How to play Phoenix, VALORANT’s fiery duelist

VALORANT‘s duelist agents are all loaded up with firepower, but none are as fiery and disruptive as one of the game’s original additions in Phoenix. Phoenix can do a little bit of everything; disorient opponents with flashes, wall-off sites, choke off entry points with a Molotov, and heal himself.

While duelists like Jett and Raze get more on-screen action in the professional scene, there’s still a place in a composition for Phoenix, especially after the recent 5.01 patch that buffed the speed of his abilities, increased his flash duration, and improved his momentum-shifting ultimate ability.

Here’s a look at Phoenix’s full ability kit and how to best use it in VALORANT.

How to play Phoenix in VALORANT

Abilities

• Hot Hands – Throw a fireball that explodes after a delay or upon impact with the ground. The fire zone damages enemies and heals you.
• Blaze – Cast out a flame wall that blocks vision and damages anyone passing through it. You can bend the wall when casting by turning while holding left click.
• Signature Ability: Curveball – Cast a curving flare that bursts into brilliant light after a brief delay, temporarily blinding all looking at it. Left-click curves it left, right-click curves it right.
• Ultimate Ability: Run it Back – Mark your current location. If you die during this ability’s duration or when this ability’s duration expires, you’ll be reborn at the marked location with full health.

Phoenix’s abilities make him a jack of all trades when it comes to going on the attack or defense. He has a Molotov-like ability with Hot Hands that heals himself when thrown underneath him. He also has a flashbang-like ability called Curveball that blinds enemies. Blaze is a great tool to wall off the opposition.

His ultimate ability, Run it Back, is his strongest tool by far since it gives Phoenix a free revive for about eight seconds. During the ultimate, he can run around, shoot enemies, and use abilities before being teleported back to where he started with full health.

Playstyle

On attack, Phoenix plays as an aggressive entry fragger for his team. He can use his various utility to blind or wall off the opposition, giving his team an easy route into the bombsite for a plant. His Curveball is incredibly useful when turning around a corner and Blaze can effectively split a bombsite in half. His ultimate is perfect for scouting defenses and he can even grab a pick or two for free. Additionally, he can use his Hot Hands ability to clear out corners and hiding spots enemy defenders may be lurking in.

On defense, Phoenix has strong abilities to help stop a rush or prevent a group push from an opposing team. Blaze is perfect to cut off entrance to a bombsite or chokepoint, while his Hot Hands ability is also great for zone control. Run it Back can be great when trying to retake a bombsite since Phoenix can run in, try to get kills, and simultaneously relay information for his teammates to go and secure the defuse.

Ultimately, Phoenix players need to stay smart with how they use their utility if they want to get the most out of this fiery agent. It’s easy to overuse abilities at the beginning of the round, leaving you with nothing but your gun to fight afterward.