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6 Votes

Q, W, Right click - Mortred guide

August 2, 2012 by linkin
Comments: 4    |    Views: 17248    |   


linkin's build

DotA2 Hero: Phantom Assassin




Hero Skills

Immaterial (Innate)

Stifling Dagger

2 3 5 10

Phantom Strike

1 4 7 8

Blur

9

Coup de Grace

6 11 16

Talents

12 13 14 15 17 18

First of all...

I don't claim this guide to be the best guide out there, or the best way to play Mortred, this build is just how i play my PA and often get succesful :)
So feel free to try it and if you like it give it a +!

Introduction to Mortred - The Phantom Assassin.


Pros:
- Good movement speed.
- Good attack speed.
- Easy to last hit.
- Great slow Mechanism.
- One , if not the best chaser in the game.
- Good ganker, fast killer.
- Can carry the game alone.
- Can often get first blood partnered with High damage heroes (yurnero) or some good stunners,slowers.

Downsides:
- Low hp.
- Low defense.
- Can't initiate.
- Incredibly item dependant.
- She's not THAT useful until level 11-12.
- If you get killed 2-3 times at early game (without destroying towers or killing other heroes), your going to have a really hard time the rest of the game.

Early game.

As you spawn, you should level your Phantom Strike (over your stifling dagger, as you never know when you'll get ganked early and PS is a great escape mechanism, plus, Stiffling Dagger is not useful just yet. Buy yourself a Stout Shield as you will probably get some early harrasment, and go directly to secret shop, (don't forget to say your going the jungle side lane, just to avoid confusing your team) and get yourself an Orb of Venom which synergies extremely well with Phantom Strike for some easy chases over a 12% slowed down enemy suffering from a small DoT, plus the slow from your Stifling Dagger].

You should always go the jungle-side of the lane , top for dire, bot for radiant.
You can even solo the lane but you always have to know your enemy , Mortred WILL GET KILLED at early stages if you try last hit with melee attacks while having at least 1 stunner/disabler on the opposite side of the lane...
Also note that enemies like Viper or Venomancer will often harass you and that way it becomes hard to lh safely.

Also, don't use mana at all until level 3 (unless you can get an secure kill) , it's really hard to last hit effectively with Stifling Dagger in level 1, and it will kill your mana. Instead , wait for level 3 trying to lh every creep you can in a secure way (melee), note that we don't have any healing items , so its always good to have a support player that can heal you and deny creeps, Dazzle + Phantom Assassin is a great match for instance.

You should know that there's not a single perfect way of doing things, you should always adapt. Here are some lane situations that you will encounter, and some good ways to react:

1) You are solo on your lane, against an harassing couple of heroes (even if it's one, we dont want to lose any hp yet)

- Hit the creepcamp nearest to your tower and drive them to your creepwave, that way you can lh the creeps while getting your lane pushed your side, which is good for safer farming, just be careful not to do it when your lane is already pushed otherwise you'll get your tower down.

- You can always get great positioning in your side of the lane by going around the trees, you being on the jungle side, this way , you have vision of the fight thanks to your creeps, thus, you have vision of enemy heroes, this is great for 2 reasons: both your Stifling Dagger and your Phantom Strike have enough range to be triggered on the safe side where you are hidden, so you can set attacks if you have a strong teammate such as Juggernaut for a secure kill against squishy, or not so squishy opponents. The other reason is that you can last hit easily with a level 2/3 Stifling Dagger from a secure spot, though you may want to consider lh melee too as the cooldown won't allow you to do this super often, but rotating from time to time to the trees is effective and also prevents early ganks.

2) 2 vs 1 @ your favour:

- Go for the kill, never alone though, set the trap described above, ask for help to the jungler if there is one. You should not chase him to the tower though, let him push enough to secure the kill in your territory, just remain hidden in the trees till then. Forgot to mention that the 2 basic ways of starting a fight in early game are 1) Stifling Dagger 2) Phantom Strike: This way usually you will land next to him, and at the same time you land your first hit the dagger will hit, you land your second hit and you will have to do ~2 steps (assuming he realized he WILL die and he is already trying to escape) to land the other 2 hits from ps, note that if you bought Orb of Venom you will perma slow him + gradual venom damage. This is the most effective way to attack IMO, the other one is PS first , wait for him to run and SD him, and then finish him off. Just look at the situation and decide, if your ally is near then you should deff go for Stifling Dagger first, if you need to buy time till your ally catches up (though you shouldnt initiate alone really..) Phantom Strike first.

3) 1 vs 1:

You should judge the situation. Going for the kill can be risky and he should be very close to your tower otherwise he will escape. If you see him with 3/4 hp ~ and you already got your Phase Boots + Coup de Grace then you can jump him as described in Situation 2) , but it's not a good idea to do it if he has good stuns or if there are foes missing mid, do it at your own risk... OR ask your jungler/mid for a quick gank.
Regarding last hitting, pretty much the same, but if you got a melee foe you can feel free to make him back with some Stifling Dagger and take the chances to last hit and deny creeps.

It's safe to assume that these are not the only possible situations and combos that you can face, but knowing the above you can adapt to all of them.

Phase Boots.

Not really much to say about these, not only they give you nice movement speed and damage, but they work great when you need to escape. The bonus speed you gain from the active makes your chasing even easier. Later in the game you can opt to sell these and go for some Boots of Travel for some nice tps. You can also buy Power Treads instead of Phase Boots though I wouldn't recommend it.

