Introduction

Changelogs

Outro

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Hero Basics Abilities Talents Synergies Builds and Playstyles Map Specifics

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Pro and Con

Replays

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When I initially got Arthas to level 5, my impression was for a clumsy tank with AoE aura draining his mana, nice engage/peel/disengage which is hard to land, one heroic that is useless before lvl.20 with disorganized team, and if you go for damage talents becomes too vulnerable. Many games later, learned how to adapt him to my style, different maps and compositions. The purpose of this guide is to share my experience playing him on soloQ.

SoloQ is quite different from playing on organized team. Besides obvious things like communication and coordination, strategies during games are also different and heroes have to be be more versatile. In a pro game teams score 5-10 takedowns, for unorganized game the number is 20-30 and often someone has to play the role of those on respawn timer. So normally some skills that are popular at high level don't fit the playstyle. The main build in this guide works very well for me and makes Arthas capable jungler and laner without hurting significantly his roaming capability.

Some of my talent choices are not popular, while some of the popular ones never worked for me. So this is not a guide how Arthas should be played, but how is possible to be played besides standard Frostmourne, Heavy Tank or Sindragosa builds (which will be explained as well).

Pros high sustain awesome AoE damage range 2 melee attacks Cons low mobility susceptible to CC and ranged opponents his skillshot requires a lot of practice

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DON'T be too GREEDY! [if=Overcommitment is the greatest threat to Arthas as he has no hard disengage. If separated from his teammates and outnumbered there is more than enough CC and burst in current meta not to let him use sustain skills.]Overcommitment is the greatest threat to Arthas as he has no hard disengage. If separated from his teammates and outnumbered there is more than enough CC and burst in current meta not to let him use sustain skills.[/if]

As Warrior, Arthas is bruiser with his specific kit. His HP pool is smaller than those of the tank heroes, and he also lacks their kit of gap closers, interrupts, disables and disengage skills. Still can be used as main tank in team fights, but relies a lot on positioning and the right Support characters.
A bruiser is generally good for 1 vs 1, ganks and skirmishes, has sustain tools allowing to take some beating while team squishes do their job, and is kind of Specialist in some area. Sometimes in specialist or other rare comps serves as protector of long-ranged backliners, avoiding direct team fights and relying on some CC skills and burst to stop diving enemies. Lets see his strengths:
- melee range 2 - combined with relatively low attack speed, this enables him to reposition between strikes and be practically invincible against other melee heroes.
- good burst - his sustained DPS is average for Warrior, but all his abilities can deal damage (including ranged) and any squishy he catches is dead without disengage skill.
- sustained AoE damage - as Auradin he is well suited to clear minion waves, merc camps and drain a lot of HP if survives long enough in the middle of a team fight.
- slow/freeze based CC - can passively stack slow on nearby opponents and choose targets to slow/freeze with Howling Blast and Summon Sindragosa.
- his aura and ghouls can be used for zoning - enemies are reluctant to enter Frozen Tempest.

Lets look more in-depth into his role aspects:

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Tank Biz Tanking role requires to: - absorb damage at the front, allowing your carries to do damage - if not chain CC-ed and burst, Arthas can endure a lot thanks to his sustain, and even inflict a lot of pain himself. - peel enemies off your backliners - as 2nd Warrior can immobilize and burst intruders, as main tank relies on repositioning and body blocking not to let this happen. - initiate team fights - usually CC-ing enemy hero or diving into their backline. Besides his 2nd ult, Arthas has only Howling Blast to engage and needs a lot of practice to land the freeze on good spot so that his team won't be out of position. It is good to have another initiator before the Lich King takes his place in the front. - disengage if team is retreating, or if low on HP in already victorious battle - no hard disengage, so sustain as much as possible leading pursuers away from retreating backline to buy them time. If lucky to have only 1 pursuer left, you can Howling Blast him out of range, mount and escape. Sometimes you simply freeze dangerous enemy that can wipe all those injured squishes and take one for the team.

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MANA Issues Normally there should be no such issues but if you build and play him like tanky AoE Specialist who wants (E) to be on every time there are 3+ targets in range, and as often as possible to be near such 3+ (lanes, merc camps, skirmishes) - you definitely will need to get moonwells into your rotation even with Eternal Hunger The other option is not to miss a Regen Globe while roaming between lanes and merc camp rotations.

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Jungling Normally pretty good jungler, with Rune Tap he can cap Knights easily at lvl.7. Thanks to his aura, he caps hard camps very efficiently. With Superiority he can do it at lvl.4 but will take some time if solo and no longer really cares about minion, boss or structure damage. Shouldn't even dodge stun attacks as his aura will keep ticking nevertheless in team vs boss or golem fights and speed thins up. If you are not spotted and there are no urgent objectives (or the situation is desperate anyway), boss solo isn't hard. If tanking Forts during pushes, be aware of some heroes that can pull you over the gate or you'll regret the lack of escape skill. For Core rushes Biting Cold helps a lot - 8%-10% HP bar often make all the difference.

