Phantom Assassin Overview

Lore & Bio

"I'm here to blur the line between life and death."

The Sisters of the Veil, a religious order that views assassination as a sacred aspect of the natural order, choose children for raising using a divination procedure. Targets are determined by the Veiled Sisters through oracular utterances and meditation. They don't take on contracts, and they never seem to go after anyone for mercenary or political gain. A person of immense authority is no more likely to be killed than a peasant or a well digger. Their killings have no apparent purpose and frequently appear to be random. They alone are aware of any patterns the killings may have. Death at their hands is regarded as an honor, and they treat their victims as sacrifices.Any Phantom Assassin can replace any other because they were all born with no other identity but that of their order; their exact number is unknown. There might be many, or there might be few. What lurks behind the Phantom Veil is a mystery. Except that this one is known to occasionally disturb her veils with a prohibited murmur of her own name: Mortred, when no one is close enough to hear.

Attribute & Stats

Level: 0 1 15 25 30

Health: 200 620 1220 1900 2160

Health regen: +0.75 +2.85 +5.93 +9.33 +10.63

Mana: 75 255 483 795 903

Mana regen: +0 +0.75 +1.73 +3.03 +3.48

Armor: 1 4.83 12.77 20.43 23.6

Damage Block: 16 (50%)    

Magic Resistance: 25%    

Status Resistance: 0%    

Damage: 32‒34 55‒57 102‒104 148‒150 167‒169

Attack Rate: 0.59/s 0.72/s 1/s 1.27/s 1.39/s

Attack Range: 150 (600)

Attack Speed: 100 (1.7s BAT)

Attack Animation: 0.3+0.7    

Projectile Speed: Instant.    

Movement Speed: 305    

Turn Rate: 0.6    

Collision Size: 24    

Vision Range: (G) 1800 • 800    

Legs: 2    

Gib Type: Default.    

Ability Upgrades:    

Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter - Blur.

Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard -  Fan of Knives.

Abilities & Talents

Skills building guide

In general, your leveling priority of R>Q>W>E, Start by allocating points to each ability up to level 4, giving Stifling Dagger precedence because it will enable you to pursue, harass, and, if necessary, safely farm, Maximizing Phantom Strike has shown to be the best follow-up.And since only a point early does more than enough, the ability that makes you a pain to heroes that rely on regular attacks, Blur, will be maxed out last.And yeah, of course, whenever you can, always add a point to your ultimate; it's the trait that distinguishes Phantom Assassin as a true assassin!

Abilities

Stifling Dagger

Cast Animation: 0.3+0.47

Cast Range: 550/750/950/1150

Number of Targets: 1 

Instant Attack Damage Bonus: 65

Instant Attack Damage: 25%/40%/55%/70% 

Move Speed Slow: 50%

Slow Duration: 2.2/2.8/3.4/4

Talent Secondary Target Range Buffer: 300

Cooldown: 6 

Mana: 30

Effect: Attacks with a dagger, dealing 65+25%/40%/55%/70% of the Phantom Assassin's attack damage as physical damage and activating attack effects from items and abilities.

Phantom Strike

Cast Animation: 0.25+0.8

Cast Range: 1000 

Attack Speed Bonus: 75/100/125/150

Duration: 2 

Cooldown: 11/9/7/5

Mana: 35/45/55/65

Effect: Teleports to a unit, whether friendly or hostile, and if it's an enemy unit, gives extra attack speed while attacking.

Blur

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.57 

Passive Evasion: 20%/30%/40%/50%

Vanish Dispel Radius: 600

Vanish Fade Time: 0

Vanish Dispel Delay: 0.5 

Vanish Duration: 25

Cooldown: 60/55/50/45 

Mana: 50

Effect: Phantom Assassin turns her attention inward, which improves her capacity to deflect opponent blows. can be used to make her body appear blurry, making her invisible until she is close to hostile heroes.

