Phantom Assassin is broken in Dota 2 patch 7.34c

Phantom Assassin is one of the most powerful carry heroes in Dota 2 patch 7.34c. For many years, this hero was viable only in the lower MMR brackets because she had so many counters, both in lane as well as in team fights.

Her survival mechanisms were poor and her offensive capabilities were a bit unreliable. But after getting buffed multiple times by IceFrog, Phantom Assassin is finally not just viable, but completely overpowered.

At DreamLeague S21, PA got picked 22 times and her win rate was 59%. Very few heroes that got heavily picked had a higher win rate. Examples include Sven (72.2%), Brewmaster (80%), and Treant Protector (75%).

What makes Phantom Assassin so strong

PA is strong in Dota 2 patch 7.34c because of the combination of her natural items and abilities. Most players buy Power Treads and then rush Battle Fury. Both items can be bought in under 15 minutes if the safe lane goes reasonably well, and sometimes even faster if you manage to get a few kills.

This is a timing that allows you to speed up your farm tremendously over the next 10 minutes. By the 25-minute mark, assuming you haven’t lost all map control and all of your towers while being 20K gold behind, you should have a pretty significant advantage.

When networth is even, or even when you are 5K gold behind, you are considerably stronger than your opponent because you can delete heroes in seconds without them being able to react to you.

Just press your BKB, jump on a target, use your Stifling Dagger, and you should have your kill, especially if you crit twice in a row. The dagger plus the first two attacks happen in less than a second, which means you can attack three times in the first second of the duel.

In lower MMR brackets, players won’t even notice that they died. Sometimes, even if they do get to react in time, the abilities they use take another half a second to hit you. That’s way too slow relative to your damage output.

There’s a reason why this hero is called Phantom Assassin. And now that Blur provides genuine invisibility in most scenarios, your ability to move around the map and find neutral camps is tremendous. All you need is a decent team that can create space for you.

Header: Valve