Phantom Lancer is currently my favourite Dota 2 hero. Phantom Lancer excels in the late game and fairly average prior to level 6.

Phantom Lancer has good ganking and escaping mechanics which in my opinion, make him one of the best hero’s in-game. The only time Phantom Lancer is not a good choice is when the team has an Earthshaker – due to ES ability that increases in damage with each additional target (or in Phantom Lancer’s case, illusions) in the AOE. Phantom Lancer is also not so great when the enemy have lots of AOE lock-down/stun chars. Though, with Diffusal Blade, Phantom Lancer can still be a formidable force if he’s able to mana drain the enemy before they’re able to cast.

My basic strategy:

1. Lane until level 6
2. With Juxtapose start jungling and farming for Diffusal Blade (level 1) – Diffusal offers decent agility, this will help with PL’s juxtapose and also has mana drain – which helps everywhere. For jungling it means you can target the bigger creeps and drain their mana before they can activate their abilities, making for a more pleasant jungling experience.
3. Once Diffusal Blade (level1) is attained the PL should consider starting to gank/pick off unsuspecting heroes. Otherwise, continue farming for a lvl 2 diffusal and then a vlad’s (Note: do not have Morbid Mask and Diffusal together, as they can’t both be used due to both being unique modifiers). One of PL’s weaknesses is that he has low max HP – vlad’s helps to counter that.
4. Having both Diffusal and vlad’s PL can stay in fights for a significant amount of time and can also down heroes fairly easily.
5. After Vlad’s I usually go for a Yasha (for the bonus movement to get around more easily and chasing down heroes, and of course more agility). Depending on circumstances I may upgrade it to a Manta or go for a basher first. Once I’ve gotten those, can then pick from any of the standard late game items if you’ve not already won the game.

Fight strategy:

• Initiate with Spirit Lance to slow enemy down + get 1 illusion.
• (Requires: Diffusal Blade) In Teamfights, recommend targeting highly mana dependant heroes first in order to drain their mana pools early in the fight – preventing them from using abilities and rendering them useless.
• (Requires: Abyssal Blade) Following Spirit Lance use Overwhelm to stun the target for 2 seconds.
• Use Doppleganger to start getting those illusions out and cause confusion.
• If the enemy still manages to get away – throw more Spirit Lances at them or (Requires: Diffusal Blade) purge them to really slow them down.
• Requires: (Manta Style) Use Mirror Image to create more longer lasting images
• If real Phantom Lancer is being targeted – use Doppleganger to confuse the enemy and avoid being targeted.
• Try moving illusions around to trick the enemy into targeting the illusions and wasting abilities on them.

~TheDave