Phantom Lancer

Most people think that Phantom Lancer is only good at low level pubs (Herald-Archon Ranks) but they are wrong. Phantom Lancer is extremely strong at all levels be it Herald or Immortal Rank. He stomps hard against some lineups and he counters almost all meta heroes really well.

I usually play Phantom Lancer at 5k mmr and have 58-%60 winrate,i know people who mainly plays Phantom Lancer at 6k mmr with 60-65% winrate so i wanted to make a Phantom Lancer guide for people to help them and who are interested in this hero.

Phantom Lancer

Phantom Lancer is a strong hero and can be played easily. The Phantom Lancer is relatively mobile, and can disappear briefly from the battlefield to confuse or avoid his enemies. You need to decide what role you are going to play before game and make a gameplan from there

What makes Phantom Lancer powerful is his versatility and fear factor that he puts on the enemy team. I will list his good sides & bad sides here

Good sides

Great 1 vs 1 potential because of Doppelganger and Juxtapose.
Great chasing ability in Phantom Rush.
A built-in ability, Doppelganger, to dispel debuffs.
Doppelganger can also be used to disjoint targeted spells if timed correctly.
Huge power spike after buying a Diffusal Blade.
A pretty decent attack animation, making last hitting pretty easy.

Bad sides

No longer the ratty split pusher he used to be because of the nerf to his illusions' duration.
Illusions' damage has also been nerfed to only 16% of the real Phantom Lancer's damage.
Not a very reliable escape in Doppelganger.
More than half of his damage can be mitigated by a Crimson Guard.
Quite squishy initially due to the low strength gain of 1.7.
Countered by AOE spells, especially AOE stuns, easily.
Low base movement speed of 290.
Has early-game mana problems.

Choose your role and skill build

                                                      Generic/Carry Phantom Lancer



Phantom Lancer is traditionally played as the farming core in the safelane, harassing opponents with Spirit Lance, but mostly focusing on getting last hits and keeping his lane static close to his tier 1 tower. His great base damage, base agility and attack animation makes it easy to control the lane, denying at will without missing any last hits.

Every Phantom Lancer build should probably include an early Ring of Aquila (Active). A carry Phantom Lancer can skip Magic Stick entirely versus a weak offlane, keep his Boots of Speed and immediately rush a Diffusal Blade.

                                                       Mid/Ganker Phantom Lancer



Thanks to his great base damage and attack animation, Phantom Lancer can easily get last hits in the middle lane. Get an early level of Phantom Rush to make it even easier to finish off that ranged creep, or to start harassing the enemy mid-laner.

Start off with a Stout Shield to give you some good damage block which will allow you to trade hits better versus the opponent, and rush a Bottle to keep your mana up while you spam Spirit Lance. A mid Phantom Lancer may want a couple of items to help tank him up before getting his Diffusal Blade, such as an upgraded Power Treads or Vladmir's Offering (don't forget to disassemble your Ring of Aquila for the Ring of Basilius).

                                               Split-pusher/Survivor Phantom Lancer



This style could be identical to the generic Phantom Lancer, but it assumes you're against heavy AoE line-ups against which you're sure to die from for most of the game. Many people rightfully pick Zeus or Bristleback to counter Phantom Lancer. In these cases, upgrade your Magic Stick to a full Magic Wand.

For survival, you can rush a Vanguard, and since the goal is to split-push and not fight, quickly upgrade your boots into Boots of Travel. Diffusal Blade could come as late as a fifth or sixth item, after Magic Wand, Ring of Aquila (Active), Boots of Travel, Vanguard, and another tanky item.

Some Gameplay Tips

1. If you activate Doppelganger at just the right moment, you can completely avoid most harmful targeted spells. Essentially activating it right before a spell lands will cancel out that spell. Keeping this in mind can get you out of so many bad situations.

2. Placing the hotkey for selecting your hero and selecting other units under your control right by each other (mine are space bar and X) makes it a lot easier to switch control between you and your illusions, allowing you to micro much better and make your illusions even harder to distinguish from yourself.

3. If you can without wasting mana, always send an illusion up to an area first while leaving yourself in fog or otherwise hidden, especially near towers, wards and creep waves. It's always safer to scout an area first, and you might bait enemies into attacking an illusion.

4. By doing this often, your enemies might actually end up playing even worse by being incredibly conservative, always paranoid they might waste more mana and cooldowns on illusions.

5. When activating Doppelganger to escape a bad situation, make sure to send your hero and illusion in separate directions. If you simply activate Doppelwalk and run away, your illusion tends to follow your path for the first couple seconds after spawning, which would basically ruin your escape if someone simply targets the illusion with any sort of aoe.

6. Be mindful of towers, sentry wards and enemies with dust of appearance or true sight. Nothing is worse than trying to push or go for a risky gank only to discover your escape plan won't work because you aren't actually invisible.

7. When you see an enemy approaching you while you are in the middle of a huge pile of illusions, select just one of them and command it to run away. Out of instinct a lot of people will quickly go for what seems like a kill. You can activate Doppelganger and, depending on the situation, either go for a gank or make a smooth escape.

Misconceptions

These 4 are know to be the biggest counters of Phantom Lancer but they are not actually Phantom Lancer can easily kill them all (doppleganger, manta) are both op on Phantom Lancer and helps him to easily evade any situation be it the Echo Slam, Storm Hammer, Berserkers call, Sight of fist. You just need to be faster than your enemies and have good game sense and you counter them all than they countering you the Phantom Lancer.

The End

Happy Gaming!

[Venlesh]

Ayyyy, no problem. You know ya boy is always looking out for you.

[Jag$in]

@[NC] Venlesh updated it. Thanks boy :)

[Venlesh]

I'm a 2013 boy, my boy. Might wanna update that a little.

[Jag$in]

@[NC] Venlesh im playing since 2012 so wrote dopplewalk at some places xD

[Venlesh]

"Dopplewalk" What is this, 2014?

[vgNz]

u are right those heroes u mention aint pl good counter some times pl can fight them any time pl is more good then sven on late game for ember jsut needs hex or mb orchid so he does escape es inst good late when pl gets a lot of hp axe just suffers for mana aswell on mid game vs pl

[gago]

asdasdasdasdsad
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[DR.Noob]

ainda serei pro !!!

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[Jag$in]

@Ruby yes they can counter pl but pl counters them aswell against spectre you can just rush early silveredge and with medusa you just have to evade her ulti after that you can easily kill her its a team game though 5 vs 5 so anyways you solo cant do everything and win the game :)