Heroes of the Storm Illidan

[Guest Shayde]

I tend to solo queue in quick match more than anything else and therefore taking a gamble with healers, is it absolutely crucial that I have one or can I make a compromise somehow? 

[Guest Kira]

Under counters, it still says Jaina can use sprint.

[Guest Bekurt]

There are some errors in the guide:

- In the level 4 talent row, Friend or Foe is marked as Recommended and Unbound as Not Recommended, while in the explanation Friend or Foe is marked as Not Recommended and Unbound as Situational

- Same in the level 13 talent tier, Elusive Strike and Sixth Sense have their mark swapped between graphics and description

- in the level 16 talent row, Blades of Azzinoth is marked as Recommended and Fiery Brand as Situational, while in the explanation Blades of Azzinoth is marked as Situational and Unbound as Not Recommended

- In the level 20 talent row, the description of Nexus Blades is outdated, since there's a reference to the sinergy with Metamorphosis'    attack speed bonus, which is no longer there

Great guides, I always come here when I need some advice, keep up the good work!

[Psykclone 0]

Awesome site! Just found Icy veins and love the builds section. The Illidan guide is especially awesome. Keep up the great work!

[Oxygen 446]

On 7/5/2016 at 9:38 AM, Guest Bekurt said:

There are some errors in the guide:

- In the level 4 talent row, Friend or Foe is marked as Recommended and Unbound as Not Recommended, while in the explanation Friend or Foe is marked as Not Recommended and Unbound as Situational

- Same in the level 13 talent tier, Elusive Strike and Sixth Sense have their mark swapped between graphics and description

- in the level 16 talent row, Blades of Azzinoth is marked as Recommended and Fiery Brand as Situational, while in the explanation Blades of Azzinoth is marked as Situational and Unbound as Not Recommended

- In the level 20 talent row, the description of Nexus Blades is outdated, since there's a reference to the sinergy with Metamorphosis'    attack speed bonus, which is no longer there

Great guides, I always come here when I need some advice, keep up the good work!

Hi, 

thanks for the comment. The guide was recently transferred from Srey to myself, and to say that I'm a solid Illidan player would be a gruesome lie. I'm still debating on how to best handle the rework of the guide as well as the fixes you've suggested.

[Guest TVTalicious]

Although I agree with most everything in this guide, I find your tips and talent build a bit counter-intuitive. In your tips you suggest to only use Dive to avoid attacks and keep it available for when you need it, yet in your talent build you pick talents that insist you use dive as much as possible. Such as the extra healing from abilities, the block charges after dive, and the extra damage from same target dives. Which in practice can be hard to do since the whole idea of Illidan is to dance around the battlefield from target to target to avoid damage. Thus you rarely ever double dive a hero unless you are chasing a hero down, which I classify as "situational". Which then means you will receive less extra healing from abilities, and receive less block charges from the lower amount of dives you use, effectively making all 3 talent choices very niche. I much prefer to take the extra healing from basic attacks after Sweeping Strike, and blades of azzanoth or maybe fiery brand, even though it is a bit niche in the fact that I change targets so often. Both of those talents will further the healing from my basic attacks, which is something you plan to do always to lower your cooldowns, regardless of who you are targeting or how long. If you are not auto attacking enough to think you won't benefit from the healing then you need to rethink playing Illidan.

[Valks 2,375]

On 9/30/2016 at 3:14 PM, Guest TVTalicious said:

Although I agree with most everything in this guide, I find your tips and talent build a bit counter-intuitive.

Tagging @Oxygen to help, since I don't know much about Illidan!

[Oxygen 446]

On 30/09/2016 at 10:14 AM, Guest TVTalicious said:

Although I agree with most everything in this guide, I find your tips and talent build a bit counter-intuitive. In your tips you suggest to only use Dive to avoid attacks and keep it available for when you need it, yet in your talent build you pick talents that insist you use dive as much as possible. Such as the extra healing from abilities, the block charges after dive, and the extra damage from same target dives. Which in practice can be hard to do since the whole idea of Illidan is to dance around the battlefield from target to target to avoid damage. Thus you rarely ever double dive a hero unless you are chasing a hero down, which I classify as "situational". Which then means you will receive less extra healing from abilities, and receive less block charges from the lower amount of dives you use, effectively making all 3 talent choices very niche. I much prefer to take the extra healing from basic attacks after Sweeping Strike, and blades of azzanoth or maybe fiery brand, even though it is a bit niche in the fact that I change targets so often. Both of those talents will further the healing from my basic attacks, which is something you plan to do always to lower your cooldowns, regardless of who you are targeting or how long. If you are not auto attacking enough to think you won't benefit from the healing then you need to rethink playing Illidan.

I feel that Dive talents are so overwhelmingly good that they're still the best choice even if you use Dive conservatively. Remember that Dive talents aren't just useful against Heroes; Marked for Death is a PvE DPS increase, and is furthermore the only talent at this tier that has any impact on PvE, and Friend or Foe is just always nice to have for general mobility.

