Arthas Build Guide “Frostmourne hungers.”

Last updated on May 12, 2026 at 14:50 by Elitesparkle 27 comments
General Information

Welcome to our guide for Arthas, a Tank in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.

1.

Arthas's Overview

Arthas is a Tank who relies on Roots and Slows to peel for his team or to stop enemy Heroes from retreating. This type of crowd-control is great against melee Heroes that rely on Basic Attacks and lack mobility.

2.

Arthas's Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
X Weaknesses
3.

Arthas's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Frozen Tempest Build

Recommended
Level 1 Borean Winds Icon Rime Icon ?
Level 4 Icy Talons Icon
Level 7 Rune Tap Icon Immortal Coil Icon ?
Level 10 Army of the Dead Icon Summon Sindragosa Icon ?
Level 13 Biting Cold Icon
Level 16 Remorseless Winter Icon Anti-Magic Shell Icon ?
Level 20 Path of Frost Icon Absolute Zero Icon ? Death Pact Icon ?

Arthas's Frozen Tempest Build allows him to cripple the enemy team's advance or retreat by further increasing the power and utility of Frozen Tempest Icon Frozen Tempest. We find this Build particularly good against melee Heroes with low-mobility.

Borean Winds Icon Borean Winds at Level 1 gives a moderate amount of mobility, Biting Cold Icon Biting Cold at Level 13 increases your damage output, and Remorseless Winter Icon Remorseless Winter at Level 16 provides another way to Root enemy Heroes.

When playing against Heroes with slow but heavy hitting Basic Attacks, pick Rime Icon Rime at Level 1. When you need more self-sustain, pick Immortal Coil Icon Immortal Coil at Level 7. When playing against Heroes who deal a lot of damage with Abilities, pick Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell at Level 16.

Howling Blast Build

Advanced
Level 1 Frost Presence Icon Rime Icon ?
Level 4 Shattered Armor Icon
Level 7 Icebound Fortitude Icon Immortal Coil Icon ?
Level 10 Army of the Dead Icon Summon Sindragosa Icon ?
Level 13 Deathchill Icon
Level 16 Remorseless Winter Icon Anti-Magic Shell Icon ?
Level 20 Path of Frost Icon Absolute Zero Icon ? Death Pact Icon ?

Arthas's Howling Blast Build is designed to increase the burst damage done by his whole team, to quickly secure kills during the Root from Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast, before enemy Heroes receive enough healing to survive.

Frost Presence Icon Frost Presence at Level 1 makes both your engage and your peeling reliable. The burst damage comes from Shattered Armor Icon Shattered Armor at Level 4 and Deathchill Icon Deathchill at Level 13.

When playing against Heroes with slow but heavy hitting Basic Attacks, pick Rime Icon Rime at Level 1. When you need more self-sustain, pick Immortal Coil Icon Immortal Coil at Level 7. When playing against Heroes who deal a lot of damage with Abilities, pick Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell at Level 16.

ARAM Build

ARAM
Level 1 Frost Presence Icon Rime Icon ?
Level 4 Shattered Armor Icon
Level 7 Immortal Coil Icon Icebound Fortitude Icon ?
Level 10 Summon Sindragosa Icon Army of the Dead Icon ?
Level 13 Deathchill Icon
Level 16 Remorseless Winter Icon Anti-Magic Shell Icon ?
Level 20 Absolute Zero Icon Path of Frost Icon ? Death Pact Icon ?

Arthas's ARAM Build is designed to increase the burst damage done by his whole team, to quickly secure kills during the Root from Howling Blast Icon Howling Blast, before enemy Heroes receive enough healing to survive.

Frost Presence Icon Frost Presence at Level 1 makes both your engage and your peeling reliable. The burst damage comes from Shattered Armor Icon Shattered Armor at Level 4 and Deathchill Icon Deathchill at Level 13.

When playing against Heroes with slow but heavy hitting Basic Attacks, pick Rime Icon Rime at Level 1. When you need protection from burst damage and/or most crowd-control effects, pick Icebound Fortitude Icon Icebound Fortitude at Level 7. When playing against Heroes who deal a lot of damage with Abilities, pick Anti-Magic Shell Icon Anti-Magic Shell at Level 16.

4.

Arthas's Synergies and Counters

V Arthas synergizes with

Arthas pairs well with Heroes who can either follow-up on his crowd control (such as Chromie with A Proper Greeting Icon 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 Icon Speed Barrier at Level 4) and/or help him survive through burst damage definitely help (such as Medivh).

X Arthas is countered by

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

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

5.

Arthas's Maps

Arthas's stronger maps
Arthas's average maps
Arthas's weaker maps

Due to Frozen Tempest Icon 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).

6.

