Comprehensive Guide To Da Bird - Phoenix

I have seen quite a few guides posted on reddit, and thought I would shed some light on my newest favorite hero, Phoenix. This guide is aimed to help players who want to start playing Phoenix, or to help those understand how to fight against the sexy bird.

Phoenix can be played many different ways, support, mid or offlane. I personally believe that he is best played in a lane where he can get early XP. This guide will be focused on **SOLO OFFLANE** Phoenix.

#Starting Items

- Healing Salve
- Tangos
- Ring of Protection
- 1 Ward from Support

#Skill Build
Some players like to put 1 point in Iccarus Dive, and then max out Fire Spirits and Sunray first. This is really effective as a support. For max DPS and kill potential, I begin with 1 point in Iccarus Dive, and max out fire spirits right away.

At level 6 you will have the potential to kill anyone on the map (even those pesky escape heroes).

- Iccarus Dive (lvl 2) - 120 Damage Potential
- Fire Spirits (lvl 3) - 800 Damage Potential (DOES NOT STACK, 1 FIRE SPIRIT EVERY 4 SECONDS)
- Supernova (lvl 1) - Feel the burn!


#Opening
**Fly by Runing**

- To open the game, there are a few spots that you can practice from to dive and snatch the rune safely from unexpecting opponents. It takes a little practice, but once you get it down you can almost always secure the rune unless someone is standing directly on top of it when it spawns.

**Ward the Pull Camp**

- Warding the pull camp should help you control the lane and keep it just outside your tower. At the very least, you will force $200 out of a support that could go towards a courier upgrade or boots.

**Block Dem Creeps**

- With your fly by rune attempt, it puts you back in a position where you can impactfully block your creeps to create an early advantage in your lane.

#Laning

- **DO NOT** use Fire Spirits earlier than level 2, it is a waste of mana. The attack speed slow is not significant -enough to mess up an opposing carries last hit timing.
- **DO NOT** use Fire Spirits on creeps. The attack speed slow will instantly put your lane further towards your enemy tower impacting your ability to gain XP & farm
- If the enemy lane is pushing your tower, tank the creep wave if possible to keep the waves just outside of your towers reach.
- **USE** Iccarus Dive to break clarities on enemy supports without taking significant damage

Phoenix has arguably the best escape in the game with Iccarus Dive. Unless you get chain stunned by 2 supports and a carry - you should be able to escape most anything the enemy team throws at you.

If you can do this, even 70% of the time, you will win your lane in more ways than XP.

#In Lane Items
**Tranquil Boots**

- You will chew through your regen items quickly. Tranquil's will allow you to regen without leaving the lane or losing XP.

**Urn of Shadows**
- If do not have a natural Urn holder on your team (Nightstalker, Pudge etc...) then pick one up. *It only adds to the burn!*

#When & How to Kill
So, your laning phase went magically... you hit level 6 are ready to start making some moves. Here is how it is done.

Watch for when supports may wander, or pull. Phoenix can easily take on any 2 heroes that don't have a silence. 3 however, and that precious egg of yours is bound to crack.


- Save your dive, and open with fire spirits.
- Get next to your enemy carry, and cast 1 Fire Spirit on him, if support is nearby hit him to. *At this point you will likely get stunned, but thats okay. They can only attack you at a speed of 1 hit every 2-3 seconds.* After 4 seconds, hit them with your next fire spirits *they do not stack if cast quickly*.
- If the carry doesn't have an escape
- Fight as close to them as possible until you have as little HP left without chance of getting crit/blown up.
- SUPERNOVA

Most people stick around for a second thinking they can take down your egg. Things go 1 of 3 ways.

1. Your egg dies. Bad luck, rinse and repeat.
2. They get stunned by the egg with little health left. Cast your fire spirits, finish them off and dive to safety.
3. They get away from the egg.. but not far! Dive after them with fire spirits and finish them off.

#Big Trick for Dealing With Evasive Carries
Don't you hate when you try to kill Anti Mage, QOP, or PA and they blink away? Spectre with his dagger? You get the point....

These carries often have a comfortable mindset, knowing that they can get away from most assaults. The joy of Phoenix, is you can save your iccarus dive and follow them as they try to run... you can even dive the tower knowing at any second which makes them feel even safer and stop running, and then... SUPERNOVA!

