Hero
Phantom Assassin
    21 + 2.2
23 + 3.4
15 + 1.4
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| Blinks onto her foes with critical strikes. | |
| Of all the assassins raised by the Sisters of the Veil, only one is known by name: Mortred. Through meditation and prophecy, the order identifies the next target to die at her hands. Attacks miss against the Phantom Assassin as she Blurs into her surroundings, traversing undetected across the land to catch her victims unawares. She opens the encounter with a Stifling Dagger, thrown from the shadows, then leaps upon the crippled target to deliver a flurry of Phantom Strikes. Without warning, any one of her attacks could be the Coup de Grâce, leaving behind only the blood-splattered ground as testament to her efficiency. | |
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| Roles: | Carry Escape |
| Complexity: | ★☆☆ |
Contents
Bio[]
Mortred, the Phantom Assassin▶️ "I'm here to blur the line between life and death."
Lore:
Through a process of divination, children are selected for upbringing by the Sisters of the Veil, an order that considers assassination a sacred part of the natural order. The Veiled Sisters identify targets through meditation and oracular utterances. They accept no contracts, and never seem to pursue targets for political or mercenary reasons. Their killings bear no relation to any recognizable agenda, and can seem to be completely random: A figure of great power is no more likely to be eliminated than a peasant or a well digger. Whatever pattern the killings may contain, it is known only to them. They treat their victims as sacrifices, and death at their hand is considered an honor. Raised with no identity except that of their order, any Phantom Assassin can take the place of any other; their number is not known. Perhaps there are many, perhaps there are few. Nothing is known of what lies under the Phantom Veil. Except that this one, from time to time, when none are near enough to hear, is known to stir her veils with the forbidden whisper of her own name: Mortred.
Aliases:
PA, Mortred
Voice:
Abilities[]
Throws a dagger slowing the enemy unit's movement speed, dealing 65+25%/40%/55%/70% of Phantom Assassin's attack damage as physical damage and applying attack effects from items and abilities.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0.47
Cast Range: 550/750/950/1150
Number of Targets: 1 (
3)
3)Instant Attack Damage Bonus: 65
Instant Attack Damage: 25%/40%/55%/70% ( 45%/60%/75%/90%)
45%/60%/75%/90%)Move Speed Slow: 50%
Slow Duration: 2.2/2.8/3.4/4
Secondary Target Range Buffer: 300
6 ( 4)
30
Spell Immunity Notes:
Can be cast on spell immune enemies.
The instant attack pierces spell immunity, the slow debuff does not.
Spell Block / Reflection Notes:
Blocked upon impact.
Blocked upon impact as primary or secondary target.
Modifiers [?]
modifier_projectile_vision
Undispellable
modifier_phantom_assassin_stiflingdagger_caster
Undispellable
modifier_phantom_assassin_stiflingdagger
The first skill learned by the Sisters of the Veil often signals an incoming hit.
Notes:
- The Stifling Dagger travels at a speed of 1200.
- Upon projectile hit, the dagger causes Phantom Assassin to perform an instant attack on the target.
- These instant attacks can proc any attack modifiers and on-hit effects normally (except Tidebringer). They have True Strike, but completely ignore disarms.
- Cleave effects are based on the target's position, damaging a trapezoid area the opposite direction where the dagger came from.
- Although the dagger may make it look like a ranged attack, the attack still counts as a melee attack when its coming from Phantom Assassin.
- This causes all abilities (and items) that use different values for melee and ranged heroes (e.g. Skull Basher), to use their melee effects and values, not ranged.
- If the caster is a ranged hero, the instant attacks do not use attack projectiles and are instant, but still count as ranged attacks.
- Stifling Dagger's instant attack first reduces Phantom Assassin's total attack damage, and then the bonus damage is added as attack damage bonus on top of that after the total main damage is calculated.
- The total attack damage includes all already existing attack damage changes, including conditional bonus sources (e.g. Bash and Quell).
- This can be defined as
ΣAtk × 25%/40%/55%/70% ( 45%/60%/75%/90%) + 65 - Therefore, attack damage based attack modifiers (e.g. critical strike, lifesteal, cleave) include the 65 instant attack damage bonus as well.
- Since the damage comes from a regular attack, it counts as attack damage and not as spell damage.
- This means it is affected by damage block, unaffected by spell damage amplification and cannot spell lifesteal.
