Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by 93802

Anub'arak is a Crypt Lord that accompanies Arthas on his second visit to Northrend when The Icecrown Glacier is under siege by Illidan and his agents, Kael'thas and Lady Vashj.

During Arthas' trip through the ruins of Azjol-Nerub, the Nerubians refer to him as the Traitor King. This is because he fought in the War of the Spider as a nerubian, and Ner'zhul and the Lich King later raised several high lords to do their bidding, Anub'arak was on of these and he was reborn as a Crypt Lord. During the final battle in Icecrown, he helps Arthas take control of the four obelisks surrounding Icecrown to open its gates.

Now in Lich King, he will go back to Azjol-Nerub to be it's final boss for the 5 man instance, and he may also make an appearance in the Icecrown Glacier 25-man raid as a boss as well. (He should atleast, I mean... he does deserve it.)

Comment by ChrisChaud

Health: 164,512 HP

Abilities:

* Locust Swarm: Slows movement speed by 40%.
* Carrion Beetles: Summons 2 Carrion Beetles every second for 4 sec.
* Pound: Rears up and smashes down on all enemies in front of the caster within 15 yards, dealing 9425 to 10575 damage and pounding them into the floor for 6 sec.
* Burrows underground at certain HP intervals (~66%, ~33% and ~15%), becoming invulnerable. While submerged, several things happen:
o Impale:Spikes occasionally shoot up from the ground, knocking players up in the air and causing damage.
o Various Nerubian Assassin, Darter, and Guardian mobs spawn and must be killed. Mobs spawn faster as the fight progresses.

Confirmed Loot:

Normal
* Charmed Silken Cord (Cloth Belt)
* Signet of Arachnathid Command (Tanking Ring)
* Wing Cover Girdle (Mail Belt)

Heroic
* Insect Vestments (Leather Chest)
* Sash of the Servant (Cloth Belt)
* Rod of the Fallen Monarch (Wand)
* Crypt Lord's Deft Blade (Sword)
* Design: Infused Twilight Opal (Jewelcrafting Design)
* Ancient Aligned Girdle (Plate Belt)
* Chitin Shell Greathelm (Plate Head)
* Ring of the Traitor King (Caster Ring)
* Wing Cover Girdle (Caster Plate Wrists)

Thanks to WotLKWiki.info

Comment by L33tsauce

Anub'arak as a 5-man boss...

/shoots self

Comment by 124525

pff...he is far more powerful than Kael/Vashj,he should be at a t7(at least) raid instance..

Comment by 163109

Sad....hes 74...But I think when beta is over or new patch he may be boss

Comment by Cogzwell

maybe here he's like weakend or something and then in the lower kingdom he'll come back as a ?

Comment by 156207

He deserves better!

Comment by 207675

Lets hope he does a backwards kael instead of going from 25 to 5 going from 5 to 25 because as one of the major servants of arthas he does deserve more then a 5 man even if the 5 man is azjol-nerub either that or give 25 man azjol-nerub. to bad the majority of the player base isn't going to care because they even don't know who he is.

Comment by 216756

Anub'arak 5 man ! Blizz &*!@ing tards....
He should be a 25 man raid or atleast 10 man raid
Lol cant belive hes lvl 74 he should be a scull :D

Comment by 218615

Well only people that played TFT campaign would know who he is and that if it wasn't for him Arthas would have never become the Lich King so I also hope that they put him in a 25 man raid, maybe the boss before Arthas himself :P

Comment by 217797

Anub'Arak is my favorite warcraft character of all time, I dont think i'll be able to watch myself kill him....

He deserves to be a 25/40 man raid boss.

Comment by 218931

I hope he will be boss in 25 raid before Arthas ,if not blizzard ruined things up

Comment by 145289

As an interrested player of the warcraft lore, and a player with some game time in wc3, I could not agree more with all of you :)

Comment by Ingolfur

When I first heard about WotLK and that Naxx 2 would come, I thought to myself "They'll surely make Anub'arak the penultimate boss of Icecrown".... And when I found out about him being a lvl 74 5 man "boss"? That's like....the stupidest thing they've done so far in my opinion. -.- Seriously, what made them think "We'll make him something that players that have never played through the TFT campaign just totally forget about after the first time they kill him"?

Edit; Well, now he's a raidboss. Still a big disappointment and a pushover (Killed him with our 10man group, had some newbies tagging along, one-shot him...), but a raidboss, not the penultimate boss of Icecrown, but still... HE'S A FRIGGING RAID BOSS, YES!:(
*Goes over to hoping the penultimate boss is a mix of Four Horsemen, Illidari Council and High King Maulgar, with Anub'arak, Prince Kael'Thas, The Black Knight and Baron Rivendare*

Comment by 33463

How it should work out...
Anub guards a chest of loot in his lair.
Players encounter Anub in 5-man.
Players beat Anub to 3% life.
Arthas appears and separates the players from Anub before he is slain.
Arthas exchanges some dialog to Anub about how loyal he has been to Arthas.
Arthas buys Anub time to burrow and escape the encounter.
Arthas gives one last line about fighing a stronger Anub later on....
Players open chest, receive loot.
Players anticipate a raid-level boss Anub in the future.

Comment by cassady

People who don't raid deserve to see epic characters too. Kargath Bladefist was every bit as deserving of a greater place than a 5-man as Anub'arak is; Rend Blackhand and Balnazzar got the same treatment.

Comment by 240582

Remember, Anub'arak is an undead. Perhaps in the Icecrown Citadel raid Arthas will have resurrected Anub'arak again to serve in undeath again, after all Anub'arak has already proved himself as a very good servant (in The Frozen Throne: Legacy of the Damned Campaign.)

