Head-to-head Dota 2 7.41e win rate from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Phantom Lancer wins the Phantom Lancer vs Skywrath Mage matchup: Phantom Lancer beats Skywrath Mage in 51.08% of 1,997 ranked matches.
Trying to unload every spell on one hero is Skywrath Mage's entire game, but Phantom Lancer makes that plan fall apart. Skywrath ends up wasting his long cooldowns and high mana costs on illusions that don't matter. The real Phantom Lancer can also easily dodge incoming spells or remove a silence like Ancient Seal with Doppelganger. This makes it almost impossible for Skywrath to set up his ultimate for a kill, as he can never be sure he's even targeting the right hero in the first place.
The early laning phase might feel okay for Skywrath, but the matchup flips completely once Phantom Lancer gets a few levels. He wants to find and swarm a fragile target, and Skywrath is perfect food. Once PL has an item like Diffusal Blade, he can close the gap, burn away Skywrath's mana, and overwhelm him. To have a chance, Skywrath needs his teammates to provide area-of-effect lockdown to identify the real PL, or he must invest in defensive items that still might not be enough to save him.
How the matchup shifts across skill brackets — Phantom Lancer's win rate against Skywrath Mage in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Phantom Lancer win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 52.67% | 1,010 |
| Crusader & Archon | 51.65% | 2,153 |
| Legend & Ancient | 48.62% | 1,300 |
| Divine & Immortal | 56.61% | 484 |
Phantom Lancer's win rate against Skywrath Mage in each recent balance patch — whether this matchup is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Phantom Lancer win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 51.08% | ▼ -1.6pp | 1,997 |
| 7.41d | 52.72% | ▼ -0.6pp | 169,684 |
| 7.41c | 53.34% | ▼ -0.5pp | 83,629 |
| 7.41b | 53.80% | — | 82,665 |
Move this data into a draft
Phantom Lancer starts on Radiant and Skywrath Mage on Dire. Add the other eight picks to see whether this head-to-head edge survives the full draft.
Data updated Aug 11, 2026.