraith. First, images cannot maim! Third, you can already chase with Spirit Lance and Purge, so what do you need maim for anyway? Fourth, attack speed increases don't help out images. Besides, Manta Style already uses your Yasha for better bonuses so there is no point in rebuying a Yasha." - Juddernaught
  
  
• "This is also a really popular pub item. Don't get it for Phantom Lancer. This shouldn't be considered a cheap replacement for Manta, because SnY is like Skadi - which also shouldn't be gotten for PL. The maim isn't needed because you are already a good chaser, and Manta offers much more dps. Avoid getting SnY at all costs." - Kwanz4

• "The Cranium Basher sounds appealing: You might think, "Sweet! My images can bash too!" WRONG! Images no longer bash due to the recent update on Cranium Basher so why waste your money on something that doesn't help your images? "But you can bash them, holding them in place while your images hit!" True, but you really don't need to bash because you can already chase effectively with Diffusal Blade's purge and your Spirit Lance. You really don't need to hold them in place at all." - Juddernaught

• "This is a pretty popular item for PL... in pubs. Yes, it grants a negative armor buff that illusions can benefit from (assuming that the real PL hit the enemy hero with it in a certain time frame), but it's a mid game item and PL is a lategame hero. And of course, illusions do not benefit from raw damage." - Kwanz4

Early Game: Levels 1-8

As PL you should be going top or bottom with a partner. Good choices are someone ranged with a strong ranged disable or stun. PL needs to farm and the best way to insure your early success is to set yourself up with a strong laning hero.

• "The PL + KotL duo is one of the most famous laning setups ever. Period. This lane was made famous by the Asian scene a while back, and there are several reasons that make it a good lane. In short, the idea behind this lane is for KotL to feed mana to PL with Chakra so that PL can nuke the brains out of those laning against him." - Kwanz4
  
  
• "She's [CM] a great ally for anyone anyways - she can also fulfill KotL's role to a degree. She also makes up for KotL's weakness, which is his lack of a disable." - Kwanz4

These are great examples of laning partners.

• "Azwraith's primary goal early game is to stay alive because he's very squishy. Fortunately, Dopplewalk is there to save you if you get in trouble, but it costs a lot of mana, so just stay back and last hit creeps (if you can)." - Juddernaught
  
  
• "I can't stress this enough - FARM FARM FARM until you have either core build complete." - Juddernaught

Like Juddernaught said, stay alive and FARM. Please don't be one of those early game failing PL's who saw a person face roll a pug and then decided to copy paste the experience. Use your abilities wisely and tango when you need it. Last hit anything close to death and hope you make it out of your lane with your life.

Mid Game: Levels 9-16

At this point in the game you really need to make a choice. Does your team need a ganker? If not then just farm.

• "By level 11/12 you should have your Boots of Speed, 2 Bracers and parts of/maybe all your Yasha. With average hp, decent movespeed, good attack speed and a nice nuke/slow you can get a few kills. Using Spirit Lance twice on a hero will do 460 damage, AFTER magic resistance. This is about half of the total HP of most heroes at this time, not to mention it also gives you 6 seconds of slow to keep hitting them." - HoneY

• "The middle of the game is the make or break point. You should be starting to get strong now and you can use him for hero-killing, ganking (Spirit lance for nuking and slowing and Dopplewalk for sneaking up and escaping) and pushing (lots of me!)." - Juddernaught

Spirit Lance acts as both a great opener and finisher. Remember to make use of the slow and get in as many auto attacks as possible.

• "Don't try to ambush heroes with 2 or more disables ( eg, Lion, Rhasta, etc.) If there are no low HP heroes farming by themselves then simply go to a lane and farm. If the level 1 towers are already down, then go farm neutral creeps." - HoneY
  
  
• "Your focus during the middle part of the game is to get as much gold as you can, either from heroes or creeps. Azwraith requires some pretty expensive items to be strong because his abilities enhance the items' massive power. Just play smart and you should make it to the end game successfully." - Juddernaught

Forest, or jungle, creeps can be a good way to stay farmed while roaming around the map. Creating a small army at a camp and continuing through the forest can warrant some nice gold as well as map control.

