* All abilities for Morphling can easily escape fear
Focus Fire.
* Windranger weakness for agility can easily Morphling destroy against her.
Additional:
*
Waveform can be used to escape from the reach of
Focus Fire and to dodge
Powershot.
*
Adaptive Strike (Strength) can be used to stun Windranger even while
Windrun is active.
*
Morph is useful to morph into Windranger to copy her abilities.
* Morphling's naturally high armor thanks to his high agility makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to take him down with
Coup de Grace.
*
Windrun does not provide protection against
Counter Helix and
Berserker's Call. Her fast attack speed with Focus Fire will also quickly trigger
Counter Helix multiple times.
*
Phantom Strike's extra attack speed will cause Phantom Assassin to trigger
Counter Helix more often, which can be fatal for Phantom Assassin. Jumping on Axe with
Phantom Strike is not a good idea for Phantom Assassin at all as it makes her a seriously easy target for a counter-initiation with
Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail.
* Most of Axe's abilities pierce
Black King Bar, allowing him to lock down Phantom Assassin at any time.
* Berserker's Call greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's ability to crit hard against Axe and may cause her to kill herself when used with
Blade Mail.
Berserker's Call can also affect Phantom Assassin even if she has
Black King Bar active as
Berserker's Call can fully pierce spell immunity, making
Berserker's Call one of the best abilities in the game against heroes like Phantom Assassin who wants to kill opponents quickly without being interrupted.
*
Culling Blade can often kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything due to her low health and strength gain. And every time
Culling Blade successfully kills Phantom Assassin or any of her teammates, Axe gains permanent armor from it, which in combination with armor items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Axe.
*
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Counter Helix can weaken Phantom Assassin's damage output, and if her attack damage is weak,
Coup De Grace will also suffer from attack damage reduction as well.
Additional:
*
Phantom Strike's extra attack speed will cause Phantom Assassin to trigger
Counter Helix more often, which can be fatal for Phantom Assassin in the early game. Jumping on Axe with
Phantom Strike is not a good idea for Phantom Assassin at all as it makes her a seriously easy target for a counter-initiation with
Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail.
* Most of Axe's abilities pierce
Black King Bar, allowing him to lock down Phantom Assassin at any time.
* Berserker's Call greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's ability to crit hard against Axe, and may cause her to kill herself when used with
Blade Mail.
Berserker's Call can also affect Phantom Assassin even if she has
Black King Bar active as
Berserker's Call can fully pierce spell immunity, making
Berserker's Call one of the best abilities in the game against heroes like Phantom Assassin who wants to kill opponents quickly without being interrupted.
*
Culling Blade can often kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything due to her low health and strength gain. And every time
Culling Blade successfully kills Phantom Assassin or any of her teammates, Axe gains permanent armor from it, which in combination with armour items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Axe.
*
Focus Fire grants Windranger a massive attack speed bonus, while her attack damage is generally quite low. This, combined with Windranger's low health pool and armor, makes Retaliate do absolutely massive damage over a short time, making Centaur a hero she can never expect to kill or harass.
*
Windrun grants evasion, but Centaur Warrunner does not rely on successful attacks in order to do damage. Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede all do large amounts of magical damage and can completely demolish Windranger in a moment.
Additional:
*
Stampede can help his teammates escape from Windrun and Focus Fire.
*
Retaliate will shred through Windranger's health if she chooses to attack him during Focus Fire.
*
Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
*
Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner.
Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a
Ring of Health.
Stifling Dagger will also trigger
Retaliate and
Blur cannot evade
Retaliate.
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
Additional:
*
Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
*
Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner.
Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a
Ring of Health.
Stifling Dagger will also trigger
Retaliate and
Blur cannot evade
Retaliate.
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Centaur Warrunner often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
* Spectre can catch up to her with
Spectral Dagger, even if she uses
Windrun.
* Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Windranger with
Haunt.
*
Dispersion can reflect some of her damage, especially from her
Focus Fire.
Additional:
* Spectre can instantly escape Focus Fire or hunt a Windranger with
Haunt.
* Spectre can catch up to her with
Spectral Dagger, even if she uses Windrun.
*
Desolate allows Spectre to hit Windranger through Windrun.
*
Dispersion combined with
Blade Mail and/or
Vanguard (and its upgrade
Abyssal Blade) makes Spectre tanky and/or reflects some damage back to Windranger.
*
Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
*
Black King Bar is useless for Phantom Assassin against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.
* Spectre only needs to be careful against
Fan Of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard, as it can disable
Desolate and
Dispersion, though this issue can be solved by buying
Blade Mail, which is a common item on Spectre.
Additional:
*
Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
*
Black King Bar is useless against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.
* Pounce helps put Windranger in place, even when she uses
Windrun to escape.
* Shadow Dance avoids Windranger's attacks from
Focus Fire altogether, and he can regenerate his health and fight back after Windranger uses up all her abilities.
* The stun from
Shackleshot and the slow from
Powershot can be both dispelled by Dark Pact, provided Slark casts it at the right moment.
* Slark's
Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with
Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who typically builds
Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's
Blur and
Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with
Pounce,
Shadow Dance and
Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies from Phantom Assassin with
Shadow Dance, and to freely fightback against her without removing invisibility upon attacking.
*
Essence Shift is much more harmful for Phantom Assassin than for other heroes, as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken
Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
* Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.
Additional:
* Slark's
Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with
Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who typically builds
Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's
Blur and
Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with
Pounce,
Shadow Dance and
Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies from Phantom Assassin with
Shadow Dance, and to freely fightback against her without removing invisibility upon attacking.
*
Essence Shift is much more harmful for Phantom Assassin than for other heroes, as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken
Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
* Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.
*
Firefly and combinated with
Blink Dagger can easy avoided from
Focus Fire.
