Arthas

Title
 Role
 Franchise

**Arthas Menethil**, the Lich King, is a melee Tank Hero from the *Warcraft* universe. Once the crown prince of Lordaeron, and protégé of Uther the Lightbringer, Arthas was corrupted by the cursed blade Frostmourne in a bid to save his people. Now he rules over the damned as the Lich King and all shall know his wrath.

Arthas is a Tank who is proficient against melee Physical Attackers, Slowing them.

## History

 This section concerns content exclusive to the *Warcraft* universe.

Arthas Menethil, the crown prince of Lordaeron, was the son of King Terenas Menethil II, and Queen Lianne Menethil and younger brother of Princess Calia Menethil. He joined the Order of the Silver Hand led by Uther the Lightbringer, and was trained as a paladin. Arthas was a promising knight, though he eventually spiraled down a path of vengeance.

Arthas's downfall began at Stratholme, one of the first cities to be struck by the plague. Upon discovering that the grain stores in the city had been infected, Arthas ordered Uther and a Kirin Tor mage named Jaina Proudmoore to help him purge the city in order to prevent the plague from spreading further. Uther and Jaina refused to follow his demands, however, and Arthas went on to purge the city without them. In Stratholme, Arthas encountered and fought a dreadlord by the name of Mal'Ganis. Before Mal'Ganis fled, he told Arthas to meet him in the arctic land of Northrend.

Arthas gathered an army and set sail for Northrend. Upon his arrival, he encountered an old friend by the name of Muradin Bronzebeard. After Muradin told Arthas of an ancient and powerful runeblade and mourneblade called Frostmourne, which had the potential to slay Mal'Ganis, the two friends set out to look for the weapon. Upon finding Frostmourne, however, Muradin realized it was cursed and said they should leave it be. Arthas, willing to pay any price to save his people, did not heed Muradin's warning. He claimed the blade and seemingly killed his old friend in the process.

With Frostmourne in hand, Arthas set out to find Mal'Ganis. He fought through hordes of undead before reaching the dreadlord. Mal'Ganis revealed to Arthas that the whispers he was hearing from Frostmourne were actually the voice of the Lich King, and asked him what the Lich King's next instructions were. Arthas replied that the voice was telling him to enact his vengeance. Striking the astonished dreadlord down, Arthas abandoned his men and began wandering through the frozen wastes, where he lost what remained of his sanity. When Arthas returned to Lordaeron, he killed his father in cold blood and conquered the kingdom in the name of the Scourge.

Some time later, following the destruction he had wrought on the continent, the Lich King ordered Arthas to return to Northrend. Illidan Stormrage, who had been instructed by the Burning Legion to destroy the Lich King, raced Arthas to the immobile Lich King's seat of power in Icecrown. Ultimately, the two fought and Arthas emerged victorious. Arthas shattered the Frozen Throne and placed the helm of the Lich King upon his head, allowing the two to become one single being.

## Gameplay

 Arthas is an aggressive Tank who can be played both as a Bruiser and as a Tank. Arthas excels at slowing and rooting several opponents at the same time, which allows him to either chase down retreating enemies or to peel for threatened allies. The ability to reduce the Attack Speed of nearby opponents with  *Frozen Tempest*, makes him an excellent choice against Melee Assassins who are dependent on Basic Attacks. Another major strength Arthas inherits is his prominent ability dealing powerful burst damage with the help of trait,  *Frostmourne Hungers* and his versatile ability,  *Death Coil.* The third edge Arthas has over most Bruisers or Tanks, is his ability to both reduce the duration of standard crowd control effects, such as stun, silence, root and slow with his level 7 talent;  *Icebound Fortitude.* The fourth and final benefit Arthas is his unconditional survivability through his Heroic ability;  *Army of the Dead,* as he can use the added ability  *Sacrifice* while it's active to kill his summoned Ghouls in order to replenish his own health. Arthas is under many circumstances very strong in teamfights as his powerful crowd control abilities makes is much easier for Healers and Assassins to play correspondingly by following up their own crowd control or damage output, mainly through the works of reliance on skillshots. Arthas is a very solid frontliner, who can absorb lots of sustained damage in fight and zone heroes that like to dive his backline.

