Trial of the Crusader 25 Anub'arak Raid Plan
Anub'arak 25 raid plan: burrower and spike assignments, how to outrun the spikes, and the Leeching Swarm healing plan, with the macro that helps.
Anub'arak is the final boss of the Trial of the Crusader, and a fight that rewards a plan. In phase 1 you fight him and his Nerubian Burrowers, in phase 2 he submerges and spikes chase the raid, and in phase 3, at 30% health, Leeching Swarm drains the raid and heals him. This is a raid plan for 25 players, based on a set of assignments a guild passes around and checked against the public guides.
Assignments are the plan, and your raid leader may change them. Hover or tap the coloured spells for their tooltips.
1.Phase 1 and 2: burrowers and spikes
About 105 seconds of fighting the boss and his burrowers, with Freezing Slash on the tank.
He goes underground. Spikes chase players, burrowers keep spawning, and you use the ice.
He comes back and drains the raid. Heal the group low, and cancel your buffs.
Tanks
Each off-tank takes two burrowers on one side of the boss and keeps them close to Anub'arak and to the edge of the ice. Never stack the burrowers together. The more of them stand near each other, the harder they hit and the faster they cast (four together are four times as bad).
Damage dealers
Melee split into two groups, one on each side of the boss: for example one Fury Warrior, one Rogue and one Retribution Paladin on each side, plus a Feral Druid. Stand next to the ice, not on it. Retribution Paladins use Holy Wrath when a burrower casts Shadow Strike: if it finishes, it kills a player in one hit.
Everyone
Hunters: one Hunter per side uses Misdirection on two burrowers for the off-tanks. Shadow Priests: never use Vampiric Embrace on Anub'arak. Balance Druids: never use Starfall, it can ruin the position of the ice spheres. Death Knights: use Death Grip to position the ice spheres. Healers heal normally.
2.The transition: outrun the spikes
When Anub'arak burrows, spikes hunt the raid, and you have to keep running for as long as you can. Use everything that gives movement speed: nitro boots, Sprint, Dash. Paladins are assigned to give Hand of Freedom to players whose speed is about to run out, and when you can, you walk to the ice. Use the ice patches 3 to 5 for this, and never walk onto ice 1 and 2.
If the spikes reach you, you are knocked up and killed, and the spikes choose a new target. Keep moving, and keep the healers in front of the line of spikes.
3.Phase 3: Leeching Swarm
Everyone except the tanks uses this macro, so Anub'arak heals less from the swarm: /cancelaura Prayer of Fortitude /cancelaura Power Word: Fortitude /cancelaura Commanding Shout
Tanks
The off-tanks kite the second wave of burrowers.
Healers
The Holy Paladin does not use Judgement of Light at all and focuses on Holy Light on the main tank and on the players with the Penetrating Cold debuff. The Discipline Priest keeps shielding the lowest-health players and those with the debuff. The other healers (Restoration Shaman, Restoration Druid, Holy Priest) only use single-target heals: Nourish, Lesser Healing Wave, Healing Wave, Flash Heal and Greater Heal. Shamans take down their Healing Stream Totem in this phase. The goal: the group around 20% health, only the main tank at 80 to 90%.
Damage dealers
Kill the first wave of burrowers. The Shaman pops Heroism or Bloodlust. One Hunter uses the Nature Resistance Aura (or a Shaman drops a Nature Resistance Totem if you have several). One Rogue uses Wound Poison, because Hunters do not have 100% uptime on their Aimed Shot debuff.