Artanis, Hybrid General Build by D4Ni

Artanis, Hybrid General Build

By: D4Ni
Last Updated: Feb 29, 2016
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Artanis

Build: Hybrid General Build

Level 1
Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Summary Top


Who is Artanis? Top

Quoted:
"I am Hierarch Artanis, leader of all protoss. And in unity, there is strength."

Artanis is the main character from Starcraft II, Legacy of the Void storyline. He was a side character in Starcraft I and along the way became friend with all other main characters in the game: Zeratul, Raynor and Kerrigan.

He evolved from being a pilot, into leading the united protoss in a fight against their extinction. His mentor was Tassadar, and like him, Artanis was too embraced with both Templar and Dark Templar powers. In the storyline he has one green blade and the other blue, symbolizing the traits mentioned.

Zeratul gave his life to save Artanis, because he believed he was the only one who could save the protoss race. And indeed, Artanis, became a true leader, both emotional and rational, different than what we would have expected from the protoss. He was indeed the salvation of his race, alongside his allies, Kerrigan & Raynor.

But, beside this mantle of leadership, Artanis was and will always be a warrior, brave, calculated and deadly.

Build explanation Top

This build is not necessarily new, but it's a variation between DPS and Tank builds. Therefore I call it the Hybrid General build.

You will see similar builds with small differences out there, and all of them have their places in the game.

What makes this build so special, and why is it worth presenting?
  • This is a general build, meaning that it will perform good in almost any match-up and map.
  • It can be tweaked into DPS or Tank build if necessarily.
  • It focuses on DPS and utility early on, and capitalize on survivability in the late game.
  • It makes Artanis fun to play.

I created this build because I was in need for something specific to my game style. I tried most of the builds out there, and tested almost all of Artanis talents, and I wasn't enjoying him like I do know.

You must know that Artanis (despite being labeled as Medium) is pretty hard to master. Therefore you need practice and a steep learning curve to play him right, regardless of the build.

Abilities & Trait Top

In Legacy of the Void Artanis is a leader who takes great risks for his victories. His gameplay mechanic in HotS is therefore thematic, with all his abilities and game style being somewhat risky and could end up badly if not played well.

In this regard, his abilities are:

Q: Blade Dash
Mana: 65
Cooldown: 10s

This is Artanis first ability. It dashes forward to a certain point dealing small amount of damage, and than returns on the same path dealing higher damage.

This is a tricky ability to use. Your main concern is to keep yourself from using it in the wrong situations, because it can put you in an unfavorable position, and you could die very easily.This ability can be interrupted by stuns or abilities, and you are not invulnerable or immune to damage. If you get interrupted you will remain in the position you were when you got hit, making the ability end prematurely.


W: Twin Blades
Mana: 25
Cooldown: 4s

This is Artanis second ability, and his most important one. It activates to have a basic attack strike twice in quick succession. It stays activated as long as you are not hitting anything, and it resolves when you land your first hit. Very small cooldown, and it interacts very well with Artanis trait.

Try to use it as often as possible and pre-activate it before entering a fight.


E: Phase Prism
Mana: 70
Cooldown: 14s

This is Artanis third ability, and also a tricky one. It fires a prism that deal damage and swap positions between you and the enemy Hero if it connects. As above, in the Blade Dash's description, your main concern is to use it only when you are not putting yourself in jeopardy.

Use it offensively to create plays, pull a running assassin back in the fight, or defensively to escape when you're cornered. The damage dealt should not be taken into account, this is for utility purposes only.



Passive: Shield Overload
Trait
Cooldown: 20s

This is Artanis Trait. Whenever he is below 50% health and taking damage he will receive a shield for 5 seconds. Basic abilities reduce the trait's cooldown with 4 seconds.

This means that you need 5 basic attacks in theory to refresh the shield cooldown. In practice things are different, you have to take casting time into account. Artanis has 1 attack per second, meaning that a basic attack takes 1 second to cast.

