2.1 Anub'Rekhan

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Ah, Warcraft III how I miss the days of playing you. When the expansion first came out and even more fun features were added and more single player goodness arrived. There was only one problem with the expansion for me, that was one of the new heroes was a giant bug. Interestingly enough, we can now take our revenge on this icky and disgusting creature (or hey squashing bugs hooray!).

Anub’Rekhan is a Crypt Lord that is the first boss within the spider wing. He’s got all of the same abilities the Crypt Lords have in Warcraft III and he even has Crypt Fiends that guard him. Truly this bug is very icky and needs to be stomped quickly.

Anub’Rekhan is the “easiest” encounter in Naxxramas and is generally considered by many as a benchmark to what their future progress will look like. Basically, if you are unable to successfully kill Anub’Rekham then you will make no other progress within the walls of Naxxramas. All of the other encounters require much more coordination then this buggy will.

Getting to Anub’Rekhan is easy for most guilds. Heading into the Spider Wing (the area with spiders, conveniently enough) simply pull spider packs and take them out. There is generally no complicated tactic for them yet, other then “DON’T LET THEM KILL THE RAID”. A good tip in this instance would take the pointy end of your sword and stab it into the icky spiders. Those without swords can heal those who have them or cleanse the various poisons that the spiders like to apply to people.

When you reach Anub’Rekhan’s room remember that you will be locked in at the start of the encounter, so everyone needs to get inside of the room (but not inside of aggro range of the big bug guy). On both sides you will find two Crypt Fiends that must be taken out. We’ll get to that part in a minute.

Anub’Rekhan has a few fun skills, we’ll discuss them now:

Impale: This is a nasty skill that randomly targets someone and throws them in the air, dealing about 3200 (Physical – mitigated with armor) damage to anyone in its area of effect (a straight stripe from Anub to the player). You can avoid having this wipe a raid by simply staying as spread out as possible.

Locust Swarm: After the initial cast (sometime when the encounter starts) around every minute and a half he will begin casting this spell which snares anyone nears him and start killing them with a heavy duty stacking DoT (1000+ damage every 2 seconds!!!). When this spell is cast, a Crypt Guard will spawn to the north and an animation of locust (like in Warcraft III) will be around him.

Corpse Scarabs: These fun guys will spawn from anything that dies while the encounter is active. You’ll get ten from Crypt Guards and five from players. They are immune to no form of crowd control so simply Frost Nova and AoE down (low HP).

Crypt Guards: While not a skill, Anub will spawn these guys everytime a Locust Swarm starts. They are stunnable so they should be stunlocked by Paladins, Rogues, and Warriors as much as possible. They also have a Cleave attack so they need to be tanked facing away from the raid. They can also net everyone around them when first aggro’d, so the raid should always be nearby when they spawn (or they need to be stunned asap to prevent the nets)..

Now that you know his tricks, it’s time to work on defeating this giant bug! The encounter is pretty simple and is comprised of three total phases, with the last two repeating over and over until he’s head. Basically the first phase is killing the two Crypt Guards and having the raid get into position at the straw in the back of his room. Then the next phase is waiting until the Locust Swarm happens and kiting Anub around while killing the Crypt Guards. Then the third phase is DPSing Anub until he is about to cast Locust Swarm again.

Phase One – The Attack Begins

Have your raid set up with 1 Warrior, 3 healers, and 1 Hunter in the same group for Anub. Then two groups set up with a Warrior and Healers for the two Crypt Guards. Buff up and sound the attack! The Anub tanking group should make their way to the eastern side at about the 2 o’clock position tanking Anub near the slime (but having all of the players avoid it since it’s bad for you and will debuff you). The two groups set up for Crypt Guard tanking should get the two Crypt Guards tanked and the raid should focus on the left then right one. When killed the entire raid needs to split up on the northern side of while the main Anub tank begins building aggro. When the Locust Swarm begins, Phase Two has successfully began.

Phase Two – Ahhhh the Swarm!!

Phase Two requires the Hunter to turn on Aspect of the Wild while the Main Tank kites Anub around the room (following the slime tracks). The key here is that the Main Tank needs to watch the enemy cast bars mod (if he has it) and the visual queue of Anub raising his “tail” in the air and begin moving at just the right time. When he’s moving he needs to have Aspect of the Wild on and have distance over Anub so that he doesn’t get dazed. Warlocks can apply various curses and debuffs (like Curse of Tounges) to try to make this process easier, but many disagree on their effect. The Main Tank healers should follow the Main Tank (but remain out of the Locust Swarm area of effect) and heal him. When you’ve successfully followed the slime ring until the other side then the Locust Swarm should have ended and it’s time to move to Phase Three.
There is one more thing about Phase Two, every time a Locust Swarm begins a Crypt Guard will spawn. This will be handled by the rest of the raid in a very timely fashion. As soon as the Crypt Guard is dead, Mages will position themselves to Frost Nova the Corpse Scarabs that will spawn shortly afterwards. Then they should be AoE’d down and the raid should position themselves for Phase Three (getting ready to do the DPS).

Phase Three – Squashing Bugs!

Phase Three is extremely simple. Just focus all of your damage and attention on Anub while the Main Tank tanks him! That’s it! Whenever it’s time for the Locust Swarm to begin the Main Tank needs to get ready to repeat Phase Two (kite Anub around the slime ring) while the rest of the raid goes to the north and prepares to slay the Crypt Guard. Repeat over and over until he’s dead!
That’s it! The main focus of this enemy is with the Main Tank (and his ability to kite Anub around the slime ring properly) and the Main Tank healers (keeping the Main Tank alive while the raid focuses on Crypt Guards). The first trial and errors should be concentrated on successfully kiting Anub around. That is the most crucial thing. Why? If the Main Tank gets more then three Locust Swarm DoT’s on him then he will probably die and Anub will go wild Locust Swarming the entire raid.

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