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Tango
Clarity
Quelling Blade
Ring of Protection
Power Treads
Vladmir's Offering
Diffusal Blade
Town Portal Scroll
Town Portal Scroll
Crystalys
Ultimate Orb
Reaver
Javelin
Javelin
Daedalus
Heart of Tarrasque
Manta Style
Monkey King Bar
Black King Bar
Gem of True Sight
Radiance
Daedalus
Butterfly
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2 | 4 | 7 | 9 |  |
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1 | 5 | 8 | 10 |  |
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3 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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6 | 11 |  |
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15 |
The One Man army who escapes from reality and comes back with a bigger army...need i say more...?
Phantom lancer is a superb carry with semi decent early to mid Gank potential and an unstoppable good late game as well.Off Lane He has easy Jungling and farming capabilities with fast traversal and neutral camp stacking. On Lane he is a good Chaser/Nuker and is very capable in any Gank with sufficient INITIATION and support( Initiation being key ) and finally very quick pushing capabilities if timed right.
PROS:
Chaser/Escaper
Pusher
Fast Jungler
Spell dodger
Landscaper
Excellent late game carry
A real phantom in battle when played right!!! (unseen when attacked but ever present for the final blow )
Cons:
Weak armor and HP gain
Very Item/farm dependent
Micro... micro ... micromanagement
Needs an initiator uptil lvl 16 at least.
Very weak against AOE nukes and spells any CC actually(Earth Shaker smiles doesn't he ??)
The starting game items mentioned are to mainly help you stay in any lane uptil level six and until you farm a morbid mask and boots of speed at least.
The tangos help with healing in a tough lane and the clarity potion helps in escaping early enemy nukes with Doppleganger and to probably use Spirit Lance to last hit a hero or chase down an escaping hero.
The quelling blade is used to help last hit and farm up your starting items asap.
In Early To Mid Game once you reach lvl 6 the Jungle is yours to quickly farm and level up.
Remember it is possible to share a Jungle with another carry while 3 heroes solo lane if needed because you will only need 3 neutral camps namely the 3 camps closest to the runes on the Dire or Radiant.
You can easily stack these camps by pulling the creeps out of their camp just before any minute mark and a new set of neutrals will spawn. Now remember you can always use Doppleganger to landscape all the trees in such a manner that it makes moving from camp to camp almost immediate and hence makes your gold and XP earnings quick and easy.
The key here is to farm the diffusal blade asap so that you can start ganking early and quickly snowball into a ONE MAN ARMY. Now once you get your vlads and powertreads you can easily stay in the jungle and spam your doppleganger at every opportunity you get.
You should aim to jungle and maybe gank only if sure of success until you are lvl 16.
After that no enemy can think of going solo against you.
Now that you have reached lvl 16 your boring lumberjack days are over its time to play with your pocket phantom army.
As long as you have an initiator you should be able to easily fight 2 or 3 heroes since you have purge and feedback( the initiated enemy hero is disabled or is busy fighting your tank,your target is mana burned and purged while the other hero is mostly trying to escape but he can be easily chased with Phantom Rush and Spirit Lance).
Always keep a TP scroll so that you can TP to a tower which is getting destroyed to quickly farm a massive creep wave
Now is when you quickly get a crystalis and Reaver both will help your images greatly especially since images created by images last only for 4 secs.
Remember to always try and escape AOE spells during fights with Doppleganger but dont just escape reposition PL in an advantageous position.
If there are enemy heroes who use evasion get 2 javelins instead of a Crystalis if you have trouble pushing get an ultimate orb instead of a reaver so you can complete a Manta Style which will definitely help push if used effectively but please complete the HOT later.
Finally now that Lance actually catches the Sun and every enemy hero.Its your time to shine!
Complete the Daedalus/MKB & the Heart.If you have followed and successfully completed all the above steps it should be easy for you to rush into 2 or 3 enemies and quickly slice up the carry or support but always be aware of AOE nukes which are easy to dodge DBZ style. Never forget to use an image as a feint or for any unorthodox play you can think of to further confuse your enemy( imagine getting Dazzle to cast shallow grave on an illusion which is fleeing the wrong way, you are going to watch a lot of mana get wasted )
Now you should be able to complete all the items with only one slot remaining, from here it is upto you and how the game is progressing.
Radiance for image damage and farming and pushing potential.
BKB for AOE nukes
Blademail for Phantom assassin and Ursa warrior(even though it tells you apart from your illusions it should be used to survive)
Gem of true sight for that backstabbing pesky riki.
I will include special techniques further like enemy nuke wasting opputunities/split pushes/Dodging spells and re-positioning/ Where to Landscape in the Jungle/ Quick tower pushing strategies/ I CANNOT TEACH YOU HOW TO MICROMANAGE THOUGH :).
