Phantom Assassin

Version Control

This article is mostly accurate for the latest version of the game (7.37), in which this hero/item was changed.
It has no changes in the current game version — 7.37e.

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Phantom Assassin

#80

19 + 2

21 + 3.4

15 + 1.7

Grants the following bonuses per attribute point:
	+22HP and +0.1HP regeneration
	+0.17 armor and 1 attack speed +1 Main Attack Damage
	+12MP and +0.05MP regeneration +0.1% base magic resistance

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538 +2.9

255 +0.75

4.5 Armor (683.26 EHP)

26.5% Magic Resist (731.97 EHP)

56 ‒ 58 ▶️ Damage (57 Avg)

Instant Projectile Speed Melee units have their projectile speed set to 900, if they should ever need it.

150 Attack Range (600)

110 (131) Attack Speed (1.7 BAT) Attacks per Second is defined as ΣAS / BAT / 100

0.3 + 0.7 Animation

310 / 340 ▶️ Move Speed

0.8 Turn Rate This unit takes 0.131s to turn 180°.

27 Collision Size

24 Bound Radius

1800 / 800 Vision Range

Default Gib Type

npc_dota_hero_phantom_assassin

2012-06-11 Released

2004-03-01 (v2.60)

Competitive Span 2012-06-14 — Present

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Blinks onto her foes with critical strikes.
Of all the assassins raised by the Sisters of the Veil, only one is known by name: Mortred. Through meditation and prophecy, the order identifies the next target to die at her hands. Attacks miss against the Phantom Assassin as she Blurs into her surroundings, traversing undetected across the land to catch her victims unaware. She opens the encounter with a Stifling Dagger, thrown from the shadows, then leaps upon the crippled target to deliver a flurry of Phantom Strikes, followed by a Fan of Knives hurled into all directions. Without warning, any one of her attacks could be the Coup de Grâce, leaving behind only the blood-splattered ground as testament to her efficiency.
Roles:	Carry Escape
Adjectives	Cape, Female, Nose Legs ( 2 )

Facets

Veiled One

Blur grants mana loss reduction, and Mortred's regular attacks no longer dispels the buff while active.

When Blur ends, Mortred's abilities have no mana cost for a short time.

Methodical

After a numbers of attacks on the same enemy hero, Coup de Grace grants the Deadly Focus buff with a higher critical strike factor.

+125% Critical Damage Bonus

Upgrades

Aghanim's

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Applies a basic dispel with an instant cast time. Any time Phantom Assassin gets a hero kill, all her basic abilities, except Blur, are refreshed.

Reduces Blur's cooldown.

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:

New Ability

Grants the Fan of Knives ability.

Releases a fan of sharp blades around her. Breaks while dealing a percentage of the victim's max health on impact.

Talents

Triple Stifling Dagger Strikes	25	+10% Coup de Grace Chance -1 Methodical Required Attacks
+60 Phantom Strike Attack Speed	20	+20% Stifling Dagger Damage
+200 Phantom Strike Cast Range	15	+15% Immaterial Evasion
-2s Stifling Dagger Cooldown	10	+0.5s Phantom Strike Duration
▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ +2 All / / Attributes

Bio

I'm here to blur the line between life and death.

▶️  Mortred, the Phantom Assassin

Aliases:

PA, Mortred

Lore:

Through a process of divination, children are selected for upbringing by the Sisters of the Veil, an order that considers assassination a sacred part of the natural order. The Veiled Sisters identify targets through meditation and oracular utterances. They accept no contracts, and never seem to pursue targets for political or mercenary reasons. Their killings bear no relation to any recognizable agenda, and can seem to be completely random: A figure of great power is no more likely to be eliminated than a peasant or a well digger. Whatever pattern the killings may contain, it is known only to them. They treat their victims as sacrifices, and death at their hand is considered an honor. Raised with no identity except that of their order, any Phantom Assassin can take the place of any other; their number is not known. Perhaps there are many, perhaps there are few. Nothing is known of what lies under the Phantom Veil. Except that this one, from time to time, when none are near enough to hear, is known to stir her veils with the forbidden whisper of her own name: Mortred.

Voice:

Gin Hammond (Responses)

Innate

Immaterial

Immaterial

Ability

Passive

Affects

Self

The immaterial assassin is focuses inward, increasing her ability to evade enemy attacks.

Additionally grants bonus evasion correspondingly to Mortred's current hero level.