### Strengths

* Powerful crowd control abilities and zoning potential
* Strong self-sustain
* Resilient against Basic Attacks
* High damage output compared to other Tanks
* Decent laner
* Outstanding duelist against most Melee Assassins and Bruisers

### Arthas' Weaknesses

* No gap-closers
* Mana dependent
* Struggles against mages who deal a large amount of burst damage
* Reliant on his survivability to contribute in teamfights

## Abilities

*See **Data Page** for a table of scaled values at key levels.*

D
Frostmourne Hungers
 Cooldown: 10 seconds
Activate to make Arthas's next Basic Attack strike immediately and deal 99 increased damage. Dealing damage restores 30 Mana.

**Type:** Bonus damage, Mana restoration**Scaling:** 4.00% (damage) / - (mana)**Affects:** Enemies**Targeting:** No target**Properties:** Attack Modifier, Primed**Cast time:** Instant

* The damage is added to Arthas's Basic Attack damage and dealt in a single instance.
* Cooldown starts once the Ability is triggered by attacking an enemy.

Q
Death Coil
50 Mana Cooldown: 9 seconds
Deals 164 damage to target enemy.

Can be self-cast to heal for 262 Health.

**Type:** Spell Damage / Healing**Scaling:** 4.00% (both)**Affects:** Enemies / Self**Targeting:** Unit target**Cast time:** 0.15 + 0 seconds**Range:** 6.0**Missile speed:** 18

W
Howling Blast
70 Mana Cooldown: 12 seconds
Root enemies within the target area for 1.25 seconds and deals 68 damage.

**Type:** Spell Damage, Crowd control**Scaling:** 4.00%**Affects:** Enemies**Targeting:** Point Target**Properties:** Area of Effect, Root, Clamping, Self-castable**Cast time:** 0.15 + 0 seconds**Range:** 9.0**Radius:** 2.0**Missile speed:** 17

E
Frozen Tempest
 Cooldown: 1 seconds
13 Mana per second
Deal 40 damage per second to nearby enemies and Slow their Movement Speed by 10% per second, stacking up to 40%. Heroes hit also have their Attack Speed Slowed by 10% per second, stacking up to 40%. Frozen Tempest's effects last for 1.5 seconds.

**Type:** Spell Damage, Crowd control / Status effect**Scaling:** 4.00%**Affects:** Enemies / Enemy Heroes**Targeting:** No target (toggle)**Properties:** Area of Effect, Attack Slow, Slow**Cast time:** Instant**Radius:** 3.5**Tickrate:** 2.0 per second**Damage per tick:** 20**Slow per tick:** 5%

* Debuff can be fully removed with Invulnerable and friendly Stasis effects. Unstoppable and CC removal effects only remove the Slow and not the Attack Slow debuff.
* Slow stacks with itself, but not with other sources of Slows.
* Attack Slow stacks additively with itself and other effects that affect the target's Attack Speed.

R
Army of the Dead
80 Mana Cooldown: 80 seconds
Summons Ghouls that last 15 seconds and attack for 20 damage. Sacrifice Ghouls to heal for 267 Health.

**Type:** Summon**Targeting:** No target**Cast time:** 0.15 + 0 seconds**Summoned Ghouls:** 6

* The cooldown starts immediately when the Ability is activated.
* While active, the ability is replaced by *Sacrifice*.

