How to identify the real Phantom Lancer from the clones?
Spotting the real Phantom Lancer is a pain. Good Phantom Lancer players won't often show the real one during pushes and let their illusions do the work. Same goes for teamfights: once the army of illusion is here, they tend to dopplewalk away and wait for a good opportunity to show again. If an illusion army is pushing a lane, the real one might be jungling on a nearby neutral camp.
Spot PL before a gank
If you want to spot him before a gank (or spot the real one on the map if visible) you have some options:
- He takes less damage than illusions
- He deals more damage than illusions
- He benefits from some items when illusions don't: if he has a vanguard or a heart of tarrasque, he will have health regen (this require some practice but the vanguard (or ring of health) regen can be spotted by the naked eye). If he has a vladirmir's offering, he will be the only Phantom Lancer to lifesteal on attack (the animation of lifesteal is still there on the illusions but they actually don't lifesteal).
- If he throws a lance you can try to see which lance deals the damage (quite hard to do)
- If you are lucky he will level up thus becoming the obvious target
Things to remember
My best advice against a Phantom Lancer army is to: Massive AOE > spot the real one (the one who took the least damage). This will work in most situations, then it's up to you to focus correctly.
PL players tend too often to doppleganger away when they feel insecure. When they do so you only have 3 remaining possible choices (2 illus and the real one) : One of the illu doesn't deal damage, the other take 600% extra damage so spotting the real one quickly is a matter of reflex and game sense. With a bit of training you shouldn't be annoyed by those anymore. Be carefull though, the illusion that doesn't deal damage doesn't only for normal attack, it the PL has diffusal blades, both illusion will still deal the feedback damages.
Shut down a PL
Prevent him from farming. Come in his lane as early as you can to harass him. Take down the outer tower as soon as you can. PL tends to farm tranquil boots > ring of aquila > diffusal blade whereas other carries will tend to farm farming items first (battle fury on void/magina, midas on Alchemist etc.). This means that Phantom Lancer is shut down early on, he won't be able to catch up as other carries can. But remember: no matter how much ahead you think you are, a good PL can win the game by himself.
In addition to the great answers already provided, you can also use Skywrath Mage's Concussive Shot
Concussive Shot will not target illusions, making it a powerful hero detection tool. If you are facing an illusion-based hero such as Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight or Terrorblade, using Concussive Shot will cause it to automatically home in on the real hero, provided that they are the closest target for the spell. If the spell fizzles, then it means that the hero is not present.
Source (look in tips section).
This method will not work if PL is already invisible, or if he is not the closest enemy hero. So yes, this method's effectiveness is limited, but on the other hand, even if you hit the wrong heroes with these spells, won't hurt. Skywrath is also an intelligence hero so mana isn't too costly.
If possible, gank with another hero that can put true sight on him or identify him so he doesn't dopple walk after you have identified him.
The recent past has shown us time and again that a well-played phantom lancer will not lose late game, if the game is even tipped to both teams. If you manage to get the core items on PL even if the opponents got their core items, there is an extremely good chance that PL's team will win. A really good PL will never reveal his identity while pushing in the danger-zone (unprotected / far from towers / far from allies). He will just let the illusions do the job. With manta, boots and diffusal, PL is a pushing machine. If the real PL is pushing on his own with the real one, then there is good chance that it is a bait (assuming his teammates are good as well).
Now with this being said, the way to find out whether there is a real PL among a set of PLs are:
WARDS : If you find out that the opponents are pushing-in on a lane, it is better to ward that lane (not too close to the tower) with both an OBS and SENTRY. I mentioned not too close to the tower because, if the opponents are just planning on pushing the lane with PL and not interested in a fights, chances are they wont come too close to the tower (assuming that your team is good). They will push with the PL and illusions until the lane creeps meet somewhere near the team. Why? because it is risky. If a blink-in batrider with dust can catch the real one and pull him into the tower, PL is as good as dead. So unless PL is fat with heart and something more, may be Assault on one of his teammates, a good sensible PL will never come close to towers while pushing in.
HEROES : There are a certain heroes that go well with a illusions/huge numbers.
- Spectre - I am not 100% certain of this, but her ultimate will create an illusion against the real PL. Please test it out.
- EarthShaker : For his ulti, given you are 100% sure that the real PL in among the illusions. Again, a real PL will not come to you. So smoke gank or surprise attack him with blink initiations using ES with your teammates.
- Warlock : His Fatal Bonds can be used on the illusions to find out the damage distribution. If one of the 'illusions' is taking lesser damage from fatal bonds than the others, chances are, he is the real deal.
- Medusa : Her ULTIMATE 'used' to destroy illusions. After the recent patch, where they turn to stone gradually, i am not sure whether the illusion destroying capacity has been removed.
Honorary mentions (Please note: I'm mentioning ways of identifying the real from illusions, not counter PL)
- Kunkka : A well farmed Kunkka with decent damage items, can reveal the real one from the illusion thro his splash damage from Tidebringer. However, be careful to go too close to the illusions, as it can be Kunkka's death if the real one is in there.
- Medusa (again) : same logic as Kunkka's. Use her Split Shots from a distance if you have good damage output. Also, her first ability bounces off 7 targets. This can be used as well.
- Gyrocopter : Flak em from a distance (flak has a range of 1000). See the damage taken. Use above logic.
- KOTL : Illuminate.
- Any spammable AOE nuke : Tiny's Toss (and/or avalanche), Pugna's blast, Alchemist's ACID, Invoker's meteor, Puck's Orb, Zeus's Chain lightening, Timbersaw's Chakra, Super-farmed BKB Sven's cleave (if crits reach over 1000, Sven with BKB is actually a very good counter to PL), Farmed up Axe, blink-in->Call->BladeMail (note that this will fail however farmed the Axe be, if performed late game against a farmed PL), and many more.
Now while we are at it, here are some ways to counter PL:
- Ganks, ganks and ganks : PL will always be in the safe lane, if the opponents want a safe late game. In that case, there will be baby-sitting, creep-pulling involved. To gank you will have to tower dive 70% of the time. Make sure to burst him down, since you will be low in levels and cant tank the tower hits. Better to go in with the creeps, carry dust, atleast one slow/disable. If there are no creeps to tank the tower hits, make sure the tankiest of you all go in.
- Push lanes. HARD : ALmost all the time, there is no chance you can win against a late game PL. In case there is a PL in the opponents, the aim should be finish the game as soon as possible. Push and get rid of the towers, ward for vision wherever necessary. The point is to make PL farming time as miserable as possible. Include a gank on PL here and there, and you should be golden.
- Have heavy nukers for early game ganks : A gank against PL should NOT go wrong. Instead of slowing his farm(money), if you provide him more, the time to say GG will be lessened. There is a reason he is called Phantom Cancer, TimeBomb, etc.
Hope this helps. Cheers!