The last five changes to Arthas have been buffs. But despite that his popularity is low, no matter which groups you look at.
There aren’t that many tanks in the game. So a tank with low popularity is pretty bad. And I think the main issue is that people don’t want to play a Tank with No escape and unreliable peel.
Compared to other heroes, Arthas doesn’t really feel like a tank to me. And it almost feels like you’re playing a bruiser until you pick “Army of the dead”
At this point it feels like nothing short of a re-design can help him.
His kit is fine but the meta won’t change much if people keep complaining how they hate playing on specific maps. Get people to play something else and Arthas might come up more as an ideal support or counter. By pure design philosophy he is a well crafted character in how he excels at certain aspects but still has an exploitable weakness.
I’d rather try the Blaze approach where they made the hero more appealing and versatile by allowing players to pick both Incinerator+Crossfire, which was slightly nerfed in recent patch because it allowed for unprecedented PVE potential. Eventually he might fit into a different role in addition to being an average tank. The Death Coil build is fun but it lacks that extra oomph.
I would prefer if we started picking and banning heroes according to the battlefield rather than following an arbitrary list that someone produced.
Well to be honest, if Arthas doesn’t feel like a tank, then what is Anub’arak? Loaded with a lot of CC, but is fragile like a melee assassine, but without dmg.
Arthas on the other side is pretty tanky, if talented right, but his problem is just he is very immobile and the meta is all about range assassines or mobile heroes, not really what Arthas prefers…
His only engage is his W and for that purpose my beloved Sindragosa, I never pick the Army of the dead. This can work out, if you have a comp for it, but I agree that it is rather difficult compared to more general tanks ala Mei, ETC or Johanna.
He can win the solo lane vs most, one of the few bruisers who has a poke, Syndragosa+army are great vs forts and towers, he is good late game. I dont see it
Sindragosa is nice, but not that easy to lend while you’re on the front and the enemy see you casting it.
But if you’re not seen, the enemy prob doesn’t start a fight, or start it too effectively while the Tank is “hiding”.
I’m not saying Arthas is a bad Tank, I like Tanking with him (my first main in the old closed beta days), but others are stronger, and Arthas requires a bit more thought in draft (what ppl don’t provide usually).
1 v 1 doesn’t matter, bruiser poke usually don’t hurt unless you’re thrall post 16 with thunderstorm, synd makes Arthas worse army is fine but not incredible, he is alright late game but other bruisers just get better. I definitely see it.
I’m not saying Arthas is garbage, but when it comes to bruisers most of them are just better.
A lot of it has to do with the fact that his talent tree is too, oh what’s the term here
Pulled apart? Uh… like it’s competing with itself too much
For example on other heroes there are talents that do kind of similar things on each tier and thus they are balanced accordingly to be well rounded,.
Arthas however Just give an example his level 4’s, you’re forced to choose hardlien damage hardline CC or hardline Healing
16 is also areally big offender, survival, CC or Bruiser DPS
Like even if you want a talent that does more damage you should do smoething that eases the pain a tiny bit. If that makes sense.
So you don’t think a large 60% slow for 4s is impactful?
1v1 matters a lot, if you are winning the solo lane, you will deny the other team EXP , early game is won by EXP
Army blocks skillshots like mings orb , do you play solo lane on a regular base?
Well that’s why I would say Arthas talent tree is one of the balanced one in general, you have to make decisions what you are in need and not just pick the always useful talents like some heroes have.
It’s good, just gotta facetank the enemy, which is hard without a medivh or someone else initiating for him.
It doesn’t matter, cause you just need to soak fast and rotate. You won’t be 1 v 1 in lane cause there’s nobody there if you stay. And here Arthas also gets behind, because his clear is not that great.
Yeah, cause 85% of the games are against ming…
Yes, a lot.
Like I said, not a bad hero, just not great like other bruisers unless very specific setup (medivh) or against very specific comps (enemy team drafted all melees for some reason).
The problem is that it’s SO diverse that you are essentially forced to chooose, “peel of a tank” “Survivla of a tank” or “Bruiser”
Like he outright dosen’t have the same kind of CC as other tanks unless he goes his full CC build then you could aruge he’s got more then most tanks but he’s practically paper
Whereas if he goes his survival build he’s one of the tankiest SOB’s on this roster but F you if you can peel worth a damn
Of course, it makes heroes interesting to play, because it makes them diverse. Lucio is another example for a hero, where I basically have almost no interest in other talents except one build and that’s mean I skip all of his Wallride talents, because they are too situational and less rewarding, if you do it.
But his Lvl 1 “Accelerando” is his best talent. The wall ride talents allow you enable your team to chase, without making yourself an easy target. Especially the additional speed and armor at 13.
No the point is that his other elements suffer TOO much at this system he’s TOO specalized by the talent tree that that weaknesses he takes up by trading one build for another are always debilitating
Without the full survival build his survival can’t compete with other tanks except Maybe ETC and well ETC is on the squishier side of tanks for a reason that Arhtas dosne’t have
And without the full CC build he can’t even hope to peel like well any other tank except Tyrael
