(I do not personally update this version so it may be out of date sometimes)
Hi! I'm Severage, long-time casual gamer and more recently a Heroes of the Storm addict. Since my HotS invite I've played 1200+ games on (primarily) assassins. Illidan is my favorite Hero, with over 240 games on him (SINCE BETA, not counting all the games I played on Alpha) and 70% Win Rate (Solo queue as well as premades).
I have played a lot, and thus know a lot about the game in general, as well as reaching (and maintaining for a long time) 4K+ MMR on Hotslogs, etc.
{Stopped playing in Summer 2015, but AFAIK Illidan's playstyle and probably even his build haven't changed much since then. Hopefully this guide remains useful!}
Let me state that Illidan is not very easy to play. While his mechanical requirement isn't very high, split-second decisions will extend your life beyond what you would've though possible or end your life prematurely. I will share what has worked best for me, but depending on the person you may have mixed results; any Illidan playstyle will take time to adapt to, and there's no big secret to make you a great Illidan player, just a more efficient one. The rest is up to practice. IMPORTANT! -
You may mess around with any of the viable talents and assort them however you like - the main build is the one I actually take in most games, it has a very potent mix of survivability and DPS, which allows you to be self-sufficient (Don't need a Healer) while dishing out good damage. The recommended build will always be what I find to be the best build at the time.
In the sections below I will introduce new Illidan players to Illidan's kit, and then move on to why specific talents are or are not viable...so scroll down to find out why a talent you pick is not on my "Best Build"!
Thanks for reading this part, if you don't want/need to read the rest of the introduction you can click the quick-link below to skip it.
The Best Build is not just a build that I came up with and decided to use, but was over time what other veteran users shared with me.
Way back I took Battered Assault and Immolation, and thought I was the first proponent of the Immolation talent. Little did I know there were those who beat me to discovering the great talent. Tazz told me of Shadow Shield a long time ago, but more recently Eywa shared her build with me (Who convinced me to take Metamorphosis pretty much 100% of the time way back, as well as Bolt of the Storm).
You could say that Eywa is the progenitor of Illidans everywhere, as Illidan was fairly unpopular prior to her popping up on the top of hotslogs (EU) (There were probably others as well but I wouldn't be able to name them if there are).
Eywa's build is the one I have listed as the "Best Build", she not only helped me out, but subsequently helped YOU out since it's now on this guide. I also never asked her to help me out, she came here and did that of her own volition. It doesn't end there though, she also critiqued my guide a bit and helped me revise it, which is of course still present in the guide. Many thanks to her!
For a little preview of how you can dominate teamfights and get carried by your healers with Illidan, check out this video.
(Q) Dive Cooldown: 6 seconds
"Dives at the target, Dealing 50 (+5 per level) damage and slowing the target by 80% for 0.35 seconds. Illidan flips to the other side of the target."
Illidan's longest range gap closing ability, with lower damage but high utility. This move has high range and flips to the opposite side of the opponent, a powerful gap closer, and allows for unlimited chase combined with Sweeping Strike.
As of 6/30/15 this ability no longer provides 'Unstoppable' frames, I.E. you can be stunned during Dive.
(W) Sweeping Strike Cooldown: 8 seconds
"Dashes toward target point, dealing 70 (+10 per level) damage to enemies along the way. If Illidan hits an enemy, his Basic Attacks do 35% more damage for 4 seconds."
Sweeping Strike has the same distance as Dive's range, though Dive goes behind enemies so technically travels further. This is one of the moves you will want to use on CD when chasing to ensure you get the maximum damage out of your autoattacks. Combined with a dive that guarantees an autoattack every couple seconds, it's not hard to stick to a target and deal some great damage.
(E) Evasion Cooldown: 15 seconds
"Cause incoming base attacks to miss for 2 seconds."
Properly timed, you can use this to dash in and out of the fray taking little to no damage. Most people will instantly focus Illidan (Or any assassin for that matter) the moment they jump in. Unlike Blinds which cause certain targets to miss, Evasion lets you dodge all basic attacks for 2 seconds (Usually ~2 per enemy). Remember that thanks to Illidan's passive the cooldown can be a lot shorter than 15 seconds.
(Trait) Betrayer's Thirst
"Illidan's Basic Attacks heal him for 20% of damage dealt and reduce his cooldowns by 1 second."
