Artanis will enter the game as a high damage-dealing Warrior while Lt. Morales's biggest weakness gets some needed buffs.
It is time to welcome our 43rd Hero to the Nexus, currently playable on the Americas servers and soon to come to all others. Artanis, the protoss from the StarCraft Universe, will increase the number of Warriors in the game by one. He is designed to be a Warrior with the focus on damage. His kit consists of movement and damage-dealing abilities:
Blade Dash on Q makes Artanis dash forward to a selected direction and then dash back after short delay. The dash forward will deal moderate damage to all enemies in his path while the dash back will deal significant damage. This ability allows Artanis to dash through structures similar to Kharazim's Radiant Dash.
His W is Twin Blades, an ability that makes his next Basic Attack strike twice immediately. This ability has a short cooldown, and will bring a lot of his damage.
Arguably his most exciting ability is Phase Prism. This E ability is a skillshot with a short range and low-ish speed that swaps your position with the targetted enemy Hero, dealing damage as well. This ability has amazing playmaking potential, and increases the skill cap of Artanis immensely.
His first Heroic choice is Purifier Beam, an ability with global range that will chase and damage a single opponent. The beam will follow its target around for 8 seconds, albeit slower than the average walking speed. As such, this ability should be combo'd with stuns or slows for optimal damage.
His second Heroic is another global ability: Suppression Pulse. Suppression Pulse hits a large area of effect, dealing damage and blinding all enemies within for 4 seconds. Because of its global range, this ability can make the difference in any teamfight, even without Artanis' presence.
All of this, and more, can be seen in-action in Artanis' official spotlight:
It is important to note at this moment that Artanis is not yet available to everyone. As part of a promotional deal for the upcoming StarCraft II expansion, Legacy of the Void, Artanis has been awarded early to people who prepurchased said expansion. For everyone else, he will be released globally in one week!
In addition to the new hero, Lt. Morales has been buffed as well:
Lt. Morales Buffs
- Health increased from 700 (+110 per level) to 840 (+130 per level)
- Base Health Regeneration increased from 1.46 per second to 1.75
This is the best type of buff a hero can get- raw numbers. Lt. Morales will be harder to kill and that is ireffutable. As a result, the hero is stronger. These are all good things, as the excitement for Lt. Morales was lessened a bit once we all realized how easy she is to kill. Most competitive players agree that Lt. Morales has an extremely powerful set of abilities and, with these buffs, she may now have what it takes to compete with the likes of Uther, Malfurion, and Kharazim.
Read more about it in Blizzard's official patch notes.
Note: Blizzard has announced that Artanis will not be allowed during the World Championship because players will not have had enough time to practice with him.
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