#What Next?
Every time Supernova is up, you need to look for a kill. As an offlane core, your #1 job is to create space. Phoenix has the ability to create more space than most heroes in the game with very few items in the inventory. Once you get your urn charges, you can add this into the attack meaning the burn damage that you will inflict will be upwards of 1500 if done correctly.

#Item Progression
If done correctly, Phoenix can farm a radiance in under 20 minutes, making him a feared flaming bird that can control most of the map and limit opposing heroes farm.

* **Midas** (Optional)
If you are having a tough time with kills, you can pick up a late midas to help take you into the late game. But if things are going your way, I would pass on this and go straight to...

* **Radiance**
With a radiance, Phoenix can farm creep waves, & jungles as fast as most heros in the game. The extra burn damage doesn't hurt either ;)

* **Shivas**
You can spend 25-30 minutes going Shivas first, but if you pick up the radiance for the ~$600 more you will be able to farm a Shivas in 5-10 minutes. Shivas combined with Iccarus dive is an easy way to initiate on your opponents and break high ground.

These 3 items are all I think Phoenix really needs. After this, there are a few luxury items to choose from.

* **Heart**
Are you getting blown up by PA crits or Lina ulti? Can never go wrong with a Heart on a strength hero!

* **Heaven's Halbred**
Battling a troll? PA? Sven? Or someone with high dps. The halbred is a great item to help your carry in the late game.

* **Refresher**
Who doesn't like 2 eggs :)

* **Aghs**
Great if you are playing more of a support role. I personally use Pheonix more for initiation, and less as something to potentially save an ally. I would prefer

#Initiation
As the game progresses, your role will become less gank and supress carry driven and more core initiation and support in team fights. Communication with your team is key, they need to know when you are going to initiate so they can join the party.

* **Starting the fight?**
Activate Fire Spirits & Shivas and dive into the enemy team. While diving, land those fire spirits on as many DIFFERENT heroes as you can (remember it does not stack!). You want to activate Supernova on the back side of the enemy line, forcing them to either committ to the egg, or fight under it.

If you have an Axe, Earthshaker, Witch Doctor, Wyvern, Enigma etc... they can all be a part of a magical wombo combo!

* **Joining the Fight?**
Fire Spirits are your #1 priority for any DPS heroes. 180 attack speed slow renders right click heroes pracitcally useless for 4 seconds minimum. Be sure to cast that egg right in the middle of the action, or just on the opposite side of it to ensure that no one tries to run away!

**Sun Ray**
I know I have not talked a lot about Sunray, and while it is a great skill, there is not much to it. Sunray is best used in 3 scenarios.

- **After Super Nova**
Cast your fire spirits, dive out of the centre of the fight, and heal up your allies while causing damage to those they are fighting.

- **Finishing Off A Kill**
The range on Sun Ray is incredible. You can always use it to finish off a kill trying to get away!

- **Escape**
Sunray can be used as a **slow motion** escape up onto highground. It isn't reliable given that it is only 230 movespeed.

#Top 3 Heroes to Avoid
* Troll
* Skyrath - Silence
* Silencer


#Conclusion
In my opinion, with Dota's current meta, Phoenix is one of the strongest heroes. When played right, he can create enough space for any carry to come back from a mediocre laning phase. Phoenix ability to shut down almost any carry in the game and take any fight vs almost any two heroes 2v1 for the early game is nearly unmatched. Phoenix is also a hero with a fantastic initiation that can help any team break high ground to deal with the 30 minute turtles.

I just started playing DOTA last year and hated when I got placed with 1.8K MMR to start. It was toxic, and I almost stopped playing. I climbed to 2500, where instantly I found the games to be more enjoyable... now that I have climbed 3K++ the game just keeps getting better.

There are still a few games where someone randoms 5th pick and ruins all the lanes, or a foreigner intentionally feeds 5 couriers to start the game, but overall the games and players have gotten more enjoyable as the MMR has increased!

Dotabuff is below... It's not pretty, but the Phoenix is legit!

http://www.dotabuff.com/players/9202004

**Happy Burning!**