A Protoss warrior in the StarCraft universe, Fenix achieved the title “Steward of the Templar” for his deeds in battle, one of the most honored titles in the templar caste. While defending the province of Antioch, Fenix fell in battle against hordes of Zerg. Even though his body was battered and ruined, his fellow warriors managed to save him from the brink of death. His body was placed in a dragoon shell which allowed him to continue to fight, and in this form he continues his fight for glory and valor in the Nexus!.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Abilities

The first thing that stands out for Fenix is Shield Capacitor, a baseline self-recharging shield. To start recharging his shield, he needs to avoid damage for five seconds. It then then takes 10 seconds to regenerate his shields from empty to full. This ability alone defines Fenix and makes up a huge chunk of his rather hefty health pool. Shield Capacitor can absorb big poke damage and help him survive during dives, but in longer fights where the shield can be whittled down, it offers much less versatility.

Another tool in his kit to increase his survivability is Warp, which allows him to port out of a problematic situation or engage into the enemy team after a 0.5 second delay. This ability offers the potential for playmaking, especially when following up with Plasma Cutter. Plasma Cutter moves in a circle around Fenix three times dealing a heavy amount of damage and slowing enemies. The slow effect from Plasma Cutter also greatly increases Fenix’s auto attack damage. The radius of Plasma Cutter can be chosen by the player.

Finally, Fenix offers two auto attack modes: Repeater Cannon and Phase Bomb. With his Repeater Canon, he has fast attacks against single targets which can be used to quickly burst down enemies. In his Phase Bomb mode, he loses some attack speed but gains more range and splash damage. Making the choice between which mode to use is an important part of playing Fenix, and switching modes proactively can even lead to some interesting high-skill interactions.

Fenix first Heroic is Purification Salvo, which scans an area in front of Fenix and locks onto any heroes in the area, launching five missiles at each of the locked targets. These missiles deal 50% more damage when the enemies are slowed. With the slow offered by Plasma Cutter, Fenix has the potential to deal a huge amount of burst damage, but he also profits from Heroics like Sindragosa or Earthquake.



Planet Cracker is a laser beam with a global range that channels for 4 seconds and deals 105 damage every 0.25 seconds. If he hits all 16 ticks at Level 10, he can deal a total of 1680 damage, which is massive. Together with CC chains or long stuns/slows like Mosh Pit or Sindragosa, it could be possible to hit most of the shots on multiple heroes.

Talents

Fenix offers a lot of interesting and situational talents and can be built differently depending on what exactly you draft him for. A lot of the builds so far seem to revolve around his auto attacks and the interesting interactions when switching modes.

Advanced Targeting Quest: Hitting enemy Heroes with Plasma Cutter permanently increases Fenix's Basic Attack damage by 0.75, up to 75. Reward: After hitting 30 Heroes, Plasma Cutter circles an additional time.

Target Acquired Basic Attacks against Slowed Heroes with Repeater Cannon active grants 10% Movement Speed for 4 seconds, up to 40%.

Combat Advantage Plasma Cutter deals 50% more damage to Slowed targets.

Purification Salvo Channel for 1.5 seconds, sweeping a laser in front of Fenix that locks onto enemy Heroes. Once Channeling finishes, fire 5 missiles at each locked Hero, dealing 86 damage each. Deals 50% increased damage to Slowed targets.

Rapid Recharge Whenever Fenix is healed, Shield Capacitor's Shield recharges for 20% the healing received.

Photonic Weaponry Fenix deals 15% more damage while he has a Shield from Shield Capacitor.

Secondary Fire Hitting an enemy Hero with Plasma Cutter fires a Purification Salvo missile at them after 0.5 seconds, dealing 86 damage. Deals 50% increased damage to Slowed targets.

Mobile Offense After moving unmounted, Fenix's next Basic Attack deals 30% more damage to Heroes.

Inhibiting Energy While Phase Bomb is active, Basic Attacks against Heroes Slowed by Plasma Cutter Slow all enemies in the area by 35% for 4 seconds.

Divert Power: Weapons Activate to instantly drain Shield Capacitor's Shield, but increase Basic Attack damage by 80% of the Shield drained for 5 seconds.

Planet Cracker After 0.5 seconds, Channel a powerful beam that spans across the battleground for 4 seconds, dealing 105 damage every 0.25 seconds to non-Structure enemies hit.

Auxiliary Shields Permanently reduce Fenix's maximum Health by 10%, but increase Shield Capacitor's Shield by 20%. Basic Attacks regenerate Shields equal to 20% of the damage dealt.

Photonic Weaponry Fenix deals 15% more damage while he has a Shield from Shield Capacitor.

Singularity Charge Repeater Cannon grants 200% more Attack Speed and Phase Bomb grants 2.5 more range.

Mobile Offense After moving unmounted, Fenix's next Basic Attack deals 30% more damage to Heroes.

Warp Conduit Hero Takedowns reset Warp's cooldown.

Warp Warfare After arriving with Warp, gain 125% Attack Speed for 4 seconds while in Repeater Cannon mode.