Fan of Knives

Cast Animation: 0.15+0.9

Radius: 550

Max Health as Damage: 16%

Debuff Duration: 3

Cooldown: 15

Mana: 50

Effect: Phantom Assassin unleashes razor-sharp blades surrounding her, breaking on hit and dealing a portion of each victim's maximum HP.

Coup de Grace

Proc Chance: 15% 

Critical Damage: 200%/325%/450%

Effect: Phantom Assassin improves her fighting skills, increasing the likelihood that she will hit an opposing unit with a devastating critical strike. The critical strike chance is the same for Stifling Dagger.

Effective items guides

Early game

Quelling Blade

Quelling Blade: Enhances the early-game farming capacity of the Phantom Assassin. She is able to farm the goods necessary to start starting to be useful in a match since she is able to last-hit more readily and kill neutral camps more quickly.

Boots of Speed

Boots of Speed: Are crucial to acquire at the outset. Phantom Assassin needs to be able to swiftly enter and exit range in order to last-hit, as well as pursue or flee as necessary without heavily relying on Phantom Strike.

Magic Wand

Magic Wand: Can significantly raise Phantom Assassin's early-game effectiveness and survivability. It has few qualities but huge charge storage for mana regeneration and burst health, both of which are essential for an agility hero with weak strength and intelligence.

Mid game

Power Treads

Power Treads: Increased mobility and attack speed dramatically increase the battle effectiveness and survivability of the Phantom Assassin. She may swap to strength for increased health or intellect for the casting of spells, particularly Stifling Dagger repeatedly.

Battle Fury

Battle Fury: Ensures that Phantom Assassin can continue to farm throughout the late game. She can quickly eliminate creeps when farming, pushing, or counter-pushing thanks to the damage and cleave, and she can always keep her health and mana pools full with the health and mana regen.

Desolator

Desolator: Permits Phantom Assassin to use Stifling Dagger to apply the armor debuff from a distance, softening up numerous targets for her team's strikes as well as her own. Coup de Grace's killing potential is also significantly increased by the damage boost, especially when combined with the foes' decreased armor from the Phantom Assassin's jumps.

Black King Bar

Black King Bar: Provides Phantom Assassin much-needed spell immunity, enabling her to battle directly against foes while ignoring their disables and nukes. The increased damage boosts attack power while the increased health increases survivability.

Late game

Abyssal Blade

Abyssal Blade: Can be essential for providing Phantom Assassin with the lockdown and damage she needs to swiftly take out important opponents in battles. The active allows her to quickly hard-disable any opponent through spell immunity, allowing her to bring them down with Coup de Grace. The bash offers her a chance to stun an enemy after leaping on them with Phantom Strike. She gains additional health, health regeneration, and a 40 percent damage reduction from incoming strikes, all of which boost her durability.

Satanic

Satanic: Enhances Phantom Assassin's ability to survive team battles and swiftly restock her health with Coup de Grace crits.

Aghanim's Scepter

Aghanim's Scepter: Is sometimes disregarded because it doesn't provide much attributes or damage, but the dispel is crucial for Phantom Assassin to survive when Black King Bar is on cooldown. If you need to take out a number of targets quickly, the ability to reset skill cooldown with each kill is useful.

Situation items

Mask of Madness

Mask of Madness: Delivers a source of lifesteal and a high attack speed. Phantom Assassin's damage comes from a passive ability, partially countering the debuff, and her durability is focused on evasion rather than armor, making this item dangerous to buy. However, being unable to use Stifling Dagger or Phantom Strike can be costly while trying to chase or run.

Butterfly

Butterfly: Substantially increases the damage that the Phantom Assassin can deal and gives the character more evasion. Buying a Butterfly can punish some lineups by making their heroes buy Monkey King Bar instead of an item that works better with their strengths, even while stacking it alongside Blur runs the risk of having both negated by the enemy building Monkey King Bar.

Assault Cuirass

Assault Cuirass: The enemy armor reduction aura and increased attack speed dramatically boost the Phantom Assassin's damage output. Her resistance to physical damage is also significantly increased by the upgraded armor, and depending on the makeup of the squad, the aura also gives colleagues access to increased attack speed and armor.

