View Strategy > Let None Survive! - A Guide to the Phantom Lancer
Let None Survive! - A Guide to the Phantom Lancer
Created by juicyjuice on 2010-01-04
Last modified: -
Viewed 58410 times
Throws a magical spirit from his lance at a target damaging it and slowing it down for 3 seconds. An illusion is created attacking the target.
Level 1 - Deals 100 damage and Cripples for 10%. Illusion lasts 2 seconds.
Level 2 - Deals 150 damage and Cripples for 20%. Illusion lasts 4 seconds.
Level 3 - Deals 200 damage and Cripples for 30%. Illusion lasts 6 seconds.
Level 4 - Deals 250 damage and Cripples for 40%. Illusion lasts 8 seconds.
• The projectile can't be evaded by blink or windwalk.
Mana Cost: 125 / 130 / 135 / 140
Cooldown: 7
Comment: Decent nuke, has a ministun that can be used to cancel channeling spells.
Allows the Phantom Lancer to become invisible for a period of time, leaving behind a duplicate of himself to confuse enemies. 10% movement bonus at all levels. Lasts 8 seconds.
Level 1 - 150 mana.
Level 2 - 120 mana.
Level 3 - 90 mana.
Level 4 - 60 mana.
Mana Cost: 150/120/ 90/ 60
Cooldown: 30/ 25/ 20/15 seconds
Comment: Great escape spell, more discussion later.
Whenever the Phantom Lancer attacks he will randomly create a duplicate of himself. Limit of 5 images. Duplicates last 20 seconds.
Level 1 - 3% chance.
Level 2 - 6% chance.
Level 3 - 9% chance.
Level 4 - 12% chance.
• Illusion deals 25% damage and takes 450%.
Mana Cost: N/A
Cooldown: N/A
Comment: This is Phantom Lancer's signature move.
Gives the Phantom Lancer an edge in combat by increasing Juxtapose's image generation and increasing magic resistance. Additionally, it enables his images to generate their own images.
Level 1 - 10% magic resistance, 3% chance illusions will duplicate, 2% increase in Juxtapose.
Level 2 - 15% magic resistance, 5% chance illusions will duplicate, 4% increase in Juxtapose.
Level 3 - 20% magic resistance, 7% chance illusions will duplicate, 6% increase in Juxtapose.
• Spell resistance stacks with that from items.
• Illusion deals 25% damage and takes 400%.
Mana Cost: N/A
Cooldown: N/A
Comment: Increases your rate of generating illusions, and gives your illusions a chance to generate their own illusion.
Skill Build:
1. Spirit Lance2. Doppelwalk
3. Spirit Lance
4. Doppelwalk
5. Spirit Lance
6. Phantom Edge
7. Spirit Lance
8. Doppelwalk
9. Doppelwalk
10. Juxtapose
11. Phantom Edge
12. Juxtapose
13. Juxtapose
14. Juxtapose
15. Stats
16. Phantom Edge
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats
Early Game:
Welcome to my guide on Phantom Lancer. Phantom Lancer is a late game hero, and my style of playing is aimed to help you get to your late game as soon as possible.
Usual Disclaimers
This guide only reflects how I play Phantom Lancer, and even still, this strategy is not compatible for all games. Feel free to adapt parts of this guide (item or skill build) if it fits your play style. In the conclusions section, I list all the guides I've linked to, so take a look at those.
When Should I Play Phantom Lancer?
Phantom Lancer is a very good hero, but he's not fit for every single game. If you are playing -ar, there isn't much choice, but if you are playing -ap, -rd, -sd, or -cm, you should take a look at your opponent's picks first.
Earthshaker (High Threat)
This guy is your nightmare. He has many AOE spells that will demolish your illusions. His ultimate will not only destroy all of your illusions, but damage you heavily as well.
Rouge Knight (Medium Threat)
His storm bolt and cleave will eat through your illusions and you, especially if he has his ultimate. However, your diffusal can purge his ultimate, and if you can generate enough illusions, you will be able to beat him.
Stone Giant (Medium Threat)
His toss and avalanche will kill your illusions in a jiffy, and a Phantom Lancer without his illusions is a very unfortunate Phantom Lancer. With a diffusal, you can keep his mana low, and he won't be able to spam his spells.
Bounty Hunter and Slithereen Guard (High Threat)
These two have skills that make it impossible for you to escape with your Dopplewalk, and they also have some way to cancel your TP. In addition, they both have very high DPS potential, which will kill you very, very fast. The only way to counter these two heroes is to keep them down early game, but if you don't want to risk it, you should just pick another DPS hero.
Her split shot is a passive way for her to damage all of your illusions, which will help her determine which one is the real you. Early game, her snakes rival your spirit lance in terms of harassing. Afterward, here ultimate will demolish all of your illusions in one shot. However, with a diffusal blade, you will eat through her mana and she will soon be easy meat for you.
Tidehunder (Medium Threat)
His ultimate will immediately determine which one is the real Phantom Lancer, as well as stun you for quite a while, allowing his team to pick you off if they focus you. His anchor smash is a passive way to damage your illusions, and might cause you some trouble. However, his ultimate has a relatively high cooldown, so you can get him while his ultimate is in cooldown.