Comment by 245610

This boss is quite a laugh. We didnt know about the "left outs" and me and a retri soloed it. Pump it alittle Blizz. Nice instance, but too short as well

Comment by 206486

This is sad when i heard he was a 5 man raid boss i wanted to shoot who ever thought this up at blizz. he was a beast in Wc3 and he should be a beast in WoW

Comment by 207123

I see people are rather upset about his status as a 5-man boss.

Well, myself (73 enh. shammy), a 72 warrior tank, and 72 pally DPS just 3-manned him (nonheroic obviously). No proper heals, just a little off-healing.

Very disappointing fight indeed.

Comment by Necrojester

It might be sad and somewhat pathetic to see him as a relatively easy 5-man boss, but I think the outcry we've seen from the WoW community might be sufficient to see him return as a greater challenge later. Blizz pays attention to this stuff, and it's not like it would be a difficult matter (lore-wise) to bring him back. After all, Rivendare and many others (Harrison Jones?) came back after getting killed ... and they have yet to announce who will be the other bosses in Icecrown. I see a great window for them to bring this guy back and buff him to a worthy level.

/petition Blizz, anyone?

Comment by shadowbane7

He walls you in a few seconds after you get aggro, so be sure to get inside the circle he's in.

Comment by 247242

One thing to note if players do get locked out: His ads can, and quite happily will, wander through the circular wall and out to those players locked out.

In my eagerness to pull and finish the instance I ended up locking 3 of the group out, so we ended up with me (tank, prot pally) / ret pally inside fighting the boss and feral druid / ret pally / holy pally (healer) outside. None of us had done the place before, so we all thought we were a bit doomed at that point... nope. Feral druid went bear and dealt with the ads wandering out there with the healer while the ret pally and I smacked anub'arak around for fun. Even with his pound ability, it just wasn't a challenge with the constant JotW mana restore and us healing eachother for SA mana regen.

I know levelling instances are supposed to be easy, and we did over-gear it, but still - a self-healing tank and DPS taking the boss from 100% to zero?

(Oh and just to be funny, 4 pallies and the first boss dropped his dagger)

Comment by Vorph

What I don't understand is his line "I never thought... I would be rid of him." . If it's Arthas which he mentions as "him", then I'll be a bit surprised because I haven't heard about Anub'arak was longing to free himself from Lich King's control. In fact, he betrayed his own people willingly and sided with Arthas by his own will.

Comment by Abomb

he fought with arthas and was an importent commander of the lich king and he gets the title of a final boss in a lvl 72-74 instance? i thot more

Comment by 93865

Players standing near Anub'arak and too close to the door, even if they do not get locked out, may get "nudged" closer to the boss when he casts Pound - essentially a small port, similar to that used by Kurinaxx. This can be disconcerting and therefore it is recommended the tank be sure to run towards the boss upon pulling, and tank him in the dead center of the platform.

On heroic, the adds change each time the second phase comes around. The most dangerous are the Venomspitters, the larger adds that will appear at the gate on the third and subsequent burrow phases. These spit venom bolts at random people and can overwhelm a healer. They must die first and fast.

The Darters, small, moth-like flying adds, are highly mobile and annoying. They also appear not on the first or second waves but thereafter. Special attention should be paid to them.

Comment by 256140

On heroic mode, its very important that your group

Avoids impales
Deals with the poison spiders quickly
Group, including tank, avoids pound

All of those are incredible healing burdens and unnecessary. Pound itself is 19K on a tank over the course of the channel (its not instant) but you cant move and you also get melee hit during it while your stunned.

Then you'll have it in the bag. It took us many tries and some practice but we got him. He wasnt 'easy' by any means for people in level 70 epics / some 80 blues. Once the tank finds the sweet spot for avoiding pound, people stop getting impaled and spiders are dealt with its much better.

While tanking this, it took some tries to learn about pound.

Running to his center didnt avoid it, it would like "move" me back in front.
Running to his tail didnt avoid it

I ran through him to the other side, as soon as it casts, then loop back around and get in front of him again. He himself will change facing when you run - but pound will not.

The beetles are much more annoying in heroic and if unchecked, can damage your group. When he spawns them, you can thunderclap / shockwave and clean up beetles.

He dropped epic plate belt =) so very happy.

Comment by raito

All lore issues aside,

Anub'arak on heroic is a very difficult fight for an unprepared group. Moving out of pound is essential, as it was will shock your healer's resources to keep you alive through the stun. however, the real threats in this fight are the Venomancers, which do AoE poison bolt volleys that hit and tick for a threatening amount. Two of them spawn shortly after the two melee adds at his 50 and 75% burrow phases. In my opinion, all stuns and cooldowns should be used to dispose of these adds ASAP.

75% - small mobs from the ground, two elite melee adds
50% - same, plus 2 venomancers.
25% - same, plus flying adds. still, venomnacers remain the biggest threat.

An undergeared healer will be taxed in this fight, mostly from the party damage.

Comment by Norseguy

Hardest part is probably the adds spamming poison, just cc them and win.

Comment by Hyperstalker

I can comfirm the "Pound" abiltiy can be avoided on heroic by simply running thru his body. When he starts to cast pund the tank must run tho the mobs body meaning he is at the back now and the pound wont hit him

Comment by 260092

Although I have to agree that I'm a bit disappointed to see such a major character become a 5-man boss; he at least retains some dignity in heroic mode, where his instance and encounter in particular is ranked amongst the most difficult heroic instances/encounters in the game. I'd still like to see him as a 25 man though.

Something that caught my interest though as an easy fix. Why couldn't they just switch anub'arak and anub'rekhan in naxx so that the random mob is in a 5 man and the big character is in an instance with kel'thuzad. makes me wonder.

