The Boss guide to Phantom Assassin in Pubs

Introduction

Hi all! This is my first guide in Dotafire.com. I accept all criticism better than praises.

So you want to pick Phantom Assassin eh, first you must learn that she is an agility gain hard carry which could easily snowball out of control once she is farmed. Her effectiveness in teamfights are significant only when she is very farmed.

If you are not familiar with Phantom Assassin already, watch this video made my DotaCinema.
Play Video

Okay, lets go into the build!


P.S I may refer Mortred as Mortred or PA, also English is not my native language so please bear in mind. Also, I will include more things in this guide :D

Mortred's Lore

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Through a process of divination, children are selected for upbringing by the Sisters of the Veil, an order that considers assassination a sacred part of the natural order. The Veiled Sisters identify targets through meditation and oracular utterances. They accept no contracts, and never seem to pursue targets for political or mercenary reasons. Their killings bear no relation to any recognizable agenda, and can seem to be completely random: A figure of great power is no more likely to be eliminated than a peasant or a well digger. Whatever pattern the killings may contain, it is known only to them. They treat their victims as sacrifices, and death at their hand is considered an honor. Raised with no identity except that of their order, any Phantom Assassin can take the place of any other; their number is not known. Perhaps there are many, perhaps there are few. Nothing is known of what lies under the Phantom Veil. Except that this one, from time to time, when none are near enough to hear, is known to stir her veils with the forbidden whisper of her own name: Mortred.

Pros / Cons

Phantom Assassin's Pros

- Good escape ability with low cooldown
- Nice base movement speed
- Relatively easy to play
- Best critical damage in the game
- Easy to snowball out of control

Phantom Assassin's Cons

- Very item dependant
- Very squishy in early game
- Extremely susceptible to stuns or anything that would disable her

Skills and Explanation

Stifling Dagger

This skill is quite overpowered in the early game once it reaches level 2. Mainly because it does pure damage to creeps and half of the damage to heroes! At level 2 of Stifling Dagger, it is very easy to last hit and earn them mulas in the early game. Its slow is very helpful in helping Phantom Assassin to secure a kill as the slow is 50%. Take my word for it, your enemy will cry when they get hit by this projectile.
Phantom Strike

With a low cooldown of 5 seconds when it is maxed. Phantom Strike is most likely used for escaping during early game and securing a kill during the late game. This skill has a range of 1000 range that means it is very easy for Mortred to escape in a pickle provided that she is not stunned before she could blink to safety. Not to mention that when this skill is used on an enemy, Phantom Assassin would have 100% bonus attack speed for three seconds. However the buff is removed when Phantom Assassin have hit the enemy four times or when Phantom Assassin switches targets between the enemy she blinked to and another target.
Blur

Blur is very good during the late game considering that your enemy would have a guaranteed 40% chance of missing you. Moreover, Blur also helps to remove Phantom Assassin from the map. Also, Phantom Assassin would gain 80% transparency when she is near enemy units. However, when your enemy gets Monkey King Bar, your ability to dodge attacks are gone. Also take note that this does not stack with Butterfly or other evasion items.

REASON FOR BLUR LEVEL 1 AT 4: That 20% chance is used to shrug some of the harrases in the lane when the opponent is trying to move you out of lane. It is also a good early warning sign of a gank from the mid.
Coup de Grace

Coup de Grace (Coo Dee Gra) <--- Yes that is how it is supposed to be pronounced. Coup de Grace is the ultimate that makes Phantom Assassin the Hero Killing Machine. When it is maxed, this ultimate helps PA to dish out 450% of her attack at a 15% rate. The 15% may look small but when it is combined with her Phantom Strike, that makes the chance of crit-ing to 60%, not to mention the following attacks dealt afterwards.

P.S Coup de Grace uses Pseudo-random distribution sooo the crit-chance is actually more than 60% when Phantom Strike skill is done.

Item Explanation

- Starting Items

1. Quelling Blade - This item makes Phantom Assassin's last hitting easier with a 12%-32% damage bonus not to mention when there is a Nature Prophet's on the opponent team. This item could be sold the moment you have Perseverance.

2. Stout Shield - This item helps you block early harasses as it has a 60% chance to block 10 - 20 damage from creeps and heroes.

3. Tango - This is your basic regeneration item. It can be swapped for a Healing Salve if your team mate is buying a set of Tango for you.

- Early Game

1. Boots of Speed - This item helps you out run enemy heroes in dire situations. This item could also be built into further boots later on

2. Poor Man's Shield - This item has a 100% chance to block the damage from enemy heroes while 60% from other units. This helps you to stay in lane a little longer when you run out of Tango.

