What players buy
The items bought most in each of Valve’s four game stages
Public matches · each item’s own count
1stMost bought
176 buys
2ndSecond most
81 buys
3rdThird most
80 buys
4thFourth most
67 buys
5thFifth most
49 buysBy GamGem ResearchLast updated 22 Sept 2026
Phantom Assassin
Melee · Agility
- Win rate
- 51.3%
- Pick share
- 1.4%
- Matches
- 622,491
- Patch
- 7.41f
Draft coverage
BringsCarryEscape
NeedsSupportInitiatorDisablerFrontlineBurstTower damage
Recommendation
Pick
- The game is heading for 50 min + — that is where this hero measures best, at 53.9% over 488 matches.
- You are playing around Herald — its strongest medal, 52.6% over 24,895 picks.
Avoid
- Rubick is on their side — this hero wins 36.2% of 94 matches against it.
- Ember Spirit is on their side — this hero wins 33.3% of 45 matches against it.
- Hoodwink is on their side — this hero wins 33.3% of 42 matches against it.
176 buys81 buys80 buys67 buys49 buys
Skill Order
Which ability to max first, and where each point goes — what most league players on Phantom Assassin took at each level.
QStifling Dagger
Throws a dagger slowing the enemy unit's movement speed, dealing 65+30% of Phantom Assassin's attack damage as physical damage and applying attack effects from items and abilities.
Unit Target · Physical damage
WPhantom Strike
Teleports to a unit, friendly or enemy, and grants bonus attack speed while attacking if it's an enemy unit.
Unit Target
FImmaterial
Phantom Assassin focuses inward, increasing her ability to evade enemy attacks.
Passive
RCoup de Grace
Phantom Assassin refines her combat abilities, acquiring a chance of gaining Deadly Focus with each attack.
PassiveMax Order
WQE
Max W first, then Q, then E. Most took R at 6 / 13.
Level-up Order
- QStifling Dagger
- WPhantom Strike
- FImmaterial
- RCoup de Grace
- TTalent
| Ability | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QStifling Dagger | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||
| WPhantom Strike | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||
| FImmaterial | F | F | F | ||||||||||||
| RCoup de Grace | R | R | |||||||||||||
| TTalent | T | T |
Matchup map
How Phantom Assassin performs against every opponent with 30 or more counted games
41 opponents · public matches40%60%Phantom Assassin's win rate
≥ 60%Very favorable
Nobody in this lane sits here.
55 – 60%Favorable
50 – 55%Even
45 – 50%Unfavorable
40 – 45%Hard
< 40%Very hard
If this happens, use this
- They are running away
Something that holds them still, or closes the gap yourself. Matched on “slow”.
- I am being jumped
A way out, a way to shrug the debuff, or something to eat the burst. Matched on “teleport”.
- Kill them in one window
Damage that lands now rather than over a minute. Matched on “critical”.
- Clear or push the wave
Creeps, summons and anything that hits a building. Matched on “tower”.
By medal
- Herald52.6%24,895
- Guardian52.0%76,809
- Crusader51.6%114,421
- Archon51.3%133,649
- Legend50.5%113,738
- Ancient50.0%59,814
- Divine50.0%28,474
One count per medal, not one rate split across them; a medal with no counted matches is left out.
By match length
- 0–20 min35.7%2,943
- 20–30 min46.2%7,560
- 30–40 min51.4%4,014
- 40–50 min53.4%1,324
- 50 min +53.9%488
Bands under 120 matches are absent rather than shown small.
Learning Phantom Assassin
Abilities
Stifling Dagger
Unit Target · Physical damageThrows a dagger slowing the enemy unit's movement speed, dealing 65+30% of Phantom Assassin's attack damage as physical damage and applying attack effects from items and abilities.
Phantom Strike
Unit TargetTeleports to a unit, friendly or enemy, and grants bonus attack speed while attacking if it's an enemy unit.
Blur
No TargetPhantom Assassin blurs her body, disjointing incoming projectiles, increasing her movement speed, causing her to be impossible to see until she comes near enemy heroes or towers.
Fan of Knives
No Target · Hidden · Physical damagePhantom Assassin releases sharp blades around her, dealing a percentage of each victim's max health on impact and applying Break.
Immaterial
PassivePhantom Assassin focuses inward, increasing her ability to evade enemy attacks. Evasion improves with Phantom Assassin's levels. Stacks diminishingly with other sources of Evasion.
Coup de Grace
PassivePhantom Assassin refines her combat abilities, acquiring a chance of gaining Deadly Focus with each attack. When attacking with Deadly Focus, Phantom Assassin will consume the buff and guarantee a critical hit. Stifling Dagger has a bonus chance to cause Deadly Focus.
Base attributes
- Strength
- 19 +2.0
- Agility
- 21 +3.4
- Intelligence
- 15 +1.7
- Move · range
- 310 · 150
Talents
- 4Coup de Grace chanceTriple Strike Stifling Dagger
- 3Phantom Strike Cast RangePhantom Strike Attack Speed
- 2Immaterial EvasionStifling Dagger Damage
- 1Phantom Strike DurationStifling Dagger Cooldown
Aghanim’s Scepter
Changes Fan of Knives
Phantom Assassin releases sharp blades around her, dealing a percentage of each victim's max health on impact and applying Break.
Aghanim’s Shard
Changes Blur
Decreases Cooldown. Any time Phantom Assassin gets a hero kill, her ability cooldowns advance 60% of their max cooldown values.
Sources
- Kit, talents and upgrades · mechanicalread 22 Sept 2026
Ability names, icons, behaviour, damage type and text, plus the Aghanim’s Scepter and Shard descriptions — as the game itself ships them. Nothing here was counted over matches.
- Win rate by medal · countedread 15 Sept 2026
The same hero at each of Valve’s eight medals, over 4,610,063 public matches. Each medal carries its own sample, because the eight buckets are nothing like the same size.
- Matchups and match length · counted, on a narrower windowread 16 Sept 2026
Win rate against each opponent and across five match-length bands. This channel reports far fewer games than the medal figures above: the median hero pairing is 51 matches and the largest on the whole roster is 707. Rows under 30 games are absent rather than shown small, and the ones that remain are ORDERED by a figure shrunk toward even by its own sample — the rate you see is the real one, the ranking is the careful one.
- What players build · countedread 15 Sept 2026
The five most common items in each of Valve’s four game stages, with each row’s own pick count.
- Skill order · counted, in league matchesread 3 Oct 2026
Where skill points go, read off every player's own learning order in premium and professional league matches on patches 7.41 and 7.40. Each level shows the ability most players took there and the share that did — a column only a third agree on is printed as a third, not as the rule. Heroes under 30 counted games show no path.
- Situation index · derived, and checkableread 22 Sept 2026
Each situation is a phrase match against Valve’s own ability text, and every row shows the phrases that matched. No win rate is attached, because nobody counts one per situation.
Mechanics are the ones Valve publishes for patch 7.41f. GamGem is not affiliated with or endorsed by Valve Corporation.