Phoenix — hero grid for mains

Phoenix is what the game calls the hero in every client; Russian-speaking players say “Феникс”. There is no common English short name for Phoenix in the site's dictionary.

Valve's one-line description from the hero list: “Heals and damages at the sacrifice of its own health”.

In the editor's hero picker, typing “Phoenix” or “Феникс” brings up Phoenix.

A ranged Strength hero — one of 36 — Phoenix gets 2 of 3 on Valve's complexity scale.

Role dots from Valve: Nuker ●●●, Support ●●○, Escape ●●○, Initiator ●●○, Disabler ●○○; full marks for Nuker.

In the ready layouts that means the “STRENGTH” (32nd of 36) block of By attributes and the “MEDIUM” (34th of 59) band of By complexity.

Phoenix is played in two positions — soft support (4) and hard support (5) — like 38 other heroes with two scores of 0.5 or more; the main one is soft support. All five scores (best = 1): carry 0.03 · mid 0.29 · offlane 0.30 · soft support 1 · hard support 0.54 — which is why the editor's Auto-pick places Phoenix in the “4 · SUPPORT” and “5 · HARD SUPPORT” rows and nowhere else.

Where the scores come from: in 1,209 parsed OpenDota matches (data as of 23 Sept 2026) Phoenix went safe lane 24% of the time, mid 24% and offlane 52%. Median gold per minute is 426 — between support (360) and core (540), a supportness of 0.73 by the site's formula; experience per minute is 638.

Phoenix is not in Classic: positions 1–5, which holds the 18 most popular heroes per position, but each row fits 20 portraits — add Phoenix to the “4 · SUPPORT” row with “+ Hero” and the portraits keep their size.

Other ready grids with Phoenix: not in Meta by stats (ten heroes per position); Two columns — “SUPPORTS”, 31st of 44.

The “Make a grid with Phoenix” button opens Mains + situational with Phoenix first in the MAINS block, followed by Pudge, Omniknight and Lion — all three share the same main position (soft support).

Then it is “Download grid” and hero_grid_config.json into Steam\userdata\<number>\570\remote\cfg while Dota is closed; load your current file in the “Your grid is ready” window and your old grids stay (install guide).

Phoenix has 223,547 games in the OpenDota snapshot of 23 Sept 2026, Herald to Divine — 74th of 127 by games played — and a 51.7% win rate, 27th of 127.

The win rate is flat across brackets — 51.6% low, 51.4% high. Players pick Phoenix more than usual at Divine (+36%) and less at Herald (−44%).

Phoenix in the snapshot's pro matches: 3 picks, 1 win, 1 ban. Turbo: 74,569 games at 49.4%, worse than in ranked brackets.

For a grid with a Phoenix portrait, bring your own art: Picture to dots draws it in dots right on the field. Among the heroes with skins that are also played as soft support, the closest to Phoenix are Pudge, Mirana and Earthshaker — their dot drawings are ready for a soft support grid.