* Phantom Assassin does not deal with early aggression very easily (especially when magical damage). A competent Batrider can make life very difficult with
Sticky Napalm followed by any other spell.
* Static Link can lower the damage output from
Focus Fire.
* Eye of the Storm strikes cannot miss, even if
Windrun is active.
Additional:
*
Static Link greatly lowers Windranger's damage output from Focus Fire.
*
Eye of the Storm strikes cannot miss, even if Windrun is active.
*
Static Link can lower the damage output from
Coup de Grace procs, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage. And Phantom Assassin is not a common
Linken's Sphere wielder to counter this problem.
*
Eye of the Storm strikes cannot be evaded by
Blur.
* Both
Static Link and
Eye of the Storm pierces spell immunity, as Phantom Assassin is often reliant on Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Static Link can lower the damage output from
Coup de Grace procs, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Eye of the Storm strikes cannot be evaded by
Blur.
* Both Static Link and Eye of the Storm pierces spell immunity, as Phantom Assassin is often reliant on Black King Bar.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Tinker can use Laser to save an ally or himself from Phantom Assassin's initiate
Phantom Strike due to the blind, forcing her to use a Black King Bar to effectively initiate, Tinker can also use Warp Flare one he buys
Aghanim's Shard to reverse Phantom Strike's blinking with
Phantom Strike.
* Tinker almost never uses his physical attack, relying on his spell-spamming to deal damage which ignores
Blur's Evasion
* Defense Matrix prevents
Coup de Grace from triggering.
*
Windrun triggers the damage from Rupture.
Additional:
*
Rupture turns Windranger's mobility against her.
*
Blood Rite's silence makes Windranger totally useless, since she's extremely reliant on abilities.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities who attempt to use them for escaping Bloodseeker will suffer serious damage from Rupture:
Phantom Assassin,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Riki,
Slark,
Spirit Breaker.
* Kraken Shell easily dispels the lengthy stun from
Shackleshot.
* Kraken Shell (and possibly Anchor Smash) blocks huge amount of damage from
Focus Fire.
* Anchor Smash is one of the few sources of True Strike, which means Tidehunter can deal significant damage through
Windrun, while also reducing Windranger's damage output.
Additional:
*
Kraken Shell can easily dispel Shackleshot after he has taken a certain threshold of damage.
*
Ravage provides excellent lockdown against Windranger, allowing his teammates to kite her throughout the game.
* When Tidehunter has
Aghanim's Shard, he will gain access to
Dead in the Water, allowing him to lock down Windranger at any time. When Windranger tries to move away from the anchor with Windrun, she will be effectively slowed, preventing her from escaping.
* Heroes such as
Lone Druid,
Tidehunter and
Viper can be very problematic for Phantom Assassin because they give her very little time to farm and become scary.
* Shadow Demon can waste precious seconds of
Windrun with Disruption.
* Alternatively, Demonic Purge can be used to dispel it altogether, leaving her completely defenseless for 7 seconds.
* Disruption can be used to save an ally if they get stunned by
Shackleshot.
Additional:
* Shadow Demon can waste precious seconds of Windrun with
Disruption.
* Alternatively,
Demonic Purge. can be used to dispel it altogether, leaving her completely defenseless.
*
Disruption can be used to save an ally if they get stunned by Shackleshot.
* Hex abilities prevent attacking, ability and item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using
Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers.
Doom and
Shadow Demon with
Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility:
Doom,
Disruptor with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Dazzle with
Aghanim's Shard
* Many of Nyx Assassin's abilities are good against Windranger.
*
Impale is great for stunning Windranger and allowing additional disables to be landed.
*
Mind Flare is useful against Windranger's decent intelligence growth.
*
Spiked Carapace is easy to use against Powershot.
*
Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to sneak up on and deal massive damage to Windranger without giving Windranger a chance to use Windrun to evade it.
* Nyx Assassin's item build allows him to easily deal with Windranger.
* Heroes with heavy early and mid-game magical damage are also problematic for Phantom Assassin due to being able to easily kill her before she can gain an item advantage over them:
Lina,
Necrophos,
Nyx Assassin,
Gyrocopter,
Jakiro,
Death Prophet.
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer poisons eats through Windranger's health.
Additional:
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer abilities eats through Windranger's health.
* Venomancer's multiple slows, to an extent, negates Windrun's mobility.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Despite her high mobility,
Hex or
Earth Spike can lock
Phantom Assassin down, make her vulnerable and mitigate her damage output.
* Lion relies entirely on his abilities to be effective, rendering Phatnom Assassin's high evasion through ineffective against him. And Phantom Assassin's low health pool makes her vulnerable to Lion's magical burst without
Black King Bar.
*
Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
Additional:
*
Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
*
Doom with the {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent can be useful against heroes with troublesome passive skills while also disabling them for a long time:
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Huskar,
Underlord.
* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless:
Puck,
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage,
Drow Ranger,
Earth Spirit,
Grimstroke.
* In early to mid stage, Silence is also a great way to counter escape oriented heroes such as
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain, and
Phantom Assassin to prevent them from escaping, provided that they don't have any basic dispels.
* With
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Seer can gain an advantage against heroes who rely on evasion as
Normal Punch has true strike:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* With
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Seer can gain an advantage against heroes who rely on evasion as
Normal Punch has true strike:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include
Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Slark and others.
* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time:
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin
* While Slardar has Guardian's Sprint activated,
Powershot cannot slow him and is easier to avoid.
* Slithereen Crush and Bash of the Deep help Slardar put Windranger in place, even when she uses
Windrun to escape.
* Corrosive Haze from Slardar is very effective against Windranger's already low armor. This becomes even worse if she has
Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Windrun, because it also reveals her position and allowing his allies to use their abilities on Windranger.
