Phoenix
The embodiment of the light and the sun, Phoenix represents the cycle of life and death. Played typically as a position 4 or 5 hero in the professional scene, this hero boasts massive Damage Over Time (DOT) abilities and a plethora of team fight utility. The Phoenix is a master at both small and large engagements and utilizes his abilities to wreak havoc, confusion and disarray amongst the enemy team.
Phoenix is an interesting support in that most of its abilities require a percentage tax on its health, making him weaker upon casting the arsenal of his skills. However, with his ultimate, Phoenix can once again undergo the transition of reincarnation and be reborn in a marvelous spectacle, ready to take flight on the battlefield anew.
5. IY99’s Soft Support Phoenix Build
We start the list off with some top ranked 1000 Immortal gameplay from IY99. Phoenix is a rather flexible hero in that his item and skill builds can vary from game to game. Here, IY99 shows us the power of phoenix at all stages of the game, building this hero to suit the situation at hand.
IY99’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1- W - Fire Spirits
Level 2 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 3 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 4 - E - Sun Ray
Level 5 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 6 - R - Supernova
Level 7- W - Fire Spirits
Level 8 - E - Sun Ray
Level 9 - E - Sun Ray
Level 10 - E - Sun Ray
Level 11 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 12 - R - Supernova
Level 13 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 14 - Left Talent
Level 15 - Left Talent
Level 16 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 18 - R- Supernova
IY99’s Item Build:
First Buy: Headdress Tangoes
IY99 has opted for an early headdress and Tangoes. The headdress is a nice pickup on Phoenix, providing his lane partner and himself some extra regeneration. It is a nice pairing with an offlaner like Dragon Knight, that has natural sustain measures, indirectly buffing your offlaner against harassment from the enemy Clinkz. The headdress is also useful to build into core items that Phoenix players usually build such as a Mekansm or Pipe of Insight.
5 Minutes: Tangoes, Circlet, Ring of Protection, Wards
IY99 purchased some much needed tangoes to help with the harassment coming out from the Clinkz and Marci. The Circlet and Ring of Protection provide Phoenix with the best possible stats early on to later build into an Urn of Shadows, which is a strong item to have on the hero for extra damage and healing as required.
8 Minutes: Urn of Shadows, Magic Stick, Wards
Urn of Shadows is usually a core item on Phoenix as it gives decent strength stats, mana regeneration as well as the potential to deal some extra DOT damage or heal. Magic Stick is also a great pick up as the hero usually thrives in the midst of battle and can gain stick and urn charges even while his ultimate, Supernova, is going off.
13 Minutes: Tranquil Boots
Tranquil Boots is the most common choice of boots for Phoenix as the hero benefits greatly from the health regeneration it gives from its passive. Mana is usually not too much of an issue with Phoenix as he can usually restore his mana pool with a successful Supernova in team fights.
14 Minutes: Dust and Infused Raindrops
Dust is a necessary pick up when the enemy team has invisible heroes. Infused Raindrops is an underrated pick up in your local pub matches, but serves as an incredible defensive as well as mana sustain item for a relatively cheap price.
18 Minutes: Spirit Vessel
Spirit Vessel is a natural upgrade from the Urn and gives a great active damage ability that is especially useful against higher HP targets.
25 Minutes: Vanguard
IY99 has opted for a Vanguard this game as it offers Phoenix some level of tankiness that prevents him from getting bursted. Not only that, in this particular game, the enemy team has a primarily physical damage lineup, to which Vanguard, and its later upgrade, the Crimson Guard, would be an exceptional addition to deal with the physical damage.
28 Minutes: Crimson Guard
Crimson Guard is a great addition to your team fighting capabilities, blocking a significant portion of the enemy’s physical damage abilities.
33 Minutes: Pipe of Insight
Pipe of Insight is always useful as it creates a strong barrier around teammates within a certain radius that blocks magic damage. Despite the enemy Radiant’s team's high physical damage, the Pipe helps reduce your team’s damage taken from magic sources even more.
4. Chu’s Soft Support Phoenix Build
In this game, we get to view a special professional match between OG and Secret and witness Chu’s insane Phoenix Soft Support. Phoenix is an incredibly strong team fighter and initiator/counter-initiator, and is one of those supports that the enemy team always needs to focus down.
Chu’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1- W - Fire Spirits
Level 2 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 3 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 4 - Point Held up Situationally - Later skilled for Sun Ray
Level 5 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 6 - R - Supernova
Level 7- W - Fire Spirits
Level 8 - E - Sun Ray
Level 9 - E - Sun Ray
Level 10 - E - Sun Ray
Level 11 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 12 - R - Supernova
Level 13 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 14 - Left Talent
Level 15 - Left Talent
Level 16 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 18 - R- Supernova
Chu’s Item Build:
First Buy: 2 Tangoes, Faerie Fire, 2 Branches, Ring of Regen, Sentry Ward
Contrary to IY99’s greedier starting items that dedicated more gold towards passive health regeneration, IY99 has opted for more consumables which is usually the safer and preferable option. The double branches also serve as a possible build up towards Magic Wand, or to act as extra regeneration if required.
