Introduction
“Scree!”
Phoenix is a ranged strength support hero capable of dealing large amounts of AoE magic damage, often at the cost of his own health. Unlike most supports Phoenix does not have a stun or any form of lockdown, but he does have a very strong attack speed slow.
Phoenix's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Deals a lot of AoE damage
- Good attack speed and movement slows
- Potent teamfight ultimate that also grants Phoenix effective immortality if gotten off
- Quite mobile and has a decent escape mechanism
- Low mana cost abilities…
Cons
- …But three out of four cost a percentage of your health
- Ultimate form tends to be focussed down in teamfights
- No stun or lockdown
- Very squishy
- Lengthy ability cooldowns
Item Build
Phoenix is fairly item independent although not as much so as most supports, and so he fits well into a 4th position support role. Early items tend to be built around providing utility for the team and increasing Phoenix’s health pool and health regeneration, in order to counter then HP removal effects of most of his abilities.
Starting Items
As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items if there’s another support on your team:
Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, Gauntlets of Strength, and an Iron Branch.
And if you’re forced to solo support:
Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.
Early Items
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Get your Boots of Speed up and running as quickly as possible.
Upgrade any Iron Branches you bought at the start into a Magic Wand and if you started off with a Gauntlet of Strength then upgrade that into a Bracer.
Core Items
My upgraded Boots of choice are Power Treads, although Tranquils are also a decent opton and so it comes down to personal preference. You’re not a right-clicker, and your first ability – Icarus Dive – should give you sufficient burst mobility to rule out Phase Boots. Similarly you don’t rely heavily on mana to cast your abilities, so Arcane Boots aren’t necessary either (though they can be a situational pick up, if your team needs to mana for teamfights and/or pushes).
That leaves Tranquil Boots or Power Treads. The former gives you HP regen, armour and burst move speed – all great for Phoenix – but as a whole I feel Tranquils are the worst Boots in the game at present because they break far too easily. They’re good for roaming supports and supports that won’t be attacking or attacked but that’s about all they’re good for. Instead I prefer Power Treads, for reliable move speed and a nice stat boost.
At this stage you may want to consider an Urn of Shadows, for the mana regeneration and the strong healing ability it allows you to provide for teammates, ahead of your Mekanism purchase, which will take much longer to come online.
Mekanism is a fantastic item for Phoenix. It fulfils your duties as a support hero, giving the team 250 burst healing in teamfights as well as an armour and hp regen aura. The 250 healing is great for you as well, since you’ll eat into quite a large chunk of your own health pool simply by using your abilities.
Just be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it; you don’t want two Meks, so if someone else wants to build it then consider a Pipe of Insight instead.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance makes for a great first luxury item pick up. If you built a Bracer earlier on in the game for the additional stats then upgrading it into a set of Drums is a no brainer. They give your team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats. They’re also easy to built into and since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die.
At the other end of the expense scale is Shiva’s Guard. A very high cost item but one which gives you team-wide utility thanks to Freezing Aura and Arctic Blast. The reason Shiva’s in particular is so high up on Pheonix’s recommendation list, despite the hero largely being classed as a support, is that unlike most auras the Freezing Aura does take effect when you trigger your ultimate, thus increasing your chances of surviving the duration long enough to be regenerated.
| Tip: If you do manage to purchase Shiva’s Guard then trigger Arctic Blast when using your Icarus Dive ability. The blast will travel along with you, greatly increasing the area covered by the Blast. |
Heaven’s Halberd – Much easier to build into than Shiva’s, Heaven’s Halberd is one of my favourite luxury support items for Phoenix. On top of giving you a 3.0-4.5 second disarm active that will further enhance your potential as an anti-carry hero, Halberd gives you a huge chunk of health and effective damage mitigation through evasion.
Rod of Atos – As a support who lacks hard lockdown/stuns, Rod of Atos has a lot to recommend itself on Phoenix. The Cripple active helps make up for the lack of lockdown you have by providing you with a very long 1,2000 unit range and potent slow, whilst the large chunk of health it provides will make you less squishy and you’ll feel less vulnerable when using your abilities to their maximum potential.
Force Staff - You can never go wrong with Force Staff on a support hero simply because it gives you so much utility (assuming you actually use the active – please, do use the active!). It's great for clutch escapes and also gives you even more utility for your teammates (you can use Force on allied heroes, yourself, and enemies, making it useful in pretty much any given situation). You don’t get quite as much out of it is a typical ranged intelligence support like Crystal Maiden, but it is still a good pick-up.
Veil of Discord – A more offensive utility item, Veil gives you a small stat boost, some armour, and some health regeneration – all of which is good on Phoenix – and magnifies any magic damage you deal by 25% for 25 seconds if you manage to cast it on enemies. This synergises well with your own skill set – 3/4ths of which deals magic damage, and also with your team if your team’s line-up is heavily magic damage-focussed.