* Note that the invisibility provided by
Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Windrun is not broken upon attacking, casting abilities or using items, so it's vital to cast Corrosive Haze beforehand.
*
Enfeeble greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's attack damage, and if her attack damage is weak,
Coup De Grace will also suffer from attack damage reduction as well.
Enfeeble also reduces cast range of Phantom Assassin's abilities, making her unable to harass with
Stifling Dagger and to use
Phantom Strike at longer distances.
*
Nightmare and
Fiend's Grip can ground Phantom Assassin, who normally blinks around with
Phantom Strike, and stop her from outputting damage.
* Phantom Assassin's low health pool early on makes her susceptible to {A|Brain Sap|Bane
Additional:
* Enfeeble greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's attack damage, and if her attack damage is weak,
Coup De Grace will also suffer from attack damage reduction as well. Enfeeble also reduces any healing Phantom Assassin receives, making her unable to heal herself with Phantom Strike, and it also reduces cast range of Phantom Assassin's abilities, making her unable to harass with
Stifling Dagger and to use
Phantom Strike at longer distances.
* Nightmare and Fiend's Grip can ground Phantom Assassin, who normally blinks around with
Phantom Strike, and stop her from outputting damage, even with Black King Bar.
* Phantom Assassin's low health pool early on makes her susceptible to Brain Sap and Fiend's Grip's heavy nuke damage.
* Combo Quill Spray and items
Blade Mail can easily trigger from Focus Fire damage.
Additional:
* Using Focus Fire on Bristleback tends to fare badly for Windranger, as he can trigger passive
Quill Sprays many times, especially when she attacks him from behind. In addition, Windrun does not protect her from both
Viscous Nasal Goo and
Quill Spray, rendering her helpless.
* Bristleback's natural tankiness makes it hard for Windranger to effectively burst her down throughout the game.
* Bristleback tends to continuously spam
Viscous Nasal Goo to slow down Windranger when she uses Windrun to escape, potentially allowing him to outrun her with his
Warpath stacks.
* Bristleback can build
Lotus Orb to reflect Shackleshot and Focus Fire back at Windranger.
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings without
Battle Fury.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
*
Silken Bola can cripple Phantom Assassin greatly due to her being 100% reliant on physical attacks.
*
Aghanim's Scepter gives Broodmother access to
Spinner's Snare, which allows her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root Phantom Assassin, deal damage over time to Phantom Assassin and reveal Phantom Assassin if she unwittingly steps on them, disrupting her attempts to initiate or escape with with
Phantom Strike while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings without
Battle Fury.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
*
Silken Bola can cripple Phantom Assassin greatly due to her being 100% reliant on physical attacks.
*
Aghanim's Scepter gives Broodmother access to
Spinner's Snare, which allows her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root Phantom Assassin, deal damage over time to Phantom Assassin and reveal Phantom Assassin if she unwittingly steps on them, disrupting her attempts to initiate or escape with with
Phantom Strike while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Power Cogs prevent Windranger from fleeing with
Windrun.
* Battery Assault repeatedly interrupts
Focus Fire, disrupting Windranger's damage output.
Additional:
* Windranger cannot escape with
Windrun when she is trapped inside
Power Cogs.
*
Battery Assault repeatedly interrupts
Focus Fire, disrupting Windranger's damage output.
* The high mobility provided by
Fire Remnant makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire.
*
Flame Guard and
Searing Chains deal considerable magical damage to Windranger which she cannot avoid with Windrun.
* Searing chains also negates the mobility from Windrun.
* Time Dilation while renders
Windrun movement speed useless slow.
* Time Walk fast cooldown can escaping avoided to Focus Fire. Additionally, Time Walk can dodge to
Powershot
* Chronosphere trap can attacking Windranger can not escaping with
Windrun.
Additional:
*
Time Dilation affects Windranger's low cooldown abilities, making them unusable for a long time, reducing Windranger's escape potential.
* The high mobility provided by
Time Walk makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire.
*
Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against Windranger, allowing for reliable kills in all stages of the game.
* Faceless Void tends to go for items that require
Javelin, such as
Maelstrom,
Mjollnir and
Monkey King Bar, allowing him to bypass the evasion from Windrun.
* Windranger can't escape
Windrun X Marks the Spot with combo Torrent or Ghostship trap.
*
Press The Attack can save her allies dispels the stun from Shackleshot.
*
Duel can lock down Windranger before she can escape with Windrun.
* Legion Commander tends to go for
Blade Mail, which returns the damage she takes from Focus Fire.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
*
Laguna Blade is one of the best tools to kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything in early-to-mid game due to its high magical (pure with
Laguna Blade damage is Pure and pierces Spell Immunity talent) burst damage.
*
Blur offers no protection against Lina's abilities. Likewise, Lina can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge or
Monkey King Bar.
* Lina just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can deal pure damage to Lina and disable
Fiery Soul awhile
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, which may force Lina to buy
Ethereal Blade to deal with Phantom Assassin.
Additional:
*
Laguna Blade is one of the best tools to kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything in early-to-mid game due to its high magical (pure with
Laguna Blade damage is Pure and pierces Spell Immunity talent) burst damage.
*
Blur offers no protection against Lina's abilities. Likewise, Lina can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge or
Monkey King Bar.
* Lina just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can deal pure damage to Lina and disable
Fiery Soul awhile
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, which may force Lina to buy
Ethereal Blade to deal with Phantom Assassin.
* Fragile support heroes are all ideal targets for the Phantom Assassin. Heroes such as
Lina and
Witch Doctor are all prime targets that may not be able to react quickly and fight back due to Phantom Assassin's sudden appearance.
*
Moon Glaives can ignore certain abilities that either trigger on attack or give evasion under the condition that the heroes who have them are not primary targets. Examples include:
Centaur Warrunner,
Windranger,
Phantom Assassin,
Hoodwink etc.
