Anub'arak Encounter Guide: Strategy, Abilities, Loot

Anub'arak is the fifth boss encounter in the Trial of the Crusader raid instance. This boss will test your healers ability to selectively heal, coordinate stuns and your tanks ability to survive.

• Cleave is your best friend, make sure you are optimized to do as much damage as possible to five targets.
• Be ready to use personal defensive cool downs at a moments notice!

• Be ready to communicate outgoing heals to minimize the effects of Leeching Swarm.

• Be ready to pick up adds and position accordingly.
• Pre-assign and coordinate who will be tanking adds on which side of the boss.

• Freezing Slash — inflicts massive frost damage to Anub'arak's primary aggro target and stuns them for three seconds.
• Penetrating Cold— Anub'arak will afflict five random players in the raid with a debuff that deals considerable frost damage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds. This is cast every 18 seconds so someone will always have this debuff after the initial cast.
• Submerge — Anub'arak will burrow beneath the ground and begin the intermission phase of the encounter.

• Submerge — Burrowers will occasionally attempt to submerge, they will stay above ground if on top of a patch of frost.
• Shadow Strike — Burrowers will start to cast a massive shadowy blast, this cast is 8 seconds long. This ability is only in Heroic difficulty.

• Pursued by Anubarak — Anub'arak will follow you with a massive set of spikes that grows faster the longer it is fixated on the same target, the only way to remove this fixate is to guide the spikes into a patch of frost.
• Summon Scarab — Anub'arak will constantly be spawning Swarm Scarabs during the intermission.

• Freezing Slash — inflicts massive frost damage to Anub'arak's primary aggro target and stuns them for three seconds.
• Penetrating Cold — Anub'arak will afflict 5 random players in the raid with a debuff that deals considerable frost damage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds. This is cast every 18 seconds so someone will always have this debuff after the initial cast.
• Leeching Swarm — Anub'arak will summon a swarm of locusts, stealing health from members of the raid based off a percentage of their current health.

This encounter should be completed with three tanks on Heroic and can be done with two tanks on Normal. On Heroic one tank to hold Anub'arak and two tanks to each hold two of the Nerubian Burrower adds that spawn during the encounter, on normal you only need one tank as only two adds spawn as opposed to the four on Heroic. While this encounter is a healing check of sorts it is much more a check of target selection than raw HPS, 3-4 healers should be plenty for this encounter.

Anub'arak is a relatively simple encounter, but has very strict requirements that can easily lead to a wipe if not handled correctly. The boss should be tanked where it spawns and the raid should be loosely stacked behind Anub'arak, except for the two off-tanks which should be on either side of the boss. Make sure to assign ahead of time who will be on which side of the boss. Death Knights should Death Grip the Frost Spheres that are floating near the bosses spawn position down to either side of the boss so there is a frost patch on both Anub'arak's left and right side, as this is where the Nerubian Burrowers will be tanked to prevent their Burrow ability from being cast and maximizing your raids ability to cleave them. The raids' focus should be on cleaving down the Nerubian Burrowers while still maximizing damage on Anub'arak. Every so often the Nerubian Burrowers will attempt to cast Shadow Strike and this MUST be interrupted or a random member of the raid will die. This ability is able to be interrupted both by traditional kicks but also stuns. The easiest way to ensure that all of the Nerubian Burrowers are kicked is to have a Paladin cast their Holy Wrath ability while positioned between the two stacks of Nerubian Burrowers. You want to make sure they are close enough to the boss that cleave is hitting them and a single Paladin is able to stun all four with their Holy Wrath ability while keeping them far enough away from eachother to avoid stacking their frenzy debuff that is applied when Nerubian Burrowers are near each other.

Anub'arak will afflict five random players in the raid with Penetrating Cold, dealing considerable frost damage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds. This is cast every 18 seconds so someone will always have this debuff after the initial cast. Rinse and repeat this for two minutes and then Anub'arak will burrow underground starting the intermission. It is recommended to try and pull Anub'arak to the far east side of the room a few seconds before his intermission as it will allow members of your raid more time to deal with the Pursued by Anubarak mechanic.

The Intermission will begin two minutes into the fight and during this time Anub'arak will not spawn anymore Nerubian Burrowers, but he will spawn Swarm Scarabs that need to be killed quickly as they apply a stacking bleed debuff that can quickly kill someone if not managed. The ranged dps should focus on shooting down Frost Spheres to spawn patches of frost. The main mechanic during this phase is Pursued by Anubarak, where he will choose a random member of the raid and fixate a massive set of spikes towards them. If it reaches the player it will kill them or anyone it meets on its way to its target almost immediately and then head to another player after killing its target. The spikes will become faster and faster until they come in contact with a frost patch that will reset this mechanic to its original speed. It is recommended that the first person that is fixated tries to maximize the amount of time they are pursued because there is a limited number of Frost Spheres available for the fight and thus a limited amount of frost patches as Anub'arak will destroy the frozen patch when his spikes come in contact with it. Consider using a Paladin's Hand of Protection ability as the physical immunity will allow you to be hit by the Spike without taking any damage. When only a few seconds remain on the buff you would then move onto the patch of frost resetting the speed of the pursuit. Make sure you DO NOT use the two original frost patches where the boss started as we will need them to tank the Nerubian Burrowers for the final phase. The intermission lasts roughly a minute so make sure you plan accordingly to ensure you have enough ice to avoid anyone dying to the pursuit mechanic.