- The projectile first applies the attack, then its own debuff.
- The projectile has 450 range flying vision. This vision lingers for 3.34 seconds at the target's location upon successfully hitting it.
- Cannot be cast on Courier.
- With the triple strike talent, Stifling Dagger launches 2 additional projectiles towards random visible valid targets within the range.
- The search range is based on the cast range and the buffer range, resulting in a search range of 850/1050/1250/1450.
- Cannot target the primary target with the additional projectiles, so when no other targets are nearby, nothing happens.
- The secondary targets are chosen randomly within the area. There are no priorities. The projectiles cannot choose both the same target.
- Since the additional projectiles use the ability's cast range, cast range increasing effects increase their range as well.
Phantom Strike
Ability
Target Unit
Target Unit
Affects
Self
Self
Teleports to a unit, friendly or enemy, and grants bonus attack speed while attacking if it's an enemy unit.
Cast Animation: 0.25+0.8
Cast Range: 1000 ( 1250)
1250)Attack Speed Bonus: 75/100/125/150
Duration: 2 ( 3)
3) 11/ 35/Mortred's silken veil is the last thing her unfortunate target sees.
Notes:
- Phantom Strike can be cast on allied units, without gaining the attack speed bonus.
- Moves Phantom Assassin next to the target, towards the position she was upon cast.
- Does not disjoint projectiles upon teleporting.
- Phantom Assassin is ordered to attack the target if it is an enemy, automatically canceling the cast backswing.
- Cannot be cast on Couriers.
Cast Animation: 0.4+0.57 ( 0+0)
0+0)
Passive Evasion: 20%/30%/40%/50% ( 55%/65%/75%/85%)
55%/65%/75%/85%)Vanish Dispel Radius: 600
Vanish Fade Time: 0
Vanish Dispel Delay: 0.5 ( 0.75)
0.75)Vanish Duration: 25
60/ 10) 50
Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:
Causes Blur to have instant cast time and applies a dispel. Any time Phantom Assassin gets a hero kill, her abilities are refreshed. Reduces cooldown and increases Vanish Buffer.
Modifiers [?]
modifier_phantom_assassin_blur
Undispellable
modifier_phantom_assassin_blur_active
Death
Ability Draft Notes:
Blur adds 1 charge to charge-based abilities upon resetting cooldowns.
Meditation allows a Veiled Sister to carefully anticipate her opponents in combat.
Notes:
- Interrupts Phantom Assassin's channeling abilities on cast.
- Turns Phantom Assassin invisible, with True Sight immunity. Only Chronosphere can reveal her.
- Attacking or casting abilities does not break the invisibility.
- The effect is dispelled when getting within 600 range of an enemy hero (including clones, excluding illusions) or an enemy building.
- The effect is not dispelled instantly, but 0.5 ( 0.75) seconds after getting within range.
- Getting out of range during that delay does not prevent it from dispelling. The delay does not serve as a grace period.
- The effect is also dispelled when attacking Roshan, not instantly, but after the dispel delay.
- The effect is not dispelled instantly, but 0.5 (
- The passive evasion and the active component are independent from each other.
- Blur's evasion stacks diminishingly with other sources of evasion and uses pseudo-random distribution.
- On average, Blur increases Phantom Assassin's survivability against physical attacks by 25%/43%/67%/100% ( 122%/186%/300%/567%).
- With Aghanim's Scepter, Blur has an instant cast time and applies a basic dispel on Phantom Assassin upon cast.
- Resets the cooldowns of all her basic abilities regardless how the kill was made. Ultimate abilities are not reset.
- The cooldown resetting is bound to Blur as well. If not learnt, kills do not reset her cooldowns.
Cast Animation: 0.15+0.9
Radius: 550
Max Health as Damage: 16%
Debuff Duration: 3
15 50
Modifiers [?]
modifier_phantom_assassin_fan_of_knives_thinker
Undispellable
modifier_phantom_assassin_fan_of_knives
Ability Draft Notes:
Requires drafting Coup de Grace to be unlocked.
Notes:
- Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.
- Applies Break on hit enemies.
- Despite the visual effect, Fan of Knives releases a single pulse that expands outwards, hitting all enemies as it reaches them.
- The released daggers only have a visual purpose, the pulse affects all enemies it catches, regardless of the number of visible daggers.
- The pulse spreads at a speed of 1000 and takes 0.55 seconds to reach maximum range.
