Illidan Stormrage (tactics)

Illidan Stormrage is the final boss of the Black Temple. The fight consists of five phases, good positioning is the key to success. Since the HP reduction in Patch 3.0.2, it is possible to kill Illidan without him ever switching to demon form (Phase 4).

Abilities

 * Berserk: After 25 minutes Illidan does a hard enrage.

Normal Form (Phases 1, 3 and 5)

 * Melee: on plate ~8k main hand, ~3k off-hand, no crushing blows
 * Flame Crash: 1.5 sec cast, 10 yard AoE dealing 5k fire damage per tick for 2 minutes centered on the ground at Illidans current target
 * Draw Soul: 1.5 sec cast, frontal cone AoE dealing 5k shadow damage and healing Illidan for 100k HP per target, resistible (shadow)
 * Parasitic Shadowfiend: 30 sec cooldown, random target 10 second debuff, dealing 3k shadow damage per tick, spawning 2 Parasitic Shadowfiends on expiration
 * Agonizing Flames: Phases 3 + 5 only, 5 yard AoE centered on the ground on a random player for 5k fire damage plus a Fire DoT debuff on all affected players for 36k damage over 60 seconds (increasing damage on each tick, final tick is ~4.6k fire damage)
 * Soft enrage: Phase 5 only, after 40 seconds Illidan increases his attack speed by 30% and damage by 50%

Flying (Phase 2)

 * Fireball: casting time 2 sec, Deal fire damage 3k-4k in 10 yards radius.
 * Eye Beam: 30 second cooldown, putting a blue trail of Demon Fire on the ground. Players standing in this fire when it lands take ~20k Shadow damage. The Demon Fire trail lasts for 1 minute and deals 2k fire damage per second to players standing in it
 * Dark Barrage: 40 sec cooldown, random target, 3k shadow damage per second for 10 seconds

Demon Form (Phase 4)

 * Shadow Blast: 20 yard AoE for ~11k shadow damage centered on highest aggro target, cast every 2 sec, resistible.
 * Flame Burst: 20 sec cooldown, 3.5k fire damage to all raid members plus extra splash damage to players closer than 5 yards to each other. Resistible.
 * Shadow Demons: ~40 seconds into the phase, 4 Shadow Demons with ~22k HP spawn at Illidans position. They target random raid members and paralyze (stun) them, then move slowly towards their targets, kill them when they're there, then target somebody else.
 * Aura of Dread: A 15 yard aura around Illidan for 1k shadow damage per second also increasing Shadow Damage taken by 30%. This effect stacks over time.

Parasitic Shadowfiends

 * 3000 HP
 * Target a raid member high on the global aggro list (usually a healer)
 * Quickly move towards their target
 * On dealing a successful melee attack, their target receives the Parasitic Shadowfiend debuff (spawning 2 more parasitic shadowfiends after taking damage for 10 seconds)

Flames of Azzinoth

 * Health: ±760,000
 * Melee: ~15k fire damage base, average of ~4k/hit with 365 resistance. Cannot crush or be blocked, but can crit, miss and be dodged or parried
 * Flame Blast: Frontal cone 15 yard AoE for ~9k fire damage
 * Blaze: AoE dealing 5k fire damage per second, centered on the ground at current target. Blaze always appears shortly after Flame Blast, and its location is decided at the instant the Flame Blast goes off.
 * Charge/Enrage: If any raid member is farther away than 25 yards from *both* Blades, one of the Flames charges that player and enrages, wiping the raid

Preparation

 * 1 Main Tank: Normal gear, should be uncrushable without including miss chance (dodge + parry + block) to nullify Shear
 * 2 Off Tanks: Maximum fire resistance gear, immune to crits
 * 1 Warlock Tank: Maxed shadow resistance gear, no points in Nether Protection
 * 8-9 healers
 * 12-13 damage dealers, including at least 2 mages

Illidan is not a gear dependent fight, it's possible to beat him even with Tier 5 or badge vendor gear on most of the raid, only the tanks really need good gear.

Phase 1
The fight starts after a lengthy dialogue between Akama and Illidan, as the last line Illidan yells "You are not prepared!".