Base Evasion: 20% ( 35%)

Evasion Bonus per Hero Level: 1.5%

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phantom_assassin_immaterial (1287)

---

• The bonus evasion values stacks additively from this ability, and is defined as:
  • EXPR
    ΣEvasion = 20% + 1.5% × HeroLVL + 15%
  • Evasion uses pseudo-random distribution.
  • Stacks diminishingly with other evasion sources, and additively with other blind sources.

• Increases Mortred's survivability against physical attacks as follows:
  • LEVEL 1
    27%
    • Subsequent levels increase the percentage value by ≈ 3% on average.
  • LEVEL 15
    135%

Hero Model

Hero Model

Ability

Passive / Channeling

Affects

Self

Mortred's hero model has the following hidden innate abilities.

She may only perform or utilize the ability's functions upon a successful channeling.

Details

Hidden Innate Abilities

Tap on the innate abilities for more details.

Abilities

Stifling Dagger

Q

D

Stifling Dagger

▶️ ▶️

Ability

Unit / Passive

Affects

Enemy Units / Self

Damage

Instant Attack / Physical

Throws a dagger slowing the enemy unit's movement speed, dealing a portion of Mortred's attack damage as instant attack and applying attack modifiers.

Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0.47

Cast Range:  700/850/1000/1150

Number of Targets: 1 ( 3)

Instant Attack Factor: 0.3/0.45/0.6/0.75 ( 0.5/0.65/0.8/0.95)

Attack Damage Bonus: 65/70/75/80

Move Speed Slow: 50%

Slow Duration: 2.2/2.8/3.4/4

Secondary Target Radius: ( 1450)

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade
Stifling Dagger's cooldown is refreshed any time Phantom Assassin gets a hero kill.

6 ( 4)

30

The first skill learned by the Sisters of the Veil often signals an incoming hit.

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phantom_assassin_stifling_dagger (5190)

---

Methodical

Stifling Dagger applies a number of Deadly Focus required attacks per hit unit.

Deadly Focus Stacks: 2

---

• 
  • Does not break Blur's invisibility upon cast, but not other invisibility sources.

• 
  • Has a 1200- projectile speed.
  • 
    • Applies the following ability effects upon projectile impact:
      • 
        • Grants a 3.34-second 450-radius flying vision centered around the affected enemy upon impact.
      • 
        1. Applies the instant attack factor on Mortred's total attack damage value, including bonus conditional attack damage sources.
        2. Grants the unique bonus attack damage for the Stifling Dagger projectile.
      • 
        • The projectile-based instant attack is considered a melee-based attack sourced from Mortred.
        • Cannot be cast on the following units:
          • Couriers

• 
  • The instant attack procs attack modifiers and on-cast effects as per normal, except Tidebringer.
    • Cleave and splash damage instances are applied on the affected enemy's position, damaging a trapezoid area the opposite direction where the attacks came from.
      • 
  • Has True Strike.
  • Not affected by disarm sources.
  • The instant attack damage is loosely defined as:
    • EXPR
      DmgInstance = (ΣAtk × f(InstantAtk)) + 65/70/75/80

• TALENT NOTES
  Launches 2 additional dagger projectiles toward random visible enemy units, without priorities, within the radius.
  • The search radius is centered around the primary target, when no other targets are available, nothing happens.

• SPELL BLOCK
  The ability is blocked upon impact for both the primary and the secondary targets independently.

• SPELL REFLECT
  Spell Block notes fully apply.

• BREAK
  Disables the Coup de Grace buff proc chance component.

modifier_projectile_vision

On hidden entity

modifier_phantom_assassin_stiflingdagger_caster

Hidden modifier

modifier_phantom_assassin_stiflingdagger

Stifling Dagger: Movement speed slowed by x%

• The ability effects are applied as follows:
  1. The instant attack.
  2. The movement speed slow debuff.

Phantom Strike

W

B

Phantom Strike

▶️

Ability

Unit

Affects

Self

Teleports to a unit, friendly or enemy, and grants bonus attack speed while attacking if it's an enemy unit.

Cast Animation: 0.25 + 0.8

Cast Range:  1000 ( 1200)

Attack Speed Bonus: 100/130/160/190 ( 160/190/220/250)

Duration: 2.5 ( 3)

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade
Phantom Strike's cooldown is refreshed any time Phantom Assassin gets a hero kill.

11/9/7/5

35/40/45/50

Mortred's silken veil is the last thing her unfortunate target sees.