* Even though Phantom Assassin can easily kill Luna in few strikes, Luna can also do the same to Phantom Assassin if she is not careful.
* An ill-timed and ill-positioned
Phantom Strike will make Phantom Assassin an easy target for counter-attack with
Eclipse if she does not have
Black King Bar available to use and if Phantom Assassin cannot kill Luna fast enough. This can be even better if Luna buys
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Moon Glaives can ignore
Blur's evasion if Luna attacks an enemy near Phantom Assassin.
* Luna can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge, or
Monkey King Bar, which are common items on Luna.
* Luna just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing while
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, though this issue can be solved by buying
Ethereal Blade, which is a situational item on Luna.
Additional:
* Even though Phantom Assassin can easily kill Luna in few strikes, Luna can also do the same to Phantom Assassin if she is not careful.
* An ill-timed and ill-positioned
Phantom Strike will make Phantom Assassin an easy target for counter-attack with
Eclipse if she does not have
Black King Bar available to use and if Phantom Assassin cannot kill Luna fast enough. This can be even worse if Luna buys
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Moon Glaives can ignore
Blur's evasion if Luna attacks an enemy near Phantom Assassin.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives can also reduce damage from
Coup De Grace and
Moon Glaives Phantom Assassin inflicts on Luna and damage Spirit Phantom Assassin she is close to her. And the
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives have true strike for their duration, which renders
Blur's evasion insignificant.
* Luna can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge, or
Monkey King Bar, which are common items on Luna.
* Luna just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can deal health-based damage to Luna and disable
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing while
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, though this issue can be partially solved by buying
Ethereal Blade, which is a situational item on Luna.
* All assassin-type carries in a one against one situation:
Meepo,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Ursa. Luna's only chances are that she buys
Ethereal Blade or
Black King Bar to gain a slight edge against them, or both items if necessary.
* Phantom Assassin's high physical damage is greatly reduced by Bulwark.
* God's Rebuke has true strike, ignoring the evasion from
Blur.
*
Purification and
Hammer of Purity can easily catch Phantom Assassin once she jumps with
Phantom Strike in to attack.
*
Heavenly Grace can be used to dispel slow from
Stifling Dagger, and disables from the items Phantom Assassin relies on.
* Phantom Assassin depends entirely on physical attacks and her damage output is 100% physical. Therefore, since she has no any sources of magical damage output and hates going for items that deal magical damage like
Dagon,
Ethereal Blade and
Revenant's Brooch,
Guardian Angel will render her completely useless.
*
Purification,
Heavenly Grace and
Guardian Angel can be used to save an allied hero before Phantom Assassin can finish them off with
Coup De Grace.
Additional:
*
Purification and
Hammer of Purity can easily catch Phantom Assassin once she jumps with
Phantom Strike in to attack.
*
Heavenly Grace can be used to dispel slow from
Stifling Dagger, and disables from the items Phantom Assassin relies on.
* Phantom Assassin depends entirely on physical attacks and her damage output is 100% physical. Therefore, since she has no any sources of magical damage output and hates going for items that deal magical damage like
Dagon,
Ethereal Blade and
Revenant's Brooch,
Guardian Angel will render her completely useless.
*
Purification,
Heavenly Grace and
Guardian Angel can be used to save an allied hero before Phantom Assassin can finish them off with
Coup De Grace.
*
Fire Spirits applies a severe attack speed slow, severely hindering Phantom Assassin's damage output.
* Phantom Assassin cannot cast Phantom Strike on Phoenix during
Supernova.
Additional:
* While her
Phantom Strike does give limited extra attack speed, she cannot use the ability against the Phoenix Sun, and while her
Blur may protect her from attacks, Phoenix's strong magical DPS burns away her small health pool quickly, and the attack speed slow makes her unable to fight back (provided she has no source of spell immunity).
* Queen of Pain, for the most part, almost exclusively deals magical damage, ignoring Windranger's evasion from
Windrun.
* Queen of Pain is also a common wielder of
Orchid Malevolence, preventing Windranger from using her abilities for a while.
* Blink, when used correctly, allows Queen of Pain to dodge
Powershot and
Shackleshot.
* Phantom Assassin relies on her
Blur to stay alive, but is very vulnerable to Sand King's heavy magic damage.
* With Burrowstrike, Sand King can often catch Phantom Assassin before she can use her
Black King Bar.
* Sand King can dodge
Stifling Dagger with Sandstorm.
* Phantom Assassin has a hard time killing Sand King because of his high mobility.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
*
Arcane Bolt's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
*
Mystic Flare's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.
Additional:
* While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
*
Arcane Bolt's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
*
Mystic Flare's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like
Juggernaut,
Lion, or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
*
Ball Lightning can escape quickly fear from
Focus Fire. Windranger can not reach Storm Spirit although Windrun active catch him.
Additional:
* The high mobility provided by
Ball Lightning makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire. It can be also used to dodge Powershot.
* Sven with
Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Storm Hammer can easily chase down Windranger and dispel her Windrun at the same time.
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing towers will often struggle from a small map very early, such as
Phantom Assassin,
Storm Spirit and
Phantom Lancer.
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities:
Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
*
Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from
Stifling Dagger.
* Phantom Assassin has a moderate health pool and usually appears in the front line of battle, making her vulnerable to Timbersaw's pure burst damage output.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his
Timber Chain.
Additional:
*
Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from
Stifling Dagger, as well as ganking attempts.
* Phantom Assassin is a hero with moderate HP pool, and usually appears in the front line of battle. Because
Blur does nothing against spells, she is vulnerable to Timbersaw's skills.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his
Timber Chain.
* Overgrowth prevents Phantom Assassin from using
Blink Strike even through her spell immunity.