Arguably the most powerful passive in the game, and the only reason Illidan is viable. Illidan has moderate damage on his abilities, but most of his damage comes from autoattacks through talents, and this gives you 20% lifesteal and reduced cooldowns.
You can imagine that it follows, then, that in many cases it's better to go for more damage or more defensive ability, unless the defensive ability greatly out-performs more damage.
(R1) The Hunt
(R2) Metamorphosis
These will be explained when I breakdown my talent preferences.
In this section I'll go through each talent choice for each tier individually so you can follow my logic for each selection, instead of just picking my build because it's in a guide somewhere.
Shadow Shield - "Evasion grants a 75 (+12.5 per level) health shield. Lasts 5 sec."
This grants you exactly 10% of Illidan's base health + 10% of his scaling health on his E per level.
UPDATE 2/14: After the bugfix to this talent, this is, in my opinion, the winner of this tier 100% of the time. The continuous Es you get throughout a teamfight will help your survivability by a great margin, especially after Sixth Sense. The bug used to be that Auto-Attacks would destroy your shield while your Evasion was still active, even though the Auto-Attacks "Missed". With this no longer a problem, it is now a potent AA and Spell Damage shield.
Before you say "10% of Illidan's HP is nothing, useless talent", know that you pop this several times in a fight...and dozens of times in a lane. Over the course of a teamfight you may very well save yourself 30% HP (Not counting Sixth Sense mitigation), which out-performs other talents in the tier.
Alternative Talent Breakdown
Regeneration Master - "Collecting Regeneration Globes permanently increases Health Regeneration by 1.5 per second."
After the Butcher patch, this was buffed a bit.
I have tested it, and I was getting roughly 15% HP per 10 seconds by the time I was level 20. This is slightly stronger than Shadow Shield.
However I don't think it is worth picking up. It makes you significantly weaker in the early game, and it doesn't have the same synergy with Sixth Sense even later into the game.
The regen is definitely noticeable lategame, but until then you're handicapping yourself. Normally scaling for the lategame is fine, but the difference between Shadow Shield and Regen Master is not very massive even at level 20.
Maybe on a map like Garden of Terror it'd be stronger since games last till like level 25. Just be wary that you won't be as strong earlier into the game, and doing Merc Camps (My favorite thing to do on Illidan really) will slow down the rate at which you obtain globes.
Shadow Shield is better than this talent in survivability (and therefore better in the early game), and Seasoned Marksman beats it in damage after level 16 or so. It's only good early game really, so I wouldn't recommend it in really any situation.
Seasoned Marksman - "Grants +1 Basic Attack Damage permanently for every 5 Minions killed, stacks. Only Minions damage by Basic Attacks within moments of their death will count towards this bonus."
While technically viable, Shadow Shield will beat it out in terms of usefulness in many ways - from taking merc camps to blocking Spell Damage in lane. Especially if you pick Sixth Sense, having a 50% Spell Damage Reduction ON A SHIELD is very strong.
Immolation - "After using Sweeping Strike, burn nearby enemies for 13 (+2.5 per level) damage a second for 4 seconds."
Remains a potent option even after the nerf. Offers 63 DPS in AoE, great for clearing mercenaries and early camps, keeping you healthy in the jungle since it increases your clear time. Difficult decision whether this is better than Thirsting Blade, but if only for the early mercing I'd take this talent. Read more on Thirsting Blade's description.
Alternative Talent Breakdown
Thirsting Blade - "Basic Attacks now heal for 30% of damage dealt."
This talent grants 37 HP/s at level 20, whereas Immolation grants 63 DPS in AoE. Immolation beats this talent in numbers though it offers more health rather than damage.
Taking Seasoned Marksman to increase the healing of this is not worth it, as Shadow Shield will far outperform SM + TB in terms of self-heals/shields.
It also can't compete with Immolation's merc-clearing power, but CAN be better for staying alive. If you have Attack Speed buffs from any source, your life leech could go up a lot. Metamorphosis brings it to about 44 HP/s compared to Immolation's 63 DPS, then after that if you have something like Adrenaline Boost, you get very close to matching Immolation's DPS with HP/s.
It's a hard choice honestly, I would still go for Immolation just for merc clearing time in the early game and staying healthy in the jungle (Clearing mercs faster = more HP than lifeleech will offer).