Purification Salvo Channel for 1.5 seconds, sweeping a laser in front of Fenix that locks onto enemy Heroes. Once Channeling finishes, fire 5 missiles at each locked Hero, dealing 86 damage each. Deals 50% increased damage to Slowed targets.

Adanium Shell After arriving with Warp, gain 40 Armor for 4 seconds.

Arsenal Overcharge Fenix's Basic Attacks reduce his Ability cooldowns by 0.5 seconds.

Singularity Charge Repeater Cannon grants 200% more Attack Speed and Phase Bomb grants 2.5 more range.

Level 1 is currently a bit tricky. Mobile Offense requires you to walk a certain distance before you get an auto attack damage bonus, which can be a problem with stutter stepping (especially with Repeater Cannon). With perfect stutter stepping, this amounts to a 30% AA damage increase. The bonus also applies to the splash damage of Phase Bomb. A valid alternative is the quest talent for Plasma Cutter which increases auto attack damage if you hit enemy Heroes with Plasma Cutter and gives you a fourth rotation after completing the quest. Given his quick attack speed, Plasma Cutter might be the better talent of the two, especially since the bonus from the quest scales better into the late game.

At level 4, the two most interesting talents are Target Acquired and Emergency Protocol. With Target Acquired, attacks with Repeater Cannon against slowed enemy grant Fenix 10% Movement Speed for 4 Seconds, stacking up to 40%. Since you can attack while Plasma Cutter is active, you should get the movement speed bonus easily, with the Movement Speed staying for 4 seconds you can also guarantee you can get back out safely.
An alternative to this is Emergency Protocol, which is a 30% movement speed bonus for 4 seconds when Fenix’s shields are destroyed. This allows you to get away from enemies and either save yourself or force them to dive even deeper. For reference, 30% increased movement speed is enough to get out of Arthas’s Frozen Tempest.




Level 7 is designed around a plain damage increase for Fenix. The tier offers either an increase to the damage of Plasma Cutter to slowed targets (which synergizes nicely with the quest talent at Level 1) or the Zul’jin-like effect of Divert Power-Weapons where Fenix drains shields for increased auto attack damage. Warp Warfare sounds interesting on the surface (increased attack speed after using Warp), but it requires players to use their escape tool almost entirely as an offensive tool, which could devastating for players who don’t have the game sense of when and where to use Warp.

The Heroics both look fine. If you have the proper setup, Planet Cracker seems incredibly strong. However, Purification Salvo is much more reliable, especially since Fenix can proc the slow on his own.

The talents on Level 13 are designed around an increase in survivability for Fenix. You can get 40 Armor after using Warp to help with dives or 15 Spell Armor while shields are up to absorb even more poke damage. Rapid Recharge sounds interesting since it’s basically an Amplified Healing once Fenix’s shields go down, but it adds very little value if Fenix is under little threat. One of the most interesting talents is Auxiliary Shields, which lowers Fenix health in exchange for more shields (a net 2% increase in overall hit points) and allows him to recharge his shields with auto attacks.

Level 16 is again aimed around a damage boost for Fenix. You either get a better version of Manticore with 6% max health damage for every third attack (against any target) or a 15% boost to all damage. Arsenal Overcharge, which allows Fenix to recharge his ability cooldowns with auto attacks, fails in comparison to the raw power of his other two talents, but given the fact that it also reduces Heroic cooldowns, it might be a solid choice for Planet Cracker wombo comps.

The level 20 talents of Fenix are similar to Maiev in that there are no direct upgrades to his Level 10 heroics. Secondary Fire sends a Purification Salvo missile hurtling toward heroes hit by Plasma Cutter. Alternatively, you can power up your auto attacks with Singularity Charge, gaining additional attack speed with Repeater Cannon and increased range with Phase Bomb. Finally, Fenix can get another boost in survivability with Unconquered Spirit which, similar to Johanna’s Indestructible, grants him 600 HP shield upon taking fatal damage.

Metagame Analysis

Fenix will most likely see competitive play as soon as he’s available in HGC; the question is what they will do with him. With the right setup, Fenix can help ganking lanes with long-range surprise Warps combo’d with the slow from Plasma Cutter and his strong DPS. The option for a global with Planet Cracker means that Fenix doesn’t even need to rotate for late game picks which can give him more opportunities to press the advantage elsewhere on the battlefield.



Another possible use for Fenix that doesn’t immediately come to mind is double soaking lanes. Phase Bomb allows Fenix to clear waves fast enough to compete with other double soaking heroes such as Blaze and Leoric and even stay safe while doing so. It could even possible to see Fenix used as a solo laner on maps with more passive solo lanes. Fenix’s inability to take on sustained fights could prove to be a weakness versus more aggressive solo laners who could turn their lane dominance into a rotational advantage for the team.

On the other hand, Fenix is very vulnerable to CC and displacement abilities that disrupt his Warp ability. He also has a hard time dealing with damage over time since it prevents him from recharging his shields. Mobile dive Heroes like Genji and Tracer can also poke his shields down and finish him off.

Fenix benefits greatly from being paired with other heroes who can slow, which could in part reshape the metagame by bringing back heroes like Arthas and Jaina.

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