- The area of effect is centered around the cast location, it does not move along with the caster.
- The pulse is not a ring. It affects every enemy within its expanding area of effect.
- This means it is not possible to avoid the effect by blinking over the daggers/pulse towards the caster.
- Fan of Knives first applies the debuff, then the damage.
Ability
Passive
Passive
Affects
Enemies
Enemies
Phantom Assassin refines her combat abilities, gaining a chance of delivering a devastating critical strike to enemy units. Stifling Dagger shares the same critical strike chance.
Proc Chance: 15% ( 22%)
22%)Critical Damage: 200%/325%/450%
Grants the Fan of Knives ability.
Illusion Notes:
Critical strike values shown are before illusion outgoing damage and armor reduction.
Modifiers [?]
modifier_phantom_assassin_coupdegrace
Undispellable
A divine strike, Mortred honors her opponent by choosing them for death.
Notes:
- Increases attack damage by an average of 15%/33.75%/52.5% ( 22%/49.5%/77%).
- A critical strike proc is decided upon attack begin, not upon landing an attack.
- When a critical strike procs, Phantom Assassin uses a specific crit attack animation, and particle effects appear on her weapon.
- The proc chances of multiple critical strike sources stack.
- If two sources of critical strike proc at the same time, the higher crit multiplier has priority.
- Coup de Grace uses pseudo-random distribution.
Talents[]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| Triple Strike Stifling Dagger | 25 | +7% Coup de Grace chance |
| +35% Blur Evasion | 20 | +20% Stifling Dagger Damage |
| +250 Phantom Strike Cast Range | 15 | 15% Lifesteal |
| -2s Stifling Dagger Cooldown | 10 | +1s Phantom Strike Duration |
Notes:
- The lifesteal talent stacks additively with other sources of lifesteal.
Recent Changes[]
Main Article: Phantom Assassin/Changelogs
Version
Description
- Increased Phantom Strike mana cost from 35/40/45/50 to 35/45/55/65.
- Talents:
- Level 15 right talent: 12% lifesteal increased to 15%.
- Level 20 right talent changed: -3 Armor Corruption ➜ +20% Stifling Dagger instant attack damage.
- Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
- Reduced Fan of Knives cooldown from 20 to 15.
- Increased base health regeneration from 0.25 to 0.75.
- Increased Blur passive evasion from 15%/25%/35%/45% to 20%/30%/40%/50%.
Recommended Items[]
Starting items:
- Tango provides health regeneration to help Phantom Assassin stay in lane and continue farming despite enemy harassment.
- Healing Salve restores health as well.
- Iron Branches give cost-effective increase to Phantom Assassin's attributes, and can builds into Magic Wand.
Early game:
- Quelling Blade increases Phantom Assassin's farming ability in the early game. Being able to last-hit more easily and kill neutral camps faster allows her to farm the items she needs to start becoming effective in a match.
- Boots of Speed are important to obtain early on. Phantom Assassin must be able to easily move in and out of range to last-hit, as well as chase or escape as needed without having to rely as much on Phantom Strike.
- Magic Wand can greatly improve Phantom Assassin's survivability and effectiveness in the early game. It provides a small amount of attributes and tremendous charge storage for burst health and mana regen, both of which are crucial on an agility hero with low strength and intelligence.
Mid game:
- Power Treads boost Phantom Assassin's combat effectiveness and survivability greatly with added agility and attack speed. She can attribute switch to strength for more health, or intelligence for using spells, particularly for the repeated casting of Stifling Dagger.
- Battle Fury allows Phantom Assassin to secure her ability to farm into the late game. The damage and cleave allow her to easily clear creeps, whether it is for farming or pushing/counter-pushing, while the health and mana regen ensure that she can always maintain her health and mana pools while farming.
- Desolator allows Phantom Assassin to apply the armor debuff from long range with Stifling Dagger, softening up multiple targets for her team and for her own attacks. The damage boost also greatly improves the killing power of Coup de Grace, particularly when combined with the armor reduction on enemies that Phantom Assassin jumps on.
- Black King Bar gives Phantom Assassin much-needed spell immunity, allowing her to ignore enemy disables and nukes as she directly engages enemies in fights. The extra health helps increase survivability, while the damage improves attack power.