Marked for Death - "Illidan's next Basic Attack on the Dive target deals 100% more damage".
Dive has a 6 sec cooldown, and in optimal situations due to his passive, it's on a 2.4 second cooldown (Again, at level 20). This is hard to calculate however, as the Dive animation interrupts your Basic Attacks, plus you need the W buff up which also delays your AAs. Let's assume about 3 seconds each.
This means over 12 seconds you dive 4 times. For practical math, let's assume the first Marked for Death did NOT have the W buff on it, and the following 3 did. The 1st would do 163 bonus damage, followed by 3 MFDs with the 35% AD buff, making them each deal 57 + 163 = 220 extra damage.
This totals 823 extra damage at Lv 20 over 10 seconds, or 82 DPS. Immolation remains a good in-between talent. It is safe, it deals great DPS (Only loses to MfD in single-target), great for merc camps, all around good talent. MfD is only better in single-target and requires you to spam Q to get your damage off, something that really irks me as that is often my escape/utility ability. I still would personally never take MfD, but if it really fits your playstyle and you think it works for you, knock yourself out.
Fel Reach - "Increases the range of Sweeping Strike by 20%."
This is actually the worst talent in the game I think. Let me explain why.
Normally when I Q onto someone, I want my W buff immediately. This means I Q onto them, and W whichever direction they're walking.
Now, if you Q onto someone and W the direction they aren't walking, you're like "Oops, let me just Q again". If you take this talent, you might actually fly out of Q range for one.
Secondly, if you W early and they, for whatever reason, don't walk in ANY direction, you will literally have to walk BACK to them to AA again, wasting at least 1 or 2 AAs.
So this literally makes your Hero do less DPS and is more accident-prone. Not only is there no reason to pick this talent since you can stick to nearly any target without it, but it actually makes you worse.
First Aid - "Activate to heal 35% of your max Health over 6 seconds."
Still the survivability go-to for this tier, if you need it. I would take this more often than not over Thrill of Battle unless you're winning pretty hard, and always take this if you went Metamorphosis if you don't have a healer as the %Max HP scales well with the bonus HP from Metamorphosis.
However, if you do have a support (Preferably 2 honestly) and you are going to build Metamorphosis, you will have the tankiness to have a lot of staying power in fights. This makes Thrill of Battle a more viable option, for several reasons. Primarily, you will deal formidable DPS regardless because your base AA and W damage are fairly strong and will be off CD more frequently. Secondly, you will be able to use Evasion very often with the Attack Speed buff from Metamorphosis + ToB. With Shadow Shield, this can increase your life by a significant margin. Finally, Metamorphosis has a significantly longer CD than The Hunt, so ToB remedies that as well.
Little hint: Spam ToB. Seriously there's never a good reason not to use it unless you will need it in 5 whole seconds - the CD is tiny on it and it will help you clear faster, do mercs faster, and get your Heroic Ability up faster. Get accustomed to using it often so you don't forget to use it in fights.
I know that was a bit long-winded, but play around with it and First Aid, see which you like.
Alternative Talent Breakdown
Follow Through - "After using an ability, your next Basic Attack deals 40% additional damage."
Yes...Follow Through got buffed...but it doesn't make it good. Follow Through would only be good with Seasoned Marksman and Marked for Death for the AA-damage stacking.
Which would be great, except you're probably giving up say...2000 eHP, 63 DPS AND you have to spam Q on CD.
It's really not worth it. Trust me I tried this build when I was on the PTR because I was talent-gated. Please don't use it.
Rapid Chase - "Illidan gains 40% move speed for 2 seconds after Dive."
I find it very uncommon to ever need more stickiness over damage, and there are better tools to escape. Not that great even after its buffs just because Illidan doesn't need movement speed very much...I mean, when you Q someone, you land behind them, and stand there Basic Attacking for almost 2 seconds anyway.
It seems like an OK talent to keep your AAs going against soft-CC, but you will usually get shut down with hard CC rather than soft CC - every player who VS Illidan knows soft-CC doesn't effect him that much due to his mobility spells.
Not to mention, two of your best talents, First Aid and Thrill of Battle, are on this tier.
