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9 Votes

Prodigy's Guide to Phantom Lancer

April 17, 2013 by CaptnLegendary
Comments: 9    |    Views: 76810    |   


Safe Lane Hard Carry

DotA2 Hero: Phantom Lancer




Hero Skills

Illusory Armaments (Innate)

Spirit Lance

1 3 5 7

Doppelganger

2 12 13 14

Phantom Rush

4 8 9 10

Juxtapose

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18

Introduction - Why This Might Not Make Sense Sometimes

First of all, this guide is STRICTLY TARGETED towards my fellow clan members, and we have a very specific current-meta-based playstyle. My builds will probably not work in most pub games, and are made for Team Matchmaking games. Since I'm the most knowledgeable player in a clan of noob level 20 friends, I decided to write a series of guides on our primary heroes: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Luna, Lifestealer, Gyrocopter, Keeper of the Light, Shadow Demon, Wisp, Dark Seer, Magnus, Templar Assassin, Nyx Assassin, Earthshaker, and Nature's Prophet, and decided to use Dotafire because of its clean and user-friendly interface. Only then did I realize that I would have to actually publish a guide for it to be viewable, instead of just linking my friends the drafts of my guides. Well, whatever. Some of these choices might not make sense for you. For example, I tell you to buy no regen for your lane, because the way my clan play, the SUPPORT gives the Hard Carry all the regen from his own cash. My guides are still relevant to the current playstyle of a hero, so if you understand what parts to NOT do in a pub (like farm AFK or go in lane without regen) these guides are perfect for you.

This is my first ever guide, and it's for the Position 1 Hard Carry - Phantom Lancer.
View my other guides here: http://www.dotafire.com/profile/captnlegendary-13729

Early Game - How to Farm

Go into the safe lane with your support. Proceed to use your quelling blade and powerful right clicks to last hit creeps, and leave minor things like denying and harassing to your support if the lane is relatively equal. If you have absolute free farm, consider getting an item like a Midas. Use the courier at will to carry your items out to you (you're the carry after all), and back up to heal with tranquils/regen whenever you need to. You should have your Tranquils by the time your regen finishes, so you can farm aggresively for the first 3-4 minutes to get your Tranquils ASAP, and not worry about running out of regen. If for some reason your regen does finish before you finish your Tranquils, ask your support to give you his, or use the courier to bring it to you. (Make sure the mid is not bottle crowing). Lance harass if you have a source of mana or if your support has powerful early game nukes. Phantom Lancer has one of the strongest carry nukes early game, and it can get you more than 1 kill throughout the laning phase if used right. NEVER use your Doppelwalk other than for escaping, it's level 1 cooldown is relatively high, and always make sure you're watching the map for enemy heroes. Also ensure that the enemy laners don't have invisibility detection, or you might get yourself killed for nothing. Also, you can optionally build a bracer with your circlet and get a fast drum if you're having free farm. :) Drum Yasha Diffusal at level...11 gives you like +93 agility 20 minutes in.

MOST IMPORTANTLY GET EVERY SINGLE ******* LAST HIT. Don't waste your time harassing, if you can get an early Yasha + Diffusal, the game is over for the enemy.

Summary: Get EVERY single last hit, don't waste time harrasing/denying, back up to heal whenever its necessary, and pick up some kills if you can (never overextend, EVER. Only use Doppelwalk to escape.

Mid Game - Keep on Farming

At this point, you should have Tranquils, Aquila, Yasha, and some components of your Diffusal Blade. ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO HAVE TP scrolls, and don't AFK farm. If your team is asking for help for a relatively equal fight, where your enemies are charging your towers, TP safely and proceed to throw out some lances. Make sure you killsteal every kill, and use your lance if necessary, since PL's farm is more important than the whole team's combined. Ensure you have good ward vision, and use your army of illusions to clear out the jungle while you farm the lane. If you don't get caught out too often, and micro your illusions well, your farm rate can skyrocket. Once you finish that Diffusal + Manta, you can send out armies of illusions who will push infinitely until an enemy hero comes to stop them. There's no risk of feeding the enemy gold, since illusions don't have a bounty.

A good tip is to bind your hero to the "1" key and your illusions to the "2" key, and both of them to the "3" key. This makes it that much easier to farm all over the map.

Summary: Farm the jungle and lane together, TP to fights if you think you can get kills, watch out for ganks since you can watch the map while afk-farming, and micro your illusions using the 1-2 keys. DO NOT FARM AGGRESIVELY (DIE). DON'T GET DISTRACTED BY MINI-FIGHTS, JUST KEEP UP THAT FARM.

Late Game - Pushing Raxes and Teamfighting

If you've gotten your core items, this part of the game is the easiest/most fun. TP all over the map, send out armies of illusions (control them, and A-click the enemy rax. They will keep marching down the lane, creating infinite illusions of themselves, and will keep netting you easy gold), and TP to teamfights. Use your Diffusal Blade + Lance combo to solo squishy targets (make sure they're by themselves) and in a fight, simply stay back, throw your lance at a target, and hit them till they are dead. :) Doppelwalk out at the slightest hint of danger. DON'T FORGET TO USE YOUR MANTA STYLE AND DIFFUSAL BLADE. Push raxes by spawning an illusion at a creep, making a mini-army, and then sending them up to Phantom Lancer the tier 3 tower/melee rax.

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