Heirarch Artanis, leader of all Protoss, is the latest hero to enter the Nexus in Heroes of the Storm. Many of those that have pre-purchased Legacy of the Void, will have access to Artanis right away as part of the bundle and here’s my experience in using for the past 2 weeks.
When the First Contact War ended, Aiur had been conquered by the zerg Swarm. The protoss stood on the brink of oblivion, at risk of seeing their civilization disappear entirely. It was Artanis, a young executor, who prevented a bloody civil war and guided both the Khalai and Nerazim factions through the chaos of the Brood War. Now, with the Golden Armada at his command, he intends to take back Aiur and prepare his people for the final battle against an ancient and indomitable enemy.[6]
Hierarch Artanis is an indomitable warrior who seeks to unify his beleaguered people. As a renowned Templar with centuries of experience, Artanis combines martial prowess and tactical acumen—striking swiftly with his psi-blades, taking the brunt of enemy assaults with his shields, or calling upon his flagship, the Spear of Adun, to turn his foes into dust. He’ll let nothing stand in his way to restore the glory of the Protoss.
Artanis is a Warrior hero, and can absorb decent amounts of damage as well as dish it. That being said though, he can’t endure a group focus-firing on him especially with an Assassin in the mix but as we’ve said, he can endure some damage and can inflict significant damage in sustained combat also one thing to note is that Artanis is quite slow and has nearly no escape tactic so pick your fights wisely e.g. if its a good exchange to dive.
Abilities
His trait is Shield Overload which activates once Artanis takes damage when his health is below 50%. Shield Overload has a 20-second cooldown after it activates and his basic attacks reduces cooldown by 4 seconds.
One on one, this makes Artanis really hard to deal with even with another hero dishing in some damage. Some hero pairing can make him easy to deal with but he gets so much more HP late-game improving his survivability along with talents that further reduce his Shield Overload cooldown. I’ve had games where its 3v1 vs. Artanis and he still comes survives long enough until back-up arrives with nearly zero HP and just his shield keeping him alive. Range character can easily pick him off after the shield comes down but its either they run away or you do first.
Blade Dash (Q) is Artanis’ first skill which deals significant damage when both strikes land. This is a risky maneuver when done with low HP since you cannot use any ability mid-way during the dash and he always returns to the same spot when this skill is activated making it a very predictable move. The damage alone though does negate some of the chances that someone will risk entering the dash range for a stun. Artanis is susceptible to stuns during Blade Dash, cancelling it altogether.
Twin Blades (W) once armed, allows Artanis’ next 2 basic attacks to strike immediately. This is his primary damage-dealer and supplements his Shield Overload trait effectively, granting him prolonged survivability as long as his shield is up and lets him deal damage quickly.
Phase Prism (E) fires a projectile prism within a short range and once it connects to an enemy heroes deals some damage and swaps Artanis’ and the target hero’s places. This is a perfect skill for picking off enemies on the run or in getting him in striking distance when they’re roaming in groups but its very tricky to aim and its slow travel time requires your enemy to be either close or stationary. Its a totally situational skill and you really won’t use it as much as his other skills but once you get the hang of it and it connects, it does pay off a lot. Proper execution of this move can turn a rather one-sided team fight into your team’s favor with the right timing.
Heroic Abilities
Suppression Pulse (R) damages enemies within a large area and Blinds them for 4 seconds. One of the coolest things about Artanis is that both his Heroic ability (ultimate/ulti/ults FYI) are globals and can strike anywhere in the map as long as you have vision of that area. In the case of Suppression Pulse, this perfectly highlights Artanis’ focus as a dispersal specialist, hopefully making them scatter until the Blind effect lasts or granting you or your teammates enough safety cushion to escape.
Purifier Beam (R) Artanis calls down the an orbital beam targeting a single hero, dealing damage every second for 8 seconds while chasing around the enemy during the beam duration. The beam is slow but deals enough damage to scatter enemies who can’t endure the gradual damage it inflicts. This is my favorite skill of Artanis and late-game is quite devastating as the Target Purified talent recasts Purifier Beam when the target dies making it perfect for dominating team on the defensive and clearing them out of the way for a core push. This skill is also global and will nuke low-HP characters.
Experience and Thoughts
Early game, Artanis is easy to deal with and if you’re using him you’re going to want to go with a Support like Lt. Morales or Tassadar to keep sustain him while soaking lanes. As an enemy early-game, he can be picked-off easily with ETC one of the most notable heroes I’ve seen that can shut him down easily. Artanis gets beefier late-game and a damage build makes him extremely dangerous 1v1 or 2v1 against most heroes. With smart use of his Shield Overload, one can endure ults from the likes of Kerrigan and kill them mid-cast with a level advantage.
Artanis is such a tank late game this 0-skull Golem wasn’t even a match 1v1.
[blockquote]There’s real sense of accomplishment taking down a whole group or making them backdown
[/blockquote]I’ve yet to see enough competitive plays to rate Artanis and as he’s banned at Blizzcon, I’ll have to wait afterwards to see what he eventually shapes up to be in the pro circuit. As he is right now, he’s exactly what Blizzard wants him to be and despite talks about him being overpowered, that still remains to be seen as reception towards him in the Nexus is mixed.
Depending on your play style, Artanis may not be for you but if you’re like me that would risk to dive for a 3:1 exchange then he might just be for you. He’s not that complex to learn but knowing when to retreat or keep pushing is key to Artanis’ play as his deceptively useful trait is hard to calculate and in a 1v1 scenario, its enough to turn back a daring dive from a melee Assassin like Illidan or Kerrigan.
From my playthroughs, Artanis is best paired with a support character especially Lt. Morales granting him incredible sustain damage with Stim Drone while keeping him all healed-up. Abathur and Tassadar compliment his tankiness with Shields while healers just keep him in the fight for a longer time.
Overall, Artanis is a really fun hero. In QM, you can form your team around him or just go nuts with whatever matchmaking RNG gods give you but in HL or TL, its all up to how confident you are with Artanis and how it compliments your team. There’s real sense of accomplishment taking down a whole group or making them backdown from a fight with all heroes getting whittled to critical HP, only to have Shield Overload save your butt and win the day.
2 Comments
you must construct additional pylons! :v
Vespene geyser exhausted :v