So essentially, every time you press E and your Evasion expires, you get the Block talent. This is a decent mitigation talent vs specific match-ups ( Nova), but honestly you can just time your Evasion to completely dodge hard-hitting AAs (Like Nova or Zeratul's), and First Aid will offer much more general survivability.
Pretty much all I have to say here, First Aid and Thrill of Battle out-class it.
Thrill of Battle - "Activate to double the cooldown reduction from Basic Attacks for 8 seconds. 20 second cooldown."
So I figured that since Metamorphosis would be giving less HP with its nerfs, this talent would out-class First Aid.
After doing the math, this talent is in fact stronger, BUT it requires you to be able to AA for at least most of the duration. 8s or something close to 8s is a long time to be able to freely AA, and I don't think it'll happen that often, while First Aid is ticking whether you're CC'd, running away, or just slowed enough to not be able to hit anything for a couple seconds.
I still like this talent because of its out-of-combat uses, such as getting your Heroic off CD super quickly and clearing merc camps without taking any damage (Or even healing), but I can't say it is stronger in the midst of teamfights, and teamfights are really what matter.
It remains a viable, yet slightly-less viable option to First Aid.
The Hunt Information
The Hunt - Cooldown: 60 seconds - "Launch yourself at the enemy, deals 170 (+20 per level, Min. 350 damage). Stuns target for 1 second. Very long range."
While I love the concept of this talent, it doesn't have much place in this game, I'll be honest. What does it offer?
1). Split-pushing. Illidan splits pretty decently, has solid DPS against structures. Regardless, it will take your lonely self a while to get much work done, and usually your team has to be too far out of range for you to split with it, making it only an effective splitting tool post-20 with Nowhere to Hide. The problem then becomes splitting at 20 is very difficult. You need an objective to spawn on the opposite side of the map, and you need vision of at least ~3 members of the enemy team to start splitting. Then, you'll probably have to ult in before getting much work done on the enemy Keep anyway, which means if you win the 5v5 you should've just teamfought with Metamorphosis.
2). Burst damage. 550 damage instantly at level 20. Oh wait, that's kind of awful burst. Sonya's Slam does like 70% of that without any bonus damage talents. Not to mention as Illidan you have ZERO burst outside of The Hunt, so the burst is wasted and may as well be calculated as DPS because you won't be 100-0ing anyone or even close to it.
3). Single-target stun. The problem with this is your stun is extremely telegraphable, meaning your opponents see it coming 3 seconds ahead of time. Things like Cleanse render this useless as they can use it before you land to prevent their teammates from ever being stunned to begin with.
4). Catching targets out of position/ganking. The only way The Hunt is actually useful is this last point. Unfortunately, teams start grouping and running around as 5 once you get level 16+, rendering this Heroic very mediocre at best. You have to be snowballing out of control to pick The Hunt and win with it, as you are relying on picking your opponents rather than teamfighting.
All in all, I feel like it falls short of being a good Heroic. 5v5 is the way to win this game, not split-pushing or being cute. Objectives are extremely important, and you can't let the opponents have them to 1-man split-push. Metamorphosis is significantly stronger in teamfights, so there you go.
Metamorphosis Information
Metamorphosis - Cooldown: 120 seconds - Duration 18 seconds - "Transform into Demon Form at the target location, dealing 20 (+4 per level) damage in the area. Gain 100 (+15 per level) temporary max Health for each Hero hit and 20% increased Attack Speed. Lasts for 18 seconds."
Usually gives 500 - 750 HP at level 10 and 800 - 1200 at 20 (2 - 3 Heroes is the usual number of targets you hit with it), and more attack speed to lifesteal with. It is also a third gap closer.
This Heroic Ability is hands-down better for teamfights, you'll want to pick this talent in the majority of games. The Hunt can be picked on maps where you will be able to snowball and catch people out of position. For instance, the new map that came with The Butcher is a bad map for The Hunt, as it's almost always 10 people mid fighting over the Immortals.
When in doubt, pick Metamorphosis, as even after the nerfs it remains the safe option.
Giant Killer - "Basic Attacks against Enemy Heroes deal an additional 1.5% max health in damage."
The luxury talent. If you can afford to not take Sixth Sense, you take this. Even against a team with smaller health pools, GK is a nice DPS boost. However, survivability is your #1 concern. As you've surely heard said many times, you don't do any DPS when you're dead.
