Anub'arak underperforming

General Discussion
1

Hello everyone!

I’ve been playing with Anub’arak in HotS recently, and I feel that he is underperforming a lot, since he’s too fragile and very easy to kill with not too much physical damage. I know the description of the hero says that he’s great against mages, but when you play QM or other modes in the game, the enemy team doesn’t consist only of mages. There are warriors that easily can counter him and make him an easy kill. On top of that, he has a very low health pool, for a tank, which makes him more vulnerable.

I’ve been analyzing his abilities and talents, and I think that he could be reworked to become a better tank. For example, increasing his very low health pool a little bit could do a significant contribution to the character. Also, the level 1 talent “Regeneration Master” could have a reduction of the quest requirement, reducing the number of regeneration globes from 30 to 20 or 25, so it can be acomplished earlier in the game and help with teamfights.

Also, I think that he’s trait, “Scarab Host”, and his ability “Harden Carapace”, should be interchanged, and make “Scarab Host” an ablity with charges, for example, 3 charges, that the player can use at his will. And the new trait, “Harden Carapace”, should work like the “Plasma Shield” of Artanis, or should be manually activated by the player, and that the player can reduce the cooldown, for example, using basic abilities or something like that.

Also, even when most of the builds recomend to pick Cocoon over Locust Swarm as his ultimate, I think that the damage and healing that Locust Swarm grants should be aumented, for example, against Heroes. This way, it can become a more atractive talent to pick at level 10. Also, perhaps a little change in Cocoon, like the “Containtment Disc” of Maiev, which can’t be interrupted during his full duration, could be a more useful adition for this ability.

And finally, “Impale” should grant more stunning. I remember from W3 that when used, the stunning lasted longer. Instead, in HotS, its stun only lasts 1 second, and the ability is a skillshot, which means, if you lost the chance, you couldn’t stop a hero from channel an ability or something else.

I think that with this little changes, Anub’arak could become a better tank and a better hero.

Thanks

2 Likes
2

I feel like he can’t solo tank. He must be drafted as bruiser, preferably vs mages (or isolator vs heroes like Chogall). His HP pool is not enough to solo tank.

1 Like
3

i think he needs to be given opportunities to deal more damage. or to tank more magic. beetle build can be easily buffed and that would actually make him a ton more viable.

  1. legion of beetles: also gives anubarak 10% spell armor per beetle active.
  2. leeching scarabs deal 80% more damage and heal for 50% of the dmg dealt
  3. beetle, juiced new functionality: ( keep the health increase ) increase the amount of beetles spawned from basic abilities to 2

this will make beetle build a TON scarier honestly

4 Likes
4

The problem is the tower vs no tower fighting strength. If we buff garrosh and anub hp to deal with turrets better, their teamfight power when not under tower will skyrocket. Anub was already popular before the tower changes.

1 Like
5

I do think that he needs a rework. I argued before that his Cocoon ultimate has too much of his power tied down. His Cocoon got nerfs in the past, but it doesn’t change that his ultimate is insanely good, especially further you go. My suggestion is to make his Cocoon only possible while he is not too far from it. If he goes too far, Cocoon starts to lose durability measured in seconds on top of its duration time. When this nerf would be done, I suggest giving him more power as his dive, his damage, his tankiness, his builds are just underwhelming. His beetle build is quite pointless, like when Locust ultimate + storm upgrade and a lot of beetles were really good? Everyone who are playing him seriously goes for dive talents. He has role as a diver tank against caster heavy teams, but he is a very niche hero. His beetle build needs to get more power in order to allow him to fight teams with more staying power. His talents needs to be remade into something more interesting. For example, his spines from Q is quite weak and hard to see, care or even use with an intent to do something useful.

Though, it is only me. I just dislike him as a hero as he is now.

