Remastered: Fall from the shadows

INTRODUCTION

Hello DotA.Gamers!

My name is MeatWaad this is my first guide, a guide to the lethal Phantom Assassin.

Mortred AKA Phantom Assassin is a melee agiliy hard carry with huge potencial damage mid-late game. Mortred is best-known, and infamous for, her ability to inflict staggering damage with single strikes. Her abilities synergise supremely well with each other, rendering her an extremely formidable foe once she has acquired the items she requires.

Commonly, Phantom Assassin is paired with a babysitter/support hero in the safe lane, trying to get last-hit as much as possible. In addition to avoiding early death, and feeding the enemy, there is nothing more frustrating than see a hard carry underfarmed and feeding.

Don't blink, or you'll miss me......

PRO V/S CONS

PROS

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• Stifling Dagger is a spammable-low cost and cooldown 50% slow/4 sec. long, feeds with ULTIMATE
  
• Initiate/Scape ability with really low cooldown, giving a beautiful aspd.
  
• Passive ability to avoid incoming attacks, starting with 20% to 40% max leveled.
  
• Best Passive-Ultimate-Critical skill

CONS

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• Very squishy early game, and vulnerable to stuns/nukes early-mid game
• Teleport, must be targeted on any unit (neutral, enemy, ally creeps/heroes)
• Farm/Item dependent

ABILITIES

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This ability is very efective to initiate or finishing a killing (why not both??) with 8 seconds cooldown could be used in both cases, shares the critical chance and multiplier of Coup de Grace, increasing your damage, but remember that the damage done to heroes is half done creeps.

Level 1/2/3/4 Stifling Dagger x level 1 Coup de Grace.
75/125/175/225 damage to heroes.

Level 1/2/3/4 Stifling Dagger x level 2 Coup de Grace.
105/175/245/315 damage to heroes.

Level 1/2/3/4 Stifling Dagger x level 3 Coup de Grace.
135/225/315/405 damage to heroes.

The damage of Stifling Dagger is PURE, that's means it's not reduced by magic resistance. Early game Stifling Dagger should not be used to harass but as a means to last hit creeps when you can't get in melee range. Mid it's used to harass cause if the ult procs you'll hit a support for 25% of their life and you can either dive them or they will leave the lane. In mid-late game, loses its utility as harassment and is only used as a very effective slow.
I've read many guides of Mortred and there is no common point when to use Stifling Dagger, I mean after or before Phantom Strike?? for me both are practical and situational uses.

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The sweet teleport, everybody loves teleporting.
Phantom Strike gives you a target teleport that can be neutral, enemy or ally creep/heroes. The mana-cost and range are constants but the cooldown is reduced by levels.

When you Phantom Strike on a ally the bonus APSD isn't applied, but if you are focused on the next prey, triggers 4 auto-attacks at the speed of light, well not so much but the increase is 130 ASPD, if the target is changed the bonus is lost, simple.

Phantom Strike and Coup de Grace are the perfect combination to demonstrate the full potential of Mortred.

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The Phantom Assassin becomes hard to see by blurring her body and disappearing from the enemy minimap when near enemy heroes. This passive excels another dodge skills like Backtrack or Drunken Brawler even Butterfly.
IMPORTANT: 6.82, Blur minimap hide now has the opposite effect, and is active when no enemies are near

Evasion is disable by Doom, visual effect and minimap hiding behave normally.

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Coup de Grace is the best critical damage among all Heroes, and has a beautiful animation when impact, split blood in direction of the strike. Mortred refines her combat abilities, gaining a chance of delivering a devastating 250% / 350% / 450% critical strike to enemy units.

ITEMS EXPLANATION

STARTING ITEMS

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Cost: 675 gold 2 x pack of Tangos provide early regen (up to 460 HP) to stay in lane and continue farming. As a melee hard carry hero, harrassment will be focused on you in early stages of the game, trying to knock you down. Some people might prefer a Healing Salve instead 2 Tangos, presonally I take 2 of tree-eaters. Stout Shield is really helpful reducing harass damage taken from creep and enemy heroes, Ring of Protection gives you a sweet +2 armor and can be upgraded to Ring of Basilius and later to Vladmir's Offering. Quelling Blade is always an option to get easy last-hits.

