The Angry Healers!- Letting You Die of Your Stupid Since 2009

I just realized this morning that I have one boss yet to cover in the Trial of the Crusader raid- Anub’Arak.  This is partly because he refuses to drop the mace I want, and mostly because a community I frequent on LiveJournal- WoWLadies.  Someone posted this morning that they were having issues with Anub and, realizing that I had finally killed him, I could post about it and be somewhat useful again.  So here it is.

Anub’Arak

Anub'Arak (no, I have nothing witty this morning, kthx.)

Anub’ Arak is, first and foremost, a DPS fight, and that is made pretty clear the first time you fight him.  Anub has 3 phases:

Phase 1: Anub is surfaced, and 4 Crypt Stalker adds (2 on 10 man) will spawn. 

Phase 2: Anub will burrow underground and chase people around landshark style with his spikes sticking up out of the ground and little scarabs with chase your raid members around.

Phase 3: No more adds will spawn, but he will put the Leeching Swarm debuff on the raid, which will damage them but heal him.

It is important to know that Anub will alternate between phases 1 and 2 until you get him to 30% health, when he will switch to phase 3.

The Encounter:

Now, you start this fight by Tirin Fordring telling you that you are prepared to enter Icecrown Citadel.  However, Arthas disagrees- and he has no problem mocking you as he enters the Coliseum and tells you how foolish you were to build your structures over the underground tunnel kingdom of the Nerubian Empire.  To prove his point, he thrusts Forstmourne into the floor and shatters it, sending you and your raid plummeting to the large underground lake below and telling Tirion that ‘the souls of your fallen champions shall be mine.’

Well, we can’t have that, now can we?

As you emerge from the lake, you’ll see a large, cavernous room- where Anub’Arak will climb out of the ground and sit, waiting patiently for your attack.  Around his room are floating blue orbs and little scarabs that just meander about.  That is, until you attack, of course.  This starts the enrage timer (10 minutes.)  This is a 2- 3 tank fight, depending on what works for you.  My guild uses 3.  You’ll need a tank for Anub and 2 add tanks.  A few seconds after you engage Anub, the first set of Crypt Stalker adds will emerge.  These need to be tanked on patches of ice, which are placed when a ranged DPS shoots down the floating blue orbs (designate 1 or 2 people to do this and only this).  The ice patches will prevent any adds from burrowing when Anub goes into phase 2.  A total of 4 adds will spawn, and they will spawn in pairs.  All DPS (or at least all of your ranged types) needs to be on the adds as they spawn- one of them needs to die before Anub burrows, preferably the first 2.  The adds also have a stacking damage buff if they are tanked too close together, so they will need to be moved apart.  A few moments after the first pair spawn, the second pair will join them.  They need to be picked up quickly, as they will try to nom on healer faces almost immediatly.  This set will NOT be down before Anub burrows.  Remember that they need to be tanked on ice patches to prevent them from diving underground with the boss.  Kill as many of them as you can before Anub burrows.

During phase 2, Anub will disappear and a host of scarabs will appear.  They don’t do much melee damage- but they don’t have to.  They have a stacking poison debuff called Acid Drenched Mandibles that deals 1600 Nature damage every 3 seconds, lasts for one minute, and stacks everytime they hit you.  I have seen up to 85 stacks-  Thats 136000 Nature damage every 3 seconds!  The only way to deal with this is to run if you see one aggroed on you until the Crypt Stalker adds are dead, then herd them into a central area and AoE them down.  Also, if they run across Anub’s path, they will become enraged (this can be dispelled by a hunter’s Tranq Shot or a Rogue’s poison on a Fan of Knives).  Meanwhile, Anub is having fun chasing random raid members around the room.  He will target a player and spikes will pop out of the ground.  They will move slowly towards the player, getting consistently faster, until they catch the player- and kill him- or until the player runs across a patch of ice and Anub is stopped in his tracks.  This whole phase is about killing the adds before Anub climbs back out of the ground.  Then its back to phase 1.

In order to beat Anub’s 10 minute enrage timer, you need to get him to 30% life, and phase 3, before he burrows a third time.  During phase 3, Anub puts out a raid wide debuff called Leeching Swarm, which hurts the raid and heals him- the more life you have, the more he gets healed.  This is where you come in healers- the only person who needs to be at full health are any tanks currently tanking- that includes tanks on adds (this is the only time the tanks should avoid tanking on ice patches- you want the adds to burrow, so you don’t have to deal with them.)  Everyone else should be at or below 30% health MAX (some guides say 50%, but we do 30%.)  What does this mean to you?  Well, druids, a well placed Rejuv should be enough- if a couple of people go above 30%, you should still be fine, as long as your DPS can handle it.  But no more than 2 or 3 people at the absolute max. 

DPS Anub down, collect loot, profit!  Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for Icecrown!  (If you’re not doing the psychotic hardmodes, anyways….)

Now, go forth and raid!  Get lewtz!  And stay angry, healers!

~Pyo