Hello, I'm Sam, or otherwise known as e36, and this is my roam
Phinn guide for how I play her successfully in both ranked and competitive matches.
Phinn is a slow rivermoster that excels at peeling and providing extra survivability for his team. He's one of my favorite heroes to play, as he can drastically change the course of fights with his AOE abilites.
I hope you enjoy!
- Sam (e36)
Phinn is
Unstoppable. With his heroic perk,
Phinn is unable to be stunned, and all abilities that effect his movement are converted to slows. This is incredibly useful, as it allows him to be an incredibly effective body blocker able to eat up CC without risking getting caught out of position and deleted. It also lets him do fun things like walk through
Ardan’s
Gauntlet or intentionally run into a
Kestrel stun.
Additionally,
Phinn gains 15% of additional defensive stats from purchased items and effects. This makes buying defensive items even more cost effective on him, and increased the amount of fortified health gained from
Polite Company.
Quibble is an AOE slow that deals massive damage and, when overdriven, is upgraded into a stun.
Quibble is probably the most important part of
Phinn’s kit, and can deal devastating damage throughout the game. The damage falls off a bit after level 8, but can be raised with a
Crystal Infusion due to its massive CP ratio.
Most of the time,
Quibble is used for peeling or to stun multiple enemies. The radius of
Quibble is quite large, so it is very possible to land 2-3 man stuns consistently if the enemy groups up. Be careful of the cast time on
Quibble, as it is possible for enemies to walk out of the circle or reflex it. To better ensure that
Quibble lands, get very close to enemies before using it. Against moving enemies, use
Quibble where the enemies are going to be by the time the stun lands. Since the stun is AOE, look for opportunities where you can stun multiple enemies at a time. Otherwise, save it to peel for teammates or cancel enemy abilities.
Situations NOT to use Quibble:
- Don’t run into enemies and use it on one person
- Don’t use it when you know an enemy has an ability up that can dodge it. For example, if you know
Taka has his
Kaiten available, he will just dodge it. Instead, use it at times when they are unable to use their movement skills or on another hero. Otherwise, the ability will be wasted and you will be putting yourself out of position.
When activated,
Phinn stomps the ground and pulls enemies towards him slightly in a large circle. This can be used as an additional peeling tool if positioned away from your ally, or as a gap closer if the enemy is running away. Additionally, allies and
Phinn himself inside the circle will gain a large amount of fortified health for a 3 second duration unless overdriven. This is the most important part of the ability, as it allows
Phinn to GIVE survivability to his allies and himself. Most of the time you want to use it to tank up enemy abilities. Try to anticipate the enemy damage and use
Polite Company to absorb some of the damage. To increase the amount of Fortified Health given to allies, upgrade
Polite Company or purchase extra HP, Armor and Shield items. 6% of
Phinn’s bonus (purchased) health and 20% of
Phinn’s purchased Armor/Shield will be converted to Fortified Health.
Be careful of the cooldown and the cast time on
Polite Company. Because it has a 10 second flat cooldown, you need to be careful about when you use it, especially in the early game. That being said, you usually want to use it at the beginning of a fight later in the game once you have CD built so you can use it again later in the fight. Additionally, the cast time is not instant so you will have to use it a short time before enemy damage comes in to effectively absorb it.
Upgrade Priority:
Overdriving
Polite Company increases the duration that the fortified health lasts, and increases the amount of base Fortified Health. Taking the overdrive on
Polite Company depends on your play style, but I would recommend leaving it at level 4 and maxing
Forced Accord due to the massive reduction in CD.
When activated,
Phinn throws his anchor in the chosen direction and pulls enemies close to him. If
Phinn misses or the enemy reflex blocks the pull, a percentage of the cooldown is reduced with the amount of reduction increasing based on the level of the ability.
Forced Accord can be game changing if used correctly and in combination with other abilities.
Forced Accord does not stun, so if a teammate can use CC after the enemies are pulled towards him, it can be devastating and allows
Phinn to land a
Quibble to chain stun. Even if not immediately stunned, pulling enemies to him can also beneficial for allies that need enemies to be close to them to do damage like SAW and melee heroes. Since
Phinn will be vulnerable once pulling enemies close to him, use
Polite Company beforehand to make yourself more tanky.
Forced Accord has an incredibly low cooldown at max rank. Once enough is built, you will be able to use it at least 2 times a fight if it is long enough. One of the best uses for
Forced Accord is to bait out reflexes to start a fight. Even if they block it, it will be on a reduced cooldown and you will be able to use it again before the reflex block is available.
- Don’t use it to engage unless you’re trying to waste a
Crucible, you know the enemy does not have reflex available, or you know you have enough CD to use it again soon if they do
Reflex Block it.
D
- on’t pull enemies close to your teammates if the enemies are better at close range than your own heroes. For example, don’t pull an
Adagio into a
Celeste or don’t pull
Krul close in general unless he’s last one alive and running away.
- If trying to pull enemies close to your teammates, make sure your team is in a position to utilize the pull. Don’t use it if they are too far away.
Depending on the enemy composition, you can be aggressive in the early game. If you know the enemy has a slower clear speed, you can fight them. Landing
Quibble will be incredibly important, as it will usually determine who wins the fight. Be sure to pick up Sprint Boots at the first shop to more easily land Quibble and generally increase
Phinn’s already slow movement speed. If the enemy clear is faster, go to lane and either try for a gank or help the laner push so you can rotate down together.
Phinn is relatively strong throughout the game, but he begins to hit power spikes in the mid-late game. Build
Fountain of Renewal as your first t3 items always. If you’re very ahead in the jungle, you can delay Fountain of Renewal slightly by picking up
Travel Boots. If not, continue rushing Fountain.
Phinn starts to spike when he gets
Forced Accord and the overdrive on
Quibble. Most people don’t have
Reflex Block until later in the mid game, so you can start doing a lot of ganks. Use
Forced Accord if needed and pull the enemies into combos with your team +
Quibble for a maximum amount of damage. Getting the overdrive on
Quibble is a huge powerspike as you can start to really impact team fights. Focus on getting more defensive items in the mid game, and prioritize
Crucible if the enemy has a lot of incoming CC. After you have some t3 defensive items completed, you can start building cooldown.
Late game you should be extremely tanky with all of the extra defensive items and endless fortified health with additional CD. Once you have a significant amount of CD built, don’t be afraid to use
Forced Accord, as you will likely waste their
Crucible or you will get lucky landing it.
Phinn excels at kiting with his carries in the late game, so you will want to stay near at least one of them (usually the laner) and be a large meat shield. Provide peel and fortified health with your abilities and stun anything that comes close. Try to combine
Forced Accord and
Quibble with other crowd control/major damage abilities for maximum effect.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful. Send any questions you may have to
@tphx_e36 on Twitter or comment below.
Visit the
Phoenix website for updates on our competitive teams and for more player spotlights and guides!
Pick up the
headset I use for Vainglory and watch my highlights on
Vibby and on
YouTube.
-Sam (e36)
Koshka
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