Nullifier

Nullifier: Delivers a damage boost, the ability to disperse the adversary, silence them (disabling various defensive items), and drastically slow them for an extended period of time (synergies perfectly with Phantom Strike and Stifling Dagger combo).

Monkey King Bar

Monkey King Bar: Reduces enemy evasion and increases attack damage of Phantom Assassin to increase damage output.

Sange and Yasha

Sange and Yasha: Is a simple to farm, situationally effective mid-game gear that enables Phantom Assassin to take part in team fights earlier. She has increased damage output and health because to the boosts for agility and strength, and her increased mobility makes it much easier for her to pursue and flee.

Eye of Skadi

Eye of Skadi: Can increase the combat efficiency of the Phantom Assassin. All characteristics are increased, giving Phantom Assassin more base damage, health, and mana. With her blows and the Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin can slow adversaries with the Cold Attack passive, slowing their movement and preventing them from readily eluding her.

Enemies & Allies

Allies

Ancient Apparition

• During the laning phase, this pair may easily defeat an adversary by using Ancient Apparition, Phantom Assassin, and Cold Feet to stun the enemy.

• For Phantom Assassin, Ice Blast increases the likelihood of one-shot critical hits.

Beastmaster

• Phantom Assassin has faster attack speed thanks to Inner Beast, which improves her ability to execute a Coup de Grace.

• Phantom Assassin can defeat foes thanks to Primal Roar's lengthy stun duration.

• Phantom Assassin can use the Beastmaster's Hawk and Boar to jump to and employ them to help her pursue her prey.

Magnus

• Phantom Assassin's cleaving strike and crit damage are both significantly increased by Empower. Additionally, it accelerates Phantom Assassin's rate of farming.

• Enemies are gathered together by Reverse Polarity, Magnus' Empower, and Phantom Assassin's propensity to purchase Battle Fury In the blink of an eye, Battle Fury and Phantom Assassin will decimate a number of heroes.

Omniknight

• In the early game, while Purification's damage is high, casting it on Phantom Assassin after she uses Phantom Strike will ensure a massive damage burst.

• Omniknight can catch up to the target thanks to the Stifling Dagger of the Phantom Assassin, who also slows them with Degen Aura.

• Blur increases Phantom Assassin's resistance to physical assaults, and Heavenly Grace greatly increases her resistance to disables.

Slardar

• In addition to keeping track of a target, Corrosive Haze drastically lowers the victim's armor, allowing Phantom Assassin to dispatch that opponent considerably more quickly. In a fight, his stun and follow-up slow can be helpful in delaying retribution and/or escaping.

Vengeful Spirit

• When an adversary is in the grasp of Phantom Assassin, Nether Swap can use her Magic Missile to stop them from escaping.

• Phantom Assassin's increased damage output from the Vengeance Aura and Wave of Terror aids her one-shot opponents.

Counters

Axe

• Phantom Assassin will become a remarkably simple target for Berserker's Call if you attack right away with Phantom Strike on Axe.

• Phantom Assassin's increased attack speed from Phantom Strike also increases the number of times Counter Helix will activate.

• Black King Bar doesn't stop Axe from killing Phantom Assassin with Culling Blade, hence it is often useless against Axe's abilities and item build. Additionally, it fails to counter Berserker's Call and Counter Helix.

• Every game, Axe invests in Blade Mail, a piece of equipment that allows her to counter the critical hits of the Phantom Assassin. If she's under the influence of Berserker's Call, things could get even worse because she can't stop attacking.

Bane

• Enfeeble drastically reduces Phantom Assassin's ability to deal damage, crippling her Coup de Grace damage, reducing the cast range of her spells, preventing her from using Stifling Dagger to harass enemy heroes or using Phantom Strike to flee or engage in combat, and it also minimizes any health regeneration Phantom Assassin gets.

• Phantom Assassin is vulnerable to Brain Sap's pure damage, which can quickly take her out, especially early on.

• Phantom Assassin can be rendered inoperable by Fiend's Grip, notwithstanding Black King Bar or any other form of spell immunity.

