From one: an army.
I thought I'd kick off my return with an analysis of the last hero patch's hero: Phantom Lancer!
A hero of many, he sows confusion by spawning multiple illusions of himself up to as many as 10 with the assistance of Manta Style. Spirit Lance (Q), is a seemingly simple nuke. Dealing damage, slowing and spawning an illusion to attack the afflicted target. Doppelwalk (W), turns him invisible as well as instantly spawning an illusion in his place hiding the fact that he as disappeared. Juxtapose (E) is his signature skill. granting a chance to summon an illusion on every strike. His ultimate, Phantom edge (R), grants him additional magic resistance above the base as well as increasing both the rate Juxtapose generates illusions and allowing those illusions to generate more of themselves.
Phantom Lancer is a late pusher carry of sorts and potentially, due to his multiplicative nature, one of the hardest carries in the game.
Before we venture further into the nature of the beast I will attest I am not especially fond of Lancer. Back in the days of dota one when dust didn't exist and wards were for tryhards, a decent Phantom Lancer was an exceptionally irritating enemy. An almost unbeatable carry, times however have since changed and early pressure can cripple this hero, denying him the farm he desperately needs to fulfil his role.
Statistics
Strength: 18 + 1.7
Agility: 23 + 2.8
Intelligence: 21 + 2.0
Hit Points: 492 / 1632
Mana: 273 / 1157
Damage: 45 - 67 / 132 - 154
Armor: 3.22 / 15.4
Movement Speed: 290
Statistics are given as at level 1 and 25 respectively.
Phantom Lancers stats are those befitting a carry. High agi gain to fuel higher attack speed for more late game damage and higher armor, allowing him to go toe to toe with other carries. His base int and gain is slightly higher than most carries, allowing him to cast his two spells with impunity late game. His strength and gain is slightly low for that of a melee carry, giving him a somewhat smaller, albeit only just, health pool relative to that of Juggernaut or Faceless Void but more than Antimage. His movement speed is marginally below average though, no Razor by any means but not as slow as Pudge or Techies. Base and late game armor is superb, allowing him to mitigate much of most physical assaults.
The skills
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| Spirit Lance |
Targeting Type: Enemy Unit
Throws a magical spirit from his lance at a target, damaging it and slowing it for 3 seconds. An illusion is created attacking the target.
The Illusion receives 300% damage and deals 25% of normal damage.
(Playdota seems to believe the illusion takes 400%)
Range: 750
Damage: 100/150/200/250
Movement Speed Slow: 10/20/30/40%
Slow Duration: 3 seconds
Illusion Duration: 2/4/6/8
Manacost: 125/130/135/140
Cooldown: 7 seconds
Additional Details:
Damage type: Magical
Additional illusions will mimic the real Phantom lancers animation / projectile
The projectile cannot be evaded, disjointed, via blink or windwalk
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| Doppelwalk |
Targeting Type: Self Cast
Renders the Lancer invisible for a period, leaving behind an illusion to confuse enemies.
The Illusion receives 300% damage and deals 25% of normal damage.
15% Bonus movement speed at all levels.
Duration: 8
Illusion Duration: 20 seconds
Manacost: 150/120/90/60
Cooldown: 30/25/20/15
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| Juxtapose |
Targeting Type: None
Grants the Phantom Lancer a 12% chance to create an illusion on every strike
Illusions last 20 seconds at all levels and take 350% damage and deal 25% of normal damage.
Illusion limit: 2/4/6/8
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| Phantom Edge |
Targeting Type: None
Grants the Phantom Lancer additional magical resistance as well as increasing the rate in which Juxtapose generates illusions. Allows his illusions to generate their own illusions.
Illusions last 20 seconds at all levels and take 350% damage and deal 25% of normal damage.
Magic resistance: 10/15/20%
Juxtapose bonus: 3/5/7%
Illusion chance: 2/4/6%
Analysis
Phantom Lancer's two active spells are extremely costly early game, that coupled with a low mana pool prevent him from spamming his spells until further in the game.
His Spirit Lance deals a reasonable amount of magic damage early, ranging from 75/112.5/150/187.5 damage including base magic resistance. Allowing him to snag early game kills for the extra gold and deal minor damage late game. The slow aspect gives him a small amount of crowd control, not much but enough to get close to attack or use Diffusal Blade. The fact that it cannot be dodged by more common means, windwalk and blink, is an additional boon for Brood hunters. Not to mention the illusion animation mimic adds to his elusiveness, further confusing enemies. However the manacost is prohibitive early game and not especially low late, a Phantom Lancer spamming this spell indiscriminately may soon find himself oom and consequently unable to escape focus fire. A great skill overall, that compliments him well.