There are several ways to lower this cooldown:
  • normal Basic Attacks
  • Twin Blades (2*Basic Attacks or 3*Basic Attacks with talents)
  • Blade Dash with talents

You should always use your Twin Blades toward lowering the cooldown of the trait, so that means that 1 Twin Blades + 2 Basic Attacks will suffice in the early game.

This result in 1 second cast time for Twin Blades + 8 seconds from its effect + 2 seconds casting time for 2 Basic Attacks + 8 seconds for their effect => 1+8+2+8 = 19s and 1s left for the refresh.

This means that you need a minimum of 4s to refresh your trait without any talents. Keep this in mind because we will use it later into our build.

The conclusion here is that you have to take advantage of this trait and should always try to refresh it's cooldown as soon as possible when you are below 50% health.

Numbers Top

Now that we saw all abilities, it's time to have a close look at the numbers without our talents, so we can decide what is best to take at every level.

Ability Level 1 Level 4 Level 7 Level 10 Level 13 Level 16 Level 20
59.28
177.84
66.68
200.05
75.01
225.02 **
84.37
253.12
94.91
284.73
106.76
320.28
124.89
374.68
230.88
259.7
292.14
328.62
369.64 **
415.8
486.42
68.64
77.21
86.85
97.70
109.89
123.62
144.61
466.96
525.27
590.85
664.63
747.62
840.97
983.81
Health
2334.80
2626.33
2954.27
3323.15
3738.09
4204.84
4919.07


** Means that at that certain level the damage of the ability could be increased through talents and it would affect the remaining values in the table for the upper levels of that ability.

Talents Top

According to our build, this are the colors used:
The go to talent - this goes toward the Hybrid General Build
Alternative talent - this can be chosen to go into other builds
Level 1
Reactive Parry - This is the best tier 1 talent Artanis has. It helps your survivability for the entire match. It should be taken almost every time. Basically what it does, it gives you 2 charges of blocking the next basic attack after you activate your Twin Blades and thus only take damage equal to 1 basic attack, instead of 2 (if both charges are used). When used successful you will see the word Blocked in orange near Artanis.

Seasoned Marksman - This is the alternate talent used in some DPS builds. While it is a good tier 1 alternative, it's very dependent of you staying on the lane and kill minions or be there when they die, which is not always the case. If you know you can earn over 30 marks by the time you reach level 16, than you can considered it. If not, than is not worth investing in.
Note: Also consider the fact that Artanis has 1 attack/s, thus making this talent less effective than in other heroes cases. (Jimmy, I'm looking at you)

Khaydarian Resonance - This talent may be useful just when you're learning to play Artanis, but after some point it is absolutely useless. You should land your Phase Prism, and if not, tough luck, it's not the end of the world.

Amateur Opponent - You don't need this talent. Artanis is great at solo-ing the Mercenary Camps, and he is not a siege Hero, so he doesn't require extra help in this department.
Level 4
Templar's Zeal - For tier 4 this is the only talent that matters. For me there is no alternate here. This talent is simple. As long as you are below 50% HP, Blade Dash recharges 75% faster. That means that instead of 10s, the cooldown lowers to 2.5s. This is very useful regardless of the build you choose later on.

Shield Battery - This talent is not needed, since your shield would rarely last all the duration, and even if it does, you have better choices here.

Lethal Alacrity - Fairly popular, but it's utility doesn't help Artanis to much though, since Blade Dash has sufficient range, and the speed increase only helps so the extra range would be covered in the same amount of time. I've seen some scouting reasoning behind choosing this talent, but I don't see it's utility.