* Living Armor reduces Phantom Assassin's physical damage whenever she attempts to gank an allied hero.
*
Firestorm can deal serious damage to Phantom Assassin during laning.
*
Pit of Malice prevents Phantom Assassin from either escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's damage output is entirely physical, therefore
Atrophy Aura is very hazardous for her in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects
Coup De Grace, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Without proper items and any area-of-effect ability/item, Phantom Assassin cannot stop Underlord and his team to escape with
Fiend's Gate, and she has nothing to intercept Underlord and his team when they use
Fiend's Gate to teleport on any area of the map outside of
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard.
Additional:
*
Firestorm can be used to deal serious damage to Phantom Assassin during laning that ignores evasion from
Blur.
*
Pit of Malice prevents Phantom Assassin from either escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's damage output is entirely physical, therefore
Atrophy Aura is very hazardous for her in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects
Coup De Grace, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Without proper items and any area-of-effect ability/item, Phantom Assassin cannot stop Underlord and his team to escape with
Fiend's Gate, nor she can intercept them if Underlord chooses to teleport on any area of the map.
* Void Spirit deals entirely magical damage in the early game, ignoring her evasion from
Windrun.
* A Void Spirit with fast reaction time can use Dissimilate or Astral Step to dodge
Powershot.
Additional:
* Void Spirit deals entirely magical damage in the early game, ignoring her evasion from
Windrun.
* A Void Spirit with fast reaction time can use Dissimilate or Astral Step to dodge
Powershot.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* With
Bloodthorn, Clinkz becomes a strong counter to heroes who rely on evasion and blind such as
Windranger,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord and
Keeper of the Light.
* With
Bloodthorn, Clinkz becomes a strong counter to heroes who rely on evasion and blind such as
Windranger,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord and
Keeper of the Light.
* Heroes with high armor like
Dragon Knight, or with abilities to cause attacks to miss like
Phantom Assassin,
Riki and
Tinker will be hard to deal with, as Clinkz relies almost entirely on physical attacks.
* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless:
Puck,
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage,
Drow Ranger,
Earth Spirit,
Grimstroke.
* Hex abilities prevent attacking, ability and item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using
Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers.
Doom and
Shadow Demon with
Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility:
Doom,
Disruptor with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Dazzle with
Aghanim's Shard
* Heroes who just want to farm and avoid Lone Druid early will find it very hard to do so when he starts knocking on towers:
Templar Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Ember Spirit,
Morphling.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like
Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
*
Bounty Hunter with
Track.
* Heroes with True Sight can be a problem for Windranger once she has upgraded Windrun with
Aghanim's Scepter, but do take note that the invisibility it provides is not broken upon moving, casting abilities or using items, so it is vital to cast these abilities beforehand to be able to provide vision on Windranger:
*
Bounty Hunter with
Track.
*
Bloodseeker with
Thirst.
*
Slardar with
Corrosive Haze.
* Positioning-reliant heroes (
Windranger,
Tidehunter,
Ursa...), since Earth Spirit can disrupt positioning with his Boulder Smash.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage output to be effective will fare badly against Muerta's
Pierce the Veil:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Drow Ranger,
Lifestealer,
Anti-Mage,
Alchemist,
Lycan,
Clinkz,
Sniper.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage are easily negated by Ghost Shroud:
Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
* Heroes capable of perofrming interceptions who can anticipate and counter-initiate after Phantom Assassin blinks on them with Phantom Strike will often kill her than the other way around:
Axe,
Bane,
Dawnbreaker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Luna,
Medusa,
Omniknight,
Pudge,
Razor,
Terrorblade,
Underlord.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Fate's Edict cripples many heroes who rely on attacks, such as
Phantom Assassin,
Sven, or
Enchantress, without a dispel or a
Black King Bar.
* Any heroes with low mana pools will die quickly or even instantly to Sanity's Eclipse:
Doom,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord.
* Heroes who rely on burst physical damage are affected by Lucky Shot's disarm:
Terrorblade,
Sven,
Clinkz,
Windranger,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Legion Commander
Additional:
*
Rolling Thunder allows Pangolier to escape from Focus Fire, or close the gap to Windranger whenever she tries to escape with Windrun.
* Disarm from
Lucky Shot makes Focus Fire temporarily useless.
* In general, Brewmaster's Cinder Brew and Thunder Clap makes him good against physical damage carries:
Ursa,
Clinkz,
Faceless Void,
Troll Warlord,
Templar Assassin,
Phantom Assassin.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Heroes with heavy early and mid-game magical damage are also problematic for Phantom Assassin due to being able to easily kill her before she can gain an item advantage over them:
Lina,
Necrophos,
Nyx Assassin,
Gyrocopter,
Jakiro,
Death Prophet.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* A well-timed Gust will prevent Windranger from escaping or counter-initiating with
Windrun.
* Drow Ranger commonly buys
Shadow Blade or
Silver Edge, which allows her to escape from
Focus Fire.
Monkey King Bar, a situational item on Drow Ranger, counters Windranger's evasion from
Windrun.
* The bonus agility from Marksmanship can shred through Windranger's low armor.
Additional:
* A well-timed
Gust prevents Windranger from escaping or counter-initiating with Windrun.
* Drow Ranger can combine
Frost Arrows and
Eye of Skadi to effectively slow down Windranger if she tries to escape with Windrun, since both slow effects stack with each other.
* Drow Ranger commonly buys
Shadow Blade or
Silver Edge, which allows her to escape from Focus Fire. Drow Ranger can also buy
Monkey King Bar or
Nullifier to counter Windranger's evasion from Windrun.
* The bonus agility from
Marksmanship can shred through Windranger's low armor.
* Generally, heroes that can close the gap on Drow Ranger to cancel her Marksmanship such as
Phantom Assassin,
Spirit Breaker, and
Tusk are effective at limiting her power and bursting her down.
