Dota 2 Phantom Assassin Guide - How to Play & Own

Dota 2 Phantom Assassin Guide – How to Play & Own

This Dota 2 Phantom Assassin Guide is about to show you why she’s one of the most popular heroes in Dota 2.

This Phantom Assassin Dota 2 guide will reveal why this has always been one of the most popular heroes in the game. PA is one of the carries that can win games on her own, which is why she’s a solid pick in every PUB meta.

Phantom Assassin starts the game with 54-56 damage, 305 movement speed, and 4.8 armor. She is almost exclusively played as Position 1, but there are cases where the hero can go to the mid-lane, especially against the likes of Invoker. With that said, let’s go through her abilities and everything else you need to know.

Abilities

Dota 2 hero Phantom Assassin swings her blade and leaves a green, eerie streak in the air.

Dota 2 hero Phantom Assassin swings her blade and leaves a green, eerie streak in the air.

Regardless if you have the Dota 2 Phantom Assassin persona or no items, the hero has the same abilities:

  • Stifling Dagger – This ability has a 6s cooldown and deals 80 base damage + 70% of PA’s attack damage. Furthermore, it slows the target by 50% for up to 4s.
  • Phantom Strike –  This ability allows PA to blink to a friendly or enemy hero, and it gives the hero 25% lifesteal and 170 attack speed for 2s.
  • Blur – PA’s passive ability gives her 50% evasion, and she can make it invisible until an enemy hero is close to her.
  • Coup de Grace – This passive ultimate gives a 15% chance to deal 450% critical strike damage.

Players who’re fans of the Aghanim’s Shard get an ability called Fan of Knives, which deals

16% of the target’s maximum HP as pure damage. Interestingly, those who decide to get an Aghanim’s Scepter will be able to cast Blur right away, and the ability will apply a dispel. Furthermore, when Phantom Assassin Dota 2 gets a kill, all of her abilities will be refreshed

Talents

The Dota 2 Phantom Assassin Arcana is popular, but you need to know some information about the hero’s talents before getting it.

  • Level 10 – -2s Stifling Dagger Cooldown or +0.5s Phantom Strike Duration
  • Level 15 – +250 Phantom Strike Cast Range or +25% Blur Evasion
  • Level 20 – +60 Phantom Strike Attack Speed or +20% Stifling Dagger Damage
  • Level 25 –  Triple Strike Stifling Dagger or +7% Coup de Grace Chance

Dota 2 Phantom Assassin Guide – Tips

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It doesn’t matter what kind of Dota 2 Phantom Assassin skins you have because you will most likely be your team’s carry. Consequently, your job is to farm as much as possible and participate in fights when there’s an opportunity.

One thing that sets PA apart from many of its alternatives is the fact that the hero can harass her enemies a lot. Her Stifling Dagger can be incredibly annoying, especially once she hits level 6, meaning that you should try to spam it all the time. You can even try to blink on a target if it’s alone, and you know that he has no way of killing you because you can always get lucky and land a critical strike.

Speaking of lucks, this is something that Phantom Assassin needs in order to be successful. The hero relies on her critical strike, which is the thing that makes her incredibly powerful. She has one of the highest physical damage outputs in the game and can counter most other carries.

An interesting thing to remember is that you can use your Blink on friendly targets and escape from danger. Furthermore, you should use your Blur when farming a specific part of the map because your enemies won’t be able to see you on the minimap. 

Dota 2 Phantom Assassin – Pros and Cons

Even though the Phantom Assassin Dota 2 Arcana is one of the best in the industry, people choose the hero they want to play with based on different criteria. So, here are some of the pros and cons you need to know about the hero.

Pros:

  • Excellent physical damage output
  • The hero can one-shot squishies
  • She can be difficult to kill without a Monkey King Bar
  • The hero farms relatively fast with a Battlefury

Cons:

  • She is fairly fragile
  • Very vulnerable to magical damage, disarms and disables, which is why she needs a BKB

Starting Items

Phantom Assassin blinks onto enemy heroes to win the Dead Reckoning mini-game

Phantom Assassin blinks onto enemy heroes to win the Dead Reckoning mini-game

When discussing the Dota 2 Phantom Assassin build, the first thing to mention is the starting items. Depending on the lane, the hero can focus on more HP regen or stats. Usually, players get Tangoes and get stats because they need it to farm and survive.

Early Game

The items for the early game we want to include in this Dota 2 Phantom Assassin Guide include things like Power Treads or Phase Boots, Magic Wand, and Wraith Band. 

Mid Game

The mid-game is very interesting because the Phantom Assassin Dota 2 build can go in two directions. Some people like rushing a Battle Fury to farm faster, whereas others go for a Desolator and take more fights. Regardless of the option, the hero also needs a Black King Bar and a Skull Basher.

Late game

The late game items for Phantom Assassin can include almost all options available in Dota 2. This includes options like Abyssal Blade, Satanic, Assault Cuirass, Money King Bar, Nullifier, Bloodthorn, Eye of Skadi, and more.

Dota 2 Phantom Assassin counter

Phantom Assassin

Phantom Assassin

In terms of the counters, there are a few big names we have to include in this Dota 2 Phantom Assassin guide:

  • Axe – This is hands down the best hero against PA when he gets Blade Mail. Axe usually kills PA in a single Blink and Call combo because of her insane damage output.
  • Lina – Despite being extremely fragile, Lina has some of the highest damage output in the game. She can do tons of magical damage and has a stun that can disable her.
  • Razor – Razor’s Static Link can “drain” PA’s damage, meaning she won’t be able to do much.
  • Slark – Slark has the ability to steal stats from Phantom Assassin. Furthermore, he is one of the heroes that always buys a Silver Edge, which is incredibly strong against this hero because it removes Blur.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter which Dota 2 Phantom Assassins set you’re using, the hero is definitely one of the best carries in the game. She may not be that popular in pro games, but she is excellent in PUBs.

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