Comment by Shorty

To the people complaining that he's "Just a 5man boss": Anub'arak is one of the most brutal 5man fights I've ever seen on heroic and based on what I'm seeing on the forums the special "Gotta go!" achievement is THE hardest one in the category. Part of it is because there's so little margin for error, which would go away in a raid setting. If anything, this fight feels better in a smaller group- if they took this fight and scaled it up to a 25man, it'd be really boring- just another 'have the offtank pick up the adds and AoE them down' fight. We don't need another Tidewalker.

To tanks: On heroic, Pound is currently bugged. If he uses it immediately after surfacing- and I mean 'the instant the surfacing animation ends he starts casting pound' immediately- it'll hit in a 360 degree arc around him, rather than the ~45 degrees in front of him it normally does. Just run out of melee range entirely on pounds.

To people trying to get "Gotta go!": Apparently the method for this achievement is using a debuff that slows his cast time, timing it so he casts pound/locust swarm/carrion beetles right at 76%, then burning him down to 49% so that he 'misses' the first submerge and goes right to the second... then doing it again at 26%.

Comment by 106152

I think "brutal' aptly describes this fight on heroic, especially from a healer standpoint. It took everything i had, shadowfiend, hymn of hope and a mana pot to bring this guy down.

It took a few tries to practice when to be where and which adds to kill first, but even when we got that down, it was still taxing. i wouldnt consider myself undergeared as ive run other heroics without too much trouble. i have 17k hp and 19k mana, and am full disc specced, and still it was close when he finally bit the dust.

i love that blizz made some difficult fights, because it makes the win and the rewards that much more appreciated.

side note, i hope they bring him back in icecrown as well.

Comment by 241771

Anyone have some good sound files on this guy?

Comment by 267935

Anub'Arak is an unwilling servant right? i mean when you kill him he says :
"Ahhh... RAAAAAGH! Never thought... I would be free of him..."

Comment by 83904

he deserver to be better... we got it, like 46/47 comments with it. what about telling something ells about him, like what to do when ´he does that, and that.. beside that

you can't go behide when pound on heroic, tryed 4 times, 4 wipes.

Comment by 122125

I think this is the fight (on Heroic) where a shaman is must have for poison cleansing totem and Bloodlust/Heroism. The best, you can do, as a shaman, to put mana spring and nature resist totems at the beggining of the fight, this help to keep the healer mana up for the second half of the fight, which is the hardest.

When Anub'arak going underground at 50%, change your mana totem into a poison cleansing, and make sure that tank mark fast the Venomancers (FastMark can help a LOT), and everybody avoid impales. This add phase is not so heavy, save your CD-s for the last wave.

Nuke Anub down to 25%, and do whatever you can to replenish the healer mana up. This last add phase will be a nightmare....Lots of adds, poison, impale....Healers will neeed every bit of mana. When non-elites adds spawn, your mage /lock can aoe them down before Venomancers appears. As they appears, use your BL to burn them down to the ground. If you survive this wave, then you will down Anub (and you have at least a healer and the tank alive:P).

So summary:

begin with mana spring/nature res totem
avoid Plunder (the tank too!)
avoid spikes
at 50%, change your mana totem to poison cleansing
Venomancers are priority!
have a good aoe dps, to kill the nonelites fast
use your BL at the last wave
and finally: keep all of your totems up! (adds can destroy them - TotemTimer can help a lot)

Our best try was 2%, but the tank get plundered, our healer was down at the last add phase. If the healer would alive, we could down him. Unlucky:). I agree with zanzibar, this Heroic fight is Heroic in the deepest mean of the word. Or brutal, which you like more. But I think, this is one of the fight I enjoyed the most ever (besides HC Oculus endboss, that's one epic fight too...can't raid yet, so not sure about the raidbosses)

Comment by 31135

In theory he doesn't turn but in actuality I've seen it happen several times. It happens usually when he just runs to the side for so reason and has aggro on nobody. At that point it is almost impossible to avoid the Pound. I've also had it where I was well behind him and still got hit. It is a VERY glitched encounter.

Challenging is good but buggy is not.

Comment by 274131

Protection Warrior tank notes:

- Make sure everyone has stepped juuuuust inside the room before you start the fight, otherwise they'll be trapped behind, like in Zul'Aman.
- Charge to start. Keep him faced away; this is because of his pound ability (mentioned in other posts). Run through him when he starts to cast; he'll turn around but the attack won't. Run back through him as soon as you reach his tail, so he's facing the same way as before.
- His insect swarm ability is nature damage. Even with 75NR from a druid buff, you'll resist much of the damage. A small amount of NR here can go a long way. If your group is weak, you may consider having everyone drink a Nature Protection potion before combat starts (this will help with the next phase, as well).
- When he burrows, move to the ramp. You should be concerned with the elites that will come running down. Grab them.
- While tanking these elites, it's probably best to kite them around while moving backwards near the ramp. This is so neither you nor your party get fixated on fighting and have the boss spike you from below. The boss seems to start the spike animation (the rumbling rocks) below someone's current position, rather than randomly, so moving helps.
- Make sure your DPS knows to get the non-elite bugs. These fly in and tend to go straight for the healer.
- Make sure your healer knows to move to avoid the spikes, and has the smarts to move to the tank should they get little bug aggro.
- Two elites spawn the first time, then when you kill them, the boss reappears. Be ready to pick him up quickly. On subsequent waves, you get more elites (just two at first, but more come).
- The boss's melee attack is only about 2500 on plate. The elites hit harder. You are in the most danger when the boss is underground because of 1) elites pounding you, 2) spikes from below, and 3) healer death from adds. Pay attention during this stage!

