I. Introduction
II. Hero Overview
III. Skill Choice Explanations
IV. In Team
V. Note about Match-ups
VI. Conclusion

Hi everyone, I'm Nyris and I've been an Artanis main since his LOTV pre-order release date.

When looking at the descriptions of what he can do, on paper he sounds a little OP but as many people have discovered, in practice he's actually not that easy to use and requires a lot of practice and feel in order to understand how best to use him.

Due to this, I thought that I'd create a guide in the hopes of helping newer Artanis players in trying to understand how to get the most out of him.

Also, as this is my first guide for a MOBA, please leave comments on how you like (or don't like) my guide.

Alright, so the first thing, and the most basic thing, that has to be understood is that Artanis is a Warrior.

Now, because so many of the Warriors currently in the game are tanks, like Diablo or Johanna, this has led to the idea that Artanis is a tank, and this is a misconception. Now don't get me wrong, he has a tank build that makes his shield trait very strong (and I've included the tank build as a second tab to the guide), however to use Artanis as a tank is to waste his potential as his output as a Damage dealer is staggering. In this regard, he's a lot like Sonya, so don't waste space building Artanis pure tank unless you absolutely have to.

Next we'll hit some quick Pros and Cons, but before we do that I want to note that Artanis has a weak early game, regardless of spec choices, it's just how it is. With that weakness early, however, he is brutally powerful late game, and with my build he undergoes 4 power spikes, each one more vicious than the last, however we'll cover that in the Skill Choice Explanation section of the guide.

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Just going to lay out a few of the Pros and Cons of a DPS built Artanis.


Pros:
-Hardcore late game carry
-Can take and dish out a lot of punishment
-Able to carry a team's damage if needed
-Able to play tank if your team didn't pick one
-Meshes well a lot of different Heroes
-Just a lot of fun to play


Cons:
-High skill cap
-Tends to get focused
-Weak early game
-Needs at least one of two team build requirements to be met to reach full potential (more on this later)

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Now onto his Ability Breakdown (without skill point buffs):
For those of you who haven't seen it, here is the spotlight video from Blizzard, it goes through each ability in a little over 4 minutes, however the video is just a basic overview, I strongly suggest reading my explanations as they provide more info than is seen in the video.


Written Description:

Trait: Shield Overload
This is your passive trait, it will trigger upon taking damage at or below 50% health and grant you a moderately strong shield to protect you from damage. Using Basic Attacks reduces the CD (Cool down) of the shield so it can be made to activate often, however without that the CD is 20 seconds and each time you use a basic attack (or hit with your W) the CD will be reduced by 4 seconds.


Q: Blade Dash
Blade Dash is one of the signature moves of Artanis. The concept is simple: you dash forward a good distance, dealing reasonably light damage to everything you hit on the way out, you pause for a brief moment and then dash back to where you were, dealing heavier damage to everything you hit on the way back.

When using this ability, it needs to be understood that you are NOT Unstoppable during Dash and the other team can use their CC (crowd control) on you to stun or knock you back or whatever, so it is very important that you understand that this move is somewhat situational. You really only want to use it for:
-Finishing a running hero
-1v1 situations
-Light Poke early in the game
-Defensively to avoid incoming abilities
-Minion/NPC clearing

Ultimately, you need to be very careful in how you use Blade Dash, as being too aggressive with it will get you killed, and probably cost your team the win; however, used sparingly and it will be an excellent finisher and damage supplement to you and your team.


W: Twin Blades
Your W, Twin Blades, is your bread and butter, THE move that makes Artanis so incredibly dangerous late game, and the main source of your damage output at any stage really. The concept is straightforward: your next basic attack strikes the enemy twice, and very quickly. Now alone, this is kinda meh, but with my build you boost up your W to be utterly brutal, and thus turning Artanis into a monster on the field.

In general, you want to use this as often as you possibly can, it's pretty cheap in mana cost and, on top of the damage dealt, it counts towards your Trait's CD.


E: Phase Prism
Your E, Phase Prism, is probably your hardest ability to use. On paper it might seem like an opening engagement item, but this is not necessarily true as it really doesn't do you any good to prism the enemy tank.