6

Before saying that a hero should have this and more of that, you should at least play him more than 20 times and dying less than 8 times in a game.
As a tank, you can’t mindlessly charge in without having your team around.
Anub’arak is in a fine spot.

win rate

https://www.heroesprofile.com/Global/Hero/?timeframe_type=major&timeframe=2.50,2.49,2.48,2.47&hero_level=15,20,25,40,60,80,100&role=Tank&game_type=sl&league_tier=master,diamond

7

Anubarak is a really strong Tank with tools against mages and with a kit filled with CC.
The only thing that might cause trouble is his trait with the new tower changes, but other than thatk, he’s excellent.

So he’s not underperforming, not even in QM, so I suggest more practice and maybe ask for help how to do better as him.

3 Likes
8

He needs a health buff to compensate for the tower changes. His kit is fine

9

Having to wait for level 13 to have some damage is too long , at least ETC gets some burst at 7.
Having to pray for someone to follow up on E and Q is no fun.

1 Like
10

Anub’s selling point isn’t really anti-mage. It is just icing on the cake.
The relatively lower health pool is Anub for balance reason. That is why in the draft mode, he is often paired with a tanky bruiser such as Dehaka, Yrel, Artanis, Leo, Imperiusor even Blaze and Arthas (those tanks can fill the bruiser role).
His selling point: Hard CCs. He is one of the best CC tanks. He has two AoE stun + a removal ult. When he is playing defensively, he has a fair amount CC for pealing.
When he is playing offence, his tanking power comes from CC lock and the team’s burst damage. This is how it works:

  1. Cocoon enemy tank, healer or someone who can burn the cocoon down. This gives your team a few sec number advantage.
  2. Use his two stun to CC lock a target and have the team follow up on it. (lower rank teammate sometime won’t follow up :cry:)
  3. Now your team really has a number advantage and the enemy team may be in full retreat
  4. Kill the cocoon target if possible. If the tank gets away, it is fine. Just take the object.

His skill floor is higher than ETC or a few easier tank but he isn’t underperforming. Furthermore, if your team doesn’t have a tanky bruiser, you will have a much harder time with Anub.

1 Like
11

Actually, since the patch, he is underperforming at all ranks. His win rate has pretty much gone through the floor compared to pre-patch. I am not saying he is unplayable, but his entire kit works against him if you need to fight near structures, so unless it is a map like Cursed Hollow or Garden of Terror, there is no reason to draft him when the other tanks weren’t affected nearly as much.

1 Like
12

Ok~~~ I guess I haven’t played enough Anub after the patch. I stand corrected

13

Yeah, I played him a bunch in QM, as he had always been one of my favorite tanks, and now it is just painful. I can still make him work, but if they let me have Johanna, she is not only still the best tank in the game, but even stronger with Reinforce at level 1 if you will be doing a lot of aggressive pushing. I have also been playing a ton of Tyrael, as he thrives with this change as well.

A few of the tanks are pretty much unchanged in terms of game play, such as Muradin or ETC (although there is more reason to take Block Party at level 1 now).

1 Like
14

I could imagine programming the towers to attack summons first, then heroes would improve his winrate.

Although one idea I thought might be interesting would be to have his beetles deflect damage from him to his summons.

15

honesty he was fine before tower changes and hes fine now. You wouldn’t tower dive too much more than other tanks during objective. Tbh i think thats one of the issues with anub players. They think they should dive in and blow their only escape. He can still use beetles to soak tower dmg when there arent any defenders. Since he lost some of his kit he should be compensated but too much and he’ll be the top tank again and impossible to kill.

16

I think Anubarak lacks self-healing, meaning all other bruiser tanks have some form of self-healing and Anub has nothing. It is the only tank itself with no basic self-healing.

17

Actually one of Anub’arak’s biggest strengths was his ability to use his beetles to tank the tower. (There were cheese builds based around it.)

Due to towers no longer slowing and now targeting heroes first, he actual lost an important nuance with one of his abilities.

1 Like
18

His winrate is still fine in higher ranks. Cheese builds also arent all that important parts of kits. His spell shield and cocoon will always be his most important traits.

19

He’s performing at 48.94% in Diamond + Masters, and using the median of about 2.5, he’s approximately at 46.44%.

1 Like
20

Exactly 49% is perfectly fine. Granted our numbers are so inaccurate we cannot come to any conclusions from them but its still been somewhat accurate.