4 Minutes: Magic Stick
Magic Stick is usually a core pick up on Phoenix as he is a strong fighter in most engagements, and is able to build up charges for some extra, much needed healing.
8 Minutes: Boots of Speed
With the somewhat earlier ring of regeneration purchase, Chu aims to rush out his tranquil boots to have some passive health regeneration so that he is able to keep up with his spell usage and the harassment from the enemy team.
10 Minutes: Tranquil Boots
Tranquil Boots is the most common choice of boots for Phoenix as the hero benefits greatly from the health regeneration it gives from its passive. Arcane boots can sometimes be picked up against teams that use a lot of mana burning abilities or with a team that relies heavily on mana.
18 Minutes: Magic Wand, Urn of Shadows and Dust
Dust is a necessary pick up when the enemy team has invisible heroes. Magic Wand and Urn of Shadows are great picks for Phoenix as he is usually found in the middle of battle, meaning that he will be able to build up stick and urn charges relatively quickly.
22 Minutes: Aghanim’s Shard
Aghanim’s Shard is a strong pickup on Phoenix that gives him the ability to perform his Sun Ray ability during his ultimate. This makes him especially hard to kill as he is able to dish out an incredible amount of damage if the enemy team ever decides to initiate upon him during his ultimate.
27 Minutes: Spirit Vessel
Spirit Vessel is a natural upgrade from the Urn and gives a great active damage ability that is especially useful against higher HP targets. You will see most professional Dota 2 players pick up this as their first core item.
27+ Minutes: Wards and Dust
As you can see from Chu’s gameplay, Phoenix already does insanely well with only an item or two. For the rest of the game, you can see him actively participating in fights, warding and counter-warding aggressively and purchasing consumables as required. His plan for this next item was to obtain a refresher orb to enable him to perform more skills during engagements. This is due to the fact that the enemy team had very few forms of reliable lockdown, with only the Shadow Shaman able to keep Chu from utilizing his ultimate in every fight. This comes down to positioning, which Chu played very well, initiating and counter-initiating in every fight, making the enemy team never able to pick him off and secure the upper hand.
3. Nigma GH’s Hard Support Phoenix Build
GH’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1- W - Fire Spirits
Level 2 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 3 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 4 - E - Sun Ray
Level 5 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 6 - R - Supernova
Level 7- W - Fire Spirits
Level 8 - E - Sun Ray
Level 9 - E - Sun Ray
Level 10 - E - Sun Ray
Level 11 - Left Talent
Level 12 - R - Supernova
Level 13 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 14 - Q - Icarus Dive
GH’s Item Build:
First Buy: Tangoes, Faerie Fire, Magic Wand, Ring of Regen, Sentry Ward
In this match, GH is laning with an alchemist, meaning that there is very little potential in the early game for a kill. As such, he has opted for all types of regeneration, from consumables such as tangoes, passive regeneration with the Ring of Regen, and the Magic Wand for some burst heal and mana restoration in engagements.
3 Minutes: Tangoes, 2 Mangoes and Wards.
Even with the high regeneration items, GH still has problems dealing with the harassment coming from the Dark Willow and Timbersaw. As such, he has opted for even more regeneration in the form of Tangoes and Mangoes. Even with the extra regeneration, the Dark Willow managed to snag a quick kill on him by the 4 and a half minute mark.
5 Minutes: Infused Raindrops
Respawning and returning back to lane, GH has chosen to purchase some Infused Raindrops which can sometimes mean the difference between life and death, especially with the high magic burst damage coming out from the Dark Willow and Timbersaw.
8 Minutes: Tranquil Boots
Once again, Tranquil Boots is the most common choice of boots for Phoenix as the hero benefits greatly from the health regeneration it gives from its passive.
15 Minutes: Void stone
GH has opted to go for Refresher Orb as his first core item as it is one of the best items to pick up on Phoenix especially if they have no catch potential. Looking at the Radiant draft of this game, they lacked a lot of catch on the Phoenix, relying on a potential ensnare from the Dark Willow which is already hard to land. Additionally, there are not a lot of heroes on the Radiant team that are able to auto attack at a rapid pace, a necessary requirement to bring the Supernova down. As such, the Void Stone is a great first pick up to build into the Refresher Orb as it gives Phoenix some mana regeneration which he lacks as he is not building an urn.
24 Minutes: Refresher Orb
Due to incredible one-sided fights at the 19 and 21 minute marks, the game was pretty much sealed by the large gold lead the Dire team had against the Radiant. Because of the strong Sun Ray and Slowing attack speed off his Fire Spirits, the Radiant team was never able to make favorable trades. Even if they could find GH slightly out positioned, they were never able to silence or lock him down, meaning that he could always cast Supernova, making it extremely hard for the enemy to ever commit to a favorable fight.