**Ghoul****Type:** Active**Scaling:** 4.00% (damage & Health)**Targeting:** Automatic**Health:** 1060**Basic Attack damage:** 20**Attack speed:** 1.0**Attack range:** 1.0**Movement Speed:** 5.0**Unit radius:** 0.6875**Sight radius:** 7.0**Leash radius:** 10

* Ghouls are unable to move for the first 1.3 seconds after being summoned.
* Ghouls are summoned at random positions within 5 radius around Arthas, but will reorganize around Arthas at 2.5 range at 60 degree intervals once they are able to move.
* Ghouls will follow Arthas in this formation until he issues an attack move on an enemy. Each of the Ghouls will then attack this target until they or the target dies or the Ghoul is leashed and returns to the formation.
* Ghouls persist even after Arthas's death.

R
Army of the Dead - Sacrifice
 Cooldown: 2 seconds
Sacrifice a Ghoul to heal for 267 Health.

**Type:** Healing**Scaling:** 4.00%**Affects:** Self**Targeting:** No target**Properties:** Area of Effect**Cast time:** 0 + 0.15 seconds

* Replaces Arthas's Heroic Ability slot while *Army of the Dead* is active.
* *Sacrifice* starts on a 1.5 second cooldown when *Army of the Dead* is activated.
* Arthas cannot activate the Ability to sacrifice a Ghoul if he is at full Health.
* The Ghoul with the lowest Health will be sacrificed first.

R
Summon Sindragosa
100 Mana Cooldown: 100 seconds
Deals 230 damage and Slows enemies by 60% for 4 seconds. Also disables Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters and Structures for 20 seconds.

**Type:** Spell Damage, Crowd control**Scaling:** 4.00%**Affects:** Enemies**Properties:** Clamping, Piercing Skillshot, Slow (vs. Heroes and Summons), Stun (vs. non-Heroic)**Cast time:** 0.6 + 0.15 seconds**Range:** 38**Hitbox:** 8.0 x 4.0**Missile speed:**
- Initial: 6.0
- Maximum: 15
- Acceleration: 56**Initial delay:** 0.75 seconds

## Talents

1

Frost Presence
❢ Quest: Root enemy Heroes with Howling Blast.

❢ Reward: After Rooting 5 Heroes, Howling Blast's cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds.

❢ Reward: After Rooting 10 Heroes, Howling Blast's range is increased by 20%.

❢ Reward: After Rooting 20 Heroes, Howling Blast also Roots enemies in its path.

**Type:** Crowd control**Affects:** Enemies**Properties:** Piercing skillshot, Root**Hitbox:** 1.5 x 1.25**Bonus range:** 1.8**Bonus missile speed:** 5.1015

* Actually gains a stack per Hero hit even if they are not Rooted (due to Unstoppable).
* *Howling Blast*'s projectile speed is increased if it is cast beyond 8 range.

Eternal Hunger
❢ Quest: Use Frostmourne Hungers on an enemy Hero.

❢ Reward: Increases the Mana it restores by 4, to a maximum of 40, and its damage by 4.

**Type:** Bonus damage**Scaling:** -**Affects:** Ability**Maximum bonus damage:** 5000 (x1250)

Rime
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.

**Type:** Defensive damage modifier**Affects:** Self**Properties:** Block, Physical Armor

* Does not stack with itself or other positive Physical Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers may stack.

4

Deathlord
Increase the range of Death Coil by 30%, reduce its cooldown by 3 seconds, and if Death Coil is used on an enemy Hero its Mana cost is refunded.

**Bonus cast range:** 1.8

Frozen Wastes
Frozen Tempest Mana cost reduced by 2 per second.

❢ Quest: Damage enemy Heroes with Frozen Tempest.

❢ Reward: After damaging enemy Heroes 150 times with Frozen Tempest, the Movement and Attack Speed Slows of Frozen Tempest last an extra 1.5 seconds against enemy Heroes.

**Bonus duration:** 1.5 seconds

* Every Hero hit counts toward quest progress.

Icy Talons
Gain 3% Attack Speed for 1.5 seconds every time a Hero is damaged by Frozen Tempest, to a maximum of 60%.

**Type:** Status effect**Affects:** Self**Properties:** Attack Speed

* Attack speed stacks additively with itself and other effects that can affect Arthas's Attack Speed.