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Laning Laning is the early phase of a game (1-10), when every bit of XP counts, so players try to soak up as much as possible from lane minions, bringing down some Forts, as well as setting up ganks for enemy heroes between skirmishing over map objectives. If things happen so that Arthas has to solo isolated lane, Frost Aura allows to quickly clear lane waves. The problem is that can't really push Forts against ranged opponent. If 1 on 1 vs melee, his range 2 is enormous advantage as stutter-stepping combined with slow effect lets him deal way more damage to his opponent. Against ranged, if sure that you won't be ganked, can try to lure him, ride behind him and combo finish - else soak XP and try to rotate in a lane with melee opponents. Best use of the Lich King in this phase is to roam between two lanes preferably with teammate with CC kit. Kerigan or Uther are good examples. This way you can soak XP (and get globes) from 2 lanes, hopefully kill some enemies and throw a monkey wrench into opponents strategy. When you have really strong early game hero - make the most of it, and if you've trained your map awareness, this can give you nice early lead. During this phase burst still isn't that strong, so Arthas can tank well in the skirmishes for the objectives. Once objectives are done things go back to lane XP. If the Lich King is to take camps, you should now timings for each map - exactly which camp(s) you can cap solo/with teammate before returning to lane before next objective. If there is specialist jungler on the team (Gazlow, The Lost Vikings), you can split camps, or leave them all to him and dedicate yourself to roaming. Once a team gets to lvl.10 Heroics, laning is over. Begins midgame - team fights and split pushing.

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Positioning First rule is to try to tank so that all your team mates can attack, while some enemies need to move either because you focus them or to get you in range. It is good to take small steps between AA, pulling enemy melee heroes after you (range 2!), and to be easier to dodge skillshots or nasty AoE effects. Same tactics are good for capping Knights before Rune Tap to avoid taking too much damage. If you are winning, you reposition towards enemy backline but beware choke points - the terrain may impede your team to be as effective, and with sieged Sgt.Hammer always try to fight inside range. Always be ready to body block for your team or to intercept non-hero damage - AI aggros proximity threat over damage, For seeds/skulls objectives reposition right between strikes to collect them - if enemies may come you can miss AA to collect all (anyway over half your damage comes from Frozen Tempest.

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Synergies Arthas can be flexible in his role, but his tanking limitations make some compositions plainly bad, others force him into a role and with certain heroes he has great synergies. While threats to the Lich King are described in the template, synergies have their own section.

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(Q) Death Coil	(W) Howling Blast
Death Coil in most cases serves as self heal but has its offensive uses as well. Ideal for finishing opposing squishes that barely escaped with their lives after W+AA+D combo while Frozen Tempest was ticking. Sometimes in team fight targets the enemy carry you focus, if not busy body blocking the way to your backliners.	Howling Blast makes or breaks the Lich King. Great for engage, peel, or disable a pursuer when attempting retreat, but has some delay while traveling to the spot to freeze. It is important to use it at the right moment and without proper practice is easy to miss. Trail of Frost improves it but has strong competition in its tier.
(E) Frozen Tempest	(D) Frostmourne Hungers
Frozen Tempest is generally used as utility for its stacking slow effect. This build is based on heavily abusing the aura as source of damage, so requires learning the mechanical skills for constantly toggling E on and off and using D as soon as its CD is up.Though unaffected by interrupts, being transformed ( Polymorph) turns the aura off.	Lich King's trait does 2 things: gives a free 200% basic attack (if timed right after landing autoattack) and replenishes mana. Normally 30 is more than enough, but as auradin, Arthas is forced to manage this resource the entire game even at 60 mana. There are several talents enhancing Frostmourne Hungers
(R) Army of the Dead	(R) Summon Sindragosa
Army of the Dead summons 6 ghouls. They attack your target, can be zoning tool, and consuming them 1 by 1 (2 sec CD) with R restores HP giving Arthas a lot of sustain. Usually, you pop it before team fight, or after opponents have used their AoE. As this is one hard to kill hero, don't be afraid though to sometimes use it strategically in skirmishes (or even 1 vs 1 duels to death). Also good for core rushes, as ghouls tank for your squishy carries.	Sindragosa the Bone Dragon has amazing utility in team fights and skirmishes if your team is ahead and organized. It can create unrecoverable snowball effect. If behind, Army of the Dead is better choice, as you want to enter only favorable fights (2 levels normally equal team wipe, so the other team has to be out of position etc.) and sustain as much as possible while enemy carries are taken down. With Absolute Zero this heroic becomes gamechanger by itself.

