Artanis Build Guide : Artanis - Catch me if you can! :: Heroes of the Storm (HotS) Strategy Builds

Artanis

Build: Build #1

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

Threats to Artanis with this build

Threat

Low

High

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Threat		Notes
1	Murky	Murky cant really do anything to Artanis as far as damage, but murky does allow marksman stacks to go a little faster!
1	The Lost Vikings	Another enemy that doesn't pose any real threat but since they are so weak, marksman stacks climb quickly.
2	Kharazim	Monk spends alot of time close quarters and Artanis excels here. If monk jumps on you then you quickly phase shift him and now hes either stuck or has to use another charge to get out. Either way, puts him in a bad position.
2	Nova	Nova is no real threat, her combo usually will proc your shield and then she is exposed for a good thrashing. Her nuke can hurt but is easily avoidable with Blade Dash.
3	Nazeebo	Nazeebo can do decent damage to Artanis but thanks to Phase Prism, any time you get zombie walled you can try to swap with an enemy to force Nazeebo to waste his wall. If you have no one to Phase Prism to, just use your Blade Dash to twirl out for a second and avoid most of the damage.
3	Valla	Valla can be a pest due to constant damage but can never really cause to much trouble thanks to your shield. If she is close enough fight her, if you are post 16 she is an easy kill.
4		No Threat
5	Sonya	Sonya does well against Artanis pre 16. She has good sustain and damage and with a gank from just about anyone can get a kill on him. Post 16 she cannot sustain a 1v1 with him due to his charge and shield.
5	Kerrigan	Kerrigan's combo can put you in a lock down state long enough to get killed before you can prime your shield. Luckily if you see her coming towards you, you can prepare your Blade Dash to avoid the combo.
6	Kael'thas	Kael'thas gravity lapse will put you out of the fight and not allow you to prime your shield. If he catches you he can burst you down pretty fast and usually your best option is to just fight him and rush him if you can.
6	Uther	Uther may not be able to do alot of damage to Artanis but his stun is quick and shuts him down mid Blade Dash putting him in a bad position. Avoid using blade dash around uther and stick with squishier targets.
7	Jaina	Jaina has a slow on every skill and unless you have level 16 you won't have a good answer for this. Save your Blade Dash to avoid her blizzard when it inevitably gets cast on top of you. If you can avoid her blizzard and use your Phase Prism you have a good chance of killing her.
7	Tyrael	Tyrael is a strong enough bruiser to actually handle Artanis. If tyrael gets close enough he will stay on you. Save your Phase Prism for him when he teleports in or ults you.
7	Diablo	Diablo has 2 strong quick abilities to interrupt the blade dash and put Artanis in a really bad position. Fight the rest of the team in fights if possible and avoid using Blade Dash into Diablo.
8	E.T.C.	E.T.C. is annoying to say the least. His aoe knockback can knock you out of your Blade Dash and into a bad spot. His ult basically shuts down artanis if he hits you with it. Best option against him is to save your Phase Prism and when you hear him start to rock, blast him with this and he will lose his ult.
8	Li Li	Lili can make you obsolete if you let her. Any time she blinds you, you are not priming your shield with your attacks, and without your shield you will melt. Avoid her blinds and when she does blind you use your Blade Dash to remove yourself from the fight and let the blind tick away.
9	Zagara	Zagara can do more damage to you then most without even getting in range to get hurt. Her hydralisks chase you and don't stop hitting you even during Blade Dash. Try to fight her with a friend and get a Phase Prism to put her in a tight spot.
9	Stitches	Stitches can put you in a really tight spot if you get hooked by him. Since artanis has no escape he will get melted pretty quickly if pulled into the team. Avoid his hook and steer clear of him so he doesn't devour you!
9	Brightwing	Brightwing's mobility allows her to save heroes that are getting chased down by Artanis and her polymorph is easy to land allowing her to interrupt your blade dash and leave you in a really bad position.
9	Stitches	Stitches hook goes half way across the map so this thing can bring you into a really bad position. On top of that, if he takes the devour ult he can relocate you behind the enemies gate and you have NO way out.
10	Johanna	Johanna will blind you, stun you, pull you out of your q during it, and you can't ignore her. Blessed shield can stop you dead in your tracks long enough to be bursted and pulled in by her condemn.
10	Muradin	Muradin's stuns can take you completely out of the fight. His q locks you down so you cannot auto attack to prime shield. His avatar ult can keep you stunned just enough to keep you from priming your shield.

