Phoenix

Phoenix is a flexible and unique ranged strength hero with a plethora of powerful abilities that inflict heavy damage over time on its opponents at the cost of its own health. It can be played as either a support, initiator or semi-carry. Icarus Dive can serve as either a harassment tool, an initiating maneuver or an escape mechanism, all the while slowing and damaging opponents in its path, while its Fire Spirits burn and cripple the opponent's attack speed, making it a potent anti-carry. Sun Ray projects a powerful beam in front of Phoenix that burns enemies for a percentage of their maximum health while sacrificing some of its own health, and, if it ever sees fit, it can end its current life to turn into a searing Supernova. Surviving this stage of its life cycle allows Phoenix to reemerge in full strength, stunning all nearby opponents and with all cooldowns (except its ultimate) refreshed, ready to inflict havoc on its foes once again.

Recommended items
Starting Items
 * is useful for giving Phoenix enough mana to cast one additional time, allowing players to go aggressive with the spell more often during the laning stage.
 * One each of and  allows Phoenix to stay alive in the early stages of the game.
 * is useful as it can build directly into Tranquil Boots, while simultaneously alleviating Phoenix' low base armor, giving survivability in lane.
 * es should be purchased to fill out any remaining inventory slots. It can build into a Magic Wand later, or be used for Mekansm components.

Early Game
 * is very important on Phoenix due to all of its spells costing HP to cast, not just mana in all cases except.
 * are very useful given Phoenix' mobility and formidable nuking power. Additional movement speed allows Phoenix to be more aggressive and chase more easily.
 * is a powerful item on Phoenix that should be purchased if you intend on playing very aggressive. The mana regen allows Phoenix to replenish mana more easily, while the strength gives Phoenix more HP and attack damage. But most importantly, the item's active can be used to add additional damage during ganks and teamfights, and is important for replenishing Phoenix' HP due to the health cost of its spells.

Core Items
 * is important for all the same reasons as Magic Stick, as it gives stats as well as burst HP and mana regen. A 17-charge Magic Wand is enough to give Phoenix enough mana to cast any of its spells.
 * are very powerful on Phoenix for many reasons. The additional movement speed allows Phoenix to roam and gank far more easily, and the armor gives it much more survivability. But most important of all, the passive HP regen mitigates the health cost of Phoenix' spells, and stays active even during spells like so long as Phoenix does not take right-click damage.
 * is a useful utility item to build on Phoenix as it provides stats as well as additional armor. The active ability helps to offset the HP cost of Phoenix' spells, and keeps your team alive during teamfights.
 * is important on Phoenix due to its mobility, nuking and disabling power, which makes it a powerful hero to have in teamfights and ganks.
 * is a powerful item to purchase on Phoenix. The additional intelligence gives Phoenix a much larger mana pool, and the armor combined with the passive attack speed slow aura gives it much more survivability against physical damage. Using the active blast during Icarus Dive causes the wave to follow Phoenix, allowing it to apply the slow and additional nuke to multiple enemies in a short amount of time, and the attack speed slow still works during, greatly increasing the odds of success.

Situational Items
 * gives Phoenix many powerful benefits. The increased HP gives survivability while the extra intelligence allows Phoenix to cast spells more frequently, while the active can be used to slow enemies from a very long distance, increasing Phoenix' chasing capability.
 * gives Phoenix additional stats, as well as more armor to increase survivability. The Magic Weakness debuff can also be used to amplify the power of all your spells, greatly increasing your presence in teamfights.
 * is a superb utility item for Phoenix as it provides a great amount of health regen as well as shielding allies from magic nukes during teamfights. The magic resistance is also very powerful as it gives Phoenix resistance against magic nukes, increasing its overall survivability.
 * is a good initiator item as it provides moderate strength gain and evasion, greatly increasing Phoenix' survivability. The active is also useful for disarming one of the enemy's right-clickers during a teamfight, and can be used to delay at least one enemy from attacking Phoenix during Supernova.
 * is an expensive luxury item, but grants Phoenix large amounts of survivability due to the large amount of HP it gains. In particular, the passive regen allows Phoenix to quickly heal back to full HP between fights and ganks, effectively removing the HP cost of its spells.
 * is an expensive item, however it can increase Phoenix' physical damage output and aid in survivability when casting Supernova. The aura stacks with Supernova's burn damage and induces a miss chance on all nearby enemies, increasing the odds of successfully completing the spell.
 * is a risky but powerful item to purchase on Phoenix, as it allows it to share the benefits of Supernova with allies. Using it can allow you to save a teammate who is being focused down by the enemy team, however it is also very risky as used at the wrong time or improperly can remove two of your team's Heroes from play (as the ally is denied by you instead of giving away a double kill). Used properly, however, it can refresh an ally and reset the cooldowns on their non-ultimate spells, allowing them to double up on their presence in a teamfight.
 * If Aghanim's Scepter will be a future purchase, purchasing Sun survivability items such as, or  would be a wise idea, to lower the risk of killing your own ally as much as possible.
 * can be a very good investment for Phoenix. Its comparatively cheap price and high mana regen allow Phoenix to sustain its mana pool to cast spells whenever they are needed, and the active is a very powerful ability that opens up many possibilities for Phoenix. As Phoenix lacks any direct interrupting disables, the cyclone can be used to interrupt channeling spells or attempts to teleport away, and combined with Icarus Dive can be used to initiate on and disable an enemy from very long range. Finally, the active can be used on yourself to purge debuffs from yourself, particularly silences that may be preventing you from casting your spells, and even stop stop Icarus Dive if you're silenced, since the sub-ability will be unusable.
 * However, if debuffs are the only problem Phoenix is facing, is a better choice as it gives health and mana regeneration, additional armor, and more base mana, all something Phoenix heavily requires. The active will dispel basic debuffs from yourself, or can be cast preemptively to discourage enemies from casting targeted spells such as  or.

Trivia

 * Phoenix' name in DotA was Icarus. It was removed during its port to Dota 2 for unspecified reasons.