Comment by Dergon

Anyone getting the feeling this isn't the last we've seen of him, I mean with the LK not even in the picture yet maybe it's a bit hasty to start Blizz hating...

Comment by 274900

On heroic I am just going to eat the pounds anymore because they arent really dangerous on a geared tank especially if you have cooldowns to absorb them with. I guess you could say I had Anub'arak's poundcake for breakfast today.

However, if you arent geared enough to eat the pounds then just running through him works. When I ran through him I never got hit but the DPSers in the group did get hit by it rarely. I'd assume if they attacked from his side and ran far away when pound is going it wouldnt hit them at all....cast time is so long I think it is easy to avoid if they are paying attention.

Another solution is to have them wait for the first pound then come in and DPS him, he usually does the pound very soon after he pops up and positioning may be an issue on that first pound. Moe important to have the DPS alive for the add waves than Anub'arak, he is very easy himself.

Edit: I see from reading the above post that the pound on pop-up was a bug and he hits everyone around him. No wonder the DPS in my group were getting hit by it once in a while. Anyway, to have them stay back until I tank the first pound made it a cakewalk but I didnt realize I was dealing with a bug...err I mean I know Anub'arak is a bug but didnt know he was bugged...hahaha...hope they fix it.

Comment by Egrem

It seems that many players are disappointed with the way this character was portrayed in Wrath of the Lich King. As I see it, there are four major flaws with the way he was implemented:

1) Making him a 5-man boss, when most of his contemporaries (and even his inferiors) were made into 25-man bosses.

Lorewise, Anub'arak was chosen by Ner'zhul to escort the weakened Arthas to Icecrown - a mission that the Lich King's continued existence depended on. Along the way, Anub'arak helped to defeat the likes of Sapphiron, the Forgotten One, Vashj, Kael'thas, and Illidan.

Mechanically, Anub'arak was the ideal hero for taking on large groups of enemies by himself. He had nearly as much health as Cairne and twice as much armor, giving him unparalled survivability. His spiked carapace returned damage to melee attackers (preventing him from being swarmed), his impale acted as an AoE stun, and his locust swarm allowed him to drain life from everyone around him. Even when vastly outnumbered, he was nearly impossible to take down until he ran out of mana.

2) The overal feel of the fight. The number of players aside, a boss that can be burned down in under two minutes - even when he spends half the fight hiding underground - does not capture the "unrelenting juggernaut" feel of the Warcraft III Anub'arak.

This character stood out for being hard to kill - if Arthas died during the campaign, and had to be revived and sent back to the battle, it was not uncommon for Anub'arak to still be holding the line when he got there. A battle against Anub'arak should be a war of attrition, not a race.

3) His voice. In The Frozen Throne, Anub'arak spoke with a very deep, rumbling voice. In Wrath of the Lich King, his voice is much higher-pitched and he speaks much more quickly. The original sounded more appropriate for such a large creature.

4) His appearance. Where's the spiked carapace?

P.S. Making him skinnable just adds insult to injury. :(

Comment by 248114

I can understand why so much people didnt like the fact that Anub'arak was "lowered" to the condition of a 5 man instance instead of a raid encounter, as i know the importance of him in warcraft lore.

What many people seem to forget is that even though he is on a 5 man instance doesent mean that he will never be on a 25 man raid.

We got the example of Kael'thas Sunstrider being a 25 man encounter (and an hard one) and after it was made a 5 man encounter in magister's terrace (supposedly weakened by his defeat on Tempest Keep)

Yeah, i know that Kael appeared first as a 25man boss and only after as a 5 man, but Anub'arak can allways comeback on a 25 man raid, wanting to "revenge" on the 5 guys that defeated him on Nerub while he was, lets say.... half asleep :P

Comment by 160952

I have CONFIRMED that when he uses pound, if you jump really quick and strafe in a curve ball sort of way to the right while it's charging, you will dodge it. It only worked when I was still in the air. Dunno if this is a bug, but it worked, so use it.

For the tank.

Comment by Blackskuul

Just did this guy with my level 71 Unholy DK. We had a group of a 79 Priest (Holy), 74 Hunter, 71 Lock, 73 Mage, and myself; 71 Unholy DK Tank. Run was pretty smooth throughout until we got to this guy. Our mage and warlock got locked out of his platform so we were forced to 3 man. It helped a lot to have AoE tanking abilities. Without it this guy is very hard to down.

Good luck.

Comment by 213812

if i remember correctly this guy is in naxx......i dont know why everyone is angry. he has a 25

Comment by Pirwzy

The hard part about him on heroic is the venomancers, not Anub. If you can get the venomancers quick, its an easy fight regardless.

Comment by 235419

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YEFgitPOxio

How to kill Anub'arak on heroic.

*Shamelessly promotes his video...*

Comment by stylebonswa

Since there are lot of posts complaining about the placement of Anub'arak and very few about the strategy to kill him, I'll tell you what worked for us. We wiped about 10 times on him, only during the adds. Sometimes during the 2nd wave and sometimes during the 3rd. The healer couldn't stop taking aggro b/c he's a pally healer and his burst heals cause a lot more aggro. I'm a pally tank as well, so I'd put down my consecrate and keep moving to avoid the spikes. The things that killed us every time were the Veromancers due to their aoe poison spit. So I would collect all adds until these 2 things came. Once they came, I would use Turn Evil to fear the first one and then put a skull on the 2nd and kill him as fast as possible. About that time, the other's fear would be done and I'd go find him. We also had a DK OT to protect the healer b/c I couldn't seem to soak up all of them with my consecrate.

