Phatom Lancer Ultimate Guide (Perfect Carry Guide)

The Radiance is a good item on Phantom Lancer, but it just makes you play him in another way. The Drums + Diffusal build is more suited for a carry that can easily become a feared Hero after getting some mid game advantage, while the Radiance build is a dedicated split pushing build that actually doesn't add much damage (the burn damage is abysmal, the extra raw damage isn't dealt by the illusions) but makes you farm and split push much more efficiently.

Now, I prefer the Drums + Diffusal build because it gives much more early game presence (which is really required in this meta) and works better in teamfights. But still, the Radiance build isn't bad at all, it can work wonders in a well-constructed team! You need, though, 20 minutes to farm, excellent warding to avoid getting picked off and also have to play 4vs5 until you start split pushing, while the Drum of Endurance build makes you able to join (and maybe win) early fights or even escape from ganks.

As said before, this is - in my opinion - the best up-to-date guide since it teaches players to be active in the mid game instead of going ricing mode which, by itself, isn't a bad idea but doesn't make the most out of this Hero. Also, there are other Heroes like Naga Siren that can fill the Radiance carrier role better, so I wouldn't pick a Phantom Lancer just for using Radiance if I had the opportunity to choose another Hero. Radiance is still nice on PL, I just think it isn't the best item because it limits his damage output on the illusions and his mid game presence, plus the Radiance aura doesn't add much because illusions can already push really quickly by themselves.

The Tranquil Boots and the starting items are really bad (still unsure about the micro thingy, I'd rather buy a casual Ring of Health), but the item progression is perfect. I also don't understand why he doesn't max out Doppelwalk by level 15, but it isn't that big of a deal.

I agree with you. No radiance = auto gg. I usually get early items with in 8 minutes and run into jungle and come back at ~20 minutes with radiance. in most cases the game just ends after i get radiance.

Radiance can deal a decent amount of damage to enemy heroes before a team fight really started. Sometimes they just give up a team fight because squish heroes have only half HP left after 2-3 W from pl.

They other use of radiance is farming. it's ridiculously fast.

The last use is split pushing. After radiance I usually get diffusal. Then I build boot of travel (or after buying a gem if necessary). Then enemies will spend most of their time defending lanes while I keep farming.

13 sec is very short when comparing with the time you TP back to heal and run back to lane or jungle. And by the way, the proper way of using tranquil boot is to take it off before attacking and get it back afterwards. I think it will soon become 'default' for all players just like switching power thread. You may want to watch recent replays of iceiceice using centaur and his micro with tranquil boot.

Well what about my last post do you disagree with?

i m soory i can not agree with u! none the less it worked out for me so far and i will keep on using it! thx for the opinion so that i can learn a little bit more in dota2 gaming! i will aprriciated

I'm gonna provide some criticism here, and most of it has already been provided in the comments but without much explanation. I'm gonna let you know why this guide is not going to get very many views, and why it will get a bad rating, but before I do I want to thank you for taking your time to try to provide some content for the community.

Getting right to the point of why this won't get much attention; there are twenty other guides for this hero, who has been released in the Dota2 client for quite awhile now. To be any sort of relevance on a site of information you need to bring up to date and tested content. From reading the guide its clear you haven't played much of Phantom Lancer in comparison to the other guide creators here, and I derive this mostly from your last chapter. The grammar, spelling, and unnecessary language also do a great deal to hurt a guide. Most readers want to see intelligent gameplay that is provided through curse free and properly displayed writing abilities. In addition to that, they don't want to see excuses as to why the guide is in the state it is in, they are going to rate it according to what you have provided as-is, so learning BBC coding and providing images will greatly increase your chance of a good rating.

