Phantom Assassin Guide

Items

Starting items:

• Healing Salve and Tangos provide basic regen to stay in lane and continue farming despite enemy harassment. Given that Phantom Assassin is an agility melee carry who must close in to get last-hits, regen is important to ensure that she can survive the early game and transition smoothly into farming by herself.
• Iron Branches give a very cost-effective increase to Phantom Assassin`s attributes, and can be built into a Magic Wand.
• Stout Shield helps reduce harass damage taken from lane opponents, increasing survivability.
• Quelling Blade can be crucial for increasing Phantom Assassin`s farming ability in the early game. Being able to last-hit more easily and kill neutral camps faster allows her to farm the items she needs to start becoming effective in a match.

Early game:

• Boots of Speed are important to obtain early on. Phantom Assassin must be able to easily move in and out of range to last-hit, as well as chase or escape as needed without having to rely as much on Phantom Strike.
• Poor Man`s Shield provides increased damage block, and additional agility for more base damage and armor. It can greatly improve Phantom Assassin`s lane survivability and aid in getting last-hits.
• Magic Wand   Item   Changelogs     Magic WandB A simple wand used to channel magic energies, it is favored by apprentice wizards and great warlocks alike. Cost465 Bought FromCommon Active Energy Charge Charges 0 Bonus can greatly improve Phantom Assassin`s survivability and effectiveness in the early game. It provides a small amount of attributes and tremendous charge storage for burst health and mana regen, both of which are crucial on an agility hero with low strength and intelligence.
• Town Portal Scroll   Item   Changelogs     Town Portal ScrollBL What a hero truly needs. Cost50 Bought FromConsumables Active Teleport Charges 1 Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Town Portal Scroll is an item purchasable is crucial to carry at all times. As a hard carry, Phantom Assassin is the linchpin of her team, and her absence in teamfights can be greatly detrimental to her team`s chances of victory.
• Ring of Aquila is a strong stat item that greatly aids Phantom Assassin in the early game. It provides agility and bonus damage to improve Phantom Assassin`s last-hitting power, and the flat mana regen aura replenishes a larger fraction of Phantom Assassin`s pitiful mana pool than it does for other heroes, allowing her to utilize her spells more regularly.

Core items:

• Power Treads boosts Phantom Assassin`s combat effectiveness and survivability greatly. The extra attack speed increases her damage output, whether it is for attacking heroes or creeps; with greater attack speed comes more chances for proccing Coup de Grace. Attribute switching is very important, as it can be switched to strength for more health, agility for more damage output, or intelligence for using spells, particularly for repeated casting of Stifling Dagger.
• Desolator is a useful utility mid-game item that can be built relatively easily. It allows Phantom Assassin to apply the armor debuff from long range with Stifling Dagger, softening up multiple targets for her team and for her own attacks. The damage boost also greatly improves the killing power of Coup de Grace, particularly when combined with the armor reduction on enemies that Phantom Assassin jumps on.
• Black King Bar   Item   Changelogs     Black King BarB A powerful staff imbued with the strength of giants. Cost3975 (1375) Bought FromArmor Active Avatar Bonus +10 Strength+24 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe gives Phantom Assassin much-needed spell immunity, allowing her to ignore enemy disables and nukes as she directly engages enemies in fights. The extra health helps increase survivability, while the damage improves attack power.

Situational items:

