Phoenix seems to be getting neglected at all ranks of Valorant. Released in the initial class of agents, his utility kit has become outdated and underpowered. Let’s explore why Phoenix isn’t being selected anymore and what can be done to make him competitive once again.
Jamie Adeyemi, who we know as Phoenix, is a Duelist that was released with the launch of the game along with: Brimstone, Viper, Omen, Cypher, Sova, Sage, Jett, Raze, and Breach. Along with Phoenix being in the initial class of agents, he is also one of five characters that players can use immediately upon installing the game. This makes him a cornerstone agent. However, with the constant cycle of new agents being released, Phoenix has unfortunately become power crept and as a result is an outdated selection in team compositions.
On release, he was the only Duelist with a flash, and one of two agents altogether that had a flash in their kit. There are now five total agents with a flash ability. Since he was one of the first, it was hard to argue that his flash was ineffective. Now with the variety of flashes at the player’s disposal, it is evident that Phoenix’s flash ability is archaic. Other flashes in the game are more versatile and faster. Like the other flash character that was released with him (Breach), Phoenix’s flashes were made to be played utilizing a map’s walls.
Phoenix’s wall was great at covering sightlines and allowed a wall to use his flash through. It was a great ability that also offered the unique ability of healing Phoenix. Blaze was an ability in between Sage’s wall and a Controller’s smoke that offered great use for taking a site. Now Valorant players see a better wall that does not damage teammates in Neon’s Fast Lane ability. We also see the wall being used more as a self-healing ability, rather than cover for teams, due to its lackluster effectiveness.
Hot Hands is Phoenix’s Molotov ability; however, it is the worst one. When released he was one of three agents to have a molly. The other two were controller agents in Brimstone and Viper. Hot Hands only lasts 3.25 seconds at full size and damages 60 DMG/s. Brimstone’s molly lasts 7 seconds and does the same amount of damage, whereas Viper’s lasts 3.5 seconds doing 12.5 DMG/s while inflicting Vulnerability. The short amount of time, the low throwing range, and the fact that it immediately drops once it hits the game’s invisible sky ceiling made it ineffective in post plants and zoning. With the inclusion of KAY/O and Killjoy, his molly stayed dead last in effectiveness.
On release, Phoenix had abilities from both Controller class agents as well as Initiators. He was an effective Duelist that could heal himself, flash, and remove sightlines upon entry. Now with Initiators being so strong and having a better all-around utility kit to do this, Phoenix has been relegated to a one-dimensional playstyle as Duelist. However, even in the Duelist class, he is still not useful. This is partly the fault of the Sentinel agent, Chamber. Chamber reinforced the importance of Jett’s ability to put herself in dangerous positions. Jett’s dash allowed her to escape quickly, which is why she was and still is a premier selection for team compositions. Chamber’s introduction allowed for a more aggressive “Sentinel” to take these dangerous angles with a “get out for free” card. Now a team can have two players who can mitigate the risk of taking an off-angle. With Reyna having a similar ability to evade danger with Dismiss, Phoenix could not take the same aggressive angles as his counterparts. Raze, Neon, and Yoru all have superior movement abilities as well. Raze has satchels, Neon’s whole gimmick is sprinting fast, and Yoru has a teleporter. A young guy like Phoenix now seems old and slow.
With Phoenix’s kit not being versatile enough to be a team’s Duelist of choice. This has a lot of players thinking, “Should Phoenix get a full overhaul like Yoru, or does he just need a slight rework and stat buff?” Although a rework would be nice, I believe his utility kit still has potential since in essence it is pretty basic. His kit can be expanded upon with stat boosts and slight changes. However, I believe without a rework involving movement or an ability to escape danger, Phoenix will not be seeing the meta for some time.
Phoenix’s flash ability is really stiff and cannot be used in a variety of ways like KAY/O’s, Skye’s or Yoru’s flash abilities. Curveball is only really useful around the corner of a wall and is way too slow, which allows for an easy dodge for enemies. Curveball has the shortest flash debuff time of getting flashed with it taking 1.1 seconds until the enemy can see. Compared to the flashes of KAY/O and Skye’s 2 seconds and Yoru’s 1.5 seconds. Prolonging the time to at least 1.5 seconds would allow for a flash in line with the other options available.