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phantom_assassin_phantom_strike (5191)

---

• 
  • Does not break Blur's invisibility upon cast, but not other invisibility sources.
  • Does not disjoint incoming projectiles.
  • Teleports Mortred next to the targeted unit, facing toward the position she previously was.
    • 
      • Teleports to the unit-targeted ally, does not grant Mortred other ability effects.
    • 
      • The ability effects are applied as follows:
        1. Teleports to the unit-targeted enemy.
        2. Grants the attack speed buff.
        3. Issues an attack order on the unit-targeted enemy, canceling the cast backswing.

• Cannot be cast on the following units:
  • Buildings
  • Couriers, regardless of factions.
  • Hidden units.
  • Invulnerable units.
  • Ward-type units

• SPELL REFLECT
  Upon Spell Reflection source proc, Mortred first teleports next to the target, then the target teleports next to Mortred.

modifier_phantom_assassin_phantom_strike

Phantom Strike: Attack speed increased by x.

• The Spell Reflection mechanic is Spell Block-based, and it resolves before the ability procing does.
  • For abilities like Phantom Strike, a lotus_orb_delay was added to Spell Reflection sources on the first server tick to remove itself.
  • This effectively allows Phantom Strike to resolve first, to preventing the Spell Reflection source teleporting to Mortred.

• • COSMETIC
    Has the following cast backswing with the following items equipped.
    • Exile Unveiled: 0.1-cast backswing.
    • Manifold Paradox: 0-cast backswing.

Blur

E

R

Blur

▶️ ▶️

Ability

No

Affects

Self

When activated, Mortred is untargetable, invisible, and enemy units only see the assassin's sihoulette within their vision radius.

Casting Mortred's own abilities do not break the invisibility.

Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0.77

Dispel Radius: 625/550/475/400

Effect Delay: 0

Dispel Delay: 0.4/0.6/0.8/1

Move Speed Bonus: 3%/6%/9%/12%

Untargetable Duration: 30

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade
Applies a basic dispel with an instant cast time. Any time Phantom Assassin gets a hero kill, all her basic abilities, except Blur, are refreshed.

Reduces Blur's cooldown.

Cast Animation: 0 + 0

Blur Cooldown Factor: ( 0.5)

Current Cooldowns on Kill: ( 0)

60/55/50/45 ( 30/27.5/25/22.5)

50

Meditation allows a Veiled Sister to carefully anticipate her opponents in combat.

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phantom_assassin_blur (5192)

---

Veiled One

Blur grants mana loss reduction, and Mortred's regular attacks no longer dispels the buff while active.

Mana Loss Factor: 0.7

When Blur ends, Mortred's abilities have no mana cost for a short time.

Ability Mana Cost Factor: 0
Duration: 5

---

• 
  • Upon cast:
    • Interrupts Mortred's channeling abilities.
    • Disjoint incoming projectiles.
  • blur_active
    • Applies the following ability effects on Mortred:
      • Invisibility that casting Mortred's other abilities does not break.
      • Untargetable
      • 
        • Mortred neither can be seen within the enemy's vision radius nor visible on the enemy's minimap.
        • Does not grant immunity to the following vision-based mechanics:
          • Expose sources.
          • True Sight sources.
          • Chronosphere from revealing her current position.
  • 
    • Dispels the blur_active buff in the following conditions:
      • 
        • Upon Mortred's attack point.
          • FACET NOTES
            The Veiled One   facet removes this restriction.
      • 
        • 0.4/0.6/0.8/1 seconds after getting within the dispel range of an enemy hero.
          • Considers clones, buildings and outposts as heroes; illusions and creep-heroes as creeps.
          • This includes the enemy heroes affected by the following sources:
            • Hidden sources.
            • Invulnerable sources.
        • Getting out of range during that delay does not prevent it from dispelling.

---

• SCEPTER NOTES
  Resets the current cooldowns of the following Mortred's basic abilities if the kill is credited to her, regardless of how the kill was made, this includes the following conditions:
  • Reincarnation sources.
  • An ally hero kill.
  • Self-damage deny with certain sources.
  • Resets the following abilities for Mortred:
    • Stifling Dagger
    • Phantom Strike
    • Fan of Knives
  • Neither reset item abilities nor ultimate abilities.

• SCEPTER NOTES
  Stacks multiplicative with other percentage-based cooldown reduction sources.
  • This ability upgrade component is independent of the cooldown skip per kill component.

