Phoenix/Counters

Bad against...

 * can interrupt Icarus Dive.
 * His 's silence will shutdown spell caster Phoenix.
 * However, Phoenix punishes Night Stalker with Supernova because it will turn night into day, and it has a higher priority than, effectively canceling the passive bonuses Night Stalker gets from.


 * will let Huskar easily face down a Supernova with increased attack speed.
 * Icarus Dive may not be an easy escape from Huskar either as, if well timed, can chase Phoenix during it with.


 * Ursa can easily unleash a number of attacks in an incredibly short amount of time, easily destroying the Supernova in a couple of seconds, even when afflicted by Fire Spirits. His also dampens any damage Phoenix might toss at his direction, as well as remove any debuffs Phoenix may place on him.


 * Silencer will most likely disrupt an initiation with his ultimate,, prevent escape with his , and if Phoenix happens to die to him (or near him) enough times, he would sap enough of Phoenix's much needed Intelligence to make him a stronger foe and Phoenix with less mana than it already had.


 * Meepo is unlike any other multi-unit enemy Phoenix may face in the battlefield. Unlike illusion-based heroes like or, Meepo's clones are not illusions, meaning they can deal full damage to the Phoenix Sun if all four (or five) are present.
 * is similar to Meepo in that his is also not an illusion, rather a full hero unit. While it may not be as great of a threat as the Meepos are, it can still be the difference between a successful and a failed Supernova.


 * Although can be easily avoided, if it does hit, its lengthy silence and pure damage can be a severe punishment for a slow, unobservant, or simply unfortunate Phoenix. His  can turn Icarus Dive into a suicide option, and it cannot be dispelled, meaning even if Phoenix completes a Supernova, choosing to Dive may just cut its health back down. And finally, due to Phoenix's health costs, too much careless ability spamming may just put Phoenix into Bloodseeker's vision, making it a very tempting ganking target.


 * gives Viper additional resistance to Phoenix's magical damage, and since they deal damage over time, Phoenix would be constantly afflicted by his passive's own debuff, making him not an ideal target for Phoenix's harassment. Phoenix's abilities also constantly drain its own health away, becoming more vulnerable to.


 * Necrophos becomes a bigger threat the lower one's health gets, and unfortunately for Phoenix, most of its spells have noticeable health costs. Those costs, coupled with his, staying in a teamfight for too long under Necrophos' presence will make Phoenix a more valid target for his ultimate, with its stun completely preventing any form of retaliation or protection. Necrophos players are also likely to buy more durability items such as , making him more able to withstand Phoenix's damage despite having no escape mechanisms.
 * However, it is also important to remember that a Scepter-upgraded Supernova can help protect an ally from his ultimate, but in later parts of the game, his own Scepter-upgraded ultimate has a much lower cooldown than Phoenix', making this a rather risky maneuver that should be reserved only for most important allies such as your main carry.

Others

 * Any hero with high attack speed will be a threat to Phoenix when it initiates, as they can easily tear down a Supernova, perhaps even while debuffed by Fire Spirits:, , , ,
 * Silence (and mana burns) will be a persistent problem for Phoenix, as it is heavily reliant on its abilities whether defensively or offensively, so heroes like, , even must be closely observed to prevent being shut down by these heroes.
 * Hexes are a greater threat to Phoenix as they also disable items, preventing Phoenix from dispelling the debuff on its own.
 * Since all of Phoenix's abilities (except for Supernova) have health costs, heroes like or  can turn Phoenix's abilities against it. However, Supernova does completely protect Phoenix from, even fully heal it while having the debuff on (but does not dispel it).
 * Heroes with spell immunity-granting spells will render Phoenix useless against them, as Phoenix has almost no spell immunity-piercing ability, other than the stun at the end of Supernova: ,
 * 's and his high attack speed helps him for destroying Supernova before Phoenix has revived. Though Phoenix isn't good target for  because its strength base and growth rate is high.