Work in progress!!!!! Top

This build and guide is a work in progress. It is also my first guide to write so any advice or critique is welcome!

I will continue to add things to the guide if it gets popular enough I will add videos to some of the sections for examples.

Thanks for giving this guide a look hope you enjoy it!

About Artanis Top

Artanis is a warrior who fits the role of an off-tank/damage dealer similar to Sonya. He has high mobility and interesting set of skills that allow him to tank and survive for long team fights while also putting out a decent amount of damage.

Artanis is a lot of fun and can make some pretty great looking plays. Of course with his ability to make clutch plays comes with his ability to get into bad positions without a way out. Make sure when playing Artanis that when you go in, it had better be to commit!

Pros - Cons Top

Pros:
Mobility
High damage (late game primarily)
High sustain
Blade Dash and Phase Prism work over walls
Disorienting
Impossible to out run post 16
Global Heroics

Cons:
No "real" escape
Blade Dash can set you up for stuns and death if used at a bad time
Phase Prism can re-position you behind enemies gates or in a no way out situation
Needs to attack to survive fights
Hard CC counters him

How to Play with this build Top

The point of this build is to focus on the mobility aspect of Artanis and keeping his passive Shield Overload off cooldown so he can remain tanky during long fights.

Artanis's Blade Dash will be your main wave clear, so keep the waves pushed early on and keep the pressure up while farming while hopefully getting an early kill to raise Seasoned Marksman stacks.

Roaming to other lanes early on can usually net a quick kill thanks to Phase Shift. Phase Shift works over walls and can put a level 1 enemy in a really bad spot if your team is around.

Early Game

Early on in the game Artanis will want to start farming Seasoned Marksman stacks. Getting Seasoned Marksman allows for a lot of high damage output late game thanks to Triple Strike and using your Twin Blades properly (see tips and tricks).

Roaming to other lanes early on can usually net a quick kill thanks to Phase Shift. Phase Shift works over walls and can put a level 1 enemy in a really bad spot if your team is around.

Mid Game

Mid game is Mediocre for Artanis. He is still able to output damage and survive mildly but he is easily caught out. Focus on objectives and being with the team. Split pushing is not really a good idea at this point in the game since you wont get anything out of it and will more than likely die.

Team fights are going to be happening often at this point and your role will be important during these. Focus on repositioning the squishy targets with your Phase Prism to cause disturbance in their team. Either their team will let them die or scramble to save them so as long as you are grouped this should start your fight off favorably. During the fight remember to dodge skills with your Blade Dash this will not only save you some pain but forces the enemy team to lose their target for around 1.5 seconds. Activate your Twin Blades as often as possible and don't forget to auto attack before activating for the auto attack reset.

Late Game

At this point in the game Artanis really shines. Once hitting level 16 and obtaining Zealot Charge you will now be able to be hyper aggressive without much fear. Any team fight at this point you will be able to charge their back line and do a Triple Strike nearly melting them. An important part of dashing into their back lines is to remember they will immediately throw skills at you. Because of this, you will want to be ready to Blade Dash out of the way momentarily. After your Blade Dash is used you should be close to activating another Twin Blade attack. Rinse and repeat this cycle the entire time and you will be able to chase anyone down. This tactic is exceptional when it comes to late game team fights that people often slip away from with very low health.

Talent Breakdown Top

At level 1 pick Seasoned Marksmen. This skill allows for large damage late game and is not hard to stack. You will get 1/6 stacks for every minion kill and 3/6 for every hero kill. Artanis Blade Dash has good wave clear allowing for stacks to be built fairly easily along.

The other skills in level 1 are pretty weak for this build and fit a different playstyle. The only one that could be picked up if you are feeling like the enemy team is high in auto attack damage, is the Reactive Parry. This ability activates every time you use Twin Blades which is pretty often.

At level 4 chose Lethal Alacrity. This ability allows Artanis to speed in and out with your Blade Dash and avoid some damage while sticking to the fight. It also works well with for priming your passive Shield Overload.

The other option for this level is Templar's Zeal. This will allow you to Blade Dash more often at low health and dodge a few more attacks. Only downside to this ability is that it is only utilized at low health and you won't get the extra range for chasing.