In practice, it becomes rather obvious that the Prism is for making plays, i.e. grabbing an enemy dps that's on the run back into range; or pulling a cocky enemy to your turrets/forts early for a quick kill, things of that nature. Instead of an engagement item, you want try and secure kills with it, that is where it does well.

That said, there are a few things that you need to note about its use:
-If you're rooted by the other team, then the prism will pull the enemy to you, while you stay still
-If the enemy is rooted then the Prism will pull you to them while they stay still
-If you're boxed in by abilities such as Leoric's Entomb or Nazeebo minions then you can use the Prism to get out if you can hit an enemy team member.

Much like Blade Dash, you need to watch how you use Prism as it can get you killed; use it to make plays on the other team and you'll be fine, use it carelessly to start a team fight and you have a good chance to get yourself killed for no gain. Know who you're hitting!


R: Suppression Pulse
Your first option for R is Suppression Pulse. Now, on paper this seems like a great opening move, global use AoE Blind that deals a little damage too, sounds great right?

WRONG!

In practice, Suppression Pulse is exceptionally situational because Blinds only effect enemy basic attacks. This means that they can still use their abilities and hit you with full force, and in the case of many characters in the game, they have enough abilities that they can use them and then go back to basic attacks at the end of the Blind effect without skipping a beat.

So while Suppression Pulse will have an impact on heroes like Raynor or Sgt Hammer, it is completely ineffective against heroes like Jaina or Kael'thas (and so on for dps) or any tank CC measures or support healing measures.

Now, if the enemy team is loaded down with basic attack dependent Heroes, then you can take Suppression Pulse, but otherwise you're not helping yourself or your team by choosing it.


R: Purifier Beam
Your second option for your Heroic move is Purifier Beam. This is another global use ability that you target onto a single enemy hero; it will track said hero for 8 seconds and deal heavy damage as long as they're being hit by it (or in close proximity to the impact area, and that includes other heroes as well).

This is very easily the Heroic move of choice to take, it can be used very easily and its main advantage isn't that it can kill or anything like that, but more that it forces squishy assassins and specialists to choose between fighting and dying. For example: using them on a Sgt Hammer in siege mode forces them to either eat the damage (and probably die) or come out and run, same for a Raynor, or a Zagara, the list goes on and it includes making the enemy healer potentially burn heals on themselves.

It should be noted that once fired, you cannot retarget it, and if the target dies then the beam will stop tracking and finish its duration in the spot it stopped. Also, try not to waste it on a tank.

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Extra Note:
Now, all that covered, I do want to point something out in case some of you still believe that Artanis is a tank; with his abilities and skills, it's important to note that none of them are true CC measures. All tanks have at least one hard CC ability, and most have multiple; ETC has 3 CC abilites, Diablo also has 3, Muradin has 3 (4 if you use Haymaker), everything but Johanna's basic attack and passive are technically CC abilities, and Tyrael's heroic is a nasty hard engage CC, and so on. Whereas Artanis has just his Prism, which can backfire pretty badly.

DPS is the way to go with Artanis, if you use him tank then you'll deal more damage than Diablo or Johanna, but you won't be able to contribute nearly as well and you won't deal nearly as much damage as you would in DPS spec. You can do it if you want, you can build to bait people and make plays with prism, but it's not the best use of your Hero if you can avoid it.

Thus concludes the Overview, now onto the Skill point Explanation.

Ok, so we've covered the Overview of what Artanis does, now we need to cover how to build him in order to maximize his output and why. We'll do this step by step with each level tier.

Level 1:
Skill of Choice: Reactive Parry

This is my standard choice of skill to take at level one. Now you might find it a bit ironic that I chose a tank skill for the Level 1 skill after saying not to go tank, but let me explain: Artanis is very VERY weak in the early game, he has no gap closer and no safe poking method, and in most match-ups he essentially needs a partner in order to be aggressive early or he has to wait for the other team to make a mistake that he can capitalize on. By taking Reactive Parry, you limit what the other team can do to you early and throughout the game, thus allowing you to build some xp to help the team.