• BREAK
  Does not disable the ability upgrade component.

• SPELL STEAL
  This is not limited to Mortred's basic abilities.

• ABILITY DRAFT
  Replenishes 1 charge to all charged-based abilities upon resetting cooldowns.

modifier_phantom_assassin_blur

Hidden modifier

modifier_phantom_assassin_blur_active

Blur: Blurring out to disappear from the enemy's sight.

• 
  • The ability effects are applied as follows:
    1. The vanish buff.
    2. Applies the basic dispel.

• COSMETIC
  Has a 0.8- cast backswing with the Manifold Paradox equipped.

Fan of Knives

D

F

Fan of Knives

▶️ ▶️

Ability

No

Affects

Enemy Units

Damage

Spell / Physical

Releases a fan of sharp blades around her. Breaks while dealing a percentage of the victim's max health on impact.

Cast Animation: 0.15 + 0.9

Radius: 550

Max Health as Damage: 28%

Break Duration: 3

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade
Fan of Knives' cooldown is refreshed any time Phantom Assassin gets a hero kill.

15

50

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phantom_assassin_fan_of_knives (662)

---

• Acquiring Aghanim's Shard unlocks this ability in the      fourth ability slot.

• 
  • Does not break Blur's invisibility upon cast, but not other invisibility sources.

• 
  • The ability releases an area-based pulse that affects all enemy units within the radius as it ripples outward at 1000- projectile speed, centered around upon Mortred's cast location.
  • The pulse cannot be avoided and does not move with Mortred.
  • Affects the following units:
    • Couriers

• ABILITY DRAFT
  Acquiring Aghanim's Shard while drafting Coup de Grace unlocks this ability.

modifier_phantom_assassin_fan_of_knives_thinker

On hidden entity

modifier_phantom_assassin_fan_of_knives

Fan of Knives: Passive abilities disabled.

• 
  • Has a max 0.55-second travel time.
  • 
    • The released daggers are part of the ability animations and does nothing.

• 
  • The ability effects are applied as follows:
    1. The break debuff.
    2. The max health as physical spell damage.

Coup de Grace

R

C

Coup de Grace

▶️ ▶️

Ability

Passive

Affects

Self / Enemy Units

Mortred's attacks have a chance to proc the Deadly Focus buff, causing her next attack to be an ensured critical strike.

Proc Chance: 17% ( 27%)

Crit Damage: 200%/325%/450%

Buff Duration: 6/8/10

Stifling Dagger has a higher chance to cause Deadly Focus.

Proc Chance: 34% ( 44%)

A divine strike, Mortred honors her opponent by choosing them for death.

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phantom_assassin_coup_de_grace (5193)

---

Methodical

After a numbers of attacks on the same enemy hero, Coup de Grace grants the Deadly Focus buff with a higher critical strike factor.

Required Attacks: 6 ( 5)
Crit Damage: 325%/450%/575%

Fewer attacks are required to proc Deadly Focus on creeps.

Required Attacks: 4 ( 3)

Stifling Dagger applies a number of Deadly Focus required attacks on affected units.

Required Attacks Count per Hit: 2

---

• The Deadly Focus buff procs has the following properties:
  • The proc is determined during Mortred's attack point.
  • Coup de Grace uses pseudo-random distribution.
  • Does not proc on the following units:
    • Ally units.
    • Buildings
    • Ward-type units.

• mark_of_death
  • 
    • The Deadly Focus buff is an ensured critical strike source.
    • Sources with lesser critical values have no effect if they proc as the higher factor takes precedence.
  • 
    • Successful attacks on the following units dispels the buff:
      • Ally units.
      • Buildings
      • Ward-type units.
    • Does not dispel the buff upon attacking items or runes.

• FACET NOTES
  Methodical has the following properties:
  • mark_of_death
    • The required attacks tally increases by 1 per successful attack on an enemy hero.
      • This includes both instant attack and secondary attack sources.
    • 
      • Grants tally counts per Stifling Dagger projectile impact.
    • Once the tally counter reaches ( ), Coup de Grace grants Mortred the buff, and the next successful attack procs the ensured critical strike.
  • Considers clones, illusions and the Spirit Bear as heroes, other creep-heroes as creeps.

Interactions: Self-Illusions

Displays critical strike values before all damage manipulation sources for camouflaging purposes.

Interactions: Break Sources

Disables the buff proc chance component.

