Phantom Fighter - A Guide To Mortred

Stifling Dagger

"How many daggers am I holding up?"

This skill is taken first and maxed first nearly every time. The reason for this is the increase and damage and decrease in mana cost. It becomes completely spammable and makes it possible to get last hits in the toughest of lanes. It's your best friend in the laning phase, and is also useful later in the game when chasing down potential kills.

In the laning phase, its primary use will be for lasthitting. Simply target a creep with low health and fire away. It will take some practice to get the timing right as the dagger travels fairly slowly through the air, but it deals more damage than your auto attack throughout the early game, so it's very helpful. If you can get a lasthit without it, don't waste the mana. But if you're up against a trilane or maybe two ranged harrassers, this can sometimes be your only hope for getting farm.

In engagements with enemies, this is a pretty simple long range slow. It deals physical damage and shares your passive crit chance, but can't target spell immune targets. It's best used in conjunction with Phantom Strike to keep enemies from escaping.

Phantom Strike

"Don't blink, or you'll miss me."

Phantom Strike is your initiation and escape skill. It has a huge range so you can cast your dagger on an enemy and immediately blink in to pummel them before they gain move speed back. The best part about this skill is that you can use it on enemies and allies alike. If you get in a sticky situation, target a nearby teammate to immediately blink to safety. When targeting enemies you also gain a few stacks of bonus attack speed. This helps you secure a critical hit once you jump in, and it's what allows you to be really ballsy when playing this hero. Like Dagger, you can't target spell immune heroes with this.

Only one point is taken early on, but you max this second. The reason you take a point in lane is just for the escape if you need it, or if you ever manage to get a kill setup with your support or a passing ganker.

Blur

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

Another pretty straightforward skill which helps PA fight earlier than most carries. It passively gives evasion which can only be countered by a Monkey King Bar, meaning that most other carries won't even be able to touch you if you engage them. It's tempting as a new player to take a bunch of points in this, but really one level is all you need until your first skills are maxed. The first point gives the biggest boost of evasion and adds the minimap invisibility, so it's all you need for awhile.

Speaking of which, the minimap invisibility component of this ability is wonderful. Unless an enemy hero is nearby, you don't show up as an icon on enemies' minimaps, meaning that they have to physically move the camera to where you are to see you. This gives you a lot of safety when farming or split pushing, but it's usually a good idea to always assume you're visible to them. It just takes a flick of the camera to bust your cover.

Coup de Grace

"The grace note."

Now that you've read up on the assassin's kit for tracking down and killing everyone you see, this is the ability that ties it all together. The best crit in the game combined with your attack speed buff from Phantom Strike mean you will nearly always proc at least one massive crit per fight, but it's totally possible that you'll get several (depending how often you pray to RNGesus).

There isn't much to say about this skill. It's just a huge damage steroid and the reason behind those four digit crits you've probably seen in youtube videos.

The starting items are pretty self explanatory I think, so I won't really spend time on them. One note though: if you can pool tangoes, meaning getting your support to give you a couple, it can help you get a little boost to your Poor Man's Shield or boots.

vs

It's kind of up in the air which boots are best. Phase Boots were in the Valve in game guide as her core boots for ages, but now Power Treads are listed. It's really up to you. The top PA player in the world uses Phase Boots and the second best one uses Treads. I used them both and can't tell much difference. Since you already have attack speed from Phantom Strike, I'd just rather opt for more damage and the ability to move through creepwaves and teammates during chases.




Usually it's going to be Helm of the Dominator. If you know for certain you will need a different Unique Attack Modifier, get Vladmir's Offering. Mask of Madness gives insane amounts of attack and move speed. If you aren't facing a lot of burst magic damage, this is actually a decent option. The biggest downside is that it doesn't build into a Satanic. I would advise going for the helm in probably 85% of your games though. The choice is yours.


This is a really good item for the price. Move speed, attack speed, and damage. It builds into a Manta Style which is always good on agility carries. A lot of people overlook this item on her, but it makes chasing and fighting a lot easier. More attack speed means more bash and crit procs.


This is a very important item on Phantom Assassin. She has no natural stuns, so when you catch an enemy out alone and go in for the kill, you need something to keep them in place. With this they can't TP away or channel anything else for that matter, and it makes them sit still so you can continue your beating. Builds into an Abyssal Blade which is a must lategame.


This is the one thing stopping that Lion or Lina from completely making your PA pick worthless. If you can't attack due to stuns, hexes, other disables, or just plain getting nuked to death, you aren't useful to your team at all. I almost always get this item after Helm/Yasha/Basher, but against certain heroes like Invoker and Shadow Shaman who have a lot of CC, you may need to rush it.


