The badass pacifist : A detailed guide to PL

Introduction

Are you new to Phantom Lancer? Do you hate reading walls of text? Is your game starting in 30 seconds? If you answered "yes" to at least two of these questions then you should jump straight to the Alt-tab version of this guide!

Phantom Lancer is a hard carry whose main strength is to completely dominate the late game if given enough space to farm. His late-lame potential is among the highest in the game. He belongs to this small niche of illusion-based carry heroes, with other heroes like Naga Siren, Chaos Knight, Terrorblade, and Manta Style users. Similarily to these heroes, an important part of his damage comes from the attacks of his illusions rather than his own). All of his skills are aimed towerds being able to create an army of illusions following him everywhere he goes. With a maximum number of 7 illusions (9 with Manta Style), Phantom Lancer has definitely the potential to become an unstoppable one-man army.

But like any carry, if his playstyle in the late-game is limited to "right-click stuff and kill it", his early-mid game can be much more complicated to pull off and detailing it is going to be main purpose of this guide. The big challenge when playing him is to be able to farm his late-game items and at the same time manage to still be useful (or at least less useless) to your team. There is a middle line between charging blindly in the middle of teamfights and getting killed (avoid this), and afk farming the jungle for 20 minutes straight without doing anything for your team (avoid this as well). Playing Phantom Lancer is all about finding that middle line.

About me? I am just another pub player who plays Dota for fun and likes to analyze stuff. Phantom Lancer is one of my favorite and most successful heroes with a steady 70%-like winrate in pubs and ranked matches (counting stupid games with ragequits). I find him really fun to play and I hope that you will too.

I love Phantom Lancer because his character is absolutely awesome. He's the kind of guy who will go on his own to the enemy base, solo the entire enemy team, walk away with an ultra kill, and say stuff like "We want nothing of this war. Only a return to peace and quiet". Hence the title of this guide :)

This guide is intended to be detailed so I'm sorry if it looks like a wall of text. I made an Alt-tab version if you don't like reading a lot, so if you're confused you can just go to this section and try out the build. This guide is based largely on my own experience with Phantom Lancer and on watching replays of high-level games such as professional games featuring him. Everything I say here is based on my own idea of what works for him and what doesn't, and is by no means an absolute truth.

This is also my first guide so the formatting probably sucks (feel free to give me tips on that), and there may also be mistakes, sorry if this is the case. It is written for Dota 2 version 6.80.

I welcome any kind of constructive feedback that you may provide on this guide.

Alt-Tab version

• Phantom Lancer is played like a typical carry. Go to the safe lane with a support hero, play defensively, farm as much as you can and don't feed.
• He is a pure illusion hero and therefore lots of items don't work on him. Follow item builds closely.
• In the early game you need a way to heal your HP and mana in order to stay in lane. Personally I go for Magic Wand and Urn of Shadows. There are other options.
• Diffusal Blade is your main core item, you should always get it. Rush it ASAP and don't forget to upgrade it.
• Your late-game items are Heart of Tarrasque and Manta Style, in that order.
• Either get Power Treads or wait until you can afford Boots of Travel.
• Always max Spirit Lance first.
• Don't skill Juxtapose and Phantom Edge too early, they are mid/late game skills. See skill build for details.
• Avoid spending long times in the jungle farming. Push lanes whenever you can instead.
• Be warned that Phantom Lancer is very weak in the eatly-mid game (between level 6 and level 12 approximately). Play him cautiously during that time.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
- One of the hardest carries in the game. A farmed Phantom Lancer is nearly unstoppable late game
- Exceptional stat growth. His agility gain of 4.2/level is the highest in the game by far. His overall stat gain of 7.9 is currently the highest in the game as well.
- Good laning phase for a carry
- Hard to gank
- Hard to focus in teamfights
- Built-in farming ability
- Great initiation/escape with Doppelwalk
- Excellent chaser thanks to Spirit Lance
- Arguably the best Diffusal Blade user in the game (7 illusions!)
- Extremely strong pusher and splitpusher


Cons:
- Squishy
- Extremely item-dependent, even for a carry. You NEED a high GPM when you play him (400+ GPM is a must, aim for 600).
- needs a good support in the team to achieve map control
- needs a good initiator in the team
- Weak to cleave and AOE damage
- Can be counterpicked (e.g Sven, Gyrocopter)
- Weak to detection like any invisible hero, however to a lesser degree
- His illusions deal only 20% of his own damage, which is extremely weak compared to other illusion heroes
- Doesn't get an ultimate at level 6. Has to wait until level 11-12 (AND be well farmed) to have one. Because of this he is completely useless in teamfights in the early-mid game

Laning

In terms of laning, Phantom Lancer works pretty much like any carry.

The best place to lane him is in the safe lane (Radiant bottom, Dire top) with a support hero (e.g Crystal Maiden, Keeper of the Light, Lion, Dazzle, Vengeful Spirit, Shadow Demon, Rubick, Warlock, Venomancer, etc.). Preferably someone who has a disable or a nuke.

Always lane him with a ranged hero. this is the most important advice because in a 2-melee lane he will likely not get any farm, which will hurt your mid-game significantly.

Never lane him with a farm-dependent hero. You need to get all the last hits in your lane. Your lane partner can be your worst enemy. Avoid laning him with another carry like the plague.

Since he has a good disable he can be in a trilane with two support heroes. Of course he should get all the last hits in the trilane.

Since Doppelwalk is a good escape skill he can consider going offlane (Radiant top, Dire bottom). However soloing the offlane is out of the question because he needs the farm. In this case he should be in a dual lane with a ranged support (e.g Windranger, Lich) or maybe a defensive trilane.

Phantom Lancer is a very weak mid hero because he is melee, however going mid against another melee mid hero can be considered in some exceptional cases (e.g Pudge, Dragon Knight, Meepo, Clockwerk, Magnus, Beastmaster). If he goes mid he will have a level advantage which is very beneficial for him (he needs to get to level 12 quickly), he will have decent farm, he will have Bottle for sustainability, and he will be able to gank other lanes with Spirit Lance and Doppelwalk.

Skills

Spirit Lance

Type: Target:

Active Enemy Unit

Casts a magical lance on a target enemy unit that deals damage and slows, while a Phantom is summoned to attack the unit. The illusion deals 20% of Phantom Lancer's damage and takes 300% damage.

