Fenix

Fenix, Steward of the Templar, is a Ranged Assassin Hero from the Starcraft universe. As one of the greatest heroes in protoss history, Fenix's deeds on the battlefield are legendary. After falling to the zerg during the invasion of Aiur, his body was recovered and implanted into a dragoon so he could continue to fight. Not even death can stop Fenix from achieving glory and valor.

Fenix is a sustained damage Assassin with a regenerating Shield that enables him to efficiently duel his opponents.

Background
Fenix was once a protoss zealot, and praetor of the Protoss Defense Forces. He personally led his fellow warriors into battle against those who called themselves the enemies of the. Revered by his warrior-brethren, he was dubbed the Steward of the Templar, and is one of the most celebrated heroes in protoss history.

During the, Fenix fought for the protoss against the threat of the zerg. On his homeworld of, he rallied alongside Artanis to stop the invasion of the Overmind, but a zerg attack felled him during the defense of the city of. There he was mortally wounded, and presumed dead. However, his body was recovered and placed within the chassis of a. The disgraced Tassadar returned to Aiur and was judged to be a heretic by the protoss government of the for allying with the Dark Templar Zeratul. Though he condemned himself for doing so, Fenix allied with Tassadar and fought his own people in order to save Tassadar. However, as the burned, Tassadar surrendered himself to stop the fighting, but Fenix, seeing Tassadar as their last hope for victory against the zerg, fought on alongside the Jim Raynor and Artanis, freeing Tassadar. The allies then banded together and struck down the Overmind, shattering the Zerg Swarm.

However, Aiur was ravaged, and as the protoss evacuated the planet, Fenix and Raynor stayed behind to ensure the evacuation. To prevent the zerg from following the protoss, Fenix and Raynor destroyed the warp gate the protoss were using on the Aiur side, stranding themselves with the zerg. However, soon they were contacted by Sarah Kerrigan, who warned them of a second Overmind growing on the planet, and of the invasion of the terran. Fenix allied with Kerrigan to stop the UED, helping rescue emperor Arcturus Mengsk from their forces. The desperate alliance attacked the United Earth Directorate stronghold and Mengsk's former capital of, driving them from the planet. But as they stood victorious, Kerrigan betrayed her allies, attacking Fenix and his forces. In a last stand, Fenix was slain under a tide of zerg.

Fenix's legacy would live on years after his fall, and his death would be a rallying cry for many protoss, and even for Raynor, for years to come. Brainscans from Fenix would later be used to create a robotic construct, who would take the name.

Gameplay
Fenix is a Ranged Assassin who excels at bullying with sustained damage.

Strength

 * Self sustain
 * Adaptable Basic Attacker
 * Poke/Trading

Weaknesses

 * Burst damage
 * Crowd Control

Abilities

 * See Data Page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Development
Blizzard's designers planned to make Fenix (rather than Artanis) the first StarCraft warrior, but they felt it was necessary to represent his transition from Zealot to Dragoon, and they didn't want to release another hero with a resurrection mechanic shortly after Leoric.

“We’re always contemplating when we can bring a fan favorite into Heroes and we were looking for the right moment,” Jade Martin explained. “We wanted him to be a Dragoon, and tap into that fantasy of the ranged basic attacker.”

That decision allowed the team to hone on a very specific gameplay niche, and not over-generalize. “From the design standpoint, it was actually really difficult because people remember him fondly from his different eras,” Martin said. Ultimately, Artanis had already fulfilled the Zealot role, and the Dragoon provided an interesting opportunity to provide an interesting silhouette and have the character immediately stand out in hero select.

That silhouette provided the art team with a fascinating challenge. Lana Bachynski was tasked with making Fenix feel like a Dragoon, from his walk cycle to his arsenal of ranged attacks. “This hero from the Protoss universe, a Dragoon is such an iconic space with that silhouette. It was exciting to have this new shape that was so identifiable and cool.” Of course, it wasn’t easy to bring Fenix to life. He was a massive technical challenge; even getting him to move required work and thought. He does not rotate; his knees are static, his body stable, and his legs push him forward in a mechanical, alien way while his top half rotates. “It gives a physical callback to what an OG Dragoon felt like.”

Fenix’s kit provides him with countless power-ups and classic references to StarCraft, and that means he’s not just another ranged assassin — he’s a StarCraft Dragoon, brought to life. “I think the kit will really speak to how unique he is, and the various powerups he gets through his talent and how you want to build him.”

Martin elaborated: “It’s a nice gift to be able to take these original units from StarCraft.” The Dragoon fantasy was focused on the heavy plasma attack. “With Fenix, we looked at what a Dragoon can possibly do.”

