Although his true name is unknown to his allies, Azwraith's assigned name tells you enough. Like the Angel of Death, Azrael, he fights to rid the world of those who choose to embrace undeath. He is able to appear and disappear at will like a wraith, often appearing in many places at once. Azwraith is more than capable of dispatching the undead using his lance, each blow sending them closer to the spirit-realm. This lance is the source of his astounding ability to duplicate himself; whenever it draws blood he can use their life to create weaker copies of himself.
Strength - 18 + 2
Agility - 23 + 2.8 (Primary)
Intelligence- 21 + 2
Base damage 45-67
Attack range of 100 (Melee)
Base Armor 3
Movement speed of 290
Phantom Lancer Skill Descriptions
Spirit Lance (T)
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
This is a very good skill having many advantages:
- Damage and fast cooldown for harassing and nuking.
- Cripple for either chasing or escaping.
- Image generation for confusing enemy especially combined with his passive skills. The image automatically attacks the target of the spell, making image-controlling unnecessary.
Doppelwalk (W)
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
This skill provides an escape mechanism better than wind-walk because there is no transition time and it creates an image to confuse his enemy. It costs a lot of mana at first, so don't use mana wastefully or this skill can't be casted when needed.
Juxtapose (X)
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
Best skill of PL. Although the clones only have 25% damage, 5 clones will do a lot especially if well farmed. What’s cool is that creating image is by chance which means no cooldown!
Phantom Edge (D)
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.
Mana Cost: N/A
Cooldown: N/A
• Spell resistance stacks with that from items.
• Illusion deals 25% damage and takes 400%.
This is what makes his illusions imba, they have a chance of generating illusions themselves! Even with only a single clone in a lane, that clone can go far and can even get to heavily push if you're lucky enough.
Phantom Lancer Skill Build
1 - Doppelwalk/Spirit Lance
2 - Spirit Lance/Doppelwalk
3 - Spirit Lance
4 - Doppelwalk
5 - Spirit Lance
6 - Phantom Edge
7 - Spirit Lance
8 - Doppelwalk
9 - Doppelwalk
10 - Juxtapose
11 - Phantom Edge
12-14 - Juxtapose
15 - Stats
16 - Phantom Edge
15-25 - Stats
Doppelwalk is taken first to avoid early ganks. But if you planned for getting first blood with your team mates, get Spirit Lance instead. Spirit Lance is maxed first because it’s your only nuke and chasing tool.
Doppelwalk come next. We know that Doppelwalk doesn't change at all at level 1-4 other than the decreased MP cost and shortened cooldown. But, in order to maximize the Doppelwalk potential, you must have enough MP to support it. 150 MP is most of your MP pool for early-game. If you only get one level of Doppelwalk you will lose a lot of early to middle game potential in messing with the enemies' heads.
Juxtapose is taken next because at the time it is maxed it will already be mid game and this is a part where your clones start to count.
Phantom Lancer Item Build
1. 2x Circlet of Nobility, 2 x Clarity Potions and one set of Tangos
2. Finish Wraith Bands
3. Boots of Speed, Robe of the Magi
4. Finish Diffusal Blade
5. Yasha
Phantom Lancer's core item should be like this:
Wraith Bands are useful for increasing IAS a bit and to get stat boosts for mana and strength.
Boots of speed are needed for increasing his movement speed because his base movespeed of 290 is very slow. It also can be upgraded later into power treads if the game likely won't last long or boots of travel for late game item building.
Getting Diffusal will carry him through mid game and into late game.
Yasha is the cheapest way to increase agility (which translates into extra damage and attack speed for both him and images) and it's fairly quick to obtain. It also gives him and his images better movespeed for chasing. Besides, it can be upgraded later into Manta, which is solid also.
As an alternative, Vladmir's Offering is pretty good in helping Azwraith early game and keeping him from going back to heal/get mana for the remainder of the match. It's also fairly cheap for the benefits. Even though the vampiric aura won't help the images (it will look it though) the extra bonuses can be helpful. Plus, vampiric doesn't break feedback, both effects can work together.
Phantom Lancer Late Game Items
Manta Style is good for maximizing his skill: image generation, because it has the ability to make 2 illusions. Manta still provides very solid bonuses. Essentially, it's an upgrade of Yasha, which is a core item, and it worth the money.
The Butterfly is good for any agility hero because of the strong bonuses to attack speed and agility plus the evasion boost.
Assault Cuirass is useful for him because it gives high armor and IAS; and a bit useful for his images with its aura.
Radiance also one of the best item for Phantom Lancer. The images benefits from the Radiance and make you a really good pusher as well as annoy your enemy.
Boots of Travel are necessary for a few reasons:
1. it greatly increases his ability to chase
2. it can be used for farming multiple lanes at once
3. it's great for pushing/defending, and
4. it's an escape mechanism.
Boots of Travel is better than Power Treads because Travs just give him so much flexibility. Plus, images don't benefit from the IAS % from Power Treads but they get all the benefits from Travs (aside from the teleporting).
Heart of Tarrasque is another option for survivability. With this item, there is no need to take trips back to the fountain, even after a near-death he can push or farm without worry. The massive bonus HP it provides also beefs up his illusions.
