Who wouldnt want to play as a big, badass Phoenix? This hero seems pretty straightforward: he can damage enemies by flying over them with Icarus Drive, he can summon fire spirits, and he can unleash a massive ray to damage his enemies at the cost of his own life. This third spell might seem risky, but as with Huskar, sacrificing life for damage is manageable. However, Phoenix possesses a dangerous and easy-to-manipulate weakness: his Ultimate Ability, Supernova. Taking from the whole mythology of phoenixes being reborn from their own ashes, Phoenix ends his own life and transforms into a sun that takes 6 seconds to explode, stunning everything within 1000 radius for up to 2.5 seconds, and fully healing the Phoenix. However, in that 6 seconds, all it takes is 5 attacks (then 8, and finally 11 at level 3), for any hero to destroy the sun before is explodes, killing the Phoenix. This is one of the main reasons Phoenix is rarely seen in play anymore; his ultimate ability renders him extremely vulnerable to group attacks. Sure, in team fights he is not meant to be the target of most attacks, but if his ultimate is used incorrectly, he becomes a sitting duck, completely open to free attacks. The games developers should re-work the Phoenixs abilities, or at the very least fix this obvious disadvantage. If they lowered the stun length or the damage, or if he wasn't fully healed at the end of his Ultimate, it would make up for this tremendous vulnerability.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