The W was the main ability that played into the fantasy of a Dragoon, allowing Fenix to bombard enemies from afar. “We have this cool Q plasma cutter that allows us to have a regular range that sweeps the area around him. His W lets him switch between two weapons.” The W is a play on upgrading and evolving in StarCraft, making your unit more powerful. Of course, in the Nexus, Fenix doesn’t need to rely on the Forge.

Then of course there’s Warp, as classic a Protoss ability as a zerg’s creep or a terran’s affinity for extremely large and dangerous guns. As a hero of the Protoss race, it took a significant effort to make him feel like the icon of a Protoss while still giving him his own unique space. His early playtests were focused on making sure his kit was distinguishable and unique from other ranged heroes; Fenix should play like Fenix, the Dragoon from StarCraft legend. If he feels like a Valla, a Hammer, a Greymane or a Hanzo, something has gone terribly wrong.

“We ask what this character is good at, and what makes them distinct,” Martin said. “What makes Fenix distinct is his Q - which is a targeting system we haven’t had before — and his W.” By switching between weapon types, Fenix can adapt to the enemy team and never fall out of relevancy. His shields, bolstered by his passive, make him a potent laner. Fenix is an assassin, but he should never feel like he’s unable to stand up to his foes.

That being said, Fenix still has his weaknesses. The team wanted Fenix to feel like a Protoss hero, and that included giving him shields, but they couldn’t overload him too much. “We don’t give every Protoss unit everything a Protoss has ever had,” Martin said. “For instance, Artanis and Fenix both have shields, but [their shields] function very, very differently. We can take advantage of technology from those different races, but we have to be very careful with overloading kits too much.”

A big part of making the new hero feel like Fenix and like a Dragoon was his art design. Probius is a cheerful Probe who is oddly relatable and even human with his bubbly animations and big, twinkling eye. Fenix, on the other hand, is described as stoic and robotic; the team wanted to make him feel like a robot above all else, and especially not an organic creepy crawler like a spider.

Bachynski found that developing Fenix required a balance, focused around giving him a personality and a strong sense of character without relying on shorthand that made the player think of a giant spider or a human character trapped in a construct. Fenix may be robotic, but he still has a personality. “There are moments where you can see his personality, with his happy dance and his more aggressive taunt where you can see a more organic mind inside of that creature.”

Trivia

 * On March 15, 2018, Fenix was announced on the official Heroes of the Storm Twitter page.
 * Fenix made his debut in StarCraft (March 1998).
 * Fenix is voiced by Marc Graue, who voiced the character's in Legacy of the Void.
 * Fenix's Nerazim skin is based off of the early 3D render of the dragoon in StarCraft.
 * Fenix’s walk, where he never changes the way his legs face, is a reference to how dragoons walk in the StarCraft series, maintaining their facing no matter what direction they are sent in.
 * Fenix’s death animation, crumpling into a puddle of blue life support liquid, is also how dragoons died in StarCraft.
 * The Experimental Fenix looks similar to a terran design. The letters on his legs are “G2GF” (which may mean “got to go fast”), OG/0331/98 (which is the release date of StarCraft 1, March 31st, 1998, with OG meaning “original gangster.”) The low battery on the front may be a reference to how Fenix was first mortally wounded, when his psi blade failed on him, which many community members joked as “the battery ran out.” The θ(|V||E|) on his back leg is a cost analysis used in Depth-First Searches, part of the pathfinding algorithm used in SC1, because as mentioned, dragoons had infamously awful pathfinding.
 * Fenix's Phase Bomb weapon uses the sound effects of the from StarCraft and StarCraft II. Its name is a reference to their weapon, the.
 * The Planet Cracker ability references the cut "Planet Cracker" ability from the unit in StarCraft II. This attack also references the protoss beam from the introduction cinematic of StarCraft.
 * The level 4 talent, Warp Conduit references the, massive gateways that could warp protoss starships.
 * The level 13 talent Adanium Shell is a reference to, the material that the construct  was made from, who was made from Fenix's brainscans.
 * The level 16 talent Arsenal Overcharge is one of Talandar's abilities in StarCraft II Co-op Missions.
 * The level 20 talent Singularity Charge is the name of the range upgrade for dragoons in StarCraft and StarCraft II's Co-op Missions.
 * The level 20 talent Unconquered Spirit is a reference to Fenix's quote to Tassadar upon revealing to him he was put in a dragoon "there is no shame in defeat, so long as the spirit is unconquered!"
 * In 2017, a youtuber named Punishment Sin published an April Fools' joke "In-Development" video featuring Talandar, a later incarnation of Fenix, as an upcoming Hero. In the video, Talandar featured two abilities that later became the part of Fenix's kit, "Shield Capacitor" and "Planet Cracker" ultimate, though both with different functionality. Additionally, the video came out almost exactly a year before the release of Fenix in Heroes of the Storm.