Phoenix’s flash follows a U-shape as opposed to Yoru’s V-shape. The V-shape allows for a varied apex that can be used close or long range. The U-Shape is stagnant in only using it at a close to medium range. It does not give Phoenix a lot of variations to use his flash.
A buff for Phoenix’s flash would be to add a voice line for when an enemy is flashed. This would give Phoenix a unique ability as he would be the only Duelist to do this. Using something similar to the V-shaped flash path that Yoru uses would also benefit Phoenix. A rework would include something like a “Spark” ability. This would allow Phoenix to throw a flash that sticks to the ground or a wall that would be activated on command similar to Skye’s Guiding Light ability.
Phoenix’s wall, Blaze, has been overshadowed by Neon’s double wall Fast Lane. Phoenix’s wall unfortunately can hurt allies and enemies alike and is only a single wall. However, Phoenix’s wall can curve and heal the user, something Neon’s wall cannot do. Phoenix’s wall heals 6.25 HP per second. When compared to his Duelist counterpart, Reyna, it is much slower. With a run time of 8 seconds, it can heal 50 HP maximum. Standing still in a wall for 8 seconds for a maximum of 50 HP is too slow for a Duelist.
To counteract this, Phoenix’s wall should get a healing buff. His wall should heal the same amount; however, it should heal much faster, something in line with Skye’s heal of 20 HP per second. 15 HP per second would allow for 50 HP to be recovered in about 3 seconds. This falls in line with Reyna’s 100 HP 3 second heal (which also features an Overheal stat).
An even bigger change would be to add a stim similar to Brimstone’s Stim Beacon, without the fire rate boost. An ability to make Phoenix move faster, would allow a bit of mobility that his Duelist counterparts all have in common.
Phoenix’s molly, Hot Hands, is used a lot for healing rather than as an offensive utility, due to its limited time at full size and its weak damage per second. The delay ability in post plants is worse than Viper’s weaker molly, due to the fact that Phoenix only has one molly as opposed to Viper’s two. Phoenix must also choose whether to use it on himself or the enemy, as it heals better than Phoenix’s wall, at 12.5 HP per second. KAY/O has a similar molly to Phoenix, but his kit (including his ultimate) is overall much better than Phoenix’s, so KAY/O still has the edge in usability.
To counter Hot Hand’s ineffectiveness, Phoenix should get two mollies. Every two kills could refill one. This way he could use it for healing as well as to deter enemies in post plants. Saving one instead of healing himself would allow him to stall similarly to other agents. A similar change to Blaze, Hot Hands could also give him a speed stimulant to allow him to play more aggressively. An increase in range would benefit Phoenix as well, as his molly cannot be thrown very far.
Run It Back, Phoenix’s ultimate, is seen as one of the weaker and one-dimensional ultimates in the game. With a forced recall, Phoenix has to entry twice and have his respawn location protected as well. His ultimate also interferes with a team’s spacing, as the space he created upon entry is now empty with him having to lag behind by having to push another time. An unprotected ultimate sees him dying to a knife more than any other agent.
To counter this, the ability to cancel his ultimate would be welcomed. It helps with team spacing since he just needs to entry once and it would also allow him to plant the spike when need be. Too many times has Phoenix attempted to plant a spike only to be recalled back to his initial location. To fall in line with a Duelist like Reyna, his ultimate should return him back to his respawn point with full HP and Shields (shields timed similarly to Reyna’s overheal). This would allow for more aggressive play from a Duelist who cannot be as aggressive as other agents. Like the changes to Blaze and Hot Hands, a movement stim would reinforce the aggressiveness needed for a character like Phoenix.
With the hybrid nature of a lot of the new agents being released, the original hybrid agent in Phoenix, was suffering from a power creep. Aligning his utility to be leveled with his peers would coax a higher pick rate. Phoenix suffers from a lack of escaping danger, which is something that was pushed to the forefront with the inclusion of Chamber. A full rework is needed for him to see the meta, but a buff and slight rework of his existing utility would turn him from a “throw” pick to a viable option during composition selection.
