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Phantom Lancer: Why no PL in TI?

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Forum » General Discussion » Phantom Lancer: Why no PL in TI? 19 posts - page 1 of 2
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by JO3MWHIT3 » July 25, 2014 11:00am | Report
Is Phantom Lancer forgotten?

Hi I'm Joe,
I'm an avid Phantom Lancer player, and I have noticed how little or not even at all it is being played in Dota 2 tournaments, is it just me, or is it not being played as much as it should be. I haven't seen it a lot in my matches either. Maybe just me. I'd love to hear your opinions,

Please leave your views on this hero.
JOEMWHITE :>
-PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CHECK OUT MY GUIDES
-PHANTOM LANCER
-MUCH LANCE, LITTLE PHANTOM
-IM JOE IF YOU DIDNT ALREADY KNOW
-IM A POET AND I DIDNT KNOW IT! :O

JO3MWHIT3


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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Dimonychan » July 25, 2014 11:36am | Report
Please don't write thing in cyan, it really hurts my eyes.

As of your question, generally any hardcarries without a bit of early-game presence are AFAIK not picked in the current meta, as it is focused on earlygame and Phantom Lancer is utterly useless early and early-mid game. He really need items, and even with Diffusal Blade he isn't powerful enough, and he is quite squishy and vulnerable to AOE and cleaves. While many carries can cover their weaknesses with Black King Bar or some other defensive item, Phantom Lancer can't really protect his illusions other than Pipe of Insight and even then his illusions are squishy and heroes like Kunkka won't notice them at all while original PL can be quite tracked and killed without much difficulty.

But if he isn't countered he absolutely rekz, true, especially after few Butterflys(freakin' scrublords, didn't let me get 4th one though I had muny for it).

Dimonychan

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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Timminatorr » July 25, 2014 11:52am | Report
Dimonychan wrote:

Please don't write thing in cyan, it really hurts my eyes.

As of your question, generally any hardcarries without a bit of early-game presence are AFAIK not picked in the current meta, as it is focused on earlygame and Phantom Lancer is utterly useless early and early-mid game. He really need items, and even with Diffusal Blade he isn't powerful enough, and he is quite squishy and vulnerable to AOE and cleaves. While many carries can cover their weaknesses with Black King Bar or some other defensive item, Phantom Lancer can't really protect his illusions other than Pipe of Insight and even then his illusions are squishy and heroes like Kunkka won't notice them at all while original PL can be quite tracked and killed without much difficulty.

But if he isn't countered he absolutely rekz, true, especially after few Butterflys(freakin' scrublords, didn't let me get 4th one though I had muny for it).

this, also becouse naga is better.
minus armor+disable+awesome ult. against just spells that help your illusions.

Timminatorr
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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Seagull » July 25, 2014 12:07pm | Report
Timminatorr wrote:


this, also becouse naga is better.
minus armor+disable+awesome ult. against just spells that help your illusions.

Phantom Lancer is IMO too reliant on his illusions. He has no other strengths than that.

If a fight starts when he has no illusions he is just your regular right clicker with a not so big nuke before getting of enough hits to start his illusion army, whereas Naga can just pop her ult, get everyone in position and create her illusions to begin the fight in her favour (or just TP away if she is caught off guard). PL takes too much time to get online and there are better rats in the game.

Also I think it's a quite big weakness that he actually has to be near to get his ratting going.

Seagull

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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by JO3MWHIT3 » July 25, 2014 12:45pm | Report
Thanks for the replys guys
JOEMWHITE :>
-PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CHECK OUT MY GUIDES
-PHANTOM LANCER
-MUCH LANCE, LITTLE PHANTOM
-IM JOE IF YOU DIDNT ALREADY KNOW
-IM A POET AND I DIDNT KNOW IT! :O

JO3MWHIT3


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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by JO3MWHIT3 » July 25, 2014 12:50pm | Report
Seagull wrote:


Phantom Lancer is IMO too reliant on his illusions. He has no other strengths than that.

If a fight starts when he has no illusions he is just your regular right clicker with a not so big nuke before getting of enough hits to start his illusion army, whereas Naga can just pop her ult, get everyone in position and create her illusions to begin the fight in her favour (or just TP away if she is caught off guard). PL takes too much time to get online and there are better rats in the game.

Also I think it's a quite big weakness that he actually has to be near to get his ratting going.


To counter your view I would add how fast PL can create his illusion army with high agility, which he can get easily by mid game
JOEMWHITE :>
-PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CHECK OUT MY GUIDES
-PHANTOM LANCER
-MUCH LANCE, LITTLE PHANTOM
-IM JOE IF YOU DIDNT ALREADY KNOW
-IM A POET AND I DIDNT KNOW IT! :O

JO3MWHIT3


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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Zerosaviour » July 25, 2014 2:08pm | Report
JO3MWHIT3 wrote:



To counter your view I would add how fast PL can create his illusion army with high agility, which he can get easily by mid game



The other team will either make it a point to kill him early or do early death ball pushes before he comes online. Thus making it a 5 v 4.

Zerosaviour


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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by JO3MWHIT3 » July 25, 2014 2:11pm | Report
However, what about his escaping ability?
JOEMWHITE :>
-PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CHECK OUT MY GUIDES
-PHANTOM LANCER
-MUCH LANCE, LITTLE PHANTOM
-IM JOE IF YOU DIDNT ALREADY KNOW
-IM A POET AND I DIDNT KNOW IT! :O

JO3MWHIT3


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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by ashwinthegrim » July 25, 2014 2:15pm | Report
JO3MWHIT3 wrote:

However, what about his escaping ability?


Escaping doesn't help when the other team is 5 man attacking your rax..

Like others have mentioned, PL was popular in a phase where there was a focus on carries getting farm, and the mid-late game teamfights were the norm.

In the current metagame, where early teamfights and pushes are more popular, PL simply doesn't have enough time. He is an extremely weak hero early game, and needs at least two items ( Diffusal Blade + Manta Style/ Heart of Tarrasque) to come online.

ashwinthegrim


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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Seagull » July 25, 2014 2:16pm | Report
His escape is pretty lackluster to be honest, when ganking or fighting pop dust ASAP and doppelwalk becomes more harmful than helpful for him as it reveals the real PL.

Seagull

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