As far as your itemization goes, you have a very misguided idea of why certain items are purchased on the said hero. Tranquil boots were popularly picked up because they provided a reliable regeneration allowing you to stay in lane and free farm during the early game to save up for a Sacred Relic, in order to build a Radiance. Since its change Tranquil boots will break when you apply damage making it very unreliable regen, and you don't need the armor since you naturally have the most armor in the game because of your agility growth. Now Radiance is an item that can still have a great effect on the game, it even got buffed recently with 5 extra bonus damage. Radiance is a tool picked up on Phantom Lancer to increase his farm and push rate, its an item that is dictated you finish before 20 minutes or don't get it at all. His illusions all have an AoE with the applied Radiance burn, allowing him to farm the jungle by sending just his illusions to a camp, or sending his illusions down a lane to push it extremely fast as well as do constant damage in a fight in an AoE to all enemies without them being able to pinpoint the original's position. It also makes him good at turtling in the base by simply Doppelwalking and and sending the summoned illusion out to farm a wave without him being caught out. In regards to the Quelling Blade, it has been said already that the Lancer has a large base attack damage, his stat gain in agility is incredible and you should have no problem last hitting. If you opt for a Stout Shield you'll take less harass allowing you a bigger health pool to last hit with and build it into a Poorman's Shield, that will provide more defense and some stats for your illusions. You can buy a full Poorman's out of the side shop aswell, which makes it an item that is an easy build up and will require you to use the courier less (allowing your team the opportunity to use it). Abyssal Blade is also an awful luxury item, your illusions only benefit base damage from your agility, Abyssal Blade is only bonus damage (the reason Radiance works is strictly for the burn effect). On top of that in Dota the way applied bash stuns (on-hit stuns) work with illusions is that if your illusion creates a bash effect before you do it creates a fake stun to hide what the real hero is, the fake stun creates the visual spiral above but won't actually stun them, if another bash is applied while a fake stun is on an enemy it will prolong the fake stuns effect. Meaning once your activated stun wears off, if an illusion bashes the enemy instead of your original Lancer you'll effectively make your Abyssal Blade worthless.

Now I'm moving on to the skillbuild, which is fairly risky and will be unrewarding in most situations. The go-to build for Phantom Lancer is to max your Lance and Doppelwalk, completely ignoring everything else until both are finished leveling. The reason for this is that proccing Juxtapose is very unreliable as it only happens 12% of the time and you have no attack speed early game, and if you were to proc it your illusion is pushing the lane, and you should not be pushing the lane but keeping an equilibrium in order to get a bunch of farm to have a lot of gold for items in the mid game where you'll need to be active to help your team. You don't level your ultimate early because you won't have alot of illusions to proc their own Juxtapose. You'll need those early levels in Doppelwalk because Phantom Lancer is exceptionally gankable in lane and it has a big manacost and cooldown, which means with one point you'll only be able to escape every 30 seconds and it will cost a big amount of your manapool doing so, which limits how much you can cast your Spirit Lance early game which is your primary damage, and is one of the best ones in the game because it provides a slow and an illusion to whack at them or confuse them.

If you have any questions go ahead and ask and I'll provide you with an answer promptly.

I have to agree with Tim here, the problem is, if it's so easy for them to contest against your high Base Damage (not to mention the godly +4 Damage per level), is the problem really that you don't have enough damage?

If an Offlaner is able to contest your Farm, you should have 1 or 2 good Supports that can either set up Kills, or Zone the Offlaner out completely. If you don't have that, can you really afford to play such a Farm intensive Hero as PL?

I don't know why everyone making Tranquil Boots on Phantom Lancer maybe not everyone. This goes for Axe and Centaur Warrunner whom still Tranquil Boots are made.

Mainly because your enemies can deny their creeps. With Quelling Blade, you get an additional of 36% of damage against creeps. So, you would have more chance of last-hitting as you might kill the creep in one hit when the other enemies need 2 hits.

You will never be able to regen your HP since you need to stay away from fights (meaning you don't have to get hit or attack) for 13 whole seconds, which means you won't last hit creeps for that amount of time: getting no farm is generally worse than getting extra regen, that's why you might want to get Power Treads instead. Starting with just one Tango is also very risky, and you can get the Quelling Blade from the side shop if you can't last hit well.

I dont really get why people get quelling blade on heroes who already have high damage like PL or void.
Just get a stout shield or/and extra regen. Dont just get 1 tango or salve in a contested lane.

I think Tranquil Boots are no longer viable after 6.79.