Arthas is not a hit and run hero. He's big and a little clunky, but once you get in that's where you want to stay.
Early game (1-6)
You will have trouble with ranged heros as they will be able to kite you around all day, even if you can get off your
Howling Blast it will be rare that you will do much damage. If possible try to lane against another melee hero, or at least lane with a ranged hero from your team.
Mid game (7-12)
You want to be on top of the map objectives. Zone the enemy out and if they challenge it get up in their face, slow them down and prevent their escape. If you have a competent team it should secure a very easy kill. Unfortunately you're not doing a crazy amount of damage just yet so it may be hard to get a kill on an enemy that is paying attention.
Late game (13-20+)
You want to be with your team at all times. When you get into a team fight you want to be in the middle of it slowing all the enemies down. Pop your
Army of the Dead and when the enemy team starts to target you, use them to heal up and stay in the thick of it. If they have too much damage you can pop your
Hardened Shield to give your health regens a chance to bring you back up to a respectable amount (
Rune Tap,
Army of the Dead sacrifices, other heals on your team) You are not invincible and you lack escapes so unfortunately you are still likely to die in the teamfight if you're doing your job right, but what did you really expect? You're not
Johanna.
Level 1 --
Eternal Hunger is the way to go. Arthas has mana problems all game and this really helps to mitigate that.
Block Isn't that great. Most things that are going to be hitting you like a truck are going to be abilities anyway.
Frost Presence and
Regeneration Master are both sub par. You need to focus on collecting globes too much to even make it slightly worth it, and a lower cooldown by 3 seconds doesn't matter if you don't have any mana to cast it in the first place.
Level 4 --
Destruction gives us a bit of a damage boost which will synergize with a skill we pick later.
Superiority, you don't really need the damage falloff from minions as you are tanky enough, and you shouldn't be mercing or lane pushing by yourself anyway.
Frozen Wastes, you should be turning it off and on for engagements regardless, and our level 1 pick of
Eternal Hunger mitigates any loss of mana already
Level 7 --
Rune Tap for a little bit of sustain here. Every 3rd hit will give you a nice chunk of health, combine that with the ability to instant hit with your
Frostmourne Hungers trait and you can get those hits off pretty regularly which translates into more damage dealt and more health back. A dead Arthas does no damage at all.
Obliterate The damage bonus you get from is not worth leaving the sustain talent.
Frost Strike You already have plenty of ways to slow and root, this is not needed.
Death Touch Again, you shouldn't be laning or mercing by yourself so this skill would be a waste.
Level 10 --
Army of the Dead for more sustain. Use this primarily to get health back, the ghouls don't do a tremendous amount of damage. Just remember to activate it several seconds before you need the health, as there is a small cooldown after every ghoul you sacrifice for health.
Summon Sindragosa If you find that you do not need the sustain this is a fine talent to pick, but most games I would go with
Army of the Dead
Level 13 --
Relentless The less you are stunned the more you can hit. The more you hit, the more health back you get and the more damage you do.
Biting Cold If the enemy team has no CC (or very little) you can pick this talent for a little bit of extra damage
Spell Shield is not worth it considering you would only block 3 seconds worth of damage every 30 seconds. A stray ability shot can easily trigger this when it is not ideal. At most you might get use out of this talent once in a teamfight.
Trail of Frost Is an interesting talent, but the AOE for the base ability is wide enough to get your picks.
Level 16 --
Frostmourne Feeds Here is where your start to really lay out the beatings. Every activation of your
Frostmourne Hungers gets you two hits worth. Thats 120 mana back and 300% damage (150% x2).
Stoneskin is a solid choice if you absolutely must have the extra sustain, however I find more utility in having more damage and more mana, and we will be getting a mitigation talent next anyway.
Immortal Coil The damage and mana back you would sacrifice for this talent isn't really worth it. And even though it gives a good little chunk of health back you are not a support class.
Embrace Death To get the most out of this perk you would need to have low HP, risking death. It is very situational at best and
Frostmourne Feeds is just much more consistent and valuable.
Level 20 --
Hardened Shield Is the way to go. You can use this to give yourself a little breathing room to heal up during a teamfight with
Rune Tap,
Army of the Dead sacrifices, or other heals from your team
Rewind doesn't benefit you as much as it might other heroes. Your cooldowns are not that long anyway, and one of your skills is a channeling one.
Legion of Northrend Again, the ghouls don't do a terribly large amount of damage, and the amount of heal you would get out of 3 more isn't as much as you can block with
Hardened Shield in a crunch due to the delay in sacrifices.
Absolute Zero The extra range and root/slow is overkill in my opinion. You are better off with
Hardened Shield even if you took
Summon Sindragosa before.
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