---

Notes:

• The main use of this skill is to chase down enemy heroes. Its cooldown of 7 seconds makes it highly spammable in ganks and allows you to catch up to running heroes and kill them.
• You can use it to harass in lane once it hits level 2. Just don't overuse it because your mana is precious.
• You can use it as an escape skill to slow a hero chasing you.
• This skill is very mana-intensive so you need to buy some form of mana regeneration to support it.
• You can use it to farm the jungle but only if you're stacked with mana.
• Extremely good slowing combo with the purge from Diffusal Blade. With this, almost no-one can escape you except if they are Storm Spirit :)

Doppelwalk

Doppelwalk

Type: Target:

Active Self

Renders Phantom Lancer invisible, while generating a duplicate image to confuse enemies. The illusion deals 20% of Phantom Lancer's damage and takes 300% damage.

---

Notes:

• This is your initiation and escape skill. Either use it when starting a fight to avoid being targeted or use it to escape a teamfight when low HP.
• Has an extremely fluid animation that makes it impossible for the enemy to know that you just used it. It makes no sound for the enemy team either.
• You can use it to escape ganks, but it is not a reliable escape in this case.
• This is a great skill to bait gankers like Pudge. Watch them waste their spells on an illusion, then either run away or turn it around by ganking them :)
• Make your illusion act convincingly when using it as bait (e.g don't just stand there, make it do what you would do as the real lancer).
• You can use the invisibility that this skill gives you to scout or gank. In that case, make sure that you leave your illusion behind (you lose the surprise effect completely if it comes with you, this is a common mistake ^^)
• You can use this skill as the poor man's Manta Style to create a free illusion. Just beware that by doing this you are cutting off your only escape.
• Once you get Diffusal Blade, try not to use Doppelwalk straight away when you want to escape if you can avoid it. Instead, bait Dust of Appearance when you are not invisible, then use Diffusal Blade or Manta Style to purge the Dust, and finally use Doppelwalk for a safe escape.

Juxtapose

Type: Target:

Passive Enemy Units

Phantom Lancer's attacks have a 12% chance to create illusions to confuse enemies. The illusions deals 20% of Phantom Lancer's damage and takes 300% damage. The illusions last 20 seconds. Phantom Lancer himself counts as one towards the maximum number of illusions.

---

Notes:

• With this skill, you create illusions by attacking stuff. So you need to attack lots of stuff to use it. This essentially means that you can snowball into an illusion army by pushing and jungling.
• The only thing you get by leveling up this skill is to increase your max number of illusions. To support this skill you need to level up Phantom Edge to increase the proc chance.
• Phantom Lancer himself counts as one towards the max number of illusions. This means that at the first level you can have only 1 illusion, 3 at level 2, 5 at level 3, and 7 at level 4.
• This skill doesn't actually limit your number of illusions. You can have 3 illusions at once by using Spirit Lance and Doppelwalk even with no point in Juxtapose. However if you have more illusions than your maximum, Juxtapose will not create additional illusions.

Phantom Edge

Phantom Edge

Type: Target:

Active Enemy Unit

Improves chance of triggering Juxtapose. Phantom Lancer's illusions can now create their own illusions. Passively increases Phantom Lancer's magic resistance.

---

Notes:

• This skill is what makes Phantom Lancer who he is. It allows him to push and jungle with incredible efficiency, while always being surrounded by his illusions and therefore prepared for a fight.
• Don't skill Phantom Edge before skilling Juxtapose just for the magic resistance, it's not worth it.
• With this skill you can split your illusions to send them on different jobs. For example, you can send 4 illusions to push a lane and 3 to clear a jungle camp while you are TPing to another lane. The replicate chance of illusions is what makes this option viable.

Skill build

Generic 4/2/2/2 build with 1 stat level (Build 1)
4/2/2/2 means having 4 Spirit Lance, 2 Doppelwalk, 2 Juxtapose, 2 Phantom Edge, and 1 stat level at level 11.
This is a generic build that you can follow in any game. It offers a great overall balance on Phantom Lancer. This build is very common in professional games (see the list of professional games for some uses of that build in matches).

Spirit Lance is Phantom Lancer's nuke and his most useful spell during the laning stage, so maxing it first is a must.

The first skill point is put in Spirit Lance because you can't really get killed at level 1 in the safe lane. If you are going offlane, then you should put that first point in Doppelwalk instead because there is always the (faint) risk that you could get ganked at level 1 with a lucky rune, and end up feeding first blood.

At level 2 you take your escape skill Doppelwalk. You need 1 point in it and not more. Doppelwalk scales very badly with levels since the only thing that you get from leveling it beyond level 1 is reducing the mana cost and the cooldown ; you already have the full effect of the skill with only one point in it. You may think that the mana cost reduction is important but if you only use Doppelwalk as an escape skill then you will use it very rarely. If you want to spam Doppelwalk or use it as an initiation skill early then you should use the next build.

At level 4, you take stats. Why stats? Because you are very weak in the early-mid game and this can help you (+38 HP) ; also because Juxtapose is a late-game skill which relies on you autoattacking a lot, something you don't do while you are laning ; so taking Juxtapose at level 4 wouldn't help you.

At low levels, your Juxtapose illusions deal negligible damage (20% of 80 damage is only 16 damage!), so they won't ever help you get a kill at this stage of the game. You can basically consider that your illusions deal no damage until you get Diffusal Blade. However, you still put one "early" point in Juxtapose at level 6 because of its defensive use. Suppose that you are fighting in a teamfight or a gank. Even with your low early-game attack speed, the chance to create an illusion when right-clicking an enemy is pretty high. This illusion makes you much harder to target with nukes or disables and this noticeably increases your survivability. This is especially the case in teamfights where having an illusion makes you harder to focus down. You only need one skill point to do this and it's really helpful. You can't imagine how much a single disable or nuke wasted on one of your illusions can turn a gank around. Juxtapose is one of those skills you can get the full benefit from with only one skill point (at least at this stage of the game), and I see no reason not to do it.

I don't take his ultimate Phantom Edge at level 6 because there is nothing to gain from it. Phantom Lancer's attack speed is much too low at that stage of the game to be able to create more than 1 illusion, ultimate or not. You need some sort of "critical mass" to start making lots of illusions and you don't have it yet.

