Anub'arak Abilities and Strategy

• Burrow Charge is your only way out, so you should choose wisely when to use it aggressively.
• Impale is your primary engage tool but it can also be used for peeling.
• Try to hold Harden Carapace for when you will be hit by enemy Abilities.
• Exploit Scarab Host Beetles to gain vision, intercept skillshots, or tank Structures and Mercenaries (especially Bosses).
• Use Locust Swarm before your Health becomes too low because the healing it provides is not instant.
• Be creative with Cocoon: use it to setup engages or to isolate powerful enemy Heroes.

Impale provides a long-range area of effect Stun to initiate and peel. Its range makes it an excellent tool to interrupt channeled Abilities.

Due to its relatively slow traveling speed comared to other skillshots, Impale can easily hit foes that are near you, but enemies located at maximum range will have more time to evade it due to the spikes' traveling time. With some practice, however, it becomes easier to successfully predict enemy movement and land hits with Impale.

As with most crowd control Abilities, Impale has a long cooldown and does little damage of its own. This makes it a poor waveclearing Ability, so it is better to find opportunities to use it against Heroes (for example by ganking), but make sure you have allied Heroes nearby to follow up on the Stun it provides.

Burrow Charge provides Anub'arak with long-range mobility, a short Stun to interrupt channeled Abilities, as well as a moderate Slow.

Thanks to its fast speed and collisionless nature, it is the perfect tool with which to initiate fights, catch up to fleeing Heroes, or escape. When initiating, always try and surface (by recasting the Burrow Charge while Anubarak is underground) in the direction your intended target may be trying to move in. This will put you in a position where you will be able to perform body-blocking maneuvers.

When you want to engage without putting yourself at risk, you should start with Impale and then decide if you want to follow-up with Burrow Charge or keep it to escape. When you want to dive with your team, you can use them in the opposite order. Do not dive alone.

Burrow Charge's long range can be advantageous or disadvantageous: although it lets you catch opponents by surprise, it can also lead you to overextend out of your teammate's range, preventing them from properly follow up or assisting you. Be sure to account for your allies' positioning when aggressively using Burrow Charge.

Harden Carapace is a key Basic Ability in making up for Anub'arak's limited Health pool. Although the Shield provided is not that big, the amount of Spell Armor provided can absorb a huge amount of damage if used at the right time. As such, it is preferable to use it when we expect enemy Heroes to use their offensive Abilities or right before we get crowd controlled.

Besides the fact that Locust Swarm deals an appreciable amount of area of effect damage, this Ability makes Anub'arak harder to kill without a concerted effort from your opponents due to its significant self-healing component. That said, it is barely useful against burst damage.

Locust Swarm takes into account all enemy entities—including Minions, Summons, Structures, and, of course, Heroes—for the purpose of Health gains, making it especially effective against grouped enemies. Due to its long cooldown, it is advised to only use it in team fights, when the extra survivability comes in handy to stay alive. Using such a long cooldown for ganking is generally a waste.

Cocoon is a unique Ability that is primarily used to instantly take specific Heroes out of the game for a lengthy time period, preventing them from using key Abilities. Do not use it on Heroes who can instantly become Unstoppable (for example Johanna via Iron Skin) or enter Stasis (such as Maiev via Vault of the Wardens) without Stunning them beforehand.

During team fights, isolating Abilities like Cocoon are typically used to disable Healers with powerful healing Abilities (such as Alexstrasza). This forces their teammates to then then decide between keeping fighting without their presence or wasting resources to free them.

Sometimes, however, you want to use Cocoon on Heroes who can deal a tremendous amount of damage (for example Tassadar with Archon). Cho'Gall, being two Heroes in one, is the best target for Cocoon.

Cocoon is also an excellent tool for holding lone Heroes in place while your nearby teammates collapse on them. Cocoon can be used in this manner to great effect during the rotational phases that many of the Maps call for, netting your team easy kills that would otherwise be very difficult to get.

Cocoon's instant crowd control effect can also allow you or your teammates to escape otherwise deadly situations, preferably while trading it with another Heroic Ability with a similar or longer cooldown.

Cocoon's remaining duration is clearly indicated by a green bar found just above the Cocoon itself. You or your teammates can prepare your Abilities for when the target is to be released from the Cocoon, as to follow up rightly, however, enemy Heroes can damage the Cocoon to open it sooner. You can use Impale just as the Cocoon expires to secure a Stun to prevent your target from using Abilities that may help them escape.

The Beetles spawned through Scarab Host are an integral yet subtle part of Anub'arak's playstyle. Individual Beetles each add approximately 20% more damage to Anub'arak's Basic Attacks, which rapidly adds up as Anub'arak can consistently be surrounded by one to five of them.

Defensively, Beetles also act as extra bodies to catch single-target skillshots (for example Storm Bolt by Muradin before Level 10), indirectly increasing Anub'arak's and his allies' survivability. They also do a good job of tanking Minions, Structures, Mercenaries, and other things that would otherwise attack Anub'arak himself.

Harden Carapace can be used to spawn Beetles cheaply and on demand, even when you do not actually need to Shield yourself. This is useful when doing Bosses as you can use Beetles to drastically reduce them damage they deal to you: spawn a Beetle, step back so it takes aggro, attack the Boss, and repeat.