Dota 2: Guide to confronting Phantom Assassin in patch 7.20

Phantom Assassin is no longer as powerful as it was when Valve released patch 7.20. But despite being nerfed continuously in the next three patches, she is still the third most picked hero in pubs.

More specifically, Phantom Assassin is the most picked hero in the Ancient and Divine/Immortal tiers. However, this hero’s win rate is only around 50-51%, similar to his win rate in 7.18 and 7.19. At that time, PA was still popular (pick rate about 24%), but not as popular as it is now (36%).

PA’s popularity does not mean that the hero is strong in the meta. Pudge is always present in pubs, no matter how strong or weak the hero is.

What makes PA win the hearts of the majority of players lies in its ability to see off the opponent on the board in an instant. She can kill enemies on the map while undetected while Blur is active. And in the mid to late game, PA’s Triple Dagger talent plus the amount of damage increasing items, you can completely terrify the opposing team.

Crystal-Effected HEROs

Phantom Assassin’s strength lies in its ability to burst damage while buffing Phantom Strike. That’s why Blur in this patch is an extremely annoying skill, because PA can unleash a series of attacks without fear of being punished. Heroes are successful against PAs with defensive spells and/or stuns, or exploit PA’s weakness with burst magic damage.

For PA control, two effective picks in the meta are Beastmaster and Brewmaster. These two heroes are not only strong offlaners who can win farm with PA, but both of these heroes possess skill sets that can be used until the end of the game. With Beastmaster, this hero can push, gain vision, and stun through BKB at critical moments to prevent PA from catching odd.

Brewmaster’s Drunken Brawler gives the hero a defensive tool to survive burst damage from PA, enough to unleash his ultimate. Brew has the ability to control teamfights, while on his ultimate, making him an option against meta heroes like Terrorblade and Huskar. Brewmaster can flexibly play in the support position if needed. Keen Gaming has consistently picked Brew and Beast to take on IG’s Phantom Assassin first pick.

At the H Cup of the Chinese tournament, Invictus Gaming continuously countered PA with the classic combo Gyrocopter and Io. This duo combines magic damage and survivability to withstand the burst damage that PA deals. In the same way of magic damage, heroes like Morphling, Lina, Timbersaw, and Pugna, have the advantage against PA.

UP ITEM

Silver Edge is an option worth considering, but in practice it is often ineffective against Phantom Assassin. Four seconds is not enough time, and it doesn’t work against BKB when PA activates. Silver Edge can be up for carry with core item Shadow Blade, but MKB is a better attack option. However, even if the team’s carry goes to MKB or Silver Edge, it won’t make a big difference compared to the items needed to fight PA.

In the match Pavaga vs. Vega Squadron at Winter Madness, Glimmer, Ghost Scepter, Crimson Guard and Vladmir’s reduce PA effectiveness.

PA benefits from armor reworked in patch 7.20, but this patch also buffs armor and defense bonuses. NoPangolier, the team that kept spamming Phantom Assassin during the Chongqing Major qualifiers, were used to heroes who countered PA. Against Vega Squadron in Winter Madness, the team used Nature’s Prophet to mid, go straight to Vlads and Crimson Guard to finish the game in 25 minutes.

Support heroes can land on Glimmer Cape and Ghost Scepter, activating them reflexively when PA jumps in, and PA rarely has room to carry detection. But if those items are too far away, building more Bracers can also be useful to prolong the survival time of supports.

The list of items that can go against PA is long, but they all have one thing in common: determine how dangerous PA is and exploit the hero’s weakness. But with the win rate and current meta state, you probably won’t need to invest too much resources to counter this hero.

According to Dotabuff