• Phase Boots can be situationally useful over Power Treads depending on how they are utilized. The bonus damage helps with last-hitting and increases the potency of Coup de Grace, while the extra movement speed allows Phantom Assassin to more easily chase down enemies or flee when both Phantom Strike and Stifling Dagger cannot be relied on.
• Helm of the Dominator provides health regeneration and attack speed, keeping Phantom Assassin healthy and improving her damage output. The active ability allows access to useful neutral creep abilities, such as the Alpha Wolf`s Packleader`s Aura, the Satyr Banisher`s Purge and the Ogre Frostmage`s Ice Armor. The dominated creep can also be used to escape fights by providing a Phantom Strike target.
• Battle Fury is a strong item for allowing Phantom Assassin to secure her ability to farm into the late game. The damage and cleave allow her to easily clear bunches of creeps, whether it is for farming or pushing/counter-pushing, while the health and mana regen ensure that she can always maintain her health and mana pools while farming.
• Satanic improves Phantom Assassin`s survivability in teamfights, allowing her to quickly refill health with Coup de Grace crits.
• Mask of Madness provides an alternate source of lifesteal and attack speed. Phantom Assassin`s survivability is based on evasion instead of armor and her damage comes from a passive ability, partially offsetting the debuff, but not being able to use Stifling Dagger or Phantom Strike can be costly when trying to chase or flee, making this item a dangerous purchase.
• Abyssal Blade can be crucial for giving Phantom Assassin the lockdown and damage she needs to quickly eliminate key opponents in fights. The bash gives her a chance to stun an enemy after jumping on them with Phantom Strike, while the active allows her to instantly hard-disable any foe through spell immunity, long enough to bring them down with Coup de Grace. It also increase her survivability giving bonus health and health regeneration and blocking 40 damage from incoming attacks.
• Butterfly greatly boosts Phantom Assassin`s damage output, as well as providing additional evasion. While stacking it alongside Blur runs the risk of having both nullified by the enemy building Monkey King Bar, purchasing a Butterfly can punish certain lineups by forcing their heroes to purchase Monkey King Bar over a different item that synergizes better with their strengths. As well, Butterfly`s active allows Phantom Assassin to more easily chase or flee in circumstances where Phantom Strike proves impossible to use.
• Vladmir`s Offering is useful as a utility substitute over Helm of the Dominator. It provides many of the same bonuses, but despite its higher cost it is not registered as a Unique Attack Modifier, giving Phantom Assassin the option to purchase one that synergizes better with Stifling Dagger.
• Monkey King Bar For the hero, see Monkey King.   Item   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Monkey King Bar A powerful staff used by a master warrior. Cost5200 Bought FromWeapons Passive Mini-Bash, True Strike Bonus +66 is a situationally useful damage item to build in order to counter enemy evasion. As well, the increased damage and attack speed is one of the best options for increasing Phantom Assassin`s damage output as she does not benefit as much comparatively from building a Daedalus due to her ultimate.
• Assault Cuirass greatly increases Phantom Assassin`s damage output through more attack speed as well as the enemy armor reduction aura. The improved armor also greatly increases her survivability against physical damage, and the aura helps give teammates more armor and attack speed as well, which can be very useful depending on team composition.
• Orb of Venom is a useful purchase in the laning stage that helps Phantom Assassin to secure kills alongside her team. Combined with Stifling Dagger, it can reduce an enemy`s movement speed by up to 62% from long range.
• Drum of Endurance is useful for allowing Phantom Assassin to fight earlier instead of attempting to farm for extended periods of time. Its easy buildup allows it to be purchased quickly, and it provides all-around attributes, particularly strength and intelligence to boost Phantom Assassin`s health and mana pools. The aura increases her movement and attack speed, allowing her to be more mobile in fights, and the active is a powerful combat booster that gives her and her team an edge in teamfights.
• Skull Basher   Item   Changelogs     Skull BasherB A feared weapon in the right hands, this maul s ability to shatter the defenses of its opponents should not be underestimated. Cost2700 (750) Bought FromWeapons Passive Bash can be a strong mid-game purchase in order to give Phantom Assassin some lockdown once she has acquired enough attack speed. Jumping on top of an enemy with Phantom Strike can give her a chance to stun enemies, stopping them in their tracks while Phantom Assassin continues to damage them. The extra strength gives her some more health for survivability, while the damage increases the potency of Coup de Grace.
• Diffusal Blade is a situationally strong utility damage item in Phantom Assassin`s hands. It boosts her agility and intelligence, giving her more damage output and mana, and the active can remove buffs from enemies while greatly slowing them for her to jump on.
• Sange and Yasha is a situationally powerful mid-game item that is easy to farm and allows Phantom Assassin to begin participating in teamfights earlier. The agility and strength-based bonuses give her more damage output and health, while the movement speed makes her far more mobile, allowing her to chase and escape far more easily. Greater Maim can slow enemies down and prevent them from running away from her, and has a chance to proc with Stifling Dagger as well, potentially slowing an enemy by up to 82% movement speed.
• Eye of Skadi is a powerful carry item and can greatly boost Phantom Assassin`s combat effectiveness. It grants stats across the board, giving Phantom Assassin more health, mana and base damage. The Cold Attack passive can be used alongside lifesteal, and allows Phantom Assassin to slow enemies with her attacks and Stifling Dagger, greatly reducing their movement speed and preventing them from easily escaping her.
• Refresher Orb is a very rarely built item, but can be used for double Satanic active, refreshing the cooldown of Black King Bar   Item   Changelogs     Black King BarB A powerful staff imbued with the strength of giants. Cost3975 (1375) Bought FromArmor Active Avatar Bonus +10 Strength+24 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe , and other uses.