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Eternal Hunger - With this build you want to be as often as possible near 3+ hostiles and toggle Frozen Tempest on. Trying to soak as much XP as possible while roaming between lanes has its cost - quickly drains your mana even with the best management, and this talent is a must. Adding 60 to your pool makes it less likely to go OOM when you really need utility talents. Definitely the most aggressive choice when trying to establish early lead.

ALTERNATIVES Block - Solid choice for any tank and the first one to pick if aiming for maxed survivability. But Kael'thas changed the meta a lot and now main threat is burst. If heavy AA compositions (especially with Sgt. Hammer) come back to the scene, this talent's value will raise significantly. Regeneration Master - without Amplified Healing this talent is not so attractive and Arthas soon gains enough sustain anyway. Still he is supposed to roam early game or cap mercs - so he will gather many globes in the process. Personally, I like this talent better than Block for survivability purposes. Frost Presence - Reducing Howling Blast CD by 25% is very nice. But if the build centers on tanking or damage you can't afford it - it belongs to more CC oriented Lich King. Fits nicely in Jaina synergy build.

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Superiority - backed by Rune Tap this unpopular pick practically makes Arthas immune to any non-hero damage - minions, mercs, bosses, summons, forts or cores. At first this doesn't seem like a great deal, but being able to clear minion waves or merc camps and jump directly into team fights at full HP shouldn't be underestimated.

ALTERNATIVES Frozen Wastes - Beginner friendly talent, has its place in CC builds. Eternal Hunger does the job better - restored mana can be spent on any ability. If the only Warrior in a comp with good jungler, I find it OK. Destruction - The most popular pick and the worst from my point of view. Adds a bit of damage but even if not blocked or missed, 109 at lvl.20 is hardly gamechanging. True, early game every bit counts, and this could give the burst to finish some squishy, but usually it doesn't come to that - with good repositioning it is 1 aura tick. I was also using it at first as the lesser evil, until finding how useful could be Superiority.

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Rune Tap - everyone's favorite gives amazing sustain to Arthas, unless he is CC-ed. After picking this talent, he is like having his own Healing Totem while within melee range and able to AA. Using (D) right after basic attack, allows him to proc it within 1 second.

ALTERNATIVES Frost Strike - Gives your (D) great utility but is unfortunately in the same tier as Rune Tap. Has its use in very aggressive bruiser or CC protector builds but you sacrifice a lot of sustain for the ability to catch escapees that were in melee range or to slow divers on their way to backliners. Obliterate - Adds some AoE damage but Arthas already has more than impressive AoE potential. Death Touch - Another form of AoE, and no, it is not worth not picking Rune Tap for it.

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Both Heroics are explained in Abilities section.

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Biting Cold - 50% increase of your main source of damage is always attractive - no wonder this is the most common pick. If opponents have comp allowing them chain CC and strong burst, this choice requires to have main tank or reliable support to heal, cleanse and/or shield you.

ALTERNATIVES [Relentless]] - covers Lich King's main weakness - against heavy CC comps you should seriously consider it. And if meta is full with Brightwing, Uther, Anub'arak, Kael'thas, this is often the prudent choice. Spell Shield - In theory should be picked against caster comps, but often it gets popped by some tiny splash and when real burst comes its CD is not ready. When it procs from burst is lifesaving but picking this talent is a bi of a gamble. Trail of Frost - now Howling Blast becomes gamemaking utility and can freeze several heroes at once. In Sindragosa builds adds nice freeze/slow redundancy with your heroic and aura. Great for Jaina synergy

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Stoneskin - 30% of Arthas' HP is one huge shield. Better use before getting too low to discourage enemies from bursting you or to have enough time to restore some HP. Good for any build against burst comps.

ALTERNATIVES Frostmourne Feeds - Extra burst damage and extra mana. If you don't expect heavy tanking duty, this is one worthy choice for aggressive bruiser. Immortal Coil - 2 in 1 is a good thing. The problem is that first two talents are too good to be passed, unless you avoid the frontline. Embrace Death - Can add substantial burst but if too low on HP, Arthas can't tank and would definitely prefer to use his (Q) for healing. Some rare exception justifying such pick could be if his role is more of CC oriented protector.

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Hardened Shield - THE tanking talent. Usually a tank pops it at the start of team fight the CC and burst damage is expected, and is later followed by Stoneskin before HP is too low.

ALTERNATIVES Absolute Zero - Greatly improves Summon Sindragosa and can be gamechanger. Legion of Northrend - upgrade of Army of the Dead. For tanking purposes I prefer Hardened Shield but if tanking is not a priority, this talent fits well in Frostmourne build Rewind - At least the way I play it, Arthas lacks gamechanging basic abilities worth rewinding. Can lead to chain CC with Trail of Frost or impressive burst with Embrace Death

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The role and build of Arthas depend a lot not only on the team composition, but on how well other heroes cover his weak spots.