Items

 * , as mentioned, will nullify Phoenix against its spell immune wielder.
 * and, as mentioned earlier with silences, will prevent Phoenix from escaping or retaliating, but will also make it more vulnerable to damage thanks to its damage amplification.
 * is a more dangerous version of the formerly mentioned items. Not only does its active, Hex, silence abilities, but it will also mute items, preventing Phoenix from dispelling it if it has or.
 * can turn any hero into a severe threat as its granted high attack speed can spell the end for a misplaced Supernova.
 * Similar in nature, can be an early game threat to the Phoenix Sun, especially if it is only level 1, as it takes only 5 hits to kill the Sun.
 * will make a whole enemy team more resilient against Phoenix's DPS.

Good against...

 * Her charges can and will be easily burned away by Phoenix's damage over time abilities, and  can't protect her from Phoenix's AoE abilities, even without detection.


 * While her does give limited extra attack speed, she cannot use the ability against the Phoenix Sun, and while her  may protect her from attacks, Phoenix's strong magical DPS burns away her small health pool quickly, and the attack speed slow makes her unable to fight back (provided she has no source of spell immunity).


 * Legion Commander relies on her powerful attack and her to be effective. But if Phoenix gets the jump on her first, she can find herself severely slowed, taking heavy damage, and find herself unable to Duel a burning Supernova.
 * It must be noted that will both dispel the attack slow of Fire Spirits and grant her or whoever she targets bonus attack speed. This allows her to easily destroy a Supernova if caution is not taken to prevent this from occurring. As such, it would be a better decision to simply avoid a farmed or skilled Legion Commander instead of attempting to overpower her.
 * If an ally is caught by, Phoenix can use Sun Ray to heal the ally and damage Legion Commander, possibly swinging the Duel in their team's favor. Or with , Phoenix can save an ally from dying in Duel with Supernova and cancel the Duel as well.


 * Icarus Dive, Sun Ray, and Supernova all destroy trees that Monkey King relies on to use his ability . If you spot him, you can quickly Icarus Dive in his direction and then follow up with Fire Spirits and Supernova. If you manage to cut the tree he is on, he will be stunned for 4 seconds and will be forced to take a lot of damage. However, most Monkey King players tend to build attack speed items to make use of their passive,, so a battle against a farmed Monkey King will depend on who gets the jump on the other first.


 * Not only Phoenix is able to disrupt Chen's jungling with Fire Spirits, but its high damage over time can also force Chen to use prematurely, potentially wasting any chance to save his allies during teamfights.
 * Creeps' damage and attack speed are very abysmal, so Chen often cannot kill Phoenix whenever it casts Supernova.


 * Supernova with or without Aghanim's Scepter allows to save ally or himself through and makes it difficult to kill egg, because of his low base attack time and poor agility.
 * Icarus Dive can pass through Earthshaker's.
 * Most of Phoenix abilities prior to disable Earthshaker's, especially while he hits from Sun Ray.


 * Supernova with or without Aghanim's Scepter allows to save ally or himself through.
 * Icarus Dive quickly escapes from.

Others

 * Heroes who depend on attacks (such as or ) can be nullified by Fire Spirits' attack speed slow.
 * Heroes with slow movement speed and small health pools (supports like or ) are easy targets for Phoenix. Should they be inflicted by its DOT debuffs, they will be very quickly killed without even getting a chance to fight back.
 * Illusion-based heroes such as or  are vulnerable to Phoenix's DPS and attack speed slow, as their illusions, no matter how many, will be unable to deal enough damage to actually be a threat, and they will all be completely useless against the Supernova.

Works well with...

 * can set up the perfect situation for Phoenix to use all of its AoE abilities, but most importantly, protecting the Sun, disabling the whole enemy team and letting it complete its duration to deal its full damage and stun.


 * is similar to Enigma's in that it provides a long-lasting disable that pierces spell immunity and prevents enemies from attacking the Supernova and keeps them in place so that the Supernova may deal its full damage and stun all foes in its radius, but Treant also has the advantage of not having to channel his disable, while also having a much larger area of effect than Black Hole.