Chrono Surge - While the attack speed is a good thing for Artanis in general, and this talent sounds good, in practice it's not, because Phase Prism keeps the distance between you and the target, and swapping places won't help you much in this regard. If the target has space he can avoid you, so you waste the talent space. Also if you use this to get between more enemies the likelihood of you dying is almost 100%, so don't even think about it. And finally if you use it to escape, then you don't need any attack speed.
Level 7
Solarite Reaper - One key to this build is the choice between this talent and the overpopular Psionic Synergy. The thing is like this: Artanis is very weak in early game, so the extra damage is welcomed here. Now there is a thin line between choosing either of this 2 talents, because they're both very good. We choose the extra damage over potential survivability because the best defence is offense.

Let me put it this way: Our friend Jimmy can be a monster in the right hands. He can dish a lot of DPS. Remember what I highlighted earlier when we talked about the trait? Artanis needs 4s to refresh his shield (which is 590.85 at level 7), and Raynor (but not only him) is able to get that shield down in 2-3 shots (with a 1.65 Attack Speed he needs less than 2 seconds for that), and before your shield is up again you're probably dead. But what if you kill him first?

Blade Dash's first wave is the most likely to hit in a fight, the second one can be avoided if you are not landing it well, or the enemy is good enough. So considering the fact that in a normal 1vs1 fight you would use the ability at least 2 times, that extra damage can count dearly toward the end result.

This option makes Blade Dash an excellent tool to kill running Heroes with low health.
With this choice you are extra safe to solo any Mercs, except the Boss, who requires at least 2 heroes.

Psionic Synergy - Like I said this is the alternate talent in this tier, and the most popular choice. The reason is simple: When you hit a target with your Blade Dash the cooldown of your trait is reduced with 4 seconds. If you land your entire ability on one Hero, it will hit him twice and give you 8s reduction. The problem with this talent is that it makes you overconfident to land it against more than one Hero, so you could potentially reduce more seconds from your cooldown, but that is a trade that could end up very bad for you if you get stunned, rooted, or ganked.
Like I said Artanis is all about managing risky situations, and the choice at tier 7 is a gamble. You can bet on damage and the fact that you can kill somebody before he kills you, or take the route of defense and rely on your shield for lasting durability. But be adviced: Artanis does not have any escaping tools. If you're fighting for your life and you are behind with DPS, your only hope is to continue fighting (if you run in the middle of the fight from a ranged Hero, you'll probably die anyway). Look at your environment, it can help you in need.

Warp Sickness - This is not a bad talent, and could potentially help your team to kill an offset Hero, but you have better choices here, and you can kill a target in the same scenario without this talent anyhow.

Follow Through - This talent sounds good on paper and it would have been a solid choice if it would have applied to all instances of Twin Blades attacks, but it only applies to the first basic attack and thus you have better options here.
Level 10
Suppression Pulse - For our Ultimate we will go with the pulse, because it gives us extra utility in team fights and clear the area for our Basic Attacks. This talent deals small damage on a large area, blinding all enemies for 4s. Blind means that enemies will miss their basic attacks for the entire duration. While it's true that it won't do anything against spell heavy targets, if you avoid their spells they are forced to attack you with their basics. And we know already that Artanis is dependent on landing his basic attacks. This Ultimate can clear the path for your attack and give you the opening you need to finish some targets.
Most wise enemies retreat if they get hit by Suppresion Pulse and therefore you can end the fight in your favor or postpone it until cavalry arrives. Its cooldown is shorter than the other ultimate's cooldown meaning that you can cast it more often.

Purifier Beam - Is the alternate ultimate and usually taken in a DPS build. It is very powerful if the target has no mobility, but it can be avoided very easily by heroes with high movement speed. The benefit is that it makes a target flee from the fight.
Level 13
Triple Strike - This talent is the best in the tier. It increases your best ability toward both DPS and survivability, changing Twin Blades to Triple Blades: 3*Basic Attacks. That gives you an extra 207.90 (more at higher levels) damage for every ability activation, and 12s reduction for Shield Overload. There is nothing more to say to it. This is just too good to pass.

