DotA: Anub’arak, the Nerubian Assassin
There are a lot of heroes that strike fear in the heart of their enemies in Defence of the Ancients, more commonly referred to as DotA, but there is hardly any hero as fearsome as the Nerubian Assassin, an agility melee hero found in the Scourge’s cavern.
Also known as Anub’arak, the Nerubian Assassin starts harassing his opponents very early in the game, burning their mana to make them fairly useless and impaling them to make them sitting ducks, dealing plenty of damage in the process. With his ultimate,
Vendetta, he becomes invisible, has increased movement speed and deals a massive amount of damage to his next unsuspecting target.
With scarabs at his disposal, he is well aware of an approaching enemy or his next target. Indeed, he is a formidable force to be reckoned with.
The first thing that goes through a person’s head at the mention of Anub’arak is “an excellent ganker” and “an extremely annoying hero.” His abilities, when used in combination, allows him to pounce on his enemies from the shadows and take them down before
they even register what’s happening. Cowering in fear due to Vendetta, the enemy team is forced to alter their style of play in order to avoid a surprise and lethal attack from the assassin. Even though he is a little fragile, this little set-back is hardly
a concern due to his sneaky tactics and the synergy between his abilities.
The Nerubian Assassin’s major strength lies in his potential to deal high instant damage and his effectiveness in lane. While he is adept at killing most heroes by himself in the early stages of the game once he obtains Vendetta, he becomes even deadlier
once he gets himself an assisting item such as Dagon. Striking an enemy with Vendetta, impaling them, burning their mana and performing a coup de grace with a Dagon blast can put an enemy team at a disadvantage even before the mainstream team battle commences.
While the potent abilities of the hero make it seem impossible to take him down, the Nerubian Assassin does have his share of weaknesses. His greatest weakness is derived from his greatest strength, the ability of launching a surprise attack. He tends to
lose substantial effectiveness if stripped off his stealth. A gem of true sight or wards is the perfect way to remove the element of surprise and keep Anub’arak at bay. Gem and wards further exploits his second major weakness, his fragility. Not capable of
withstanding heavy enemy attacks and spells, he is rather unthreatening once his wind-walk advantage is removed.
Aside from the two mentioned weaknesses, the Nerubian Assassin is also extremely item and level dependant. While his abilities are exceptionally deadly, he does require a Dagon or some other damage-dealing item to finish his enemy. The abilities also need
to be levelled up quickly as a failure to do so results in a weak and vulnerable target for the enemy. Denying him of gold and level during the early stages of the game puts him in a serious handicap.
Anub’arak is definitely one of the stronger melee heroes in DotA. The main thing that sets him apart from the rest of the melee heroes is his ability to control lane, something that is normally associated with the ranged heroes.
A rather versatile hero with a potential to kill heroes, support allies and counter enemy heroes, Anub’arak is indeed a useful asset for his team.
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