However, the existing buff is not removed.

modifier_phantom_assassin_coupdegrace

Hidden modifier

modifier_phantom_assassin_mark_of_death

Deadly Focus: Your next attack or Stifling Dagger will critically strike.

• 
  • 
    • Mortred to use a specific attack animation, and particle effects appear on her weapon upon proc.
  • Increases the average attack damage as follows:

Recent Matches

Main Article: Phantom Assassin/Matches

Date	Tier		Tournament	Picks		Score		vs. Picks
Jan 13, 2025 - 13:00 CET	Qualifier		PGL Wallachia S3 WEU CQ			0 : 1
Jan 13, 2025 - 08:00 CET	Qualifier		PGL Wallachia S3 EEU CQ			0 : 1
Jan 12, 2025 - 19:25 PET	Qualifier		PGL Wallachia S3 SA CQ			1 : 0
Jan 12, 2025 - 16:00 PST	Qualifier		PGL Wallachia S3 NA CQ			1 : 0
Jan 12, 2025 - 22:35 UTC	Qualifier		ESL One Raleigh SA OQ1			0 : 1

Recent Changes

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore

Version

Description

7.37
(2024-07-31)

• Blur
  • Now disjoint projectiles upon cast.
  • Reduced cast point from 0.4 to 0.3.

7.36c
(2024-06-24)

• Increased base attack damage from 33‒35 to 35‒37.
• Increased Immaterial base evasion bonus from 15% to 20%.

7.36b
(2024-06-05)

• Increased Coup de Grace Methodical critical damage from 300%/425%/550% to 325%/450%/575%.
• Blur now grants self 3%/6%/9%/12% movement speed bonus upon cast.

Dota Plus Progress

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Phantom Assassin's Relics	Voice Lines
Crit Stifling Daggers Stifling Dagger Last Hits Phantom Strike Kills Coup de Grace Crit Damage Stuns Leading To Kills Kills During Black King Bar Bashed Enemies Slows Leading To Kills Battle Fury Cleave Damage Godlike Sprees Triple Kills Mega Kill Streaks Kill Assists Kills	Bronze	▶️ Ho ho ho ho ho ha ha ha! ▶️ Mmm, divine.
	Silver	▶️ All according to plan. ▶️ Death at my hands is an honor.
	Gold	▶️ That went well, I think. ▶️ How many daggers am I holding up?
	Platinum	▶️ Ha, ahhh, ha ha, no no no.
	Master	▶️ I'm an immaterial girl!
	Grandmaster	▶️ Something in your eye?

Trivia

• Mortred's name is derived from Mordred, a character in the Arthurian legend who betrayed and fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camalann.

• " Coup de Grâce" is a French term (pronounced "koo duh gras") which literally means "blow of mercy", and refers to the killing blow of a wounded person or animal, friendly or not, to end their suffering. The phrase originates from medieval times, specifically Knights (see above - Knights of the Round Table). When a combatant was gravely injured (in battle, duels, jousting, etc...) but not killed; a coup de grâce was often, although not always, performed. Traditionally a rondel dagger was used as this could make a small puncture in breastplate and was long enough to reach the heart.

• ▶️ "I'm an immaterial girl!" is probably a reference to the song Material Girl performed by Madonna.

• In DotA: Allstars, Blur caused Mortred to become transparent to the enemy, scaling with levels and making her nearly invisible and untargetable to inexperienced players, thus her title "Phantom Assassin". This aspect of the ability is replicated to a limited degree with Blur's active component in Dota 2.

• Mortred's idle animation is a typical fencing stance, with perpendicular feet, one arm extended forth and the other one folded and up in the air. However, her weapon is wielded not with the extended arm, but with the arm at rest. There are treatises, at least for the Italian school of fencing, which do show an extended arm but this is exclusively used when wielding a rapier or other single-handed thrusting swords.

• Mortred is featured in the Dota 2 comic, The Contract.

• Fan of Knives is based on the "Fan of Knives" ability from the Warden from Warcraft 3, sharing its name and working in a similar way.
  • In DotA, Phantom Assassin also uses the Warden's hero model.

Gallery

• 

  Splash artwork

• 

  Early concept artwork

• 

  Early alpha model based on the early concept art

• 

  Leaked concept artwork

• 

  Early textures of the current model, featuring different color scheme

• 

  Ability icon progress

• 

  Hero icon progress

• 

  Phantom Assassin illustration

• 

  Bone Harvest sprite - alive

• 

  Bone Harvest sprite - dead