Phantom Lancer

Bind a bright yellow Doppelganger illusion to make deceptive plays as it takes the same damage as the hero.

Use Spirit Lance to secure ranged creep lasthits.

Toggle on Phantom Rush on early levels so you don't waste it randomly.

Doppelganger dispels on cast and can be used to disjoint projectile spells and ranged attacks.

Phantom Lancer likes long fights in which you can amass illusions and grind opponents down.

Pick up Aghanim's Shard around minute 20, especially if you have issues engaging in fights or being behind.

Phantom Lancer's main escape mechanism is Doppelganger. As this spell has a very long cooldown at lower levels, look to play aggressively as soon as he used it

Pressure Phantom Lancer while he's farming Diffusal Blade. He's very weak until he gets that item. Smoke on him and place wards in his jungle

Phantom Lancer's main item is Diffusal Blade. Items that give you and your team burst of mana are good against him. Sample items are Magic Wand, Soul Ring, Arcane Boots, Arcane Ring, and Enchanted Mango

Use AOE nuke to weaken Phantom Lancer's illusions to figure out which one is the real hero

You strongest item timing is heart of tarrasque, Try not to die before this timing and get there as fast as possible after diffusal and manta.

Spells like Lion's and Shadow Shaman's Hex and Pugna's Life Drain are able to destroy Phantom Lancer's illusion instantly. That can help when the illusion count is low, but not when there are plenty of them

Against Phantom Lancer purchase items that are dealing AOE damage, preferably magical damage. For example Mjollnir, Radiance or Shiva's Guard. Battlefury is good as well but Phantom Lancer has a lot of armor and usually evasion on top of that

Phantom Lancer loves long fights as he's able to drain huge amounts of mana. Ideally, look to burst him and to finish the fights reasonably fast. If the fight prolongs, count on the fact that you will be running low on mana and it might be better to disengage