Phantom Assassin vs Spectre

How this matchup plays

Trying to burst down Spectre often ends with Phantom Assassin killing herself. PA relies on huge physical crits from Coup de Grace to delete heroes, but Spectre's Dispersion reflects a portion of all incoming damage back to the attacker as pure damage. The bigger Phantom Assassin's crit, the more damage she takes in return, and this damage can't be dodged with Blur. Spectre is built to survive that initial burst and punish the aggressor, which turns PA's greatest strength into a fatal weakness.

This forces Phantom Assassin to completely avoid Spectre for most of the game, focusing instead on weaker heroes. The trouble is that Spectre can use Haunt to join a fight at any time, often jumping directly onto PA to force the duel she can't win. Spectre can confidently build pure survivability items, knowing PA will struggle to break through before Dispersion finishes the job. PA's only real hope is to get so far ahead early that she can end the game before Spectre gets her key items and becomes an unkillable damage-reflecting wall.