 * is a long disable that pierces spell immunity that stops (typically grouped up) enemies from attacking the Supernova.


 * Good positioning and timing is required in this combination as can be the perfect set-up for Sun Ray to deal full damage or for a successful Supernova.


 * is very effective when combined with Phoenix's damage over time AoE abilities, and if the whole team is affected by it and all of Phoenix's debuffs, it can very easily end in a teamwipe. and  can also help set-up an initiation for Phoenix and cripple the enemy for it.


 * Lifestealer can hide inside Phoenix with and surprise enemies with an initiation with Icarus Dive.


 * Sven can be seen as a good protector of the Sun as he can charge in, stun with and kill an entire team if they are too distracted in destroying Supernova, thanks to his  and.


 * is a very useful ability to have with an initiator Phoenix, as it applies a 100% miss chance to its targets. When upgraded by, Tinker can even apply the debuff to the entire enemy team, effectively making the Phoenix Sun invulnerable to enemy heroes for a few seconds.


 * Similar to Tinker, also applies a miss chance (albeit not 100%), but is perhaps better used for more defensive purposes, as the knockback and miss chance protects the Sun greatly, but the knockback may not be too good if Phoenix is initiating, as the enemy could just decide to flee and escape the Sun's AoE faster. His  also restores much-needed mana to Phoenix, and it decreases cooldowns as well, making Phoenix's presence in the battlefield better felt.
 * can prevent enemies from destroying Sun while also keeping them close enough to get stunned at the end of Supernova.


 * Invoker's myriad of spells have great synergy with Phoenix's own, as most of them are also large AoE effects with synergizing debuffs. cripples enemies and forces them to stay close, either making targeting spells easier for Phoenix, or keeping them within Supernova's radius.  disarms enemies, and if Invoker chooses the full radius level 25 talent, Invoker will easily protect the Phoenix Sun by simply appearing in the middle of it and casting the spell, and its disable will make sure all enemies take most of, if not the full brunt of the damage.

Others

 * ' locks and clumps down enemies together, since they can't get out without . Supernova will deal much damage to unlucky foes.
 * Any hero with a large AoE disable can make a very good combination with Phoenix, such as, , and.
 * Any hero with a disable that pierces spell immunity, even if it's a single target ability, greatly aids Phoenix during the mid and late game against wielders. Such good allies include, , or.
 * Any hero who can drag an enemy hero away from their teammates will allow Phoenix to promptly cast Supernova and force a "fight or flight" reaction on the enemy team, who either has to let their teammate die, or concentrate their attacks on a Supernova that's close to exploding. Examples of such heroes include, , , , and.
 * Heroes that provide additional attack speed slow, miss chance, or any other attack-hampering effects will be invaluable in helping the Supernova complete. Such heroes include, , and.
 * Even non-attack speed slows could be just as helpful if Phoenix is serving as or is helping the team's initiator, making it difficult for the enemy team to flee its rather accurate spells. Such good spells include, , even.
 * Magical damage amplification complements Phoenix's abilities very well, as multiple magic resistance reduction debuffs will quickly pile up for immense damage over time. Thus, abilities like, , and items like are effective when paired with Phoenix.
 * 's and  can simultaneously boost Phoenix's damage and prevent aggressors from hitting the Phoenix Sun.
 * Even non-AoE spells can be very helpful to Phoenix, mostly to aid it in landing Fire Spirits and Sun Ray during ganks or initiations. Thus, abilities like, , or items like or  help Phoenix use its abilities to their full potential.
 * Heroes that have long cooldown non-ultimate abilities will greatly benefit from a Scepter-upgraded Supernova's refreshing, allowing them to return to full strength much quicker if used properly. Such heroes are, , and.

List of heroes that counter Phoenix, and list of heroes that work well with Phoenix.

Phoenix/Противостоящие