Gameplay

Playstyle
Phantom Assassin   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Phantom Assassin 20 + 2.15 23 + 3.15 15 + 1.4 Level is a carry renowned for her innate chance to deal massive critical Critical strike is a passive ability that gives a chance to deal bonus damage on a successful attack. Contents 1 Mechanics 2 Stacking 3 Interaction with other passive abilities 4 Sources of chance-based critical strike damage, often killing enemies with a single swing. She specializes in hunting down vulnerable heroes, slowing them with a Stifling Dagger and leaping past defenses with Phantom Strike. Like other carries, Phantom Assassin needs a decent amount of gold “ Play Now that s how you make gold. Click to listen— Alchemist ” Gold is the currency used to buy items or instantly revive your hero. Gold can be earned from killing heroes, creeps, or buildings. Contents and items to be effective. Because of her complete dependence on landing physical crits, she is susceptible to disables Disables (also called crowd control, or CC) refer to any abilities or status effects that prevent, impede, or otherwise inhibit a Hero from acting. Disables come in many different varieties, and most Heroes have access and must rely on a Black King Bar   Item   Changelogs     Black King BarB A powerful staff imbued with the strength of giants. Cost3975 (1375) Bought FromArmor Active Avatar Bonus +10 Strength+24 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe in most teamfights.
Pros	Cons
Very high burst damage. Has natural evasion Relationship Between Effective @@@#@@@HP(hp.com)###@### % and Evasion Evasion is a passive ability that gives the unit a chance to dodge an incoming physical attack. When evaded, the attack gets completely nullified, acting as if it . Has a cheap, long-range slow with good damage. Fairly mobile.	Dependent on pseudo-random distribution. Vulnerable to disables. Highly dependent on Black King Bar   Item   Changelogs     Black King BarB A powerful staff imbued with the strength of giants. Cost3975 (1375) Bought FromArmor Active Avatar Bonus +10 Strength+24 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe .

Videos

Info

Hero

Strategy

Counters   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Contents 1 Bad against... 1.1 Others 1.2 Items 2 Good against... 2.1

Equipment   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     v • d • e Phantom Assassin Equipment (collapse sets)Sets Bloodroot Guard Creeping Shadow Dame de Carreau Dark Wraith

Gear   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     This is a list of cosmetic items that reflects Phantom Assassin s design

Responses   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     v • d • e  Voice responses Hero responses Abaddon Alchemist Ancient Apparition Anti-Mage Arc Warden Axe Bane

Sounds   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     v • d • e  Dota 2 Sounds Hero Sounds Abaddon Alchemist Ancient Apparition Anti-Mage Arc Warden Axe

Lore   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Mortred, the Phantom Assassin Through a process of divination, children are selected

Old Abilities   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Blink Strike PlayWB AbilityTarget Unit AffectsSelf / Enemies DamageMagical Teleports to a

Changelogs   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Contents 1 Version history 2 Patch history Version history edit] Version Description

Ability Builds

Talents

Hero Talents   Main   Table of Gained Bonuses     The Talent Selection interface. Talents are traits unique to each hero. They are chosen every 5th level starting at level 10, offering a permanent choice between
Double Strike Stifling Dagger	25	+25 Agility Agility is the attribute that grants armor and attack speed. For each point of agility a hero gets: 0.14 (1/7) Armor 1 Attack speed Additionally, agility heroes also get 1 attack damage per agility point.
+10 All Stats	20	+35 Attack Speed
+20 Movement Speed	15	10% Lifesteal
+15 Damage	10	+150 Health

Notes:

• Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

• The attack damage is added as bonus attack damage, and therefore does not benefit illusions.

