Dota 2 Heroes: Phantom Assassin – Complete Hero Guide (Hero Profile and Lore)

Phantom Assassin or Mortred is a melee agility hero who is effective at any stage of Dota 2. Phantom Assassin can be played as a safe lane hard carry or a mid lane carry. Phantom Assassin is mostly known and infamous for her ability to deal devastating damage with a single hit. Phantom Assassin’s abilities synergize really well which makes her a threat against any line-up. Because of her skill set, she is a carry that can be hard to stop even after picking several counters. If Phantom Assassin gets the farm and items she requires she can be unstoppable. Her ability to deal critical damage is the nastiest critical damage ability in the game and probably the only critical damage ability that creates 4-digit crits. She is a farm dependant hero but unlike other hard carries, she doesn’t need a lot of space to farm. Most of the time, Phantom Assassin snowballs her way to the late game.

She is good at last hitting because of her Stifling Dagger damage and Phantom Strike. Stifling dagger not only helps her farm but also helps her to secure kills, especially with delivering devastating critical damage through her dagger.

Phantom Strike is also a spell that Phantom Assassin can use to take the last hit on a kill which makes it easier for her to snowball. Phantom Strike can also be used as an escape mechanism. This makes her very mobile and helps her move around the battleground, making her way in and out of the combat.

Also, read DOTA 2 Heroes: Anti-Mage, Complete Hero Guide

Blur is her 3rd spell. This passive ability makes her unstoppable against melee heroes who relies heavily on right click damage. Phantom Assassin can easily survive longer in a right click battle because of her 3rd ability and then finishes off her enemies with devastating critical damage. Blur also makes her invisible from the minimap if no enemy hero is near her.

Her ultimate is the ability she is known for. Coupe De Grace. Phantom Assassin delivers very high damage critical hits with her stifling dagger and right click attacks. This is the most annoying critical damage ability in the whole game. This makes her a huge threat against support heroes or heroes with low health pool as most of the time her late game critical damage is more than some heroes entire health pool.

Phantom Assassin 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.

Abilities

Stifling Dagger-

The first skill learned by the Sisters of the Veil often signals an incoming hit.

Phantom Assassin 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.

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Cast Animation: 0.3+0.47

Cast Range: 525/750/975/1200

Secondary Target Range Buffer: 300

Number of Targets: 1 (+3)

Base Damage: 65

Attack Damage: 25%/40%/55%/70%

Move Speed Slow: 50%

Slow Duration: 1.75/2.5/3.25/4

Notes

1. It can be used on spell immune units. The damage pierces through spell immunity but the slow does not.

2. Linken’s Sphere blocks stifling dagger upon contact. Does not stop Phantom Assassin from targeting and using the spell.

3. The dagger causes Phantom Assassin to perform an instant attack.

4. The dagger carries all the attack modifiers like Daedlus, Battlefury, Desolator.

5. The attack is an instant attack and uses no attack animation so any modifier that procs on attack begin does not work. Example – Untouchable (Enchantress)

6. The dagger might look like a ranged attack but it is a melee attack and counts as melee instant attack with physical damage.

7. The instant attack has true sight so it can be missed.

8. However, it can be disjointed.

9. The instant attack ignores disarm.

10. The 65 bonus damage is also an attack damage but it adds after the main damage is calculated.

11. Attack modifiers that are based on attack damage include the 65 damage in their calculation. Example: Critical strike, Lifesteal, Cleave.

12. The damage comes from a regular attack so it does not count as spell damage but attack damage.

13. The damage is affected by damage block, unaffected by spell damage amplification and spell lifesteal.

14. The projectile has 450 range flying vision. This vision lingers for 3.34 seconds at the target's location upon successfully hitting it

15. The dagger first applies the attack and then the debuff.

16. With the level 20 talent, the dagger launches 2 more dagger that hits 2 visible enemy unit within the range.

17. The additional projectiles can not target the primary target so nothing happens when no other enemy unit is nearby.

Phantom Strike-

Mortred's silken veil is the last thing her unfortunate target sees.

Teleports to a unit, friendly or enemy, and grants bonus attack speed while attacking if it's an enemy unit.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0.77

Cast Range: 1000

Attack Speed Bonus: 130

Number of Attacks: 4

Duration: 4

Notes

1. Phantom Strike can be cast on the allied unit but no attack bonus is granted.

2. Phantom Strike does not disjoint any projectile.

3. The attack bonus lasts 4 seconds or 4 attacks, whichever happens first.

4. Missed or evaded attacks do not count and they do not remove the bonus attack.

5. The attack bonus is lost instantly if Phantom Assassin successfully attacks any other enemy unit.

6. Can not be cast on couriers.

Blur-

Meditation allows a Veiled Sister to carefully anticipate her opponents in combat.

Phantom Assassin focuses inward, increasing her ability to evade enemy attacks, and allowing her to blur her body to disappear from the enemy team's minimap when far from enemy heroes.

Detection Radius: 1600

Evasion: 20%/30%/40%/50% (+talent tree = 45%/55%/65%/75%)

Notes

1. The Evasion and Blur effects work differently. The Evasion is always active while the Blur effect is not.

2. When Blur effect is active Phantom Assassin becomes blurry and a status buff appears.

3. Detects invisible, spell immune and invulnerable heroes but not hidden heroes.

Coup De Grace-

A divine strike, Mortred honors her opponent by choosing them for death.

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% (+Talent Tree = 20%)

Critical Damage: 230%/340%/450%

Notes

1. Increases attack damage by an average of 19.5%/36%/52.5%

2. Proc Chances of multiple crit sources stack. Example- Daedlus.

3. If 2 critical damage source procs at the same time then the higher damage multiplier is counted.

4. Coup De Grace uses Pseudo Random Distribution or RNG (Random Number Generated)

5. A part of the visual effects (a white glow on her weapon) plays during the start of an attack, revealing that the attack is going to crit.

Unique Talents

Unique talents are talents from the hero talent tree that does not only amplify the hero’s attack or stats but also acts like a whole new ability.

Cleave

Starting Radius: 150

Distance: 625

End Radius: 330

Cleave Damage: 20%

1. Cleave damage is reduced by armor type and not by armor value.

2. Cleave damage cannot be amplified by spell damage amplification.

3. Cleave damage cannot be affected by spell lifesteal.

4. Stacks with other sources of cleave. Every source of cleave works dependently.

5. Even though the attack animation shows the cleave spreading across the area, the damage is applied instantly with each attack.

Armor Corruption

Armor Reduction: 4

Duration: 10

1. Armor corruption does not stack with each successful attack but refreshes the duration.

2. Works against every enemy unit. Even wards and buildings.

3. The talent first applies the debuff then the damage.

4. Stacks with other sources of armor corruption. Example – Blight stone, Desolator, Assault Cuirass.

Lifesteal

Lifesteal: 20%

1. Stacks with other sources of lifesteal.