Phase Bulwark - This is the alternate talent, usually taken into the tank build. It can be useful against a heavy spell team, but in my opinion the Triple Strike is better for survivability. Even if you get spell reduction damage, that won't save you from a stun or root, when you could get surrounded by 3 or more enemies that deal much more damage than you can reduce.

Graviton Vortex - Taking a second Hero with the first may not be the best idea, and the damage dealt by the Phase Prism is way to low to be worth it.

Burning Rage - This is not a bad talent, considering the fact that you have to be close to your enemies to attack them, but you have better choices in this tier.
Level 16
Zealot Charge - This tier has plenty of good talents choices and by now you have a good idea in what direction the match is going, so you can act accordingly. But there is one thing Artanis lacks, a mechanic to engage the enemy, and this talent gives you exactly what you need. While Twin Blades is active you can charge to a target. If you are fast enough you can select a new target and charge again without attacking the first target (pretty hard to do, but it's possible). Bottom line, you can close the gap between you and your enemies, and this increases your DPS. You can also use it as an escape, if you charge at a minion behind.

Shield Surge - This is usually the tank build choice. At Level 20 Shield Overload is around 980 and with this talent reaches almost 1500 hit points. The downside doesn't matter too much because the shield won't last more than 3 seconds in most late game fights. So this could be a good option if you need more shield.

Titan Killer - This talent gives you and additional 2.50% from the target's max health. This means that you are receiving a bigger bonus against tanks, and smaller bonus against assassins. Against a 2800 health Hero, the bonus would be 70*3 with Triple Strike, and against a 4800 health Hero the bonus would be around 120*3. Given the fact that you can use Twin Blades every 4s the bonus gives you a good DPS increase.

Psionic Wound - Help your team making the target vulnerable and take 25% more damage for 2 seconds. If you want to capitalize on this, you need to cast Blade Dash after Twin Blades, giving you a bonus of almost 200 hit points. Not a bad talent, but have better choices.
Level 20
Force of Will - The best talent for our build, because it gives us a good way to refresh our shield in only 2 seconds: Triple Strike (1s casting time + 6*3 + 1s remaining = 1+18+1 = 20s). This is a great asset for us, especially because we didn't invest in Psionic Synergy at level 7, and now we have both DPS and durability.

Nexus Blades - This is the DPS alternative at tier 20. It gives a boost in DPS, with 20% more damage to basic attacks. With Triple Strike at level 13, this is the most popular choice.

Orbital Bombardment - The utility alternative, giving a second charge for Suppression Pulse, is a huge boost in utility and team play, but it has it's usefulness in specific scenarios only.

Target Purified - Since we didn't take Purifier Beam, this talent don't interest us. And even if we had its corresponding ultimate, the talent is not worth picking, because there are better choices in Nexus Blades or Force of Will.

Build Overview & Comparison Top

So the main key points in our build are the choices at levels 7, 16 and 20.
While at level 16 there are several builds that rely on Zealot Charge, the popular choices at tier 7 and tier 20 are different than what we took. So what is the difference and which case is better?

We opted for Solarite Reaper at level 7 and Force of Will at level 20, so essencially we took the DPS option first, and added the durability later.
The popular choices are Psionic Synergy at level 7 and Nexus Blades at level 20. This is exactly opposite of what we did, durability early and DPS later.

I don't think there's a certain winner here, it mostly depends on your play style. But lets compare the 2 situations:

1. Solarite Reaper gives us a boost of damage to our Blade Dash. You can see the numbers bellow (the bonus is written with green):
Ability Level 1 Level 4 Level 7 Level 10 Level 13 Level 16 Level 20
59.28
(-)
177.84
66.68
(-)
200.05
75.01 (+111.99)
225.02
84.37 (+125.63)
253.12
94.91 (+142.36)
284.73
106.76 (+160.14)
320.28
124.89 (+187.35)
374.68

So is this a good choice?
We already know that Artanis is weak in early game. This comes from the fact that he lacks mobility and CC to sustain his basic attacks. Blade Dash on his own is not that great if the enemy avoids your return, since the first wave's damage is pretty weak (as you can see above). So that gives you some miss opportunities: You can't kill a running low-health Hero, you can't sustain yourself in the fights, if you get interupted you lost your ability, etc.