During one of our waves, the one we were successful on, there were 3 of us left on the 3rd wave of adds. I kept fearing the last spitter until the rest of the mobs were done. Magically, while the spitter was feared, the adds stopped coming. So me, the healer, and the boomkin recharged while I kept this last spitter feared. The boomkin was able to rez both the other 2 members and as long as we kept moving (to get away from the spikes in the ground), we rechaged to full health/mana. After that, cake (no more waves of adds). You can strategize to do this after the 2nd and 3rd wave if you want, mark one of the spitters to be feared and then burn everything else down. Hope this helps!

Comment by Factsfountain

What Anub.

Comment by 295804

I and four others started this on Heroic Mode at around 2pm and we didn't beat him. I got four more and we failed again. Each time everyone said- NOT ENOUGH DPS! I say bull#$%^. On the fourth full group at 7pm I finally got him on the second try. I feel confident that if you follow these steps it should prove to be an easy boss-fight.

The facts are that the hardest things about this boss are:
1. Anub'ar Venomancer
2. Impale
3. Pound

Anub'ar Venomancers are the hardest things to deal with. There are several waves of adds that will be coming at you when Anub'arak burrows underground. The first wave is easy enough- two or three melee dps elites and about 8 reg dps mobs. The second wave will start off the same way with the Venomancers coming in jsut as you have the others at about half HP. YOU MUST DOWN those Venomancers quickly. They do tons of damage with their poison spit. However, their attacks ARE interrupt-able. Be that as it may- take those down first and foremost. The third wave will be the same as the second- perhaps a little easier. Just be wary.

Impale is also completely avoidable. watch the ground when the boss go under and you'll notice rocks being dug up just like the worms in HH. Move away from the areas where the rocks are coming up and you won't be hit.

Pound is completely avoidable. Simply tank the boss so that he faces away from the group and run behind him by running through him.

I suggest using a portal to get out, it's just annoying to get back out the normal way.

Good Luck- I hope this was helpful!

PS - Thanks to all of you who posted before me! Without you I wouldn't have been able to clear that guy.

Comment by 59603

For people who have never played warcraft III campaign...

Anub'arak is the main tank of arthas, arthas is just a little healer hiding behind throwing deathcoil to heal the big bad ass crypt lord.

Comment by 297383

crypt lord is one of my favorite heros on wc3 =P
p.s. is there a bug on the plate helm he drops, iver done heroic AN like 15 different times and its never dropped = /

Comment by 127328

A note about Pound:

When he does it right after using Locust Swarm or some other attack that pins him in place, he glitches to not show which direction he's casting it. Then when he uses Pound it goes off someplace else and he turns to white hit like two seconds later. I tried staying behind him, I tried moving as if he was facing me while casting it (even though it doesn't appear that way graphically) -- he just turned and hit me anyway.

If he starts casting Pound after something that roots him, his direction appears to be indeterminate. Just run the hell away.

Comment by Oakshand

both sides really have a point Anub'arak should be a high end raiding boss because he just kicks that much ass but its also nice considering i really hate high end raiding because messing up once in a small way gets your scream at for an hour booted from the raid and if the GM is that @#$%ty from the guild its nice to be able to slaughter someone from wc3 without having to grind endlessly

that being said i also cant shoot "over" the wall and yes the mobs come thru

Comment by Aenonar

The pound ability is incredibly easy to avoid. It's a long cast, and he does not move one bit while casting it in front of him, so if you're a tank, just move around to his side. If you don't you might take up to 18000 damage on heroic (not good).

The trouble we had was with the venom spitters that come in wave 2.5, they seem to do some kind of AoE spit that is interruptable, but they are still kinda hard to time. It was never the one I had targeted, always the other one which wasted precious time. Make sure these go down fast and are never allowed to cast.

The rest of the fight is pretty easy. Just make sure you move once in a while, if you have mobs or corpses littering the ground you might not see the spikes that shoot up during the burrowed phases.

Comment by 141045

Nerubian (upon seeing Anub'arak): Look, brothers! The traitor king!

Arthas: Who? Me?

Anub'arak: He is referring to me, death knight.

Comment by DivineIxen

Is anyone else having problems with his pound? I trie dto do a run today, but for some reason the pound was hitting random people and one shotting them. Also, he would do pound and hit me even when not facing me.

I get the feeling AN is pretty bugged...

Comment by killallliving

Tbh the amount of main bosses blizzard ress he'll probaly be back in arthas's fortress as a much harder boss.

Comment by 314933

My hope is that Anub'arak will return - along with Kel'thuzard - as a powerful dual-boss fight in Icecrown Citadel. Although you take his carapace it would only be a simple matter for the Lich King to get him a new one, and Kel'thuzard would only be brought back by his phlyastracy.

Comment by 158519

Strategy in once sentence:

Avoid the pound and stun-lock the venomancers.

Strategies that pertain to all:

1. Tank should step forward through the boss a bit to avoid the pound. Having the target's cast bar viewable in the interface helps tremendously.
2. Tank should pick up non-elite adds of convenience (those within consecrate/death-decay/holy wrath etc.) and dps players should handle the others.
3. During down phases 2 and 3, venomancers must get kill priority, even if the two warriors are still alive, as they are not a real threat.
4. The most dangerous part of the fight is the poison debuff. You get two of them and the group is toast. Poison cleansing totems, manual cleansing (self and others) and nature resist abilities are all mandatory.

Burrowed phase strategies based on group makeup:

A. If you have elite DPS and classes that can stun/interrupt:

No cc is necessary. Just stun the the living crap out of the venomancers until they're dead. Tank should drop aoe at the base of the ramp, catch everything coming down, and keep the current kill marked. If both venomancers are hanging around and dying at the same rate, you are doing it the hard way, and probably the dead way. As soon as the first venomancer comes down that ramp, it gets kill priority. Then the second venomancer. Then whatever's left. "Elite DPS" probably means the two warrior spiders are dead by the time the first venomancers arrive. If that's not you, go to plan B.