Tanking
The main tank picks Illidan up by simply standing closest to him. Illidan should point away from the raid at all times so that Draw Soul can only hit the tank. Periodically, the tank has to move to get out of Flame Crash.

Raid
Every 30 seconds a random raid member receives the Parasitic Shadowfiend debuff. The affected player and a mage should move away from the raid. When the Parasitic Shadowfiends spawn, the mage Frost Novas them and nukes them down quickly (usually with help from some other damage dealers). If the main tank receives the parasite debuff, the melee group must move away. Do not use Frost Nova in this case, just nuke the spawns.

Draw Soul is frequently cast right after a Flame Crash. The only player affected should be the tank. Keep the debuffs from Mortal Strike, Wound Poison and Aimed Shot up to reduce the amount of healing Illidan receives.

At 90%, Illidan calls for the help of his minions, but they simply get killed by Akama. At 65%, Illidan takes off into the air, starting Phase 2.

Phase 2
Illidan is immune to all attacks while flying. About 10 seconds after taking off, he throws his two Warglaives of Azzinoth to the east and west sides of the grill/circle pattern on the ground, where they remain fixed. Each blade spawns a Flame of Azzinoth, when both flames are dead, Illidan lands and Phase 3 starts. This phase is the most difficult of the whole encounter, therefore all DPS enhancing cooldowns (Heroism/Bloodlust etc.) should be used as soon as the tanks have solid aggro on the Flames.

Positioning
The two off-tanks each pick up one of the flames. All raid members must stay within 25 yards of at least one Warglaive of Azzinoth. At the same time, the raid must spread out to minimize the damage taken from Illidan's Fireballs. To maximize the effectiveness of Chain Heal and Circle of Healing, it's a good idea to set up in several tightly clustered groups.

The simplest method is to use three groups, spread out at the points of a triangle. Setups with four or even five groups are possible too - in all cases, the raid must take care to set up outside the Eye Beam paths (see below). A setup with five groups results in a cross pattern - one group in the exact center of the circle, and one N, E, S, W, each 6 yards away from the center group. A four group setup leaves away the center group.

Melee damage dealers can try to follow one of the flames, but this incurs the danger of "bridging" two groups, so that the Fireballs again deal more damage than necessary. For this reason, it's safest to assign the melee damage dealers to one group and keep them at their place, only attacking a Flame when it moves close enough. With experience, raids can work out a technique to allow the melee damage dealers some movement.

Tanking
Each tank must keep his Flame faced away from the raid at all times, while at the same time staying close enough to the Blades of Azzinoth. This is most easily accomplished by staying in the area between the two circles. Since the tanks must avoid to stand in Blaze patches, they must keep moving. The result is the following 'kite path': Initially both flames are pulled to the northern (or southern) end of the circle, and then moved around the border towards the south, one tank along the eastern semicircle, the other along the west.

Eye Beam has only four possible paths, each intersects one of the Blades and tangentially touches the inner circle (either north or south). The actual AoE is about 2 yards wider than the graphic. Therefore only tanks and melee damage dealers have to take care. One player should constantly keep an eye on Illidan and announce whether he's flying over the east or west side (so that the tank on that side can move away from the two possible Eye Beam traces). Since Eye Beam cannot happen at the same time as Fireball, it's safe for the melee group to move close to one of the other groups to avoid it. If players get separated from the Flame by the residual (blue) fire from Eye Beam, they should wait until they're at full health and then dash through the fire.

Healing
The Flame tanks need two healers each, the remaining 4-5 healers heal the raid. About 80 seconds into the phase and every 40 seconds thereafter, Illidan puts a Dark Barrage on a random raid member. There is nothing to do about it than heal through. Since neither Fireballs nor Eye Beams can happen during a Dark Barrage, all raid healers have to immediately start spam healing the Barrage target. Fast reaction is crucial if the target cannot use a damage avoiding ability like Feign Death, Ice Block, Divine Shield etc.

During Phase 2 no combat or self rez should be used, since upon rezzing players may be susceptible to charge (even though being close enough to a Blade).