Phantom Lancer Strategy
You can pick this hero when your team needs a carry hero and/or a special role: scout, slower and confusion maker since this hero has ability to generate images.
You need to be supported by:
- Disabler.
While you beat your enemy, the longer the hold (by disabler), the more hits you get in plus the more images are created.
- Slower.
It helps you when you're chasing the enemy. You can already slow enemies with your spirit lance and purge, but sometimes those skills aren't enough. With these heroes around, the slow effect is multiplied, giving you more of an opportunity to get hits in and nuke away.
- Mana or mana regeneration provider.
Crystal Maiden's Brilliance Aura or Ezalor's Chakra Magic makes your lance more spammable. For Crystal Maiden, once her aura is leveled to 4, you can pretty much spam your skills.
Phantom Lancer Counter
- AOE freaks
Once your images are wiped out, you're a sitting duck unless you can trick them. Rooftrellen and Leviathan's ultimates are especially dangerous since they will not only wipe your images, but leave you stuck. His worst nightmare and arch enemy is EARTHSHAKER!!!!
- Silencers
If you're silenced, you can't cast Dopplewalk or Spirit Lance but most importantly, you can't generate images with Juxtapose. This makes you a sitting duck to whoever wants you. The only effective way of countering this is to not let them know which one is the real you (which you should be doing anyway!). You need to dispell this as quickly as possible by either purging yourself or activating Manta
- Cleaving attack
Images go down fast even if the cleaved damage is far less than 100% of the original hit that you take since they take 4x the amount of damage. Not fun for you or your images.
- True Sight
Your only way to escape from the death is invisibility. Once that way doesn't work, you die. The way to counter some of these is to activate Manta, dispelling the magic on you, or create a few images and run them like a pack while you're not invisibile. They have nothing to distinguish you from your phantom counterparts so it's still hard to hit you. Necronomicon is a double-pain because not only does it show you, but it increases your enemies' move speed, making it harder for you to chase.
In early minutes, your primary goal is to stay alive because he's very squishy. Fortunately, Dopplewalk is there to save you if you get in trouble, but it costs a lot of mana, so just stay back and last hit creeps (if you can).
The middle of the game is the make or break point. You should be starting to get strong now and you can use him for hero-killing, ganking (Spirit lance for nuking and slowing and Dopplewalk for sneaking up and escaping) and pushing. Your focus during the middle part of the game is to get as much gold as you can, either from heroes or creeps. Azwraith requires some pretty expensive items to be strong because his abilities are that powerful on their own. Just play smart and you should make it to the end game successfully.
The end game is where Azwraith truly shines. By now you should have at least Diffusal, Yasha, and another powerhouse item like Butterfly, Heart, or Manta. You can push lanes for farming while using images to scout runes, jungles, potential ganks, etc. You are truly a farming machine - not many heroes can keep up with you're farming ability. If you have boots of travel, you can farm a lane, teleport to another one, and let your images continue to work while you're not there. Also, your Spirit Lance still (and purge if you have it) provides the slow you need to effectively chase enemy.
When the big team battles ensue (which they always will) you shouldn't just charge in there. You're not a tank. Dopplewalk and use that image as a distraction so they think it's you waiting there and run behind their front line (usually full of tanks and creeps). Once the two lines clash, begin decimating their casters. Usually, they wont have time to react before you're all over the place thanks to your images. If they start figuring out which one is the real you, activate Manta and continue the punishment. If you're in real trouble, Dopplewalk and get out safely. Fortunately, you'll be doing hefty damage so you might bring down one without getting too hurt and you can begin chasing. Your images will be duplicating themselves at both the front line and the back line, confusing your enemy. Your job is to focus on one hero, kill him, and move onto another. Your images will act as fodder.
Images are your best friend: they do a lot of work for you and are expendable. They can be used for a variety of purposes:
- Scouting
The image created by Dopplewalk lasts 20 seconds, that's more than enough time for you to get to a rune or to scout the jungle.
- Drawing Enemy Fire
The trick is to make your enemies think your image is you and made them waste their precious mana with (hopefully) their strongest spell since they can't tell a difference.
- Avoiding Spells
In a related concept, since Dopplewalk has no transition time into invisibility, you can use it to avoid spells. Although this isn't really "using your images," one is created in the process. For example, if you have a Hellfire Blast coming at you, activate Dopplewalk or Manta. The spell will fail and you will be unharmed. Additionally, the enemy, anticipating the stun will hit, will likely come in after you. They will attack the illusion, leaving you an opportunity to hit back.
- Confusing your Enemy
When you cast Spirit Lance, your images mimic you but shortly afterward. Therefore, by casting the lance, you give away your position. This can be helpful however. First, make sure you can Dopplewalk. Second, cast your lance. Third, Dopplewalk. You know that "real" one your enemy was looking for? Well, he's a fake one now. You can run around searching for an opening to strike or bail if you have to.
- Jungling
Images play an important role in jungling because they allow you to tackle creeping earlier and harder. It's like having a friendly hero with you but better because they don't leach your experience.
Based on: Playdota Guide
This post contain Phantom Lancer Guide & Build - Azwraith the Phantom Lancer Strategy. If you have different build or strategy, you can give your comments or make your own guide on the Phantom Lancer Sniper Forum.
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