Arthas Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ✓ ?
4	? ✓ ?
7	? ✓ ?
10	✓ ?
13	? ? ✓
16	✓ ? ?
20	? ? ? ✓

Frozen Tempest Build

Recommended

Level 1 ?

Level 4

Level 7 ?

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16 ?

Level 20 ? ?

Copy build to clipboard Build copied! Talent calculator »

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. 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 waveclear, pick Frost Strike at Level 4. When you need sustain healing out of combat, 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

Advanced

Level 1 ?

Level 4 ?

Level 7 ?

Level 10 ?

Level 13 ?

Level 16 ?

Level 20 ? ?

Copy build to clipboard Build copied! Talent calculator »

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, 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 waveclear, pick Frost Strike at Level 4. When you need sustain healing out of combat, 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

ARAM

Level 1 ?

Level 4

Level 7 ?

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16 ?

Level 20 ? ?

Copy build to clipboard Build copied! Talent calculator »

Arthas's ARAM 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 waveclear, pick Frost Strike at Level 4. When you need sustain healing out of combat, 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.

?

Frost Presence (Level 1) Arthas

Increase the area of Howling Blast by 20%.

Quest: Hit enemy Heroes with Howling Blast.

Reward: After Hitting 15 Heroes, Howling Blast's range is increased by 20% and it hits enemies in its path.

Reward: After Hitting 30 Heroes, Death Coil Slows Heroes hit by 50% for 0.75 seconds.

Frost Presence is a strong Talent that empowers Howling Blast when hitting enemy Heroes with it. After gaining 15 stacks, Howling Blast has more range and hits enemies in its path, which results in a bigger area covered. After gaining 30 stacks, Death Coil Slows enemy Heroes hit, which could be used as a setup for Howling Blast.

After completing the Quest, remember to change your playstyle from aiming Howling Blast right on the enemy Hero to aiming slightly beyond them when you are close enough to do so. This way Howling Blast will cover a bigger area and sometimes even hit more enemies than usual.

The additional range helps you to engage from farther away, which is especially valuable against enemy Heroes who like to play from the distance. The additional area covered helps you to peel because it will be easier to hit multiple enemy Heroes who are playing aggressively.

✔

Borean Winds (Level 1) Arthas

After Frozen Tempest has been active for 2 seconds, Arthas gains 10% Movement Speed.

Passive: Frozen Tempest's Slowing effects last an additional 0.5 seconds and its Mana cost is reduced by 4 per second.

Borean Winds is a strong Talent that increases Arthas's Movement Speed after using Frozen Tempest for a few seconds. This effect goes away when cancelling Frozen Tempest. Furthermore, it makes the Slow and the Attack Speed reduction last slightly longer, and reduces its Mana cost.

?

Rime (Level 1) Arthas

Every 5 seconds, gain 75 Physical Armor against the next enemy Hero Basic Attack, reducing the damage taken by 75%. Stores up to 3 charges.

Passive: Arthas heals for 24 (+4% per level) Health per second while Slowed, Rooted, or Stunned.

Rime is a situational Talent that periodically gives Physical Armor in the form of Block charges. In addition to that, Arthas passively heals over time while Stunned, Rooted, or Slowed.

Block charges are especially valuable when facing Heroes with slow but heavy-hitting Basic Attacks (such as Hanzo) and terrible when playing against Heroes with fast-hitting Basic Attacks (D.Va, Genji, Kharazim, Lúcio, Tassadar, Tracer, and Tychus). Heroes with Clones (for example Nova) can consume them faster too, however, it is generally not a problem because their AI will not always target you.

?

Shattered Armor (Level 4) Arthas

Enemy Heroes hit by Howling Blast have their Armor reduced by 15 for 4 seconds.

Shattered Armor is a strong Talent that causes Howling Blast to reduce the Armor of enemy Heroes hit, amplifying the damage done by you and the rest of your team.

Since Armor reduction effects do not stack, this Talent is less impactful when another Hero in your team can already reduce the Armor of enemy Heroes, however, it can still be useful in the early game if their effect comes from a Talent that is only pickable in the late game.