As frequently as you'll be using Twin Blades, this will be up frequently and will make a difference in the damage you take, thus allowing you to dive with more survivability.

Second Option: Seasoned Marksman

Seasoned Marksman is my conditional second choice for Artanis. Taking this option will make Artanis even more fragile in the early game, however the trade-off is that his late game is significantly more vicious as Marksman gives you permanent +damage to your basic attacks. Now you'll have to farm to make it worth anything, but it makes it so that, in close games, your damage just gets meaner and meaner and you outscale nearly everybody.

That said, because of the fragile early game, there are 3 situations where I take Marksman over Reactive Parry: 1) When the team has enough tank/support but doesn't have enough damage output; 2) When the damage dealers on the enemy team wouldn't be impacted by Block, like a team with Kael, Jaina, Cho'Gall, and so on; and 3) When the enemy team has relatively low damage output but high survivability (ex. they have Cho'Gall+Johanna+fill+Healer)

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The other choices at Level 1 are not very good; Kaydarian Resonance is a bad choice as you don't use Prism enough to make it matter, and Amateur Opponent only applies to NPCs and doesn't do anything to enemy heroes, so not a good choice there.

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Level 4:
Skill of Choice: Templar's Zeal

The Level 4 talents are the weakest bunch of all of Artanis's level tiers, enough so that the lack of particularly good options contributes to Artanis's weak early game, however, that said we need to pick the best of a bad bunch and that is Templar's Zeal.

Why, you ask?

That would be because it contributes to his ability to rapidly recover and continue to deal damage throughout the game. In close fights, Zeal will rapidly recover your dash, allowing you to use it again before it would normally be up, now on the face of it that might not seem like a big deal, but it is when you consider the following: in a close fight with another melee, you can dash again to deal damage to the enemy, keep them from hitting you for a few seconds, and allow your CDs to come back in that time, thus allowing you to swing a fight close fight.

Now, against a ranged you can still use it to get clear for a moment by dashing into a wall or something to buy time for a CD, but it's a little less effective than it would be against a melee.

Additionally, in late game Dash will deal a good amount of damage, so you can use it more frequently against the enemy team when you're at low health and your healer is working to keep you up.

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As for the other choices at level 4: Shield Battery is a waste on a dps as the shield will rarely last the full duration and is arguably a waste in tank spec too but that's for another time.

Lethal Alacrity is a pick that I see pretty commonly on other Artanis players, but ultimately it's not very useful as all it does it make you move faster and go a little further, which on the face of things might seem good as you increase your chances of poking among other things, however in the end, you're not increasing your potential damage output or survival chances with it, so not the best option here.

Finally, Chrono Surge isn't a bad idea, it's just not as good as Zeal as Prism's CD is way too long for it to be as effective as you'd hope.

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Level 7
Skill of Choice: Solarite Reaper

If you recall, at the beginning of the Overview section, I mentioned that Artanis goes through 4 power spikes, each one meaner than the last, this is the first one but it is the weakest one, enough so that you could argue that it's not a spike but w/e, take it for what it is. With Reaper, your Blade Dash has its damage almost doubled because of the buff to the first dash, allowing you to use it as a true finishing move against a running opponent.

Additionally, it allows you to quickly clear out NPC waves, for example you can kill all the mobs in a spawn on Mines and collect their skulls with one dash, then move on to the next spot; and it has a positive impact on the speed of your farming if you went with Marksman at level 1.

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As for the other choices: Warp Sickness has an interesting rundown mechanic to it, but it's ultimately not worth it as it doesn't buff your damage and only buffs a situational use skill; Psionic Synergy is the tank choice so no need to pick it in DPS spec; and Follow Through might seem like a good idea, but it's not as good as Reaper and you'll deal less damage overall as Reaper synergizes well with Zeal and is a better damage boost overall, particularly in team fights.