• "You can ambush/Gank but don't make it your priority, keep in mind that you have to also farm so that you can be a monster when lategame comes. Of course this does not mean just farm farm farm, if your teamates ask for you to come help push or if the enemies are attacking your base towers then ofcourse go and help. Help your teammates in ganking heroes, you have 2 slows, use them. Don't always use Spirit Lance to last hit, use it for the slow so your allies can whack the hero too, not just so you can last hit. Help your allies if they are being chased, slow the enemy with either Purge or, preferably, Spirit Lance as it is not limited to 10 charges." - HoneY

Couldn't ask for better advice. HoneY makes our lives easy by explaining our midgame priority. Farm > Ganks > Pushing.

Late Game: Levels 17-25

Teamfights are breaking out and major pushing is happening. This is what playing PL is all about. Time to push like you never have before and confuse your enemies until victory is yours.

• "The end game is where Azwraith truly shines. By now you should have at least Diffusal/Yasha or Vanguard/Radiance and something from the alternative core build. You can push lanes for farming while using images to scout runes, jungles, potential ganks, etc. You are truly a farming machine - not many heroes can keep up with your farming ability. If you have boots of travel, you can farm a lane, teleport to another one, and let your images continue to work while you're not there. Also, your Spirit Lance still (and purge if you have it) provides the slow you need to effectively chase people. When the big team battles ensue (which they always will) you shouldn't just charge in. You're not a tank. Dopplewalk and use that image as a distraction so they think it's you waiting there and run behind their front line (usually full of tanks and creeps). Once the two lines clash, begin decimating their casters. Usually, they won’t have time to react before you're all over the place thanks to your images. If they start figuring out which one is the real you, activate Manta and continue the punishment. If you're in real trouble, Dopplewalk and get out safely. Fortunately, you'll be doing hefty damage so you might bring down one without getting too hurt and you can begin chasing.
  
  Your images will be duplicating themselves at both the front line and the back line, confusing your enemy. Your job is to focus on one hero, kill him, and move onto another. Your images will act as fodder." - Juddernaught

• "After your 10 charges of Purge have been used up, or when you think its about time to get Manta, upgrade Diffusal to Manta. With Manta and Phantom Edge PL will be an insance pusher. With Boots of Travel and your illusions it is your job to teleport all over the map and push down towers and cause confusion in team battles, aswell as dealing damage." - HoneY

• "When you are killing a hero keep the real PL attacking him to slow him down and control half your illusions to also attack him. The other illusions should be sent infront of the hero to try and box him in, this is will allow you to have way more hits on the enemy and with Spirit Lance’s slow and Frost attack the enemy should rarely get away." - HoneY

Nuff said. Remember to focus your overall damage and surround your enemy as soon as you can. Try not to give yourself away without dopplewalk up. The active on Manta can really add to your juke game, so remember to save that for when it counts. Push for your team and don't ever let the pressure down. Use illusions to your advantage and split push when your team is strong enough.

Juddernaught's Mind Games

This is simply best left alone. Transferred from Juddernaught's original guide, I simply can't compete with his list of tricks.

Juddernaught's How To: Images

All hail Juddernaught's awesome knowledge!

Closing

Like I said at the start of this guide, I am not the creator. I simply have gathered the best points from the best players over the years. My aim was to provide Dotafire with a strong PL guide by forming a collection of pro tips and tricks. Up vote for the reputation of the greats. Without them we might not have the PL build we know today.

• Juddernaught's Guide to Azwraith
• Kwanz4's Guide to Phantom Lancer
• Azwraith, The Phantom Lancer Guide by ~HoneY~

I will continue to update this guide with the approaching release of Dota2. Knowledge is a privilege and we should help those new to the learning curve.