Anubseran – The Nerubian Weaver
Primary attribute: Agility
Primary role: Harasser/Damage Dealer/Hero Chaser


Introduction:
This arachnid-like hero from the Nerubian kingdom is a force to be reckoned with. The way I play this hero is very assassin-like, where I sneak up behind a foe, dish a shit-load of damage and try to get out unharmed; this style will really appeal to all the ninja-wannabes out there.

The Good:
The hero is stealthy and fast
He has multiple abilities to escape certain death
Has really good Agility growth
He's very hard to kill

The Bad:
Bad Strength and Intelligence growth
Low Hitpoint and Mana Pool
His range is lower than most ranged heroes
Requires practice to play him well
Pathetic base Agility

Now let’s take a look at his spells and how they work:

Watcher (Mana Cost - 50/Cooldown - 85 seconds)
Description: Raises an invisible Watcher from a corpse, which works like a scout.

Watchers are your free sentry in the game, you can let go of one lvl of stat points and get one of these instead. Early on in the game, you can keep one of them at the rune spot near your lane, so that you can get the double damage or regeneration that spawns there, before your enemies do. Later however, they become more useful, since you’ll have a lot of ambushes that you can detect. You can even set up an ambush by scouting for isolated heroes with the help of these watchers.

Shukuchi (Mana Cost – 60/Cooldown – 13 Sec./11 Sec./9 Sec./7 Sec. [reduces with spell lvl])
Description: Nerubian Weaver becomes invisible, gaining the highest movement speed in the game, for 4 seconds. During this period, he can walk through units causing each one of them 90 dmg.

Now this skill is what makes Anubseran an early game hero killer, a hero harasser (throughout the game) and pretty hard to attack. If you time this skill right, you can even evade stuns and damaging spells that have slow projectiles. This single-handedly makes the Weaver a threat to almost any hero.

Geminate Attack (Mana Cost - N/A/Cooldown - 7 Sec./6 Sec./5 Sec./4 Sec. [reduces with spell lvl])
Description: Every few seconds, Anubseran sends out two swarms to attack his target, which is basically like attacking it twice.

This skill really helps you farm a lot. The second attack takes a moment to trigger, so it will take some time to get used to farming using this, after which you kill at least 2-3 creeps per wave. Don’t forget though, that this skill is an Orb effect, so do not buy items like a Desolater or a Sange. The only effect that stacks with Geminate attack, is the cold effect of the Eye of Skadi.

Time Lapse (Mana Cost - 150/Cooldown - 120 Sec./90 Sec./60 Sec. [reduces with spell lvl])
Description: This spell takes Anubseran 5 seconds back in time, in respect to positioning and health status.

Time Lapse further enhances your survivability. If you’re up against any nuking heroes, use time lapse after they cast their nuke on you, and you should live to harass them even longer.
Here is the order of the skills I take per level up:

Level 1 – Shukuchi lvl 1
Level 2 – Geminate attack lvl 1
Level 3 – Watcher lvl 1
Level 4 – Geminate attack lvl 2
Level 5 – Shukuchi lvl 2
Level 6 – Time Lapse
Level 7 – Geminate attack lvl 3
Level 8 – Shukuchi lvl 3
Level 9 – Geminate attack lvl 4
Level 10 – Shukuchi lvl 4
Level 11 – Time Lapse
Level 12 – Watcher lvl 2

Max out watchers first, and then take stat points.

Early Game [lvl1 – lvl6] -
Items you should buy:

In this stage of the game, your aim should be to harass the enemy in your lane (while making sure that your HP doesn’t go too low), and of course, to farm. With your small mana pool and crappy regeneration, you get a max of 2-3 Shukuchis that you can cast before you run out of mana, so use it wisely. Every time your Geminate attack’s cooldown is over, make sure that you either Deny a creep, get the last shot on a creep, or attack your enemy hero (try to make sure that he doesn’t get a shot on to you at the same time, so that you have the upper hand). While harassing is quite important, farming well is a necessity for Anubseran, since his stats really suck, giving him some crappy hp and mana capacity. So, to compensate for this, I’d suggest that you get yourself a Wraith Band, but only after you get your Ring of Basilius (the +6 damage helps you farm) and a Ring of Regeneration. In the beginning, you should stick to the bottom lane if you’re Sentinel, and top lane if you’re Scourge, so that you have some room to Shukuchi, without the fear of going within your enemy tower’s lane. Once you have a Wraith Band, get a pair of Gloves of Haste and turn it into a set of Power Treads as soon as possible. So, to sum it all up, you need to make sure that you do really well in this stage, else you’re going to have a tough time in the stages that follow.

Mid Game [lvl6 – 15]
Items you should buy:

Now that you have your basic items all set, and have two escape skills (Shukuchi lvl 2, and Time Lapse), you can afford to get a little aggressive. Start by picking a low hp enemy hero, and go to his lane. Farm a bit over there, and whenever your mana’s almost full, Shukuchi him to discourage him from pushing the lane. If his HP is low and he lacks disabling spells, you can get an easy kill. If he does have a disabling skill, you must make sure that your HP doesn’t go below 3/4th of your total HP pool, at any point of time. At this point of the game, your attacks start hurting quite a bit. Make sure that you use the double attack of your Geminate, on your enemy heroes whenever possible, as they really start to hurt. If your cash flow is good, you should start collecting for an Ultimate Orb, else you can buy either a point booster or another Wraith Band. Your goal is to farm enough for either 2 Ultimate Orbs in this stage, or an Ultimate Orb and a Point Booster. This shouldn’t be too hard, since your attacks will do a decent amount of damage at this point, and your Geminate will really start to hurt. If you have enough creeps to attack a tower, it shouldn’t be too hard to take it out either.

Late Game [lvl15 – lvl25]
Items you should buy:

At this point of the game, you hero grows into a monster. He has all the abilities of a ninja – Insane damage, excellent mobility, and multiple ways of getting in and out of battle. It is of utmost importance that you make sure, that you always have around 210 mana with you, so that you can Time Lapse + Shukuchi out of any sticky situation. It is time now, to farm for your Eye of Skadi, after which you become a hardcore hero killer. Skadi gives an awesome boost to your HP and mana pools, so that you can keep, so that you can spam Shukuchi like hell, and have enough HP to survive ganks. Along with the 522 movement speed that Shukuchi gives you, the cold effect of your Skadi will allow you to chase down and kill any hero, even really fast ones like Bone Fletcher. If you have many physical damage heroes in the opposing team, you should collect for a Butterfly, else you can buy a Radiance. Radiance’s 40 damage per second aura, works really well with you Shukuchi, the damage boost really owns, while the 8% dodge never hurts. If you’re up against a hero with a powerful channeling spell (such as the Sand King), get yourself a Monkey King Bar instead of a Radiance. Although it’s hard to control this hero for new players, once you get the hang of it the game is yours.

Optional Item(s):