Icarus the Phoenix

Contents
Introduction

Mini-Guide

Hero Details

Hero Skills

Skill Usage
Icarus Dive

Fire Spirits

Sun Ray

Supernova

Item Build

Game Walkthrough

Replays

Introduction

Phoenix is a quite unorthodox hero, whose role is focused on offensive back-line supporting with occasional "dives" into battle. He is an excellent dual/triple lane hero who can heal his allies and quickly kill enemies with Sun Ray. Later in the game he works as an all-stage ganker, and a specific team fight role of post-initiator, similar to Omniknight.

Contrary to the popular opinion, Icarus is not a tank. All his skills require him to sacrifice hit points, which is why he is gifted the large health pool. Other than that, the skill theme, the very low armour, and the ranged attack should discourage direct confrontation.

Phoenix is a very effective, newbie-friendly, easy-to-master hero with multiple gameplay layers, which is the reason I recommend him to both beginners and advanced players.

Mini-Guide

Lane: Bottom Sentinel / Top Scourge

Starting Items: + OR

Core Items:

Other Items:

Farming: Phoenix is a bad farmer, and his farming takes low priority.

Skill Build:
---- Aggressive--- Defensive----
1. Sun Ray Icarus Dive
2. Icarus Dive Fire Spirits
3. Sun Ray Fire Spirits
4. Fire Spirits Sun Ray
5. Sun Ray Fire Spirits
6. Supernova Supernova
7. Sun Ray Sun Ray
8. Fire Spirits Sun Ray
9. Fire Spirits Sun Ray
10. Fire Spirits Fire Spirits
11. Supernova Supernova
12. Icarus Dive Icarus Dive
13. Icarus Dive Icarus Dive
14. Icarus Dive Icarus Dive
15. Stats Stats
16. Supernova Supernova

Hero Details

Attributes:

Strength: 19 + 2.9
Agility: 12 + 1.3
Intelligence: 18 + 1.8
As we can see, despite the low starting strength, Phoenix is blessed with extraordinary strength gain to support his health-consuming abilities. However, he has extremely low agility and agility growth to discourage direct combat with slow attacks and minimal physical protection. His intelligence is nothing to brag about, but considering the nature of his skills (consuming little mana, or %-based mana), it is fully sufficient for his needs. Phoenix needs mana regeneration, not a large mana pool.

Advanced Statistics:

Affiliation: Sentinel
Damage: 54 - 64
Armor: 0
Movespeed: 290
Attack Range: 500
Attack Animation: 0.35 / 0.633
Casting Animation: 0.1 / 0.5
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Missile Speed: 1100
Sight Range: 1800 / 800
Icarus' statistics are interesting in their huge polarisation. The excellent damage (highest amongst ranged heroes), very good attack range, easy animations, and fast missile are compensated by his horrible armour and sloooow move speed. These all further emphasize on Phoenix's role as a support hero: the good stats help for easy denies/harass in the lane, and the bad stats make him poor fighter and force him to rely more on his skills - Icarus Dive to chase/escape/jump in, Sun Ray to chase and damage, Fire Spirits to damage and heal, and Supernova to damage/heal/stun/draw attention.

Pros/Cons:

[+] Great all-game support hero
[+] Easily gets kills, and is hard to kill
[+] Not item dependent
[+] Fun and easy to play

[-] Poor direct fighter
[-] Skills can backfire/get countered
[-] Useless without at least 1 good ally
[-] Vulnerable when caught unprepared

Hero Skills

Icarus Dive:

Phoenix dives forward in an arc with a fixed distance in the targeted direction, dealing damage and disarming any units he comes into contact with, and then orbiting back to his original position. If during the 2 second duration of this spell Phoenix casts another spell, the dive ends. Phoenix gains magic immunity for this brief dive period as well. Costs 10% of current HP to cast.

Level 1 - 100 damage, 2 seconds disarm.
Level 2 - 150 damage, 2.5 seconds disarm.
Level 3 - 200 damage, 3 seconds disarm.
Level 4 - 250 damage, 3.5 seconds disarm.

Mana: 100
Reuse: 40 seconds
Maybe it's better to ask what this skill CANNOT do! It already provides millions of useful things - AoE damage, pseudo-blink, magic immunity, and a near-unique, very useful, long disable that stops enemy heroes from attacking (disarmed units have big "!" signs over their heads). It's also relatively cheap to use, and the only deterrent is the long reuse time, which however should make you think twice before you dive.

In our skill build, we will only take one early level of this spell, since putting more points just slightly improves the damage and the duration of disarm, and we already have plenty of damage early on, while physical attacks at this stage aren't very useful. Later on, however, physical attacks already become faster and more dangerous, that's why we will resume upgrading this skill in middle game and not in late game.

Specific details on how to use the skill can be found in the next section.

