Introduction Top
As a roamer/protector main (mainly
Catherine),
Phinn is one of the most exciting hero and possibly the most fun protector to play. His crowd control abilities are second to none in the game, even Catherine's abilities. Coupled with his incredible based damage of his abilities,
Phinn is a very strong protector and can even considered overpowered in the right hands.
In this guide, my aim is to help you understand this protector better and show you how fun he could be.
Considering
Phinn is not an easy hero to use, I assume the reader of this guide used to play in the roam position before and understands the basics of the role. There will be a general explanation about that as well, but won't go into extreme details concerning that.
The Basics of a Roamer Top
For those who are still new to the game or don't know what this role is about, here is a small explanation about it.
The main objectives of a roamer is to protect his allies, putting vision and initiate fights. Using the
Ironguard Contract, by first hitting minions for your jungle ally, you can get gold while he gets extra gold if you hit it first.
Understanding Phinn and his abilities Top
Phinn is a slow protector with 3 very strong, skill based crowd control abilities. If you can land the abilities right, on the right targets, you will be surprised how fast you can kill an enemy hero.
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Unstoppable
Slot: Heroic Perk
Phinn cannot be stopped or stunned. All movement-impairing effects are instead reduced to moderate slows, and stuns are converted to silences.
- He even shrugs off attempts on his life, passively gaining 18% additional armor, shield and max health from items and effects.
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His heroic ability is one of the best ones in the game, he can't crowd controlled. Many plays can be done by this, from body blocking stuns to stepping away from a gauntlet and hooking Ardan away to cancel his ability.
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Quibble
Slot: A
Phinn slams his anchor down on the targeted location, heavily slowing enemies for 1.1s.
- Overdrive: At max rank, the slow becomes a stun!
- Deals reduced damage to minions.
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This ability is one of the strongest crowd control abilities out there, at first 4 levels it will slow every enemy hero within a 3 meter radius and deal tons of damage. Overdriven, it will also stun them.
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Polite Company
Slot: B
Phinn stomps the earth, damaging all enemies in a wide area and nudging them toward him. The effect reverberates around allies, temporarily granting them fortified health.
- Fortified health increases by 5% of Phinn's bonus health and 18% of Phinn's bonus armor/shield.
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This ability is also a really strong crowd control ability, but its also a very good ability to protect your allies. It will bring enemy heroes in range, closer to you and grant your allies near you fortified health that can help to save them from dying.
The fortified health is based on Phinn's health and defense stats, so the more defense items you have, the better you are able to protect your allies using this ability.
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Forced Accord
Slot: C
Phinn throws his anchor in a direction. After the anchor reaches its destination, Phinn yanks it back, damaging all enemies in its path and pulling them back to him. |
This ability is probably one of the most fun crowd control ability out there. The plays you can do with it are endless (hooking people over the wall, away from your allies etc). I'll explain a bit more about the possibilities in the last Chapter of this guide.
The underestimated item - Contraption Top
As a roamer, there are lots of ways to help your carries win the game and take on objectives. One of the most underestimated item for roamers is the
Contraption. In this section I'll explain for a bit why this item is a very good item to consider on supports in general and Phinn specifically.
First, lets get over what
Contraption brings to the table:
1. "Active: Target yourself to place a scout trap. Target the ground farther away to fire a flare. Holds 3 charges max; 20s per charge". What this basically means, unlimited amounts of vision items without the need to keep a item spot free at all times. Will also save you gold you usually spend on scout traps and flares.
2. "Passive:
Stormguard (2.5m splash damage)". You got the advantages the
Stormguard giving you with the extra damage to non heroes objectives . Not only that, but
Contraption also provides you this as a splash damage, which means when needed, the lane minions wave can be cleared really fast.
3. On top of that of course, you get the cooldown acceleration (you can use the crowd control abilities more often), energy recharge (less concern about your energy runs out), extra health and health regen (always helps for a roamer that stays in the front lines to have that).
Considering these 3 points, contraption is one of the most versatile and important for a roamer to consider, if not as first/second tier 3 item, at least as a third tier 3 item. One of the reasons players are against buying a contraption is it being a less of a tank item. But considering Phinn's heroic perk, it is less needed to go for other tank items first.
Against a
Taka,
Kestrel or a
Petal, it is probably the most important item to get. This item will make one of Taka's abilities completely null, it will make Kestrel's mist visible and using the AOE damage combined with
Stormguard Banner can kill Petal's munions really fast.
The Best Initiation - Warhorn Top
Another very important item for a roamer in general and especially for Phinn is the warhorn.
Using this item, to initiate fights, get into the backline carry or even running away from a fight. All very important and good uses of this item.
Apart from the active, there is also a passive movement increase bonus, which for a slow hero like Phinn, can help a lot in catching up with allies and enemy heroes.
Ability combinations and some good comps with Phinn Top
So after going over his perk, abilities and 2 very important items for Phinn, lets go over the combinations and plays you can make using them and what comps he can fit best in.
Ability combos and some combos with different carries:
1. Use a flare to give yourself some vision if you don't have vision on enemies.
Use your ultimate to try and hooking their carries, bringing them closer to you.
While they are trying to run away, use
Polite Company to bring them closer and
Quibble to slow/stun them.
2. If your team getting chased by the enemy, run the other way and use your abilities to grab the enemies closer to you and away from your allies. It will either give them an option to run away if they are low on health, or will help them position better in the fight to take on the enemies.
3. If you have a
Vox,
Blackfeather,
Reim,
Rona or any other hero that can attack more than 1 enemy with one or more of his abilities, combining
Phinn with them, can be a very strong composition.
This is only few of the many combos you can use
Phinn for, and the reason getting
Clockwork on him is very important, the more often you can use your abilities, the more often you can protect your allies with your abilities and use the combos listed above.
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