by Hotstreak - 10 years ago     show comments

Hello guys! I am starting a weekly article every Friday that covers the known playable heroes for Heroes of the Storm, with the first being a fan favorite, Arthas. With these weekly articles I will also be going over a little bit of backstory for each character I cover for all you folks who may not be familiar with Blizzard’s Universes. Alright so lets see how Arthas will effect the battlefield!

Backstory

Arthas Menethil was the son of Terenas Menethil II, King of Lordaeron and was the Prince of Lordaeron and Knight of the Silver Hand led by Uther the Lightbringer. He was trained as a paladin by Uther. Even though he was a promising knight, he went down a path of vengeance which ultimately lead to what you see him as in Heroes of the Storm. This all started with the Culling of Stratholme.

Stratholme was one of the first cities to be struck by the plague, when he found this out he ordered Uther and a mage by the name of Jaina Proudmoore to help him purge the city to prevent the plague from spreading further. Uther and Jaina did not follow his demands so he went on to purge the city himself which is where his downfall began. After the Culling of Stratholme, he encountered a Dread Lord by the name of Mal’Ganis. Mal’Ganis and Arthas fought briefly. Then after the fight, Mal’Ganis told him to go to the frozen wastes of Northrend where he should fulfill his destiny.

Arthas then gathered an army and set sail for Northrend. While on Northrend, he went on a search for the ancient runeblade Frostmourne; as he heard it contained the power to slay Mal’Ganis. Accompanied by an old friend Muradin Bronzebeard he found the sword. Despite Muradin’s warning, he took the sword which caused Muradin to go out cold, then his downfall was coming to a climax.

He searched for and found Mal’Ganis who told him that the voice he was hearing was the Lich King, but Arthas replied saying that the voice was instructing him to destroy Mal’ganis.  Mal’ganis was very surprised and ultimately destroyed by Arthas. After the fight, he abandoned his men and wandered the frozen wastes losing every last bit of his sanity.  Once Arthas returned to Azeroth, he killed his father King Terenas Menethil II and everyone in Lordaeron; raising them after death to add to his undead army.

With his new army, he marched through Quel’thalas where he encountered Sylvanas Windrunner. He killed her and raised her as a banshee while also destroying the blood elf capital city Silvermoon. After the destruction he caused in Azeroth he made his way to the Frozen Throne in Icecrown where he had a confrontation with Illidan Stormrage. Once Illidan was defeated, he climbed the Frozen Throne where he put on Ner’Zhul’s helmet to fuse their souls, thus becoming The Lich King.

Talent and Abilities

I can see this talent being a fan favorite and a useful one at that. Think about it, every killing blow he gets is a new minion to fight for him. This talent might define how people try to play Arthas. Trying to get the killing blows in team fights to give numbers to their team and quickly turn the tide of battle around on the opposing team by overwhelming them with numbers.

Frost Strike (Q)

This is a pretty basic ability which comes with a slow and a chance for some AoE damage. The AoE damage seems like a pretty situational effect but could synergize well with Arthas’ heroic talent to maybe get 2 or 3 killing blows in a team fight with one enemy death. Arthas doesn’t seem to have much mobility either so a skill that slows the enemy down is going to be a very vital skill.

Howling Blast (W)

This skill looks like it could be a pretty nice team fight AoE. This skill also seems like it is going to be a skill shot since it says “target area”. Not to mention it could also be really great for ganks, since you could run in with a teammate or two, drop this AoE, and use your frost strike on an enemy to prevent them from even having a chance of getting away.

Hungering Cold (E)

This skill further enforces that arthas is going to be very useful in team fights. This ability is something that will be used later in the game when Arthas’ mana pool is higher. Although, I see this ability synergizing pretty well with his (Q) and (W). Slowing down enemies so they take more damage from Hungering Cold. It’s looking more and more like Arthas is going to be extremely annoying to face and will not be very easy to get away from.

Heroic Abilities

Each hero has 2 possible heroic abilities to be used (aka ultimates) but you can only have one of them equipped. Lets take a look at Arthas’ heroic abilities.

Summon Sindragosa (R)

The synergy of this skill with all of Arthas’ other skills is through the roof. This is a great ganking skill and an even greater team fight skill. Arthas can run in, hit his (W), use Sindragosa, and use his (Q) on an enemy to slow him and his team for days. The team fight power of Arthas is amazing and I can see a lot of people picking him.

Army of the Dead (R)

This is an ability that could be used for small ganks and team fights to try and overwhelm enemies. Although, I see this being used more for pushing towns. Think of it, you could be solo pushing a town and use the lane creeps and your army of the dead for a fast push. This is also going to be a very useful skill for team pushes. It will be pretty hard for the other team to stop 5 people and an army of undead minions from taking down a town wall. He could also put his heroic talent to use here and turn enemy lane creeps into friendly creeps to further push towns.

Conclusion

From the abilities we’ve seen here we can expect Arthas to be an excellent lane pusher and to excel in team fights. Arthas will play the role of a tanky initiator in team fights by dropping his AoE’s and slowing down enemies in an area. You may think he seems overpowered but his lack of mobility may make up for that, if you can manage to get away from him then he probably isn’t going to catch you. Arthas will probably be a favorite hero to play by a lot of people because of his popularity in the Warcraft Universe and his strong team fight/ganking abilities. I know he will be one of my favorites! Tell me how you feel about this hero in the comments below! Tune in for next week’s hero spotlight where I will be going over Diablo.