As a pally tank, I've got an AoE stun with my Holy Wrath and also my Hammer of Justice. So that's three stuns right there. Rogues can kick. Warriors do whatever they do (charge/sheild slam). Mages counterspell, etc. Chances are, whatever group you've got, you've got some stun ability that will suffice.

B. If your DPS is sub-par you will need CC.

My strategy for CC is to grab aggro on the first two mobs (the warrior spiders) down the ramp and then drag them to the middle of the ring. As the third mob is coming (the first venomancer), target it and mark it for CC.

The best CC option is priest shackle. Lasts forever and can be redone. If you've got a ret pally but no priest, turn evil would work in a pinch. Lasts 30 seconds on undead. A pally tank can't really do it while being hit by the warriors spiders and a pally healer probably can't spare the long cast time while trying to heal the tank. A hunter frost trap could potentially work, but is risky if the mob resists. Then nobody knows what to do because the plan is screwed.

As the first venomancer is cc'd and the second one is coming down the ramp, target and mark it for killing. It will come down right where the first is shackled and will be hard to target if not marked properly. Your members should know how to tab target to avoid hitting the shackled guy.

Stun that second venomancer into next week until he's dead. Then you've got the option of killing the warriors (which may already be dead) or moving right on to the cc'd mob. With a pally fear, you probably want to kill the venomancer. With a shackle, go ahead and get the warriors out of the way, then kill the shackled mob. By the time you are working on the shackled mob, you might have your stuns back from cooldown.

Comment by 181678

I agree that its unfair of blizz to make our anub'arak a 5 man end boss though he did have little lore ant little missions he was important and fun, he desereves better but as i recall blizz said that anub would play a large role in wotlk so I have a feeling he will somehow be back, and lets face it blizz its not the first time bizz has stuned us.

Comment by Naaxx

I can confirm that this guy's Pound ability is bugged: When he cast it, the Tank ran right through him, as is customary, but then when the cast time was over he just turned around and whacked the group (2 of our DPS died as a result.)

Otherwise, he's a &*!@# on Heroic: His non-Elite adds will hammer your Healer (they hit me Resto Shammy for around 500 each) and they add up quick, so a form of AoE would be good to get them off, or the Healer WILL die at some point. When he hits his Burrow Phase, have your Tank stand at the entrance to his "room" and the group stand on top of him, or in range of their Swipe/Shockwave/Cleave to make them more easily controllable. Just nuke the Elite adds, AoE the smaller ones, and avoid the spikes...this is critical especially for Healer, as he will most likely die, or get his casting interrupted during a crucial Heal...

When the Venomancers show up, use whatever CDs you have, and Cleanse like a maniac. If someone can help you Cleanse, have them do it its important...

Happy Hunting!

Comment by hackandmore

Project Lore Anub'arak

Comment by 49808

I think I've gotten the bugged pound thing figured out. There are two fairly simple points that make it easy for an attentive group to avoid a bugged pound.

First, this will only happen when Anub'Arak resurfaces after you've completed one of his add phases. What you will see is the boss oddly walking toward the edge of the ring and beginning his pound cast while facing away from the tank.

Second, the bugged pound is always cast at where the tank WAS standing when he began his cast, regardless of what direction Anub'Arak is facing when the cast is complete.

What I do, while tanking him, is call out 'he's spazzing out' on vent. My group knows at this point to take a look at where he is and where I am. My melee guys know to either back out of range or run through him with me to get in front of the boss and out of harm's way.

Try it out and see how it works for you. My guys usually one-shot him with no deaths when we go through. On a side note, they really ought to fix this bug. Hehe.

Comment by 335205

can anyone give me some advice on heroic mode, ive probably been doing this boss ten times, none of the times have we gotten him down, what irritates me the most is that in heroic he sends more elites then usual on one of his burrows. which makes it more hard on the healer b/c theres no mana break. i gotta get him down tho, i need that belt he drops

Comment by 291866

Whats everyone saying about 12 year olds? I like lore...

Comment by 111622

I know all this talk about how Underpowered he is, as we ALL look back to Warcraft 3. Notice something about the other bosses, Anub'arak is one of the 4 Undead Hero's to choose from, along with a Death Knight (Arthas), a Lich Lord (Kel'Thuzad), and a Dreadlord (too many to choose).

Sylvanas Windrunner was an Extra Hero
Lady Vashj is an Extra Hero
Mannoroth was an Extra Hero

Comment by 171938

"Don't look so smug! I know what you're thinking, but Azjol-Nerub was merely a set back. "

Comment by 345621

>8< spider pride!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=15864846564&pageNo=1&ST=US-67738-udxY6boyfegomoVZnPcjpJWRyWedMQrwfNz&rhtml=true

Comment by 343573

Considering his importance in the Warcraft lore (Arthas' bodyguard and guide to the Icecrown glacier, no less), it is sad to fight him as a 5 men boss. (his lieutenant Anub'rekhan has a boss status tuned for 10 or 25 people ...)
Hope he'll be back in the Icecrown Citadel.

Comment by 342629

just to say the spell Carrion Beetles is from Warcraft III

Comment by 124017

Dredmon:

If ranged/healer classes stand directly behind him they will get pounded when you turn him, so they should always fight to his side.

To clarify, Pound is cast in the direction Anub'arak was facing when he began casting. However, to quote a point made by Klakk further down:

Run through him when he starts to cast; he'll turn around but the attack won't.

So I think what Dredmon is saying is that if the tank turns the boss around to avoid Pound, the ranged/healer classes should not then try to get behind the boss because they'll actually be in range of Pound, even though they'd technically be standing behind him.

