Quick Answer
If you are looking for the best Anub'arak build in HOTS and how to actually carry fights with him, this guide breaks it down in a practical, real-match way. Anub'arak is a dive tank who excels at starting fights, locking down fragile targets, and making life miserable for mage-heavy teams with his spell armor, disruption, and Cocoon pressure.
This guide covers the best Anub'arak build, gameplay tips, and real-match decision making to help you win more games.
Anub'arak is one of the most rewarding tanks in Heroes of the Storm when you enjoy playing proactively. He is not just a wall that stands there soaking damage. He is a playmaker who creates chaos, picks the right target, and forces the enemy backline to panic. This guide helps you avoid the most common Anub'arak mistakes and start getting real value out of your engages much faster.
Hero Identity and Role Breakdown
Anub'arak is a tank, but he does not win fights the same way Johanna or Muradin do. He is more surgical than that. His best games come from finding the right opening, diving on the right target, and making one important enemy effectively stop playing for a few seconds. That is why he feels so good into mages and fragile backliners. He gets in fast, survives spell burst better than most tanks, and turns messy teamfights into something much easier for his team to finish.
He also has very real limitations. If you dive too early, you can look useless. If you Cocoon the wrong target, the fight can still be lost even though your heroic landed. If your follow-up is not ready, your engage becomes a donation. Anub'arak rewards players who understand timing and target priority. The good news is that he does not need flashy mechanics to be effective. If you learn when to go, who to isolate, and when to hold your second stun, he becomes much easier to play well.
Anub'arak Abilities Explained
Scarab Host (Trait) spawns beetles whenever you cast abilities, and those little bodies matter more than people think because they block skillshots, add chip damage, and make fights messier for the enemy. Impale (Q) is your ranged stun and your cleanest setup tool. Harden Carapace (W) gives you shielding and helps smooth out your engages. Burrow Charge (E) is your gap closer, escape tool, and one of the best initiation buttons on any tank. Cocoon removes a key hero from the fight, while Locust Swarm gives you sustained brawling and self-healing when fights go long.
How to Play Anub'arak (Step-by-Step)
- Start by identifying the enemy hero who matters most in the next fight, usually a mage, healer, or exposed ranged carry.
- Approach patiently instead of instantly diving, because Anub'arak gets much more value from clean engages than desperate ones.
- Use Burrow Charge to create access, then layer Impale so your target stays pinned long enough for follow-up.
- Press Harden Carapace before or during the burst window so your dive does not fall apart immediately.
- Use Cocoon to remove the hero your team least wants to deal with, or save it until the exact moment a fight is about to break open.
How to Play Anub'arak Effectively
The first thing to understand about Anub'arak is that he is not supposed to engage every time he sees movement. A lot of weaker tank play comes from feeling like you must always be doing something. With Anub'arak, patience is often the difference between a clean fight and an ugly feed. He is strongest when he goes in with a clear idea of who is being targeted, who is following, and what the enemy wants to do in response.
In lane phases and small skirmishes, you do not need to force highlight plays. Sometimes your best value is threatening the dive so the enemy backline stands awkwardly. Sometimes it is peeling a diver with Impale instead of using it as the opener. Sometimes it is holding Burrow Charge until you see the real commit. If you are newer to the hero, that is a useful simplification: do not rush your full combo just because you can. Wait until it actually changes the fight.
Teamfights are where Anub'arak starts to feel special. Into mage-heavy comps, he gets to play much more aggressively than many tanks because spell burst does not scare him in the same way. That does not mean you become immortal. It means you can take angles other tanks would hesitate to take, especially if you know where the follow-up is coming from. A good Anub'arak engage does not just stun someone. It reshapes the whole fight around panic, movement, and forced cooldowns.
Cocoon is the part of the kit that separates good Anub'arak players from great ones. The obvious use is removing a healer or mage. The better use is removing the hero your team cannot comfortably deal with right now. That might be the healer. It might be the Li-Ming. It might be the Diablo who would otherwise peel your whole dive. A smart Cocoon turns a five-on-five into a fight your team understands much more easily.
The beginner-friendly version of Anub'arak is simple: do not dive alone, do not stun the tank by default, and do not waste Cocoon on a target your team was already ignoring. Once those habits are clean, the hero becomes much easier to trust. Mastering this mindset alone will already make you more impactful than most Anub'arak players.
Best Anub'arak Builds (Level 1 to 20)
Nerubian Armor at level 1, Underking at level 4, Chitinous Plating at level 7, Cocoon at level 10, Urticating Spines at level 13, Epicenter at level 16, and Cryptweave at level 20.
Gameplay Focus - Mage Slayer Engage Tank
This is the classic Anub'arak build when you want the hero at his most oppressive. It leans into what makes him unique as a tank: diving deep, surviving spell-heavy retaliation, and turning one important target into a problem your team can solve quickly. Into Jaina, Li-Ming, Kael'thas, Orphea, or heavy spell comps in general, this build feels brutal.
The flow is straightforward once you understand the purpose behind the talents. Nerubian Armor makes spell burst far less punishing. Underking gives you cleaner access and more reliable engages. Chitinous Plating keeps your shielding relevant when the enemy throws abilities into you. Cocoon gives you control over the fight's most annoying hero, and the later talents help your dive feel more consistent and more explosive when the fight finally starts.
In real matches, this build is not just about pressing E on cooldown and hoping something dies. It shines when your engage actually means something. Maybe your healer is holding cooldowns for your dive. Maybe your Greymane is waiting for the stun chain. Maybe the enemy mage keeps stepping a little too far forward and finally gets punished. This build turns Anub'arak into a confident playmaking tank who makes spell comps feel much less comfortable.
