Phantom Assassin Counters & Build

Axe 3,557 matches

−3.7%

WhyAxe establishes an early advantage by winning the lane clearly against Phantom Assassin and carries that control into teamfights. Berserker's Call forces Phantom Assassin to attack Axe while granting him massive bonus armor, causing her rapid attacks from Phantom Strike to repeatedly trigger Counter Helix procs that bypass her Immaterial evasion with pure damage. Axe can then reliably finish her off with the pure damage threshold of Culling Blade.

Pudge 5,950 matches

−2.6%

WhyPudge establishes an early advantage in the lane because Phantom Assassin's Immaterial evasion offers no defense against the pure spell damage and lock down from Meat Hook, Rot, and Dismember. Furthermore, Meat Shield absorbs her physical burst from Stifling Dagger and Coup de Grace, while Meat Hook and Rot can both hit and damage her even when concealed by Blur.

Templar Assassin 1,141 matches

−2.6%

WhyRefraction absorbs entire instances of damage even if they exceed the remaining barrier, completely negating Phantom Assassin's high-damage burst from Coup de Grace and Stifling Dagger. In return, Templar Assassin can rapidly tear through Phantom Assassin using bonus attack damage from Refraction paired with the armor reduction from Meld. Psionic Trap further limits Phantom Assassin's mobility by applying heavy slows.

Spirit Breaker 3,218 matches

−2.6%

WhySpirit Breaker starts with an early advantage by winning the lane and reliably tracks Phantom Assassin through Blur using the shared vision from Charge of Darkness. Charge of Darkness and Nether Strike apply guaranteed Greater Bashes that ignore her Immaterial evasion and still function through the Break from Fan of Knives. Additionally, Planar Pocket disrupts her ability to freely cast unit-targeted spells like Stifling Dagger and Phantom Strike.

Dark Seer 1,056 matches

+3.0%

WhyWhile the laning stage between them is roughly even, Phantom Assassin gains an edge in mid-to-late game engagements by using Phantom Strike to immediately close the distance on Dark Seer. Her massive physical burst from Coup de Grace quickly cuts him down, while Fan of Knives deals heavy percentage-based max health damage and applies Break. Furthermore, Blur keeps her hidden from initiation setups until she chooses to engage.

Nature's Prophet 3,803 matches

+2.4%

WhyWhile the laning stage is roughly even, Phantom Assassin gains an advantage in mid-to-late game skirmishes because Phantom Strike lets her instantly close the distance to Nature's Prophet or jump out of Sprout. Her innate Immaterial evasion greatly mitigates his right-click damage, while Fan of Knives applies Break to nullify his Spirit of the Forest damage bonuses before bursting him down with Coup de Grace.

Mars 1,304 matches

+2.3%

WhyWhile the laning stage between them is roughly even, Phantom Assassin gains an edge in later fights by neutralizing Mars's primary defense. Her Fan of Knives deals percentage max health damage and applies Break, which directly disables the damage reduction from Bulwark. Once Mars is stripped of his passive protection, Phantom Assassin can quickly close the distance with Phantom Strike and eliminate him with Coup de Grace critical hits.

Sand King 990 matches

+2.3%

WhyPhantom Assassin takes an early lane advantage by safely harassing with Stifling Dagger and aggressively closing the gap using Phantom Strike. Fan of Knives applies Break to neutralize Sand King's Caustic Finale, while her massive physical burst from Coup de Grace allows her to quickly eliminate him. Additionally, Immaterial provides built-in evasion against the physical strikes delivered by Stinger.

Sven 1,958 matches

+2.1%

WhyWhile the laning stage is roughly even, Phantom Assassin gains an advantage in later fights because Immaterial provides scaling evasion that heavily blunts Sven's attack damage from God's Strength. Furthermore, Blur can disjoint the incoming projectile of Storm Hammer, and Fan of Knives shreds Sven's high health pool with percentage-based damage while applying Break to disable his passives.