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Level 10:
Skill of Choice: Purifier Beam

The better option for your Heroic ability in 99.8% of matches that you'll play, regardless of spec. The reasons for why and why not to take Suppression Pulse were covered in the Overview section

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Level 13:
Skill of Choice: Triple Strike

This is the second power spike that Artanis sees, significantly greater than the first, but not as important as the next. What it does is straightforward, instead of your W hitting the enemy twice, you hit them 3 times. The Dps gain from this is fairly obvious, and it is the clear choice for Damage built characters.

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The other options; Phase Bulwark, which is a tanking option, Burning Rage, which is a tanking +damage option, and Graviton Vortex, which is closer to a tank-engage option; are not worth it on a DPS.

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Level 16:
Skill of Choice: Zealot Charge

Zealot Charge is your 3rd power spike and it's a big one, because now your W is a gap closer, as well as a major source of damage. The charge isn't too far, but it IS far enough to be a game changer and it allows you to close the gap quickly with the enemy backline once you bypass the frontline engage, or alternatively get somebody off your healer in a hurry with a well placed prism-charge follow-up.

Now you can charge your target every 4 seconds, combined with everything you have up to this point and you have an enormous amount of damage output that will only get meaner. Once you hit 16 and take charge, nobody is safe from you anymore; just don't get cocky because you can still get focused if you go in first.

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As for the other options at this level: Shield Surge is a tank choice so you don't want it in dps spec; Psionic Wound is an interesting team buffer, but the gains from that are minimal compared to Charge when you're playing as a pure damage dealer and is instead better saved for a tank trying to give his group some utility contributions.

Then there's Titan Killer, which seems like a great choice, especially if you've got a lot of HPs to chew through, like a team with multiple tanks on it. Here's the thing though: you don't need that extra damage output. You already have all the damage you need to take down assassins and other bruisers and the tanks can't out damage you anyway, so you don't need the extra 2.5%.

If you need more convincing not to take Titan Killer then consider that against an assassin with 2k health, then Titan Killer would give you +50 damage, and against a tank with 4k health that number goes to +100, which is a respectable damage boost; HOWEVER, if you had taken seasoned Marksman at the start, then in an average game you'll have 20-35 stacks by the time you hit lvl 16, which is less than the titan killer buff, but close and you still gain the gap closer, which is critical for taking down the enemy damage dealers, so the gains and losses work in favor of Charge. You can argue that you should take the extra damage to shred the tanks, but you shouldn't be attacking the tanks early anyway, and by the time they're all that's left then you can take your sweet time killing them. All this makes Titan Killer a wasted choice and keeps Charge as the best option for you to take at lvl 16.

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Level 20:
Skill of Choice: Nexus Blades

Now we reach the end, and the final power spike for Artanis, Nexus Blades. This is the final and biggest power spike for Artanis because it compounds all of your choices to this point, increasing the damage of your Basic Attacks by 20% after gaining a charge, and after gaining a 3rd attack off of your W , and even if they manage to get away from the slow effect of Nexus Blades, then you've still turned your Blade Dash into a finisher with Reaper. The entire effect of the choices you've taken for Artanis is cumulative and brought to a head with Nexus Blades.

To make matters worse for the other team, if you've taken Marksman, then the +20% damage stacks with the bonus damage you've farmed up through Marksman. For example, my personal record for farmed up Marksman stacks in a game is 67, and at that point I took 1/2 to 2/3 people's health (non-tank) with one W.

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As for the other talents: Orbital Bombardment is the lvl 20 buff for Suppression Pulse, so you don't need that. Target Purified will recast Purifier Beam on the nearest target should your first target die, fun little skill, but more of a gimmick and less useful than Nexus Blades. Finally you have Force of Will, which is more of a final tank item that will help you get your shield back faster, should you need it.

Alright, so we've covered what he can do and how to build him, now we'll cover the situations where he functions best.

Some good news is that Artanis will work well next to just about any hero, however, while running in DPS spec he needs one of the two following conditions on the team to be met:
-The team has a dedicated healer (Morales, Uther, and so on; NOT Tassadar as the only support) and a second melee (to draw fire)
and/or
-The team has a dedicated engage tank that knows to go in first (Johanna, E.T.C., and so on)

Due to the fact that you're not running Artanis in his tank spec, he needs some way to deal with the damage that's going to come towards the team, and because he's a melee character, he's going to get targeted. This is why you need one of the two above conditions to be met, and preferably it being a dedicated healer and second melee if you have to just chose one of those choices. Now this might come off as a common sense thing, but it's unfortunate the number of people out there that will just ignore what the team needs in the Hero League selection screen and just pick whatever they want to play.