Either stay put and hope the tank didn't turn the boss too early, or stand to the side to avoid all confusion/uncertainty.

Comment by 116582

And they say Blizzard games don't have bugs...

Comment by Thrakin

The Traitor King (25 player)
Kill 12,000 Swarm Scarabs with spikes in 25-player mode.

Source http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=67248.0

SPIDER PRIDE! >8<

<3

Comment by 212827

Sound files, sound files, I need sound files!

Comment by Malpercio

He is rumored to be the final boss of the upcoming Crusader's Coliseum raid. A data file was found with the name something along the lines of "boss_kill_anubarak." So maybe he will get the respect he deserves, even though we definitely killed him in Azjol-Nerub.

Comment by 195457

It's Semi-Official! Anub'arak returns!

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=69362.0

Comment by 292516

Back in The trial of the crusader!

Azjol-Nerub was merely a set back!

Comment by andyf

Well great news, lore fans, Anub'arak will be back in Patch 3.2 as part of the Argent Tournament / Coliseum event

** Spoiler links below - don't click unless you really want to **

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2009/june/anubarak_not_confirmed.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZKDV5S1WI0

Comment by 301519

It makes me sad to see what has become of this $%^&ing badass killing machine.
I mean now a grp of 5 green geaered people can kill him?
In WC3 he was way stronger than my Arthas.

Comment by Elastik

Arthas was such a wuss in the tft campaigns compared to anub'arak. Anub in the final mission of tft, with all the good items and locust swarm, a goddamn juggernaut that beat illidan and his army by himself most of the fights, with arthas just standing in the back as a healbot for the real badass. Glads me that he gets a real raid boss fight now, but he should rather be the Sapphiron of Icecrown to be honest.

Comment by 205809

Well, hopefully in the Argent Colisseum he'll have a unique model and/or skin. Maybe his missing husk could be replaced with some awesome saronite armor?

Comment by 422714

This boss is also the last boss of the Crusader's Coliseum. He was resurrected by the Lich King.
The Lich King appears in the Coliseum and shatter's the ground making all players fall into the cavern below. Then you go against Anub'Arak!

Comment by Kellathon

Blizzard added a new Frost Crypt Lord skin / model to the PTR, so he will most likely be in The Coliseum in that skin.

Comment by 397133

This boss surrounds the fighting pit with spider web, and there's no way inside until the fight is over. Found that out the hard way :( Wish I read about that b4

Comment by Elarieline

Famous quote from W3:

And they say Blizzard games don't have bugs...

Comment by 212827

He's coming back. Which makes me happy. No Kael jokes, please.
Knew Blizz couldn't keep him dead, he's too badass.

Comment by Sunlar

Having read the above comments, this one may feel a little out of place, but since no one has mentioned this, I think I should. Warlocks, before engaging him, make sure you have your pet on. Why am I reminding you of this? Because when you throw yourself down the pit that takes you to Anub'arak your pet will be insta-dismissed and turned into a Soul Shard. This may seem easy to notice but it's actually true that you may end up neglecting your pet isn't summoned while rushing to the boss; I don't know if this holds true for hunter pets, by the way.

Hope this is of use to anyone.

Edit: I wonder why this post keeps getting downrated... it's simple but useful information.

Comment by 195165

He is now a boss in Trial of the Crusader, is he still a boss in Azjol-Nerub?

Comment by nyctric

I swear I am one of the only tanks on Proudmoore that aren't retarded and move out of the pound. Even when I'm DPSing I'm like "Tanks, you can avoid the pound simply by running through him because he is in a fixed position while he casts it so he won't move" and they're like "Yep, ok." They're still retarded and stay in it. Unable to move for a long time, taking heavy damage and DPS slowly peeling threat back.
To all the tanks on Proudmoore - get out of the f***ing pound.
Awesome boss and glad to see he's coming back in 3.2.

Comment by Prada

Anub'arak: a boss who contradicts himself on so many levels that even Bill O'Reilly worships him as king.

Nerubian: Look, brothers! The traitor king! (upon seeing Anub'arak)
Arthas: Who? Me?
Anub'arak: He is referring to me, death knight.

Kel'Thuzad: In return for immortality, you agreed to serve him. Remarkable.
Anub'arak: 'Agreed' implies choice.

Death in Azjol Nerub: Ahhh... RAAAAAGH! Never thought... I would be free of him...

Death in Coliseum: I have failed you, master...

I can almost imagine Arthas playing Katy Perry's "Hot & Cold" song to Anub'arak just to make a point.

As deliberately sufferable as that may be to Anub'arak, of course.

Comment by 173812

He should be a 40 man tbh.

Comment by silkfire

Why has he yet not been added? Everybody says that the Twin Val'kyrs are the 4th and last boss.

Comment by Amare

Some info on the actual 25 man normal encounter.

We've been trying this tonight and have found the following things:
1. you NEED to shoot the frost orbs down, as when he does the spike things you must run him into the ice. (Otherwise they'll keep following you until you die.)
2. Don't group the Nerubian Burrowers (I think that's what they're called?) together, otherwise they'll put a buff on each other. So no AoE. :(
3. He does have a timer. After a few too many burrows, he enrages. So you must kill him relatively quickly.
4. Clean up the 100k health scarabs every now and then. They put nasty poisons on people.

That's about all I can think of now, and yes that info is in a bit of a random order. I will try and add more later.

Good luck! :)

Comment by bigger

if mage is stuck behind, just jump and blink it helped me

Comment by Lillfot

AZJOL-NERUB WAS MERELY A SETBACK!