*
Whirling Axes (Melee) makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to land a
Coup De Grace.
* Troll Warlord often buys
Silver Edge and
Monkey King Bar, the items that greatly help against Phantom Assassin's Blur ability.
*
Battle Trance completely negates Phantom Assassin's large damage output, preventing Troll Warlord from dying easily. The lifesteal also allows Troll Warlord to restore much of his health.
Additional:
* Troll Warlord can build a
Silver Edge or a
Monkey King Bar to completely ignore
Blur.
* Whirling Axes (Melee) provides a 60% miss chance, making a
Coup de Grace critical strike very hard to land.
* Battle Trance negates
Coup de Grace, preventing Troll Warlord from dying to her critical hits.
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities:
Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
*
Windrun does not protect Windranger from Cursed Crown's stun or Dark Willow's magical nukes.
*
Focus Fire cannot target Dark Willow in Shadow Realm and will be interrupted if targeted earlier, wasting the ultimate.
Additional:
* Windrun does not protect Windranger from
Cursed Crown stun or Dark Willow's magical nukes.
* Focus Fire cannot target Dark Willow in
Shadow Realm and will be interrupted if targeted earlier, wasting the ultimate.
* Heroes with high burst damage and
Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
*
Windrun evades
Poison Attack and counteracts the slow.
* Viper's low mobility makes him an easy
Shackleshot target.
*
Focus Fire grants Windranger significant physical damage output to quickly wear Viper down.
*
Powershot is a strong harassment and zoning tool against Viper in lane.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include
Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Slark and others.
* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons:
Wraith King,
Bane,
Phantom Assassin.
* Phantom Assassin's
Blur is a real problem for Lycan, as he relies entirely on direct attacks to deal damage.
*
Powershot destroys the tree Monkey King is standing on.
* Monkey King's natural reliance on trees makes him an easy target for
Shackleshot.
*
Windrun evades Monkey King's attacks, preventing him from building up Jingu Mastery.
*
Blur makes it hard for Monkey King to stack Jingu Mastery.
*
Phantom Strike allows Phantom Assassin to blink directly to Monkey King during Wukong's Command, bypassing all his clones.
*
Coup de Grace's high damage can kill Monkey King quickly, thus ending Wukong's Command prematurely.
* Ursa relies on the Blink-Earthshock combo to slow enemies to burst them, but Windranger can use
Windrun to escape through Earthshock's duration.
*
Windrun and
Focus Fire can easily allow Windranger to kite Ursa and do good amounts of damage in the process.
Additional:
* Windranger can avoid Ursa's primary source of damage,
Fury Swipes, by simply using Windrun. The slow from
Earthshock is also rendered irrelevant by Windrun.
* Focus Fire and Windrun can be used to kite Ursa.
* Assuming they have not bought anti-evasion items, attack-dependent heroes such as
Ursa,
Terrorblade or
Lifestealer can be a minor threat for Phantom Assassin early in the game, and may even be completely dominated by her thanks to her evasion.
*
Windrun makes it impossible to hit Windranger with Burning Spears.
* Huskar cannot toggle
Armlet of Mordiggian to regain health while taking constant damage from
Focus Fire.
Additional:
* Windranger prevents Huskar from landing
Burning Spears by using Windrun.
* Because Huskar tends to be at low health, Focus Fire and Powershot are good abilities against him.
* Carries that can out damage Huskar will do well against him:
Legion Commander,
Faceless Void,
Troll Warlord,
Phantom Assassin.
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities:
Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
* Sniper's lack of mobility and reliance on attack range makes him an easy target for Phantom Assassin to jump on.
Additional:
*
Stifling Dagger and
Phantom Strike allow Phantom Assassin to close the gap with Sniper and prevent his escape.
*
Blur allows Phantom Assassin to approach Sniper while invisible and dodge much of Sniper's damage. It can also disjoint Assassinate.
*
Coup De Grace quickly cuts through Sniper's low health; one or two procs will usually kill him.
*
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard can deal damage to Sniper's maximum health and disable
Headshot and
Take Aim.
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him:
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Bounty Hunter,
Spirit Breaker,
Night Stalker,
Storm Spirit,
Juggernaut, etc.
* Ancient Apparition has no escape or reliable control and is very fragile, which makes him an easy target for anyone who can get on top of him, like
Phantom Assassin or
Clinkz.
* Heroes with evasion will cause Chen and his creeps to struggle in attacking them and will waste much of Penitence's power:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Chen's creeps to get to Chen:
Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker.
* Death Ward's first target (before it bounces) can evade it, therefore
Windranger and
Phantom Assassin are poor choices to use it on.
* Fragile support heroes are all ideal targets for the Phantom Assassin. Heroes such as
Lina and
Witch Doctor are all prime targets that may not be able to react quickly and fight back due to Phantom Assassin's sudden appearance.
*
Windrun quickly dodge Mirana's Sacred Arrow and misses her attacks.
*
Shackleshot through tree with
Focus Fire via
Aghanim's Scepter​ combo can kill Mirana quickly, before using Leap or Moonlight Shadow.
* Phantom Assassin can easily escape Lich's slows with
Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's
Coup De Grace can be used to burst down the squishy Lich.
*
Fade Bolt is not enough to burst
Phantom Assassin down without the help of other stolen spells.
*
Rubick has little armor and can be
Phantom Assassin's primary target.
*
Telekinesis is the only way for Rubick to retaliate if being jumped on, but the lockdown duration is generally not enough for Rubick to escape.
* Few of
Phantom Assassin's spells grants utility for
Rubick.
*
Phantom Assassin's spells strengthes her assault power combined with her physical damage output, yet Rubick is not considered a physical damage dealer.
