Artanis' current state and a brief intro to him Top
At the time of writing this, Artanis is a mid-tier Offlane hero at best. I view him as being underrated and undervalued, but he does have huge weaknesses. His big weakness is mild CC... slows wreck him. If he gets slowed, he kind of just dies. If he gets blinded he doesn't sustain and dies. If he gets Silenced... you get the picture.
Generally you want to draft Artanis with some anti-CC measures and to provide not just swap plays, moderate dive but also great PvE. If you draft a good amount of Heals around him (namely double Healer/double Support) late game Artanis can just survive super long if he isn't CC'd even if he is target focused if you go this build.
And trust me, you will want to go this build.
Artanis is a sneaky hard hero. You always see players go for the mega swaps instead of the simple ones, which is a huge flaw a lot of players have. Another thing is players often on this hero throw out swaps on cooldown instead of waiting for the moments. Generally you should wait for your team to throw out a swap, put yourself in position for a swap, and don't be afraid to just AA. I would suggest you practice funny angle swaps in Try Mode or Sandbox and try getting the AA timings and movement down so you can get that extra bit out of the mechanical potential of Artanis.
Level 1 Talents Top
Seasoned Marksman stacks too slowly, Reactive Parry is a bottom tier block.
Take Amateur Opponent always. The PvE is insane.
Level 4 Talents Top
The Psionic Energy shield gain is too small and too short. Never take it.
Shield Battery doesn't give enough shield although maybe it has some usage.
Shield Surge is insane with a good Healer. You can stay up super long, especially as the game goes on and on.
Level 7 Top
Solarite Reaper does allow you to be a double soak bot but you shouldn't need that as Artanis.
Warp Sickness is bad. Chrono Surge is overrated because there are lots of slows in the meta now and you don't get the value.
Follow Through provides lots of extra guaranteed damage. That extra AA stacks up if you are good at it.
Level 10 Top
Purifier Beam is good into teams without much move speed, but as of this patch move speed is too strong. Before this patch, I would say least 20% of the time it may be better.
But right now, it is all Suppression Pulse.
Level 13 Top
This is where the build differs from most. Most people go Triple Strike, Templar's Zeal or Graviton Surge in my experience, but I find them all to be trap talents.
The real and only talent to take here is Phase Bulwark. We are and have been in a Spell damage-centric meta for years, and that 50 spell armor is huge. With your shields up you can eat a Pyroblast or full Li-Ming combo and laugh. You can just eat so much damage. And if you are getting constantly healed, it gets a ton of value.
However, the true value of Phase Bulwark goes with your Level 16 talent pick.
Level 16 Top
Titan Killer is a decent talent but not the talent to take. The same goes for Blades of the Templar.
The real talent to take is Force of Will. When combined with Phase Bulwark at Level 13, you can have your shields up and thus spell armor up super often.
When at low health combined with Shield Surge you have spell armor and the shields all the time.
And when you are rotating AA's on heroes and abilities often (namely your Twin Blades [W]) you get a lot of extra damage out of Follow Through.
And if you throw out a proper ult... that's icing on the cake.
All this combines into a super synergized, super strong combo which makes you hard to kill.
Level 20 Top
None of Artanis' Level 20's are particularly incredible.
Orbital Bombardment (the upgrade to Suppression Pulse) is a bad talent because of the 2nd blast delay.
Target Purifier (the Purifier Beam upgrade)is a good talent and sometimes can win games, but it is unreliable without good coordination from your team.
Zealot Charge is good for closing the distance if you need it but it doesn't close a ton of distance. It's a touch-and-go decision as to whether it's worth it, but usually it gets value.
Plasma Burn is just the safest talent. With the previous laid out choices, it spit out a lot of area damage and gets a lot of value.
About me Top
My name is Johnknight1. I am a NA GM+ player who specializes in Offlaning in coordinated play. I am currently the Offlaner for Broken Alliance Gaming.
I play just about every Offlane at a high level and understand every Offlane hero at a high level. I have been coached by pro players and pro coaches and have learned a ton playing the game. I have personally coached dozens of players from Bronze to GM. My ultimate goal is to get better and to make those around me better.
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