🧬 Who is Arthas?
Arthas Menethil, once a noble prince, became the cold-hearted Lich King, bringing death and ice to all who defy him. In the Nexus, he’s a durable frontline tank / off-tank bruiser specializing in sustained slows, AOE presence, and self-healing sustain. If you love walking into fights like an unstoppable juggernaut and watching enemies crumble under permafrost, Arthas is your king.
Main Roles:
🛡️ Frontline Bruiser | ❄️ Zone Controller | 💀 Death
March Initiator
🛠️ Abilities (Quick Look)
- Frostmourne Hungers (Trait – D): Empowers next basic attack with bonus damage + mana restore.
- Howling Blast (Q): A targeted AOE root.
- Frozen Tempest (W): A swirling AOE aura that slows and damages.
- Death Coil (E): Point-targeted damage or self-heal.
- Army of the Dead (R1): Summon ghouls to fight & heal you.
- Sindragosa (R2): Massive frontal AOE slow and disable structures.
🎮 Gameplay Guide
Arthas excels at locking down the battlefield, slowing enemies to a crawl, and forcing drawn-out fights where his sustain and presence shine.
✅ Early Game
- Zone enemies with Frozen Tempest.
- Look for root opportunities with Howling Blast.
- Use Frostmourne Hungers on cooldown for sustain.
✅ Teamfights
- Initiate with Howling Blast, activate Frozen Tempest immediately.
- Use Death Coil aggressively to burst squishies or defensively to heal.
- Army of the Dead makes you nearly unkillable during brawls.
- Sindragosa to lock down objectives or backline mages.
✅ Objective Control
- Freeze enemy advances with Howling Blast.
- Park yourself on objectives with Frozen Tempest.
- Drop Sindragosa on towers during pushes for massive advantage.
🛡️ Builds & Gameplay Focus
⚔️ Permafrost Death March Build
Level 1: Rime
Level 4: Deathlord
Level
7: Immortal Coil
Level 10: Army of the
Dead
Level 13: Shattered Armor
Level 16:
Frostmourne Feeds
Level 20: Legion of Northrend
Focus: Sustain Tanking, Backline Lockdown, Endless Slows
The Lowdown:
This build transforms Arthas into a walking
glacier of doom — a relentless wall of icy death that thrives the longer
fights drag on. You’re not here for quick skirmishes or flashy assassinations. Your
entire existence revolves around outlasting your enemies, choking their
movements, and making sure no one leaves a fight unpunished. Between
constant slows, roots, and massive self-sustain, you turn teamfights into a cold,
grinding death march.
Where other tanks fear burst damage and focused dives, you embrace it. With Army of the Dead and a buffed Death Coil build, you can frontline for absurd durations while peeling for your backline and punishing overextenders. Enemies who stay too close get shredded by Frozen Tempest and empowered autos. The longer you stay alive, the more pressure you exert, until the enemy team’s health bars freeze over completely.
The Core Loop & Synergy:
- Rime (1) stacks block charges for passive tankiness.
- Deathlord (4) reduces Death Coil CD — more self-heal uptime.
- Immortal Coil (7) boosts heal when used on self + shields.
- Army of the Dead (10) keeps you alive indefinitely in big fights.
- Shattered Armor (13) amplifies enemy vulnerability to basics.
- Frostmourne Feeds (16) resets empowered auto attacks for burst.
- Legion of Northrend (20) doubles ghoul spawn for ridiculous sustain.
Key Tactics & Pro Tips:
- Stay on enemies with Frozen Tempest permanently active.
- Root priority targets (mages, dive bruisers) with Howling Blast.
- Use Army of the Dead early in fights — better to stay topped off than panic-casting it late.
- Death Coil to clutch-heal or finish enemies.
In short: You’re the wall. You don’t die. You peel, slow, and become death incarnate in teamfights.
⚔️ Split Push / Anti-Structure Sindragosa Build
Level 1: Eternal Hunger
Level 4: Frost
Presence
Level 7: Icebound Fortitude
Level 10:
Summon Sindragosa
Level 13: Frost Strike
Level
16: Remorseless Winter
Level 20: Absolute Zero
Focus: Structure Shutter, Objective Denial, Backline Isolation
The Lowdown:
This build turns Arthas into a siege breaker and
battlefield dictator. You’re no longer just a tank — you’re a force of
nature that disables structures, splits enemy formations, and isolates squishy
backliners for easy picks. Perfect on maps where structural control defines win
conditions, you use Summon Sindragosa to shut down towers, forts, and
keeps mid-push or mid-objective, removing defensive tools and leaving the enemy
scrambling.
This build leans into control and sustained pressure. You abuse Frost Presence to root priority targets often, trap escape routes, and force bad positions. Eternal Hunger keeps your mana up while your empowered autos chunk both heroes and structures. The real showstopper is Absolute Zero at 20 — upgrading your Sindragosa into a massive AOE lockdown that turns objectives and keep dives into death traps.
You’re less about soaking burst here, more about setting the pace of the game: disabling defenses, zoning mages, and making every push a lethal threat.
The Core Loop & Synergy:
- Eternal Hunger (1) buffs your Trait for mana sustain and burst.
- Frost Presence (4) halves Howling Blast cooldown when you land roots.
- Icebound Fortitude (7) lets you survive burst dives.
- Sindragosa (10) disables enemy structures and slows heroes.
- Frost Strike (13) keeps enemies slowed on empowered auto-hits.
- Remorseless Winter (16) roots enemies inside Frozen Tempest.
- Absolute Zero (20) upgrades Sindragosa for a huge freeze duration.
Key Tactics & Pro Tips:
- Use Sindragosa before big teamfights near forts or keep walls.
- Spam Howling Blast with Frost Presence to keep backliners trapped.
- Focus split pushes when objectives are on cooldown.
- Take advantage of Absolute Zero to force decisive engages.
In short: You’re the deathly sledgehammer that shatters forts, isolates carries, and controls fights through sheer cold authority.
📊 Final Thoughts
Arthas is a juggernaut bruiser-tank with insane zone control, self-heal sustain, and late-game scaling. He may not have gap closers, but his slows and AOE presence make him the ultimate frontline glacier.
March into battle, slow them all, and remind them who rules this frozen throne. ❄️👑