Dopple Ganger- Firstly I would like to say thank you for making me feel like naruto.
You get this skill at lvl 1 and max out after maxing out by lvl 10.
Dopple Ganger has a pretty average range but an immediate cast time after which you are invulnerable for approximately 1 sec and you will move or attack the position which was last commanded ( if the hero moves from this position, instead of attacking you will move to the position your enemy was earlier), you will re appear in a plus formation with 2 more images who will also face the way PL was facing when casting Doppleganger.
Hence to finish a fleeing hero when you have no images face away from your opponent but maintain range to cast immediately, by doing this you and your 2 images will mostly reappear in front of the hero facing him.
Apart from this you can use it to cut down trees remember each image will take out at least 2 trees if they spawn next to it, hence more images more furniture.
If you are aware of enemy spell cast animations you can easily time the cast to evade the spell.
Example Sniper is assassinating you, after you hear his gun fire/cast animation completes immediately cast Doppleganger where you are to escape. :)
After casting DoppleGanger you mostly on average should have 4 to 5 images, so you can now escape or use any of them to confuse the enemy( like making the image escape with low health or try and make Lina cast her ultimate on it.
Spirit Lance: Is a very Simple easy to use Nuke with a above average cast range and decent spell animation, coupled with with phantom rush its a veru good chasing and finishing tool.
You can use it early on to get Last hits on heroes but you have to remember to use the mana sparingly, However if you have made a vlads you should get the mana regen to spam a little more than usual.
It slows the enemy with a 250 damage nuke and creates an image which can again add to the DPS.
Another callout for this skill is the fact that it makes all your images also do the cast animation when the hero casts it so you should be safe when you cast the lance with your images.
Phantom Rush: You can get this skill early on if you are confident that you can get a kill with it. Also at lvl 1 it procs from 600 range for you and your images and goes upto a range of 900 at lvl 4 with a very short cooldown.
Now here is the catch you can almost never rush into battle without enough support and you cannot cast it on an allied unit to escape maybe. SO once you are level 12 you can start spending points in it because you have to points in Juxtapose and your images may appear at your first hit with phantom rush itself.
Also it will be easy to travel between camps in the jungle especially if you have landscaped the trees properly.
Finally be aware that you will rush the moment a target is in range and this is something the rest of your team should keep in mind because you are weak and you might be the second person to dive but with so much speed you might catch your teammates off guard if they are badly positioned.
Juxtapose:Your bread and butter skill. This is what makes phantom lancer a one man rampage seeker.
Now you have to take this at every opportunity you get though its sometimes taken at lvl 10,11 and 16 this I leave to you.
Getting this early will help you farm much faster and maybe even put pressure on cracked heroes (supports and carries) with some support of course.
Since images no longer sustain like they used its more advisable to increase their damage,attack speed and overall DPS( remember they get true strike from MKB and they will all ignore PA's evasion) Hence the MKB and Daedalus are mentioned in my build.
They do benefit with a HOT but again images triggered by the hero lasts for only 8 secs so it is a debatable item. instead getting a manta style is good because you do get a little HP and defense boost from it.
The only Unique attack modifier which works is feedback from diffusal blade so dont try any others cause the orb effect will only be triggered by the hero.
Quelling blade works on images so it will be easier to farm with them.
Images benefit from evasion as well so a heavens Halberd could be a situational item cause you can disable a hero with it and shut him down
If you have a TP scroll and a manta style you cast manta at an enemy tower with creep advantage, TP to another lane and push the previous lane with your manta images which last for 20 secs and who create images as well. Just be aware when trying this to get as many creep hits as possible before engaging the tower because you'll have the most images.( this lasts for only 20 secs max so managing the hero in another lane should not be a challenge especially with support.
Tips:
Do not get a vanguard or damage block cause images do not benefit from them
Do not get any other Unique attack modifier because only feedback works for images.
Try to make your team understand that you have to jungle and you will not be present for at least the first 20 mins of the game.
You need a good initator who can absorb damage.
Counters:
Any hero which has good CC skills and that list is big (to name a few AXE, Earthshaker & Outworld Destroyer).
Crimson Guard: If the enemy team realizes that PL is snowballing this team buff will pretty much make your images useless in a fight.
Blademail: for obvious reasons.
Diffusal Blade: it does 999999 damage to images.
Allies:
Keeper of the light, Magnus, Huskar and other heroes who have a good initiate skill and those who can replenish your mana early on for you to spam your nuke.
Please let me know if i should cover any thing else or if anyone feels I have written something inaccurately.
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