While it has synergy with Frost Presence at Level 1, it is not a strong requirement and can therefore be picked without it as well. Similarly, even though it does not have a direct synergy with it, Deathchill at Level 13 can be picked together to further increase your burst damage.

✔

Icy Talons (Level 4) Arthas

Gain 3% Attack Speed for 2 seconds every time a Hero is damaged by Frozen Tempest, up to a maximum of 60%.

Icy Talons is a good Talent that provides a powerful Attack Speed buff when fighting against Heroes who cannot get out of Frozen Tempest with ease (such as Artanis). This bonus does ramp up faster if multiple enemy Heroes are being hit by Frozen Tempest at the same time.

We find this Talent particularly useful when playing against melee Heroes without mobility tools to avoid Arthas and against teams without burst damage, otherwise you will not have enough targets to make in ramp up in a reasonable time and you may get killed before getting value from it.

?

Frost Strike (Level 4) Arthas

Frostmourne Hungers deals an additional 115 (+4% per level) Spell Damage in an area and Slows enemy Heroes hit by 20% for 2 seconds.

Frost Strike is a good Talent which causes Basic Attacks empowered by Frostmourne Hungers to deal area of effect damage in the form of Spell Damage and Slow enemy Heroes hit.

We find this Talent useful when you want to increase your waveclear. After picking it, use Basic Attacks empowered by Frostmourne Hungers on the Wizard Minion in the middle of a wave of Minions. This way you will be able to damage all nearby Minions with it.

?

Immortal Coil (Level 7) Arthas

Gain the healing effect of Death Coil even when used on enemies. If Death Coil is used on Arthas, it heals for an additional 75% bonus healing and its cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds.

Immortal Coil is a good Talent that empowers Death Coil differently depending on whether it is being used defensively or offensively. When used on enemy Heroes, Arthas still receives healing (with travel time). When self-cast, Arthas receives more healing (without travel time) and Death Coil's cooldown is reduced.

✔

Rune Tap (Level 7) Arthas

Every 3rd Basic Attack heals Arthas for 5% of his max Health.

Passive: Each stack of Frostmourne Hungers increases Arthas's maximum Health by 10.

Rune Tap is a good Talent that increases Arthas's survivability while dueling or in prolonged team fights by making every third Basic Attack heal him for a percentage of his maximum Health. In addition to that, Arthas's maximum Health is passively increased based on how many stacks of Frostmourne Hungers you have.

The healing via Basic Attacks has synergy with Frostmourne Hungers that resets the cooldown of your next Basic Attack and with Icy Talons at Level 4 that increases your Attack Speed. The bonus maximum Health provided can be increased by picking Death Pact at Level 20.

?

Icebound Fortitude (Level 7) Arthas

• Cooldown: 35 seconds

Activate to gain 25 Armor and reduce the duration of Stuns, Slows, and Roots against Arthas by 75% for 3 seconds.

Each Hero Rooted by Howling Blast reduces the cooldown of this ability by 2 seconds.

Icebound Fortitude is a strong Talent with a relatively short cooldown that can be activated to heavily increase Arthas's survivability against most crowd control effects and burst damage. The cooldown is reduced every time Howling Blast hits an enemy Hero.

Arthas does not have mobility to quickly get out of danger. When threated by burst damage or healing reduction effects, you should pick this Talent to make Arthas harder to kill. While this Talent does not directly help against healing reduction effects, having more Armor is helpful against them and the alternative Talents in this Tier are all healing-based.

In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.

✔

Army of the Dead (Level 10) Arthas

• Charges: 6
• Recharge Time: 18 seconds

Consume all charges to summon an equal number of Ghouls that lose Health over 20 seconds and attack for 20 (+4% per level) damage. Reactivate to sacrifice a ghoul, healing Arthas for 240 (+4% per level) Health. Stores up to 6 charges.

