- Tittle: A Dagger, a Blink, a Boom
- Author: GhostofGuns
Pros:
- A very low mana costing creeping skill
- Blur at level 4 makes you harder to see, which lets us escape easily
- Has one of the best critical ultimate in the game
- One of the highest Agility gain in the game
- Above average movespeed
Cons:
- Vulnerable to disables
- Item dependant
- Low hit points even with a good Strength and Strength gain
When to pick:
- Fragile heroes that are vulnerable to critical procs
- When there are not as much anti-carry heroes
- When there are not as much early game harrassers
- When you just want to play some critical fun
When not to pick:
- Not so much fragile heroes
- When there are alot of anti-carry heroes
- When there are alot of early game harrassers
- When you don't want to play some critical fun
Skills
Stifling Dagger
Hurls a dagger which deals minor pure damage and slows the unit's movement speed for a short duration. Deals half damage to heroes.
- Level 1 - 40 damage, 50% slow for 1 second
- Level 2 - 80 damage, 50% slow for 2 seconds
- Level 3 - 120 damage, 50% slow for 3 seconds
- Level 4 - 160 damage, 50% slow for 4 seconds
- 30/25/20/15 mana cost and 8 cooldown at all levels.
- Damage type: pure
- The projectile can't be dodged by blinking.
Phantom Strike - [B]
Teleports to a unit and attacks it. Gains 100% attack speed for 3 seconds while attacking that same target. Maximum of 4 attacks.
- Level 1 - 30 seconds cooldown
- Level 2 - 20 seconds cooldown
- Level 3 - 10 seconds cooldown
- Level 4 - 5 seconds cooldown
- Costs 50 mana at all levels. Casting range increases by 100 per level increase.
Blur
The Phantom Assassin becomes hard to see by blurring her body. Some enemy attacks miss.
- Level 1 - 15% dodge/25% transparency
- Level 2 - 20% dodge/50% transparency
- Level 3 - 25% dodge/75% transparency
- Level 4 - 30% dodge/100% transparency
Coup de Grace
Mortred has refined her hero-killing skills to a high degree.
- Level 1 - 15% chance to 2.0x critical
- Level 2 - 15% chance to 3.0x critical
- Level 3 - 15% chance to 4.0x critical
- Does not stack with evasion from Butterfly.
- Mortred gains 80% transparency when a non invisible enemy hero is in a 1600 AoE.
- Has a 1.5s delay before the transparency is applied or removed.
- Does not trigger from invisible heroes.
Skill Build
- 1. Phantom Strike
- 2. Stifling Dagger
- 3. Stifling Dagger
- 4. Phantom Strike/Blur
- 5. Stifling Dagger
- 6. Phantom Strike
- 7. Stifling Dagger
- 8. Phantom Strike
- 9. Blur/Stats
- 10. Coup de Grace
- 11. Coup de Grace
- 12. Blur
- 13. Blur
- 14. Blur
- 15. Blur/Stats
- 16. Coup de Grace
Stifling Dagger: Should be maxed out since at level 4, it would've cost a lone 15 mana, with 8 cooldown, which makes it more spammable to deal with creeps. Also, it can be thrown to farm at level 2/3, and it can't be dodged by blinking. Phantom Strike: Should be taken at level 1 so that you can blink to an ally if the enemy tried to do a stun/disable to get their first blood. Then, max along Stifling Dagger to make it's casting range longer so as to chase down enemy heroes and kill them. Blur: Is not really good early game, but you can replace level 15/9's Stats with 1 point of Blur if you are facing alot of harrassers in your lane so that you can farm easily with Stifling Dagger, or level 4's Phantom Strike if you have strong harrassers. Coup de Grace: Should be maxed since it is one of the best criticals in the game, so it's at 10/11/16 levels. We don't take it anymore at 6 since we don't have a big damage output, and the critical is just not useful then.
Item Build
Starting Item Build: - 421 gold
Quelling Blade: Mortred is a hard carry. And in order for her role to complete, she needs alot of damage dealing items which costs high enough. And so, Quelling Blade gives us some potential in farming and also a good percentage bonus which makes our last-hitting more easier. Dispose once you get Dominator because the lifesteal and the bonus don't stack.
