Dealing With Phantom Assassin
Phantom Assassin is far from the powerhouse she was when Valve released patch 7.20. But even after getting nerfed in three consecutive patches, she is still the 3rd most picked hero in pubs.
In fact, Phantom Assassin is the most picked hero in both Ancient and Divine/Immortal tier. Her win rate, however, hovers around 50-51%, which puts her close to the win rate she had in both 7.18 and 7.19. She was still popular then (~24% pick rate), but nowhere close to to her pick rate today at 36%.
Her current popularity doesn’t necessarily reflect her strength in the meta. Pudge is a mainstay in most pubs, regardless of how strong or weak his state is. In the ongoing Winter Madness and MDL Macau.
But it’s the way in which PA wins that’s the heart of most players grievances with the heroes. She can delete heroes off the map, while being undetectable under the cloak of Blur. And in the mid to late game, with her Triple Dagger talent and a handful of damage items, you’re playing roulette against the house.
Hero Counters
Phantom Assassin’s strength hinges on her burst damage during her Phantom Strike buff. It’s what has made Blur this patch such an annoying spell to play against, since she can unload a flurry of attacks with impunity. Heroes that succeed against PA target this window when she’s strongest, with either defensive spells and/or stuns, or target her weakness against magical burst damage.
To control PA, two effective meta picks are 
Beastmaster and 
Brewmaster. Not only are they strong offlaners to contest her farm, their skills scale into the late game. In Beastmaster’s case, he can push, offer vision, and his BKB-piercing stun gets better as the game progresses, when pivotal moments can hinge on one pickoff.
Brewmaster’s new Drunken Brawler gives him a defensive tool to survive PA’s burst damage, enough to cast his ultimate. Brew’s ability to control the fight, during his ultimate, has made him a go-to pick for other meta carries, like Terrorblade and Huskar, as well. His flexibility as a support hero is just icing on the cake. Keen Gaming immediately picked both Brew and Beast in response to IG’s first pick Phantom Assassin.
While in China’s H Cup, Invictus Gaming has been countering PA with the classic 
Gyrocopter and 
Io duo. The pair offers combines both magic damage and the necessary sustain to outlast PA during her burst. Following the same vein of magic damage, heroes like Morphling, Lina, Timbersaw, and Pugna, has an advantage against PA.
Itemization
Silver Edge is a possible choice, yet in practice it tends to be lackluster against Phantom Assassin. Four seconds isn’t always enough time, and it doesn’t counter BKB when PA initiates. It could be viable for natural Shadow Blade carriers, but MKB is often the better offensive item. This is too narrow of a focus, however. Whether the carry on your team purchases MKB or Silver Edge won’t make as large a difference as how the rest of the item drafts and itemizes against her.
In this match with Pavaga vs. Vega Squadron at Winter Madness, Glimmer, Ghost Scepter, Crimson Guard, and Vladmir's help mitigate PA’s effectiveness.*
PA has benefited from the armor rework in 7.20, but the patch has also buffed armor and defensive items. NoPangolier, who spammed Phantom Assassin on their way to the Chonqing Major qualifiers, is familiar in her counters. Against Vega Squadron in Winter Madness, they played a mid Nature’s Prophet, who rushed Vlads and Crimson Guard to end the game in 25 minutes.
The same defensive strategy follows for support heroes. Glimmer Cape and Ghost Scepter are ideal, since you can pop it reflexively when PA jumps, and it’s rare that she’ll have slots later for detection. But if those items are too far away, stacking Bracers can buy precious time.
The list goes on for what can deal with PA, but they all stem from identifying the kind of threat she poses, as well as her weaknesses. But considering her win rate and her current state in the competitive meta, you may not need to devote that many resources to counter her.
heck yeah first!
damn i had to sign in to comment would of got first if that did not lose me precious time
you didnt mention phoenix, naturally i will pick phoenix to counter this kind of carry
Once I as KoTL died in fight against PA in one hit-dagger,
buy back immadiately and died back again with another one hit-dagger.
Sad
Póde Pá
Op yes?, god tier not really unless magnus is added then its just rough life
Replace the insane evasion skill of PA with some thing which is does not fade off when enemy gets mkb, and is not ridiculously OP in early stages like the current blur.
get Razor
Should be dealing with magnus tbh.
Magnus is far more powerful in this meta as he can be more annoying.
Why are these "first" posters allowed to post again? Nobody will ever give a shit, or remember, hell, even LOOK at your wacky little accounts, what do you think being first accomplishes?
Ghost scepter is super important to win against PA. Keep in mind, however, that PA will eventually be getting a Nullifier, at which point your better defense will be the glimmer cape. Still, the amount of escapes you will be able to perform and the aggressiveness that allows your team during the time before the Nullifier is bought will more than make up for the cost of the item. It forces PA to always travel with a stunning partner as you can just ghost form TP if she goes in alone.
I agree about Magnus being the problem. But why no one mentions armor?
Rng based hero, no skill or game knowledge needed to play. Crits every two hits when playing against you, never crits when you play as her.
But please icefrog, dont nerf her, going to buy an arcana soon
Yikes.
It really need a good magnus to truly shine..
I don't need this!
I need "how to dealing with Slark"
My Lion can not hex him down now.
Bristleback shits on her in lane, is a natural heavens halberd and crimson guard builder (which means she needs far more time to burst down supports) and can mostly tank her damage output.
LC and Axe are also fairly common.
Core WR isnt bad vs her either.
Also, I dont think that PA wants to deal with a slark very much.
Brock Hall you really have no idea do you? "PA will eventually get nullifier" - PA has got nullifier a total of 136,000 times in 7.20, compared to Desolator nearly 9 million times. That's less than 1.5% of matches with Nullifier to matches played. Go and do some 2k maths.
I think below ancients shouldn't even be allowed to post comments on this thread. So many wannabe pro crusaders and guardians...
I agree on disallowing below Ancients to post mainly for the fact that they have little to no game sense.
Change my mind.
PA is not going to get Nullifier, she is going to get Abyssal Blade so she can stun you with dagger.
The problem is that Ghost Scepter and Glimmer Cape are not as effetive against her as it should be. Glimmer has 0.6 fade time so she usually can hit the dagger before you fade and Ghost Scepter does not prevent the slow, so either way you get stuck in place for 4 seconds, then she just wait it out and kill you.
If you looked in the heroes statics you would see that PA biggest winrate advantage is against Beastmaster. So no, he is definitly not countering her at all. Why? Because PA buys Battlefury and murders all his summons with her triple dagger if he tries to push, also his summons can not hit her anyway even if she gets stunned. Same reason why PA also have a big winrate advantage against Visage.
Magic burst heroes like Lina, Skywrath or Zeus are decent at killing her, but the other way around is also true. So a true counter would have to be something with lots of magic damage burst and high armor.
What you should actually suggest is Morphiling, Timbersaw, Gyrocopter, Tiny and other heroes with lots of magic burst and high armor. Also heroes that can stop her damage like Pugna, Winter Wyvern and Tinker.
The fact that she requires Monkey King Bar to die is already too much, most of heroes like Beastmaster will never get it so it does not matter how much damage they do because she just wont die. But hey, at least she is not Riki.
This is very poorly written.
real article we want here is like . how to deal with cancer draft like Mag PA , Mag Jugg
I crawled from Herald 3 to Crusader 1 by picking Axe. Literally in every game there was a PA. Now they just kite me.
Once I as KoTL died in fight against PA in one hit-dagger,
buy back immadiately and died back again with another one hit-dagger.
Sad
i love playing PA.. got 900/950 gpm/xpm with her recently.. just really fun.