• The lifesteal is not a unique attack modifier Unique Attack Modifiers (abbreviated UAM; formerly known as Orb Effects) are special attack modifiers that cannot be used simultaneously with each other—one always takes priority. They may be provided by abilities (e.g. Anti-Mage s Mana Break), and fully stacks with other sources of lifesteal.

General

• Be mindful that Phantom Assassin is largely a single-target damage hero with low disable potential, so she is unable to deal with multiple targets simultaneously. Target prioritization is key, as Phantom Assassin must precisely eliminate her foes one at a time and cannot afford to be kited.
• Despite possessing extremely low base intelligence and intelligence growth, Phantom Assassin has only two low-cost active abilities, so she rarely runs into mana problems and does not have to go out of her way to increase the size of her mana pool. As well, her small mana pool allows her to benefit disproportionately from burst mana regen, such as Magic Wand   Item   Changelogs     Magic WandB A simple wand used to channel magic energies, it is favored by apprentice wizards and great warlocks alike. Cost465 Bought FromCommon Active Energy Charge Charges 0 Bonus , allied Arcane Boots   Item   Changelogs     Arcane BootsL Magi equipped with these boots are valued in battle. Cost1300 Bought FromSupport Active Replenish Mana Bonus +250 Mana+50 Movement speed Disassemble? Yes Alert allies? Yes Recipe The and Chakra Magic, letting her focus on building items to increase her damage output and carry potential.
  • Beware that this can also be used against Phantom Assassin as well, as destroying her meager mana pool with abilities like Mana Break, EMP and Mana Drain can render her unable to cast her spells or use item active abilities in a teamfight. The same applies to abilities that manipulate her intelligence like Arcane Orb and Intelligence Steal, which also renders her extremely vulnerable to Sanity`s Eclipse.
  • Be mindful that since she relies on two passive abilities for survival and damage output, Phantom Assassin is very vulnerable to break For the passive ability of Tranquil Boots, see here. Break is a status effect that disables passive abilities from those affected. It does not disable passive components from items such as evasion from Talisman of -type abilities, particularly Silver Edge   Item   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Silver Edge Once used to slay an unjust king, only to have the kingdom erupt into civil war in the aftermath. Cost5550 (700) Bought FromWeapons Active . Removing her ability to evade physical attacks, as well as deal crits, can render her impotent in fights.
• As with most other agility carries, Phantom Assassin is very weak against burst Magical and Pure damage. While she gains respectable amounts of armor through her high agility growth and can evade attacks through Blur, her mediocre strength results in a health pool that can be easily shredded by spells. This also includes items such as Blade Mail   Item   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Blade MailBL A razor-sharp coat of mail, it is the choice of selfless martyrs in combat. Cost2200 Bought FromArmor Active Damage Return Bonus +10 Intelligence+6 Armor+22 , which can allow enemies to turn Phantom Assassin`s high physical damage output against her.
• All of the above make building spell immunity   Spell Immunity   Ally Interactions   Enemy Interactions     Default buff iconPlay Error sound “ Play Magic shall not prevail! Click to listen— Anti-Mage ” Spell immunity (formerly known as magic immunity) is a modifier very important on Phantom Assassin. The ability to block mana-destroying abilities, block break debuffs, and ignore magic nukes allows Phantom Assassin to survive long enough to eliminate key enemies during engagements.
• As a hard carry, Phantom Assassin is limited in the ways that she can be laned.
  • In standard situations, Phantom Assassin is played as a safe lane carry who is safeguarded by at least one support. She spends the laning stage accumulating last-hits and surviving enemy harass, trying to farm the items she needs to begin operating independently. As she possesses a slow and nuke in Stifling Dagger and a chasing/escaping spell in Phantom Strike, Mortred is capable of assisting her lanemates in setting up and getting kills on the enemy off-laner, and can dodge ganks fairly reliably if given an opportunity to cast Phantom Strike.
  • Depending on the lane opponent, Phantom Assassin can be played as a solo mid. While she lacks base damage and can be easy to harass when approaching for last-hits, Stifling Dagger allows her to safely get last-hits at range and harass the enemy constantly. Both Stifling Dagger and Phantom Strike can be used as disabling and initiating spells when allied supports rotate mid for ganks, and the solo experience and gold can allow Phantom Assassin to start being effective earlier on.

