Need help with PA!!!

The helm/aquila/BKB/abyssal into satanic is without question the PA build with the best overall balance, and it's good in every game. The reason why it's good is very simple : PA needs to stack damage items while (almost) completely neglecting attack speed. She works like Ursa in most ways : 1 blink, 1 kill, that's how you snowball. Phantom Strike gives 4 "free" hits and the best way to improve this is to make each of these hits do maximum damage.

I still think there's a place for Hand of Midas on PA though. Her strong laning stage with dagger allows her to farm one extremely early in almost every lane matchup, she can even go midas before boots (just get a basilius to spam dagger), and midas in extremely efficient on heroes who farm very slowly like PA. It pays off in 17 minutes (since it helps kill big jungle creeps instantly, something you can't do without it). And midas is really a "get passive farm while you fight" item, exactly what PA wants to do. Also, PA needs a fast level 14, and midas gives XP.

Maelstrom...it's not bad, but it's not good either. It doesn't build into anything useful since Mjollnir is attack speed not damage, PA doesn't scale with attack speed.

Manta/skadi : meh. PA is a Satanic hero. Skadi is kind of wasted because PA doesn't need a slow, she already has one. Besides PA needs to build damage items not primary stat.
Manta, while it does give crits to illusions, it's still suboptimal compared to raw damage items, PA isn't a stat hero, she builds damage items not stat items.
If you go manta skadi you'll hit like an enfeebled Crystal Maiden. Kind of a problem on a snowball carry XD
She's just not Morphling where you can rush manta skadi and then morph everything into AGI.

Sange and Yasha...please no, that's literally the worst build ever. SnY is an item for heroes who have troubles chasing their targets, heroes who lack disables, that's why you see it built on Juggernaut, Shadow Fiend, Sven etc. PA can literally *permaslow* her targets with Stifling Dagger and she has a blink, and she builds basher...so she's impossible to kite in the first place. No seriously, SnY PA is completely garbage, even Radiance is less bad on that hero, that's saying something :)
If you want to spend 4K gold on a HP item just finish your Satanic.

Armor reduction build with medallion/deso : not bad, but you can pick Clinkz instead who has exactly the same role as PA, but has a 1000 times better synergy with it (since he has high early damage output while PA doesn't).

I slightly disagree with hamster. You can go vlads and deso, if not for helm.
Going helm is important if you stack. But PA is not a ricing carry. Sure you can go get an alpha wolf and get 30% dmg increase, but that's on base damage and PA doesn't stack attribute items.
Instead of Aquila, you start with a ring of basilus and build into vlads afterwards. Same lifesteal, 15% dmg increase( partly counters the alpha wolf argument), imba push considering how well blur works now. Supports wont be going vlads this early into the game and PA needs the game finished before someone even has a Demon Edge.


Also, speaking on skadi, you need it over and above the satanic purchase once the MKBs come out. Your BKB dries up quickly so skadi provides much needed tankage. So if the game is not finished as per the timing you expected, go get one.And did I tell you the slow works with your dagger?

PA doesn't buy Helm of the Dominator to stack, PA buys helm because it gives 20 free damage on a hero that needs every point of damage she can get, and satanic is pretty much core on the hero as a 2nd or 3rd item. That's a good enough argument on its own. Well, and the wolf, kind of, but even that's secondary. Just because you can stack with helm doesn't mean that's the only reason to buy it. It's also a damage item that builds into satanic.

Same thing as Troll Warlord really. Troll doesn't stack camps either, he buys helm for the 20 damage. That's more damage than a Broadsword and it also gives armor and lifsteal.

Even on Troll there's a strong argument for going vlads over helm/aquila since he gets satanic really late. but PA needs her satanic ASAP since it's the only survivability item that makes sense on her.

Sure skadi slow works on dagger now, but it's still kind of wasted on the hero, since dagger slows enough already to get all the Phantom Strike hits in. PA doesn't need more slows, she needs damage items, and satanic keeps her alive far better than skadi ever will.

BTW you can replace the Skull Basher with a casual Demon Edge since 46 damage is really cost-efficient, again PA needs all the raw damage she can get.

umm..... you buy BKB. You rush BKB. with BKB, skull basher you have 14 strength. And that's good enough considering you now have spell immunity and 50% evasion that's not gonna countered until some enemy is a natural MKB carrier that's rushing it just for you.


