My Hatred Is Unending.... - An Illidan Guide for Heroes of the Storm

Betrayer, power-hungry outcast, demon hunter. Today we look at Illidan, a hyper aggressive melee assassin with a fast and fun playstyle, so fasten your seatbelts as we break down abilities, talents and some tips and tricks for this lovely hero.

Q - Dive: Illidan is all about gap-closing and sticking to his target. His Q ability is basically a point-and-click that make you jump to your target.

W - Sweeping Strike: So this is another gap-closing ability, but we basically want to use our W every time we do damage. At level 1, we pick up a talent which empowers this ability through the roof, and makes Illidan one of the strongest early game heroes in the game.

E - Evasion: This is our defensive ability. In addition to blocking enemy Auto Attacks, it can also block tower shots and mercenary autos.

Trait - Betrayer's Thirst: Our trait is where most of our sustain comes from. The self-healing from auto attacks makes Illidan an ideal solo laner, and with auto attacks lowering the cooldown on our abilities we are able to take both easy and hard camps from the moment they spawn on the map. We will take a closer look at that later in the guide. 

R - Metamorphosis: You target an area near you and descend on it. Now this part is important! Many people think that Metamorphosis just gives you increased damage or Attack Speed as baseline in the ability, but it doesn't before level 20! Between level 10-20 your main focus with the ability is to hit as many people as possible with the initial impact to get the highest health pool possible. You gain 200 Max HP per enemy hit.

You can also use Metamorphosis as a defensive ability to escape over walls, or break a targeted spell like Bone Prison or Pyroblast.

R - The Hunt: I would actually never recommend this Heroic over Metamorphosis, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad ability. The strongest component of this ability is the stun on the target that you get on impact, and the fact that the ability only has a 60 seconds cooldown which is further reduced by Betrayer's Thirst.

 

Level 1: I would recommend Immolation in every situation. The other choices simply don't compare to the value that you will get from this talent. With the cooldown reduction from our Trait, this can simply be kept up all the time.

Level 4: Again there is only 1 choice - Friend or Foe. It gives us even better chase potential and a great escape.

Level 7: This talent choice depends on the enemy composition. If you are facing 2 auto attack assassins on the other team, you should take Reflexive Block, otherwise Thirsting Blade gives you the most value.

Level 10: So I basically say pick Metamorphosis in every situation, but The Hunt can be a fun ability in Quick Match every now and again if you just want to fly around and kill people who are off on their own.

Please, please, please remember that you have to hit enemy heroes with the initial impact from Metamorphosis to get any effect from it before level 20.

Level: 13: Alright this is a fun talent tier, as we can totally adjust our defensive capability against whatever is on the enemy team. If we are up against 2 auto attack assassins, then we can go into Elusive Strike. If we are up against 2 mages, or 1 mage and 1 specialist that relies on ability damage, then we can go into Sixth Sense. And if we just face a combination of ability damage and Auto Attack damage, then we can go into Nimble Defender. This talent tier is simply amazing and makes us able to deal with every combination of damage the other team can try to hit us with.

Level 16: This tier is pretty easy as well. If the enemy team runs double tank or an Azmodan composition, then we take Fiery Brand to get the percentage damage on their large health pool. Otherwise, we pick Marked for Death and begin to use our Q (Dive) as a damaging ability.

Level 20: Every time Metamorphosis is picked we want to take Demonic Form at level 20. It is simply one of the strongest level 20 talents in the entire game with passive 20% attack speed and built in Relentless.

If we decide to go and have some fun in Quick Match with The Hunt, then we can pick up Nexus Blades for a bit more damage, or Bolt of the Storm to make up for the escape that Metamorphosis normally provides.    

 

Illidan is probably the most efficient hero when it comes to taking mercenary camps, with his E (Evasion) used to block the auto attacks, his W (Sweeping Strike) combined with the Immolation talent at level 1 allow him to do a lot of consistent damage, and his Trait lets him heal up the little damage he takes in the window between Evasions, and then the cooldown reduction on top of all of that. Illidan can easily take any camp on his own from the moment they spawn on the map.

Easy Camp (Siege Giants): Simply use W to DPS them down. Always hit both Giants with the Sweep and reposition yourself between them afterwards so that Immolation deals damage to both of them.  

Hard Camp (Knights): Also pretty simple, use W and E on cooldown and try and position yourself near the mage at all times. The rest of the minions are melee and will follow you anyway. 

So the thing with Illidan is that as the game progresses, you get more and more resources to stay in the fight for longer. At the beginning of the game you are a typical lane bully. You want to put pressure on your opponent in lane and force them to tap the well and eventually go back to base.

Your first goal is to try and get level 4 before the first objective, so that you have your escape for the team fight. While you and your team are soaking, you should go and get your own easy camp just before the objective comes up to put pressure in lane while you fight for the objective.

And that is basically the playstyle for Illidan, go in and dish out your damage in teamfights as you get more and more sustain and take mercenaries in-between map objectives.

Remember to use your W every time you want to attack something, be it minions, structures, or heroes. The level 1 talent is insanely strong and you will see health bars melt in front of you when you start attacking something. Also remember to use your Heroic correctly, hit as many enemies as possible with the initial impact to increase your Max HP, even during the end game when your Demon Form becomes permanent.

Illidan is also really good at finishing off the enemy core, as he can Sweep around it and Dive over it to not get caught by the desperately defending team.

 

As an Illidan player I would claim that you can pick him on any map, but his abilities do gain less value on smaller maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen and Dragon Shire before the map opens up when the forts start to fall.

As for compositions that fit him, I prefer double support with Tassadar and either Rehgar or Kharazim, or a double tank composition with Tyrael to make my job easier, but you can also fit Illidan into the basic compositions with solo tank and support. In these cases, you will just have to play more passively with the lower amount of resources your team can protect you with. 

 

Playing against Illidan can be a bit tricky, but try to stay away from your teammates in teamfights until he uses Metamorphosis to deny him value on that, and then try to look out for when his abilities are on cooldown and he is vulnerable. Remember that if you force him to run away, then he doesn't get any sustain or cooldown reduction from his Trait.

If the other team picks Illidan early in the draft, then you can begin to build a counter composition against him with heroes like Johanna, Artanis and Li Li, which all have a blind that makes him miss his auto attacks and deny his sustain. Another soft counter would be Sylvanas, as she can silence him with her Heroic and deny his mobility and sustain. 

 

I like Illidan a lot, but I only play him when I'm try-harding in Hero League. I usually say that it requires courage and a brain to play a good Illidan. You have to be 100% aware about when you use your abilities in teamfights, how far you can chase, and make sure that you always have an escape plan if things start to go downhill.

Illidan is one of those heroes that requires knowledge about the other heroes on your team, as most of the resources will be reserved for you, so you constantly have to calculate how many defensive assets the team has to throw at you so that you can stay in the thick of things for as long as possible.

I think that he is very interesting to play, but if you want to do it right, then it's going to take a lot of brain power to make him work to his full potential. As for skins, I adore his red-tinted Master skin, I think it is one of the most detailed and interesting skins in the game, and I usually combine it with the red Hearthstone card mount.  

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