You max Spirit Lance at level 7 and then take a second point in Doppelwalk at level 8. Why this second point in Doppelwalk instead of stats you may ask, especially after I said that Doppelwalk scales badly? Because if you take stats at level 8, you will become starved for skill points at the last levels which means that you will have to wait until level 17 to max your skills. With this point in Doppelwalk you can have all your skills maxed at level 15.

When you reach level 9, it's time to start skilling your "true" ultimate, namely the ability to create lots of illusions when you attack instead of just one. I take Phantom Edge first because of the magic resistance and also because a second level of Juxtapose without Phantom Edge would be useless. Then a second Juxtapose level at level 10, then the second Phantom Edge point at level 11. Level 11 is the time where you really start having a viable ultimate and can begin to make some plays happen. Usually you get your Diffusal Blade just before that time so the timing of the skill build matches the item build. This is most welcome because Diffusal Blade is exactly what you need for your illusions to start actually doing damage.
From my point of view, Phantom Lancer's "true" ultimate is the combination of level 2 Juxtapose, level 2 Phantom Edge, and Diffusal Blade. This is what I meant in the Pros/Cons section when I said that he doesn't get an ultimate until level 11-12.

Once you have your ultimate, you can start maxing Juxtapose. Because of the snowballing effect of illusions that you get from 2 levels of Phantom Edge, if you have 3 illusions then you can make 7 easily. This way, at only level 13, you can reach your full farming and pushing potential.

Then, you max Doppelwalk because the cooldown reduction makes it viable as an initiation skill. You can now use it to gank and initiate teamfights AND use it shortly after to walk away.

Finish the build with the 3rd level of Phantom Edge as soon as it's available.

Alternative build : 4/4/2/1, the mindtrick build! (Build 2)
4 Spirit Lance, 4 Doppelwalk, 2 Juxtapose, 1 Phantom Edge, and no stat levels at level 11.
This is an alternative skill build that focuses on maxing Doppelwalk early. Essentially you give up on the level of stats and you get your ultimate one level later, but in exchange you max Doppelwalk at level 7.
The point of this build is obvious : spamming Doppelwalk and playing Phantom Lancer more like a Weaver ^^
This can allow you for some very fun plays, like baiting gankers with illusions and turning ganks around, using the invisibility to gank lanes by faking your position, avoiding targeted nukes at the last second, and so on.
This is more of a "fun" build and you should only go for it if there are lots of gankers in the enemy team and you want to have a little laugh by making them waste their time on illusions (e.g Pudge).
Give it a try, using illusions as bait is awesome :)

Illusion mechanics

Phantom Lancer is a hero who is all about creating illusions. So his item build should logically be geared towards maximizing the utility of these illusions. To justify the item choices (which will be detailed in the next part), it's important to detail the effects which work on illusions and those which don't. For the sake of simplicity I will limit the list to the stuff that affects Phantom Lancer.

Illusions do benefit from:

• Attribute bonuses (strength, agility and intelligence) given by items (e.g Ultimate Orb)
• Bonuses to HP and mana (e.g Point Booster)
• Feedback from Diffusal Blade
• Evasion
• Critical Strike
• True Sight
• True Strike from Monkey King Bar
• Movement speed bonuses
• Burn aura from Radiance. The AOE of the burn effect is extended to the illusions but it doesn't stack.
• Quelling Blade
• Attack speed bonuses from Yasha, Manta Style and Sange and Yasha

Illusions do not benefit from:

• Damage bonuses (e.g Demon Edge)
• Armor bonuses
• Attack speed bonuses (except Yasha, Manta Style and Sange and Yasha)
• Unique Attack Modifiers that are not Diffusal Blade (e.g Maelstrom lightning)
• Cleave
• Bash. Illusions won't bash with Skull Basher or Abyssal Blade
• Bonuses to spell resistance ( Cloak, Hood of Defiance, Pipe of Insight)
• Damage Block (e.g Stout Shield)
• Auras (e.g Vladmir's Offering). This means that the illusions won't benefit from the bonuses that these auras give. However they will increase the AOE of these auras.
• Lifesteal

As we see, there are very few effects from items that actually work on illusions. Increasing stats is always the best way to boost your illusions' damage and survivability. Flat HP bonuses such as Vitality Booster work as well. Besides stats, we see that the only "interesting" effects for Phantom Lancer to use for his illusions are Diffusal Blade, Evasion and Critical Strike.

Item build

Here is the details of each item in the build. Green means that the item works well on Phantom Lancer, red means that it is a terrible item on him, and yellow means very situational.

Early game

Quelling Blade
A very cheap starting item that allows you to last hit creeps better, and more importantly prevent you from being denied those creeps. This works on your illusions so it's still relevant in the mid-game since it helps you to jungle.

Stout Shield
The best way to avoid being harassed in lane by those annoying ranged heroes.

Magic Wand
It heals your HP. It heals your mana. It can often save your life. And it builds from the 3 ironwood branches that we already have from the starting items. All the more reasons to get Magic Wand.

Urn of Shadows
An awesome early-game item that gives Phantom Lancer exactly what he needs : burst healing. You may think that this item only works for gankers or heroes who look for early-game kills like Pudge, but you only need to be there at a 1400 range of the kill to get urn charges, so you don't have to be actively looking for kills to get charges. If your mid comes to gank your lane and gets a kill, that's 2 charges for you. In pub games, heroes die everyhere so filling the Urn of Shadows is never really a problem.
In addition to the healing, the 6 strength is great for survivability, the 50% mana regeneration is awesome for his mana problems, and it scales much better into the mid-game that the mana regen from Ring of Aquila. Urn of Shadows can also be used offensively for 150 *pure* damage, which will often secure a kill. Just beware that it doesn't work well if other team members buy this item.

Blade of Alacrity
Your item build is fairly demanding in farm so you have no time to waste on getting many early-game items. When you have the above then it's time to start stacking Blades of Alacrity to move towerds your Diffusal Blade.

Mid game

Diffusal Blade
This item is what makes Phantom Lancer who he is. This is the item that you can use better than anyone else in DOTA. This is what makes your many illusions deal huge damage and manaburn at the same time. This item is a main part of your ultimate. It is also an awesome 4-second slow that allows you to chase down any running hero. Diffusal Blade is your main core and it rocks. You should get this each and every game and get it as soon as you can.