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In 2 Warrior comp you need companion with CC who can initiate, peel and disengage and can stun or pull opponents into Frozen Tempest. Definitely not Stiches (same low mobility) or Sonya (too similar]. Tyrael and Johanna are OK, Chen and E.T.C. are solid and Anub'arak, Diablo and especially Muradin can help you wreck havoc in enemy lines.

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From Support heroes Uther has great synergy - stuns and cleansing. Malfurion can offer good zoning assist and mana. Tyrande doubles the immobilize and slow abilities ( Lunar Flare and Starfall) and can set up quite a killzone. Brightwing, No.1 support, has low synergy and is unlikely to pick Cleanse. Tassadar like all previous ones can shield him from burst and that's all. Rehgar has Ansestral Healing and that's it. Li Li can have good interactions, negating basic attacks by Blinding Wind and using Shrink Ray on the biggest threat. At lvl.16, if she picks Herbal Cleanse, Arthas enjoys cleanse and 20% speed boost on 3 sec CD, which may drop to 1 sec with Kung Fu Hustle.

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Other hero synergies worth mentioning are with Kerrigan for her pulling ability and with Jaina having slow/freeze combos.
Executioner talent synergizes with aura slowing effect.

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Frozen Tempest counters nearby stealth enemies. Zeratul still can blink away but Nova is easy prey if revealed. Destroying strategically placed creep tumors is another nice application, as no hero wants to face good Zagara player on creep unless having stealth and CDs up. Also nice is getting rid from all those pesky summons - beetles, roaches and other vermin - and with Superiority build you mitigate half the damage.

Arthas has huge HP pool and solid tanking talents but he lacks one important thing - gap closers. That means that his positioning is very important. His only initiating tool is Howling Blast - but catching enemy on the ideal spot is far from guaranteed and if you start team fight out of position, some of your carries are ineffective or the support has it difficult (and if you start such fight you HAVE to be sure that they will follow and not retreat like in skirmish). This makes him very unpopular tank choice. Usually he is picked as 2nd warrior and either his ganking ability is further enhanced (he is one of the strongest pre-lvl. 10 duelists with Frostmourne builds, or with Sindragossa and well placed CC helps in team fights, the rest of the time clears lanes fast and caps mercs. Of course he can be built for full heavy tank duty though his very nature is of as aggressive bruiser. You can jump to other builds

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Jungler Tank

The idea behind such build is enhance further some of his strengths (AoE and capping mercs), so that he can easier adapt if soloQ results in awkward compositions.

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Superiority The point of building around Superiority is to enhance his strengths even further. Normally Arthas caps easily Bruisers at lvl.7 after Rune Tap. Now he can do it at lvl.4 (but a bit slow so better have a teammate to speed tings up. Missing Block makes enemies like Valla even more problematic but he can soak more XP early thanks to increased mana return from Eternal Hunger (more energy for auras). As usually, his role in early game is to roam between two lanes and set up ganks (preferably in duo), but he can be very efficient as jungler too. In case early lead can't be achieved and you are the only Warrior, your team has to be conservative about team fights. When you are on camp rotation, they should only poke and skirmish, and when you join forces try to enter team fights only on favorable positions. Manipulated lanes and metc waves often disorganize opposing team. Long term strategy is to create pressure in mid and late game by constantly unleashing mercs between objectives and forcing enemies to defend or to try team push, making it much easier to pick good position for team fight.

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LANE Manipulation This is a tricky way while roaming to prepare a lane for later split push. You only kill ranged minions (and of course caster) so that your minions are a bit delayed by their melees and your next wave catches up with the first one. This shoves the lane for you and guarantees some ammo drain and structure damage. You want to pre-push in such way either boss lanes or one with 2 or 3 accessible merc camps (as Arthas Knights can be capped really fast, and launch strong minion + merc pushes all the way to there core during late midgame. Eventually this can set up CORE RUSH possibilities.

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YOLO Rush Another thing this build allows are yolo core rushes. Everybody has experienced situations when teammates disconnect, don't follow map objectives or simply repeatedly die away from team. Pre-pushing the lane with a couple of merc camps or boss creates a chance to sometimes steal the victory. During objective you cap those camps and push the core. If opponents don't react at once there is real chance to take the core down. Often after "hearthing" back a few heroes, the result was core under 50% and 2 level gap almost closed with follow up imminent. Thanks to Superiority, Rune Tap and some mercs, Arthas is in no real danger next to core (110 damage after mitigation). Additionally his ghouls and shield give him a lot of sustain, while his aura is ticking, damaging core and clearing minion waves as they spawn. For such attempt is good to have Biting Cold - the extra damage not only clears minion waves as they spawn but adds 1-1.5k structure damage depending how long you stay alive, which for 14k HP + 7k shield is quite helpful.