3. Perseverance - This item has a decent HP and mana regen. This makes Phantom Assassin able to spam her Stifling Dagger. This item also helps to build into a Battlefury.

- Core Items

1. Battlefury - This item makes you able to farm like a god. Because of the cleave it generates for you. When it is used in combination of Coup de Grace, the creeps would die in an instant. This would help you farm for the items that you need later on.

2. Phase Boots - This boots would help you move faster than the heroes and it would enable you to get in range to throw your dagger to do your combo.

3. Helm of the Dominator - This lifesteal item helps you to take on Roshan in combination with your Coup de Grace. Watch as Roshan cry in pain when you down him.

4. Monkey King Bar - This Bar boost your damage by 88 and increases your attack speed which obviously boost your chance of having Coup de Grace. MKB have a passive minibash that would stun a target for 0.01 seconds and deal 100 magical damage. Thats a 100 damage lucky nuke right there. It also has the passive "True Strike" which makes your attack a confirmed one. It works against any hero with Butterfly or Faceless Voic"s Backtrack.

5. Skull Basher - This item have a chance to stun your target enemy unit while you whack away at their health. This item can then be built into Abyssal Blade which would go through magic immunity. This item cannot stack with other basher items listed in the description BUT it does stack with MKB so bash all the way!

- Luxury Items

1. Abyssal Blade - Said previously, this item would stun an enemy unit for 2.5 seconds and this would go through magic immunity.

2. Boots of Travel - This item gives you INSANE movement speed. You would be able to outrun many heroes with this item. Not to mention, you could do some split pushing with this item too.

3. Satanic- This item give you INSANE lifesteal when activated. Whats better is that you would lifesteal a percentage of the damage you deal. Soooo if you do a 5000 crit, you would lifesteal 25% of 5000 or 175% of 5000 if Satanic is activated.

4. Heart of Tarrasque - This item solves the number 1 problem of Phantom Assassin, Health. HOT gives you insane health and insane hp regeneration when not in combat. This would work well when you have a Zeus or any global hero. Because they would buyback and launch a global spell at you. But HOT would regenerate your health like a boss so you do not need to worry about buyback nukes.

-Optional Items/ Situational Items

1. Black King Bar - Only priorities this item first when the enemy team have at least 2 stunners/disablers. Once you have this item, you can jump into teamfights and whack away at heroes.

2. Divine Rapier - Like i said earlier, Coup de Grace does crit damage relative to the damage Phantom Assassin currently have. So a 300 damage boost would definitely boost the damage dealt. But please take note that you MAY throw the game away when the other team carry kills you and picks it up.

3. "The other items shown above do not need explanation"

Game Strategy

Early Game Strategy

Laning:

Phantom Assassin MUST take the safe lane. Top for Dire and Bottom for Radiant

Farming:

If played wrongly early game, Phantom Assassin's late game and mid game will be affected badly. The easiest to farm in the early game is to watch your opponent's position and choose your last hits. If you cannot get in range to last hit without being harrassed, use your Stifling Dagger.

Ganking in the Early Game:

You should only involve in these type of fights if you are guaranteed a kill. Sure you can throw your dagger just to help but just focus on getting your farm when these fights occur during the early game.

Mid game

Ganking:

You can gank as long as you have 2 of your core items. Mainly Battlefury and MKB. If not, just get back to farming.

Farming:

Yep still the same as Early Game but with a twist. If the whole team is pushing your lane, retreat and farm another lane or the jungle. Only farm the jungle when the team is pushing your hard lane and your safe lane is pushed.

Late Game

Roshan:
Take on Roshan when you have MKB and your Helm of the Dominator. Then quickly snag the Aegis of Immortality and Cheese if any.

Teamfights:
NEVER EVER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD INITIATE a teamfight. This way, the enemy team would not focus on you. You should be the last or one of the last few people to jump in and start whacking. Just blink in and rapier everyone. When the teamfight is over, you can throw your Stifling Dagger to chase after survivors of the teamfights. If the team have enemy disablers or stunners, pop your Black King Bar first before blinking in.

When to pick Phantom Assassin

There is not a whole bunch of situations where Phantom Assassin cannot be picked

Pick her when

- Your team have only 1 carry
- The enemy team do not have many disablers.

Do not pick her when

- Your team are full of carries
- Your team have no stunners
- The enemy team is full of disablers (you can try your luck though)

Special Thanks :D

I would like to thank in advance to the people who give me feedback on my very first guide on dotafire. I would also like to thank Michelle and James for giving me suggestions on this guide.

Have fun Rapin- oh i mean Rapier-ing~

-Darren
(A.K.A The MonthlyGuy)


Michelle: http://steamcommunity.com/id/mlmz/

James: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061851774/