The Phantom Creeps In

The Grace Note

We see a lot of different heroes picked right now for a variety of strategies, where does PA fit into Dota right now?

Well PA doesn’t really have any special features. She’s naturally weak in the laning phase in other people’s perspectives, you can’t wave clear and you can’t really do the tower pushing, so there are many weaknesses with PA. However if you abuse the right timing window, PA can be really strong in the early and mid-game but you have to have a good idea of what you want to accomplish. You have to do rosh, have team fights in the right position and set everything up with a game plan that everybody is aware of on your team.

You said she was weaker in the laning phase. What allows her to go mid and compete with other mid heroes?

One thing is the dual lane: If you do a dual lane, she’s a lot stronger than if she’s solo because you can get the most out of your Q (Dagger) and hit them multiple times while they are slowed.

Speaking of Stifling Dagger, has the Dagger buff made a significant difference in how PA scales through the game?

I think it clearly did, rather than the pure damage I think it does a lot more with the physical attack. I saw a replay on Youtube when it was first buffed of where you get a full Daedalus and then every time you use Q - if you crit - it does like 1500 damage per dagger. I think it really got buffed immediately when I saw that.

Does the change to dagger ever influence what items you decide to buy on PA?

Yeah, because you really need to buff your Q as well when you play PA, so Phase Boots are considered a lot more than Power Treads, and Desolator has as well been picked more than it used to be.

PA’s Blink is also fairly different from heroes like AM or QoP because on PA you have to target a unit in order to blink. How does that change the way you have to position yourself with PA?

It is very different from the Blink skills from AM and heroes like that. What you really need to do is abusing the full hits with the dagger and blink attack speed. If you go in at the right time, you can hit three or four times before they can even react due to the bonus attack speed. So if you build for example Phase Boots and Desolator, a lot of supports can’t really do anything when they are getting jumped.

How does Blur’s evasion change the way the other team has to play?

It’s basically a spell where you get something like a free vanguard I guess if they miss. They need to get MKB no matter what against PA but if the PA has a decent early to mid game they can never farm MKB. So I don’t think MKB carriers really affect you too much if you are using PA in the right way.

We saw you play a well executed game on Phantom Assassin against OG, multiple actually, where you were constantly jumping the back line supports, shadow demon in particular. Is that where PA is at her best in a team fight?

Yeah maybe, I think - as I said - PA can’t really wave clear, and she can’t take objectives like towers very easily, so mainly a lot of your gold comes from the fights in which you get kills, especially on the supports. You slowly build your items one by one and you get stronger that way instead of farming normally.

QO puts on a show versus OG at The International 2016

What are counters to PA that you have to look out for in fights?

PA naturally has low hp, so there’s a high chance you can get burst down if you aren’t careful and if you go in at the right time. Even if you do, depending on their draft, you can still get burst down really easily, which I think is her biggest weakness.

What do you think of support PA?

When a support PA was matched against a ranged mid hero before the Stifling Dagger nerf, it was really imba. Or even ranged offlaners, and heroes that don’t go stout shield really get hurt by it. If you see that you can abuse that in the draft you can even pick PA in the first phase.

As a way to trick them during the draft?

Yeah, it tricks them in the draft because when they see a PA, they think she’ll be farming but because of her versatility they don’t actually know she’s a support.

How does PA seperate herself from other heroes right now?

All the carries recently showing up have the ability to do wave clear and farm quickly, all the heroes have an ability to escape like Morphling, Juggernaut and even Anti-Mage but PA really only has her W to get out and if you aren’t keeping that in mind, you’ll get caught. PA can’t really keep up in this regard.

There have been a lot of changes on items that have been regularly seen on PA like Abyssal for example where you now have to get a vanguard instead of a Sacred Relic, how have those affected PA?

I think that it buffed PA a lot more: She already had enough damage to burst anyone down but she lacked survivability. Vanguard into abyssal lets her get strong enough to survive while still dealing damage and it makes her much stronger.

I know you touched on this somewhat earlier but why play PA mid instead of in the safelane?

Against some matchups you can have a free lane with PA but at the same time harass the enemy, it’s like the PL mid concept.

So it’s kind of like Phantom Lancer vs Invoker, which I think you showed was very favored for PL?

Yeah just like PL, so PA can have a free lane in some matchups but also make the enemy a lot less farmed than if you were playing another hero, even if you could have had a free lane with that one too.

Why do you think teams don’t pick PA quite as often as other heroes?

She needs a lot of conditions in the draft to be usable. Many other carry heroes like Morphling and Juggernaut are reliable due to their abilities. You need to pick PA in a well-planned draft in which you can get the most out of the hero, otherwise you’re better off picking something else.

Don’t Look Now

Further Reading

Phantom Assassin is a hero that specializes in quick takedowns with her exceptionally high DPS, the trade-off being often viewed as a weaker carry susceptible to burst damage and exploitable in lane. However with recent changes PA has come out from the shadows and has proven to be a hero with gobs of versatility compared to what she was thought capable of. Memories of QO turning critical fights during TI by wiping heroes off the map with a single Coup De Grace or KuroKy fountain farming while being unkillable remain some of the more vivid examples of PA’s capability. While those things are certainly still doable, we have seen Phantom Assassin start to be used in a wider range of positions and strategies over the last few months. To help us understand how PA can really impact a Dota game we went to MVP Phoenix’s QO for answers.Phantom Assassin is currently on the cusp of becoming a tier one pick in today’s meta but due to her shortcomings in farming speed and pushing ability she is loomed over by other heroes. While she remains a situational pick, we have seen what PA is capable of time and time again in both pro games and our pubs . As QO explained, the key to drafting the hero is to hold off until late in the draft, unless you plan on confusing your opposition with an unorthodox support PA. Much like Anti-Mage , she has seen an increase in her versatility due to - in part - item changes, that have been made, and because of individual players who are not afraid to experiment and try new things with some of the oldest heroes in Dota 2.Last, but not least, please feel free to give us ideas of a player-hero combinations for our next interview!