[Guest Higs]

Love the guides. I always start with them on a new toon and the explanations for each choice is very helpful in fleshing out the nuances of a kit.
 I don't know if I am seeing it wrong or if someone else has mentioned these items:

 Quote:  "Unbound reduces the cooldown of Sweeping 
Strikes from 8 seconds to 3 seconds (if Sweeping Strike hits no enemies)"
This is no longer true (in my understanding)

And

Quote: "Testings have shown that 
Hunter's Onslaught provides more effective healing than 
Thirsting Blade, and this, much more reliably as it does 
not require Basic Attacks."

Both require basic attacks to heal.  
(I believe this is supposed to read does not require Sweeping Strikes)

 

Love the site and thanks for all you do.

 

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/24/2016 at 3:39 PM, Guest Higs said:

Love the site and thanks for all you do

Thanks for pointing that out! Will get it all updated and fixed ASAP :)

[Guest Xaethron]

I feel like the Sweeping Strike build is really underrated. The whole point of Illidan was having a hero that could fight well alone through self healing and high damage which the sustain damage build just doesn't do as well. The talents I've chosen are Battered Assault, Unbound, Thirsting Blade, The Hunt (simply preference), Nimble Defender, Blades of Azzinoth, and Nexus Blades or Nowhere to Hide. The extra damage provided by Battered Assault may have a condition, but I've found that the condition was always met when it needed to be met. Unbound helps the build by providing escape and the second charge of Sweeping Strike helps the build later on. Thirsting Blade provides more healing when combined with Battered Assault. The extra charge of Battered Assault provides more uptime for Nimble Defender. Blades of Azzinoth is where the build really shines. With the 2 charges of Sweeping Strike Illidan can easily hit the 5 heroes needed to activate by hitting 2 or more heroes at a time. This keeps all of Illidans bonuses from previous talents up and resets them before they run out. In big team fights I'm able to keep both the 125% bonus damage from Battered Assault and the 75% damage from BoA along with the 50% healing provided by Thirsting Blade. This along with Illidans already high mobility allows him to stay long into the fight by avoiding most abilities and healing any damage he does take. He can quickly jump to the backline and execute key heroes. 

[positiv2 952]

I love Sweeping Strike as well. The guide is currently out of date (with the exception of recommended/not recommended tiers) and will see an update soon. Oxygen said he wants to get most of the out-of-date guides updated within the next two weeks (or so I understood), so make sure to check back!

[Guest MadDictator]

Illidan just got a buff: Unending Hatred  now awards 0.2 per minion kill, making it stack as quick as Seasoned Marksman but jumping to 40 damage after reaching 20. I have a feeling this talent will bring us a LOT more Illidan play :)

[SteveFrost 97]

I'm an Illidan enthusiast (got him as an announcer and have him on almost every loadout). Overall, this is pretty well done, I have only one small "objection". Hunter's Onslaught is described as more 'efficient' and better than Thirsting Blade because the latter "requires the use of basic attacks". Umm, if you're not using basic attacks as Illidan you're doing something wrong imho. You need to use them for the trait + lifesteal. Because Immolation and Marked for Death exist, you can't possibly hope to make a "Mage-dan". Thirsting Blade is better to heal imho because you can use it on lane minions, mercenaries etc Especially if you combine it with Unending Hatred.

Edited June 1, 2017 by positiv2
Removed quote

[positiv2 952]

2 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

I'm an Illidan enthusiast (got him as an announcer and have him on almost every loadout). Overall, this is pretty well done, I have only one small "objection". Hunter's Onslaught is described as more 'efficient' and better than Thirsting Blade because the latter "requires the use of basic attacks". Umm, if you're not using basic attacks as Illidan you're doing something wrong imho. You need to use them for the trait + lifesteal. Because Immolation and Marked for Death exist, you can't possibly hope to make a "Mage-dan". Thirsting Blade is better to heal imho because you can use it on lane minions, mercenaries etc Especially if you combine it with Unending Hatred.

If the increased heal was permanent, it would possibly be better. However, Thirsting Blade is tied to Sweeping Strike, which means the uptime of increased healing won't be that good, and since the healing increase is only 20%, Hunter's Onslaught will provide better self-heal. Also, with cooldown reduction from the trait (and already low cooldown of basic abilities), you will increase the healing from Hunter's Onslaught as well.

[SteveFrost 97]

1 hour ago, positiv2 said:

If the increased heal was permanent, it would possibly be better. However, Thirsting Blade is tied to Sweeping Strike, which means the uptime of increased healing won't be that good, and since the healing increase is only 20%, Hunter's Onslaught will provide better self-heal. Also, with cooldown reduction from the trait (and already low cooldown of basic abilities), you will increase the healing from Hunter's Onslaught as well.