BASE ITEMS #1

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Cost: 2025 gold - If we consider the STARTING ITEMS cost, the new investment cost should be 1600 gold Boots of Speed is a crucial item for every Hero, improving your "In and Out" to chase or escape from enemies. Ring of Basilius is a ver common early item to many Heroes, specially those who want to build Vladmir's Offering or Ring of Aquila, it gives +1 armor plus +2 armor aura equal to +3 armor and 0.65 mana regen. The goal is to build Vladmir's Offering (will be explained forward this guide) Bracer is good cost-benefit item, blah blah HP... blah bla is good. Later can be upgraded to Drum of Endurance. Normally you face ranged offlaners heroes such as Mirana, in this case, upgrade your Stout Shield into Poor Man's Shield guarantees it will block early damage with 100% chance to do it and additionally provides +6 agility/damage for 550 extra gold. If not, maybe, you should buy a Blades of Attack part of your Phase Boots.

CONVERT #1 INTO #2

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Cost: 4050 gold - If we consider the BASE ITEMS #1 cost, the new investment cost should be around 2575 gold Phase Boots boost your output damage and combined with Coup de Grace reaches 60/84/108 additional physical damage. Also an active skill Phase: Increases your movement speed by 16% for 4 seconds and lets you move through other units. Using items or abilities will cause the effect to end prematurely Now Drum of Endurance gives +9 stats needed, plus +3 damage, 5(10) Aspd and 5%(10%) MS. This might seem little but for Phantom Assassin are very value resources at mid game, specially when chasing during ganks. Use it wisely only has 5 charges. Meanwhile we are waiting for our Vladmir's Offering, Morbid Mask and its 15% lifesteal is a good way to stay in lane and continue farming, remember farming is your main goal. Try to takeout neutral camps it's a good way to keep your gold income.

CONVERT #2 INTO #3

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Cost: 3675 gold - If we consider the ITEMS #2 cost, the new investment cost should be around 2250 gold (or less if Poor Man's Shield is sold) Scaling in our items #2 to #3 requires a bit more gold, that means we need to eviscerate some enemies, put down some towers or be the master of laning-jungling. Our Vladmir's Offering gets priority, it gives a multiple buffs such as 16% lifesteal aura, 15% damage increase, HP and Mana regen, plus +5 armor. May sound simple but cannot be underestimated, Phantom Assassin benefits from all of them. Vladmir's Offering's aura, allows to use an Orb items like Desolator, Eye of Skadi or Diffusal Blade. Phantom Assassin is a killer (thanks SkytFireFall), a glass cannon sometimes, that's why Black King Bar is core. If the opposing team has 2+ nukers/disables/stunners I would skip Vladmir's Offering and go directly to Black King Bar.

CONVERTING #3 TO #4

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Cost: 5475 gold - If we consider the ITEMS #3 cost, the new investment cost should be around 3875 gold As I mentioned before Black King Bar is a must in every Phantom Assassin guide, I would say in every melee carry. At this point in the game every nukes/stuns/disables will be at least level 3 and PA is the target of'em. BKB lets you jump into a teamfight focus on a target and BUM...dead, pick another one and BUM... another smelly corpse. Besides +24 damage same like Phase Boots. Personally I really really like the stun of Skull Basher specially when Phantom Strike ends, statistically during PA's Strike buff, a 1.4 sec stun should be triggered. Javelin will be the next item on road to Skull Basher Never forget to carry a Town Portal Scroll, you will never know when a party is about to start, far away from your lane, try to be there to enjoy the smell of their blood.

FINAL ITEMS

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Cost: 9325 gold - If we consider the ITEMS #4 cost, the new investment cost should be around 7725 gold Black King Bar no more words to it, explained before, CORE item. Butterfly is an excellent item for agility heroes, specially hard carries. If I'm not mistaken with the numbers this item provides: +60 damage (+30 damage plus +30 from AGI) +60 ASPD (+30 aspd plus +30 from AGI) +4.2 armor +35% evasion To be honest IDK how +35% evasion stack with her Blur. 6.82, Butterfly now has an active ability, Flutter, which can be cast to trade Butterfly's evasion for a 20% movement speed bonus for 8 seconds, 35 second cooldown In comparison with other hard carries such as Anti-Mage, Medusa, Luna, Morphling, PA benefits from Butterfly and excels in damage....why? because her ultimate.

