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Phoenix helps control the battlefield in Valorant, and looks good doing it. Here’s how to not get burned when picking up this stylish operator.
Phoenix is one of the first duelists you’ll have the opportunity to play and is one of the most powerful initiators in the game. He comes packing an ultimate that allows you to play as aggressively as you want and unique abilities that can help you single handedly take over bomb sites. Despite all this power, Phoenix takes game sense and planning to maximize his value. There’s things about him you may have missed if you only played this operator once or twice. Phoenix is all about maximizing his abilities to work harmoniously with each other. Knowing their limitations and tricks will be a big part of his kit.
Blaze -- C ability
Phoenix casts a large wall of fire that obscures vision and changes the map layout temporarily. It lasts for 8 seconds and follows your crosshair as it is cast, allowing the player to curve it.The fire wall heals Phoenix for a total of 69 hit points, while harming both allies and enemies. It’s an extremely useful ability, walling off entire sections of bomb sites, allowing you and your team to converge on a point without giving away positional information to the enemy.
With Blaze, you can take a more aggressive stance on whichever side of the flame wall you choose to push, and try to isolate a 1v1. If no one is on your chosen side, you can peak through your wall of fire or rotate around to the far side to take a different angle while the enemy wonders if you still are lurking behind the blaze. Just like Jett’s cloudburst, you can curve Blaze so it can fit to the exact margin you need to properly block off a sightline or point from the enemy.
Blaze acts like a wall in nearly every instance, so be mindful when using sight altering abilities. If you use curveball, your flash on the left side of blaze, while the enemies wait on the other side, they won’t be flashed the same way they would have been if Blaze never went up. While initially frustrating, it gives Phoenix even more playmaking potential as he can wall of a sightline to a bomb site and once it is clear he can curveball through his Blaze and follow up on any enemies caught by the flash.
You can create all sorts of mind games with Blaze, just be mindful of its up time of 6 seconds. Quick plays, similar to how you would play around Jett’s smokes, are better since Blaze won’t last long enough for a slow push like if you had Omen or Brimstone’s smokes at your disposal.
Curveball -- Q ability
Phoenix’s flash ability, sends a curving projectile around corners that explodes and blinds anyone unlucky enough to see it. Be mindful of how close you are to the corner where you plan to use Curveball, though. The closer you are, the further it will travel around the corner before detonating. If you are close to a corner and you throw out your curveball, it may only partially blind the enemy… in case you were wondering how they saw you in the lead up to your death. If any enemy is hugging the wall you plan to push in on, try using Curveball in the opposite direction. It might partially hit you, but any flash that would go over that enemy will detonate in front of them instead, giving you time to make the play.
Be mindful when using Curveball. Sometimes it’s better to hold back. This ability will always announce your presence to the enemy, so don’t get used to it as your only entry tool. If you do push the same way every time, the enemy will adapt and can kill you with “pre aim” just as often as you successfully turn the corner on them. The enemy team won’t hear you snap your fingers as you summon Curveball, but your team will. Your team can also be flashed by it just as easily as the enemy team so be careful with your usage.
Hot Hands -- E ability
Phoenix’s primary ability, hot hands, enables him to cast a fireball that will take up a large floor area, damaging teammates and enemies while healing Phoenix for a max of 39 hit points. It only lasts for 4 seconds, so it won’t keep the enemy back for long, but if you place it where you know the team is rushing you, it can delay their push long enough for your team to reposition.
When enemies are being damaged by your firewall or Hot Hands, they won’t give out any audio cues, so pay attention if you’re looking to make plays off of your abilities. Unlike Cypher’s tripwire, you won’t know when an enemy is caught in your abilities. After Hot Hands travels a set distance, it will drop down sharply and deploy. Use this to your advantage as you can bounce the ability off of walls and surprise the enemy when it drops onto them instead of traveling along its normal trajectory.
Ultimate: Run it back
Allows you to peek a full area without consequences and maybe get a pick, essentially allowing a safe trade. Phoenix leaves a safe spot, wherever they use their ultimate, and gets 10 seconds to push as aggressively as they want without the fear of losing their life since, when the time is up or they die to gunfire, the result will always end with Phoenix respawning where he used his ult.
It’s a generally safe ult, but be careful where you pop it. There’s a good 2 seconds between the animation starting and finishing, leaving you at the mercy of a flanker or anyone who happens to chance upon you. Whether to be the first one through or to clear a point, Run it Back is a useful, low risk way to push on offense in Valorant. On defense, it can be used similarly. You can hold aggressively and prevent a quick push by the other team without worrying about trading or putting your team down one as you spawn back in your safe spot, after stalling for your allies.
When a team uses Phoenix’ ult, it triggers a weird moment in the game. Generally, it won't be wasted unless a team wants to fully commit to a point. Phoenix has the safest means of checking and if he dies he just returns to the ult spot. Sometimes you can use his ult on a different point to pull enemies from the actual point your team wants to push. Make sure everyone is on the same page and your timing is down, otherwise you will just waste an ultimate.
You can also use the ult to scan an area and take as many kills as possible. Trading lives is how you win in valorant and, if you can get a kill before they send you out of your ult, you just earned your team a big advantage.
Buy strategies
A Ghost is always a good weapon to start with for any hero, including Phoenix. With the Ghost, you can also afford a Curveball and a Blaze if you don’t mind spending to zero. A flash and area denial ability can help out in the early rounds, when some buy light shields and a Ghost over their abilities. You can also use your Blaze and hot hands to heal yourself so a light shield should not be a priority for you round 1.
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