Head-to-head Dota 2 7.41e win rate from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Phantom Lancer wins the Phantom Lancer vs Viper matchup: Phantom Lancer beats Viper in 57.64% of 1,204 ranked matches.
Melting a single hero with corrosive magic is Viper's entire game plan, and it completely falls apart against Phantom Lancer. His only area damage, Nethertoxin, is a static puddle that PL easily sidesteps or dodges with Doppelganger, which also purges off slows. Every other spell is single-target, forcing Viper to guess which of the dozen illusions is the real hero. Landing Viper Strike on an illusion is a fight-losing mistake, and even hitting the real Lancer doesn't stop the illusion army from swarming him.
While Viper might feel strong for the first few minutes of laning, the matchup flips hard once Phantom Lancer can sustain his illusions. A farmed PL can send his army to drain Viper's mana from a safe distance, leaving him with no way to fight back. Viper lacks the tools to clear this pressure himself, making him a liability in teamfights and against split-pushing. His team is forced to build items and draft specifically to deal with the illusions for him, because he simply can't.
How the matchup shifts across skill brackets — Phantom Lancer's win rate against Viper 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 | 60.91% | 880 |
| Crusader & Archon | 56.91% | 1,288 |
| Legend & Ancient | 57.44% | 672 |
| Divine & Immortal | 58.08% | 198 |
Phantom Lancer's win rate against Viper 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 | 57.64% | ▼ -1.2pp | 1,204 |
| 7.41d | 58.87% | ▼ -0.1pp | 117,810 |
| 7.41c | 58.96% | ▲ +0.7pp | 58,520 |
| 7.41b | 58.29% | — | 58,022 |
Move this data into a draft
Phantom Lancer starts on Radiant and Viper on Dire. Add the other eight picks to see whether this head-to-head edge survives the full draft.
Data updated Aug 11, 2026.