* With that said,
Blur could be of use for Rubick to hide on back in teamfights waiting for the key spell without fearing of being initiated.
* {Ability ID:Windrun|Windranger|16px} negates the damage from {Ability ID:Omnislash|Juggernaut|16px}.
* {Ability ID:Windrun|Windranger|16px} gives Windranger enough movement speed to get out of {Ability ID:Blade fury|Juggernaut|16px} range.
* {Ability ID:Focus fire|Windranger|16px} goes through {Ability ID:Blade Fury|juggernaut|16px}.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
Additional:
* If Phantom Assassin jumps on Pudge first with
Phantom Strike, she will be a very easy target for Pudge's
Meat Hook and
Dismember combo.
* Even though it can deal damage based on Pudge's max health,
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard cannot disable Pudge's
Flesh Heap as
Flesh Heap is one of the few passive abilities that cannot be disabled by break.
* Both
Meat Hook and
Dismember ignore spell immunity which allows Pudge to disable Phantom Assassin even while she has
Black King Bar active.
* Pudge occassionally buys armor items like
Blade Mail, which in combination with many stacks from
Flesh Heap can make Phantom Assassin have little effect against Pudge.
* Pudge relies on his hook to initiate his combo. As long as she's able to avoid the hook with Windrun and shackle him, Windranger can take him down easily. Pudge's low armor means that he won't be able to endure Focus Fire for long.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as
Sven,
Phantom Assassin, and
Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
*
Phantom Strike allows Phantom Assassin jump directly to Io.
*
Coup de Grace can make a short work of Io's low health and armor.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Windranger's highly mobile playstyle allows her to easily control Lifestealer from a distance, as he has no disables on his own.
Windrun not only provides her with bonus move speed, but evasion as well, undoing Lifestealer's ability to attack her. In combination with
Focus Fire, Windranger can easily dispose of Lifestealer without him being able to reach her.
* Lifestealer, at even farm levels, will often fall against other man-fighting non-Strength cores like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin or
Troll Warlord as he cannot truly rely on sustain from
Feast.
Additional:
*
Rage does absolutely nothing against Phantom Strike with items.
*
Feast and
Ghoul Frenzy are very difficult to utilise thanks to Blur.
* Lifestealer generally wants to buy items that make him hard to kill, not an
Monkey King Bar which only offers damage.
*
Windrun's speed allows easy pursuit or escape, while the evasion greatly reduces the threat of Enchantress's Impetus, especially when retreating.
*
Shackleshot is a powerful disable if Enchantress gets too close to one of her own minions.
*
Focus Fire can negate
Untouchable.
* Windrun can be used to dodge Earthshaker's abilities if Windranger has a quick reaction time.
* Focus Fire and Windrun allows Windranger to kite Earthshaker.
* A Windranger with fast fingers can prevent Earthshaker from using
Fissure with Shackleshot.
*
Blink Strike does not grant Riki a mobility advantage over Phantom Assassin, as her Phantom Strike serves the same purpose, but with a higher range.
* A Carry Riki usually has a hard time dealing with Blur, as a
Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn are unfavourable item picks for him (or, even more unlikely, a
Silver Edge).
* A
Black King Bar is a very common pick for Phantom Assassin, fully countering
Smoke Screen and
Diffusal Blade while activated.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* As Terrorblade's damage output comes mainly from direct attacks, he will struggle greatly against heroes who have abilities that give evasion, trigger on attack or which can disarm an enemy hero:
Centaur Warrunner,
Hoodwink,
Huskar,
Invoker,
Leshrac with
Nihilism from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Lifestealer with
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Techies,
Windranger etc.
* Assuming they have not bought anti-evasion items, attack-dependent heroes such as
Ursa,
Terrorblade or
Lifestealer can be a minor threat for Phantom Assassin early in the game, and may even be completely dominated by her thanks to her evasion.
* Heroes with Evasion or abilities that cause Tiny to miss like
Phantom Assassin and
Tinker are very effective because of Tiny's low attack speed. Additionally,
Monkey King Bar is not a good item for Tiny because of its reliance on high attack speed to proc for magical damage.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility and health pool allow Phantom Assassin to destroy him in the early game.
* Phantom Strike allows Phantom Assassin to jump in and out of
Sprout, provided she has vision.
* Heroes with high mobility can be prevented from using it to their advantage with Earthbind, even if they pack a dangerous arsenal:
Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Anti-Mage,
Weaver.
* See items and abilities disabled by roots
*
Focus Fire can quickly attack target Meepo or clones instanly. Additionally, Windranger can use combinated
Shackleshot and
Focus Fire since Poof wrong landing and stunned from
Shackleshot affected Meepo and clones collateral damege from
Focus Fire.
* Escaping from
Windrun make Earthbind roots can not reach.
* Hex abilities prevent attacking, ability and item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using
Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers.
Doom and
Shadow Demon with
Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility:
Doom,
Disruptor with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Dazzle with
Aghanim's Shard
* Dazzle's lack of a true disable makes him a relatively vulnerable target for Phantom Assassin.
* Coup de Grace will often kill Dazzle's teammates before he has a chance to use
Shallow Grave.
* Heroes who can delivers a big chunk of damage in few hits will find themselves struggle against Templar Assassin's Refraction:
Sven,
Phantom Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer
*
Focus Fire tears apart Templar Assassin's Refraction very quickly and easily bursts her down due to her low health pool against Windranger's immense attack speed.
* Templar Assassin's Psionic Trap doesn't slow down Windranger due to
Windrun. Additionally, Windranger can survive Templar Assassin's high burst damage thanks to the evasion it provides.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire:
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire:
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
*
Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire:
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Heroes which rely exclusively on right clicks will struggle somewhat against Blinding Light:
Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Medusa
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp:
Phantom Assassin,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit
*
Sharpshooter disables both
Blur and
Coup De Grace, especially with the level 25 talent.