NOTE: NEVER take Giant Killer if you took Thrill of Battle. Half of the reason to take ToB is the Evasion/Shadow Shield/Sixth Sense synergy. If you took First Aid, you may then consider Giant Killer if you're ahead.
You might not expect it, but this talent is actually really underrated. Even still, it does not keep up with Giant Killer or Sixth Sense. Also, you can get Bolt at 20 if you find yourself needing this.
Friend or Foe - "Dive can be cast on allied Heroes. Using Dive on an allied Hero reduces its cooldown duration by 2 seconds."
This is a pretty potent escape tool, plus its CD is reduced by 2 seconds. Unfortunately, Giant Killer's damage is unmatched, and you can just take Sixth Sense to live longer while in the fight rather than retreating. So. Eh.
Unbound - "Illidan ignores all collision while using Sweeping Strike."
This is probably the best evacuation talent there is for Illidan, particularly on maps with many trees or walls everywhere. This also lets you do straight up janky stuff like Q over turrets and W back through them (Or vice-versa), potentially being able to assassinate low targets hiding under turrets.
All the same, you are trading heavy damage or survivability for sheer utility, which is a hard pill to swallow.
Sixth Sense - "Illidan takes 50% reduced damage from spells while Evasion is active."
Fantastic talent. Good timing with this talent vs Nova, Kael'thas, Jaina, Falstad, and any other powerful ability-oriented Heroes will immensely increase your survivability. Take this when you're playing a serious game or the opposing team is burst-heavy. If the opposing team has little to no burst or ability damage threats (not very common), you take Giant Killer.
Blood for Blood - "Activate to deal 10% of target enemy Hero's Max Health in Spell Damage and heal yourself for 200% of damage dealt."
For many Heroes, the change to Blood for Blood was a nerf to the talent, but for Illidan, it's just a change. In some cases it could even be considered a buff.
Since Illidan doesn't care or need burst damage, the health return increase should provide him with overall higher DPS, granted he stays alive to DPS after using it. Furthermore Illidan doesn't need the slow that the pre-'nerf' BfB had, since Illidan can chase forever anyway.
Keep in mind that it heals for 200% of the damage it deals, and Spell Shield (along with talents like it) will reduce that damage since BfB deals Spell Damage, reducing your heal. Preferably don't use it as fights open so talents like this are on CD.
Alternative Talent Breakdown
Second Sweep - "Illidan can store up 2 charges of Sweeping Strike."
This is a pretty useful talent, as it lets you maximize your autoattack damage as well as giving you more escape options. When chasing, it's usually possible to have Sweeping Strike off cooldown the majority of the time, which allows you to instantly dash away at the first sign of danger, or keep the autoattack buff up 100% of the time.
This talent is great, but Blood for Blood outclasses it because Illidan needs damage and survivability. What does Blood for Blood do? Lots of damage, lots of survivability. Also, you get Bolt of the Storm at 20, which does this talent's job.
Pretty undertuned talent. Illidan does very little ability damage, the heal scaling would literally have to be increased to like 50% for this talent to be competitive.
Stoneskin - "Activate to gain 30% of your max health in shields for 5 seconds. 60 second cooldown."
No real reason to take this over Blood for Blood honestly. BfB does burst damage, and is a burst heal for nearly as much as Stoneskin shields. Permanent health is stronger than a temporary shield.
The only advantage this gives is that you can preemptively shield incoming damage, or you are out of range of any targets. Neither of these are very practical since a Warrior will probably always be in your face and you're not going to get 1-shot by anything so shielding prior to taking damage isn't particularly useful.
Bolt of the Storm - Cooldown: 40 seconds - "Activate to teleport to a nearby location."
So, after trying it out I actually love this talent. It has a very low CD for its utility. The other lv 20 talents are still good, but situational, while Bolt is always very strong. Especially because so many Heroes that have problems escaping take it at 20 as well (E.G. Zagara, Jaina, Kael'thas, Valla). Very useful talent.
Alternative Talent Breakdown
Nexus Blades - "Basic attacks deal 20% more damage and slow the target for 1 second."
Luxury talent. Since there is no running from Illidan, the stickiness bonus you gain from this talent is pretty much wasted, unless you're chasing a Li Li for some reason. So you'd pretty much be taking it for the 20% more damage, which simply isn't significant enough to warrant over Bolt or even Demonic Form in some cases - really it's just when you want to do more damage because you're so far ahead.