GG Branches (A.K.A Ironwood Branches): GG Branches is a great item which gives us some attribute bonuses for a low cost. Though we need 2, they are still great and also disposable.
Ancient Tango of Essifation: A decent healing item, and costs 10 gold less than Salves. We take Tango since we need last-hitting and farming to get our items.
Core Items: - 11110 gold
Helm of the Dominator: Dominator is a fast and free item which gives us lifesteal and also 20 damage. It also gives us armor and makes farming much easier. 
Battlefury: Bfury, one of the damage dealing items, and Mortred needs it very much in order for her critical to proc with an even higher damage. Also, the cleaving makes farming more easier, with some possible regen. 
Wraith Bands: Gives us good stat bonuses and also some damage. It's also disposable when you want to sell them for other luxury items to take their places.
Poor Man's Shield: A fantastic item on Mortred. Though we don't need Vanguard's damage block, Poor Man's is an easy item to farm up for, and gives us good damage block when farming for other big consecutive items. Thanks to Val for the item! 
Power Treads: Of all our boots, we choose this boots. Treads not only gives us attack speed, it also gives us another great stat bonus, but it gives 10 to only 1 attribute. Which do we give it to? Obviously Strength due to the very low health of Mortred's. We don't need Agility due to Phantom Strike, and not Intelligence since we don't need alot of mana, nor the extra mana to cast our spells. 
Black King Bar: A great item, and thanks once again to Val, we are swapping it back to core. Mortred's low health is very low, and we obviously need some extra help and also a buff. The Ogre Axe in the recipe gives a great help in Mortred's low health and also some extra damage. BKB is very essential against nukers and stunners. 10 Avatar is long, so use it when you need it.
Luxury Items:
Satanic - 6150 gold: One of the best items in DotA, and it became better with Mortred. Mortred's low health can be countered by buying Satanic because it gives 25 Strength, which buffs up Mortred's Strength, affecting her health in the process. A must buy after core if you still feel that your health is still too low.
Heart of Terrasque - 5500 gold: Another great counter to Mortred's low hp. This time, it gives much more bonuses with a hp boost of 300. You might think that the passive is not good for Mortred. But think again. With Blur at level 4, you can easily hide and regain your health like X-Men's Wolverine. 
Divine Rapier: - 6200 gold: The best damage item, has just got better with Mortred. With the 250 damage, it makes Mortred get a 4 digit critical alone! This item is not to be joked when Mortred buys it. It's better for the enemies of Mortred to stay away as far as you can. 
Aegis of the Immortal - Priceless: Late game Rosh - and this is the payout. It gives you a VERY immortal feeling, and makes you almost a hero to be reckoned with. 
Monkey King Bar - 5400 gold: MKB, or Monkey King Bar, is actually one of those high boom damage items. Of course, when worked with Mortred, she might just get those 4 digit criticals having the blasts. If your red critical doesn't show up, not to worry, it doesn't mean they don't critical. It's just that they deal the damage, but don't show up. Use it against people who bought Butterfly to take them out, to let them know that PA is one the heroes that hate that item.
Rejected Items:
The Butterfly - 6000 gold: Evasion doesn't stack. Total waste when you've got everything Bfly has. 
Buriza/Crystalys - 5800/2200 gold: Hey crazy, you've got a critical and you still want another one? 
Lothar's Edge - 3400 gold: Too much over-disappearing can be alot of trouble.
Items that counters Mortred:
Blademail - 2200 gold: The one and only item that counters Mortred very hard. Blademail returns ALL your critical hits, making them dealing damage to you! Also, Blademail can't be dropped, so killing the hero and destroying it would be of no use. It would be best to STOP AUTO-ATTACKING once the enemy turns on Blademail. Once the spikes go off, finish the enemy off.
