Hi all,

Artanis gets a lot of flak, which is a shame because he is an amazing hero who in the right situation can tie up whole teams for a good amount of time.

Some things to note about Artanis before you either pick him or pick your skills.

- Firstly is, if you are the only tank, there are better choices. However, with the right support, Artanis can tank like the best of them.

- Secondly he can surprisingly hit hard. And what is more, the more he hits things, the harder he is.

To summarise, Artanis can tank, with the right skills. But dont think you the only skills to help tank are defensive skills. Artanis tanks because he hits things. The more you hit, the more you tank. So if you have allies who increase atk speed, he is hard. Also his tanking is deceptive. He is harder the less Health he has, which in many cases causes teams to dive hard to get that kill. Use it as bait. And if below 50%, or looking near dead, you can still fight and defend if your shield is cranking. Remember, if you reset and shield is up, the next shields stacks, meaning as long as you are hitting faster than you lose shields, you will be essentially gaining life.

This build is based on putting out damage and tanking in the midst of up to 3 enemies (5 if they picked wrong, or you have good support).

-Reactive Parry
Good for taking those small hits, makes a difference compared with other builds. Try it if you are unsure.

-Templar's Zeal
Good for spamming this ability, or ensuring it is ready in a pinch. With skills chosen next spamming this also keeps you alive, or with its high dmg on the return, killing runaway heroes.

- Psionic Synergy
This one is really good early, and will help with that tanking. Hit a few heroes and your shield is back up. Stacked with Templar's Zeal, can spam this hard to get that dmg and shield to tank it.

- Suppression Pulse
This areas of the talent tree is relative to the enemy. But if the have at least 2 heroes who hit hard, or hit to buff (such as Kerrigan or Thrall) then this is a must. Short CD and 4 seconds of missing is enough to change a fight. Amazing if the enemy has heroes like hammer or Valla, as 4 seconds of them doing essentially nothing can make all the difference. Or cast from respawn to save allies with its global effect.

- Triple Strike
Not seen enough. This is THE skill. It allows you with your standard hit to hit almost 4 times in a row. That is a low of dmg, and knocks 16 seconds of your shield time. This is the deal dmg and reset shield skill. And remember using this one, if you need shields fast, hit a creep for that reset.

- Shield SurgeThis one stacks with triple strike. As you reset the CD on Shield Overload, having 50% more makes your tougher than anyone thought. And if you reset before it runs out, likely now it is bigger, you will be essentially making new life. And 3s is a long time in a team fight. Just keep hitting and dashing.

- Force of Will
This one is debatable depending on game conditions. But if you are solo tank, or just like living forever, take this one. This makes Shield Overload reset CD almost every 3 hits. A triple strike now knocks off 18 seconds instead of 12. Huge change.

Though for this slot, if you are winning, or you have a proper tank, take Nexus Blades. The extra dmg is nice, especially with Triple Strike and slowing people means more killing too.