A beginner’s introduction to Phantom Assassin

So, you finally finished your 100 hours of unranked playtime, and you decided you want to play Phantom Assassin? Here’s some help.

Once a player has stepped up to the plate, ready to face the daunting challenges of Ranked Dota 2, they still need to figure out their new path forward. Choosing the right hero is just the first step but builds and laning can all quickly cause problems.

However, there are a few easier heroes that can make your early days in Ranked feel a little better, and the next we will look at is Phantom Assassin.

Blur, Blink, Death

Phantom Assassin, or PA as she’s more commonly known, has been a prolific hero in Dota 2 for a long time. With a simple kit that can be fairly easy for any player to get the hang of, the hero excels in the mid and late game periods with very few items. While a melee hero, PA’s quick “executes” give her the ability to often survive in the direst situations.

Unfortunately, PA is highly vulnerable to crowd control, magic burst, and her greatest counter can be Monkey King Bar (MKB) to pierce through her Blur Innate evasion.

A Stifling skill set

Innate: Blur. Not only does Blur give PA evasion capabilities, making her a threat to all physical attacks, but it can also render her almost entirely invisible until it is too late. The bonus passive evasion stacks via levels, at 25%/25%/45%/55%.

Facets:

• Methodical: Coup de Grace procs every 6 attacks on the same hero or 4 attacks on non-hero units.
• Sweet Release: Stifling Dagger re-casts when an enemy dies.

Methodical is barely picked, due to many heroes simply dying before it would proc. However, against tanky targets such as Tidehunter, it can often make or break the game. But, due to the snowball, chain reaction effects of Sweet Release, it is often far better – even if just used for creep farming.

Itemisation made easy

• Early items: Quelling Blade – Orb of Corrosion – Power Treads
• Core items: Battle Fury – Black King Bar – Desolator
• Useful items: Abyssal Blade – Satanic – Aghanim’s Shard

PA’s game, especially in the early periods, is highly focused on farming and survivability. Items such as Magic Wand and Circlet’s are great to keep the hero alive, while Quelling Blade functions as an easier way to last hit in a tough lane. With the low cooldown of Stifling Dagger, made even lower via talents, PA can utilise the ability to last hit or poke away at enemies to slow their advance.

While her Immaterial ability is not often taken until the mid to late game periods when she is jumping in to slaughter her opponents, it can come in handy at times. As PA, you will often be the main focus of ganks, so you will have to hope your team can keep the vision up, if you want to avoid having to drop a point into Immaterial in the early game.

Apart from that, secure your farm, get your Battle Fury and BKB online, and jump into the enemy backline for some massive crit numbers from Coup de Grace.

Read more: A beginner’s introduction to Sniper

Where to play Phantom Assassin

When we looked at Sniper previously, we detailed a very supportive role that the hero can play. While this is possible for PA too, it is a bit more complex than Sniper’s support role. While it is possible for PA to roam, her low health pool and need for farm early on take away her ability to realistically support.

PA is built specifically for the position 1 carry role and excels in that regard. Picked into a carefully curated draft with saves such as Dazzle or Oracle, or into a mostly physical damage lineup, PA can absolutely dominate the stage.

However, be wary against huge magical damage nukes such as Lina and Timbersaw, or massive crowd control characters like Bane. Once you get around this, PA will carry you to the same heights as her crits can.