Hello, I'm XenoTek the current starting jungler on the new Phoenix Reign roster. Welcome to my Lane CP
Blackfeather Guide, where I will explain how I play
Blackfeather successfully in both ranked and competitive matches. Blackfeather is a warrior/assasin that excels at dashing around the fight and dodging incoming crowd control.
I hope you enjoy!
-Xeno
Blackfeather’s perk has two parts, each equally important and useful. For the first part, Blackfeather applies heartthrob stacks every time he lands an ability or basic attack to a max of 5 stacks (2 stacks on minions). At 5 stacks, the hearts “break” and allow Blackfeather to deal execute damage to the enemy using his Feint of Heart ability. Additionally, each stack of heartthrob gives Blackfeather slightly more damage on his basic attacks.
For the second part of Blackfeather’s perk, he uses Focus to power his abilities instead of energy. This means that Blackfeather rarely has to worry about “energy” management, especially since in 1.23 Blackfeather’s Focus recharge rate was increased significantly. Blackfeather recovers focus naturally every second and from basic attacks.
Blackfeather’s A ability, Feint of Heart has multiple uses and is also the reason he is technically considered an assassin. When activated, Blackfeather lunges to the selected target and lands a basic attack. After, the target leaves behind a “rose trail” that gives bonus movement speed to Blackfeather and allies. This is extremely useful for chasing enemies, and allows Blackfeather to stick to mobile enemies. If you don’t need to stick to an enemy, however, you should save this for executing rather than initiating.
If the selected target has 5 heartthrob stacks, BF will deal bonus weapon damage based on the target’s missing health (execute damage). Use the execute when the target is below 25% health and has full stacks for a pretty much guaranteed kill. If you have a lot of Bonesaw or Breaking Point stacks, you can probably execute at a greater amount of health and still kill the enemy.
Upgrade Priority:
The overdrive on Feint of Heart gives many different advantages, however you should take the overdrive second after On Point. First, once overdriven, the rose trail makes Blackfeather and allies unable to be slowed. This is especially useful against mages with Frostburn or heroes with lots of slow like Baron and Krul. The second part of the overdrive is also extremely useful; If Feint of Heart is used to kill a target or the target is killed within 0.5 seconds of activation, the cooldown of Feint of Heart will be reset. This is very useful when farming, and can potentially allow you to execute all 3 enemies in a row in long team fights.
On Point makes Blackfeather deadly from both close range and from a distance. When activated, Blackfeather pierces enemies in the target direction. If this lands onto an enemy hero, Blackfeather will gain a barrier that scales with his bonus health and also recovers some of the focus used on the ability. Additionally, On Point slows all enemies hit, with the slow increasing based on the amount of Heartthrob stacks already on the enemy. On Point also applies one heartthrob stack if landed.
In team fights, On Point gives Blackfeather tons of survivability and CC. Use it to slow enemies in order to initiate, or to become more durable once in the middle of a fight. On Point is extremely useful when farming, especially against range heroes. Use it to farm from a distance as it will deal about the same amount of damage as a basic attack. In 1.23, On Point was given a larger weapon ratio, making it deal a significant amount of damage in the late game. If landed onto multiple enemies, you can safely stack Breaking Point from a distance.
Upgrade Priority:
Pick On Point as your first ability as it will help you best to farm, and overdrive it first. Once overdriven, On Point gains massively increased range. This allows you to poke, farm and deal damage from an extremely safe distance. It also makes it much easier to land.
Rose Offensive gives blackfeather immunity to negative effects during the duration, making it extremely versatile and useful, especially against compositions with many stuns. When activated, Blackfeather dashes in a target direction, basic attacking enemies along his path. This ability has two chargers, with a slight charge time between each charge. Blackfeather also gains Fortified Health during the dash duration.
Mastering Blackfeather is mostly in learning how to use Rose Offensive to maximum effectiveness. If you can effectively use Rose Offensive to block enemy CC (including Atlas Pauldrons), there is almost no stopping you. In 1.23, the focus cost of Rose Offensive was decreased to 40 at all ranks, making it even easier to use Rose Offensive whenever necessary. Blackfeather does not have a reliable escape until this ability is unlocked, so it is a major power spike. You can use Rose Offensive to initiate, deal damage, block CC or go over walls (including to backdoor).