Doppelwalk makes Phantom Lancer even more evasive, invisibility is a strong survival mechanic allowing him to juke his foes with ease. The additional illusion created allows you to mislead your enemies providing it doesn't die instantly and the movement speed helps create or close distance. However the manacost is very high earlygame, expect to see him save it for dire straights or dodging dangerous single target spells. Whilst it won't dodge AoE cc it will help evade most follow up, supplementing his survivability.
Juxtapose and Phantom Edge make the hero really, allowing him to swarm over and misdirect the enemy team. Without good communication, teams will require good AoE damage to deal with the illusions. This can be made even more difficult if the Lancer concerned has more tanky over damage. The additional magic resistance helps himself and his illusions survive longer against said AoE damage, specifically heroes such as Earthshaker. Interestingly hostile illusions created by Shadow Demon's disruption, for example, can spawn more illusions because of Phantom Edge.
Item Choices, Synergy and Counters
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| Diffusal Blade |
A strong item for many situations, allowing Phantom Lancers illusions to burn mana with every hit. Emptying even the largest of mana pools by sheer weight of numbers. The additional agility serves well boosting his damage and his attacks speed, allowing faster creation of his army and the purge active allows them to strike. Has 2 levels and 8 charges on purge per level.
+22/26 Agility
+6/10 Intelligence
20/36 Mana burnt per hit
Active: Purge, slowed to an initial 100ms then recovers movement speed over 4 seconds.
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| Manta Style |
Because at this point: why not? More illusions means even more illusions which means greater difficulty in locking down the elusive Lancer. Great stats for him too, more of everything. A superb midgame choice.
+26 Agility
+10 Strength
+10 Intelligence
+15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement Speed
Active: Mirror Image, Creates 2 illusion that deal 33% damage and receive 350%. Has a 0.1 seconds animation in which you are invulnerable, lasts 20 seconds
Manacost: 165
Cooldown: 35 seconds
Radiance gets a special mention. Due to Phantom Lancers en masse playstyle, it is very easy to damage the entire team with the aura. A warning however, an expensive item with no benefits except pure damage. Only to made very early, prior 20 minutes mark in favourable circumstances, to capitalise over a very good start.
+60 Damage
Aura: Burn Damage, deals 40 magical damage per second in a 650 radius.
The above items will usually form the core of most Phantom Lancer builds, they synergies well with him and build on his strengths.
Like most carries, Phantom Lancer benefits greatly from hard CC, crowd control, allowing him to engage the enemy heroes with impunity and without fear of counter attack.
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| Best friends forever! AoE Disablers |
Phantom Lancer works well with, well, anyone with a stun. An Aoe Stun? Even better. All the better to hit you with.
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| Good friends. Babysitters and slows |
In order to make sure he gets up to maximum rage indu
cing capacity, Phantom Lancer needs help in the laning phase and later on to ensure a kill. These heroes definitely fit the bill, allowing him to farm well during the early stages of the game.
Not so good friends...
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| Earthshaker. Phantom Lancer's worst enemy... |
Ragior, the Earthshaker, gets a special mention for being one of the easiest ways to deal with a Phantom Lancer.
Exceptionally strong ganks from the get-go and an ultimate guaranteed to gib Lancer at max illusions, and his team if not adequately spread out! He will try his best to ruin your game for you, consider a hood if he's giving you too much grief to help mitigate a portion of his astronomical burst. If you can get it, Radiance does make it far harder for him to initiate on you at the cost of greater lethality if he successfully does.
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| Twenty hacks from the axe of Axe! |
Usually more a nuisance than a counter but worth mentioning in case of the occasional talented Axe player. His Counter Helix is specifically designed with the swarm in mind, allowing him to cut through your masses of illusions and quickly discern which you is the real you and swiftly end your life thanks to your low hp pool.
General Counters
I tend to avoid using the expression counter but, for sake of ease, the following heroes will probably give you a hard time if you let them:
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| Heroes with strong lane presence |
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| AoE Damage Dealers |
Heroes with a large AoE presence will quickly clean out your troublesome illusions whilst dealing large amounts of damage to the real Lancer. Harbinger also deals bonus damage to your illusions as well as being able to smite you for huge amounts of damage with his ultimate, should he gain a level / gold advantage.
In closing
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| We have strength in numbers. What did you have? |
Look to the horizon for a video more specifically covering lane play and gameplay. In the mean time send me any questions you have to my email or social mediums.
~Gamesbass
Great guide, informative read.
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