Phantom Lancer/Guide

Generic/Carry Phantom Lancer
Phantom Lancer is traditionally played as the farming core in the safelane, harassing opponents with his, 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 builds should probably get an early. A carry Phantom Lancer can skip a entirely versus a weak offlane, keep his  and immediately rush a.

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

Start off with a to give you some good damage block which will allow you to trade hits better versus the opponent, and rush a  to keep your mana up while you spam.

A mid Phantom Lancer may want a couple of items to help tank him up before getting his Diffusal Blade, upgraded and perhaps a full  (don't forget to disassemble your  for the ).

Split-pushing/Needs-to-live Phantom Lancer
This style could be identical to the generic PL, 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 or  to counter PL, upgrade your stick to a full  in those cases.

If you want to contest the 00:00 rune, a starting point in can help you dodge a predictable spell (which is also true for every other style).

For survival, you should probably rush a and since you want to split-push and not fight, quickly upgrade your boots into. Your diffusal blade could come as late as a fifth or sixth item, after wand, aquila, BoTs, vanguard + another tank item.

If you still can't engage fights, consider skipping points in Doppelganger and/or Phantom Rush and get instead.

General

 * You are farming close to your tower. There's a ward nearby and you can see the opponent. Or maybe there isn't but you can't see any opponent and you know they're going to try to push this tower. Dodge that, dodge that , you know they're coming for you.
 * On a more serious note, if these initiators have not farmed their s yet and you see them walking towards you in the middle of a fight, it is very possible to dodge their ultimates meant to counter you. Though the is instantaneous, its cast time is very long and you can reliably dodge it every time you have vision of him and  is off cooldown.


 * PL's generic nuke. The illusion spawned from the lance has the same property as every other illusion. It will burn the enemy's mana once you have your and will spawn further illusions with.
 * Therefore don't hesitate to throw one on that squishy support in the back line rather than on the enemy carry you're currently focusing. Once you're farmed enough, it could force the support to back off by itself, or waste his precious AOE disable on the illusion army that gathered up around him.
 * Similarly, if you're too afraid to jump in the middle of a fight, try to at least spam it, and maybe it will eventually spawn an army of illusions by itself that could wither down the enemy's mana among others.
 * It can be easily disjointed.
 * If your illusion is not auto-attacking its target after the initial damage, you turned on the wrong option. Do not have the "Illusions → Never auto-attack" option turned on when playing PL. But, while trying to juke with, you don't want "Illusions → Always auto-attack" option either as the opponent will immediately spot which is the real hero. Find the compromise.


 * Doppelganger applies a basic dispel on cast. As its cost is also very low, use it freely in lane to get rid of that pesky or.
 * Doppelganger has a very good 0.1 second cast time.
 * It's the perfect tool to dodge a spell that relied on the set-up of an, provided they didn't time their follow-up disable to perfection. In the best case scenario, it can even allow you to immediately turn a gank around with your spawned illusions.
 * Unless you're very confident with its cast range, click right next to you when trying to dodge a spell as you wouldn't want to walk further away before using it.
 * Sometimes (mostly versus ) the only set-up the enemy wants is for you to have spawned a army. If you have an inkling of a feeling someone is about to jump you because you're surrounded by yourselves, don't hesitate to pre-emptively use Doppelganger and you might be able to dodge a poorly-timed.
 * Similarly, pay close attention to the that's bouncing around you, no reason to get hit. While you're at it, maybe  will try to finish you or an ally off with . Though it's a lot more guessing, you can also dodge it.
 * Probably the most reliable way to dodge 's after magic immunity.
 * The enemy has no way to know which is the real PL after doppelganger, and one of the spawned illusions actually take 100% damage, ie as much as you. In desperate situations, you can try to make them go after an illusion by keeping yourself immobile and running way with the illusion.
 * It will cut trees in a rather large 200 AOE for you and each illusion, allowing you to create short-cuts in the jungle and easily find an opponent that's hiding in the trees.
 * You can also use it to move through cliffs and other blocking tools like.
 * 8 seconds is not long, but it's long enough to scout Roshan, bait an enemy's initiation, or detonate a stack of.


 * Once you start rushing to a target, you won't stop until you either reach the target, issue any other order or get disabled, or lose vision of the target; and you can't be slowed. This makes it a good chase tool against heroes that hope to run away with, , or even.
 * Once you have 3 points in it, it has a longer cast range than, making it a better initiation tool in some scenarios.
 * It's also the reason why it's interesting to max out rather early when playing Mid/Ganking PL.
 * There are situations where you can use it as an escape tool, if by some chance there is an enemy target close enough for you to rush which is far from the rest of the enemy team.


 * Like every passive, it's disabled by . But spawning no extra illusions makes you suddenly very vulnerable to single target spells like or.

Items
There is not a single scenario where PL should not build a at some point, though not necessarily as his first major item

As every other illusion-based hero, is usually a core item, and  is a fair alternative if they have too much AOE and nothing good to purge off. Never get both though, there are enough items in DotA that there's always a better alternative than stacking s.

As every other illusion-based hero, Phantom Lancer will build items that provide stats rather than raw damage or attack speed, most notably, and. And as every other illusion-based hero, don't hesitate to build a if the enemy has many sources of evasion, and a  if you're still lacking damage after your stat items, as the crit works on your illusions.

Don't hesitate too long to build a if the enemy's disables keep landing on you.

is not the worst pick-up on PL, but he will benefit much less from it than other illusion-based heroes because his illusions are very short lived.

If you need initiation, is not unheard of on PL, and  also provides decent stats.

If you've already picked up a, don't forget you can eventually upgrade it into an. however is not usually recommended on PL, unless you think it can make the difference when pushing high ground in the early game for an early set of barracks.