Paragon: The Overprime – Phase Support Guide (Damage)

This build focuses on Phase’s sheer amount of burst damage between her Q and R to effectively burst down enemy champions and helping your team gain pressure through sheer force and power, as well as letting you be able to hold your own against most squishy enemies should you be caught mid-rotation.

Remember, they can’t hurt your team if they’re dead.

Hey there, my name is Sage Hexen but you’ll often see me about as simply Hexen.

I’m a streamer and a long time Support and Paragon player ever since the OG days. While I don’t tend to play ranked often, I have a lot of experience across multiple games, genres and reincarnations with a multitude of characters. I often enjoy sharing my knowledge and love for the community I’m a part of.

I hope you enjoy these builds I publish, do bear in mind that not all of my builds will work for you as there are a multitude of factors that can change with every single game, so take these build guides with a grain of salt and adapt it to your needs!

Item Explanation

Сrеdit gоеs to Hexen !

Most often I like to start off with Bright Stone and 1 health ampule as this gives me a lot of sustain early thanks to how frequently you level as opposed to mid or late game, it synergises well with Phase’s early game pressure. However more typically you’ll see people go into Dekima Energy Reflux, 2 health potions and 1 mana potion for the extra mana and to begin stacking it early to eventually evolve it into Ekidna’s Trick, both are good builds and it depends on your own preference.

From there I like to build Archon’s Gospel for some lifesteal and extra sustain, note that your E procs this with each tick, meaning you can get to max lifesteal stacks almost instantly even on minions. Try to use this before engagements, that way your Q and R can utilize the full burst healing (especially if you’re fighting in a minion/T-On wave).

• Afterwards I like to build into Bells of Purification for the protection shred and damage buff, which your E also procs with each tick, meaning it’ll get to max stacks almost instantly.
• Followed by Witch’s Shoes as the basic caster damage item.
• Then Ekidna’s Trick if you built Dekima Energy Reflux instead of Bright Stone. If not, then I like to go into Cultist’s Blow as it synergises with Phase’s entire kit being in close quarters at all times.

• Next, Elkima Blaster for even more protection shred, and primarily to deal with tanky solo laners, supports or bruiser junglers.
• And finally, rounding things off with selling Bright Stone to make room for Rampaging Toto to really hit home with the max damage, boosting it even further.

Alternative items to note are:

• Spirit’s Teardrop which, although may not help with burst damage, it is particularly useful for the utility of the tick, which can reveal enemies like Kallari in stealth as well as preventing enemies from activating their sprint for 3 seconds.
• Sage’s Whip for whenever antiheal is called for, like against a Maco, Khaimera or lifesteal Shinbi, for example.
• Flare’s ID which is useful if you built Dekima Energy Reflux / Ekidna’s Trick as it scales off of mana and gives you some extra sustain if you get low in teamfights.
• Star’s Grace can be helpful if they have a lot of hard CC on the enemy team and can really turn teamfights if you time the cleanse on your ultimate right.

Karmas

Of course with this being a Support build, you will need to equip Scout Ahead.

However her second slot can be a little more flexible depending on what you need or what you prefer, such as Teleportation, Protection, Pain or Recovery

Hero Tips

• Phase is not the easiest character to learn, playing her is easy, but playing her well is challenging for some. The high skill ceiling in her kit comes almost entirely from her positioning and knowing when to pull enemies using Synchronizer (RMB), particularly in team fights and ganking during rotations. Which, speaking of, adds another level of difficulty in playing Phase in Support specifically – knowing when to rotate and let your ADC/Carry farm.
• Generally speaking, it’s pretty safe to rotate when you get to the early stages of the mid game and have 2 or 3 items fully built, or when your Carry is particularly ahead, leaving lane to help either mid or jungle with ganks or objectives can allow your Carry to farm the full xp and gold from minions instead of sharing it with the Support, letting them get even further ahead of the enemy laners, this can apply to any Support character. These things are only learnt through practice and trial n error.
• Phase is particularly good at zoning, meaning that she is a good option to zone enemies out while doing objectives thanks to most people’s aversion to be anywhere near her, especially with a full damage build like this one.
• And possibly most importantly, remember that you’re not a tank and so it’s unwise to try and engage multiple enemies at once by yourself unless you are confident that you can survive it, play it safe and let your team rendezvous for team fights.
• Also don’t forget that dying as a Support is not the end of the world, in fact it’s preferred if your sacrifice means that your team can survive, though that doesn’t mean shouting “MR PRESIDENT GET DOWN” at any opportunity and immediately dying for no reason, so only do so if you’re peeling for your team and the enemies won’t relent.

Abilities & Levelling Order

Levelling Order

From levels 1 to 6 your priority should be:

• RMB -> Q -> E -> Q -> Q -> R

Afterwards, your levelling priority should be:

• R -> Q -> RMB -> E

Q – Flash Burst

Outside of her ultimate, this is your primary poke and damage tool. The best use of this ability is to link to an enemy and use this ability as soon as possible when the link is confirmed, lowering the possible time for them to react and leap out of your tether. Do remember that this small aoe is cast both around yourself and the tethered enemy, which does mean that if you get close enough, the damage of this ability can stack and effectively do double damage. This is also true for the ultimate, as it’s effectively the same ability but with a knockback. Don’t underestimate the blind that this ability applies as well, as it can make optimal peel for your team to blind your enemy prior to displacing them with your pull, ensuring they’re disorientated by the time the blind wears off – Explodes the energy surrounding Phase and an enemy Hero linked with Synchronizer, dealing damage and blinding for 1 second in a small aoe.