• It's important to understand that Diffusal Blade is your main source of damage, even in the late game. Even with a late-game base damage of 180, your illusions will still do 36 attack damage + 36 Feedback damage.
• Of course you should upgrade your Diffusal Blade to level 2 : it doubles the damage.
• Don't hesitate to spam the purge, and use it as a disable. You will refill charges when you upgrade it.
• You can use the active on yourself to purge debuffs, such as Dust of Appearance.

Vitality Booster
Your survivability in the mid-game is very low. To solve this problem, a good option is to simply increase your HP with this item. It is especially good since you get "natural" magic resistance from your ultimate. Upgrade this into Heart of Tarrasque in the late game.

Boots of Travel
These are by far the best boots for Phantom Lancer, because they suit his playstyle perfectly. The map control that this item gives you is simply wonderful.
With these, you can basically be farming/pushing all the time : teleport to a lane which is pushing your way, farm by pushing the lane, and then either take the tower or force TPs from the enemy team and walk away. This item allows you to actually farm AND threaten the enemy towers at the same time, creating space for the rest of your team. Pushing lanes is a much more efficient way to farm than jungling because it actually pressures the enemy team, so you are not useless while doing it.
A Town Portal Scroll cannot do the same because when your T1 towers get destroyed your range gets very limited so TP scrolls can only be used defensively. The catch of Boots of Travel? It costs 2000 gold and does nothing for you in fights.
You need to get these eventually, the only question is when. You can get them "early" (just after Diffusal/Vitality Booster) if you are doing well. Also get them early if the enemy team is playing a lot of 5-man Dota ; this way you can go for tower trades.


Late game

Heart of Tarrasque
The main weakness of Phantom Lancer is his terrible HP. Getting Heart of Tarrasque basically doubles his HP at level 15. With it you can actually tank all that AOE burst damage that keeps flying around in teamfights, especially in conjunction with your 10/15/20% "natural" magic resistance. Additionally, the heal effect gives him the sustainability he needs so much. The best part is that it makes his illusions much tankier and able to sustain some AOE damage, which is also great in teamfights. Often the first late-game item to get on Phantom Lancer

Manta Style
Want more illusions? Then Manta Style is exactly what you need. With +39 attack speed total on you AND on your illusions, Juxtapose will proc a lot more often. This is also a big stat item that works perfectly with your illusions. The best part? Its active which gives you exactly what you lack : an ability to create illusions when you want! All illusion heroes have that ability...except you. There are many times where you don't have the time to create your illusion army before a fight by pushing/jungling, and Manta Style can fix this.

• Manta Style's active can be used to purge a lot of debuffs such as Dust of Appearance

Aegis of the Immortal
Don't forget about Roshan. Aegis is so game-changing that it's not even funny. And yes, you should clear an inventory slot for it. No matter what item you drop, it's still better than giving up on Aegis.

Very late game

Butterfly
Gives evasion to you and all your illusions. The increased agility and attack speed is also means more procs of Juxtapose. A great pick in order to counter the enemy carry...if he doesn't have Monkey King Bar.

Daedalus
I did the math, this item is the best way to increase your DPS in the late game. This is because the critical strike works on your illusions. The critical chance alone increases the DPS of you and your illusions by 42.5% which is huge. The damage bonus, even if it doesn't transfer to your illusions, is still awesome to have in combination with your exceptional attack speed.

Lockdown and anti-carry

Skull Basher
When you reach the late game, you are probably able to overpower every hero in the enemy team...except perhaps the enemy carry. Either they counterpicked you, or he got fed by killing your teammates, anyways he can take you on 1 vs 1 and kill you. To prevent this, you need some form of lockdown on him to prevent him from attacking you. Skull Basher does exactly that. Despite the fact that it gives absolutely nothing to your illusions, Skull Basher is still a very good lockdown item on Phantom Lancer because of his absurd agility gain (4.2/level) and his item build giving him good attack speed, which can make him a very good basher. The bash also goes through magic immunity so that Black King Bar is not a problem.
Coupled with an initiation at melee range with Doppelwalk, you can basically chainstun the enemy carry with this item.

Abyssal Blade
The natural upgrade to Skull Basher in the very late game, it gives you an additional "free" 2 second bash, and has exactly the same purpose of locking down the enemy carry.

Situational

Power Treads
This is your alternative boots. While the attack speed does nothing for your illusions, the +8 strength or agility that you get from these is definitely a huge boost. You can treadswitch to intelligence to spam Spirit Lance. And the increased attack speed from your main lancer means more illusions. This is definitely a great item if you want to focus on mid-game power. I hardly ever get these because I am a huge fan of mid-game Boots of Travel as a map control item, but you should definitely get Treads if you need to come online quickly in mid-game teamfights. Get this if your team is behind.

Drum of Endurance
Similarily to Power Treads, Drum is a great mid-game item which is easy to build from cheap components, gives you good stats and survivability (+171 HP), and a great movement speed bonus to you and your teammates. Only downside is, it doesn't build into anything so it becomes useless in the late game. Also a great item to get if you are behind.
This item is seen a lot on Phantom Lancer in pro games as a first item before Diffusal Blade. However this was back when this item was absurdly cost-efficient. Since then, the item was nerfed and the price was increased, so Ultimate Orb is actually more cost-efficient now as a stat item now... If you have 2100 gold in the bank it's better to just get Ultimate Orb which builds into Manta Style.

Black King Bar
The great part about Phantom Lancer is that he can get away in most games without buying BKB, because he is so hard to target and he has fairly decent magic resistance. However, there will be times where the enemy team is full of AOE disables, in which case you should get it. Just don't buy this in order to avoid burst damage, go for Heart of Tarrasque instead. Also keep in mind that several AOE ultimates that you want to avoid in the first place (e.g Reverse Polarity) go through magic immunity.

