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| "I'm here to blur the line between life and death." |
Mortred the
Phantom Assassin is a melee agility Hero fitting the role of hard carry.
Mortred is best-known, and infamous for, her ability to inflict
staggering damage with single strikes. Her abilities synergise supremely
well with each other, rendering her an extremely formidable foe once
she has acquired the items she requires. She is a very farm-dependent
melee Hero, but she farms creeps with much more ease than many of her
fellow carries, using her 
Stifling Dagger for last hitting. Besides eliminating the weakness most melee Heroes
have in their farming, it also saves her from expending gold on
important melee carry items like 
Quelling Blade. Her second ability, 
Phantom Strike, acts as both her escape and initiate, while 
Blur gives her an edge against other Heroes that depend on their physical
attacks by evading them; giving her partial damage immunity to many
carries. Her ultimate 
Coup de Grâce,
the strongest critical strike in the game, is what connects Mortred
with four-digit damage and what gives her a place amongst the very best
support killers in the late game, since they usually fall instantly from
the divine strike her ultimate provides.Mortred, the Phantom Assassin
The Veiled Oracle names a name, and I move to take that life. The pattern of the Veil requires it.
The
Phantom Assassin starts off fairly weak and vulnerable, but can
become one of the deadliest assassins of all. Her Stifling Dagger can be thrown
from a safe distance, dealing minor damage to fell mortally wounded
foes, or slow her targets momentarily. She can Phantom Strike to any
target, allowing her to be agile and perform quick escapes and/or kills.
Mortred passively blends into her surroundings, eventually resembling a Blur , which can easily be unnoticed even by a trained eye, and will
always be harder to hit. What sets her apart from the rest is her Coup de Grâce, a devastating critical attack that when landed deals up to
four times her natural damage.Lore Phantom Assassin
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.Roles: Carry, Escape
- Strength: 20 + 1.85
- Agility: 23 + 3.15
- Intelligence: 13 + 1
- Damage: 46-48
- Armour: 4.22
- Movement Speed: 310
- Attack Range: 128 (Melee)
- Missile Speed: N/A
- Base Attack Time: 1.7
- Sight Range: 1800 (Day) / 800 (Night)
- Turn Rate: 0.4
Ability Skills
Stifling Dagger
Deals minor pure damage and slows the enemy unit's movement speed. Deals half damage to heroes. Has a chance to crit with the chance/factor of coup de grâce.
| Level | Manacost | Cooldown | Casting Range | Area | Duration | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | 8 | 1200 | N/A | 1 | Deals 60 damage and slows the unit by 50% |
| 2 | 25 | 8 | 1200 | N/A | 2 | Deals 100 damage and slows the unit by 50% |
| 3 | 20 | 8 | 1200 | N/A | 3 | Deals 140 damage and slows the unit by 50% |
| 4 | 15 | 8 | 1200 | N/A | 4 | Deals 180 damage and slows the unit by 50% |
- Pure damage
- Shares the same critical chance (15%) and multiplier (x2.5/x3.5/x4.5) as Coup de Grâce
- Deals half damage to heroes
- The projectile can be disjointed
- Gives vision of the hero for the duration and also gives vision of the incoming projectile
Phantom Strike
Teleports to a unit, friendly or enemy, and grants bonus attack speed while attacking if it's an enemy unit.