Battle Fury

Battle Fury is an extremely good item to have, specially on Mortred, but it's a little bit expensive and hard to get fast.
Also, it's not really vital to succeed with PA.
My advice is to get it only if you know you are able to do so before or around the ~21 minute mark, give or take, to achieve this you should have a decent lh average and some kills / first blood / tower. If you do manage to get your hands over it, buy some Town Portal Scroll, and jungle the **** out of your side of the map, and when you see creepwaves that none of your allies need or are close enough to get, tp near and clean the wave in 3 swipes. This will get you fast gold, and a lot of damaage + cleave. Notice that Battle Fury Is also great for teamfights where you can damage the whole team in one swipe, and note that it's amazing for damaging invisible opponents, specially Templar Assassin, when she goes Meld , just hit a creep near the place, even if it's yours, and you will do a ****load of damage to her.

Last but not least , if you decide to go for this item, make sure to get Ring of Health first, and finish Perseverance, as you can really use some hp regen help.

Vladmir's Offering and Skull Basher

These 2 items are really important to have, at least for my playstyle.

Vladmir's Offering:
- Good regen both mana / hp.
- Auras are useful in teamfights.
- Good lifesteal.

You can also opt for Helm of the Dominator into a Satanic later on, but I don't find it as effective, and it's more time consuming.

Skull Basher

This baby is amazing and makes chasing even EASIER (yes it can get easier) by stunning the enemy on hit. As Mortred attacks a lot and this build focuses on high attack speed and slowing down the enemies, this will be a MUST HAVE item. I'll explain further in detail later how this works in combination.

BKB

Finally , we got our Black King Bar, we can even try to initiate fights (not the best idea anyways) or take though enemys alone. Also some tips you might consider, if you find yourselves with a decent amount of gold, you might consider selling your bkb after 3 uses and buying a new , fresh one.

Also you should sell your Poor Man's Shield by now, just to make some space.

Why Hyperstone?

Although it may seem pointless to add attack speed to Mortred, it isn't. At least not for our build, as we count with 3 attack procs already, and each attack have % chances to proc. But if we increase the number of attacks with Hyperstone then we increase our chances, and here is where we become as deadly as ****. With Orb of Venom slow + poision + Coup de Grace x4 critical hit + Skull Basher stun + Vladmir's Offering lifesteal + the increased attack speed that Phantom Strike provides you should be finishing fights on the first 3 seconds after you blinked.

Abyssal Blade

If the game isn't over yet, you can go for Abyssal Blade for some insane damage, and a good stun that goes trhough Black King Bar and has a nice range, and decent 1 min cooldown, also you don't need to sell anything to get it as you upgrade it from Skull Basher.

Note that instead of this you could go on an buy another Hyperstone and hit like a ****ing lunatic.

Maxing out Stats before Blur.

We are throwing an early point to Blur as to gain a sweet %20 evasion as well as to avoid being seen in the radar while we are farming creepwaves. We are doing this before Stifling Dagger as at level 3 is good enough to farm with 150 DMG and also good to chase, we will finish it later.
Blur isn't a bad ability, at all. But there are several reasons to max out stats before Blur
- Stats are a HUGE bonus to Phantom Assassin, considering that her initial stats aren't that great.
- Blur needs to be at level 4 to even have a low chance to proc.
- Most of the players won't ignore the fact that you are in the teamfight just because you aren't in the radar.
- The blur effect over Mortred's body is ******ed considering you got a gigantic health bar rolling over your head.
- The strongest attacks in the game basically go through Blur.
- Almost no hero can afford to go 1v1 melee against Mortred, with few exceptions as Pudge Ursa and some other Strength based heroes with lot's of hp. If you see the enemy roster have this kind of heroes getting geared up , you might want to reconsider the skill build.

At any rate, this point is optional in the skill build, I almost always opt for it, but judge the situation and decide afterwards, note that you should always max out Stifling Dagger and Phantom Strike before having to make this decision.

Also it wouldn't be fair to omit the fact that Blur lvl 4 WILL save you from certain situations, really clutch though, you need to be lucky as ****. I once was in a fight vs a Faceless Void with good % of evasion and it was hilarious to watch both of the heroes 1 hit away from dying missing like 4 attacks in a row.

General Tips

Of course, the first items you will need to sell when you need to make some space are Orb Of venom and Poor Man's Shield.
Try to have a Town Portal Scroll to aid in teamfights or defend towers.
Keep the terrain advantage and be sneaky as you can slow the enemy and kill him really quick with Stifling Dagger + Phantom Strike Combo, this can be done from high ground at mid lane for example.
Try not to initiate fights and avoid getting focused as you will not last much, in teamfights, spam your Stifling Dagger and remain back while your mates stun, then blink to the vulnerable targets and after you're done dealing the damage, activate your Phase Boots to quickly back and wait for another opportunity, like it or not, Phantom Assassin is a great killstealer and very opportunist hero.
When you are being chased with 1/4 hp or less, often you can pull of some clutch plays like suddenly using Stifling Dagger on your pursuer and blinking to him with Phantom Strike, if you get lucky enough you can destroy him with Coup de Grace without dying.

IMPORTANT
- Never fight against someone who has Blade Mail , NO, I DON'T CARE, JUST DON'T, you will die, guaranteed.
- If you see Doombringer around, just wait for him to ult someone else that isn't you, he renders you totally useless as he can deny your Coup de Grace as much as your other skills and you basically are a blue woman who can't do ****.
- Avoid fighting Radiance carriers.

Wrapping up...

Well, I made this guide in one night and i hope it's useful for someone, I accept any kind of critics as long as they are constructive, note that everything you guys comment will be taken into consideration to add/edit/replace/correct/etc so please do criticize.

ONE FOR THE PHANTOM!! x}

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