Broodmother

• Due to her single target powers, Phantom Assassin is utterly defenseless in the face of hordes of spiderlings.

• Broodmother usually has ample time to employ Spin Web to protect herself because Phantom Assassin always relies on critical hits.

• Phantom Assassin's assault may miss a lot due to Silken Bola's ability to slow her down.

Centaur Warrunner

• Retaliate uses the fact that Phantom Assassin deals damage with every hit suffered and that many hits will be required to defeat him to her advantage.

• Phantom Assassin won't be able to activate Black King Bar if Centaur Warrunner jumps ahead of him, and she risked being taken out by his Double Edge.

• Stampede can stop a Phantom Assassin assault on an ally, canceling out the slow caused by Stifling Dagger. He can stop an ally at low health from being killed in one critical strike if he possesses an Aghanim's Scepter.

Dragon Knight

• Despite dealing 100% physical damage, Phantom Assassin finds it challenging to take down Dragon Knight because of her high armor thanks to Dragon Blood.

• As soon as Phantom Assassin initiates, Dragon Tail stuns her, stopping her from gaining additional attack speed.

• One of the few heroes who can successfully solo lane versus Phantom Assassin with a support is Dragon Knight.

Lina

• Phantom Assassin dives in, but Light Strike Array captures her.

• In the early to midgame, Laguna Blade decimates Phantom Assassin's pitiful health before she can act, and when upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter, it also pierces her spell immunity.

Lion

• Phantom Assassin is quickly caught by the quick cast animations of Hex and Earth Spike when she charges in to attack.

• In the early to midgame, Phantom Assassin is frequently defeated by Finger of Death before she can act.

Morphling

• Phantom Assassin is directly countered by the strong armor of Morphling, whose attacks deal much less damage. She is extremely susceptible to burst damage and may be easily taken out with a combo of his Ethereal Blade and Adaptive Strike.
  
  

Omniknight

• Once Phantom Assassin jumps into attack with Phantom Strike, Purification and the Hammer of Purity can easily capture her.

• Stifling Dagger's slow can be removed using Heavenly Grace, and the things Phantom Assassin depends on can be disabled.

• Phantom Assassin only employs physical attacks, and all of her damage is physical. As a result, Guardian Angel will make her entirely useless because she lacks all sources of magical damage output and despises using items like Veil of Discord, Dagon, and Ethereal Blade that inflict magical damage.

• An allied hero can be saved by Purification, Heavenly Grace, and Guardian Angel before Phantom Assassin dispatches them with Coup de Grace.

Phoenix

• Phantom Assassin's ability to deal damage is significantly hampered by the severe attack speed slow caused by Fire Spirits. While Phantom Strike might be able to help a little, Blur's limited health pool will take a significant hit from Phoenix's high magical damage output, which ignores her evasion completely.

Puck

• Puck's primary method of attack is magical burst damage, which Phantom Assassin is particularly susceptible to.

• Phase Shift and Illusory Orb separate Stifling Dagger, allowing Phantom Assassin to be kited as well.

• Phantom Assassin will be stunned by Dream Coil if she uses Phantom Strike to flee.

Razor

• Phantom Assassin's primary source of damage is hampered by Static Link, which significantly reduces Coup de Grace's damage output.

• Blur is unable to avoid Eye of the Storm attacks.

Skywrath Mage

• If Skywrath Mage is not careful, she too could be killed by Phantom Assassin in a matter of blows, but vice versa.

• Skywrath Mage can heavily harass Phantom Assassin in lane with to Arcane Bolt's long range and short cooldowns.

• Phantom Assassin is prevented from fleeing or interacting with Phantom Strike by Ancient Seal.

• Phantom Assassin is rapidly taken off by Mystic Flare's powerful magical damage in the early to midgame.

Slark

• He can get closer to Phantom Assassin thanks to Slark's Pounce and stop her from using Phantom Strike to flee.

• Slark, a hero who normally builds Silver Edge, can use it to deactivate Phantom Assassin's Blur and Coup de Grace, destroying her ability to evade attacks and significantly lowering the amount of damage she deals.