Monkey King Bar
This item synergizes extremely badly with Phantom Lancer. The damage and attack speed bonus is completely wasted for your illusions, and illusions cannot proc the bash either. However there are times when you simply cannot miss out on this item because the enemy team is full of heroes with evasion or blind abilities. Examples : Phantom Assassin, Brewmaster, Riki, Troll Warlord, Butterfly, Heaven's Halberd. If the enemy team has several of these then you need to get this item. You basically pay 5400 gold for the true strike but at least your illusions get it :)

Observer Ward
If nobody buys wards on your team, then this is a huge problem and the game is pretty much unplayable for you. This is especially true with Phantom Lancer because he is a hero who relies heavily on map control and on having space to farm and push. If there are no wards, remind the supports that they should buy some. You can even offer to place them yourself if they don't know how to. If after 3 or 4 "we need wards" your Lina is still farming her Daedalus, then it's time for you to step up and buy them yourself. It's better than not having any, and heck it's just 150 gold. Just be sure to tell your team that they're basically shooting themselves in the foot and that you shouldn't have to do this.

Avoid these items

Soul Ring
It is important to mention this item because you will still see it advised in many guides to Phantom Lancer. However, Soul Ring is an outdated build because it is based on a combo with Tranquil Boots that doesn't work anymore. Until version 6.78, you could buy these two items and sacrifice your HP to get mana, and then heal back that HP, which effectively meant that you had "infinite" HP and mana regen in the early game. This was imbalanced so Tranquil Boots were reworked in version 6.79 so that this combo cannot work anymore. Getting Soul Ring now is a complete waste because your goal early-game is to stay in lane and farm so you cannot afford to lose any HP. You will already be losing enough HP simply from being harassed. If you are not laning with a healer like Omniknight or Warlock, stay clear of it.

Vladmir's Offering
This is not only about Vlads, it's about any lifesteal item. Lifesteal is a terrible choice on Phantom Lancer because most of his damage comes from his illusions and Diffusal Blade and this won't make you lifesteal. Besides, the aura from Vladmir's Offering doesn't affect his illusions at all (see illusion mechanics). The main mistake that players make is to think that lifesteal gives you survivability. It doesn't. If they want to kill you they will disable you so you won't be able to lifesteal by attacking, and they will focus you down quickly. For survivability you need HP. Get that Vitality Booster instead!

Radiance
Ah, Radiance. For some reason many people recommend this item on Phantom Lancer, saying that it allows him to farm the jungle and push lanes much faster because his illusions can extend the burn aura. I completely disagree with this choice. I think that Radiance is a terribly redundant item on Phantom Lancer because he is already one of the best farmers and pushers in the game without it. He doesn't need a 5k gold item to help him do something that he can do perfectly well in the first place. Getting Radiance on Phantom Lancer feels a bit like getting Blink Dagger on Anti-Mage!
Even if you can afford to be useless to your team for the first 20-25 minutes of the game in order to farm it (which you can't), it still won't solve Phantom Lancer's main weakness : his low HP. Even at level 15, Phantom Lancer still has less than 1000 HP and Radiance does nothing to help it. So the value of Radiance in teamfights is basically zero because you will be killed immediately before you can burn anyone.
Rushing Radiance also means skipping his main core item Diffusal Blade. Obviously a huge waste.
Do you want to do more damage? Get Diffusal Blade. The 65 damage of Radiance that only works on you is nothing compared to Diffusal Blade which gives +36 damage to each of your illusions! Do you want to be a better pusher? Get Boots of Travel. Do you want to be a better jungler and be able to farm several jungle camps at once? Well even that is possible without Radiance! Simply get Juxtapose to level 3 and farm with illusions. With a Heart of Tarrasque you have infinite HP regen so you can afk farm the jungle as much as you want. A Manta Style also dramatically increase your power to create lots of illusions, so you can farm very fast with it as well. If you can afford Radiance, you can afford any of these items, which give you so much more for your money.
And I didn't even get to the worst part : getting Radiance means spending more than 5k gold on an item simply because it helps you farm. Other than that, it gives you nothing. With Radiance, you're useless in the mid-game because your HP is too low, and you're useless in the late game because Radiance fades off completely after the 35-40 minute mark. Your only hope is to afk farm the jungle and the lanes for 20-25 minutes AFTER you get your radiance in order to get your late game items (which means forcing your teammates to play 4 v 5 for the whole game essentially), and THEN sell your radiance. If you can afford to do this, then it means that your teammates have basically won the game 4 v 5 for you anyways and that you were useless for your team all along.
Leave Radiance to tanks like Doom bringer who can actually stand in the middle of teamfights without dying, and to heroes who genuinely need a farming and pushing ability, like Lone Druid's Spirit Bear. They can use it much better.

If you still disagree with me on Radiance, I propose the following challenge : I dare you to prove me that Radiance can significantly boost your farm. In the games I play and/or watch, a Phantom Lancer without Radiance who has space to farm can have a GPM of 500 to 600 without problem. I have seen games where it goes up to 700-800 (see the list of professional games for example). If you want to prove me that Radiance brings anything to Phantom Lancer's farming potential, send me a replay of a PL with Radiance getting a GPM significantly higher than that. It can be you playing him, a friend, a pro game, essentially any game that isn't too old and that isn't a bot game. Having a high GPM by getting lots of hero kills doesn't count, only farming creeps. Phantom Lancer also has to do something to make his team win, afk farming while his team wins the game 4 vs 5 doesn't count either.

Sange and Yasha
This isn't by itself a bad item because Phantom Lancer's illusions do indeed benefit from most of what it gives. What makes this item a terrible choice is the fact that whatever Sange and Yasha does for you, Manta Style does it better. And Manta has an active which you absolutely need. Besides, the maim is really redundant because your chasing ability is already through the roof with Spirit Lance and Diffusal Blade. Get Manta Style instead.

Why not : list of second choice items

This chapter gives an overview of the items that I didn't include in the build, but which can still be decent picks for Phantom Lancer. Consider these as situational/second choice picks. You can skip this section if you simply need a working build.

Vanguard
Yet another mid-game item. Both the additional HP and the HP regeneration are great on you, and the damage block is not to be underestimated in the mid-game. Just like the previous items, it gives you good mid-game at the expense of the late game as it doesn't build into anything. Note that the illusions don't get the damage block, but this isn't a big deal.

Tranquil Boots
You need healing in the early game, so it's logical to consider Tranquil Boots. With a price of only 525 gold (on top of plain boots), it's an extremely cheap item, and 12 HP regeneration is huge in the early game. There is a big catch though : it prevents you from farming, because the boots break whenever you attack creeps. If you need to heal 300 HP, with 12 HP/second, you need 25 seconds, plus the 13 seconds you need to wait for the boots to recover from breaking. This means a whole 38 seconds during which you cannot farm creeps. With 4 creeps per wave, that's 4 last hits you miss making you lose ~200 gold. Buying a Healing Salve is cheaper. Cen still be a viable pick if heavily harassed in lane however.