2. OG Saksa’s Soft Support Phoenix Build
Saksa’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1- W - Fire Spirits
Level 2 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 3 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 4 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 5 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 6 - R - Supernova
Level 7- W - Fire Spirits
Level 8 - E - Sun Ray
Level 9 - E - Sun Ray
Level 10 - Left Talent
Level 11 - E - Sun Ray
Level 12 - R - Supernova
Level 13 - E - Sun Ray
Level 14 - Q - Icarus Dive
Saksa’s Item Build:
First Buy: Tangoes, Faerie Fire, Buckler, Branches
Saksa’s first items are quite interesting, opting for an early Buckler that gives an armor bonus to allied heroes within a certain radius. The Buckler is especially useful here as he is paired with a Beatmaster who is able to summon creatures that also benefit off the Buckler. Additionally, Saksa is up against two ranged attackers, making it difficult to out regenerate most of the time. The Buckler also serves as a good first pick up to build into a Mekansm or a Crimson Guard (both great pickups on Phoenix) somewhere down the line.
1 Minutes: Tangoes
Saksa immediately ferries himself an extra set of Tangoes which is invaluable as he does not have any other sustain items in lane. This is particularly important on Phoenix players as you are constantly using a percentage of your HP to just cast your spells.
4 Minutes: Magic Stick
Magic Stick is a core pick up on Phoenix as the extra burst heal and mana can sometimes mean the difference between the hero getting off his ultimate or not.
10 Minutes: Boots and Infused Raindrops
Infused Raindrops is an underrated item used to survive potential nukes coming out from the enemy team. The extra mana regeneration is also very nice to sustain some of his spells.
12 Minutes: Tranquil Boots
By now you can probably see that Tranquil Boots is the best boots to purchase on Phoenix as it offsets most of the HP you lose from your spell usage.
14 Minutes: Ogre Axe
The early Ogre Axe gives Saksa some extra HP to increase the chances of living through the burst potential of the enemy team. Saksa also uses the Axe as the first ingredient in his build towards an Aghanim’s Scepter, which is a valuable pick up for Phoenix players as it not only increases your survivability during Supernova, but gives you a potential save for you to use on your allies.
21 Minutes: Point Booster
The Point Booster, like the Ogre Axe, is another ingredient purchased to build up an Aghanim’s Scepter. Phoenix players should opt to build the Point Booster as the second item in the lead up to the Aghanim’s Scepter for the same reason as the Ogre Axe.
24 Minutes: Aghanim’s Scepter
As the Scepter has gone through multiple changes on Phoenix over the years, it does not make the item any less viable, with its strong save and sustainability properties that make the item a great defensive pick up.
1. Fly’s Hard Support Phoenix Build
Fly’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1- W - Fire Spirits
Level 2 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 3 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 4 - E - Sun Ray
Level 5 - W - Fire Spirits
Level 6 - R - Supernova
Level 7- W - Fire Spirits
Level 8 - E - Sun Ray
Level 9 - E - Sun Ray
Level 10 - E - Sun Ray
Level 11 - Left Talent
Level 12 - R - Supernova
Level 13 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 14 - Q - Icarus Dive
Level 15 - Right Talent
Level 16 - Q - Icarus Dive
Fly’s Item Build:
First Buy: 2 Tangoes, Magic Wand, 2 Branches, Mango and Sentry Ward
Fly’s item build is very similar to GH’s starting items as they are both laning with a position 1 Alchemist. As such, both Fly and GH have decided for more regeneration to not only keep up with the enemy’s harassment, but to assist their carry with extra shareable consumables as required.
1 Minutes: Healing Salve
Like Saksa, Fly immediately ferries himself an extra set of healing in the form of a healing salve which is invaluable as he does not have any other sustain items in lane. This is particularly important in helping your carry sustain in lane to make sure they do not get harassed out of their lane and forced into the jungle before they want to.
6 Minutes: Boots of Speed
Due to a strong enemy offlane, Boots of Speed is especially useful to increase Fly’s chances of escaping enemy ganks as he is left to solo the safelane early into the game due to the Alchemist finding more value in the jungle camps.
9 Minutes: Tranquil Boots
Tranquil Boots is once again, the best boots to purchase on Phoenix as it offsets most of the HP you lose from your spell usage as well as increases Fly’s movement speed by a significant amount.
10 Minutes: Magic Wand and Fluffy Hat
Fluffy Hat and Magic Wand gives Fly some extra needed HP to survive potential engagements so that he can pop his ultimate. Fluffy
23 Minutes: Eul’s Scepter
Eul’s Scepter is a strong pick up in this game that serves as a nice dispel against potential lockdowns or debuffs the enemy team has. Most noticeably Grimstroke’s silence, the enemy team has a wide range of debuffs which the Eul’s can purge.
34 Minutes: Lotus Orb
Due to the ample amounts of targetable and dispellable abilities coming from the enemy team, Fly has chosen to go for items that can boost his team’s defense. The Lotus Orb also gives good mana and health regeneration which allows Fly to keep using his spells and abilities.
42 Minutes: Refresher Orb
With the ample amounts of dispel abilities Fly has under his wing, a Refresher Orb doubles up in that it recharges not only his signature abilities, but allows him to use his active item abilities twice as well, rendering a large portion of the enemy’s abilities obsolete.