This talent is a huge boost to your DPS and sustainability in a fight. Most of your enemies won't be afraid of your first instance of Blade Dash because they know it's low in damage, so hiting them with a boosted first wave will make a big difference. As you can see in the table above, the bonus can reach 187.35 damage in late game. Since you took Templar's Zeal at level 4 and reduced your cooldown to 2.5s when you are below 50% HP, it means that you will be able to cast your dash at least 2 times in a fight, so that would give you between 250 and 370 bonus in every fight. At level 20, your Blade Dash would hit for 686.92 on a single cast, so for 2 instances you would dish 1373.84 damage. That +370 bonus can make the difference between killing your foe or dying, and could make the difference between letting a runner get away or finishing him off.

By the time you'll reach level 20 you have decent DPS to be clinical when needed, you'll have a good utility in your Suppression Pulse, you'll have engaging mechanic in Zealot Charge and the finishing puzzle peace would be to lower the 4s cooldown refresh of Shield Overload. And what better way of doing this if not Force of Will ? This will reduce your refresh to 2s, and would make it connect almost all the time, since Twin Blades is the easiest and safest ability you have.

2. Now lets take the other situation: Lets assume that we took Psionic Synergy at level 7, and we will take Nexus Blades as our tier 20 talent.

Psionic Synergy can reduce our shield to 16s if we cast Blade Dash on 2 enemy Heroes and manage to strike both of them twice (initial hit and return). Trying to cast the dash on more than 2 Heroes, is a mistake and could make you die, so don't overshoot it.

So with this talent we can refresh the cooldown of our trait within 3s in the ideal case that we hit 2 enemies with our full dash, and also reduce the next cooldown ((almost 2s Blade Dash cast time + 16s effect + 1s casting time of either 1 Basic Attack or Twin Blades + effects = 2s+16s+1s+4s or 8s = 19s + 4s or 8s). This is a great combo if you can time it right. But what happens if we hit only one target? 2s cast time of dash + 8s effect + 1s cast time of Twin Blades + 8s effect (or 12s after level 13) = 2s+8s+1s+8s (or 12s after level 13) = 11s + 8s (or 12s).

This means that if we hit only one target, we actually don't improve our refresh time, this being 4s (like the default one). We would be able to make it better only at level 13, if we take Triple Strike. So is it worth it? Is it worth taking this gamble? Can you refrain yourself from looking to cast this on more than 1 or 2 heroes? What happens if you get interrupted? Can you make your combo work if you get stunned 2s in the middle of Blade Dash ? Can you survive without your shield and without any DPS boost?

You have to anwser all this questions before you go this path. It really depends on how good you are in risky situations. If you find it easy to cast your abilities and make the combo work in your favor, than you can go for it. I personally find it to be less reliable for my game style.
Nexus Blades at level 20 could be a bit two late to matter in some match-ups, not to mention the games that never reach that level.

How to play Artanis? Top

Ultimatelly, it's your decision what build you're taking. I may be an offensive-oriented player, you may be defensive-oriented. I may rely on lower, but steady DPS, you may rely on burst DPS. I may rely on kitting and positioning, you may rely on shields. It's ok, everybody has their own playstyle and should not change it no matter what other say. But there are some general tips & tricks when playing Artanis, regardless of your build and talent choices.

The first thing you should know is that despite Artanis being labeled as a warrior, he is not a true tank. In fact, many say he is not good as off-tank either, and I tend to agree. Artanis is a Hybrid between a tank and a DPS. He has a bit of both, he can sustain some great damage, but it won't perform as well as other tanks, and he can dish some decent DPS, but he won't perform better than some assassins. He can fulfill multiple rols, or none at all.