• Slark will have plenty of opportunity to flee using Pounce, Shadow Dance, and Silver Edge because Phantom Assassin always relies on critical hits.

• Essence Shift may be particularly damaging for Phantom Assassin because losing agility reduces her physical damage, which can make Coup de Grace less effective if Slark is able to take a lot of agility from her.

Spectre

• In addition, Blur cannot escape Desolate because it is a separate damage instance that is applied before the attack hits, rendering Black King Bar worthless for Phantom Assassin versus Spectre.

• One of the most difficult carries to kill is Spectre because of her incredible durability, which is supplied by her damage block and dispersion gear.

Timbersaw

• Timbersaw can withstand harassment from Stifling Dagger thanks to Reactive Armor.

• Phantom Assassin typically fights on the front lines and has a moderate health pool, making her susceptible to Timbersaw's magic burst.

• Timbersaw's Timber Chain makes it simple for him to elude Phantom Assassin.

Tinker

• If Phantom Assassin is not shielded by Black King Bar, the blind from Laser could render her worthless.

• Tinker is a native carrier of the Scythe of Vyse and has the ability to permanently neutralize Phantom Assassin, preventing her from activating Black King Bar if she carries it.

Troll Warlord

• Landing a Coup de Grace is challenging when Whirling Axes (Melee) is active.

• The goods that significantly counter Phantom Assassin are Silver Edge and Monkey King Bar, which Troll Warlord frequently purchases.

• The high damage output of Phantom Assassin is entirely negated by Battle Trance, keeping Troll Warlord from succumbing quickly. Troll Warlord can also recover a good deal of his health thanks to the lifesteal.

Viper

• Phantom Assassin is primarily reliant on passive skills, which nethertoxin disables.

• Black King Bar is broken by Viper Strike, which significantly slows her down. But keep in mind, if any of her supporters are close, she has the ability to disappear.

Underlord

• Phantom Assassin is unable to engage Phantom Strike or flee thanks to Pit of Malice.

• Atrophy Aura is incredibly dangerous for Phantom Assassin in most of the levels because her damage output is purely physical. This is especially true because it also affects Coup de Grace, which is Phantom Assassin's primary source of damage.

• Phantom Assassin is unable to stop Underlord and his team from using Fiend's Gate to flee, nor can she intercept them if Underlord decides to teleport to any location on the map without the necessary items and any area-of-effect abilities or items.

Hoodwink

• Hoodwink can quickly dodge a Phantom Strike, make it challenging to pursue her through trees, and offer passive evasion, thereby preventing the Phantom Assassin from making a quick kill.

• The critical passive abilities of Phantom Assassin are disabled, and she sustains significant damage as a result of the Sharpshooter arrow's Break and burst of magic damage.

Items Counter

Monkey King Bar

Monkey King Bar: Provides accuracy to block Blur.

Maelstrom

Maelstrom: Through Blur, Chain Lightning can pierce.

Blade Mail

Blade Mail: Turns the powerful burst damage of Phantom Assassin against her, preventing her from attacking.

Bloodthorn

Bloodthorn: Thanks to its accuracy, damage amplification, and critical hits makes her a more vulnerable victim. As a result of her inability to utilize her Stifling Dagger and Phantom Strike when in the stillness, she is also more vulnerable to kiting.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse: Eliminates all potential escape routes for the Phantom Assassin. Even if she buys Black King Bar, as Hex also bans item usage, if the Hex is applied before she can activate it, she may go down very easy if further crippled and nuked down.

Silver Edge

Silver Edge: Breaks Blur and Coup de Grace, significantly impairing her capacity to sustain harm and survive.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter: It serves as a good defensive item for casters because it stops Phantom Assassin from attacking. Later, it can be upgraded to the Ethereal Blade, which can be used to destroy and disarm the Phantom Assassin as well as on allies.

Glimmer Cape

Glimmer Cape: Can be applied to protect targets Phantom Assassin's critical hits hit. If your team already has invisibility-granting heroes, it is not recommended because foes will then almost certainly always have Dust of Appearance on them.