Linken's Sphere
The +15 to all stats is very good for you and your illusions. It gives you infinite mana which means that you can spam Spirit Lance. It builds from Perseverance which can actually be a decent early-game item for him. The only catch is that it's very expensive and gives you no damage. And the spell block is a bit redundant because Phantom Lancer is already protected from targeted spells by his illusions. A very situational pick.

Eye of Skadi
The ultimate stat item, +25 to all stats is nothing to laugh at. Gives you just slightly less HP than Heart of Tarrasque and great all-around bonus to attack and survivability, and infinite mana. The slow effect is useless because it doesn't stack with Diffusal Blade, but it isn't that big a deal. I still think that Heart of Tarrasque is better because of the heal effect.

Ethereal Blade
A huge stat item in the line of Eye of Skadi, +40 to agility and +10 to strength and intelligence is amazing. Its active can be used to disable an enemy carry but it disables you as well, though your illusion army can still do damage. This item seems like a pretty decent pick on Phantom Lancer. However by doing the math I found out that Daedalus gives you significantly more DPS that Ethereal Blade, so you should go for Daedalus instead if you want more damage.

Heaven's Halberd
A great way to disable an enemy carry, that also gives you evasion and survivability. I think that Skull Basher does the disabling job better, but it's definitely a decent item on Phantom Lancer.

Ring of Aquila
A great early-game stat item, which also gives you mana regeneration. I don't get it because it delays your Diffusal Blade (if you can afford it then you can buy a Blade of Alacrity instead), but it definitely works well on Phantom Lancer.

Gameplay

Early game / Laning stage (lvls 1-7)
Your main goal in the laning stage is to get as many last hits as you can and to not get killed. If you manage to do this then you have won your lane. Everything else such as getting kills is secondary. Play defensively. You cas harass with Spirit Lance as soon as it hits level 2, but you need to always keep enough mana for Doppelwalk in case things turn bad.
If your mid comes to gank your lane, you need to assist him with Spirit Lance, which will often be enough to secure a kill.

The laning stage usually ends between 9 and 14 minutes. From there on, it's all about pushing, ganking and teamfights. In the current meta, the laning stage ends sooner and sooner.

Early-mid game (lvls 7-12)
And then...your bad time begins. Level 6 is the time when you hit a huge drop in your power in comparison to other heroes, because they have an ultimate and you don't. You are a bit like Death Prophet, who also doesn't have an ultimate until level 11 (because the first level of her ultimate sucks).

From level 6 to level 12, you should essentially stay clear of teamfights and/or fights involving 3 heroes or more because this is the best way to get killed. Play extremely defensively during that part of the game. Only join teamfights when it's about defending at tower. Otherwise, just taking an empty lane and getting solo farm and exp from it is usually the best option. If you are really needed by your team you can stay at the border of the fights and try to pick off lone heroes. But honestly, this is not your best time and at that time you aren't much better than a support hero who can assist teammates with Spirit Lance, and no item build or skill build in the world can do anything about it. Just get as much farm and EXP as you can to get out of this stage ASAP.

Your main goal here is to get to level 12 and farm your Diffusal Blade and Vitality Booster. When you have that you can start actually being a carry (at least a little)

Late-mid game (lvls 12-16)

Your now have an ultimate, congratulations! This means that you can now overpower most lone heroes. Starting from here, there are basically two different playstyles for Phantom Lancer :

• The first is focused on spending 90% of your time farming and pushing lanes, being away from your team, and avoiding teamfights unless they are absolutely necessary. This is the traditional carry playstyle where you spend most of your time farming, except that instead of just being useless to your team in the jungle you are actually helping them. Even though you are alone, you create pressure on the enemy lanes/towers which gives space for your teammates to farm and gank. When you have your farm advantage, you can dominate the late game. Doing this allows you to prevent mid-game teamfights (your weakness) from even happening. This splits up the enemy team and allows you to kill lone heroes.
• The second is focused on using your skill/item to solve your "natural" mid-game weakness, and actually being present in all teamfights and team ganks. This calls for a different skill build (taking stat levels), a different item build (buying mid-game items), and a very different logic altogether. This is more of a snowballing carry build.

The first playstyle is probably the best way of using Phantom Lancer's skills to their full potential. However, if facing a very agressive mid-game lineup, it isn't always possible to achieve because you simply can't give up on those T2/T3 towers when their whole team comes to push them. In case of a big mid-game disadvantage you need to fall back on the second playstyle. Of course these are two extremes and you will always be somewhere is between.

Notice that your goal in this phase is not to win, but to delay the game as much as you can so that there can actually be a late-game. Which will be to your advantage.

Late game (lvls 16+)

This is the time where you become pretty much invincible. Once you get good late-game farm, apart from a few counterpicks (see friends and foes section), almost nothing can stop you. Stick with your team, win the big teamfights, and go for the enemy barracks.

If you are still having trouble in the late game, it has to be because of the enemy carry, who is probably one of your counterpicks. In the case where he can still overpower you, you're left with finding a way to deal with him.

The best solution when facing one of your counterpicks is to avoid him altogether. You have superior map control, superior pushing power, and superior escape. You should use all of this to split push the enemy towers as much as you can and avoid him whenever he comes for you. Boots of Travel is an absolute must. By doing this you should be able to outmaneuver the enemy team and get those barracks.

The other solution is to buy items in order to counter him. Then go fight him in a teamfight, and hope for the best. See the item build section for details. Once you have lockdown on him then he shouldn't be much of a threat.

And then...

Congratulations! You just carried your team to victory!

...or if you didn't, see the next section.

How to lose with Phantom Lancer

This is a summary of great ways to get wrecked by playing Phantom Lancer, based on the games I have played and watched. It is here for informative purposes.

• Getting no farm in lane. Either you are getting harassed, or (even worse) your lane partner is denying your farm (autoattackers anyone?). Either way, it's one of the best ways to get your *** kicked. Don't lane with a carry, tell your support that you need the farm, and ask for an early gank against those annoying harassers.
  