Heart of Tarrasque – The ultimate tank item. You’ll no longer need to worry about the health costs of any of your abilities and you’ll have an enormous health pool which will make you difficult to bring down (remember, Phoenix is a strength hero, so he benefits from the bonus strength more than most supports). The only problem is being able to afford it.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Ghost Scepter – The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Skill Build
Invest your first skill point in Icarus Dive in case of a level 1 engagement. However, it is maxed last, because it scales the worst out of all of your abilities. Icarus Dive causes Phoenix to dive forwards and return like a boomerang in an oval shape. Any units he comes into contact with will be slowed and dealt a small amount of magic damage over time.
It doesn’t cost mana to cast, however it will take 15% of your current health upon casting and it has a fairly lengthy cooldown of 36 seconds, so you certainly don’t want to waste it. In early engagements you can use it as an escape or chasing mechanism by cancelling the ability before you return to your starting point.
Skill Fire Spirits second of all and max it first. This ability summons four Fire Spirits which circle around you and which you can launch at a chosen area. At level 4 each spirit causes magic damage over time to any enemies that are affected, but note that the damage does not stack when a hero is hit by more than 1 spirit - the effect is merely refreshed.
Fire Spirits scales well, with each level 4 Fire Spirit dealing a max of 300 magic damage. The Fire Spirits also deal considerable attack speed reduction (140 at level 4), making it a great anti-carry ability (providing the enemy cores don’t activate Black King Bar).
A value point in Sun Ray is recommended at level 3, but generally you’ll want to max it second (i.e. by level 10). Sun Ray fires a straight beam of fire which deals pure damage to enemies and heals allies. The damage is only 15-30 per second, but it will also deal damage based on a target’s max health (1/2/3/4% respectively), making it good against tanky heroes.
Finally, you always want to skill your ultimate, Supernova (so at levels 6, 11 and 16). This ability is extremely good. You’ll transform into a ‘Phoenix Sun’ for 6 seconds, during which times you will deal 60/80/100 magic damage per second in a huge 1,000 unit radius. Once the duration ends you’ll be ‘reborn’, will stun enemies in the surrounding area, and will have full health and mana and all of your abilities will be off cooldown. Thus it serves as a huge damage dealing ultimate in teamfights and as a last-chance escape mechanism.
Note, however, that if the Phoenix Sun is attacked 5/8/11 times by enemy heroes during the 6 second duration you will die. This makes it usage in teamfights somewhat risky. Whilst the more enemies there are that are nearby, the more damage you will deal, the more impact the stun will have, and the more useful your abilities will be once the duration ends. On the other hand, the more enemies there are nearby the less likely you are to survive the duration. As such, try to use it in situations where you either don’t expect to be focussed or where you want to force the enemy to focus you (and not, say, you carry), or if you’re about to die anyway.
Gameplay Tips
During Icarus Dive you can use both your other abilities and any items with actives in your inventory. Although Icarus Dive can be interrupted, you move quite quickly for the duration, making it hard to focus Phoenix before he’s already flown back. Use this to your advantage by casting Fire Spirits or any offensive item actives (such as Shiva’s Guard’s Arctic Blast) whilst in middle of an Icarus Dive.
Phoenix’s abilities which cost health to cost take the form of direct health removal, and the health removed is based on a percentage of your current health pool, not your maximum health pool. This also means that the health removal cannot be reduced by magic resistance (so do not purchase a Cloak expecting it to reduce the damage you deal yourself by using your abilities, like a Pudge would to reduce the damage he takes from Rot).
Fire Spirits’ damage does not stack, so don’t blow all of them on a single target in quick succession. Try to hit multiple targets with different Spirits, or use them to refresh the duration of Spirit’s effects on a single target by spreading out their usage.
Fire Spirits’ attack speed slow makes it a great anti-carry ability, providing the enemy carries don’t have or use their Black King Bars. Furthermore it also synergises well with your ultimate, Supernova; throw Fire Spirits at nearby enemies before using your ultimate in order to reduce their attack speed (and in turn reduce their chances of killing you before the ultimate’s duration ends). You can put Icarus Dive to similar effect, slowing enemy movement prior to using your ultimate.
You can cast certain items whilst using Sun Ray, including those that are self or player targeted (such as Eul’s or Dagon), and AoE items, such as Mekanism. You can also cast your other abilities as well.
| Note: The damage from Sun Ray is pure damage, so it will ignore armour and magic resistance. |
Supernova cannot be targeted by abilities, only auto-attacks. This makes it a great way to escape death if, for example, you have just been targeted with a projectile ability that will deal a killing blow (such as Sven’s Storm Hammer, or even Zeus's ultimate), as well as being a great teamfight ultimate.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