Comment by 245557

10 man mode is a joke... half our raid hadn't read anything about him and the rest sort talked in eachothers mouths how to do it. 5 min later he was down after first attempt.

We even forgot to turn our boomkin back into healer but still managed to pull through.

Comment by 191597

I haven't read every single comment on this boss, but, in my experience, using Thunderclap right before he burrows, will allow you to see where he is for the duration of the debuff, not game breaking, but it will allow you to dodge the spikes before even the rocks start forming.

Comment by Dwarfiesgosquish

I am so glad to see that hes has mostly the same abilities he had in WC3, he was my favorite campaign character and now he is the most badass boss in the game imo(not talking about how hard he is I just mean how amazingly awesome he is).

Comment by Bullet123

The sentence Anub'arak uses: Feast on their flesh! is out of the Lord of the Rings.

Comment by 290285

Since 3.3.3, Anub'arak seems to face a random party member when using Pound.

Comment by 406943

Fun fact I noticed:

If you manage to burn him down before he burrows the last time, you will shorten the boss fight by 33% (1 minute)

Average time according to to DBM with last burrow: 3 minutes

Average time according to to DBM without last burrow: 2 minutes

Comment by 460112

Anub'arak burrowed so deep he ended up in Trial of the Crusader :P But on a serious note he should have been a 10 or 25 man at the beginning of WotLK not half way through or also twisted the Arthas fight and had him show up randomly to shoot someone in the air off guard.

Comment by 605518

: i am being discriminated against on the basis of my spinal condition
: What is your spinal condition?
: i dont have 1
: What?
: im an arachnid
: >8< spider power

Comment by Tsplodey

It seems a bug that has existed in this encounter since release was fixed in a recent patch (3.3.5?). If you took Anub'arak to 1 HP while or as he submerged he would not resurface and you would just get endless waves of small adds after the elites were killed. Now he pops up and can be looted, although adds continue to spawn until you have killed the regular amount.

Comment by lundklan

"Yess, my fine young crusadersss...Azjol-Nerub was merely a sssetback..."

Dude, Anub'arak isn't a snake... He is a nerubian... They don't use nearly as many s' as snakes do...

Comment by 620073

Just 4manned on regular difficulty, our paladin tank DC'd before the fight
Me (Vrim)- Level 76 Holy Paladin
Fadedblack-Level 74 Shadow Priest
RoguesReveng-Level 73 Assassination Rogue
Roobok-Level 74 Boomkin- tank for boss fight
Pretty straightforeward, all we had to do was dps with more CD's than normal... boomkin took a good bit of dmg, but FoL was enough to keep his health up.
Not hard at all, just a bit of luck and a lot of skill.

Comment by bratgirl

Not sure if this is a bug or just one of the games little quirks, but here is some advice to hunters or ranged casters that might be attempting this boss battle.

Make sure you are in the circle before attacking!

My BM hunter (on a solo run) was standing further up the path from Anub'arak and I sent her pet in to tank while she started firing on Anub'arak from a distance with her shotgun. This meant that when the purple walls appeared around the edge of the circle, I was effectively cut off from the battle and could not get inside it to fight. My pet remained inside tanking it, but at after a minute or two Anub'arak just dissapeared and the purple walls dissapeared too. I stood around for a while, thinking maybe he was just burrowing, but nothing happened. It was only after a couple of minutes that Anub'arak respawned with full health and I then made sure I was inside the circle and was able to complete the kill.

Comment by Mormolyce

I don't know what F-lakkh shir means but it sure sounds rude.

View in 3D Links

Anub'arak

This NPC can be found in Azjol-Nerub and Azjol-Nerub .

Azjol-NerubKrik'thir the GatewatcherHadronoxAnub'arakAnub'arakGotta Go!Overview

Before the fight starts, make sure that all members of the party are within the circle boundaries which will close once the battle is initiated.

At 75%, 50% and 25% Anub'arak will burrow, removing himself from players' reach. Adds will be spawned which must be killed quickly. Also look out for sand clouds on the ground—spikes will emerge and knock players into the air. Quickly move out of them!

Anub'arak's Pound deals huge amounts of damage so the healer needs to be on guard.

AbilitiesAnub'arak

Carrion Beetles: Summons 8 total Carrion Beetles over 4 seconds. Used while burrowed.

Impale: Causes a spike to erupt from the ground, inflicting 2,828 to 3,172 non-migitated Physical damage to players within 4 yards and knocks them into the air.

Leeching Swarm: Creates a passive aura that inflicts 330 to 370 Nature damage every second for 15 seconds. Used while burrowed.

Pound: Inflicts 9,425 to 10,575 Physical damage to everyone in a frontal cone within 15 yards, stunning them for 6 seconds.

Anub'arak

Carrion Beetles: Summons 8 total Carrion Beetles over 4 seconds. Used while burrowed.

Impale: Causes a spike to erupt from the ground, inflicting 7,540 to 8,460 non-migitated Physical damage to players within 4 yards and knocks them into the air.

Leeching Swarm: Creates a passive aura that inflicts 330 to 370 Nature damage every second for 15 seconds. Used while burrowed.

Pound: Inflicts 47,125 to 52,875 Physical damage to everyone in a frontal cone within 15 yards, stunning them for 6 seconds.

Missing valuable info? Incorrect details? Please report it to us!

Quotes (11)

Gains

After killing this NPC you will gain:

125 reputation with Valiance Expedition
125 reputation with The Taunka
125 reputation with The Hand of Vengeance
125 reputation with Explorers' League
250 reputation with The Wyrmrest Accord
125 reputation with The Silver Covenant
250 reputation with The Sons of Hodir
125 reputation with The Sunreavers

Anub'arak

Quotes (11)

Gains

Related

Contribute