How to play Phoenix in Aghanim's Labyrinth

Dota 2's best event game is back with a sequel! Aghanim's Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum has players from all over the world grinding this 4-player roguelike PvE game mode.

Phoenix is an incredibly powerful hero and perfectly suitable for a game mode like Aghanim's Labyrinth. Let's talk about all the strengths and weaknesses of the hero that you should know about.

Spells

Fire Spirits is undoubtedly Phoenix's strongest spell. It is the one you'll be using most of the time to deal damage to waves of creeps or bosses/captains.

However, you may not necessarily want to level it up first, especially at higher difficulty levels, primarily due to its long cooldown. If you get good shards for one of your other spells, it may be a better idea to get either of them at level 1 and then start levelling up Fire Spirits. Either way, it is recommended that you max it out first.

Sun Ray is another really useful ability that allows you to deal massive amounts of damage while also healing your teammates. Keep in mind that, because of your limited movement while using Sun Ray, it is pretty risky and should mainly be used only to heal your teammates, not to deal damage. it is also wise to level this spell up the last, as the other two basic spells are much easier to use.

Icarus Dive has a lot of utility to it as well. It slows down waves of enemy units, but mainly, serves as your one innate mobility spell. And one thing that you should absolutely understand is that mobility is one of the most important things in the game mode. It may not seem like it in the early difficulty levels, but becomes quite apparent on the later ones. With a few damage shards, the spell can also be an alternative way of clearing creep waves, which is why it is the 2nd spell you should max out.

And, of course, there is Supvernova. This spell can help you get out of a tricky situation or simply reset your health, mana, spell and item cooldowns. But beware! Using your ultimate at the wrong time or in the wrong location can cause you to die almost instantly after being reborn. And it is usually better to pop the ult at a distance from creep waves instead of right on top of them. Certain rooms come with the 'Last Stand' bonus which gives enemies increased attack speed at low health.

Shards

The single best legendary shard to get on Phoenix is 'Flame Revenant'.  It causes Fire Spirits to leave a revenant where they land. These revenant damage nearby units with an AOE flame that deals 100% of the DPS of Fire Spirits. It also applies a 10% movement speed slow to enemies. The duration of these revenants is twice that of Fire Spirits and its attack range is twice that of the AOE of the Fire Spirits.

If it isn't obvious from the description, this shard is extremely potent and useful at clearing large waves of creeps with great ease. It also deals a great amount of damage to bosses and captains, allowing you to prolong the amount of damage you deal over time and not worry about hitting bosses exactly with the Fire Spirits as you move around dodging nukes.

Naturally, it is a good idea to get all the shards for Fire Spirits that you can, if you get lucky enough to get this legendary shard. Increased damage, reduced cooldown, bonus spirit count are all good shards to have for Fire Spirits. However, bonus attack speed reduction isn't always the best and only useful in a handful of situations.

Besides that, shards that reduce the cooldown of your Supernova, increase the damage of any of your spells or increase the amount of heal from your Sun Ray are all great to have. Added utility on Supernova that allows you to cast Sun Ray or automatically casts Fire Spirits for its duration are great at increasing your damage output while reducing the chances of your Supernova getting destroyed before you can be reborn.

Lastly, shards like 'Luminance' that causes allies affected by Sun Ray to be strong dispelled and gain increased attack speed is also very useful for empowering your teammates and getting them out of a sticky situation. However, stay away from the legendary shard that causes your Icarus Dive to swoop up an ally hero along with you. It is very situational and can end up disrupting their gameplay rather than helping them, more often than not.

Playstyle

As a strength hero, you have a fair amount of HP to go around. However, that does not mean you can act as a frontliner, as the hero isn't actually that durable and needs to spend both mana and HP to use abilities.

Instead, it is recommended that you play either in-between the frontliner and the backline or in the backline itself. If you want to deal damage with your spells and can't really use your Sun Ray, then play in the former position. If you have multiple levels in Sun Ray and want to empower your teammates by healing them with Sun Ray, then play in the latter position.

As for the item build, starting with a Veil of Discord helps you increase your outgoing damage, gives you and your allies a bit of mana regeneration while also giving you a flat attribute bonus. Next, you can either buy Boots of Travel or directly rush Bloodstone. Both items are important, but depending on the difficulty level, you can choose which item to go first. Boots of Travel is required at higher difficulty levels where you want to be more mobile and kill the enemy waves more slowly.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity is another great item that increases your movement speed and serves as a saving item. its upgrade Wind Waker allows you to save your teammates as well as reposition yourself in the cyclone. Octarine Core and Refresher Orb are interchangeable, depending on whether you get a lot of cooldown-reducing shards or if you simply want to refresh the cooldowns yourself. The choice is yours based on the situation.

That's it for our guide on Phoenix for Aghanim's Labyrinth! We hope you found it useful and will take this opportunity to beat the Primal Beast at the very highest difficulty level!