Artanis is a very cool hero with conditional mobility, playmaking potential, defensive options, but also clear vulnerabilities to CC, and a lack of disengage. With Artanis, you do not want to retreat, because you cannot (unless your team enables you to do so), instead you want to commit and keep fighting until the end. Fortunately, Artanis' Shield Overload helps him sustain through fights as long as he can keep attacking.

Artanis' biggest counter is Attack-Speed Reduction, as it cannot be cleansed, and thus cannot be self-cleansed by Phase Prism, then an abundance of CC, especially stuns, will shut down Artanis very hard. Blinds are not an issue in themselves for Artanis, but too many of them will become problematic.

Artanis can be picked for several reasons:
• His PvE capabilities with Amateur Opponent make him an option on specific maps like Battlefield Of Eternity, or for taking camps on Garden of Terror for instance.
• Suppression Pulse is the best Blind in the game, with a huge area, a global cast range, and the second longest duration with 4s after Blind which makes Cheap Shot a single target 4.5s blind.
• His Phase Prism playmaking potential to bring targets towards his team.
• Artanis' overall tankiness, which makes him an option in the 4-man to counterpick a Genji draft for instance.
• Artanis' dueling capabilities make him a good option for some 1v1 matchups, but it should not come at the cost of macro or teamfight impact too much either.

This is the default build, as generally Artanis is picked for his PvE capabilities, where he is much less countered than in teamfights.

At Level 1, Amateur Opponent will instantly grant Artanis a strong single-target PvE boost, increasing his camp taking speed, his damage to the Immortal on Battlefield Of Eternity, but the talent also works on structures, which can make Artanis a pushing monster if left unchecked.
Reactive Parry can be picked for more survivability if you are not on Battlefield Of Eternity, and someone else on the team is doing the camps (DPS with healer generally.)

At Level 4, Shield Battery is the pick. The more you play Artanis, the more you will realize that you need your shield as often as possible, and this talent makes it very consistent. You may not be able to stand in place and auto-attack constantly, sometimes you have to move around a bit and dodge key abilities, and the recharge rate truly changes things.

At Level 7, Solarite Reaper is the default pick. It increases Artanis' waveclear significantly, but also grants him more kill pressure with the initial dash of Blade Dash which is harder to dodge than the returning hit.
If the map is more brawl-heavy than macro, it is possible to pick Chrono Surge to make Phase Prism swaps more impactful, but remember the other option is more consistent.

At Level 10, Suppression Pulse is the default pick, the blind and its duration are huge, you simply cannot go wrong with it.
Purifier Beam can be picked for specific combos, or if Chrono Surge was picked and the enemy team doesn't have a reliable way to save the swapped target.

At Level 13, Phase Bulwark grants Artanis a nigh-permanent 50 Spell Armor. This increase in survivability is truly required to make Artanis work for later stages of the game.
In case the enemy team is lacking spell damage, other options can be picked, but this should be a rare occurrence, and Suppression Pulse generally wins hard against those AA based teams.

At Level 16, Blades of a Templar is the default option, granting Artanis attack-speed, which means more cooldown reduction on his Shield Overload, as well as a 20% slow on enemies he attacks.
If Artanis is playing into counters that make him unable to attack reliably, Force of Will can be picked instead to help him survive.
Titan Killer is a situational talent that can be picked when focusing high HP targets with your team, or if you could afford to pick Triple Strike at Level 13 before.

At Level 20, Zealot Charge enables Artanis to maneuver around fights more efficiently, chasing enemies, as well as retreating by attacking things like a side-wall, this range increase is more valuable than you may first think.
If Artanis was picked for his Blind, Orbital Bombardment is the other pick on this tier.

This build is an option when Artanis is focusing on fighting heroes, either in 1v1 or in team.
I would also recommend this build for lower ranks as Artanis will simply statcheck by dealing damage while enemies cannot get through his shield.

At Level 1, Reactive Parry will let Artanis win many 1v1 matchups that he would otherwise struggle in, as well as letting him survive more in teamfights. For instance, Thrall will win the duel with Rolling Thunder, but if Artanis picks Reactive Parry suddenly the orc cannot go through his shield and Artanis ends up winning.
Protector of Aiur is also pickable if you can afford it, but if you're struggling too much in the early game and your team falls behind, maybe you should have gone for more instant power instead. If you're on Braxis Holdout and your team needed you to win the duel in the top lane, Reactive Parry might have been the pick.

At Level 4, Shield Battery is once again the most consistent option, and very rarely does Shield Surge outperform it.

At Level 7, Chrono Surge will turn Artanis into a monster with the Attack-Speed boost, while the swapped target will be slowed and vulnerable. This however requires landing Phase Prism consistently, and it can win or lose you your duels depending on whether you land the swap or not!

At Level 10, Purifier Beam has great synergy with Chrono Surge, and will often result in a kill after swapping a target.
Suppression Pulse may still be needed depending on the enemy team, so definitely pick it against a team with Muradin Tyrande and Zul'jin, against them picking the laser would be trolling!

Level 13, 16 and 20 remain the same as the previous build, with Phase Bulwark, Blades of a Templar and Zealot Charge as default.