Is there any real reason for this guy to have the hp of an assassin as a tank?? Or did the game put him in the wrong category? How are his defensive stats (base stats) compared to other tanks?
I picked every defensive talent and i still got bursted faster than when i was using Illidan… Is the correct way to play him by initiating fights and immediately run away instead of soaking damage in the front line for your team like a normal tank would do?
Anub’arak is all about mitigating damage, not soaking it. Although he is strongest against mage comps, he can do decently against AA comps, but I don’t recommend drafting him early. His lower health pool compensates for the fact that he should never be taking unnecessary damage. W build doesn’t mean, “Press W and facetank things”. Here are some basic tips for playing the big bug.
How exactly do i mitigate damage? his shield have 7 seconds cooldown, should i just go in, stun some people with my Q and E and then try to run back to the backline? Isn’t this going to give the enemy team free pass to murder my allies?
His 40 - 60 magic defense is nice, but it seems the buff vanish is they destroy the 300 health shield, which they can do in a heart beat.
I just played one as Arthas and he had like 600 more HP from the start, not to mention his scaling which seems to be even better… And can heal himself with his Q and his ult. I went against Tyrael, who is even harder to kill with his life steal / aoe shields…
In what case would it be a good idea picking Anub over any other tank? Because all of them have at the very least can hold the line and make the enemy team target you instead of your allies
It’s because Anub is easily the hardest tank to play in this game. He’s also the the one that can flip a game completely thanks to cocoon.
Your average player doesn’t know what to do with an anub and so most of em just endlessly dive it. Even his ult is hard to efficiently use. It’s why most of us avoid him like the plague; because a bad anub just feeds. Learn to tank first before you play anub, and I mean learn to do what a tank actually is supposed to do, then figure out how to land his abilities and then who to cocoon during a teamfight.
No, if you read what I wrote, use Q and E strategically, not just because they are available. You use the stun from Q to prevent them from casting, or to keep them from taking advantage of CDs, like when Raynor has Inspire up. You save E to escape, or if they are diving your backline, to stun them where your assassins can murder them.
Take the CDR on his shield at 7, and you won’t have problems with having it when you need it. Again, don’t just use it on CD, use it when you are about to take damage. Even on tanks with high HP, you don’t want to just soak damage because you can. You want to dodge as many skillshots as possible, and not just stand there letting a Zul’jin stack on you.
Also remember that beetles are spawned every time you do use an ability, so if you are up against something like an orb build Li Ming, use beetles to eat her orbs, and no one takes any damage at all.
So, i should use him as a support? to peel for my team instead of starting fights?
And yeah, the CDR talent on shield doesn’t make much of a difference for me, since i usually die faster than 4 seconds with this abismal hp, and auto attacks doesn’t trigger it. If he had at least some kind of life steal other than healing off the beetles damages which people just step on it and they die.
And yeah, the beetles do help, against li ming… Not many others.
I get that they wanted to make a anti mage tank who is weak against physical (hence he doesn’t have any talent to reduce physical damage afaik) but was it really necessary to make him have 600 - 800 less hp than other tanks? These who doesn’t have any critical weakness like him?
I’ll watch some videos of him because i really liked his lore and from warcraft 3, but i almost feel bad for my team for picking him at this state.
Sort of. You can engage with E if you trust your team to back you up, or you know they have already blown a bunch of CDs, otherwise you play him to counter their engage.
Then you are either playing with a team that isn’t working with you, or you are engaging incorrectly. Here is the final award screen from an SL match I played on Anub just this morning:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/399424650762911747/647649288205369354/Anub1.PNG
As you can see, I did soak a good bit of damage for my team, so I wasn’t just doing a hit and run each fight. Here are the stats for that match:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/399424650762911747/647649320165703720/Anub2.PNG
Yeah, I never died. It helped that we had a solid Anduin, and our Falstad was amazing, but I didn’t have much trouble tanking the match. Note that I drafted him late (the map was Cursed Hollow), and I made sure the enemy team comp was favorable. Lots of ability damage, low AA damage, and Anub can make Ming’s life miserable.
Overall, I have a 60% win rate on him over roughly 200 matches, so he is one of my favorite tanks. You just have to learn how to play him. If it would help, I can see if I can clip a video of one of the team fights from that match to show how I handle those.
Yes, unless you have team-dives or you see an opportunity.
This is probably because you are used to tanks like Malganis, Johanna, Muradin. Completely different play styles. Anub, if anything, is more played like ETC. ETC also has weak hp, but has an actual heal which makes him easier to use. Perhaps learning to play a good ETC may help. You’ll notice that ETC starts with only 150 hp more than anub.
but at the end of the day, Anub is a pick you take because your a strategic player. You’re not just going in there like you would with Joahanna and giving people your big D and then healing 30% of your hp afterwards. He isn’t a soaker.
Short answer, yes. Anub and ETC have been nerfed several times because their utility is so high. I guess a good way to look at Anub is that he’s a utility tank and not just some super-soaker like Jojo is.
You E Q something out of position and pray your mates follow up.
You cocoon the tank or the support and pray your mates do something in the meantime.
Yep, played him as a support and it went just fine, also got the mvp for soaking 20% damage and didn’t died once. It’s really easy not to die when you’re not putting your life in line so your team can use you as a meat shield. It’s just sad that the thing i was doing wrong was trusting my team to follow me.
But yeah, i know how to use him now. Thanks for the help guys.
Glad it helped! If you have a dive comp, you can play him a lot more aggressively, or if you have a team you can trust, but yeah, watch the engages and you should be fine.