Nowhere to Hide - "The Hunt has global range. Greatly increases the acceleration of Illidan while hunting a target."
This talent is still close to my heart, but unfortunately all the split-pushing potential it gives you is wasted in a deathball meta. Also why Metamorphosis is better. Probably take Bolt of the Storm over this and just avoid splitting across the map from your teammates, unless that's specifically what you're setting out to do.
Demonic Form - "Permanently remain in Demonic Form. Increases the Attack Speed bonus of Demonic Form to 30% and grants a 50% reduction in the duration of disabling effects."
This used to be kind of a "meh" talent with only an attack speed bonus, but with the 50% Tenacity boost it's pretty useful in lategame teamfights. The only thing harder to peel than Illidan is a tanky Illidan that you can't CC lock. I honestly find this a painful choice over Bolt, so I might interchangeably use them. If the opponent has some serious amount of CC I may take this over Bolt. E.T.C., Uther, Kerrigan, Brightwing, (most likely a combination of them) would warrant this over Bolt.
Early on, you want to stay safe. Yes, Illidan can kill other Heroes in lane, IF you trade smartly and don't go ham for kills. When trading in lane I like to save my Evasion for when I start to take turret shots, allowing me to trade with enemy Heroes under turrets without taking extra damage. Then you Dive back through the enemy minion wave just before your Evasion runs out. You will seldom kill enemy Heroes this way, but you can trade very effectively and waste turret ammo.
By stay safe I don't mean zone yourself and stay way back. Trade smartly, never waste your Evasion or Dive when you don't need to, and don't get greedy for a kill. Poking your opponent out of lane is just as good as it makes them lose XP soak.
You can do Siege Giants and Bruiser Camps at level 4. On certain maps you can't do this because Objectives spawn at around the time you hit Lv 4, but on a couple maps you can get away with it (E.G. Blackheart's Bay).
Both Immolation and Thirsting Blade can solo any mercenary camp (Except Boss), but if you solo Bruisers, tap Moonwell on your way there to stay healthy.
In closing, my philosophy on Illidan is, if you're dying too much, just PvE.
I'll mostly focus on teamfighting here, you should have a pretty good idea that you want to be pushing lanes and taking mercs as much as you can in between fights. Know that your mobility is unparalleled in getting into fights, and use that to your advantage.
First, you want to ult a target not just to get you into the fight, but to give you and your team an advantage.
Using The Hunt on the proper target is key, and you never want to use it on a Warrior, as hyperbolic an example that may be. Point being, use the stun to an advantage. Not only to get in, but a squishy target that has to sit there for a full second gives your team an opening to delete an assassin and slay the fleeing remnants of the opposing team. Valla, Nova, a non-tanky Healer (PLEASE Don't Hunt Uther in a 5v5 unless you know for sure your team can burst him down), Tychus, etc.
Secondly, don't be reserved about using The Hunt. Remember that it is lowered by a second every time you autoattack, which means it'll probably be on a ~30 second cooldown by the time you used it and finished a fight. If you see your team starting to lose a fight, try to give them an advantage by Hunting a squishy target, not leaving them to die cause you're afraid you won't have The Hunt up when you need it.
That's not to say hunt in to a fight when two of your mates got caught out against 5 people, but don't leave teammates hanging either. What I mean to say is don't be greedy with your CDs, they mean nothing to Illidan.
Lastly, your ability rotation will get more natural and weaving in Basic Attacks will seem more fluid after playing Illidan a few games, and also, the time to disengage. It may not be worth single-handedly chasing Li Li all the way back to her base, than just forcing her away and returning to clean up a 4v5 teamfight, for instance.
When you use either Heroic Ability to get into a fight in most cases.
Primarily because most people will target you when they see a huge demon or a flying Illidan ramming into their team.
Secondly because you want to get the most bang out of your buck with your Passive - every second you don't use an ability is a second your passive gets wasted by AAing. Thus, you want to use W and E on CD or as close to that as you can get if you're actively AAing. This will get more fluid with practice as I said before.
Do not spam Evasion just for the sake of using it though. If you are not being attacked, save it until you are turned on.
Always look for fights to break out around the map and give your team an advantage.
If you're in the fight before you use The Hunt, do not use it UNTIL -
A priority target puts themselves in a bad position.
