The issue with Artanis is the fact that he is a single-target monster, and, well, that’s about it. Because of this, he needs weaknesses and ways to be punished for his aggression, or else he could easily become too powerful, especially in lower ranks. Giving him a stun on his W would mean no one could cast anything with a cast or channel time if they are in range of him, worse if he picks up the extra range at 20. Giving people benefits when they miss an E creates incredible anti-synergy with his best talent at level 7.
And worse, allowing him to cancel his Q at will means you now have an incredibly tanky, hard-hitting bruiser who can blink through terrain. If you thought Genji, Zeratul, or Illidan was a nightmare on a squishy who just wants to escape, now you have one who can blink like Li-Ming, and doesn’t really give a crap about tanking a few tower shots while he kills you. The armor shred hurts, but he can easily walk away from that if his target is dead. He would be able to go into your fort and smash your fountain with impunity from level 1. If he gets into a trade he doesn’t like, poof, he is out, on the other side of a wall, and there is nothing you can do about it. With Templar’s Zeal at 13, and Force of Will at 16, if he is good at managing his trait, he is doing that incredibly frequently. He would definitely need damage or survivability nerfs if he could do that, and I don’t think it would be good for him.
Although Protector of Aiur is fun, and can be strong in the right situations, it is certainly not a must pick, and is overall worse than Amateur Opponent unless you can stack early and fast, or you know it will be a long game with a lot of kills. To me, it is a bit of a win-more talent, and although I do enjoy stacking it up, I really only pick it seriously in QM, as you don’t draft Artanis for his team fighting in SL (hello, Imperius!).
Changes that could help him would be to make him slightly less vulnerable to CC, such as giving him a talent that resets his trait CD when stunned, rooted, or slowed, or giving him more AoE, such as Plasma Burn at an earlier level, or as was mentioned, giving him his slow on his AAs earlier (yes please!).
A lot of people who struggle with Artanis want to use him in spite of his weaknesses, and often ignore them with fatal results. Don’t godswap just because you can. Use point-blank swaps to reposition and proc your talents. Use Q to dodge things, and never use Q through the middle of an enemy team who have a lot of easy-to-land CC. Remember, you can get trait CDR from Q by hitting any enemy unit, not just heroes. Learn how to manage his trait for the most possible uptime, especially in a trade. If there isn’t much time left before his trait procs, don’t use W, hold it for immediately after his shield goes up to get the most CDR possible.
And one of my favorite Artanis tips, Phase Bulwark at 13 is amaaaaazing. Triple Strike ain’t got nothing on living longer.
