Anub'arak

Anub'arak, the Traitor King, is a melee Tank Hero from the Warcraft universe. The proud Nerubian king dared to stand against the Lich King's invasion, but despite his bravery, he fell to the unrelenting Scourge. Resurrected into undeath, Anub'arak now serves as a towering weapon of destruction.

Anub'arak is a Tank who specializes against Mages.

Background
The former king of, was among the s slaughtered in the. One of his most loyal commanders was. the raised the high lords of the Spider Kingdom, Anub'arak among them, as undead to do his bidding. As a malicious, he was forced to use his powers to purge the snow-swept landscape of any remaining resistance to the reign of the Lich King.

Anub'arak was sent south to meet when he arrived in. Anub'arak saved the death knight from an attack by before he introduced himself and told Arthas of Ner'zhul's plans. Anub'arak helped Arthas establish a base, then masterminded the attack on the blue dragon. Anub'arak told Arthas that it would take too long to fight their way through the forces led by and. He formulated a plan to go through the underground ruins of Azjol-Nerub to reach Icecrown, but warned that it would be a perilous journey.

Anub'arak led Arthas into the ruined kingdom, negating many perilous traps along the way. All the while he fought against his former subjects, the living nerubians, who called him the "traitor king". They encountered survivors of 's expedition, led by, who reported that an ancient evil had been released beneath the kingdom. Anub'arak and Arthas defeated the dwarves and broke into the. Soon, they came upon the evil the dwarves had spoken of - the, strange creatures who had been imprisoned beneath the earth long ago. They even fought against a mighty. Upon entering the, an earthquake separated Anub'arak from Arthas. After digging through the rubble and finding the death knight unharmed, Anub'arak realized why Ner'zhul had chosen Arthas as his champion.

Anub'arak ushered Arthas out of Azjol-Nerub and to the surface, where they engaged with and his servants in a battle for the. Anub'arak defended Arthas as he magically activated the four obelisks surrounding 's pinnacle, then stood by as Arthas climbed the stairs to his destiny.

Gameplay
Anub'arak is an aggressive Tank who specializes against Mages. His strongest points are his long-range Crowd controls and high resistance to Ability-based damage. Although considered an archetypal tank, his Health pool is significantly lower than that of other tanks; Anub'arak must therefore rely on his summons and Abilities to survive in battle. Finding the right time to initiate, peel, and pressure isolated Heroes while avoiding dangerous situations are the skills that one should develop in order to become a strong Anub'arak player.

Strengths

 * Excellent initiator and diver
 * High mitigation against ability based heroes
 * Beetles can block skillshots and structure damage
 * Several long-range crowd control and interruption Abilities

Weaknesses

 * Relatively fragile to Physical Damage Dealer
 * Main Abilities are skillshots that can be avoided
 * Limited damage dealing potential

Abilities

 * See Data page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Trivia

 * Anub'arak first appeared in  (July 2003).
 * His book debut was almost six years later, in (May 2009).
 * In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Anub'arak was voiced by Steve Blum. In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (November 2008), he was voiced by Frank Welker. In Heroes of the Storm, he is voiced by Darin De Paul.
 * Anub'arak was one of the three heroes revealed at Gamescom 2014.
 * Anub'arak's default skin reflects his appearance in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
 * Desert Anub'arak reflects his appearance in the the dungeon from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
 * Frozen Anub'arak reflects his appearance in the raid from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
 * Anub'arak's large bulk limits him to mounts he can stand on (such as Blackheart's Doubloon, Champion's Nexagon, Championship Banner, Hearthstone Card, Magic Carpet, Star Chariot, and Void Speeder).
 * Anub'arak's 'Burrow Charge' ability is likely inspired by the Ultralisk's mutation ability in Starcraft 2 of the same name.