ALTERNATIVE ITEMS

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Cost: ???? gold This alternative build, rely on ASPD which is good, because Coup de Grace depends on instances of attack. In addition to lifesteal and the precious bash. Power Treads gives 8 stats points, to be used as the situations are given, for e.g. need to improve HP/HP regen?? STR, need to refill your mana pool?? INT, need to increase your attack, aspd and armor?? AGI then. Plus +30 ASPD is always welcome due your Coup de Grace relay on instances of autoattacks, more instances in a short period of time means more chances to do critical damage.. Helm of the Dominator let's you pick a neutral creep and use it like a sentry ward in high ground or strategic zones. Some of you would preffer to usi the crep to stack camps and then reach gold. Both cases are useful, but I would preffer stacking camps. Skull Basher STUN STUN STUN and more STUNS. Can be upgraded later to Abyssal Blade Assault Cuirass very tanky item, +15 armor (10 +5 in aura) that comes very good to Phantom Asassin and increase ASPD. Works perfectly to kill enemy carries due its reductions and finishing off supports. Mjollnir another ASPD item, it provide a quick damage output with Chain Lighting and Static Charge wicht are a good combination in farming or pushing lanes. Black King Bar explained before.

SITUATIONAL&LUXURY ITEMS

ALTERNATIVE ITEMS

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Desolator Its description: A wicked weapon, used in torturing political criminals. Luckily I'm not a politician just a criminal.... but let's get serius.
Desolator is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers, that's why this guide includes Vlad's. Deso is perfect to physical damage dealers like Phantom Assassin. With Deso your attacks reduce target armor -7 and gives you +60 damage which means 150/210/270 physical damage combines with Coup de Grace, knocking down tanks and stomping maggots like Lion Zeus (no intention to offend players).

Eye of Skadi +25 to all stats that means +25 damage&aspd and +750 HP (475 from stats and 250 from booster) all these resources give to Phantom Assassin durability reducing her "glass canon type" and become more like a fighter. Besides Eye of Skadi provides a very usseful passive that slows movement(35%) and attack speed(45) of the target. If you pair Eye of Skadi with Assault Cuirass you might be constructing an Anti-Carry PA.

If you face heavy nukes such as Laguna Blade, Finger of Death or a beautiful Life Break, Blade Mail might be an option. Also after using a BKB pop inmediatly you blades and and I assure you that more than one enemy will take damage reflected. This also applies to heavy physical damage dealers such as Ursa Meepo's combo and many others.

Orchid Malevolence it's a good source of damage, aspd and mana regen (common sense), but OM has a powerful active that 5 sec, Silences the target and amplifies the damage it takes by 30% as magical damage.

Q: How many time have you Stifling Dagger- Phantom Strike-bumbumbumbum 4 hits and the target stunts you or blink away???? TELL ME HOW MANY TIMES???.

A: Yes MeatWaad, a lot.
Well Orchid Malevolence must be part of your combo: Stifling Dagger- Phantom Strike-Soul Burn that muthaf**ker-bumbumbumbum 4 hits. Even if the targets does not die and run away with 50 HP, 5 seconds later Soul Burn will do its job, killing the target.


LUXURY ITEMS

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Boots of Travel gives you +100 MS and map presence, pushing remaining enemy towers, take part in a teamfight, etc.

Satanic or Sicktanic, very late item. I reallly like to use it after Phantom Strike to take advantage of the phantom's buff and then get into Rage. Also usi it when I'm low HP, activate the Rage and inmediatlly use Phantom Strike you will have less than 2 sec to regenerate 175% of the damage done, often works **OFTEN**.

Abyssal Blade is an extention of Skull Basher, provides 100 damage which means 250/350/450 critical damages paired with Coup de Grace with an active that stunt the target for 2 sec, ignores Black King Bar. I always use the 2 sec stunt to dispell channeling skills or prevent TP. More usages forward.