| Level | Manacost | Cooldown | Casting Range | Area | Duration | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | 14 | 1000 | N/A | 4 attacks or 4 seconds | Teleports to a targeted unit and gives 130 bonus attack speed if the unit is an enemy |
| 2 | 50 | 11 | 1000 | N/A | 4 attacks or 4 seconds | Teleports to a targeted unit and gives 130 bonus attack speed if the unit is an enemy |
| 3 | 50 | 8 | 1000 | N/A | 4 attacks or 4 seconds | Teleports to a targeted unit and gives 130 bonus attack speed if the unit is an enemy |
| 4 | 50 | 5 | 1000 | N/A | 4 attacks or 4 seconds | Teleports to a targeted unit and gives 130 bonus attack speed if the unit is an enemy |
- The attack speed bonus only lasts as long as you target the Phantom Strike victim
- The first attack is delivered instantly upon landing
Blur
The
Phantom Assassin becomes hard to see by blurring her body and
disappearing from the enemy minimap when near enemy heroes. Some enemy
attacks miss.| Level | Manacost | Cooldown | Casting Range | Area | Duration | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | - | - | 1600 | - | Gains 20% evasion and if an enemy hero comes within the radius, mortred becomes blurred |
| 2 | - | - | - | 1600 | - | Gains 30% evasion and if an enemy hero comes within the radius, mortred becomes blurred |
| 3 | - | - | - | 1600 | - | Gains 40% evasion and if an enemy hero comes within the radius, mortred becomes blurred |
| 4 | - | - | - | 1600 | - | Gains 50% evasion and if an enemy hero comes within the radius, mortred becomes blurred |
- Mortred disappears from the minimap when blurred
- Triggered by invisible heroes and by enemies out of sight but still in the radius
- Has a 0.75 second delay before the blurring effect is applied or removed
- The bonus evasion does not depend on the proximity of an enemy hero; only the blurring effect does
- The bonus evasion stacks diminishingly with evasion from items (
Talisman of Evasion, 
Butterfly , or 
Heaven's Halberd) - Evasion is disabled by Doom, visual effect and minimap hiding behave normally
- In Dota 1, Blur used to make Mortred 80% transparent when an
enemy hero came within the radius, causing confusion and becoming a
phantom
Coup de Grâce
Passive
Phantom Assassin refines her combat abilities, gaining a chance of delivering a devastating critical strike to enemy units.| Level | Mana Cost | Cooldown | Casting Range | Area | Duration | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | - | - | - | - | Gives a 15% chance to do 250% critical damage |
| 2 | - | - | - | - | - | Gives a 15% chance to do 350% critical damage |
| 3 | - | - | - | - | - | Gives a 15% chance to do 450% critical damage |
- Increases expected damage by an average of 22.5/37.5/52.5%
Recent Changes from 6.81/6.81b
- Phantom Strike bonus attack speed increased from 100 to 130
- Stifling Dagger cooldown reduced from 8 to 6
- Blur evasion chance increased from 20/25/30/40% to 20/30/40/50%
- Blur is triggered by invisible heroes
- Blur delay reduced from 1.5 to 0.75
Tips to Phantom Assassin
Using Dagger before Blink can make sure you always have vision of the target you want to attack.
Hauntrification:
A valuable tip for all your PA players that get Dominator, Dominate a wolf and let it follow you. If you feel a gank incoming or even just start blurring, micro the wolf to safer location that you can blink to. The wolf passively increases your damage too leading to faster farming. If you have an acquilla and power threads or just a plain battlefury, you can even perform pseudo-am like jungling farming with the use of that Wolf too and you actually hit more than an AM because of that wolf.
Drop_:
PA is maybe my favorite carry, and I have a lot to say about her.
Skill Build
The recent buff to Blur, and the rise in popularity of the already popular hero due to RTZ and EE really do justify going Dagger -> Blur -> Phantom Strike. Blur lets you play so much more aggressively, doing things like diving towers at level 6.
Maxing phantom strike is OK but generally not necessary. Not maxing it, though, necessitates playing the hero a little more conservatively. Rather than daggering -> Phantom early, you have to walk up close to your target, dagger them, see if you get any crits and their reaction, and then decide whether or not to follow up with phantom or use it to escape.
Who to avoid PA Against
Bad idea to pick her against bursty magic teams. Seems obvious, but many people ignore this. If you avoid fighting until you can tank their burst, they have the opportunity to get stuff like sheep/mkb to just straight up counter you.
Items
Probably the most controversial aspect of PA. The most controversial item being Battlefury. In general, as a safelane PA, Battlefury isn't a great idea. It doesn't help you fight early, and while it gives decent stats for the cost, it doesn't really provide what you need. With that said, if you can get it very quickly (before the 15 minute mark) or if you have extra synergy (magnus, Dark Seer + Lockdown, Black Hole, etc.) the value of battlefury goes way up. If you DO get a battlefury, consider pairing it with treads rather than phase and leave them strength in the early game for teamfights. The 8 STR helps compensate for the fact that you just dumped 4k gold in an item that doesn't increase your durability at all.