A Hero uses a powerful ability that needs to be CC'd, like Strafe, Triple Tap, etc.
You need to use it to engage a squishy target for whatever reason - I.E. you are being zoned.
Metamorphosis
Hunt vs Metamorphosis
I'll be honest with you, I don't think Illidan is that viable without taking Metamorphosis. The Hunt is definitely fun, but unless you're snowballing like no tomorrow you will regret picking it lategame. The Hunt is amazing for all of 3-6 levels, but once 5v5s begin, you'll feel pretty useless. You're still very squishy, and when you dive an enemy carry in a teamfight you have no right to live - an enemy team who is paying attention at all should destroy you.
I wish The Hunt were more viable, if we're talking in terms of fun or play-making it's my favorite to use. Metamorphosis though, does early everything The Hunt does, but better.
Metamorphosis:
1) Serves as a risk-free gap-closer.
2) Increases your Max HP to near-Sonya levels.
3) Increases your Attack Speed, which allows you to deal more damage, reduces your CDs further via passive, and allows more lifesteal.
4) Has incredible synergy with [[First Aid].
5) Can be used as an escape in emergency situations.
6) Does significant (Nearly as much as the Hunt per target) damage, and in AoE.
Out of these, The Hunt does #1, #5, #6 (Though not as well as Meta), and additionally provides a 1-sec Stun on said target. Which I'd love to say would be worth it for something like Li Li's Jugs if your team is short on CC, but it really still isn't, you'd just need to in-and-out more when she popped it, or simply out-sustain it with a Healer of your own.
Basically I see no reason to take The Hunt as all it offers is more early (10-13 usually) pressure in lanes, CC that you can easily get from a Warrior ( Judgment, for example), and makes it really hard to teamfight 16+. That doesn't stop it from being close to my heart and a really fun pubstomp Heroic, but it does mean if you're behind in a game you definitely want to take Metamorphosis.
Best Times to Pick Metamorphosis
There are other things you should be aware of though! Just because you're level 10 and the opponent is 8 doesn't mean it's a good time to pick The Hunt!
Pick Metamorphosis when:
1) Versus very powerful lock-on Heroics, such as Pyroblast, Triple Tap, etc. (Using Metamorphosis as these projectiles collide with you will prevent any damage from being received).
2) Versus heavy CC comps. Enemy teams that have Muradin, Uther and Kerrigan will make The Hunt a suicide mission.
3) Versus any Hero who picked Cleanse. Uther, Rehgar, Malfurion, and Brightwing have the talent available to them, and Li Li has Herbal Cleanse post-13 which is less of a threat but can still ruin driveby Hunt kills. If the Support knows what he/she is doing, they will cleanse your Hunt target before you stun them, so that they never get stunned in the first place.
If you are AHEAD, and the enemy team has NONE of these 3, then you should be able to get away with a The Hunt pick, granted you play it properly.
When to Pop Defensive CDs
As a conclusion, I wanted to throw in that the best way to use First Aid/ Stoneskin (If applicable) is just AFTER you used Metamorphosis. You'll preferably want to wait to use them until after you hit someone(s) with Metamorphosis, because FA/Stone Skin both scale off %HP, so you will heal/shield more after getting your HP buff.
I like to get to about 20~30% HP then hit as many as I can with Metamorphosis, pop Stoneskin + First Aid + Evasion, and keep going. With your increased lifesteal and Basic Attack speed, along with the sustain of First Aid and the burst of survivability with Stoneskin + Metamorph, not to mention your talented Evasion, you will be an unkillable teamfighting machine for a few moments.
Normally I pick Blood for Blood over Stoneskin anyway, but in case you think you need SS for whichever reason, that is how you should use it.
Hope this was helpful! //FINAL NOTE//
You can Dive the Core (Flip over it), and your Evasion dodges it. Happy backdooring!
A). Never Draft Illidan on this map, silly idea as the map is snowbally with an emphasis on the early game, where Illidan is weak. If you're in quick match, keep reading.
B). Know when to take camps! If you get out of the mines and all the small Skull Camps are dead, and there's no hope of contesting the Mines Golem for Skulls, head straight for the enemy's Siege Camp. Take it while they're down in the Mines (While they're taking the Boss Golem), and it will prevent them from using it to defend against your Golem.