Whenever a nearby enemy Minion dies, reduce the charge cooldown of this Ability by 1 second. Takedowns reduce the charge cooldown of this Ability by 6 seconds.

Army of the Dead is a strong Heroic Ability that heavily increases Arthas's survivability in team fights when activated with many charges available and reactivated to heal by sacrificing Ghouls.

You can use this Heroic Ability to tank enemy Structures while pushing or to spawn Ghouls in front of enemy Heroes who rely on skillshots to deal damage (notably Li-Ming). This way you will take less damage and maybe even reduce the damage taken by allied Heroes who are standing on your side or behind you.

Avoid picking this Heroic Ability when playing against Heroes who can quickly kill all Ghouls or when the enemy team has healing reduction effects (for example Mortal Wound by Xul) because they will be able to deny the additional healing provided.

?

Summon Sindragosa (Level 10) Arthas

• Mana: 100
• Cooldown: 100 seconds

Deals 230 (+4% per level) damage and Slows enemies by 60% for 4 seconds. Also disables Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters and Structures for 20 seconds.

Summon Sindragosa is a strong Heroic Ability that gives some damage and crowd control. In particular, it allows Arthas to engage from the distance, even when enemy Heroes are too far for being hit with Howling Blast, and to disable enemy Structures when pushing or diving.

Pick this Heroic Ability when you do not need the additional survivability provided by Army of the Dead and your team wants to play aggressively. If you are playing on a Map where games rarely get to Level 20 and your team has a solid lead, you can capitalize on it by using Summon Sindragosa right after winning a team fight or Objective to get an early Keep.

?

Deathlord (Level 13) Arthas

If Death Coil is used on an enemy Hero, launch an additional Death Coil at a nearby enemy Hero.

Passive: Death Coil deals more damage the lower Arthas's current Health is, up to a maximum of 50% bonus damage.

Deathlord is a good Talent which empowers Death Coil when used offensively, dealing 0.5% more damage for each percentage of Health missing on Arthas (for example, at 50% Health it deals 25% more damage). When used on an enemy Hero, it also launches a second Death Coil at a nearby enemy Hero. When using Death Coil on Arthas, this Talent does nothing.

If you have Immortal Coil at Level 7, using Death Coil on enemy Heroes will also heal Arthas. This healing is doubled if there is another enemy Hero nearby. If you are in desperate need of healing, you should still prefer to self-cast Death Coil because it gives almost as much healing as hitting 2 enemy Heroes (without travel time) and Death Coil's cooldown reduction.

?

Deathchill (Level 13) Arthas

Howling Blast's damage is increased by 2 for each stack of Frostmourne Hungers.

Howling Blast deals 100% additional damage and Roots for an additional 0.25 seconds against Heroes under 50% Health.

Deathchill is a good Talent which increases the damage done by Howling Blast and the duration of its Root effect. The damage is increased based on how many stacks of Frostmourne Hungers you have and based on how much Health enemy Heroes are missing. The duration of its Root effect is only increased based on how much Health enemy Heroes are missing.

When trying to burst down enemy Heroes, the damage bonus can be made more lethal by combining this Talent with Shattered Armor at Level 4, although it does not have a direct synergy with it, and can be increased by picking Death Pact at Level 20.

✔

Biting Cold (Level 13) Arthas

Each second an enemy is damaged by Frozen Tempest, it deals 15% bonus damage, up to a 75% bonus.

Biting Cold is a strong Talent that increases Frozen Tempest's damage when fighting against Heroes who cannot get out of Frozen Tempest with ease (such as Artanis). This bonus does NOT ramp up faster if multiple enemies are being hit by Frozen Tempest at the same time.

We find this Talent particularly useful when playing against melee Heroes without mobility tools to avoid Arthas and against teams without burst damage, otherwise you may get killed before getting value from it.

✔

Remorseless Winter (Level 16) Arthas

Enemy Heroes that remain within Frozen Tempest for 2.5 seconds are Rooted for 1.25 seconds and heal Arthas for 3% of his maximum Health. This effect has an 8 second cooldown per target.

