Arthas Build Guide “Frostmourne hungers.”
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.
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.
Arthas's Strengths and Weaknesses
Powerful crowd control
Good self-sustain
Counters melee Heroes that rely on Basic Attacks
Solid damage output
Durable against burst damage
Weak engage with
Howling BlastNo mobility
Weak to Displacement effects
Consumes a lot of Mana with
Frozen TempestSuffers against healing reduction effects
Weak to kite
Arthas's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Frozen Tempest Build
RecommendedArthas'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.
We find this Build particularly good against melee Heroes with
low-mobility.
Borean Winds at Level 1 gives a moderate amount of
mobility,
Biting Cold at Level 13
increases your damage output, and
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 at Level 1.
When you need more self-sustain, pick
Immortal Coil at Level 7.
When playing against Heroes who deal a lot of damage with Abilities,
pick
Anti-Magic Shell at Level 16.
Howling Blast Build
AdvancedArthas'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,
before enemy Heroes receive enough healing to survive.
Frost Presence at Level 1 makes both your
engage and your peeling reliable.
The burst damage comes from
Shattered Armor
at Level 4 and
Deathchill at Level 13.
When playing against Heroes with slow but heavy hitting Basic Attacks,
pick
Rime at Level 1.
When you need more self-sustain, pick
Immortal Coil at Level 7.
When playing against Heroes who deal a lot of damage with Abilities,
pick
Anti-Magic Shell at Level 16.
ARAM Build
ARAMArthas'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,
before enemy Heroes receive enough healing to survive.
Frost Presence at Level 1 makes both your
engage and your peeling reliable.
The burst damage comes from
Shattered Armor
at Level 4 and
Deathchill at Level 13.
When playing against Heroes with slow but heavy hitting Basic Attacks,
pick
Rime at Level 1.
When you need protection from burst damage
and/or most crowd-control effects,
pick
Icebound Fortitude at Level 7.
When playing against Heroes who deal a lot of damage with Abilities,
pick
Anti-Magic Shell at Level 16.
Arthas's Synergies and Counters
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, 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).
Arthas's 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).
Arthas's Tips and Tricks
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.
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.
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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Elitesparkle has been hooked on Heroes of the Storm since day one in 2015. Over the years, he has consistently competed at Master level across multiple Seasons and has even climbed into Grand Master a couple of times. Known for his logical mindset and love for theorycrafting, he thrives on breaking down the game's mechanics and engaging in high-level strategy discussions with the community.
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- Heroes of the Storm PTR Update: April 9
- Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: March 30
- Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes: February 19
- Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes: February 10
- Heroes of the Storm PTR Update: January 21
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