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11 Votes

Phantom Lancer Russian Style!

December 27, 2012 by Crowfeather
Comments: 23    |    Views: 17412    |   


Russian Rush

DotA2 Hero: Phantom Lancer




Hero Skills

Spirit Lance

1 3 5 7

Doppelganger

8 10 13 14

Phantom Rush

2 4 9 12

Juxtapose

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18

Introduction to PL

So this is Phantom Lancer. He is one of the best heroes that Dota2 has to offer in late game pub-stomping. With your full build your attack time should be at roughly 0.42s with your illusions popping out more illusions at a chance of 7% and your hits chancing at 18% you will be able to amass an unstoppable army of self replenishing death.

Breakdown into numbers:
You are doing 2.5 Attacks per second, per unit. That is for your main an expected illusion every 2.2 seconds and from your illusions and expected illusion every 7 seconds. This is of course worst case scenario and statically spoken. It is more likely you will pop of illusions somewhere near your 3rd or 4th attack than on your 9th, and with every attack that doesn't create an illusion the chance of gaining an illusion on your next attack increases statistically speaking.

Expansion on game process

This build expects you to pick PL after everyone has picked on the condition they have not chosen spammable aoe heroes such as ES or Kunkka who will just decimate your army.
This is also a build where as a Monkey you will follow your stereotypical role and live in the Jungles feeding of the land.
If at any point you are not getting the farm you need and do not own the lane then simply swap with an ally to a different lane so that you can get much better farm there. You want to be on a lane that you are dominating now one where they are dominating you.
Also do not try and hardlane with this build, although the XP is nice you will get behind on the gold required for your midas. Alternatively it's fine if you have a jungler who comes for ganks whenever possible.
You should be aiming for a minimum of 600gpm with your farm in jungle.

Right so to begin with you take a Gloves of haste, this will provide you with some as and later can be upgraded to the a Hand of Midas that will not only provide you with an XP boost to set you on the level of a Solo lane hero, but the gold also helps and the 30AS cannot be ignored when you will be farming up an army of death.
You will of course use your Midas whenever possible and on level 6 creeps.
You should aim to have your Midas by around 5-6mins in the game. Worst case scenario is obtaining Midas by 9 mins.
Salve is there to offer some form of healing. It is preferred that you lane with a baby support and if you are in premade simply get your ally to buy the salve for you. Hastening that Midas.

You will then begin building your Vlads if you wish at this point you can also get some boots for the ms in the case that you want to push or gang, and you are not being left to free farm in the jungles. In this case you can quickly make the ever useful tranquil boots that can later be disassembled to regain the components for vlads and treads.
It can also be used for sustainability in the jungle. However do not understimate the usefulness of a nice Mask early before you get the other components. It depends how well you farm. Get mask at level 8. By this time if you have farmed well you will already have all the other components required.

Now quickly jungle until 15mins in where by you will have treads and will be working towards your Yasha. This will then be upgraded into a manta.
Also at this point try and get your allies to cause some sort of distraction such as a team fight at the other end of the map. Like a 4 man stack. However it is best if they do not engage but simply act as a bluff to cause the enemies to move away from your lane. This will allow you to go and take the first tower and even reach the 2nd. The farm from this is an great boost and it will improve map control while begin the split of enemy forces.
Then return back to jungling.

By 20 mins you will have your Manta and will be building a diffusion. As soon as you get your manta you will be able to push like crazy. Harass the enemy lanes as much as you can. Heck ever use your manta on the lane let the manta illusions create an army and then simply push that army at the enemy while your hero works on another lane. In this way you can push multi lanes while mass farming, and at the same time the rest of your team can push the 3rd lane. Slowly there towers will fall at this point they will have little option on what to do. They will be forced into a defensive situation. At this point you should keep up this pressure until you have your hot or butter. However if they do go into a defensive setup then do not over-push simply lane farm while keeping up the pressure.
Their other options is to aim you in which case you should harass them and use invis to try and escape while using your illusions to attempt to trick them while then quickly running to woods replenishing your health and army for yet another attack. The more time you waste the more your allies on the 3rd lane can push into the raxes. However if they aim your allies then feel free to rax the hell out of the enemy.



Usually everything does not go this rosy though. Just make sure you farm that Manta and Diffusal.
Manta first for the Manta illusion lane push. Also you should take into account enemy carries such as PA or Drow who may have butterfly then mkb comes in handy after your core of Manta and Diffusal.

If on the chance you are not farming well or are behind on levels then instead of putting investment into invis level up your stats. However a minimum of 1 level on invis is required. You may level it at any point before level 10.

However it is not required early in this build since your main aim is to be a Jungle Monkey.

Item Justification

4.2 agi gain per level ---- Juxtaposition % per level. That immense scaling as your hero goes from early to late game.