Artanis HP at level 20 is 4919.07, but you'd better try to see him as a Hero with 2459 HP and 2460 Shield. Why? Because he's very soft health-wise until he reaches 50% HP. After that he has several boosts in cooldowns and shields, so he will be more durable. While it is always great to enter a fight with more than 80% HP, Artanis really shines only below 50% HP, and you have to be careful because playing with low life is a two-sided sword.

So what should you do when playing Artanis?
  • Don't be too brave when it's not the time. Artanis is very strong 1vs1, and he can handle a 1vs2 matchup, but don't push it. 3 Heroes deal more damage than you can absorb.
  • Remember that you are weak in the early game. Play safe until level 7 when you boost your DPS or survivability.
  • Artanis doesn't have any escape mechanism, beside the prism in some situations, and is an all-in Hero in most situations, so don't engage when you are not sure you can handle the fight. If you find yourself behind with DPS in the middle of the fight, running will probably not save you.
  • If you get surrounded, keep cool, try to make your rotation (your trait can help you until you find means of escaping or until your allies arrive) and watch for environment elements that can help you. Don't run if you are slower then your attacker, getting hit in the back is not helping you, and ranged assassins usually are weaker than you at close range. If you die anyway, at least make a trade and next time pay attention where you're roaming.
  • When using Blade Dash if you want to be successful, try to kitte the enemy first and make him chase you. If you dash him when he is chasing, you will surprize him and probably will be able to strike him with both waves.
  • Always pre-activate Twin Blades before entering a fight. You should be ready to strike even the burstiest foe. They should never be able to enter your range and get away with it.
  • When fighting a foe 1vs1 in a battle that could go either way, use your Phase Prism to confuse him, by changing his position, thus giving you enough time to retaliate and finish him. Even half second of not being hit counts.
  • Do not underestimate the opposing Hero, even if you are stronger on paper. People play differently, and you might get surprized. Don't be overconfident.
  • If you get cornered or swaped, use Phase Prism to escape. You can also use Prism to get a foe in your tower's range, but don't put yourself in trouble for that.

Threats & Allies Top

There aren't specific threats to Artanis, or specific victims. Anybody who has strong CC capabilities, high movement and attack speed or strong ranged attacks can be threats to Artanis. But if you play your cards right, you can kill anybody you want. I had strong duels with Diablo, Valla, Falstad, Zagara, Azmodan, to name a few, and I managed to win the fight against them. It really depends on the situation.

You have to avoid straight up fights against heavy CC Heroes, like E.T.C, Muradin, etc, because they cancel your powers. But they are mostly tanks, and you are not supposed to engage them unless you have no other targets, or you are not alone.

As for allies, Artanis benefits the most from Heroes that gives him shields. Strange enough, healers are not always good partners for him, because Artanis needs to be just below 50% HP to benefit from cooldowns and his trait Shield Overload. Because of this, Heroes like Tassadar, Tyrael and such, are the best partners for him, because their shields stacks with Shield Overload, but don't raise the HP above that 50%, like healers usually do, so he stays in his ideal condition longer. Healers can be good allies too, but they have to wait until the trait goes off before they do their magic on Artanis.

Beside Shielders and Healers anyone can support Artanis in a fight, as long as they understand his weaknesses and strong points.

Final words Top

I am that kind of player that hate specific builds in gaming, because I feel that if you don't manage to take advantage of that specific mechanic your build is constructed on, your performance in that particular game is bad. I would rather be average in every matchup, than being the best in one matchup, and being the worse in another. So that is why I created this build.

I also feel that Artanis, being a hybrid between classes, performs better with a hybrid build rather than focusing on one or another. But that's just my opinion. You now have another build to consider when playing your favorite Templar, and I hope you will enjoy him better further.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to add comments and suggestions.

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