Post your tips about Phoenix here. I’ll start with mine:
High Ground
[spoiler]When playing as Phoenix, you’d want to stay on high ground as much as possible so that other players can’t kill you or waste your self-revive. This could potentially make you a significant factor in swinging the game as your self-revives cause you to return to maximum health, meaning that if you stay alive, your health pool is basically double your max health, and then some depending on if you factor in your healing pulse.
But keep in mind that you shouldn’t self-revive just because people aren’t killing you right away. Look for coy players who think that they can force you to waste your self-revive, they are extremely dangerous for your style of play. Only self-revive when you are sure that nobody would be focused on exploiting the long cooldown of your ability. Of course, the Execution gamemode is an exception to this rule.[/spoiler]
Follow the Crowd
[spoiler]When playing as Phoenix the most significant feature that would make your play style different than Sawbonez is that you aren’t going to make your team defend you easily, since nobody normally goes in a massive clusterf**k that your healing pulse was made for. Keep your eyes open for teammates that need help. Your ability isn’t one super-powerful dose of invulnerability nor is it a powerful regeneration effect that other mercs are known for.[/spoiler]
Learn Map Opportunities
[spoiler]One of the biggest reasons why I main Phoenix over Sawbonez is also one of the reasons why I main Bushwhacker over even combat-relevant classes like Stoker: they are more cerebral. Meaning, they require the player to focus more on finding good places to exploit their abilities to the fullest rather than having faster reaction time or better aim.
Nonetheless, it helps quite a bit to have good aim, but the very requirement of having amazing spatial intelligence is what makes Phoenix shine for me compared to Sawbonez, Sparks, or Aura. Learn what situations where players won’t be able to defeat you permanently without major inconvenience on their part, and make sure to keep a good list of them in your mind.
Nonetheless it’s also a good idea to not rely too much on good spots, if you can’t use those spots to a significant benefit it’s better to play normally.
Example: Contaminated Passages
The Phoenix could move straight through any contaminated passage. This would make him able to bumrush a team and cause havoc, weakening their defenses, attacking them from an unexpected spot, or even winning the game outright. But this is a very niche ability, and extremely unreliable.[/spoiler]