The No Frills Guide to Pheonix.

First let me start by saying that this guide is purely my oppinion of how to play pheonix, and that I welcome any suggestions on how to improve my gameplay. Ill be updating this guide progressively as i get the time or when i can be bothered. This will come in the form of replays and images illustrating the various maneuvors.
In my oppinion, pheonix's job is to stay alive, do wicked sick aoe damage, slow the pants off everyone nearby and disable when he can. He is NOT a carry nor a hard support, somewhere inbetween. He is highly spell dependant and will benefit from an adequate supply of health and mana.

Core items for pheonix are tp scroll, linkens and treads. All else is up to you. Tp for obv reasons, treads for stats and mspd. Linkens helps you surive. Suvivial of one stun = no chain stunning, you can dive away, u can use spells. Plus u can regen health and and mana and be back in the game with full assets.

THE GREAT WALL OF TEXT ALERT.

Skill build:
RAY
SPIRITS
DIVE
Max ray, whilst getting nova whenever it is available
Max spirits
Max dive
Max Stats


Skills:

Icarus Dive: A very very useful skill. Can be used as a disable, escape mechanism, aoe damage dealing spell and positioning tool.
It should be noted that you do not travel in a straight line, IT IS AN ARC, so abuse this extra side movement to cover the most area. It also cuts trees so dont think to dive into tree fog.
Using dive to escape: To get the maximum distance, aim for some cliffs or area where theres no heros. As soon as pheonix reaches the apex of the turn, press d again and animation cancel to whatever you are gonna do next. Second method is to aim directly for the heroes when they are right next to you, this will disable them for a few seconds but will result in u being closer to them if they are spread out in a group.
More on synergies with other skills in the strategy section.

Fire Spirits: This is an awesome awesome spell. Heals and damages in an aoe, with proper management, you along with your teammates can always be running around on near full health even through a strong push. Once activated, they take 10 seconds to fully charge (more damage, more heal) so bunch ur allies.

Escaping with spirits: If the enemy is chasing you, activate spirits asap, as in 10 seconds you can turn everythign around. Run away until birds flash and do a check. Are you both approx half health? If so, turn around kick his ass and in 3 seconds those birdies are gonna pop in his face healing you and completely owning him. If not, keep running XD.

Dive Bombing: Activate birdies, wait till they flash for a while, dive so u disable him, get in his grill (face) and atk him. Birds pop, u do massive 400 nuke u get healed 400, he dies.
Mindgames note: If you dive just as spirits are sacrificing, they will slowly drift from ur initial point to heal u. This can be used to confuse the enemy that u wont nuke them but delays the heal nuke.

Ultimate: Supernova: Im discussing the ulti first, because it is fairly straight forward whereas laser is EXTREMELY complicated in the various ways you can use it. This skill is basically like a regen rune + bkb + uber radiance. If used properly, it can decimate a team. For specific stats check the hero guide. Always use when you have a sliver of health left and it looks like ur about to die. An extra few seconds of magic immunity works wonders.

Dive ulti: To give yourself more time, Dive over your enemies and ulti, that way they cant atttack you for the duration of the dive and gives you a better chance of survival. Always try to ulti in a place where it will cover the most enemy heros for the longest time but always stay safe.

Using ulti as regen: If you need health or mana asap, just ulti, preferably wher e u can safely damage an enemy hero. I usually ulti asap when i reach lvl 6 so i can rush void stone to spam spirits to keep mana and health up.

Sun Ray a.k.a IMA FIRIN MA LASER!!
By far the most useful qualities of this spell are the slow and range. Practice with this spell untill you have a feel for how long your range wil be to target them. Press e to move forwards.
Getting first blood: most commonly you want an ally with you to help damage and save your ass from being focussed too much. NOTE: Attempt first bloods when you are supremely confident with your laser abilities.
Activate Birds, wait a little. You want to get just in range of enemy without being blocked by another enemy hero. Laser his ass, and keep right clicking on him this will keep it steady on him. As soon as he begins to move backwards, press e to move forwards, when you are at any point where u reach abot 80% max range, press e to stop again. Ur turning speed is faster when you are not moving forwards. If he goes invis or runs into fog, dont stop firing, when the laser stays shorter than full range, that means ur still hitting him. If it lengthens again move it about a bit to get him again watch when it shortens. If not turn it off.
Chasing with dive and laser: Laser, if for some reason he out runs you, i.e skewer, leap etc. just turn off laser, dive cancel apex and laser again.

Putting it all together: Team fight scenarios:

Initiating: Few enemy heros pushing lane. Your team by the tower. Activate spirits, laser them at full length. If they come closer, keep lasering until they come too close then either dive away, or dive at them full circle then ulti and let teammates kill them.

Defending: Dive and spirits can be used as aoe dmg to counter pushes. Even laser can be used if u harrass enemies whiles shooting through creeps.