General DiscussionTips n' Tricks for Pheonix and DS

Disruptor fucks both of them on lane.

Silencer fucks Phoenix.

For Phoenix you can buy a ring of protection to boost his low armour. You can also buy a mango to get +1 hp regen per second.

for dark seer you should always get ion shell at 1. even dying because you have ion shell instead of surge can be better because ion shell gets you farm and levels, getting surge at 1 does not. surge can actually slow down your progression heavily if you get zoned out of lane because you can't go farm the hard camp near the offlane or the jungle, keeping you at level 1 for a long time than if you had died and then just went jungle with ion shell.

your skill build should be W-E-W-E-W by level 5 most of the time. ult is worth getting at 6 if you join fights, previously it wasn't because it's duration wasn't 45s at all levels and the mana cost was higher, but you can still get it later, probably 8 at the latest. it's better to have wall but not have to use it in the early game than to not have wall available when you really need it.

at level 4 you don' t really need vaccuum and it's not a good ability with 1 point into it anyway, having another point into surge does make a difference when you're trying to dodge ganks, but if you're in a very easy lane then you could consider keeping it at level 1.

skill build by level 11 can vary though, some prioritise vaccuum being maxed, others prefer two points into ult, or even getting only 1 point into surge, but 4-4-2-1 is probably the most common skill build at level 11, variants include 4-4-1-2, 4-3-2-2 and 3-4-2-2.

you don't need any more than 2 points into surge early on, so you want to max it last. if you didn't get level 2 ult at 11, then get it at 12. the main difference is the cast range (500 -> 900) but if you have a blink dagger, cast range should not be an issue anyway. in one of your games you didn't get surge until 8 which isn't good. surge is what makes him hard to kill as an offlaner (plus 6 starting armour).

starting items, you can't really go wrong with stout, tango, salve and either clarity + mango or 2 clarities. faerie fires aren't necessary imo since you have good starting damage and you don't really last hit with your hero either. with stout shield and your high starting armour, your HP regen goes much further than on other heroes i.e. a full set of tangos gives around 450 HP. that 450 HP takes more damage with 6 armour and a stout than on other offlane heroes who maybe have 2 armour instead, so 2 sets of regen should be enough on this hero.

items should be soul ring into mek and arcanes (or arcanes then mek). boots of choice are arcanes because they build into greaves, plus soul ring alone isn't enough mana sustain. arcanes give extra regen plus you can drop them before you soul ring for some extra mana.

after arcanes and mek you either get blink or greaves, and after you get whichever you didn't get earlier.

https://yasp.co/matches/2225536053/purchases
in this game you should have been the one to get the mek not the treant. you had a force staff a few minutes before he had the mek, which you should have gotten instead, since you can get the mek much sooner than a support can. lets say that 21 min force was a 21 min mek instead. if your argument was that treant got the mek at a similar timing that you would have, you won't be getting a >20 minute mek in most of your games. most of the time you'll probably get it at 12-15 minutes.

if a teammate still gets mek, you can still get other teamfights items such as crimson guard or pipe of insight instead. they also provide more survivability and HP regen making them good substitutes for a mek.

AC is a bad item although I'm guessing you bought it when the game was basically already over, as shivas or hex are similar costing items that would have a higher impact in teamfights. crimson guard does a similar job to AC in terms of tanking up teammates, but it's much cheaper and the individual components (vanguard and buckler) are also more useful than the platemail / hyperstone of assault cuirass.

https://yasp.co/matches/2225376099/purchases
in this game you get force before mek and that's a huge mistake. mek has a much higher impact than a force staff early game, especially when you're against a spectre and zeus, plus the enemy disruptor got a quick mek which makes it even more important that you get your own mek to nullify the "mek advantage" that his team has over yours. mek is one of the strongest, if not *the* strongest item a team can have 15 minutes into the game.

force staff is not a substitute for blink. force staff is basically like using surge to initiate. neither instantly reposition you unlike a blink does, which gives your opponents more time to react. you can't rely on your initiation being successful due to the enemies making mistakes.

someone else can help you with phoenix, im shit at that hero.