Fire Spirits:

Born out of his own life force, Icarus creates 4 fire spirits to fly alongside him. Each spirit slowly grows in power over 10 seconds, and can be used to damage his enemies or heal his allies. Costs 10% of your current HP to cast.

Level 1 - Each spirit heals/damages by 10-40.
Level 2 - Each spirit heals/damages by 15-60.
Level 3 - Each spirit heals/damages by 20-80.
Level 4 - Each spirit heals/damages by 25-100.

Mana: 75
Reuse: 35
AoE per spirit: 400
Another awesome utility skill, which can act both as a mini-Dagon and an AoE Urn. When you cast the skill, 4 little faeries start orbiting Icarus, slowly becoming bigger. When they reach their mature state, they will make a crackling sound and start glowing in red. A short time after that, they will return to Phoenix, healing him and his allies around him and damaging the enemies around him. Of course, their strength depends on how big they have become before you have released them. At any time before they disappear, you can release them one by one by hitting F and targeting a unit, for a good range burst heal/damage.

Yet again, this skill has a lengthy reuse to prevent abuse. Still, +400 hp every 35 seconds equals a gradual regeneration of almost 9 hp/second, beating any early hp regeneration items, and becoming a great addition to Icarus' supportive nature, both for his allies and his HP consuming skills. Just imagine a Dagon and Urn of Shadows, combined into one skill, and you will get Fire Spirits.

Skill Usage

== SUN RAY ==

Commonly known as Laser, this skill literally holds half of Icarus' power. At first it might look scary with so many controls and dangerous HP/MP consumption, but once you cast it, you will find that it is remarkably simple to use.

When you cast the skill, Phoenix will face the direction you clicked and emit a long thick ray of energy (laser). The length of the laser is shown in the image below. The laser, however, does not pass through enemy heroes, and will only hit the first enemy hero it meets.

Phoenix will become unable to attack, but still able to use his own skills and items (only items without targeted abilities). You can now aim the laser by right clicking on the ground. Phoenix will slowly turn until he faces the new direction. And here goes key point #1:

~Spamming right click on the enemy hero will ensure that they are being lasered all the time.
Most enemies will run away from your laser, hoping to exceed its maximum length, and think they will be safe. Well, they are mistaken, because laser also comes with a special sub-ability "E", which will make Phoenix fly forward. To key point #2:

~When enemies approach the maximum length (a screen away), hit the E key and continue spamming right clicks until you get close enough.
But not too close! Always cancel the flight by hitting the E key again if you get closer than 1/2 - 3/4 of the maximum length. It might sound terribly difficult, but in fact it's laughably easy to master. You just need to do it one or two times to get the hang of it.

And don't forget that while flying, Phoenix can pass through everything: tress, mountains, even Earthshaker Fissure and Tuskarr Ice. Nom!

Now, let us see a few real-game scenarios to show the awesomeness of this skill.

~Example 1:
1. Invoker unleashes his wrath upon our friend, the Earthshaker, who has just made the mistake to stun him. He combines Alactrity and starts pounding on the poor cow with his huge imba damage. We decide to punish his audacity, and point our laser straight into his face.

2. Invoker charges forward to reach Raigor. Immediately we start spamming right click on him, so that the laser constantly roasts him. Kael is now slowed and the Earthshaker escapes a narrow death. But what about Invoker?

3. Poor Kael realises he is now in trouble and starts running back - bad idea. We keep spamming right click on him so that he still burns.

4. Now he is hidden into the fog, but we keep right clicking on the spot where he disappeared...

5. There we go, Invoker is slowed and almost dead. However, the distance between us is almost a full screen now. Time to hit "E" and start chasing, again by spamming right click on him.

6. Woops, Invoker dies, and Phoenix saves the day for Raigor. Long live Sun Ray. Don't forget to turn it off now XD

Moral of the story: Never run back when you are hit by Sun Ray, because that just makes you an easy prey. Always run TOWARDS Icarus, to the less crowded area by his side. The closer you are to the Phoenix, the more difficult it is for him to follow you with his laser.

Of course, a more experienced Phoenix would immediately reposition himself with Icarus Dive and laser you again. In that case, a better decision is to cancel his Sun Ray by disabling or silencing him, or TP away back to safety. That is why Icarus should bring an allied hero who can disable or otherwise interfere with possible escape attempts.

~Example 2:
1. The evil Sand King has accidently met the good Anti-Mage during a rune hunt. The coward has impaled our friend and then has started playing in the sand, thinking he is safe. Too bad he's tragically mistaken.

2. So, we decide to give him some sauna therapy in those sands with our huge laser in his ass. And it becomes hot. Just like in the desert homelands.

3. Crixy patiently waits for mana and cooldown to Impale away. But look what happens meanwhile - a nearby passing Queen of Pain drops a Sonic Wave.

4. Suddenly it became much hotter!

See what we did there? Most of the time, especially when dealing with tricky bugs, a help from our friends is necessary.