Once you get the hang of the swap positions, he’s a pretty versatile hero to play. Everyone goes for the god swap when they play artanis and I’m not going to lie, I did too when I started playing him.
However, if you swap right next to your target, you get them in a bad situation and a situation that is prime for you to body block them from getting out. It’s so much fun!
I know this is no secret as Hoku probably posted stuff like this but he’s an immobile hero that is also mobile, if that makes sense. I’ve swapped enemies offensively and defensively. For instance, I’m in a bad situation and 5 people are trailing me, so I’ll Q toward toward a more safe zone and then swap with an enemy that is closer to my destination so I can run home.
He’s a lot of fun to play and I love going PoA so since I solo queue and they role match, I can beat on a bruiser or tank until they give me enough stacks to 50-75% a squishies health.
A lot of Artanis is learning to land the swap and learning WHEN to swap.
He surely is and I like his talent tree, because I feel that every talent has some use. You can build him as off-tank, as offensive dps bruiser or pve-machine. Even his meme laser feels nice against enemys with weak backliners.
If 5 enemies are trailing you, then how can you make a q into a safe area and swap someone to safety?
At least one enemy would have to be “in front” of you, on the path towards your base, for a swap to buy distance from your enemies.
Q swapping someone behind you as you try to run away would only put end up putting that person in front of you, in a good position to bodyblock.
Artanis swaps are no doubt fun, but its usually hard to find a situation where you can swap to safety as it requires the enemys position to be, basically, wrong.
It reminds me of Chen and Illidan situations where one person is standing in a way that makes it easy for them to Q over them, buying much needed distance from the rest of the opposing team, allowing the enemy Illidan/Chen to escape.
PoA is fun indeed! (Dingdingding), just remember, dont underestimate Amateur Opponent, dont overestimate Triple W, whatever the name is at 13 and that the spellarmor at 13 is probably his strongest talent in general, unless you’re facing a very strong AA focused team or something.
You can actually do a gap opener swap against an enemy chasing you, giving you a touch more breathing room. It is sort of like a reverse swap, and is probably a desperate measure of last resort, but it can work well if the enemy isn’t expecting it.
Probably the most important thing to remember about this type of swap is that now you have Unstoppable after hitting someone with E, so you are more likely to escape. It is even more effective if you took Chrono Surge at 7, so the slow will give you even more of an advantage when leaving.
You can also reverse swap someone chasing you behind a wall. That is always fun!
1 - Protector of Aiur.
4 - Any, depending on comps.
7 - Chrono Surge
10 - Either, depending on comps. Fun fact, if you damage someone with either heroic all the way across the map, and they die from it or from subsequent damage from your team, you get the full 10 dings! This makes Suppression Pulse even more of a fun ding tool, as if you hit multiple heroes, and they all die, you get all the dings. All. The. Dings.
13 - Graviton Vortex or Phase Bulwark. More swaps, more Chrono Surge procs, more dings. For the other one, less dying, more dings.
16 - Blades of a Templar. Dingdingdingdingding.
20 - Heroic upgrade or Zealot Charge.
I always take suppression pulse. The laser seems useless and even against stationary targets like hammer, I still find the blind to hold more value over the laser. Also, suppression pulse helps win team fights and I also use it as a global finisher, sometimes.
The trick with laser is to use it in combination with Chrono Surge and the gap-close swap/body-blocking. Or if your team has something like a Most Pit ETC or Octograb Murky. I don’t take it often, but you can actually set yourself up for it on the right map. If you can swap them into a corner and pin them there, you can watch them slowly burn to death.
True. I just like SP’s utility much more. I can use it offensively and defensively and the laser is more limited, even if you could potentially use it defensively as well (discourage attackers by way of zoning, temporarily).
There have been times I’ve hearthed back for health but used SP to keep an ally alive by using SP to blind the chasers, buying enough time for an ally to escape. I love SP <3
What is also fun is to watch a Medivh drop a portal to try to save someone, just to have the SP waiting for them at the other side. Bonus points if you kill the Medivh, too. Double bonus points if it resets his stacks.
Oh, and I have killed keeps with SP, too.
Edit: But do take Meme Beam against a Ragnaros. When he goes MC, you can beam him, and it will knock him out of it quickly. Even better, if he uses it to defend one of his own buildings, the beam will stay on the building after he leaves, doing a lot of damage to it.
I haven’t played against too many medivhs, at least ones who are team focused. Most like to focus on themselves to save themselves so they usually don’t save their teammates.
One thing I like about playing Artanis is that since he’s a bruiser, you always get matched against a bruiser or a tank which gives me something to beat on until I’m so stacked that I can just have my way with their squishies.
For instance, I’ll get matched against a Sonya and then she’ll go to solo lane where I will follow as well. Sometimes I can control the lane, sometimes not but i’m there for the dings and they are more than happy to oblige by dueling me.
By lvl 20, none of the tanky heroes can stand toe-to-toe with me anymore. I like to take titan killer as well since I’m always guaranteed to be matched against a bruiser or a tank. If an enemy tank or bruiser retreats, so does their squishy backline which allows my team to control the flow of battle.
I don’t usually take Titan Killer, unless they have a ton of high HP heroes, or they have something that requires % damage, like a Cho’gall, Diablo, Stitches, or Garrosh (that damned armor). Blades of a Templar is more reliable damage, especially since it puts a slow on your target, making it easier to stick to those squishies!
With Chrono surge, they are slow and I don’t need too much time on a squishy before they collapse but if I didn’t take titan killer, I’d probably take blades of templar.
While I love Chrono Surge, the slow only applies to someone swapped. The slow from BoaT is on anyone you whack, and persists as long as you are whacking them. It means I can gap close onto a squishy, and stay on them until they die! If they have friends in the neighborhood, I already have the BoaT attack speed buff to start whacking them, too.
I’m not saying I don’t understand your approach because I do, I just land my swap on the target I’m chasing anyway and with the zealot charge at lvl 20, unless they’re highly mobile, they don’t get away.
I guess if I ran into the problem of my targets slipping away from me, I’d probably forego titan killer in favor of BoaT but so far, that hasn’t been the case.
They are now that they grant Unstoppable. Before that change, not so much.
Don’t forget, the attack speed is a permanent buff, and the talent doesn’t just apply to heroes. It can make a difference when clearing camps or doing objectives. I just find it a more all around useful talent. Titan Killer only applies to heroes.