Level 7 is the start of your toughness. Taking Psionic Synergy at this level will work well with your level 4 ability and allow you to spin in and out of team fights while priming your shield for every hero hit. This will save you more often than you notice and helps you chase into towers with Blade Dash without worrying too much.

No other abilities in this category fit this build so I would recommend avoiding them.

Level 10 unlocks your heroics and gives you a lot of damage output and assists with team fights even if you are out of position due to both of them being global. For this level choose Purifier Beam. This heroic can be utilized in many different ways. Without someone to slow or CC the enemy they can out run this ability, luckily this is not necessarily a bad thing. The heroic lasts 8 seconds which means the enemy will either stand and take a large amount of damage or will run around for 8 seconds not contributing to the fight.

It is global so it can be used to stop a split push temporarily across the map or even zone out the healer during a team fight.

If you are up against a heavy auto attack team you may want to choose Suppression Pulse. This ability blinds the enemy team for 4 seconds and does a small amount of damage. This is a great team fight tool and can turn things around in a pinch but is also very situational.

It is global so it can be used to stop a split push temporarily across the map or even zone out the healer during a team fight.

At this level you will get a large power spike and all the marksman stacks should start paying off. Choose Triple Strike and remember to use your auto attack before activating Twin Blades so that you get the reset and get a 4x attack!

All the other abilities are actually very good in this tier but unfortunately the build relies heavily on the triple strike so no other options are viable.

This is when Artanis goes from being a brusier to a full on destroyer. At this level you pick up Zealot Charge and don't look back. This charge works every time you activate Twin Blade's which is on a 4 second cooldown. Once you obtain this ability you will be smashing W the entire time to get your next charge. Still make an attempt to use your auto attack reset but don't hesitate to spam W as this will keep you attacking almost non-stop and priming your shield constantly.

This is the center piece of the build, no other abilities in this tier would work for this play style.

Update : After more testing I have decided the level 20 is pretty decent all around! The upgrade to Purifier Beam is extremely strong late game depending on the enemy team.

This level I am still researching more. I am torn between Nexus Blades and Force of Will. Nexus Blades on one hand gives a decent increase to your damage considering you will be attack 1-4 times every auto allowing for a quick burst of destruction while slowing them for every auto attack. Then we have Force of Will which allows you to prime your shield faster allowing for more durability.

I am interested to hear feedback on level 20 abilities as I am still deciding which I believe is better but currently I am leaning towards Nexus Blades thanks to Artanis quick movement and high damage already at late game, he can limitlessly chase enemies and secure kills. I prefer this for the fact that it scares the team to death to see an Artanis rampaging through them 1 by 1 while dodging their abilities.

Tips and Tricks To the Build Top

The build focuses around Auto Attack's and Twin Blades to keep you alive while putting out high damage. Twin Blades is an auto attack reset so whenever you are at level 1 it can allow 3 hits just by:

1. Auto attack
2. Use Twin Blades instantly after the auto attack.

The importance of this is that when you get to 13 and obtain Triple Strike, you can still use this to turn it into a 4x strike!

Use your Blade Dash ability for more than just attacking or farming a lane. It can be used as a scouting tool early on to check bushes or merely to dodge ability at any point in thee game like Jaina Blizzard or Kael'Thas Flamestrike.

Blade Dash should be used in team fights for more than just damage dealing and dodging. The blade rush ability allows you to vanish from combat for a around 1.5 seconds causing the enemy to do 1 of 3 things:

1. Run around like idiots
2. Start attacking someone else
3. Get lucky and stun you out of position

2/3 of those aren't bad and the 3rd one can be remedied by not going into them and instead picking a safe spot to twirl to.

At level 16 you will get the Zealot Charge ability. This is spammable! It has low mana cost(25) and very low cooldown(4 seconds) and allows your passive Shield Overload to regenerate very quickly if using the auto attack reset. Along with that you will be able to constantly re position yourself during fights to ensure everyone is sliced up!

An added bonus is that you are now unescapable. Even a Bolt of the Storm late game wont get you away fast enough because the dash is very fast, spammable, and good range. On top of that it will make sure you are never NOT attacking. You won't have to walk around to your enemies during a fight and instead will be constantly auto attacking and lowering your passive Shield Overload cooldown.

Free Hero Rotation