Anub'arak Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ✓ ?
4	✓ ? ?
7	? ? ✓
10	? ✓
13	? ✓ ✘︎
16	? ? ✓
20	✘︎ ? ? ✓

Nerubian Armor is a good Talent that increases the Spell Armor coming from Harden Carapace, making Anub'arak extremely hard to kill with Abilities.

Even against Heroes that do not rely on Abilities as their main damage source, Nerubian Armor will still give a good amount of value, especially in the early game.

Legion of Beetles is a good Talent that improves your ability to intercept enemy skillshot directed towards you or allied Heroes by making Beetles harder to kill. You also get an additional Beetle, slightly increasing your damage output.

Ideally, when playing this Talent, you should toggle it off when mounted, so that you do not end up wasting its effect when randomly being dismounted. This is important when you want to have it ready for checking bushes.

You can further increase the damage provided by this Talent by combining it with Leeching Scarabs at Level 7, Burning Beetles at Level 13, and/or Beetle, Juiced at Level 16.

Regeneration Master is a decent Talent that increases your Health Regeneration and, after completing its Quest in the late game, your maximum Health.

While it works against any type of damage, this Talent gives no value during the early game and low value during the mid game because the Health Regeneration provided barely matters and the maximum Health bonus requires a high amount of Regeneration Globes.

Bed of Barbs is a good Talent that improves Impale by adding a respectable area of effect Slow to it.

Beetles, generated via Scarab Host, move at 4 units per second. Heroes are a bit faster, so the Slow you get from this Talent can sometimes help them stick on enemy Heroes for slightly longer.

In case you need more waveclear sometimes, this Talent helps a bit. That said, Impale should not be wasted to damage Minions if there are enemy Heroes around, as it is a key Ability for Anub'arak.

For higher level of play, it is useful to know that the damage component of this Talent provides vision while happening. Because of this, you can use Impale in a bush and have vision there for about 4 seconds, rather than losing it almost instantly.

Shed Exoskeleton is a strong Talent that provides Anub'arak with a strong and reliable Movement Speed increase effect that makes up for the lack of mobility right after using Burrow Charge. Being based on Harden Carapace, this Talent has synergy with Chitinous Plating at Level 7 which provides cooldown reduction for it.

Underking is a strong Talent that increases both range and damage of Burrow Charge.

The range increase is great when you want to dive the enemy backline or when you want to escape.

The extra damage is always welcome, especially if your team wants to burst down enemy Heroes as fast as possible.

Chitinous Plating is a good Talent that has the potential of nearly halving the cooldown of Harden Carapace. This translates into more survivability, more Beetles, and, later on, more damage, through Urticating Spines at Level 13.

Subterranean Shield is a strong Talent that provides Anub'arak with a substantial survivability increase that is conveniently located on his main initiation tool. Subterranean Shield becomes particularly potent when combined with Epicenter at Level 16.

Leeching Scarabs is a good Talent that offers a nice amount of self-sustain and a bit more damage, however, it requires Legion of Beetles at Level 1 and gets better when combined with Beetle, Juiced at Level 16.

In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check the dedicated section in the Abilities and Strategy page.

Locust Swarm is a good Heroic Ability that makes Anub'arak extremely difficult to take out for its duration, on top of making him impossible to ignore due to the Ability's sheer area of effect damage output.

You should pick this Heroic Ability only if you expect to not get any value from Cocoon, such as when the enemy team has multiple tools to blow it up immediately and you cannot block them in the way explained below.

For beginners, we recommend selecting Locust Swarm as Heroic Ability because it increases your survivability and damage output. If you are confident with using Cocoon, then go for it.

Cocoon is a strong Heroic Ability that can be used to get numerical advantage for a few seconds, usually enough to secure a kill.

Keep in mind that enemy Heroes who are Unstoppable are invalid targets. If the projectile is already flying towards them while they become Unstoppable, then Cocoon will be wasted and go on full cooldown.

Use Cocoon on Heroes who possess tools to destroy it in less than 2-3 seconds. Alternatively, engage them so that they cannot break it immediately due to being unable to act. If these tips cannot be applied to the game you are playing, then consider picking Locust Swarm instead.

Urticating Spines is a good Talent that deals a high amount of burst damage to enemy Heroes near Anub'arak when Harden Carapace gets used. The damage done via this Talent counts as Spell Damage.

Burning Beetles is a strong Talent that provides a lot of sustain damage when combined with some Scarab Host-related Talents: Legion of Beetles at Level 1 and Beetle, Juiced at Level 16. The damage done via this Talent counts as Spell Damage.

Acid Drenched Mandibles is a weak Talent that provides a good amount of sustain damage, in the form of Physical Damage, against enemy Heroes recently affected by specific crowd control effects: Slow, Root, and Stun.

We do not recommend this Talent because its damage is too low compared to the alternatives in the same Tier: Urticating Spines when you need burst damage and Burning Beetles when you need sustain damage.

Epicenter is a strong Talent that primarily helps you land Burrow Charge on enemy Heroes while also reducing its cooldown when it successfully hits them.

Debilitation is a situational Talent that reduces the Spell Power of enemy Heroes recently hit with Impale or Burrow Charge, halving all the damage and healing they deal with their Abilities (for example Whitemane's kit).

You should rarely feel the need to pick Debilitation because baseline Impale is enough to peel when needed and Cocoon is better at stopping specific Heroes from healing or dealing damage. That said, you may use this Talent to better handle Heroes who are Unstoppable or when crowd control effects are being removed from enemy Heroes because damage reduction cannot be removed with these tools.

Beetle, Juiced is a good Talent that increases the survivability of your Beetles and makes Scarab Host spawn a Beetle once every 4 Basic Attacks.

As you can imagine, this Talent has synergy with any Scarab Host-related Talent: Legion of Beetles at Level 1, Leeching Scarabs at Level 7, and Burning Beetles at Level 13.

Although Hive Master is a weak Talent that gives you a permanent Vampire Locust which deals damage to a single nearby enemy once every 3 seconds and heals Anub'arak for about half of that amount.

The self-sustain and sustain damage provided by this Talent are designed for long team fights. All that said, we do not recommend this Talent because Rewind offers more playmaking potential together with additional survivability and more damage.

Cryptweave is a situational Talent that can extend the duration of Cocoon, but only if Anub'arak stays within 4.5 range. In addition to that, the targeted Hero will take damage based on how long it lasted.

You can occasionally use this Talent against scary enemy Heroes (notably Cho) to keep them blocked while fighting the rest of their team and at the same time dealing a moderate amount of damage to them.

The Traitor King is a situational Talent that passively gives Anub'arak 10% additional maximum Health and 20 Spell Armor, and it can also be activated once every 60 seconds to gain 75 Armor for a few seconds.

The huge amount of survivability provided by this Talent makes Anub'arak way harder to kill with burst damage. That said, you will rarely need this Talent instead of Rewind.

Rewind is a strong Talent that allows Anub'arak to instantly reset the cooldown of all his Basic Abilities once every 60 seconds.

The effect provided is outstanding and versatile, allowing you to double your burst damage, survivability, and crowd control on demand.

Being able to cast Impale and Burrow Charge twice in a row can lead to some of the game's longest crowd control chains.

Thanks to Scarab Host, you will be also summoning 3 additional Beetles to assist you, effectively increasing your damage output.

Make sure that you have used most if not all your Basic Abilities before using Rewind, else you will waste part or all of its effect.