• Forcing unnecessary teamfights when at a disadvantage. Generally, when you have a disadvantage in kills, it means that the enemy team is stronger than you. So forcing a 5-man teamfight against them is pure suicide. This is especially obvious...if you just lost a teamfight a few minutes ago. This is an EXTREMELY common mistake that I see in many many games. Only teamfight them to defend towers. Otherwise keep farming, go split push, and most importantly ward the map.
  
• Having no wards, and therefore no map control. To do anything in Dota, you need to know where the enemy heroes are. Otherwise you are just walking into a trap. This is especially true when playing a push-oriented hero like Phantom Lancer. If your team is at a disadvantage, the first thing to do for a support is to re-establish map control by putting down some wards. Tell this to your supports (nicely ^^) if this is a problem.
  
• Facing strong initiation and having no initiation. When the enemy team has strong initiators and your team doesn't, this means that they will have a huge advantage in teamfights. When this happens, you need to notice it and decide to go for a split push strategy to counter it.
  
• Forgetting about Roshan. This happens a lot. Yes, Roshan exists. Yes, you should ward the Roshan pit. And yes, if you don't go for him as soon as you have the space to do it, you will give a free Aegis to the enemy team. Also, you should ward Roshan early if they have Ursa.
  
• Overextending. Probably one of the most efficient ways to throw a game. After winning a teamfight, you are in the enemy base, you take down one lane of barracks, and then your team goes greedily for the throne without realizing that the full enemy team has just respawned. Then you get team wiped and it's gg. Watch those timers on top of the screen and when you see a full respawn say "back all" as many times as it takes until everyone gets back.
  
  
  

Microing illusions

Here are a few tips to manage your illusions:

• Make a control group for Phantom Lancer himself (select him then Ctrl + 1), and another control group for all your illusions (select all your illusions without you then Ctrl + 2). You only need to do this once, and then DOTA will automatically assign all your illusions to the control group 2 for the rest of the game. This way you can manage your illusions separately.
• You can send your illusions to farm and push without you. For example, hit 2 (select your illusions), then a+click on the ground next to a jungle camp. Or hit 2, then a+click on the minimap next to an enemy tower. Since they replicate on their own they can do these jobs pretty well. In the late-game you can even split your illusion stack in two, e.g half of your illusions go clear a jungle camp, the other half go push a lane, and you TP to another lane. This kind of micro can boost your farm significantly.

Friends and foes

Lane Friends

Keeper of the Light is your best friend in lane because he can give you mana so you can spam your Spirit Lance to harass. And he can harass himself pretty well with Illuminate. Simply make sure that he doesn't push the lane with it. If you're laning with him then you're pretty much guaranteed to zone your opponents out of the lane and have uncontested freefarm. Very powerful combo, nicknamed the "cancer lancer" :)


Crystal Maiden is an awesome hero to have on your team as Phantom Lancer. Another best friend in lane, she can harass with Crystal Nova and help set up kills with Frostbite. But most importantly, she will give you mana during the whole game no matter where you are with Arcane Aura! With her in the team, even if she's not with you, all your mana troubles are gone. Try it, it's awesome!


Ranged support heroes who can heal you : Warlock, Io, Witch Doctor, Dazzle. Go lane with them!


Offensive support heroes with good nukes/disables who can help you set up kills in your lane : Venomancer, Visage, Lion, Lina, Leshrac, Shadow Shaman, Windranger, Shadow Demon, Disruptor. Go lane with them!

Lane Foes

Silencer is possibly the worst opponent you can lane against. His Curse of the Silent will slowly but surely drain all your health and mana. You can cast Spirit Lance on him to stop it, but you'll run out of mana eventually and after that point there's nothing you can do except watch your HP and mana melt. Hopefully since you are in the safe lane he won't be laning against you. If he is, call for a gank on him (he is very squishy) or ask for a lane switch.


Strong harassers



All of these heroes have a highly spammable harassing skill, so they can take out a lot of your HP very quickly if you happen to be in their range. None of these heroes is really a threat to your life if you don't stray out of position, however staying at a distance from them (what you should do) means that you cannot get any farm. Special mention to heroes with orb attacks who can attack you right under your tower.

Disablers and nukers

There are too many of them to list, but the bottom line is that these guys can actually kill you. Always stay in position and play carefully.

Cleavers : your worst nightmare

These guys are mainly carries with some form of cleave, which allows them to clear your illusions very quickly. These are the few heroes who can still take on Phantom Lancer 1 vs 1 in the very late game with similar levels of farm.

Sven is your worst enemy. Each of his abilities seems built specifically to counter Phantom Lancer. His 65% Great Cleave can clear your illusions extremely quickly, and can hit you even when you are invisible. Warcry is an anti-carry spell for his whole team. His Storm Hammer is an AOE disable. And his ultimate God's Strength gives him ridiculous damage.

Phantom Assassin has 40% evasion from Blur. She has huge critical strike damage. And of course Battle Fury is a core item on her. Same problem as Sven, with the added evasion to take care of.

Gyrocopter is yet another cleaver with Flak Cannon, this time in an immense 1000 AOE. The fact that he has very strong nukes early-mid game doesn't help.

Luna is another cleaver with Moon Glaive. Also a very strong nuker.

Medusa is another cleaver with Split Shot. Her ultimate Stone Gaze can clear your illusions.

Legion Commander isn't a cleaver, but her Overwhelming Odds can clear your illusions in one shot. And then she can Duel you.

Magnus can cast Empower on cooldown to make any carry become a cleaver.

Kunkka can clear your illusions in one shot with Tidebringer and a crit from Daedalus.

Tiny can have cleave with Aghanim's Scepter. He's probably the weakest counter in this list because he is primarily a nuke combo hero, and his potential as a carry is pretty low. However, a farmed Tiny who starts stacking Hyperstone and DPS items definitely belongs with the others.

Any melee carry can turn into a cleaver by buying Battle Fury.

To deal with these guys, you have two options. Either avoid them completely and go splitpush towers (probably your best option), or buy some form of lockdown (e.g Skull Basher) to prevent them from attacking in teamfights. Getting evasion is always good as well.

AOE nukers and initiators

These guys all have very strong AOE nukes and/or initiation spells. In a teamfight they can clear your illusions quickly for their carry to finish you off. However if you take them on 1 vs 1 they are food to you. Generally you deal with them by avoiding teamfights and splitpushing.