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Situational skill choices If opponents have nasty chain CC, Relentless becomes a must, unless your support specializes in cleansing. Losing 50% bonus to aura damage is unpleasant but if you are main tank, this skill may be the difference between tanking for 5 sec or half a minute. The build can work with tier 1 pick {[Regeneration Master]], or even Block if you feel you need it, but puts quite a strain on your mana management. If you establish nice early lead to go for "Snowballer" with Sindragosa. Like having lvl.10 vs lvl.8 your team may try to lock opponents down and you provide the control as level difference will take care of damage output.

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Other builds

Some talents vary depending on personal preferences and compositions but those give the general idea.

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Standard Tank

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Main Tank This is standard competitive build, Rgeneration Master being current meta choice over Block. Relentless is the usual alternative depending on compositions. I prefer Frozen Wastes with such build. Arthas Frozen Wastes Immortal Coil Army of the Dead Death's Advance View Build

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Frostmourne

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Very Aggressive Bruiser The roaming build. This version of Arthas wants most to get beside squishy enemies and burst them down. Usually this path is for 2 Warrior conposition. Arthas Frozen Wastes Icebound Fortitude Army of the Dead Embrace Death Legion of Northrend View Build

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Sindragosa

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2nd Warrior - Teamfighter Another standard role for the Lich King. Its purpose is maxed efficiency in team fights. Risky to use in soloQ as coordination won't be the same as among organized teammates. Arthas Rime Frozen Wastes Immortal Coil Summon Sindragosa Absolute Zero View Build

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Jaina Freeze Synergy

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2nd Warrior + Jaina One of the cases when Arthas is personal bodyguard with CC and burst damage of team carry. Such builds vary a lot and are fun but need reliable duo partner. Arthas Rime Icy Talons Icebound Fortitude Summon Sindragosa Frost Strike Frostmourne Feeds Anti-Magic Shell View Build

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Talent ans Build statistics from HL - https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/HeroDetails?Hero=Arthas

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How Arthas behaves on different maps during early game, if team follows the solid general map strategies.
It is good to be familiar with each merc camp location and how their timings relate to objectives.
His aggressive nature may help getting early lead, and statistically reaching first levels 4/7/10/20 equals to winning percentage of 60/70/80/85.

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Sky Temple Sky Temple is snowballing map and strong early game hero helps a lot. The standard strategy is to have a hero with good mobility soaking bot and ready to join for temple fight, while the rest take part in the skirmishes around the watch tower and soak lane XP. Arthas as strong ganker is good choice to roam with teammmate between top and mid. Still, in 2 warrior comp, Arthas is quite OK to take bot lane at the start but has to be ready to mount as soon as mid temple is to be up. Next step is the fight for mid temple - visit the moonwell before it if needed (unless opponents try to cap early knights - then help your allies to punish them). Now you have to stick with the team and plan your positioning according to the zoning potential of your team. If you can't get control, rapidly rotate top temple, watch for harassing heroes while capping and go directly for the knights (preferably with some help). If you take control of mid temple, depending on how far ahead you are, the follow up should be offensive giants, knights, defensive giants and you are in good position for the next step, or just cap your knights and giants before rotating bot - with Superiority most likely you are the best jungler. Bot temple is quite different from the other two. While on the rest defenders are at disadvantage and the team behind risks wipe if deciding to be the active side, here the only way to attack is passing through the guardians (ofc after capping it you can get into a nasty lockdown) Further things go the same way - you are to tank temple fights (always save Howling Blast for enemies), rotate between merc camps and never overcommit. Follow the basics of the map: if behind cap camps first and engage temple fights only as attackers; go for the boss only with 2 more heroes; don't get too much behind by overcommitment - keep team together once in midgame and try to set up killzones at temples or boss using synergies with stuns or roots. If you jungle alone, your team should only poke but not engage in team fights. QM replay on Sky Temple - https://www.hotslogs.com/Replays/ShareReplay?ReplayShareID=5966