7

Immortal Coil
Gain the healing effect of Death Coil even when used on enemies. If Death Coil is used on Arthas, it heals for an additional 50%.

**Type:** Healing dealt modifier**Affects:** Ability

* Healing on enemy cast is applied when the missile returns to Arthas.
* Bonus healing stacks additively with other healing dealt modifiers that can affect *Death Coil*'s healing.

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

**Type:** Healing**Scaling:** -**Affects:** Self**Properties:** Attack Modifier

Icebound Fortitude
Cooldown: 35 seconds
**Active:**  Activate to gain 25 Armor, reducing damage taken by 25%, and reduce the duration of Stuns, Slows, and Roots against Arthas by 75% for 3 seconds.

**Type:** Defensive damage modifier**Affects:** Self**Properties:** Armor

* Does not stack with other positive Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers may stack.

10

Army of the Dead
Summons Ghouls that last 15 seconds and attack for 20 damage. Sacrifice Ghouls to heal for 267 Health.

Summon Sindragosa
Deals 230 damage and Slows enemies by 60% for 4 seconds. Also disables Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters and Structures for 20 seconds.

13

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

**Type:** Defensive damage modifier**Affects:** Enemy Heroes**Properties:** Armor reduction

* Does not stack with other negative Armor effects. Other defensive damage modifiers may stack.

Biting Cold
Each second an enemy is damaged by Frozen Tempest, it deals 12.5% bonus damage, up to a 50% bonus.

**Type:** Offensive damage modifier**Affects:** Ability

* Damage bonus is tracked independently for every affected unit.
* Damage bonus stacks additively with itself and **multiplicatively** with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect *Frozen Tempest*'s damage.

Frost Strike
Reduces Frostmourne Hungers's cooldown by 2 seconds. Frostmourne Hungers also Slows the enemy by 50% for 1.5 seconds.

**Type:** Crowd control**Affects:** Enemies**Properties:** Attack Modifier, Slow

16

Embrace Death
Death Coil deals more damage and heals more the lower Arthas's current Health is, to a maximum of 100% bonus damage and healing.

**Type:** Healing dealt modifier, Offensive damage modifier**Affects:** Ability

* Bonus damage and healing percentage equates to the percentage of Health Arthas is missing.
* Bonus damage stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect *Death Coil*'s damage.
* Bonus healing stacks additively with other healing dealt modifiers that can affect *Death Coil*'s healing.

Remorseless Winter
Enemy Heroes that remain within Frozen Tempest for 3 seconds are Rooted for 1.25 seconds. This effect can only happen once every 10 seconds.

**Type:** Crowd control**Affects:** Enemy Heroes**Properties:** Root

* Cooldown is per enemy Hero.

Frostmourne Feeds
Increases the amount of Basic Attacks empowered by Frostmourne Hungers to 2.

20

Legion of Northrend
3 additional Ghouls are created. Ghouls deal 50% more damage, heal for an additional 50% and last 5 seconds longer.

**Type:** Offensive damage modifier / Bonus healing**Scaling:** 4.00%**Affects:** Ghouls / Ability

* Damage bonus stacks additively with other offensive damage modifiers that can affect Ghouls' Basic Attack damage.
* Healing bonus increases the base healing of *Sacrifice* to 400.5, causing the given percentage to stack **multiplicatively** with healing dealt modifiers that can affect *Sacrifice*'s healing.

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

**Type:** Crowd control**Affects:** Enemy Heroes & Summons**Properties:** Root**Bonus range:** 38

Death's Advance
Increases Movement Speed by 10%. Frozen Tempest's maximum Movement Speed Slow and Attack Speed Slow are increased from 40% to 60%.

**Type:** Status effect**Affects:** Self

* Also increases the Slow's amount per tick from 5% to 7.5%.

Anti-Magic Shell
Cooldown: 60 seconds
 **Active:**  Activate to make Arthas Immune to Spell Damage for 4 seconds and heal Arthas for 25% of the damage prevented.