Phase 3 will begin when Anub'arak reaches 30% health. In Heroic difficulty he will continue to spawn Nerubian Burrowers, but in Normal he will not. The major change is at 30% health Anub'arak will cast Leeching Swarm, this debuff will leech a considerable amount of your current health (10% in normal, 20% in heroic) on top of dealing massive damage to the raid this will also heal Anub'arak so the healers must keep everyone in the raid at as low health as possible while still keeping them alive, the only people in the raid who should be receiving any major direct healing should be the Tanks or those afflicted with Penetrating Cold. Off healing abilities such as Healing Stream totem from a Shaman or Vampiric Embrace from a Shadow Priest are greatly beneficial during this phase as you do need to heal, but not too much. Bloodlust/Heroism should be used here as it is a mad dash to kill the boss before your raid decays to the debuff. All mechanics from the first phase persist so on Heroic you will continue to have to handle the Nerubian Burrowers and heal anyone who is afflicted by Penetrating Cold. If your raid is struggling with keeping the Penetrating Cold targets alive consider using Mighty Frost Protection Potion when going into the last phase as it will consume a tick or two of the debuff which can be the difference between surviving or dying. The final phase of the boss is the same as the first except with the addition of Leeching Swarm Keep healing, do as much damage as possible and burn down the boss. Good luck!

Item	Type/Slot
Spaulders of the Snow Bandit	Leather Shoulders
Legplates of the Immortal Spider	Plate Legs
Chestguard of the Warden	Plate Chest
Vestments of the Sleepless	Cloth Chest
Cold Convergence	Staff
Fordragon Blades	Polearm
Westfall Saber	Sword
Argent Resolve	Mace
Crusader's Glory	Sword
Pauldrons of the Timeless Hunter	Mail Shoulder
The Lion's Maw	Axe
Bulwark of the Royal Guard	Shield
Vigilant Ward	Shield
Baelgun's Heavy Crossbow	Crossbow
Cinch of the Undying	Cloth Belt
Legplates of the Silver Hand	Plate Legs
The Grinder	Mace

Item	Type/Slot
Darkmaw Crossbow	Crossbow
Mace of the Earthborn Chieftain	Mace
Ardent Guard	Sword
Belt of the Eternal	Cloth Belt
Blackhorn Bludgeon	Mace
Frostblade Hatchet	Axe
Robes of the Sleepless	Cloth Chest
Aegis of the Coliseum	Shield
Shoulderpads of the Snow Bandit	Leather Shoulder
Sunwalker Legguards	Plate Legs
Forsaken Bonecarver	Sword
Helm of the Crypt Lord	Mail Helmet
Legplates of the Redeemed Blood Knight	Plate Legs
Perdition	Staff
Pride of the Kor'kron	Shield
Anguish	Polearm
Stoneskin Chestplate	Plate Chest

Item	Type/Slot
Maiden's Favor	Cloak
Strength of the Nerub	Cloak
Bracers of Dark Determination	Leather Bracers
Chestguard of Flowing Elements	Mail Chest
Footpads of the Icy Floe	Cloth Boots
Misery's End	Mace
Gloves of the Lifeless Touch	Cloth Gloves
Signet of the Traitor King	Ring
Stormpike Cleaver	Axe
Leggings of the Deepening Void	Cloth Pants
Reign of the Unliving	Trinket
Gloves of Bitter Reprisal	Plate Gloves
Legguards of the Lurking Threat	Mail Pants
Legwraps of the Awakening	Leather Pants
Armbands of the Ashen Saint	Cloth Bracers
Band of Deplorable Violence	Ring
Belt of Deathly Dominion	Mail Belt
Belt of the Forgotten Martyr	Plate Belt
Greaves of the 7th Legion	Plate Boots
Archon Glaive	Polearm

Item	Type/Slot
Handwraps of the Lifeless Touch	Cloth Gloves
Cuirass of Flowing Elements	Mail Chest
Hellion Glaive	Polearm
Leggings of the Awakening	Leather Pants
Leggings of the Lurking Threat	Mail Pants
Might of the Nerub	Cloak
Band of the Traitor King	Ring
Bindings of the Ashen Saint	Cloth Bracers
Gauntlets of Bitter Reprisal	Plate Gloves
Girdle of the Forgotten Martyr	Plate Belt
Hellscream Slicer	Axe
Suffering's End	Mace
Armbands of Dark Determination	Leather Bracers
Boots of the Icy Floe	Cloth Boots
Greaves of the Saronite Citadel	Plate Boots
Lurid Manifestation	Ring
Maiden's Adoration	Cloak
Reign of the Dead	Trinket
Waistguard of Deathly Dominion	Mail Belt
Breeches of the Deepening Void	Cloth Pants

Anub'arak is one of 5 encounters present in the Trial of the Crusader raid of Wrath of the Lich King Classic. If you would like to learn more about the others, or would like to see the loot tables of every boss at the same time, please see our other pages for the raid below.