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Dragon Shire Dragon Shire is the hardest map for teamwork in QM. The main objective is NOT to let opposing team control the Dragon Knight and to gain as much lane XP as you can, trying to establish a lead. Usually your place during early game is bot with best pusher and a healer as (1-1-3). Arthas is not suited for mid lane (mobile laner with good disengage and ranged abilities to prevent Dragon summoning), but top is OK - XP soak,wave clears, tower defense and capping Knights. Still it is preferable to be near most merc camps and on this map bot lane is way more valuable than the rest. As usual, save Howling Blast for enemy heroes and if possible have Death Coil ready as finisher - bot lane skirmishes often lead to heroes escaping by the skin of their teeth. Here early game favors skirmish comps, while lategame team comps have the edge. The team at disadvantage soon has to split and avoid team fights, capping the shrine away from opponents' deathball and constantly rotating and harassing. Shrine layout makes them extremely dangerous for enemies on top, if you use their entrance and stack slow effects while body blocking - but first ensure that you are supported and won't be heavily outnumbered. Bot camps are key for this map victory (distraction to activate both shrines), so plan your rotation well. As melee, it is OK that you perform the summoning. Dragon+2 mid push while soaking XP from 2 lanes is the normal early game follow up. If at disadvantage, go for defensive splits negating the unprotected shrine and stalling until your comp gets more value. Being good jungler will often force opponents away from objectives. Remember that it is better to take all lane Forts before attacking Keeps - if a team gets solid lead in levels, often it maintains complete control over the game on this map. So controlling the Dragon, use it to maximum effect to gain XP rotating between lanes and taking down forts, while avoiding heavy damage. Howling Blast stops Dragon Knight from charging. QM replay for 1-1-3 Dragon Shire (with Zagara as I still don't have current version replay for Arthas with good execution) - https://www.hotslogs.com/Replays/ShareReplay?ReplayShareID=5965

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Cursed Hollow Cursed Hollow is all about tributes and merc camp timing. The layout is OK for Arthas - multiple choke points to help tanking or peeling opposing heroes. Never get to far ahead of the rest, or you could be burst quickly after CC. Start with capping your Watch Tower, then lane a bit. You may opt for 2:00 giant camp but better have some help or you may be late for 1st tribute. Rotate for first tribute fight - 2:15 - 2:45 (and visit moonwell if needed). Even if team's strategy is to stall and eventually concede this tribute, you have to be there to absorb some damage and save teammates or if possible, to peel enemy hero without escape talents. If opponents get multiple kills, XP lead by early merc pressure will be impossible. After the team fight go for merc camps while the core of your team roams between lanes (until heroics it is good to have XP soaking in every lane unless fighting for tributes), lvl. 10+ you already move as one deathball. Generally you have team fights over tributes, camp rotation, some pushing, some defending, rinse and repeat. The exception comes when opponent needs one more tribute to curse your team and it spawns at unfavorable location - then you unleash your boss and any uncapped merc camp to distract them and minimize damage for curse duration. Another tricky situation is midgame+, when hero respawn timers are long enough, to go for their zoning heroes, so that their curse is wasted if surviving hero count is 3 vs 5 or 2 vs 4. It is good to pre-push Boss lane, so that in desperate situations to be available the option to try yolo Core Rush after capping it. As usually, Death Coil is to be used as heal pre-lvl.10, but if you have vision over tribute crescent, it can be used to interrupt channeling. Try not to get in confined spaces separated from the rest.

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Garden of Terror Garden of Terror has one utmost priority: SEEDS. Even lategame, starving opponents for seeds is valid strategy. Normally you start as 1-1-3 or 3-1-1, hoping for some early push in your Giant camp lane or countering such strategy on the opposite side. If this ends up in skirmish, the ones with unfavorable comp rotate. Arthas can be very useful roaming with teammate between lanes and setting up ganks. Once night cycle begins (1:30), everyone has to become gatherer. No split pushing can compensate seed advantage - unless if it is endgame core rush. Normally each team farms the jungle half where he has majority and does some harass trying to steal Seeds with the 2 lone laners and/or set up gank at the closest Shamblers. With bosses, you are the one to take hits ( Superiority) so that the rest are at high HP levels should enemies appear but keep in mind your positioning - don't get trapped by the Terror. Teams should try to tag merc camps before Terror is spawned (having active camp signs on minimap is at the same time tip for ganks. Garden Terrors are so powerful, that going for big ganks at night is very risky - if you don't wipe opposing team, seed disadvantage will put you in situation to constantly be bullied by roaming monstrosities. The third choice is Golem rush if you have high DPS comp, but the risk is that enemy steals your Shamblers in the limited might vision and protects their half. For standard tactics Arthas most likely starts mid (low mobility), at nightfall attempts in duo to steal Shambler seeds or get a kill and head to the rest for taking down the boss. Bosses drop 60, each Shanbler 5 Seeds, so every team has 90 in his half. Once all are collected, comes next 3 min day cycle. Garden Terror is very strong and team has to coordinate with it or its potential may be lost.