**Type:** Status effect, Healing**Affects:** Self

* *Anti-Magic Shell* absorbs all incoming Spell Damage, similar to Protected status.
* The amount of damage absorbed, and thus also healing done, is calculated after damage modifiers, such as Armor.
* Healing does not benefit from Arthas's Spell Power or other healing dealt modifiers.
* Note that Percent damage in all its forms is a type of Spell Damage, therefore Arthas fully benefits from this Talent when applied to it.

## Builds and guides

**Icy Veins Arthas Guide**

**Arthas Community Build Guides @ HeroesFire**

**Arthas Community Build Guides @ Heroes Hearth**

## Trivia

* Arthas first appeared in the novel *Warcraft: Of Blood and Honor* (January 2001). His first in-game appearance was in *Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos* (July 2002).
* In *Warcraft III*, Arthas is voiced by Justin Gross. In subsequent appearances, he is voiced by Patrick Seitz (paladin/death knight Arthas) and Michael McConnohie (Lich King Arthas).
* Arthas was one of the 18 heroes revealed at BlizzCon 2013.
* Arthas's model was designed first and his role in the game was decided upon later.
* Blizzard considered giving Crown Prince Arthas a hammer, but that would have required additional animation work, in addition to conflicting with Uther and creating confusion. They also considered making paladin Arthas a skin for Uther, rather than Arthas, but that would have opened another can of worms. Ultimately, they decided to depict paladin Arthas immediately after he picked up Frostmourne. That meant his animations could stay the same, and since he still had his sword he was still recognizable as Arthas.
* NECA revealed the *Heroes of the Storm* Arthas action figure at SDCC 2015.
* Arthas's "hail to the king" quote references a line spoken by Ash Williams in *Army of Darkness* (February 1993).
* Arthas's "looking for a few dead men" quote references a 1985 United States Marine Corps commercial.
* Arthas's "my condition has left me cold" quote references a line spoken by Mr. Freeze in *Batman & Robin* (June 1997).
* Arthas's "no man can defeat me" quote references a line spoken by the Witch-king of Angmar in *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King* (December 2003).
* Some of Arthas's quotes reference the running joke about Darkness.

## Gallery

### General

* Arthas's artwork
* Frost Wyrm Arthas
* Crimson Count Arthas, in his humanoid form
* Crimson Count Arthas, in his bat form
* Death Knight Arthas attacks an enemy base
* King Arthas with King Leoric
* Arthas riding a Rainbow Unicorn
* The Arthas action figure

### Concept art

* Prince Arthas, with Light's Vengeance
* Prince Arthas, with Frostmourne
* King of Blades Arthas Concept Art
* King of Blades Arthas Concept Art

### Abilities

* Q: Death Coil
* W: Howling Blast
* E: Frozen Tempest
* R1: Army of the Dead
* R2: Summon Sindragosa

### Prerelease

* Lich King Arthas (old model)
* Prince Arthas (old model)
* Prince Arthas (old model), blue tint
* Prince Arthas (old model), red tint
* Prince Arthas (old model), white tint
* Frost Wyrm Arthas (old model)
* The Blizzard DOTA models of Arthas and various other heroes

## References

1. ↑ 2011-10-20. Blizzard DOTA Trailer. *YouTube.* Accessed 2011-10-22.
2. ↑ 2011-10-23, BlizzCon 2011 - StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and Blizzard DOTA - Art & Technology Panel (Full). *YouTube*, accessed on 2011-11-07
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 2015-06-12, IGN: How Blizzard's Heroes Went From Concepts to Icons
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Mr. Jack on DeviantArt: The Lich Prince
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 BlizzPlanet: SDCC 2015 NECA Reveals Heroes of the Storm 7″ Scale Action Figures Series 2

## External links

* Arthas - Heroes of the Storm
* Arthas Menethil - Wowpedia
* Arthas Balance Changelog - Heroes Patch Notes
* Arthas Sound Files - Sounds of the Storm

  **Melee Assassins**
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