This is the ability you’ll want to level second, but prioritize in levelling afterwards as it’s your main damage and poke tool.

E – Light Flux

This is your chase tool, as well as your zoning tool. The slow on this ability stacks in quick ticks as long as you can track your enemy or enemies well, landing 10 of these ticks on an enemy (these ticks don’t have to be consecutive) 10 times will root them. This tool is perfect for deterring enemies from chasing you or your team as it slows and roots, which is usually enough CC to prevent a chase in-lane. However this hard CC is slow to stack as it needs to land ticks and requires some careful aiming and pre-emptive intuition in order to utilize it to it’s maximum potential. You’ll be using this ability primarily to ensure that your ADC or Jungle secures kills thanks to the CC, however don’t underestimate its ability to lock down and finished of 1hp heroes – Fires a channelled line of energy, applying 19 ticks over 2.5 seconds that deals a small amount of damage, slows by 20% for 1 second and roots for 1.5 seconds if 10 or more stacks are landed on the enemy.

You’ll be levelling this ability third and it’s the least prioritized ability for levelling as you’ll mainly use this ability for its root and slow rather than its damage.

RMB – Synchronizer

And this is the ability that’s central to Phase’s character, her tether. The main use of this ability will be to link to and pull enemy heroes either to you or into your team. Do not underestimate the utility of this as it can make for one of the best peel tools in the entire game when used correctly, such as pulling a diving jungler off of your ADC or Mid-laner. You may often have difficulty learning the timing of this ability, particularly to counter an enemy engage or escape like Rampage leap or Aurora wall, but with practice you’ll be able to negate these abilities with ease. I find the best use of this ability is to pull enemies into your tower if they have pushed up too far, almost guaranteeing an easy kill to turn the tables and reward their greedy pushing for you and your ADC during the laning phase (no pun intended). This ability does not proc item effects such as Sage’s Whip and Mini Moda which are situational items you can build when needed. And don’t forget that there is no pre-cast animation on this ability, meaning that this ability is very difficult for enemies to predict its use, especially when cast from Sprint Mode – Links Phase to an enemy hero to deal tick damage every second, healing a small portion of the damage dealt, recasting this ability while linked to an enemy pulls the enemy hero to Phase’s location. The tether can last up to 25 seconds and automatically disconnects if either hero moves out of range and consumes a small amount of mana per second.

I level this ability first, prioritizing it second as this is your main engage, getting into range of their ADC for instance and pulling them away from their Support to ensure either easy poke or an easy kill, especially if they draw aggro from the T-Ons.

R – Super Explosion

And now her ultimate, this ability is almost identical to her Q, minus the blind and adding more damage and a knockback. The use of this ability will be almost exclusively for damage, however the use of the knockback shouldn’t be underestimated either, because while it isn’t a large knockback, it can often be just enough to push away a diving jungler from yourself or a nearby ally. Often this ability is great for finishing off a squishy target, and perhaps even straight up 1v1ing them in the right situations. Don’t forget that this ability, like her Q, is cast both around yourself and the enemy, meaning that if you are within range with the tether up, the damage can stack, dealing double damage. This proximity stacking of her damage is what makes her so oppressive to play against as it can almost kill many characters even with a support build – Explodes the aoe surrounding Phase and a linked enemy hero using Synchronizer, knocking back nearby enemies and dealing damage.

It goes without saying that you should always level this whenever possible, as it’s your second of only 2 main forms of damage in your kit.

Phase Is Strong With

• High burst damage teams or carries such as Murdock, Revenant, Drongo.
• Characters that struggle in the early game – her early pressure can cover some of the weak spots of characters like Sparrow or Wraith.
• Tanky jungle / solo characters – due to her lacking frontline or tanking capabilities with this build, she’s best paired with a jungle or solo frontline who can take the brunt of the damage and allow her to set up her pulls.

Phase Counters

• High mobility characters such as Shinbi, Aurora, Rampage – with practice and timing, you can count almost any jump or dash, Gideon is the main character she will struggle to pull due to his E (teleport).
• Channeled ultimates like Howi or Gideon – like mentioned above, the correct timing can completely negate an enemy Gideon or Howi ult, however remember that Gideon has an ability shield so use your E or Q first to get rid of it before pulling him, otherwise your RMB won’t connect.
• Stealth characters like Kallari – the RMB still connects despite the cloak, and can reveal their location if you lock it on before they enter stealth.

Phase Struggles Against

• High Crowd-Control teams – due to her having no real escape aside from Karma’s, her having a lot of CC also leaves her vulnerable to CC like stuns, pulls, roots.
• Dive teams – Phase is extremely vulnerable if she is singled out or focused, it is for this reason that it’s very unwise to try and engage a team by yourself.
• Long range characters like Maco, Wraith, Grim – Phase is a close range character, meaning she has next to no form of long range poke, which then means that she will severely struggle against anyone that can keep her at bay.