Ghost Scepter: A true touch of the boomshock, but not really clearing enough. Ghost Scepter heroes escapes your DPS strikes and eventually escape unharmed. And for Mortred, within those 4 seconds, she can particualarly deal a large amount of damage if her critical proc during that time. All in all, Ghost Scepter is a bad news for Mortred. Monkey King Bar: As much as this item is good for you, it is an enemy of you in it's list. MKB goes through Blur, which means it's True Strike kinda' puts your dodge out of place and makes it much useless. As long as you see a Demon Edge, or Javelin's, kill that hero immediately to stop them from getting MKB to destroying you. If not, just try to kill that hero first and all will be fine. If not, call an ally and finish him.
Strategy
Early Game Strategy
Laning:
Which lane should Mortred head to? Obviously, top for Scourge and bottom for Sentinel, since those lanes are the lanes that can provide you with a near tower and also farm better.
Farming:
If played wrongly early game, Mortred's late game and mid game will be affected. And we definitely don't want that to happen, because we want to play Mortred correctly. The easiest way to farm in early game is to throw the daggers, when they reach around level 2/3. By then they don't cost as much mana, and they can also easily take out the creeps. You should begin to throw Daggers once the creeps get 1/4 health, since we don't want to pointlessly throw our daggers when the creeps don't die and the enemy hero just denies it.
Babysitting Style:
Babysitters do Mortred very well early game because she can farm easily and get what she needs for mid and late game and practically own. It may be tough if your babysitter doesn't listens to you, and tries to leave the lane. It may not be a problem, unless the enemy is alone. But it can turn out to be a tragedy if you die, since you lose gold, and you can't get what you want. If possible, switch lanes with a lone hero if your babysitter acts stupid.
Early Ganking:
Is definitely not advised. If the gank goes wrong, again, it affects your gold and making you harder to reach your items. If possible, let your allies to attack the enemy, then once they run, throw a dagger. It doesn't matter now who gets to kill, because once the enemy hero dies, return to your lane fast. If you meet enemy heroes along the way, blink to an ally and farm back on your lane. If they continue to chase, counter-gank if possible or/and return to a tower.
Mid Game Strategy
Ganking Mid:
It can be done, once you have at least 2 - 3 core items. Start to find lone heroes, or heroes that are lower leveled than you. Start with the same killing technique, Phantom Strike the enemy, hit them with your Coup de Grace filing it up. Once they run, throw a dagger to slow them down and go in for the kill. It's as easy as it should be. If they have allies there, it's best to study the situation before going in.
Blurring - Teamfights:
Your 1st Blur should be at level 10, or 2/4 if you were harrassed much early game. The 1st Blur is one of the wicked ones, a half of the evasion from Butterfly. Make use of it when teamfights occur. Again, never initiate. By initiating yourself, it just means suicidal. Once the fights start, target heroes that are not doing anything. Once fights dissipitate, Dagger the heroes that seemed to be in full form in the fight before. If the teamfight didn't win in your team's favour, blink to a nearby ally and retreat fast.
Daggering:
Level 4 Stifling Dagger is a great tool for chasing and hero killing. The slow is superb and the duration is just nice for you to catch up and kill the enemy hero. Sitfling Dagger also can't be dodged by blinking, which is good when enemy heroes are on low health, and the vision from the dagger can be great when it rolls in so you can see if the enemy is preparing to gank you from the side.
Late Game Strategy
4 digit crits pwning em' hard:
If you're owning, and your early game was pretty fantastic, you should start to get those 1-2-3-4 red hits that shows up on your counter. They are good news for you, and very bad news for the enemy hero once they understand properly what it all means for them. At least 1 luxury item is needed. Rapier to dish out that BIG damage.
Rosh late game:
Roshing late game for Mortred alone, as a surprise, is not really a problem. Get those 4 digits crits and you're good to go. Just attack and watch your hp come running back when Roshan hits a transparent hero, making his stun less useful against you. If you came as a team, it would be best to take the Aegis, or just give it to someone else when you've gotten a Satanic or Heart.
Late Game Teamfights:
Late game teamfights are always the most havoc'iest' ones during the game, and if you don't keep track of what's going on, you could easily lose out. Again, you should be fine this time. Still never initiate. But for now, try to take out the other team's most capable hero that can destroy your team, so that they lose a valuable hero. Then, the rest of the fight just continues, and you should be aiming for the next capable hero that can do the same after that.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com