Artanis isn’t a bad hero by any stretch of the imagination. The reason he doesn’t see much use by “pros” is for two reasons:
- Artanis is all-or-nothing. Many other Heroes have access to escapes or disengagement tools, but Artanis does not. At a skill level where getting caught out likely means death, a total lack of escape or disengage is a major hurdle to overcome.
- Artanis is very counterable. While Shield Surge can get Cooldown Reduction from Blade Dash, the vast majority comes from Basic Attacks. Anything that prevents Artanis from hitting people is going to drastically reduce his durability by extension, and it just so happens that most Blinds are easy to land and hugely effective.
If Artanis’s team is built for all-in hard engages and the opposing team lacks Blinds in any significant amount, he can be unstoppable. However, such situations in high-level play are rare, so unfortunately he doesn’t usually get much mileage. In lower leagues where drafting strategy isn’t as well-known or in Quick Match where team compositions are a roll of the dice, Artanis has a much better chance of flourishing by virtue of being less likely to run into his hard counters.
That was probably my Artanis Review + Rework - specifically the Rework portion.