Hello, friends. My name is Kith and I like videogames.
Artanis! He’s the perfect example of a Bruiser: he’s got good damage, good durability, solid waveclear, pick potential, and is definitely not someone you would want on your backline. Some of his stuff is a little roundabout in how it works, but that’s really part of the charm - it makes him interesting to learn and play.
Unfortunately, Artanis has a few failings. There aren’t many and the ones that are there aren’t too debilitating, but they’re there, and I’m here to talk about the whole story so I can shine some light on the grungy parts in proper context.
The Review will cover Visual Design, Unit Stats, Abilities, Talents, Overall Gameplay Issues, and culminate in a Final Grade. After that, I will present the Rework aimed at solving whatever issues the Review reveals as the second post in the thread.
The Hierarch of the Daelaam is kitted out in his swanky (and bulky) Legacy of the Void armor, cleanly communicating that he’s some kind of tough cookie. His wrist-mounted Psi Blades imply that he’s a short-range attacker, and that’s true to his gameplay. Finally, being a Protoss, it’s implied that Artanis has access to Shields on some level and can probably do some weird psychic stuff.
Overall, Artanis plays more or less how you would expect him to: he’s a super buff Zealot with some special moves.
Artanis is the model Bruiser: a very solid amount of health and reasonable damage output for his Basic Attacks. His grade is further improved by his Shield Overload, which grants him a periodic burst of extra durability and a solid source of combat sustain.
Shield Overload goes a long way to defining Artanis’s playstyle, encouraging him to stay engaged and brawl for as long and as hard as he can.
When Artanis released, Blade Dash was… pretty underwhelming, all told. But as time went on, it got an enormous design update: the ability to use Phase Prism while Blade Dashing, something that turned it into a major part of Artanis’s kit instead of an offhand detail.
Blade Dash’s mechanics are a bit strange compared to most movement/attack abilities, but a little practice will go a long way towards making it into an effective tool.
Twin Blades is a great ability - cheap, straightforward, synergizes well with Shield Overload, and gives Artanis a solid DPS bump in the form of soft burst. The charge makes it easier to close gaps and stick to fleeing targets, and can even be used as a pseudo-escape in a pinch if you’ve got a target in the right place.
Phase Prism can be a lot of things: a fishing hook, a brake pedal, an “I’m body-blocking you now” button, or even an escape. However, moreso than any other part of Artanis’s kit, Phase Prism’s impact depends on its usage. While Phase Prism itself is incredibly powerful, the potential to do harm to your team must also be considered with each use - it’s arguably just as easy to get a God Swap on a fragile Assassin as it is to put an irritable and dangerous Bruiser on your backline.
Suppression Pulse is the king of swing when it comes to shutting down heavy Physical compositions due to its huge effect area and extended Blind duration. The infinite range ensures that targets will never be out of reach, allowing you the flexibility to use it on an immediate teamfight or possibly save a teammate on the other side of the map. Suppression Pulse can even be used as a scouting tool in a pinch, allowing the user to do things like check Boss with no cost beyond incurring the relatively short cooldown.
Purifier Beam is a fantastic weapon, an excellent tool, and all-around effective choice against pretty much any team. If Suppression Pulse can’t get the job done, it’s very likely that Purifier Beam can.
Reactive Parry is okay in theory, but in practice it has issues competing with other options on the same tier. Artanis typically doesn’t have much trouble dealing with sustained Physical damage due to Shield Overload and Suppression Pulse, so unfortunately Reactive Parry falls by the wayside when compared to its more tactically significant peers.
Amateur Opponent is the go-to talent for ripping through minions, structures, mercenary camps, bosses, and objective monsters. It’s devastating against targets like the Immortals from Battlefield of Eternity and, with the proper build, allows Artanis to solo Bosses by Level 13. If you want a tactical edge over your foes, Amateur Opponent is the talent for you.
Seasoned Marksman is an amazing generalist talent and the best choice at this tier if you don’t have a specific reason to take Amateur Opponent. The bonus damage that it grants is multiplied in value by Twin Blades and the Attack Speed boost that it rewards you with is nearly overpowered - not only does it boost Artanis’s significant Basic Attack DPS, but also make it much easier to mill the cooldown of Shield Overload while active. For most matches, the stack requirement ensures that the Attack Speed boost comes late in the game, but in one-sided matches it can come much earlier and be a little too strong as a result.
At first glance, Psionic Synergy is a great pick: initiating with Phase Prism is almost always dangerous and 20 Armor goes a long way towards making swaps less likely to get Artanis killed. However the other options at the tier are far more flexible and reliable because they don’t require the use of Phase Prism to activate.
Shield Battery is an excellent talent for when you face a team that lacks the burst to break through your Shield Overload quickly, allowing you to get good value out of the increased cooldown speed while the Shield is active.