Divine Rapier and its 300 damage which means 750/1050/1350 combined with Coup de Grace, will make you a feared enemy. Just knowing that Phantom Assassin might come from the shadows and honor them with a touch of death, is a mindbreak. Even Roshan will tremble.

ALLIES

As Phantom Assassin is a hard-carry every babysitter will be a good ally


IMO one of the best babysitter heroe, he's able to slow/stun with his Poison Touch alowing you to get a easy kill. Heal you with Shadow Wave, a 5 sec death immunity Shallow Grave and his AOE Weave which increase/decrease armor. A good combination would be Stifling Dagger- Phantom Strike- Poison Touch for a extended slow(stun at lvl 4). Another possible combination is Dazzel heals PA when she's near the enemy, commonly after Phantom Strike.


His abilities: Purification and Repel are useful to keep both in lane, with good timing, Purification can also be used as a heal/nuke, at the time that heals the target and damage any unit in 260 radius, perfect to be used in the middle of PA's combo: Dagger-Strike-Puri for a easy early kill.


Master of Snakes and Freddy Krueger. Shadow Shaman is able to perform Hex+ Shackles a 4 seconds disable at level 2!!! enough time for an easy early kill for PA. Bane is a good disabler too, specially against dualvsdual lane, with Nightmare can disable the strongest foe for 4/5/6/7 sec. and then take advantage of 2vs1 situation. Fiend's Grip did I say DISABLES??

In general:

LONG-STUNNERS


Heroes that are able to stun the target and serve them for you in a silver plate, are good allies


INITIATORS/OUTOFPOSITIONERS


These heroes are able to open a path to Phantom Assassin bringing chaos to the scene.

FOES

As Phantom Assassin is a hard-carry any heroes that is strong early game is a ugly foe (it's funny because in my language ugly=feo, so "feo foe" xD get it?)



This long eared-horned bambi's *** b1tch is a pain in the 4ss
A good non-jungling, mid-laner, ganker Enchantress will take full advantage of Untouchable and stomp Phantom Assassin. At level 6 with 4 levels on Untouchable+ Nature's Attendants and her Impetus will make you cry early game, neutralizing Phantom Strike from near and punish you if you get far away from her due Impetus. HAHAHAHAHAHA just reminding myself this kind of situations makes me laugh......sorry.
But the good thing is late-game she loses her immunity and becomes a target anyways.




The manliest hero in DotA, infamous for his Berserker's Call+ Counter Helix. If we divide the duration of Call(2 sec) in Helix's cooldown(0.45 sec), we have 4-5 intances to proceed (at the best scenario) which means 400-500 damage before reductions, at level 2 Axe. A bit risky for Axe but deadly to Phantom Assassin. Culling Blade need no words, the treshold is more than 1/3 of HP level 6 PA. Axe could be your early nemeisis. Same as Enchantress, Axe falls of late game but still hard to kill.




Another long eared-horned bambi's ***, this guy is able to kill you easily with Diabolic Edict, please do not try to follow him. Everyone in 500 radius will greceive damage so try to attack him with creeps or more allies to split the damage. In my experience agaisnt Lesh, every time he gets Stifling Dagger immediately activates his Diabolic Edict and waiting for Phantom Strike to Split Earth near him. To avoid the damage, Stifling Dagger him and wait for Edict to be activated and kite him meanwhile Stifling Dagger recovers from cooldown, then 8 seconds later, try to Stifling Dagger again and do your combo.
Also keep in mind that Leshrac is squishier than you so take advantage of it.
Very similar situation with Gyrocopter.


At mid-game heroes who depend on their level such as Ursa, Pudge, Invoker become a threat to Phantom Assassin.
At late game, maybe other hard-carries stand against PA, depending in farm&items, teamfight style and human factors, for example, Faceless Void in Chronosphere may kill you easily, but if he traps his team in Chrono too is a fail. And so on.

Farewell

Nov-23-13 :First published.
Nov 14: Re-mastered and added situational&luxury items and Allies&Foes.


Thank you for your comments and critical to improve.
lookin forward to ideas and chapter to be included

Best regards.

MeatWaad ;)