Remorseless Winter is a strong Talent that, when enemy Heroes stay too long inside Frozen Tempest, heals Arthas for each enemy Hero hit and Roots them, drastically increasing Arthas's crowd control capabilities against low-mobility Heroes (such as Cassia). This effect can only occur once every 8 seconds per target.

?

Frostmourne Feeds (Level 16) Arthas

Reduce the cooldown of Frostmourne Hungers by 6 seconds. Arthas heals for 75% of the Basic Attack damage dealt by Frostmourne Hungers.

Frostmourne Feeds is a good Talent which reduces the cooldown of Frostmourne Hungers and makes Basic Attacks empowered by it heal Arthas for a portion of the damage dealt.

Thanks to the cooldown reduction provided, this Talent has synergy with Frost Strike at Level 4, Rune Tap at Level 7, and Death Pact at Level 20.

?

Anti-Magic Shell (Level 16) Arthas

• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Activate to make Arthas immune to Spell Damage for 4 seconds and heal Arthas for 25% of the damage prevented.

Anti-Magic Shell is a situational Talent that allows Arthas to survive burst damage in the form of both Spell Damage and percent-based damage.

Activating this Talent allows to mitigate the huge amount of damage that notable Arthas's counter picks (for example Jaina) can deal to him, although its effectiveness can be partially reduced by healing reduction effects.

?

Legion of Northrend (Level 20) Arthas

Reduce Army of the Dead's charge cooldown by 5 seconds.

Each charge consumed spawns an additional Ghoul to attack nearby enemies. These Ghouls cannot be sacrificed.

Legion of Northrend is a decent Talent that increases Arthas's survivability by reducing the charge cooldown of Army of the Dead and his damage and utility by spawning an additional Ghoul per charge. Ghouls spawned this way do not follow Arthas but attack nearby enemies. You will NOT get more healing from this Talent because the additional Ghouls cannot be sacrificed.

?

Absolute Zero (Level 20) Arthas

Sindragosa flies twice as far. Enemy Heroes are Rooted for 2.5 seconds, and then Slowed by 60% for 4 seconds.

Absolute Zero is a strong Talent that greatly increases the strength of Summon Sindragosa by adding a relatively long Root before the already powerful Slow effect, allowing you to engage from farther away and/or to keep enemy Heroes locked in place for longer.

Considering that Summon Sindragosa already has a high range, the additional distance covered is not indispensable. That said, sometimes it may help you disable enemy Structures from the distance and/or catch enemy Heroes that want to avoid a team fight at all costs.

Avoid picking this Talent against Heroes who have a way to free up multiple Heroes from a Root effect (for example Nature's Cure by Malfurion). Note that cleansing the Root will also prevent the Slow from being applied.

?

Death Pact (Level 20) Arthas

Instantly double your stacks of Frostmourne Hungers, but it no longer gains stacks from hitting Heroes or killing Minions.

Passive: Takedowns grant 2 stacks of Frostmourne Hungers.

Death Pact is a good Talent which instantly double your stacks of Frostmourne Hungers, prevents you from gaining stacks by killing Minions or hitting Heroes with it, but allows you to gain stacks by killing Heroes.

We recommend picking this Talent when you want to increase your damage output and you have at least 40 stacks of Frostmourne Hungers, otherwise you will not get enough value out of it.

Since it increases your stacks of Frostmourne Hungers, this Talent has synergy with Rune Tap at Level 7 and Deathchill at Level 13.

✔

Path of Frost (Level 20) Arthas

• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Activate to instantly mount with 10% additional Movement Speed. Taking damage does not dismount Arthas from this Mount. Lasts up to 5 seconds.

When Arthas dismounts, Slow all nearby enemies by 30% for 2 seconds and deal 66 (+4% per level) damage.

Path of Frost is a strong Talent which can be activated to instantly summon your Mount with increased Movement Speed for up to 5 seconds. Damage taken during this effect doesn't dismount Arthas. When the effect expires or Arthas dismounts, nearby enemies are Slowed and take damage.