One of the greatest strengths of Shield Overload is how deceptively durable it makes Artanis, and Shield Surge multiplies that impact by nearly half. Granted, it only kicks in when Artanis is below 25%, but it’s very rare that Artanis won’t get value out of Shield Surge at least once over the course of a match.
Solarite Reaper is ~37.5% increase to the total damage of Blade Dash, which definitely has its uses - primarily in waveclear. However, unless you’re specifically aiming to clear waves quickly or you’re rolling a Caster build because the enemy team is saturated with Blinds, Solarite Reaper can fall a bit flat compared to the other options at the tier.
Warp Sickness makes enemies much easier to focus down after getting swapped, making it an excellent choice for the pick-oriented player.
75% additional Attack Speed is no joke when you find yourself surrounded by enemies, making Artanis much more dangerous to a fragile backline and much more difficult to finish off thanks to the Shield Overload cooldown reduction generated by Basic Attacks. For the player that likes going all-in on their dives, Chrono Surge is the talent to take.
Twin Blades is a mere 20 Mana and has a 4 second cooldown, so Artanis will be able to use Follow Through’s bonus damage on a regular basis. For the player who wants a generalist talent that they’ll get constant value out of, Follow Through is a great choice.
Suppression Pulse is an excellent defensive tool with a variety of potential uses, not least of which being a drastic counter to heroes that rely on Physical Damage.
Purifier Beam is an excellent offensive tool with the potential for excellent disruption and devastating damage.
Templar’s Zeal is the core of a Blade Dash build thanks to its roundabout method of inducing cooldown reduction and reduction of Blade Dash’s Mana Cost. If the opposing team features multiple Blinds, Templar’s Zeal is a fantastic method of keeping Shield Overload active.
Triple Strike is an incredibly powerful Talent that increases the value of a Twin Blades cast by 50%, both in damage dealt and Shield Overload cooldown reduction. However, it comes at the cost of increasing Twin Blades’ cooldown by 1 second, requiring the user to be slightly more careful when using Twin Blades to refresh their shields.
Like Templar’s Zeal, Gravitron Vortex goes a long way towards making a Phase Prism build possible. It also synergizes exceptionally well with Chrono Surge since the increased Attack Speed generates additional value combined with Gravitron Vortex’s cooldown reduction per hit.
Artanis is uniquely vulnerable to burst damage due to its ability to punch through his shields and cause him to take Health damage once more. Considering that the majority of burst damage is Ability damage, Phase Bulwark’s Spell Armor goes a very long way towards covering that particular weakness (and is great for keeping Artanis alive in general).
Titan Killer gives Artanis an okay-ish amount of Health Shred and builds upon the burst of Twin Blades, but I find that it’s difficult to justify picking it over Force of Will or Blades of a Templar - even against compositions with multiple high-health targets.
First and foremost, Force of Will gives a massive amount of Shield Overload cooldown reduction, making it an absurdly strong defensive upgrade. Secondly, Force of Will smoothly empowers both Blade Dash and Phase Prism builds, building off of their constant casting to keep Artanis alive.
In comparison to Blades of a Templar, it is the slightly more defensive choice - the cooldown reduction being triggered on cast rather than on damage makes generating value simple rather than relying on having enemies to beat up.
On its face, Blades of a Templar grants Artanis better DPS, more value from Seasoned Marksman, and an easier time of sticking to fleeing targets thanks to the Movement Speed slow. However, just like any other Attack Speed boost, Blades of a Templar also improves Artanis’s Shield Overload cooldown reduction rate, giving it a powerful defensive edge as well.
A second charge makes the versatile and powerful Suppression Pulse twice as versatile and practically guarantees that Artanis’s team will always have the edge against any physically-inclined opponent.
Target Purified not only makes Purifier Beam more reliable as a damage-dealing tool, but also leaves the potential open for seeing its value multiplied with each kill.
I love Zealot Charge. I do. But having to wait until Level 20 to get it is a crime.
I like Plasma Burn in theory, but I have a very hard time justifying taking it. While the damage is no joke (being the second strongest in terms of raw DPS provided), it doesn’t have the same level of impact as the Heroic Talents and it stands out as one of the few Artanis Talents that doesn’t provide both offensive and defensive benefits.
- Despite having multiple strong builds, several Talent Tiers have clear losers
- Situational choices aren’t as strong as need to be to truly compete with core choices
- Seasoned Marksman is arguably too good while also being out of place as a generic talent (artanis isn’t a marksman!!!
) - Zealot Charge comes too late and doesn’t do enough to compete with other options at the tier
Artanis is one of the best-balanced and best-designed characters in Heroes of the Storm, but he’s got a few minor problems that just need a little extra attention.
![:smiley:](https://d3rakab8gpdsa3.cloudfront.net/en/heroes/images/emoji/twitter/smiley.png?v=6" ":smiley:")
I suppose thats why devs don’t listen to the players on things like this lol. Too many opinoins. But great job! I like it regardless.