If any of your enemies have evasion or plan on getting it, this is a must. If you can't land hits you can't land crits or bashes, meaning no kills. It also gives a nice mini-bash chance and a ton of damage, so it's often good to buy after your core just so you know you will beat then enemy team's Butterfly and Heaven's Halberd purchases.


Stacking crits is beneficial, and goldwise this is the best DPS item in the game other than a rapier I guess. Pretty much, this thing makes you hit harder.


This builds off of your Helm from earlier and gives better lifesteal, plus a ton of raw hp so you can stay in fights longer. It literally comes with a GOD MODE button that you can switch on to get 175% lifesteal per hit for a few seconds. As if your manfights weren't one-sided enough.


The best lategame item for PA in my opinion. It builds onto your basher and gives a bunch of damage, but most importantly you have a spell immunity piercing stun so nobody can get away from you.


This builds out of your Yasha and gives you some illusions to play with. You can use this to purge debuffs from yourself, dodge spells, and push towers. It's just pretty good all around. There's not a huge rush to get this item as there are much more important ones, but it's good to grab on your way to being six-slotted.


More armor for you and your team, less armor for your enemies. I don't like this item a ton, but it's good in anti-armor strats. I think it's best left to a strength hero like Tiny or Dragon Knight since you have quite a bit more natural armor than they do. Attack speed is nice, as always.


Buy this if you need a boost to pushing. However it DOES NOT STACK with Helm of the Dominator, Satanic, or Mask of Madness, meaning if you want lifesteal with it you have to get Vladmir's Offering. I don't recommend this, but it's okay in anti-armor I guess.


Like Desolator, this doesn't stack with lifesteal other than Vlad's. But it's still a great item on the hero. It gives a spell immunity piercing slow and a ton of stats, so if you find yourself with gold to blow, this isn't a bad idea.


Mana Burn is nice, but the main reason you buy this is for the active. Anyone who can apply nasty debuffs to you like silences or slows will be annoyed when you purge them away, and enemy supports who buff their teammates will be pissed when you purge them away as well! Omniknight is the biggest hero I can think of who you might need to buy this against.


A casual Orb can do a lot. You already chase really well so this isn't super useful on you, but it makes it that much harder to get away from PA.


The best attack speed item in the game along with Mask of Madness. You'll be proccing crits and bashes left and right with this thing, and also throwing out lighting chains everywhere. The lightning shield also works well on PA, who finds herself in the middle of fights often. It's a good post-core, last slot option.


This item probably looks incredibly strange on a hero whose longest cooldown is 6 seconds. However, this item has been seeing some high level play, and for good reason. When the game goes beyond 45 minutes, Phantom Assassin can start having a rough time. Lots of damage is flying around, and she's vulnerable due to her BKB usually being down to 5 seconds here. The idea is to blink onto someone, BKB, use Abyssal stun, and get a kill. Then when the BKB wears off you refresh and do it again. It is certainly not for every game, but sometimes the situation just calls for. Only for the extreme late game when nothing else works.

Best Friends

This guy is the best friend I can think of for PA. He has a BKB available for you from lvl 1, and on a much shorter cooldown. He can make you immune from all damage for several seconds, which is more than enough time to get a kill and uneven a teamfight.


She's a good support in general, but her skills really help PA out a lot. Her mana aura will make spamming daggers way less punishing, and she can root people to the ground for you to destroy.


This support helps in boosting the physical damage output of your team, which is the only kind of damage you have. Plus she has one of the best reliable stuns in the game for setting up easy kills.


More help in the physical damage department, plus some extra healing and armor for you. Shallow Grave also gives you a few more seconds to rack up kills.


This combo certainly isn't the famous Io/ Tiny, but it's still good. Reduced damage and bonus attack speed makes you really, really strong, and he can always keep you topped off with a bottle.


You can easily get two kills if the crits are favorable during one of his ults. Not to mention the heals he can give you between ganks.


Empower is great on PA. It gives more damage and a cleave, which is like a free Battlefury. He also has quite a bit of good CC to make killing bunched up enemies easier.

***Anyone who has good lockdown (stuns, slows, silences) is going to make a good partner for PA. She deals straight damage to people, all she needs is someone to make them hold still.***

Fearsome Foes

Before you get your BKB, these guys are a nightmare. Lina and Queen of Pain are always bad, because their ults go through BKB with scepter. Heavy nuke is your hardest counter, stay away from it.


Heavy crowd control is also really strong against you. Though you are a right-clicker, you still need your spells to get to your targets. Silences and mana burn really make this difficult.