Late game:
- Abyssal Blade can be crucial for giving Phantom Assassin the lockdown and damage she needs to quickly eliminate key opponents in fights. The bash gives her a chance to stun an enemy after jumping on them with Phantom Strike, while the active allows her to instantly hard-disable any foe through spell immunity, long enough to bring them down with Coup de Grace. It also increases her survivability giving bonus health and health regeneration and blocking 40 damage from incoming attacks.
- Satanic improves Phantom Assassin's survivability in team fights, allowing her to quickly refill health with Coup de Grace crits.
- Aghanim's Scepter is often overlooked since it doesn't give much attributes or damage, the dispel on the other hand, is absolutely needed for Phantom Assassin to survive when Black King Bar is on cooldown. The ability to reset skill cooldown with every kill is valuable if you need to eliminate several target in quick succession.
Situational items:
- Mask of Madness gives high attack speed and a source of lifesteal. Phantom Assassin's survivability is based on evasion instead of armor and her damage comes from a passive ability, partially offsetting the debuff, but not being able to use Stifling Dagger or Phantom Strike can be costly when trying to chase or flee, making this item a dangerous purchase.
- Butterfly greatly boosts Phantom Assassin's damage output, as well as providing additional evasion. While stacking it alongside Blur runs the risk of having both nullified by the enemy building Monkey King Bar, purchasing a Butterfly can punish certain lineups by forcing their heroes to purchase Monkey King Bar over a different item that synergizes better with their strengths.
- Assault Cuirass greatly increases Phantom Assassin's damage output through more attack speed as well as the enemy armor reduction aura. The improved armor also greatly increases her survivability against physical damage, and the aura helps give teammates more armor and attack speed as well, which can be very useful depending on team composition.
- Nullifier gives damage boost and the active ability that dispels the enemy and mutes them (disabling several defensive items) as well as greatly slowing them for a long duration (synergies perfectly with Phantom Strike and Stifling Dagger combo).
- Monkey King Bar counters enemy evasion and boosts Phantom Assassin's damage output with increased attack damage.
- Sange and Yasha is a situationally powerful mid-game item that is easy to farm and allows Phantom Assassin to begin participating in team fights earlier. The agility and strength-based bonuses give her more damage output and health, while the movement speed makes her far more mobile, allowing her to chase and escape far more easily.
- Eye of Skadi can boost Phantom Assassin's combat effectiveness. It grants attributes across the board, giving Phantom Assassin more health, mana, and base damage. The Cold Attack passive allows Phantom Assassin to slow enemies with her attacks and Stifling Dagger, reducing their movement speed and preventing them from easily escaping her.
Gameplay[]
Audio[]
History[]
Equipment[]
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Trivia[]
- Mortred's name is derived from Mordred, a character in the Arthurian legend who betrayed and fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camalann.
- "Coup de grâce" is a French term (pronounced "koo duh gras") which literally means "blow of mercy", and refers to the killing blow of a wounded person or animal, friendly or not, to end their suffering. The phrase originates from medieval times, specifically Knights (see above - Knights of the Round Table). When a combatant was gravely injured (in battle, duels, jousting, etc...) but not killed; a coup de grâce was often, although not always, performed. Traditionally a rondel dagger was used as this could make a small puncture in breastplate and was long enough to reach the heart.
- Mortred's level-up line ▶️ "I'm an immaterial girl!" is probably a reference to the song Material Girl performed by Madonna.
- In DotA: Allstars, Blur caused Mortred to become transparent to the enemy, scaling with levels and making her nearly invisible and untargetable to inexperienced players, thus her title "Phantom Assassin". This aspect of the ability is replicated to a limited degree with Blur's active component in Dota 2.
- Mortred's idle animation is a typical fencing stance, with perpendicular feet, one arm extended forth and the other one folded and up in the air. However, her weapon is wielded not with the extended arm, but with the arm at rest. There are treatises, at least for the Italian school of fencing, which do show an extended arm but this is exclusively used when wielding a rapier or other single-handed thrusting swords.
- Mortred is featured in the Dota 2 comic, The Contract.
- Phantom Assassin's ability Fan of Knives is based on the Fan of Knives ability from the Warden from Warcraft 3, sharing its name and working in a similar way.
- In DotA, Phantom Assassin also uses the Warden's hero model.
Gallery[]
Splash artwork
Early concept artwork
Early alpha model based on the early concept art
Leaked concept artwork
Early textures of the current model, featuring different color scheme
Ability icon progress
Hero icon progress
Phantom Assassin illustration