Earthshaker deserves a special mention because his Echo Slam deals additional damage for each unit in the AOE, with each illusion counting for one (for TWO if he has Aghanim's Scepter!). With a magical damage of 1390 (level 3 Echo Slam + Aghanim's Scepter) on your 8 lancers, he's a pretty strong counter to Phantom Lancer. Additionally, you become a threat to your team simply by standing next to them. Heart of Tarrasque is an absolute must.

Good initiation is your friend

Your worst enemies are also your best friends. Phantom Lancer as a carry is very dependant on having good initiation in teamfights from your team. Every lineup in pro games has at least one initiator, and good initiation alone can win a teamfight. These guys are great to have on your team.

Playing against...

These heroes are not really counters to Phantom Lancer, but they can still be annoying to play against. Here is a list of tips when you're facing them.

Troll Warlord is just another right-clicking carry. The main problem with him is his Whirling Axes (Melee), a spammable spell that gives a 60% miss chance to you and your illusions for an infamous 7 seconds. One of the heroes that can force you to get Monkey King Bar.

Sniper is a bit similar to you, a late-game hard carry with ridiculously high stat growth. You should have the advantage against him with your Doppelwalk that allows you to initiate on him at melee range. However, don't underestimate his late-game potential which is just as high as yours. Skull Basher is a great pick if you're having troubles against him.

Axe is very dangerous in the mid-game if you focus him with your illusions because of his Counter Helix. Just focus someone else and let your teammates take care of him. In the late-game he becomes a non-issue.

Outworld Devourer Outworld Devourer can one-shot your illusions with Arcane Orb, and he can clear them completely with Sanity's Eclipse. However if you initiate on him at melee range you can take him down quickly with his terrible HP. If having trouble against him remember that Black King Bar shuts him down completely.

Pudge is not a counter to you at all. If something, YOU are a counter to HIM! Since you are surrounded by illusions it's very hard for him to hook you. You can use Doppelwalk to bait his hook with an illusion (make your illusion act convincingly in lane, moving around and going for last hits). His Dismember is a single-target spell so it's very hard for him to land it on you as well. If he misses any of his spells on an illusion AND you know that he is alone (wards are a must), then you can try to turn this around and gank HIM! He's fat and slow so he cannot escape you. In the late game, as a carry you dominate him completely.
Get that early point in Juxtapose, get Vitality Booster to survive his combo, and remember that you can use Doppelwalk to scout him out.

Phantom Lancer in pro games

Phantom Lancer is a rather rare but still present pick in pro games. The fact that he isn't picked more is probably explained by the fact that he can be counterpicked (special mention to the extremely popular Gyrocopter in the pro scene). Still, by looking around you can find a fair share of pro games with Phantom Lancer in it, and watching pro games is a great way to learn the playstyle of the hero. From experience, the best way to watch these games is to download them from DOTA itself and watch them without commentary, and to make your own idea about the playstyle of the hero. This chapter lists a few of these games.

LGD vs Alliance, The International 3, game 1 (August 8th 2013)
Play Video
Lod[A] on PL. He goes for an early pushing build (4/2/4/1 at level 11 and no stats) that allows him to take two towers early in his lane.
His item progression is Drum -> Diffusal -> Vitality Booster -> Yasha -> Diffusal 2 -> Heart -> Manta -> Butterfly.
He takes the old tranquil boots (which used to give burst heal)
He finished with a GPM of 653.

The best part of the game is seeing him buying 2 hearts (!!) and sending ultra-tanky illusions on their own to push T3 towers and barracks...which works really well!

DK vs LGD, G-League, game 2
Play Video
BurNing on PL. The draft is basically a frenzy of counterpicks to PL : antimage with battlefury, Leshrac, Sven, and Shadow Demon (who can create his own PL illusions)
His skill build is exactly the 4/2/2/2 build described here.
He goes from Drum, Diffusal, then Heart. Butterfly, MKB, Daedalus. Abyssal Blade at the very end.
You see here the power of Diffusal Blade : he can burn Anti-Mage's mana so quickly that he can't blink away.

Evil Geniuses vs Svenhunterz, the Defense 3, 14 january 2013
Play Video
GoAudio on PL.
PL is laning dual mid with KOTL to shut down a Shadow Fiend. It works pretty well.
Another "by the book" 4/2/2/2 skill build.
He goes for Diffusal into Manta before Heart.
You can see the awesome pushing power of PL who can do HUGE damage to T3 towers by only sending in his illusions.
You also see the insane farming power of PL who has almost twice as much last hits as the second in line. He keeps farming several jungle camps at once throughout the game.
The simple presence of PL forces EG to get a Rapier.
The rest of the game is about PL avoiding the enemy carry because of Rapier and splitpushing with illusions...again!
PL manages to be a huge asset to his team despite not having any kills, finishing at 5/3/9.
He finishes with an AMAZING GPM of 914 (!!) despite not having any kills.

No Tidehunter versus Team Empire in Raidcall EMS One, game 3
Play Video
Loda on PL.
The fun part about this game is that they actually pick PL against a gyrocopter.
No Tidehunter are facing an EXTREMELY strong teamfight lineup.
What do they do? Split push of course!
Diffusal -> Drum -> Heart build.
Another PL with absolutely no kills doing a lot for his team.
641 GPM.

The Defense 3 - DD DOTA vs Gamer University
Play Video
Linkdota on PL.
Getting freefarm in lane and rushing a 16-minute Radiance.
You see the late-game power of PL when playing at a heavy disadvantage.
700 GPM.

Purge plays Phantom Lancer
Play Video
This isn't a pro game, but it's awesome to watch. This is also a great example of playing at a big disadvantage with PL, and you see a lot of dealing with teammates who keep rushing into bad teamfights that they could avoid.

For fun

PyrionFlax's take on Phantom Lancer. He's right, he is bull****. And he doesn't even talk about how annoying it is to have your mana destroyed by endless ever-spawning illusions. Purr purr ^^
Play Video
PL picker and proud :)

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading this (fairly long) guide, and I welcome any constructive suggestions/discussions in the comments. This is my first guide so I am always open to any tips that might help improve it.

Happy owning with Phantom Lancer...for home, for peace :)