In short, this build is best when the enemy team relies on spell burst or fragile backliners and you want the cleanest version of Anub'arak's engage-and-delete game plan.
Alternative Anub'arak Build (Level 1 to 20)
Legion of Beetles at level 1, Bed of Barbs at level 4, Leeching Scarabs at level 7, Locust Swarm at level 10, Burning Rage at level 13, Beetle, Juiced at level 16, and Hive Master at level 20.
Gameplay Focus - Beetle Brawler Frontline
This build is for games where you expect longer brawls, more frontline contact, and more value from simply being hard to remove in the middle of everything. Instead of turning one target off with Cocoon, you become a scrappier, sustain-heavy tank who clutters fights with beetles and keeps draining value through constant presence.
The strength of this path is that it makes every cast matter in two ways. You are still stunning, zoning, and engaging, but now your beetles are adding extra pressure, extra healing, and extra annoyance. Locust Swarm gives you the kind of sustain that can swing chaotic objective fights, while the beetle talents make your frontline much more obnoxious than people expect if they are only thinking about your stun combo.
This build asks for a slightly different mindset. You are less about one surgical pick and more about grinding value across the whole fight. If the enemy team wants slow, ugly, front-to-back combat, this version of Anub'arak can absolutely meet them there. You just have to stay in the correct range and avoid wasting your engage before the fight really starts.
In short, this build is best when fights are likely to last longer, objectives create tight brawls, or you want more sustained frontline value instead of pure pick pressure.
Real Match Situations
The enemy Li-Ming is playing far back, but their healer keeps stepping forward to save teammates. In that spot, Cocooning Li-Ming might look flashy, but Cocooning the healer is often what actually wins the fight. The point is not to use your heroic on the scariest name by default. It is to remove the piece that makes the enemy formation function.
You land Burrow Charge on a backliner, but your team is a half-second late. This is where a lot of Anub'arak players panic and dump every cooldown immediately. The better habit is to slow down just enough to hold Impale for the follow-up window instead of firing it into nothing. Your combo is strongest when it stretches the lockdown across your team's damage, not when it all happens before they arrive.
The enemy dives your own backline before you ever get the engage you wanted. Good Anub'arak play is not just about attacking first. Sometimes the best use of your kit is turning around, stunning the diver, and making your carry's life easy. If you always tunnel on offense, you miss how much value this hero gets from controlled peel.
One Thing to Know
Anub'arak is not scary because he can dive. He is scary because he knows exactly when the dive will matter.
What Changes Through the Match
Early game Anub'arak is mostly about threat, rotation pressure, and making squishy heroes uncomfortable. Mid game is where Cocoon and cleaner follow-up start deciding full fights. Late game is where every engage becomes more expensive on both sides. One perfect stun chain can win the game, but one bad tunnel can lose it just as fast. The deeper the game goes, the more discipline matters.
Advanced Tips
Do not always open with both stuns. Sometimes the strongest engage is Burrow Charge first, then a short delay before Impale once the target burns mobility. Spacing your crowd control properly is often more valuable than unloading it instantly.
Cocoon the problem, not the headline. The enemy's biggest hero on paper is not always the correct Cocoon target. Think about who your team actually struggles to reach, heal through, or ignore. That is usually the better answer.
Use beetles as more than background noise. They bodyblock, eat shots, and clutter positioning in subtle ways. In tight fights around objectives, those little interactions can matter far more than players expect.
Anub'arak gets more value from clear follow-up than raw bravery. You do not need every engage to be heroic. You need it to be synchronized. If your team is not ready, delay a beat and go in cleaner instead of going in louder.
Limitations
Anub'arak can look amazing when the draft and the timing line up, but he definitely has games where life gets harder. He is less comfortable into heavy sustained physical damage than into burst mages, and he can feel awkward when his own team has weak follow-up or no interest in playing around his windows. He also suffers if you fall into the habit of forcing every engage just because your mobility exists. The hero is strong, but he asks for judgment. Without that, he goes from terrifying tank to very jumpy bug.
FAQ
When should I pick Anub'arak? He is strongest when the enemy draft relies on mages, fragile backliners, or one hero your team would love to remove from the fight with Cocoon. He is also great when your own team has damage that can follow his engage quickly.
Is Anub'arak good in solo queue? Yes, especially if you are comfortable making the first move and reading which enemy target actually matters. He is one of the better tanks for punishing bad positioning, which happens a lot in solo queue games.
When is Cocoon better than Locust Swarm? Cocoon is better when removing one target changes the whole fight or when your team wants structured pick pressure. Locust Swarm is better when you expect longer brawls and need more self-sustain in the middle of the fight.
Why do my engages sometimes feel useless? Usually because the timing is off. Either your team is not ready, the target is wrong, or you spent too much crowd control too early. Anub'arak looks much stronger when every engage has a real follow-up plan.
Should I always dive the backline? No. That is the dream scenario, not the rule. Some fights are won by peeling divers, zoning tanks, or Cocooning the hero your team cannot safely handle. Good Anub'arak play is flexible, not scripted.
What habit improves Anub'arak the fastest? Learning to wait half a second longer before committing. That tiny pause often gives you better target information, cleaner follow-up, and a much more valuable fight start.
Related Guides
If you like proactive tanks with clear fight control, also check our Diablo guide, Johanna guide, and Muradin guide.
Final Thoughts
Anub'arak is one of the best tanks in HOTS for players who like taking initiative without becoming reckless. He rewards clean target selection, patient engages, and smart heroic usage in a way that always feels earned. If you master these fundamentals, Anub'arak becomes one of the most impactful tanks in Heroes of the Storm.