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Haunted Mines Haunted Mines can easily snowball, punishing harshly the early mistakes. There are only 2 lanes and 3 merc camps, so getting more skulls underground and capping those neutral knights in the center can give very substantial lead to one team. Arthas' ganking potential can get some early kills after the skirmishes at both Watch Towers and lanes. Visit moonwell and go with you team into the mines. Unlike other maps, here you move as a team from the moment mine's entrances open. You need to know well underground layout, so you can reposition accordingly for team fights. With some practice you'll also learn her best positioning depending on comps when defending in the 2 critical zones - bruiser camp and Grave Golem boss. Once you leave the mines, team is 4-1. Best split pusher in the lane with weaker Grave Golem soaking XP, the rest supporting/defending the stronger one. (Usually in QM all 5 defend on both sides, so the advantage is wasted and sometimes games are really long.) Things to have in mind: team losing the skull count often attempts to cap the Knights, so after taking down the boss, if you manage to keep team in good health, instead of 'hearthing" head there and try to catch them redhanded; if a team had around 50 skulls before boss but worse comp for team fight, capping all mercs is good option; exiting mines try to time your Giants - capping them when first Grave Golem passes their fort, gets them in safe position behind wall to defend. Next timings need practice; lategame map awareness is crucial - going into the mines you may be too late to react to Core Rush. It is never good idea to risk team wipe in mines with only a dozen skulls left - trying to finish to boss with your 3 surviving heroes when all enemies are respawned at full health and have just entered again.

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Blackheart's Bay Blackheart's Bay is another 4-1 map - best laner bot, the rest roam central zone. Once again Arthas can take bot, but with all the skirmishes in the mid zone, that would be wasting his ganking potential. At the beginning assist at the Watch Tower, soak some lane XP roaming mid-top and prepare for Treasure Chest skirmishes (ideally trapping the enemy group). Frozen Tempest helps taking chest down faster. After that you usually roam with a teammate between camps (mercs and skeletons) and are always ready to ride towards Blackheart if pinged. Always turn doubloons as a team, and have a lookout. Specific for this map is that sometimes an ally carries many coins during team fight. If things go south, your priority is secure his escape even if you die - giving the other team 7-8 coins can be point of no return. With so many regen globes there should never be real mana issues - it will be easily replenished. On this map Regeneration Master is reasonable pick. Watch tower is very important for vision of merc movement or boss preparations so whenever you ride nearby, cap it for your team. The boss is strong "desert type", and can be used both as comeback possibility and as finishing blow. If several opponents are missing, this can indicate them trying to cap it. If you control the Watch tower and see them - then it is probably ambush. When defending there, positioning is very awkward, so either go for it with 2 heroes up, if behind and desperate, or if trying ambush - but against good opponents that may backfire (they aggro boss and start focus firing and pick you 1 by 1). With Superiority you can try to solo prep him while others are poking nearby and aid you for speed finish when below 50%

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Tomb of the Spider Queen On Tomb of the Spider Queen once again you collect and turn loot - this time from mecha spidersand as Arthas you roam mid-bot. You start with pretty normal laning phase. Beware of ganks and avoid overcommitment while setting up your own. When turning gems, be the one closest to the bushes your enemies might come through (gems are turned alone only with full vision of opponents), save Howling Blast for catching enemy heroes or helping injured allies escape from the skirmishes. Often the team that summons spiders, has 3 members supporting a push and 2 solo gathering gems in Webweavers' wake - with his low mobility, Arthas is better in a group (this strategy aims for chain summons - often team pushes can be seen too). Try to get mercs just before the summons apperear to make much stronger push. Another strategy is if your best split pusher took down most defenses top, to go for boss, while opponents deal with Knights and Webweavers. With Superiority this can be executed by you prepping the boss while the rest apply pressure. This once again is strong "desert type" boss - with no Watch towers around, If a jungler is missing on this map and does siege damage can only be Knights or Boss capping. The neutral Giants bot is the last camp but only they take seconds. Some general rules for the map: - when defending try to focus webweavers (they spawn with the foremost minion waves and their HP bar is their timer) and rotate towards main push - only cap boss if enemy is busy or 2 heroes down but be vigilant if enemies go for him - dropped loot can't be taken by enemies but you only have a few seconds to reclaim it before vanishing - if defending a lane when outnumbered wait for spiders to come into tower firing range, so that you can collect their gems