* Because Phantom Assassin is often reliant on critical strikes, Hoodwink can have enough time to simply move near a tree and escape with
Scurry.
Additional:
*
Sharpshooter disables both
Blur and
Coup De Grace, weakening her damage and survivability.
* Because Phantom Assassin is often reliant on critical strikes, Hoodwink can have enough time to simply move near a tree and escape with
Scurry.
*
Powershot can destroy the trees to prevent
Scurry's passive as well as end
Bushwhack prematurely or prevent it completely.
*
Acorn Shot does not grant True Strike, thus making it easy for Windranger to evade it with
Windrun.
*
Shackleshot stuns Hoodwink for a lengthy duration due to her often reliance on positioning with trees.
Additional:
* Powershot can destroy the trees to prevent
Scurry's passive as well as end
Bushwhack prematurely or prevent it completely.
*
Acorn Shot creates a tree for Windranger to get an easy Shackleshot off.
*
Acorn Shot does not grant True Strike, thus making it easy for Windranger to evade it with Windrun.
* Shackleshot stuns Hoodwink for a lengthy duration due to her often reliance on positioning with trees.
* Jakiro's reliance on his abilities can cause struggles for heroes who rely on evasion or blinds to get upper hand:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Riki,
Troll Warlord,
Keeper of the Light.
* Jakiro's reliance on his abilities can cause struggles for heroes who rely on evasion or blinds to get upper hand:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Riki,
Troll Warlord,
Keeper of the Light.
* Heroes with good counter-push abilities to clear creep waves can hinder Jakiro's early pushing ability:
Death Prophet,
Sniper,
Tinker,
Windranger.
* Heroes with good mobility to avoid Jakiro's abilities and with good chase to punish Jakiro from pushing a tower:
Bloodseeker,
Ember Spirit,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Weaver.
* Silencer's abilities hamper Windranger's effectiveness in battle, preventing her from comboing abilities and escaping using
Windrun.
Additional:
*
Glaives of Wisdom's intelligence steal can prove detrimental to Windranger, as she heavily relies on her abilities to be able to make an impact.
* Silencer's abilities hamper Windranger's effectiveness in battle, preventing her from comboing abilities and escaping using
Windrun.
* Phantom Assassin doesn't care about Silencer's spells as she relies on right-clicks more than spells.
* Phantom Assassin often builds
Black King Bar, which allows her to remove Global Silence before engaging.
* Counterspell can reflects triggering with Focus Fire. Since Focus Fire target against Anti-Mage, Focus Fire damage can return to Anti-Mage easily destroy to Windranger's.
* Anti-Mage items
Abyssal Blade and
Monkey King Bar can useful for Anti-Mage's and easily complicated escaping Windranger's fighting against Anti-Mage's and also bypasses to Windrun evasion.
Additional:
*
Counterspell can reflect Windranger's targeted spells such as
Shackleshot and
Focus Fire back to her.
*
Blink can be used to avoid
Shackleshot and
Powershot, assuming an Anti-Mage player can react fast enough.
*
Mana Break and
Mana Void are good against Windranger's high mana pool.
* Anti-Mage's low health pool making vulnerable to Phantom Assassin's burst damage and
Coup De Grace critical strike, while Blink is on cooldown.
*
Blur makes Anti-Mage unable to deal Mana Break to her.
* Phantom Assassin has low intelligence and low mana pool, making Mana Void do minimal damage.
Additional:
* Anti-Mage can easily withstand heavy magical bursts due to
Counterspell, but he is still somewhat vulnerable to physical damage. Phantom Assassin's burst physical damage can destroy Anti-Mage while
Blink is on cooldown or while he is stunned or hexed.
* Blur makes Anti-Mage unable to deal significant damage to her without buying
Monkey King Bar, which means he cannot buy items to benefit his
Mana Break.
* Phantom Assassin has an abysmal mana pool and intelligence gain, making
Mana Break and
Mana Void deal minimal damage.
* Though certainly not a "hard counter", Crystal Maiden's skillset (magical damage nukes) does pose a substantial threat to Phantom Assassin through the mid game, especially if followed up with engagement by her team.
* A quick use of Freezing Field directly after
Phantom Strike can leave Phantom Assassin trapped inside the area of effect, capitalizing on Phantom Assassin's relatively low HP pool when she is not protected by
Blur, and besides
Skull Basher, Phantom Assassin hates buying disabling items like
Scythe of Vyse or
Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
* If Phantom Assassin chooses not to buy a
Black King Bar relatively early, the attack slow from Freezing Field can greatly hinder the proc chance of
Coup de Grace in a teamfight.
* However, Phantom Assassin's massive damage, and her tendency to build both
Black King Bar and
Skull Basher makes her a formidable foe the later the game goes, and fighting her without a team is almost never a good choice.
* Crystal Maiden's low health pool and slow movement speed make her a tempting and easy target.
* However, it may be wise to build
Black King Bar first before attempting to fight her alone, as she can disable you and retaliate with
Freezing Field.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
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Windranger
* Phase Shift allows Puck to effectively dodge
Powershot, and even
Shackleshot if timed correctly.
Windrun and
Focus Fire .
Windrun when she's affected by Dream Coil, as she will be instantly stunned when she tries to break away from the coil, allowing Puck's teammates to focus her down.
* Waning Rift prevents Windranger from casting all her abilities, most especially
* Windranger cannot escape with
Phantom Assassin
* Puck relies mainly on magical burst damage, which Phantom Assassin is most vulnerable against.
Phase Shift and
Illusory Orb disjoint Stifling Dagger, also allowing to kite Phantom Assassin.
Dream Coil will stun Phantom Assassin if she uses
Phantom Strike to blink away.
*
*