Otherwise though, you're golden, as Artanis will mesh well with most team setups as he can deal enough damage to carry a team if needed, or just be extra difficult to deal with in general.

That said, in my experience, Artanis works very well with the following Heroes:
*Note: this is NOT comprehensive and ultimately it still comes down to the quality of the players behind the heroes.
- Leoric (He can be very hard to ignore and draws attention with his abilities)
- Lt. Morales (get her to follow you around and you can be very aggressive throughout the game)
- Uther (when he's aggressive and uses his stuns)
- Johanna
- E.T.C.
- Abathur (symbiote spec and when you have a team of heavies)
- Zagara (for her disable)
- Thrall (his poke, stun and root all work in your favor)
- Raynor (another late-game champ, your team might fall behind early but you can potentially tag-team late)
- Sonya (together, the two of you form a 1-2 punch and a mean frontline)
- Jaina (Slows and crit damage)
- Kael'thas (while they're focused on you, he'll wreck them or make them re-position)
-Cho'Gall (He's large and in charge, dangerous to use but a good pair is hard to ignore and you compliment him very well; the attention draw and his heroic moves also work in your favor)
- Greymane (His engage package works very well with you as he can go right into the mix with you during late game)
- Li-Ming (Another good 1-2 punch, they'll probably follow and try to kill her, leaving you to hit people while they chase)

The list goes on, as I said he can work well with any hero given certain circumstances are met.

As you probably saw when you first looked at this guide, I have a bunch of match-ups listed under the "Threats to Artanis with this Build." Honestly, I wish I could change the title because that illustration is ever so useful, but it's not really getting across what I'm trying to say about how Artanis matches up against people.

When I was writing those out, I wasn't thinking of who is a threat directly to Artanis in laning phase like you would with a champion in League of Legends, that just does not work here because the laning phase in Heroes just doesn't last that long, but rather it was a cumulative analysis 3 factors:
-Threat to Artanis in a 1v1 situation
-Threat said Hero poses to your Team throughout the game
-Influence said Hero has on a Team fight

This has led to some...awkwardness in some of the rankings as different factors weigh in differently with each match and different people will disagree with me on who is a bigger threat.

For example: I ranked Kael'thas as a 9 because he can (and will try to) nuke your team by himself if you get too close together or don't deal with him in some form at the start of a team fight, making him a priority target in the match; at the same time I ranked Malfurian as a 2 because your damage output is high enough to outpace his Regrowth, and you shred him if/when you get close to him.

Ultimately, take the rankings with a grain of salt as experiences will vary based on the players you come across, a smart player won't ever underestimate his opponent, regardless of who they are, and I suggest you do the same.

Wow, that was a lot more writing than I expected when I decided to do this, but I got through writing it and hopefully you got through reading it! :)

As a final comment, I'll just say that Artanis is a very fun Hero to play, and I hope that all of you enjoy playing him as much as I do, regardless of how you build and use him.

Thank you if you took the time to read this guide as I did put a lot work into it and I hope you enjoyed the read!

Please leave any comments about what you liked or didn't like about the guide. :)

Nov. 8th: Published!
Nov. 8th: Corrected Typos and errors missed in proofread
Nov. 8th: Fixed More typos and errors, I really should have proofread more as this is slightly embarassing...
Nov. 12th: Fixed more typos that I missed...
Nov. 18th: Updated for the Cho'Gall patch
Nov. 29th: Clarified when to take marksman, why you shouldn't pick Titan Killer and also reworded a few places to flow better when reading
Dec. 16th: Updated for the Lunara patch
Dec. 20th: Corrected a couple grammar errors
Jan. 20th: Updated for the Greymane patch
Feb. 3rd: Updated for the Li-Ming patch