You will want to get PL into late game builds as early as possible. So we get a Midas a nice investment first that gives the AS required for a mass army, and provides us with a nice 190 gold every now and then with a very nice 150% XP boost on the creep that it is activated upon. So a level 6 creep killed with midas that you have aquired 5 mins in at level 5 will almost insta level you.

So midas early ! Salve for lane stay.

We then Get vlads that life steal allows you to farm without any qualms and is a nice alternative to things like Vanguards, while it allows your army to heal at any point in the game simply by going to your home, the jungle. It is a nice alternative to Aquila and costs only 1100 more. It also gives a melee damage aura boost that effects your illusions as well. This is very handy for the later game when your damage should be 200+. That is a 30+ dmg boost.

We then make a Manta, this gives you Tankiness +2 Illusions which are stronger than your average illusions so can be used to pretend as heroes when you do an illusion only push.
It also gives a nice MS boost and some mana.

Then you focus on your diffusal a core part to any PL since that is where your illusions will do the true damage. There is not must to justify with the dmg boost the decimation of enemy casters and the fact it stacks with your illusions and you can use it to dispel buffs that annoy you.

Finally there is HOT which makes you a pushing machine giving 60hps or so and a 1k+ boost to your hp and butter which gives massive amounts of dmg as and a nice evasion.


Assault Cuirass to support other carries and yet more AS, and the Armour helps I guess.
Daedalus that crit will destroy any tank very quickly. Not required much unless they have to many tanks blocking your way to the towers.
Monkey King bar- Use it to destroy any Evasion hero such as PA
TP boots for even more global presence
Ethereal Blade if they have ridiculously strong fed hard carries such as a morph with a maxed out set of items :L and they are stopping you from Doppelganger escapes through anti-invis items/spells
Sange Yasha for more HP and Speed if you are unable to farm late game extensions such as hot or butter this is a lovely bridge item.

Skill Build Justification

Spirit lance, impressive nuke and slow allowing for things such as first bloods and lane harass so that you can free farm while they go of to heal at base. Very useful you want it straight away.

Juxtapose keep those images coming and for every image you luck out with you can cause even more of a pain for your enemy in the lane by yet again harassing them. Also this is an investment for your Jungle phase after the first 10 mins.

Level your Doppelganger whenever you feel in danger. In this case it is left till last however sometimes it is nice to level it at level 3 or 4 in the case that you believe your enemy is so fed up that they resort to gangs. However gangs should be easy to avoid because of course you should have a capable warder on your team.

Also it means you can amass an army when you pull camps after your ally has stacked them. Camp pulling however is not a necessity but it does help add to your farm in the case that your Spirit land is not doing its job an they are staying on the lane and attempting to control it.

Stats can replace your level 2 3 4 of Doppelganger depending how well farmed you are. The worse your farm the more you want stats so you can catch up in the Jungle phase.

Level your Phantom Edge whenever possible. Images making images and that magic resist is an opportunity you can't just throw away.

Allies and Enemies Laning -

People you will know and love

KOTL = Infinite Spirit lances and 100% lane control. <3 + giving you time to bonus camp pull farm
Omniknight = 100 heals he will give to you <3
Wind Runner = Can harass the enemy help get you your first blood and provides an all round support letting you maintain that lane control



Enemies you will know and hate

Kunkka - His Cleave his torrent his boat. All aoe all painful
Earthshaker - If it wasn't for your ulti having a magic resist Earthshaker would just walk up to you while your on full rampage cast his Ultimate and insta kill you.
His Q W and R decimate your images, and with every cast you will get stunned and take even more damage from his E. He is your bane.
Tide - Enigma - Treant Any aoe stun hero will get on your nerves
Slark and Bounty hunter will be able to vision you, Owch
Sniper - Yeh just you try and doppelganger with your 200 hp when boom you get hit by a 655 dmg nuke. Reduced to roughly 520 damage if you have a level 3 ultimate.




Other pains in your backside

Since we are not expecting your enemies to act like complete nobrainers expect them to buy 1 of the 3 Anti Invis items that Dota2 has to offer.

Dust although it can be countered by your diffusal it is a pain.
Invis wards - Get your own invis wards to attempt to counter this or get a gem they will be a pain when you attempt to escape
Gem of truesight - It is a pain they will forever see you, in the case that they have this, aim the carrier and take it for yourself. Also while the carrier is around use your W offensively for another image to attack them with.


With your Spirit lance and Doppelganger and Manta you can produce 4 images without even attacking.


Counter farming -- The most painful measure they will use against you. Hopefully your allies will create enough problems by heavy pushing that they will not be able to counter farm you non stop. However in the case that this becomes a problem level your Doppelganger and move on elsewhere.

Also if your team is struggling after you have your Yasha please do go ahead and join the team fights. Sometimes a 5man push is required.

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