Roam Heroes to Pair With Blackfeather:
Any hero that can provide Blackfeather extra survivability pairs extremely well with him.
Ardan- Ardan is a perfect pair with Blackfeather. His gauntlet allows Blackfeather to engage without using any abilities, and Vanguard provides an escape in the early game and extra survivability throughout the game.
Phinn- Similar to Ardan, Phinn helps Blackfeather both engage and provides extra survivability. Forced Accord brings enemies to Blackfeather, allowing him to save his abilities for damage and blocking. His Polite Company brings enemies closer and provides Blackfeather extra surviability to build stacks throughout a fight.
Lyra- Pairing Lyra with Blackfeather removes one of his primary counters, but she is also great at helping Blackfeather to survive longer and she has tons of engage potential. Her Imperial Sigil can basically endlessly heal BF, and Bright Bulwark prevents enemies from using dash abilities to get away from him.
Jungle/Other Heroes to pair with Blackfeather
Since BF is melee and ranged, pairing BF with a ranged CP jungler can work quite well. Additionally, since BF is strongest later in the game, heroes that are either extremely strong in the early game or can do enough to not get snowballed work great. Skye is a perfect pair with Blackfeather since she is ranged and can hold her own in the early game. Koshka, Fortress and Taka all are great pairs, also, with their strong early games that can snowball leads. If the jungle is ahead and BF is allowed to freely farm, the game is pretty much over if you can get a large CS lead.
The early game is Blackfeather’s weakest stage of the game, but he is still decently strong from level two onwards. In the beginning, focus on farming as much as possible. Melee heroes are extremely easy to farm with as long as the enemy does not have a lot of poke damage like an Adagio or Vox. If the enemy is poking a lot, stay safe and farm with your B ability. Use it when the farm is killable by a basic attack for a guaranteed last hit. If you need to rotate to help your team you can, but Blackfeather is best off if he can safely farm and gain a farm lead.
Blackfeather begins to spike once he gets a Serpents Mask and hits level 6. Until then, he has no reliable escape and is fairly vulnerable. During the mid game, focus on extending your farm lead and killing objectives with your team. Blackfeather is very good at securing gold mines with his execute, so you can often take goldmines during otherwise risky situations. Try and catch people out of position with your B + A abilites and eliminate them one by one to gain a numbers advantage and become able to push objectives.
Blackfeather is extremely strong in the late game with a Serpents Mask, Breaking Point and Bonesaw. In team fights, try not to initiate with your abilities if possible, and save them for either executing or dodging crowd control. If possible, gain stacks off the support or dive the main carry if he is vulnerable. Once you get a few Bonesaw and Breaking Point stacks, you should be able to easily execute one enemy before they are even able to get healed. From there, continue building stacks and execute them when they get low. Make sure to continue using your B ability for maximum survivability, and try to land it onto multiple enemies for the slow and extra Breaking Point stacks. If the enemy has a lot of attack speed like a Ringo, use Atlas Pauldron on him to massively slow his attack speed and make him very easy to kill.
- You can use Blackfeather’s ult to dodge the negative effects and slightly negate the damage of abilities like Ringo’s Hellfire Brew. Additionally, since it is a dash ability, you can use it to get out of the way of Phinn’s Forced Accord and dodge it.
- Once you have maxed your A ability, you can use it to counter heroes with lots of slows including Frostburn. When standing in the rose trail, BF and allies are immune to slows .
- On Point has a base slow, but the duration of this slow is massively increased for each stack of Heartthrob on the enemy. When chasing someone down, if possible, it is more beneficial to use A then B since the A applies Heartthrob stacks if the enemy does not already have them.
- Blackfeather’s A ability leaves a rose trail even if the target goes in stealth. Use it against enemies like Taka and Kestrel before they stealth to track their location.
- In the early game, if you are ganked, sometimes you can use your A ability on a nearby enemy or minion to gain a slight speed boost and potentially escape.
- If you have Shiversteel, you can try to use your ultimate to hit all 3 enemies to apply a slow to all of them at the same time, since the ult executes basic attacks.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful. Send any questions you may have to
@XenoTek_VG on Twitter,
Team Phoenix or comment below.
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-XenoTek
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