Arthas Build Guide “Frostmourne hungers.”

Arthas is a Tank but he is mostly being played as Bruiser because his Abilities are not that strong compared to the other main Tanks. Avoid playing him as Tank unless you are not countered by the enemy team and you are instead countering them.

He excels at slowing and rooting several enemy Heroes at the same time, which allows him to either chase retreating enemies or to peel for his team, especially against melee Heroes that need to Basic Attack and lack mobility.

Strengths

• Powerful crowd control
• Good self-sustain
• Counters melee Heroes that rely on Basic Attacks
• Solid damage output

Weaknesses

• Weak engage with Howling Blast
• No mobility
• Weak to Displacement effects
• Consumes a lot of Mana with Frozen Tempest
• Lack of interrupts
• Suffers against healing reduction effects
• Weak to kite
• Not enough burst damage protection

Death Coil Build

Recommended

Level 1 ?

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ? ? ?

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Arthas's Death Coil Build increases his self-sustain and poke damage, so that he is less vulnerable to poke damage and can trade better in team fights.

When casting Death Coil on enemy Heroes after picking Immortal Coil at Level 7, Arthas can heal himself and deal damage to the targeted enemy Hero at the same time. When self-casting it, Arthas gets extra healing from the same Talent.

Frozen Tempest Build

Advanced

Level 1 ?

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16 ?

Level 20 ? ? ?

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Arthas's Frozen Tempest Build allows him to cripple the enemy team's advance or retreat by further increasing the power of Howling Blast and Frozen Tempest.

The combination of Frozen Wastes at Level 4 and Remorseless Winter at Level 16 is particularly good to keep melee Heroes in check.

Frostmourne Build

Situational

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ? ? ?

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Arthas's Frostmourne Build increases his damage output in the late game, given you can get at least 20 stacks for Eternal Hunger at Level 1 during the game.

ARAM Build

ARAM

Level 1 ?

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ? ? ?

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Arthas's Death Coil Build increases his self-sustain and poke damage, so that he is less vulnerable to poke damage and can trade better in team fights.

When casting Death Coil on enemy Heroes after picking Immortal Coil at Level 7, Arthas can heal himself and deal damage to the targeted enemy Hero at the same time. When self-casting it, Arthas gets extra healing from the same Talent.

See our Talents page for further information »

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Arthas synergizes with

Arthas pairs well with Heroes who can either follow-up on his crowd control (such as Chromie with A Proper Greeting) or initiate with their own (for example Maiev), especially if your main Tank does not provide enough crowd control for peeling (Stitches comes to mind).

Heroes who can give him some mobility (for example Zarya with Speed Barrier at Level 4) and/or help him survive through burst damage definitely help (such as Medivh).

Arthas is countered by

Arthas, due to his lack of mobility gets easily countered by Displacement effects (such as Wrecking Ball by Garrosh).

He also suffers against burst damage usually coming from Mages (for example Kel'Thuzad), healing reduction effects (such as Emerald by Deckard Cain), high range (Hanzo comes to mind), Slow effects (for example Jaina), and high mobility (such as Zeratul played correctly).

Last but not the least, Arthas does not like to face enemy Heroes who are weak to interrupts (like Sonya and her Whirlwind) because he does not have any of them.

Arthas's stronger maps

Arthas's average maps

Arthas's weaker maps

Due to Frozen Tempest being heavy on Mana consumption, Arthas suffers on Maps where he needs to stay active for long periods of time (with Braxis Holdout being the major offender) and does not shine on Maps where it is highly preferred to have your Offlaner take care of 2 lanes by double soaking (for example top-mid on Towers of Doom).

While being decent at it, Arthas does not excel at capturing Camps and/or defending enemy Mercenaries in lane, making him a suboptimal pick on Maps where macro is important (for example Garden of Terror).

• Death Coil can be used on enemies to damage them or on Arthas to heal him, something that can be done faster by using the Self Cast Modifier [Alt] rather than by mouse-hovering Arthas.
• Howling Blast being a slow projectile requires you to predict the movements of enemy Heroes.
• Frozen Tempest reduces both Movement Speed and Attack Speed of enemy Heroes, making it particularly effective against melee Heroes who rely on Basic Attacks.
• Frostmourne Hungers resets the cooldown of your Basic Attack, so try to use it immediately after a Basic Attack goes off.
• Army of the Dead can heal you on cooldown if you press R to cast it, then press and hold R for its duration.
• Summon Sindragosa disables enemy Structures, excluding Healing Fountains, which can make it a very potent ability to use during pushes.

Even if classified as Tank by Blizzard in-game, Arthas is mostly played as Offlaner because his lack of interrupts and mobility do not allow him to scare most Tanks and, more in general, Heroes in the current metagame. In addition to that, he is fairly weak when he cannot count on his powerful Army of the Dead to increase his survivability—before Level 10, against burst damage, or against healing reduction effects.

To further compare him to other Tanks, the Root provided by Howling Blast cannot stop enemy Heroes from casting their Abilities, making him usually not a good choice over Tanks with a Stun (such as E.T.C. having Powerslide).

All that said, Arthas is primarly chosen to provide his team additional peeling from melee Heroes during team fights (for example against Kerrigan) or to counter a particular Tank (for example Diablo) or Solo Laner (such as Artanis).