Phantom Assassin

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Phantom Assassin

#80

19 + 2

21 + 3.4

15 + 1.7

Grants the following bonuses per level:
	+44HP and +0.2HP regeneration
	+0.57 armor and 3.4 attack speed +3.4 Main Attack Damage
	+20.4MP and +0.085MP 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 ▶️ 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 (2.60)

Competitive Span 2012-06-14 — Present

Version Control This article has not been updated to the last version the hero was changed in yet (version 7.38c). Please help updating it.

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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

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.

+100% Critical Damage Bonus

Sweet Release

Stifling Dagger applies a stackable debuff on enemy units. When a debuffed unit dies, they release one weaker Stifling Dagger per stack at random enemy units around them.

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:

Grants the Fan of Knives ability.

Talents

Triple Stifling Dagger Strikes	25	+10% Coup de Grace Chance -1 Methodical Required Attacks
+60 Phantom Strike Attack Speed	20	+200 Phantom Strike Cast Range
+15% Stifling Dagger Instant Attack Damage	15	+15% Immaterial Evasion
-1.5s 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

Blur

E

R

Blur

▶️ ▶️

Ability

Passive

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

This ability levels up with Coup de Grace.

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

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• 
  • 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:
      • 
        • 0.4/0.6/0.8/1 seconds after getting within the dispel range of an enemy hero.
          • Considers clones, towers, and Ancients as heroes; outposts, other buildings, 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.

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 ( 0.45/0.6/0.75/0.9)

Attack Damage Bonus: 65/70/75/80

Move Speed Slow: 50%

Slow Duration: 2.1/2.4/2.7/3

Secondary Target Radius: ( 1450)

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

6 ( 4.5)

30

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

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Methodical

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

Deadly Focus Stacks: 2

Sweet Release

Stifling Dagger applies a stackable debuff on enemy units. When a debuffed unit dies, they release one weaker Stifling Dagger per stack at random enemy units around them.

Debuff Duration: 6
Damage Factor: 50%
Slow Duration: 12.6/14.4/16.2/18

---

• 
  • 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.

• FACET NOTES
  Sweet Release
  • Stacks can't be dispelled.
  • Each new dagger refreshes the duration of all current stacks.
  • Recast range equals Stifling Dagger's cast range centered around the debuffed enemy.
  • Recast daggers prioritize heroes.

• 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:  650/750/850/950 ( 850/950/1050/1150)

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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• 
  • 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.

Immaterial

F

Q

Immaterial

Ability

Passive

Affects

Self

Grants Mortred evasion bonus.

Evasion: 20%/30%/40%/50%

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• Evasion uses pseudo-random distribution.
  • Stacks diminishingly with other evasion sources, and additively with other blind sources.

• Increases Mortred's survivability against physical attacks by .

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.

20

80

A sister is generally given a single name, but powerful names often have plentiful allies.

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• 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%/300%/400%

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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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: 300%/400%/500%

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
Jun 05, 2025 - 12:00 CEST	Qualifier		EWC 2025 WEU CQ			1 : 0
Jun 04, 2025 - 21:45 MSK	Showmatch		BB Streamers Battle 10			1 : 0
Jun 03, 2025 - 20:50 AST	Qualifier		EWC 2025 MESWA OQ			1 : 0
Jun 03, 2025 - 19:00 CEST	Qualifier		TI2025 WEU OQ#2			0 : 1
Jun 02, 2025 - 18:20 PDT	Qualifier		TI2025 NA OQ#2			0 : 1

Recent Changes

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore

Version

Description

7.38c
(2025-03-27)

• Reduced Phantom Strike cast range from 1000 on each level to 650/750/850/950.

7.38
(2025-02-19)

• Reduced Immaterial evasion per hero level from 1.5% to 1%.
• Stifling Dagger
  • Reduced slow duration from 2.2/2.8/3.4/4 to 2.1/2.4/2.7/3.
  • ADDED the Sweet Release facet.
    • Applies a 6-second undispellable debuff upon projectile impact, if it does not kill the unit-targeted enemy.
    • Upon the debuff-affected unit's death, they launch 1 Stifling Dagger per stack at random enemy units within the radius.
    • Has a StiflingDagger CastRange -recast radius.
    • Has a 0.5 damage and movement speed slow factor.
    • Reapplying the debuff refreshes its duration and increases the stack value.
• Blur
  • The vanish component is no longer dispelled on attack by default.
  • REMOVED the Veiled One facet.
• Coup de Grace
  • Reduced critical damage from 200%/325%/450% to 200%/300%/400%.
  • Methodical
    • U CHANGED facet icon from to .
    • Reduced critical damage from 325%/450%/575% to 300%/400%/500%.
• Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
  • Fan of Knives
    • Increased cooldown from 15 to 20.
    • Increased mana cost from 50 to 80.

• Talents:  

  LVL 10  -2s Stifling Dagger cooldown reduced to -1.5s.  

  LVL 15  +200 Phantom Strike cast range ➜  +15% Stifling Dagger instant attack damage.  

  LVL 20  +20% Stifling Dagger instant attack damage ➜  +200 Phantom Strike cast range.

7.37
(2024-07-31)

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

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.

• In DotA, Phantom Assassin was Shendelzare's sister, but she became maniacal and murdered her, turning her into the Vengeful Spirit.
  • This is the lore explenation of why Vengeful Spirit was a Radiant (formerly Sentinel) hero, and Phantom Assassin a Dire (formerly Scourge) hero, despite being a Night Elf.
  • None of these lore aspects were kept in Dota 2, Phantom Assassin and Vengeful Spirit have no association with each other.
  • Instead, Phantom Assassin is now affiliated with The Sisters of the Veil, a secretive organization of assassins.

• Warcraft 3 similarities:
  • Phantom Assassin's hero concept is originally based on the Warden, a Night Elf melee hero.
    • Stifling Dagger is based on the Warden's Shadow Strike. Before Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin had Shadow Strike as well.
    • Blink Strike is based on the Warden's Blink.
    • Fan of Knives is inspired by the Warden's Fan of Knives, with a similar base concept, and the same ability name.
  • Coup de Grace's original iteration was identical to the Blademaster's Critical Strike.

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