I did not contest the superiority of satanic on PA. Mind you, after a BKB and basher(abyssal if you avalanched), you should always go satanic. I was talking about the games that went far ahead of what they should have.

Considering you went desolator and vlads, you will need a re-itemization and rationalization of your inventory to fit a Helm in. So in those cases, I advise you finish skadi and then build satanic. The game has gone late, hell why not start farming and split pushing? Vlads does that beautifully with the creep synergy, and the blur working wonders from a rat stand point of view. Of course go satanic, you get god darn 2 lives, and that too on a right clicker that can fill her Health bar up by just one crit! But does that mean in alternative builds you go inflexible and just go the standard loadout?

Contrary to polpular belief, PA needs lockdown. Noneof her skills allow her to stick on a bkb target and skadi really helpos with kiteability. Just try it, late game it simply works.

I have a build in mind which might work great around 15-30 mins part of the game, and can scale fairly well till the 45 min mark.

Build order:(15-20 mins)

basilius->phase boots->equilla(upgrade basilius)->mask of madness->basher

Luxury items for this build ->(post 30 mins items)

MKB/AC/BKB/Heart

Jmm, I don´t really like Mask of Madness on PA, since she is really squishy and the active of Mask of Madness makes you receive a lot more of damage, specially magical nukes which is your main weakness. I tried the Medallion of Courage in a game and I have to say that it's one of my favorites items now for PA, and with the mana regen it provides (which is not a lot, but it's better than nothing) you can replace the Ring of Aquila. I went for a build like this:
Threads > Medallion of Courage > Helm of the Dominator > Black King Bar > Skull Basher. The Skull Basher was the last item I bougth since there was a Shadow Fiend in my team that was absolutly destroying the enemy team and we won really easy. The Shadow Fiend had a Butterfly and I had the Blur, however anyone in the enemy team was able to get a Monkey King Bar, instead one of them bought a Silver Edge and I have to say that it really hurts when they hit you with the break, you have to almost instantly blink into one of your companions to escape because it completly negates your evasion. So, what do you think, it's better Silver Edge than Monkey King Bar against PA?
PS: Thanks to everyone for your support!

Just go Medallion of Courage, Vladmir's Offering, and finally Desolator. Fairly cheap components and can pretty much one shot any support or squishy carry with a crit. Helps her snowball hard, gives good aman regen for frequent daggers, makes crits due more sicne less armor, etc. , etc. Very good.

Maelstrom is kinda sub-par compared to this build. PA relies pretty heavy on getting in crits with the AS from Phantom Strike. Regular attack speed is fairly useless. Jst makiing sure you can get as much damage in with that 2-3 seconds of hits is really what youre going for.

I also disagree with the fact that Pa cant carry lategame. I have seen and played many games with PA in which I just wrecked late game WITHOUT a massive start. BF, BKB, and Satanic you cant really stop easily. If youre any good at farmign youll have all three by 30-40 mark.

Luxury: Basher, Satanic, Skadi (in place of Deso, if youre getting kited)

Helm of the Dominator is basically my favorite item in the game, but I think it's **** on Phantom Assassin.

It's because you're basically going to be buying a Black King Bar anyway, so you want to have items that help you fight, yet still stay ahead in farm. HotD is only good at one of these things.

I used to be a naysayer, but now I like Orb of Ventom Phase Boots into Mask of Madness, THEN into Battle Fury, or if you really don't want to, Skull Basher. Black King Bar will, of course be necessary, even right after MoM. Run around in your jungle killing creeps with one eye on the map. Then, when someone is trying to split push your safe lane tower, you can probably kill them since you do so much damage and have slows and movement speed. In uncoordinated pubs, this actually works. Surprisingly, it's what the pros are building too. If you do it right, and don't die, you'll come out way ahead in farm because you move so fast and deal so much damage.


This build, however, is terrible if they have spells of any sort that peirce BKB, like Primal Roar, [{Walrus Punch]], Winter's Curse, Viper Strike, Ensnare. or the dreaded Black Hole, Reverse Polarity, Fiend's Grip, Sonic Wave, or Laguna Blade. Against those lineups, get lots of stats.

Personally, right now i like the vlads-deso build into bkb and big basher. It allows PA to easily snowball through the midgame and end as fast as possible. However, this build is terribly squishy, and apart from bkb, you have no defensive capability at all. You might want to consider a SnY after bkb for some hp and bonus ms is always welcome on any hero.