Phase 3
After both Flames are dead, Illidan lands, starting Phase 3. Any combat rezzes should be performed at this point. Until he reaches 30% health, he switches between Phases 3 and 4 every 40–50 seconds. When below 30%, he switches between Phases 5 and 4. Each phase switch is an aggro reset, therefore misdirection should be used on each switch and DPS should be careful for the first few seconds. His abilities in Phase 3 are the same as in Phase 1, with the addition of Agonizing Flames. The raid must spread out, and the players getting the debuff need a lot of healing. Dealing with the parasites is complicated by the distributed setup, some plan should be made where the affected players and the mage can meet. This can be done by setting up one mage to each side of the raid, and have parasited raid members run away towards the sides.

Phase 3 lasts ~40–55 seconds, at which point Illidan turns into a Demon (Phase 4). If he reaches 30% health, Phase 5 starts. The transition to phase 5 should always happen during a Phase 3, because the raid is positioned correctly.

Phase 4
Illidan kneels down and casts The Demon Within, turning him into a Demon. A warlock with maxed shadow resistance should tank him. After 60 seconds (three Flame Bursts), he kneels down again and turns back into a Night Elf, starting another Phase 3. Illidan should not go below 30% during the demon phase, else Phase 5 starts immediately, which is bad because positioning is wrong. Therefore slow DPS when he gets close to 30% in phase 4.

Positioning
From the point where Illidan kneels down, the warlock tank should set up quite a distance away in one direction, while the melee group should move far away in the other direction (melee cannot DPS Illidan during this phase, as Shadow Blast and Aura of Dread make it impossible to move into range). Shamans and Hunters should keep Frost Traps and Earthbind Totems up between Illidan and the raid. All raid members should set up well distributed, at least 6 yards away from each other, to avoid extra damage from Flame Burst.

Shadow Demons
The shadow demons spawn is always followed closely by a Flame Burst, so players must wait for the burst before they move out of position to kill them. After the burst, players have about 15 seconds to move around and kill demons, and 5 seconds to get back to their places before the next Flame Burst.

It's a good idea to place all AoE capable damage dealers within AoE range of Illidan, so that they can AoE the demons right when they spawn, while they're still snared. Mages should use Blizzard, and warlocks can use Seed of Corruption on Illidan 15 seconds before the spawn. If the AoE is performed well, it's possible to kill all the Demons within a few seconds after they spawn, this has the additional advantage that nobody needs to move out of position.

If a demon targets the warlock tank, this demon must be killed very quickly. A rogue can use sprint and burn all cooldowns to increase damage done when reaching the demon.

Phase 5
When Illidan is at 30% health or below, the raid gets imprisoned for 30 seconds and a small cut-scene takes place, and the fight continues with Phase 5. Illidan still switches to Phase 4 every 60 seconds, but from now on, Phase 5 replaces Phase 3. Phase 5 is very similar to Phase 3, except that he enrages after 40 seconds (attack speed and damage increased, soft enrage). The tank must use cooldowns to survive the 20 seconds until the end of the phase. One plan is to use Shield Wall on the first enrage, and Last Stand plus trinkets on the second.

Additionally, Maiev Shadowsong enters the battle. Two times per Phase 5 cycle she semi-randomly places a special demon trap on the ground that can be used against Illidan. The tank needs to drag Illidan towards the trap, click to activate it, and position Illidan on top of it. While trapped, Illidans damage taken is increased by 100% and he loses his enrage buff. When the trap expires, a transition to Phase 4 starts immediately.

Using the demon trap is dangerous, because it may severely disturb positioning, and incur other complications like raid members taking extra damage from Agonizing Flames, loose Parasites, or the tank turning his back to Illidan and taking Shear. Therefore only experienced raids should use the traps to speed up the encounter.

First kills (prior to patch 3.0.2) by raids with about 4 members having the full Tier 6 bonus and most of the others wearing at about two pieces of Tier 6, typically experienced the following phase sequence: 1,2,3,4,3,4,3,5,4,5,4,5, the whole fight taking about 16 minutes.

Quotes
Intro:
 * say
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Aggro:
 * yell

Summon minions to attack Akama:
 * yell

Attack Maiev:
 * yell

Killing a player:
 * yell
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Phase 2:
 * yell
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Beam During Phase 2:
 * yell

Metamorphosis:
 * yell

Phase 5 Enrage
 * yell

Enrage:
 * yell

When Maiev enters the battle:
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say

Death:
 * say
 * say
 * say
 * say