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Battlefield of Eternity This map is still pretty new, seemingly straightforward, but for now there are no established standard strategies. I'll summarize its specifics and comment on a strategy that works fine in my games. 2 lanes map with huge arena in middle area. Objective is during Immortal fight (Ilarion vs Beleth) to protect yours and destroy enemy's. 90s after start of game or death of previous lane boss, starts 15s countdown timer. Fights have 2 phases - they spawn on random positions on the arena and once one loses 50% HP new positions are randomly chosen.Immortals scale with the minute they spawn - XP goes 750 (+35), HP 6750 (+1800) and their abilities do respectively 200 (+35) damage. XP from fighting them is global (last hit hero gets the credit in stats), losing team gets a portion depending on damage dealt. Surviving Immortal gets Shield equal to HP left at end of fight, heads to less pushed lane, while shielded has ranged attack and killing him gives nice XP (depending on Shield amount) so better support it. Important qualities for this map a Vision and Split-pushing capabilities. 2 Siege Camps at S and N with 3 Khazra Impaler ranged mercs, but more important seem Bruiser Camps at mid gates. Fallen Shaman has incredible pushing power if left unchecked, so try to cap them whenever an window of opportunity presents. Once Immortal fight is over, non-engaged camps are disabled but you still have 5 sec delay before Shield channel to tag them. Games usually consist of many skirmishes around Immortal fights, combined with split pushing, lane soaking and raiding camps. 4-1 splits seem to be the natural choice, during Immortal fights is good to have a hero in both lanes and a roaming group of 3. Directly engaging enemy one is very risky - if spotted your team becomes very vulnerable, so it is mostly some pokes, until there is opportunity to burst him down to 50% or kill. Arthas should always try to be with the main part of his team, but with jungler spec can rotate for solo capping camps if team is informed. QM replay - (removed - old version)

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Arthas is the most likely candidate for transformation as Garden Terror or Dragon Knight (priority list goes bruiser/hybrid support/tank/ranged DPS/healer), so a short tutorial for them is in order.

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Controlling Terror and Dragon Garden Terror (scales with timer, growth 15 sec, ready 60 sec, duration 90+ sec) has multiple uses. Has impressive single target melee attacks and 3 abilities: (Q) Spore Queen's Curse - after short delay, radius 3 area starts ticking and converts enemy heroes into plant Zombies (3 sec silence and 30% slow) (W) GT Overgrowth - 15 sec CD flower that deals 70+(7) siege damage AoE and after 2 sec disables Forts and Keeps. Flower's HP bar is timer (takes DoT) (E) Sprint - 14 sec CD +30% movement speed Curse 6 sec CS, powerful zoning tool - on choke points stops enemy reinforcements, next to bakliners prevents dives, forces heroes off position, slows your pursuers or the ones you pursue. Overgrowth dispatches of minion/merc waves freeing lanes for your own minions, can take camps (still active) and does huge structure damage. Dropping it in front enemy Forts protect it as long as possible. And Sprint is to escape and rotate or to catch fleeing opponents. Great for team pushes and fights. Without support roam. Solo push after opponents wipe or if during night but you have lead in Seeds. Defend, zoning enemy away from your structures and get XP from lane waves if your team wiped. Never grab in a hurry - better get as much seeds as possible and tag camps. With 2 GT, second one gives defenders advantage as will stay longer while arriving about the same time in the contested area. Arthas is usually the best choice in party to transform into Dragon Knight (scales with timer, 45+ sec). After transforming he has the following abilities: (Q) Flame Breath - 8 sec CD fire cone, dealing 39(+15) and the area burn ticks 4 sec for 88(+8) damage. (W) Savage Charge - 8 sec CD, after short delay, kicks target away dealing 180(+20). Interruptable. Leaving Dragon Form timer or HP bar expire, or by (R), causes knockback explosion for 65(+15). Trait is double/half damage to/from structures, Relentless. Best tank ever. Kick key enemies away if in team fight, else those threatening most damage, but if low on HP only if it kills them. Use (Q) whenever possible to cover minion waves, or zone or burn to death enemy heroes and structures. AA heroes only as finisher. On rare occasions timed (R) can save team fights. Early DK is best used to destroy and damage Forts - don't bother with Keeps, just rotate lane to get max XP lead. 20+ DK can destroy Core and if a lane is pushed, supported by team may be game-ending. If team is dead when taking DK better push enemy forts (but with caution) - he is bad defender and this way you soak lane XP and do structure damage. If enemies group to defend just poke, burn and kick, keeping them at bay to give time to teammates to respawn.

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This section is for some replays demonstrating the playstyle. As with every new patch the old version becomes obsolete, once I have decent replay available, I will link it.
I prefer replays to YouTube videos, as games have more instructive value as replays - you can focus on what interests you and not the caster.
Quick Match games often snowball (bad compositions, talent gated heroes, players unfamiliar with map objectives etc.), but still some nice examples can be picked.

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DOWNLOADABLE REPLAYS

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Arthas is no longer popular after the nerfs he got some time ago but can still offer some interesting possibilities. Switching the roles of tank, aggressive bruiser and specialist can be quite a fun. Opponents are often surprised when your team comp goes back and forth from skirmish to specialist, and if they are out of position, suddenly is quite capable in team fight. Have lots and lots of fun and see you in the nexus!

If there are no notes for the last update it means either some polishing or adding current version replays.

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