Phoenix why no use?

payback rate is below 1 in most cases.

i think damage does not stack(correct me if im wrong). so you can burn fat things, but, as they are fat, they will just laugh off some hp and dont die.

light targets die but are not that easy to target. the bomb drop is banana style, you can influence the drop curve with an additional waypoind behind the attack command. whatever, not many players use this.

as it is by definition made of paper, it will die soon because most of the time it is, as a plane, not attacking but rearming.

I think honestly that it can be buffed so it's good for early economy stabbing. Make it's napalm long-lasting so it kills buildings better like mexes, windmills, llts.

I did an incidental experiment where I threw like 50 phoenixes at a mob of jacks. Not a single jack died! The phoenixes stacked their hits pretty closely, but still, not a single jack died. They also sucked at killing off base structures.

It should have longer burn time, so more units can die and buildings get smashed more easily
Also, longer flames on the ground so it can effectively stop ruahes for a few seconds

Have used against AI. It is unholy when it 3, as it destroys whatever it drops bombs on. Yes the targeting does need changing, but I also think it should be better immolating an area, as it is a napalm bomber, and it is saturation.

So many reasons.

If the following conditions are met:
- opponent has units that are low to medium weight
- those units are outside of range of statics that could intercept phoenix
- opponents don't have air superiority
- those units are clumped

It's really good.

As are thunderbird, wyvern, rapier, banshee, blastwing, blackdawn, valk-roaches, and even raven, all of which are more resilient to surpises.

You're taking a greater risk (low HP/cost ratio) to deliver marginally better results within very specific contexts. Yes there are the dream shots where an opponent is all clustered, but that's a mistake you can't rely on an opponent making. Also, spreading damage is not as good as it might seem - doing a bunch of damage that doesn't secure kills costs your opponent energy and BP to repair, as well as tempo, but not metal. Other units are better at actually securing kills, which is very important.

Also, when you go for a bombing run and are shot down, you're typically moving in a direction from your factory towards their units, which often means that if you die, the wreckage is pre-secured by them.

I think there's a place for phoenix at a particular stage of the game where you've rushed planes as a second factory in a 1v1 - but that window is narrow when compared to the long utility life of other air units, and while it might be competitive, most people aren't at a skill level where they can accommodate such technicalities for marginal gains. It's not useless, it's just not good IMO.

Compare two phoenix (720m) to three banshees (660m). The banshees repair themselves, are more durable, more granular, have amazing up-time, are very maneuverable, and wipe out all raider, skirm, and assaults outside your opponents air control, while pressuring to severely infringe on your opponents territory if they miss a beat. The phoenix can sometimes land big hits - but if opponents are playing competently they won't, they are fast but not maneuverable, have terrible up-time, have poor health, are less granular, require a skill shot, and have next to zero potential to threaten your opponents territory. It's not even close.