Solar Crest

Solar Crest: Phantom Strike not only causes Phantom Assassin's armor to melt, but it also slows down her strike velocity.

Heaven's Halberd

Heaven's Halberd: Prevents Phantom Assassin from triggering Coup de Grace by disarming her. Its avoidance offers dependable defense against her bodily assaults.

Favorable Matchups

Anti-Mage

• Due to Counterspell, Anti-Mage can readily endure powerful magical bursts, although he is still fairly susceptible to physical harm. While Blink is on cooldown, as well as while he is stunned or hexed, Anti-Mage can be eliminated by the burst physical damage dealt by Phantom Assassin.

• Anti-Mage cannot significantly harm her due to Blur.

• Phantom Assassin's mana pool is pitiful, and intelligence increase reduces damage from Mana Break and Mana Void.

Crystal Maiden

• Crystal Maiden is an attractive and simple target because to her low health reserve and poor mobility speed.

• She can disable you and respond with a Freezing Field, therefore it might be best to create Black King Bar before attempting to fight her alone.

Dazzle

• Dazzle is a relatively easy target for Phantom Assassin because he lacks a genuine disable.

• Frequently, Coup de Grace will eliminate Dazzle's team members before he can use Shallow Grave.

Nature's Prophet

• Due to Nature's Prophet's limited mobility and health supply, Phantom Assassin can easily eliminate him early on.

• If Phantom Assassin has eyesight, Phantom Strike lets her to enter and exit Sprout.

Riki

• As her Phantom Strike accomplishes the same thing as Phantom Assassin, but with a greater range, Riki's Blink Strike does not provide her a mobility edge over Phantom Assassin.

• Blur is typically difficult for a Carry Riki to deal with because a Monkey King Bar or Bloodthorn are not good item choices for him (or, even more unlikely, a Silver Edge).

• When triggered, Black King Bar completely negates Diffusal Blade and Smoke Screen, making it a popular choice for Phantom Assassin.

Sniper

• Sniper is a simple target for Phantom Assassin to attack because of his limited mobility and reliance on attack range.

Game plan

Early game ( 0:00 - 12:00)

Your major goal in the early game is to farm as much as you can and to survive, regardless of whether you choose to go mid or safe lane. If you're going to die, you're going to waste a lot of time that you could have spent farming, leveling up, or just getting gold passively by surviving. Even if you can't farm much or level up, it's crucial to stay alive because the passive gold you collect is better than losing everything if you die.

Mid game (12:00 - 25:00)

The real fun starts when you reach level 6 and receive a Coup de Grace point. Every time a critical strike occurs early in the game, you'll do a ton of damage, putting any single target in jeopardy when you confront them. In order to defeat heroes with weak armor, be sure to utilize your high physical damage. Don't blink in a fight if you're unsure you can get the kill and fall back safely; you'll usually be concentrating on the lone supports that are simple to take down in the early stages. However, cautious because they'll be the ones with disables.

Make sure to use your time wisely and not waste it, even if you have a high kill probability. Once their ultimate is prepared, some players have a tendency to roam the map in search of kills, yet in most cases they are not accruing the necessary farm and experience. Prior to traveling throughout the area, concentrate on your lane and forest and get some of your essential items! Avoid wasting time; if you've attempted to kill an enemy hero on the map but were unsuccessful, farm the nearby neutrals or creeps to make up for the time you lost trying to get the kill. Be careful to do it safely!

Late game (25:00-75:00)

As the game goes on and you acquire more goods, you'll become your foes' top threat, and they'll do everything in their power to eliminate you before you can cause any harm. Make sure to play wisely and avoid providing easy kills for your opponents. When the enemy are gathered, stay close to your group and resist the urge to charge in first. Since you are best at eliminating opponents quickly, pay special attention to the opposition team's most valuable hero in later battles. In some situations, it's preferable to rapidly eliminate the opponent team's hero dealing the most damage, but there are other occasions when a simple support might be the most effective.