Obsidian Destroyer (High/Medium Threat)
His orb is devastating to your illusions, and his ultimate destroy both you and your illusions. However, since OD is strictly lategame, you should be able to outfarm him and punish him midgame with your Diffusal blade before his mana pool grows too big.
Starting Items & Lane Assignment
Try to call a solo mid lane. If you cant get solo mid, solo any other lane is just as good, but mid is preferred. Mid keeps your closer to your base, so you can get items and refill your bottle faster.
Starting Items:
If you randomed Phantom Lancer, grab your chicken early.
Head over to mid lane and do your stuff (Read MaJu's Guide to Lane Control and BLAOW's guide to Lane Control). Your goal is to farm as efficiently as possible. However, as you are solo mid, always be wary for ganks, and keep an eye on the minimap. As soon as you get 200 gold, head back to base and grab a chicken. If you're going to spend 400 gold on a flying courier, you might as well learn how to use it. I give some short tips in this guide, but take a look at Garrick_3658's Guide To The Courier.
Quelling Blade
During early game, you'll want to grab a Quelling Blade to help you with your farming as well. This is a simple, but nifty item.
Quelling Blade (225 Gold)
+32% bonus attack damage against non-hero units if wielder is melee
+12% bonus attack damage against non-hero units if wielder is ranged
Tree Chop:
Destroys a target tree.
Has a 15 second cooldown, and 100 cast range.
The bonus damage applies only to creeps, but that's exactly why you use it. At level 4 (for example), your base damage is 64. With quelling blade, you will hit an extra 20.48 damage against creeps, for a total of 84.48 damage.
The extra damage will help you last hit better, and once you reach midgame, it will help you clear creep waves faster as well (plus, it give Phantom Lancer a snarky new attack animation). The bonus from Quelling Blade applies to your illusions as well, but of course, they will receive the illusion penalty for their attacks.
The tree chop is also handy for escaping: juke into some trees and chop one and make an escape. It's also helpful to get rid of these guys' trees.
Lane Dominance And Early Kills
It's amazingly easy to establish lane dominance with Phantom Lancer. If the other team also has a solo mid, you will most likely be able to outlane them. Simply spam your spirit lance as much as possible, and heal yourself with your bottle. The effects of your harassing will be very obvious. Spirit Lance has a very nice range, so you don't put yourself at risk.
Notice how I'm raking in the gold, while Panda is already near half health from my constant spirit lance harassing. When you get low on mana, use your bottle to replenish your mana and keep spamming your lance.
It's also very possible to get an early kill with spirit lance, especially if your opponent has not bought very good starting items. But remember, farming is your priority, not getting First Blood.
Again, this is a result of constant harassing. He survives this lance, but with minimal health. I've already forced him to use his healing salves, and yet he has not called for a gank or lane switch. This is good for me, because I am about to kill him.
He is only carrying a ring of protection and a set of tangoes, which will not help him survive my spirit lance harassing. Besides, he hasn't used any yet. Look for a lack of survivabilty items on the person laning against you, and you might have a chance of getting an early kill.
My spirit lance had already been cast. He used a tango, but was not able to regenerate fast enough. My projectile connects, and the brown cow dies. My teammates had already killed Rhasta at top lane, so I didn't get first blood. However, don't keep aiming to get first blood. This method of getting first blood is not very reliable, is it depends on you laning against somebody who is generally inexperienced (in terms of getting starting items, calling ganks, knowing when to retreat, etc.).
As you use up your bottle charges, have your chicken nearby to take it to your base and refill it for you. With the recent courier features, this is easier than ever. Send your chicken to you, give it the bottle, press "E" to send it to base, and shift-queue "T" so it will return to you as soon as it fills the bottle.
Bottle
Bottle (600 Gold)
Regenerate (active)
Rune Capture (active)
| Regenerate | Rune Capture |
|
|
When used, the Bottle heals you by placing a buff on you. The cooldown is 0.5 seconds, and the buff heals over the duration of 3 seconds, but it does not stack. This means that you'll want to wait for the 3 seconds to pass before using another bottle charge if you want the full effects.
You can, of course, use your bottle to trap runes, but this strategy doesn't make much use of that feature. You will be staying in your lane most of the time, and use your chicken to refill your bottle at the fountain. However, it is still important to familiarize yourself with the runes.
Dodge, Dip, Duck, Dive, and Dopplewalk
Dopplewalk can be gotten at level 1 if you prefer to keep an escape skill handy. You can use it to dodge various projectiles, such as King Leoric's nuke.
In this picture, you can see the Hellfire blast that's already been cast towards me. Notice how there is a slightly blue me (my illusion), and a slightly translucent me (the real me) standing on nearly the same spot. The hellfire blast will still go towards the spot on the ground where I was standing, but it will hit neither me nor my illusion. Keep on finger on "W" for Dopplewalk, and look out for projectiles - you will save your life more than once.
Objective of Early Game
Remember, you are a late game hero, so your only goal is to farm, farm, and farm early game. Your goal is to rush Boots of Travel as fast as you humanly can. Purchase a Queling Blade to speed up your farming and improve you last hit. You can also upgrade your chicken to a flying courier, to make getting items as you farm easier.
