In Valorant, Phoenix is a great character to use once you understand his special abilities, but they can be frustrating at first as messing them up can cost you and your team potential kills.
In this article, I am going to give you an in-depth look at Phoenix and how you can begin to use him effectively.
Let’s break things down into the different skill sets that Phoenix possesses:
Blaze
Blaze is a flame wall that you can throw up. You can either throw it straight out from where you are at or you can use your mouse to bend it around corners. Just hold fire and aim Phoenix to where you want it to go.
Blaze has two main uses:
- Healing
If you are standing in the wall of flame, you can be slowly healed. It doesn’t do that much for you compared to Phoenix’s other ability Hothands but it will be useful to regain a bit of health. It lasts 8 seconds and works at 6.25 Hp/seconds. - Damage
You have a couple ways you can use this to help you with attacking. Since it is a wall of flame the most useful way for it to be used is for defence. You can throw it up real quick to cover you while you plant the spike or move to a better position. This is the main way that I use this ability.
Another way to use it is if someone is trying to defuse. Once you get the distance down, you can either throw up the wall to help you defend the spike, or if someone is on the spike defusing, you can aim it at them and it will cause damage. Blaze does 30 damage per second.
Curveball
I have had plenty of learning curves with this ability (play flashing myself plenty of times).
The big thing with Curveball is understanding distance and corners. You can throw it either to the right or to the left. Once you get the distance down, this is a great offensive tool.
Make sure you don’t flash your teammates!!! Recognize whether or not you are alone while attacking or if your teammate is pushing with you.
I like throwing it around tight corners and then pushing in. Be careful though: some players just start firing on command and you can end up walking right into it.
Hothands
This ability has two uses: healing and offence
- Healing
This is a much quicker way to heal yourself than Blaze. Just throw it down real quick and sit in it until your health has risen. Hothands lasts 4 seconds and does 20hp per second. Just be careful to not burn your teammates while you are doing this.
- Offence
This is essentially a grenade. I love throwing it into tight spots where I can stick players in. It’s a great diversion tool as well: throw to where you want the enemy to look, than come from a different angle.
Ultimate
Once you have used your Hothands and Curveballs to add up your kills, you will be able to use your Ultimate. This is a inoffensive Ultimate which can change the tide in your favour.
Phoenix Ultimate allows you to rise from the ashes. You have an extra life but the tricky part is remembering that you have a body that you just left behind. Be careful to leave your person protected while you use this ability otherwise you are Vulnerable. You have 10 seconds from the time when you start this ultimate to when it runs out.
Try and get as many kills as you can. From a little distance away, once you know where multiple enemies are, use your ability and run in. It’s great to use in crunch time at the end of the match. If you find yourself in a 1v2 you can use your ultimate to even the odds.
Hopefully this article helped you get a better grasp on how to use phoenix and his abilities. Thank you for checking out this article and good luck!
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