Midas is an item worth mentioning. Generally, it means you wont fight early, but if you have a strong lane, it can still be really quite good. The reason being is this: Despite PA having good early game strength with Dagger / Blur, her ult really doesn't come into its own until level 11. Rank 1 of CdG is actually fairly weak. Weaker than most non ult crit skills at rank 2/3. At rank 2 it becomes significant, and rank 3 it is a powerhouse, so you want to hit 11/16 as soon as possible, and Midas can really accelerate that happening. The key thing being to not play with midas like you're just going to rice until you're 6 slotted, but instead to secure a level advantage and use that to your advantage as soon as possible. It's still a risky strategy, though, and I don't think it should be done unless you have a nearly uncontested lane (i.e. at least 25-30 CS at 5 minutes).
My recent favorite build on PA is to go Deso + Vlads and I encourage people to try it. The damage amplification from an earlyish deso is really pretty massive and makes crits impossible to deal with, and Vlads provides the much needed sustain. It's really quite strong assuming you have the HP to back it up, which is why again, I think it pairs pretty well with treads and obviously a BKB. Ordering of the Deso/Vlads/BKB I think depends on the game.
Be thoughtful with your BKB timing. Sometimes it's worth it to rush, but other times you will be committing yourself to a low duration BKB in the midgame which can be a disaster if you didn't get the other items to bulk up. If you want to take fights early, it's often a better idea to be opportunistic and go for pickoffs of enemies who try to escape or on the sidelines rather than try to blink into the front lines of the fight with a BKB.
q11111p:
It seemed like the majority of the responses rooted for treads. While I can't say it's a wrong choice with the str/AS bonus, I feel phase boots is the better choice in a 50/50 or you-are-ahead game.
Many people's argument for treads is that it grants attack speed. However the emergence of PA in this patch is because of the change made on her Phantom Strike: it grants 130 (vs. 100 in v6.80) attack speed upon casting the spell. You simply DON'T need that +30 from treads anymore with the buff. If you are fast enough to keep chasing with sufficient MS, you ARE likely to attack 4/5 times even without treads. Lvl 4 phantom strike has a 5 sec cooldown, basically guaranteeing her to have that +130 AS buff on all the time when she is attacking--you need to be attacking to make that happen though.
With the recent nerf on treads and phase boots' bonus MS (both only provide +50 MS, same as brown boots), you just need that 16% MS burst to catch up with a hero to capitalize on your AS bonus. Think of her like Ursa: they are both melee carries born with better-than-average MS, have AS steroids (overpower/phantom strike), usually build into lifesteal builds (and banking on lifesteal as sustain in fight). The key to both heroes is gap-closing and keep attacking as dmg/sustain. However to close the gap, Ursa needs a blink dagger, while PA is born with it. I have played plenty of times when an enemy slowed by PA's dagger trying to force staff away after my phantom strike, and it was my phase boots that helped me close the gap and finish the kill that I wouldn't have finished otherwise with treads.
P.S. I agree that in a game you are behind, you need to stack strength and wait for openings. Hell, even rubick builds treads when he's behind, not to mention PA.
MrTheodore
I see so many pa's try to play like axe and just jump right in and it loses teams games all the time.
Get sneaky with her, have your 4 guys hit them from the front, and you head around back, if your team is working on the slark in the front, kill the lina in the back. Pa with the bkb is so good at forcing teams to split focus with that blink strike it's absurd, you can have a teamfight become 2 4v1's and you'll win yours a lot better than the other guy's with that burst damage of yours.
Before big shiny pa though, you have to be even sneakier early game, you only hop in with a blink and dagger when the kill is guaranteed and you run like hell out of there like you're ezio when it's over (unless your team is doing work and you can clean up some more).
Hero is so good when she's played right, you play her like she's a front liner before bkb and a good fighting item (lifesteal, basher, maelstrom, etc) and you'll end up getting shat on by a competent team (disregard if you have a wisp, wisp turn anybody into a frontliner with overcharge)
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