Stifling Dagger

• Stifling Dagger is a multi-purpose spell that gives Phantom Assassin the ability to deal damage outside of melee range. It is a good ability to consider maxing out first, as its slow duration and damage scale up while its mana cost goes down.
• In general, Stifling Dagger is a good ability to get last-hits with, as its extremely long cast range lets Phantom Assassin kill enemy creeps outside of harass range. It can also be used in turn to harass lane opponents and wear down their health over time, though beware of enemies purchasing Magic Stick to counteract this in-lane.
• Stifling Dagger`s long cast range allows Phantom Assassin to damage enemies at ranges where they may think that they are safe. Among its uses are to cancel enemy regeneration, such as from Healing Salve and Clarity, which can give Phantom Assassin a laning advantage.
• Used as a disable, Phantom Assassin can cast Stifling Dagger to greatly slow enemies to prevent them from easily escaping, allowing her and her allies to kill them more easily. As well, it can be used to cover a teammate`s escape, slowing a pursuing enemy so that they cannot get within range to attack or cast disables.
• Stifling Dagger deals a regular attack by Phantom Assassin on its target, which can inflict attack modifiers and proc chance-based modifiers at range. This allows Phantom Assassin to take greater advantage of attack modifiers than most other carries, as she can utilize them at long range against a variety of opponents.
• Stifling Dagger can also be used as a way to disable enemies from afar due to on-hit effects of some items like Skull Basher   Item   Changelogs     Skull BasherB A feared weapon in the right hands, this maul s ability to shatter the defenses of its opponents should not be underestimated. Cost2700 (750) Bought FromWeapons Passive Bash and Monkey King Bar For the hero, see Monkey King.   Item   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Monkey King Bar A powerful staff used by a master warrior. Cost5200 Bought FromWeapons Passive Mini-Bash, True Strike Bonus +66 . With items like these, Phantom Assassin can disable channeling spells and Town Portal Scroll   Item   Changelogs     Town Portal ScrollBL What a hero truly needs. Cost50 Bought FromConsumables Active Teleport Charges 1 Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Town Portal Scroll is an item purchasable s without even being in melee range.

Phantom Strike

• Phantom Strike is a pseudo-blink ability that teleports Phantom Assassin to the target unit, boosting her attack speed when attacking a targeted enemy.
• Leveling up Phantom Strike reduces its cooldown, increasing Phantom Assassin`s mobility, both for chasing and escaping. Reducing the cooldown allows Phantom Assassin to continually stick to fleeing enemies and pursue them over great distances if needed.
• As Phantom Strike can be targeted on both allies and enemies alike, it can be cast as an escape spell to get away from pursuing enemies. To this end, also keep in mind that allies do not have to be at the same elevation as Phantom Assassin, so it can be used to scale cliffs and transit trees to put terrain between Mortred and her pursuers.
• Given its low mana cost and cooldown, Phantom Strike can be useful for boosting Phantom Assassin`s attack speed when farming creeps, particularly neutral camps. Be that as it may, keep in mind that the attack speed bonus only applies so long as she is attacking the target of the Phantom Strike, so use it only when it is necessary to focus down a creep over repeated attacks.
• When used to jump on top of enemy heroes, try to combine Phantom Strike with a leading Stifling Dagger. Stifling Dagger deals small initial damage, slows and provides vision over the target, allowing Phantom Assassin to get within range to Phantom Strike, attacking them while they are slowed and preventing them from easily kiting her. If time and range permits, try to close in to Phantom Strike range first, and jump onto the target right as Stifling Dagger connects in order to maximize the number of attacks made on the slowed enemy.
• Be very careful about which targets are chosen for Phantom Strike, and be wary about over-committing. Phantom Assassin`s tremendous damage output makes it tempting to jump onto any potential target, but beware that enemies can bait her into a disadvantageous position far from allied support. As well, certain enemies with point-blank disables such as Slithereen Crush and Berserker`s Call can instantly stun Mortred when she jumps on top of them, and supports with a Ghost Scepter   Item   Changelogs     Ghost ScepterB Imbues the wielder with a ghostly presence, allowing them to evade physical damage. Cost1500 Bought FromArcane Active Ghost Form Bonus +5 Strength+5 Agility+5 Intelligence Disassemble? No Alert can simply become ethereal to become immune to her attacks.
• Combined with Helm of the Dominator, Phantom Strike can always ensure that Phantom Assassin has an escape route. Positioning a dominated creep in an area of safety while farming can allow her to instantly jump away if enemies attempt to gank her, and the creep can also be used to scout for vision as needed.
• Be mindful that Phantom Strike does not disjoint Shadow Fiend using a Blink Dagger to dodge Phantom Assassin s Stifling Dagger Disjointing is the act of dodging projectiles, or rather, to cause a projectile to fully lose track of its target. A disjoint is incoming enemy projectiles. Simply putting distance between Phantom Assassin and any pursuers may not be enough to ensure safety, as targeted stuns can still follow her, and area disables like Storm Hammer, Fortune`s End and Concussive Shot also run the risk of disabling the ally that Phantom Assassin jumps to.