Arthas's Tips and Tricks

  • Death Coil Icon 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 Icon Howling Blast being a slow projectile requires you to predict the movements of enemy Heroes.
  • Frozen Tempest Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Summon Sindragosa disables enemy Structures, excluding Healing Fountains, which can make it a very potent ability to use during pushes.
7.

Arthas's Role in the Current Meta

Arthas can be played either as a Tank or as an Offlaner. In either case, he is being drafted to shut down melee Heroes with low mobility and to punish enemy Heroes who have a way to engage but not to get out.

As a Tank, he is quite durable and excels in prolonged team fights against melee Heroes but cannot interrupt enemy casts. He can use Roots and Slows to peel for his team or to stop enemy Heroes from retreating.

As an Offlaner, he has good waveclear and self-sustain but cannot capture Mercenary Camps. He can use Roots and Slows to punish melee Heroes who get too close to him in lane.

8.

Changelog

  • 12 May 2026 (talents page): Guide updated for the latest Balance Update.
  • 12 May 2026 (abilities page): Guide updated for the latest Balance Update.
  • 12 May 2026 (this page): Guide updated for the latest Balance Update.
  • 25 Apr. 2026 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
  • 25 Apr. 2026 (abilities page): Guide reviewed.
  • 25 Apr. 2026 (this page): Guide reviewed.
  • 23 Apr. 2026 (talents page): Guide updated for the latest Hero Rework.
  • 23 Apr. 2026 (abilities page): Guide updated for the latest Hero Rework.
  • 23 Apr. 2026 (this page): Guide updated for the latest Hero Rework.
  • 18 Apr. 2025 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
  • 18 Apr. 2025 (abilities page): Guide reviewed.
  • 18 Apr. 2025 (this page): Guide reviewed.
  • 13 Dec. 2024 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 13 Dec. 2024 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 13 Dec. 2024 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 18 Aug. 2024 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
  • 18 Aug. 2024 (abilities page): Guide reviewed.
  • 18 Aug. 2024 (this page): Guide reviewed.
  • 20 Sep. 2023 (talents page): ARAM Build added.
  • 20 Sep. 2023 (this page): ARAM Build added.
  • 26 Nov. 2022 (talents page): Guide reviewed.
  • 26 Nov. 2022 (abilities page): Guide reviewed.
  • 26 Nov. 2022 (this page): Guide reviewed.
  • 02 May 2022 (talents page): Builds added.
  • 02 May 2022 (this page): Builds added.
  • 07 Dec. 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Major Patch.
  • 07 Dec. 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Major Patch.
  • 07 Dec. 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Major Patch.
  • 10 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 09 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated.
  • 09 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds and Talents updated.
  • 21 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build page updated.
    • Balance Update revision.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 21 Aug. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities and Strategy page updated.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 21 Aug. 2020 (this page): Introduction page updated.
    • Balance Update revision.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 03 May 2020 (talents page): Talent Build fully revised to match new standards.
    • Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
    • Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
  • 03 May 2020 (abilities page): Ability and Strategy fully revised to match new standards.
    • Tips and Tricks modified to add important tips that were missing and to remove obvious ones that were not worth mentioning.
    • Ability Descriptions modified to better explain how to use Abilities effectively.
  • 03 May 2020 (this page): Introduction fully revised to match new standards.
    • Overview rewritten to better describe the Hero.
    • Strengths and Weaknesses modified to give a better idea about the Hero when being played right.
    • Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
    • Synergies and Counters modified to mention notable Heroes that were missing and to remove misleading Heroes that were listed.
    • Maps modified to focus on the main aspects of the Hero when evaluating a Map.
    • Tips and Tricks modified to list important tips that were missing before and to delete more obvious ones.
    • Role in the Current Meta modified to reflect the current metagame and to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
  • 23 Mar. 2020 (this page): Wrong information corrected.
  • 23 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Updated Arthas's Tank Build.
  • 09 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added an entry about the current Anomaly to the guide.
  • 25 Nov. 2019 (talents page): Changed Deathlord from Situational to Not Recommended.
  • 05 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Completely overhauled and updated Arthas's talents and builds to make the guide more up-to-date with the current state of the game.
  • 05 Jun. 2019 (abilities page): Slight updates to some of the ability descriptions.
  • 05 Jun. 2019 (this page): Updated map rankings, strengths, weaknesses, matchups, etc.
  • 04 May 2017 (talents page): Updated Frost Presence's talent description.
  • 16 Apr. 2017 (talents page): Changed the Howling Blast build to use Icebound Fortitude instead of Mortal Coil and improved the description of the Bruiser build.
  • 15 Mar. 2017 (talents page): Removed Self-Heal Build and updated the other two builds.
  • 14 Mar. 2017 (talents page): Overhauled talent recommendations following Arthas's rework in Probius's patch.
  • 18 Jan. 2017 (this page): Converted guide to new format and updated it.
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