I’m pretty sure Fenix is the best character in the game right now.
Not OP, no real hard counters, fun talent options. Strong both in lane and in team fights, can camp with the best of them, provides plenty of utility as an assassin.
All in all, not sure why I don’t see them every match.
EDIT: I’m surprised by the feedback here!
well, he does have hard counters: Varian can obsoletely destroys fenix
Probably less appealing to play cuz:
eg. hammer has better splash + aoe, valla has safer range, tychus has better %, cassia has more ehp for a similar stutter-step.
In a solo arena, he stands out well, but his shield-based durability limits how well allies can sustain him and his warp disjoints allies as much as it does enemies. Some of his talents have a hefty risk/reward to them, so he can feel riskier to play, but not necessarily have enough payout to compensate for it.
If more players had showcases above “imma firin’ muh lazer” then that might inspire more players to do more stuff with fenix, but other heroes tend to get exposure in yourube replay collections, twitch streams, or competitive vods
Don’t forget he also has an almost if not actually Azmo sized Hitbox which makes that durability of his an actual necessity that makes him feel a lot less survivable in practice then he is on paper.
because he can be deleted in a few seconds by any melee assasin unless his team babysit him or he pick the lvl 20 cheatdeath
Because there are alot of heroes that does his job better and also becasue the meta does not favor him.
He’s kind of squishy and his escape is kinda slow. Good hero for sure if you master him but I don’t know about best in the game…
Never been destroyed by one, and have wrecked plenty of Varians.
If anything, a good Valeera is a bigger threat.
Also haven’t seen this.
Honestly, I’m surprised by what I’m reading. I’ve had crazy success with the hero, and while other heroes do some things better in certain areas, and there are a few heroes who are strong against an unaware Fenix, I have yet to run into an actual “hard counter”.
I agree. People in the know, know that Valeera’s silence ruins this character because he will never be able to get Warp Warfare bonuses (175% speed, 50% armor, escape etc) and can easily end up as a free kill.
Smash Varian or Taunt Varian even with the shield breaker talent are not hard counters. He doesn’t have other good hard counters than Valeera and Valeera is not a meta character herself, so the Fenix needs to be extraordinarily good to be counterpicked against.
Fortunately, I rarely or never see good Fenix players anymore. He is very micro intensive and takes ‘balls’ to play properly (Warp Warfare build) to be a real threat.
im a butcher player and i can say without the silence lamb i can deleted a fenix even if im not stacked, also i’ve played with varian smash and he can delete fenix, also, i’ve seen zeratuls and valeraa deleting a overtended fenix in few seconds, fenix is made from wet paper, utill lvl 20
Fenix is a character with clunky mechanics. Once your shield is down you are basically a minion with an easy to cancel escape.
It worked for Blizzard in the design face, because on release and before Fenix was so busted, that even a Bronze Blizzard employee could be top damage and feel good with him.
Once the overtuned numbers were reduced, he immediately became useless because there are better options to pick. There is no real variety in a static talent tree MOBA game, at least for the tryhards.
I think that Leoric is the best all-around hero, but Fenix is also solid.
I disagree. He has consistently been one of the top win rate heroes in the game and even after numerous nerfs he remains the 8th best hero at ~53% win ratio. (Before his numerous nerfs he sat at #1 to #3 for years)
It just seems this discussion is one of those discussions where different rules apply at low and middle ranks compared to upper and top ranks.
He is a very dangerous hero in higher ranks, especially with his armored warp build which makes him attack at 175% speed & 6% max HP on each third hit. But I can understand how he can feel like a wet noodle in low ranks, because he is so hard to play right. I don’t think a player in, say, Silver or Gold can ever play a hero like Fenix or Medivh to their full potential.
As for Butcher’s highly telegraphed stun countering him… I don’t think that can ever work outside the very low ranks.
His real power lies in the Warp resets between takedowns - he needs to know when warping in will result in several Takedowns, which then fully reset his +50% armor bonus and 175% attack speed repeatedly while chasing enemies (he can also gain 40% movement speed while slowing down enemy speed).
Which is also his highest win rate build. I don’t think this is a skill that can be properly utilized or learned in non-top ranks.