How Phantom Lancer and Tusk perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Phantom Lancer and Tusk win 48.90% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 6,536 matches.
Getting rolled on by a Snowball is bad enough, but having a Phantom Lancer pop out adds another layer of threat. Tusk provides what a melee carry wants: a delivery service and lockdown. Ice Shards can trap a target, letting Phantom Lancer and his illusions close the gap and start building up damage. A well-timed Walrus Punch can then secure a kill against most heroes who get caught out. The setup for pickoffs is clean and effective in the early and mid-game.
The main issue is that their timings and ideal fights don't always align. Tusk's game plan revolves around constant aggression to create space. Phantom Lancer wants to use that space to farm key items and often can't join every single engagement. Later on, Tusk is looking for quick initiations to blow up a single hero, while PL excels in long, chaotic teamfights where his illusions can multiply and overwhelm everyone. This pairing can feel disjointed if those initial ganks don't lead to a decisive advantage, as their late-game goals diverge.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate 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 | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 50.32% | 310 |
| Crusader & Archon | 44.87% | 907 |
| Legend & Ancient | 49.40% | 923 |
| Divine & Immortal | 47.90% | 547 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 48.90% | ▲ +0.3pp | 6,536 |
| 7.41d | 48.56% | ▼ -1.8pp | 66,639 |
| 7.41c | 50.39% | ▲ +0.9pp | 31,176 |
| 7.41b | 49.50% | — | 32,207 |
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Data updated Aug 17, 2026.