Both require to use the abilities so there's that. Now, if you're in a situation where it's difficult to constantly whack on someone (too much cc/burst damage or both, no peel etc) it doesn't change much cause an Illidan who's not attacking is well... worse or slightly better at best than a minion. There will probably be many times where you'll want to use Dive for escape. Thirsting Blade let's you take on camps sooner and easier. Idk, from my experience it is more reliable and more in sync with Illi.

[positiv2 952]

14 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

Both require to use the abilities so there's that.

Thirsting Blade requires you to use one specific ability, whereas Hunter's Onslaught heals you with 3 out of 4 abilities, with more than double damage-to-healing efficiency. 

17 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

Now, if you're in a situation where it's difficult to constantly whack on someone (too much cc/burst damage or both, no peel etc) it doesn't change much cause an Illidan who's not attacking is well... worse or slightly better at best than a minion.

But such situation can arise in Quick Match, where you can be matched against heroes that are fairly good at zoning. And yes, in that case, Illidan is simply awful in that case.

17 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

There will probably be many times where you'll want to use Dive for escape.

You can often use Dive to chase a target hero, attack a few times and use the ability again to escape. 

17 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

Thirsting Blade let's you take on camps sooner and easier.

I feel like Illidan can capture camps even without these two talents. However, Hunter's Onslaught increases your survivability in lane, with Sweeping Strike's AoE effect, which gets increased even further by Immolation.

[Guest My Illidan Build]

So, I have a completely different talent build for Illidan that I have always used and it has gotten me MVP at least 10 times. It maximizes his sweeping strike paired with The Hunt lvl 10 talent. His main weakness is against Spellcasters who completely rely on their abilities (a.k.a. Jaina), but sixth sense can stop help prevent that if you play evasion right. Hunters Onslaught is Amazing for keeping him alive in just about any situation, letting him heal for 25% of his abilities damage which is a beautiful combination if you hit 30 heroes with sweeping strike, giving it a second charge. I have gotten it every game by lvl 16-17 but the fastest is always when all the enemy heroes bunch up letting you hit 3-5 with just on strike. My Fav map is by far Blackhearts Bay, the last time I played illidan on it,I got 20 merc camps and 20 takedowns along with 58% dabloons turned in for my team.

Here is my build;
1: Battered Assault

4: Unbound

7: Hunters Onslaught

10: The Hunt

13: Sixth Sense

16: Marked for Death

20: Nowhere to Hide

[Oxygen 446]

I'm torn about Unbound. Dive mostly fulfills the purpose of going over terrain, and the quest takes a damn while to complete, if ever.

[Fliits 112]

Isn't Nowhere to Hide really good against stealth heroes?

[positiv2 952]

4 hours ago, Fliits said:

Isn't Nowhere to Hide really good against stealth heroes?

Most stealth heroes have stealth as an ambush mechanic, rather than escape mechanic. Against these heroes, the talent is fairly useless. Against heroes that use stealth to escape, you will need to consider their ability to adapt, leaving the fights/skirmishes earlier while still above 25% health. 

[MurkyFelix 51]

Just going through this again for reference and a couple of points:

On the Talents page; The Hunt says it has a cooldown of 1000s (thousand) xP

For the lv 20 Talents; it's saying that you should take Demonic Form though for lv 10 Metamorphosis is situational. I see that Bolt of the Storm is situational at lv 20 too but (mainly influenced by the stance on Metamorphosis) shouldn't Nexus Blades be at least situational too in case where Demonic Form cannot be taken? (I agree with the reasoning on Bolt of the Storm also which I why I personally don't even consider it even situational) I guess what I'm asking is what's the input on what talent to take if you didn't take Metamorphosis?

Edited January 22, 2018 by MurkyFelix
Refined question slightly

[positiv2 952]

8 hours ago, MurkyFelix said:

On the Talents page; The Hunt says it has a cooldown of 1000s (thousand) xP

Thanks! I will add fixing this to our to-do list.

As for your question - I had to ask Oxygen, so this is what I got: the damage from Nexus Blades is less important than the extra mobility from Bolt of the Storm. Sadly, damage from Nexus Blades is additive with boost from Sweeping Strike, which makes it not good enough compared to the escape and chase option from Bolt of the Storm. I hope this helps!

[MurkyFelix 51]

19 minutes ago, positiv2 said:

As for your question - I had to ask Oxygen, so this is what I got: the damage from Nexus Blades is less important than the extra mobility from Bolt of the Storm. Sadly, damage from Nexus Blades is additive with boost from Sweeping Strike, which makes it not good enough compared to the escape and chase option from Bolt of the Storm. I hope this helps!

Ah right, I understand ^^ I was actually thinking that the slow from Nexus Blades would help in terms of chase but Bolt just gives more options as you said. Many thanks :) 

Edited January 22, 2018 by MurkyFelix
Messed up my words

[Guest Broseidon]

Uh, just wanted to chime in on the Illidan page. It says his Heroic 'The Hunt' has a 1000 second cooldown. Typo, I guess?