Blur

• Blur grants Phantom Assassin evasion Relationship Between Effective HPTechnology company % and Evasion Evasion is a passive ability that gives the unit a chance to dodge an incoming physical attack. When evaded, the attack gets completely nullified, acting as if it against physical attacks, as well as shrouding her from mini-map vision when no enemies are nearby.
• A value point in Blur in the laning stage can aid Phantom Assassin`s survivability against enemy harass. Be that as it may, given the strong utility of her other abilities, it is best saved as the last ability to max out.
• Beware that smart enemies almost always build Monkey King Bar For the hero, see Monkey King.   Item   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Monkey King Bar A powerful staff used by a master warrior. Cost5200 Bought FromWeapons Passive Mini-Bash, True Strike Bonus +66 in order to counter Blur, so do not rely on it for protection against physical attacks in the late game. Regardless, it can still buy Phantom Assassin survivability in the mid game and ensure that enemies have a much harder time trying to kill her before they are able to complete it.
• Be mindful that even if the enemy does not build Monkey King Bar, they may have ways to reliably burst down Phantom Assassin without the need to rely on physical attacks. When facing teams with heavy burst nukes, it may be wise not to skill Blur past the value point and take Attribute Bonus instead, to boost Phantom Assassin`s health, armor and base damage.
• In general, Blur is best used to punish enemies for picking heroes that cannot greatly benefit from purchasing Monkey King Bar. For instance, Phantom Lancer`s illusions can only benefit from the True Strike and not from the raw damage and attack speed, while the same applies to Chaos Knight. In other cases, Sven cannot boost the power of God`s Strength as it does not provide bonus strength, and Riki cannot buy an agility item to increase the damage of Cloak and Dagger, which can limit their upper effectiveness once they are six-slotted.
• Blur`s ability to hide Phantom Assassin on the mini-map allows her to push and farm in areas where other carries cannot do so as safely. Unless the enemy is directly checking lanes that they are not present in, they may be unaware that Phantom Assassin is in that area.
• The blurring effect allows Phantom Assassin to know when enemies are near her, so long as they are not invisible. If the blur effect around her body and the status icon disappear, it likely means that an enemy hero is nearby, and Phantom Assassin can take action accordingly.

Coup de Grace

• Coup de Grace is what allows Phantom Assassin to be such a threatening hard carry, as building agility items can tremendously boost her damage output through increased attack speed for more proc chances and more attack damage for larger crits. Because decisions made during engagements are based on expectations of damage output and survivability, Phantom Assassin can throw off enemies` expectations through sudden and surprise crits, causing them to re-think how they want to engage her team.
• When fighting, try to determine which enemy heroes can be quickly eliminated with Coup de Grace, and take them out of the picture before they can take part in the fight. Phantom Assassin`s ability to deal sudden burst physical damage can allow her to eliminate squishy supports with powerful teamfight items and spells before they know what hit them.
• Because it uses pseudo-random distribution, Coup de Grace can be hard to utilize effectively. Failing to proc the ability increases the chances of it proccing for the next attack, so stacking up a few regular attacks before engaging an enemy can increase the chances of landing an opening crit.
• Remember that as the same crit chance is applied to Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin can potentially use it to deal tremendous damage at range. Mind that its distribution is kept as a separate variable from Phantom Assassin`s attacks, so proccing a crit with one does not reduce the chances of proccing a crit with the other.
• In general, it is best to build items that grant both attack speed and damage, rather than focusing on one or the other. Phantom Strike can be used to increase the proc chance in a given engagement through increased attack speed, however it cannot be relied on as a steady source of proc chance.