B2). Take mid camp if possible, but don't fight for it if they come to contest when you're behind. Best case scenario, you'll be soloing their Sieges while your team takes Mid Knights.
B3). For the first round of Mines, you need to wait before Capturing your Sieges. Kill the Camp, but wait to capture it. Once the enemy Golem is halfway down the lane, cap the camp. This will allow the Siege Giants to stay safely behind your Fort's Gate/Walls, while adding significant DPS to your team on the enemy Golem.
B4). In the event you come out with the stronger Golem, take your own Siege Camp. Your opponent will probably do the same (Most people aren't brave enough to take their opponent's Sieges). Your Sieges will defend well enough on their own if you have a stronger Golem, so capping that (Remember to time it!) and pushing as 5 (Or 4 - 1) is often the best call. If you have a Tassadar or something, he can solo-defend, since he has MULE, Plasma Shield, and high DPS on targets that are sitting still. Thus, he can defend easily by himself.
I think that's about it, the map is extremely linear and there are little real strategic decisions to be made. If playing with a full premade (Or like, playing Gazlowe), you can try doing things like downing the opponent's Keep while they take the rest of the Skulls in the Mines and there's no hope of contesting, but that's typically not a solo-queue-viable strategy. Again, unless you're Robo-Goblin Gazlowe.
Map Information
Here we go! A real map! This is a decent map for Illidan - it typically allows time for him to ramp up, has fights around lots of bushes and chaotic 10-man battles, a perfect environment for you to flourish.
The strategy for this map is much less obvious than Haunted Mines, but you want to go to a side-lane. Top or Bottom is fine, doesn't really matter. Typically both top and bottom will have 2 people in them unless you have a Roam Squad or Stealth Heroes. If you have a lane partner, don't be afraid to swap lanes when in a poor lane (Don't suffer in lane vs an Uther + Sgt. Hammer, get out of there!).
At ~2:40, the first Tribute spawns. Both teams are like, level 3 at this point. Once this fight is over and one team gets the Tribute, you'll very likely be level 4+, so head to your Siege Camp and take it ASAP. If you are too slow to rotate the next Tribute will start spawning (There's not much time between tribs) before you can finish the camp.
After that trib, you'll probably be level 6 - 7-ish, and will have no problem taking your Hard/Bruiser Camp. You may or may not need to back to the Altar of Storms or tap a Moonwell - whatever you need to do, step to! Again, there's not a huge window between tributes, so just do it in a timely manner and you'll be fine.
Sometimes, you will simply not be able to take your own camps. Usually this is due to having a 2-man Roam Squad (Arthas/Kerrigan, for example), forcing you to stay in lane for XP. If you cannot take camps, wait till the first Curse goes off. Once a Curse activates, there is a long pause before the next Tribute spawns, giving you plenty of time to take camps. Also, after 3 Tributes, your roam squad should be in lane or pushing by now, as roaming around Level 10 would be a bit odd. If not, it doesn't really matter, camps will be worth the 2 or 3 creep waves you'll miss of XP, as XP is worth slightly less after the race to 10.
Make sure to watch your mini-map! Often after a Curse lifts, your opponents will go after a Boss Golem. If 4+ of the opponents are completely MIA, get your team to check it out and be ready to rotate down. If you have someone with Clairvoyance or Farsight, get them to pop it on the enemy Golem. Luckily, most opponents are silly and will cap their Knight camp before taking their Boss Golem, so you have a huge tell on where they're at.
Contest Boss Golems when you're ahead, or even and have a stronger Teamfighting Composition. If you're behind and you know they're at their Boss Golem, take your own Boss Golem. This gives you breathing room since they can't (Or most likely won't) push with their Golem and be able to take advantage of their level lead since they will need to defend. This is most relevant later in the game, when Boss Golems can level Keeps on their own if left alone.
Other than that, follow the tribs, play the game, fight the fights, wreck, tear, rip, lacerate, devastate, and demolish your way to victory!
Map Information
Welcome to Dragon Shire! The map of skirmishes, lane-pushing, and 25-minute instant losses at the hands of an unkillable Dragon Knight!
Which of these is Illidan good at? Skirmishes of course! Illidan would be a fantastic Hero in the mid-game on this map, if not for the Triple-Lane-Bottom-Push that has been popularized by the competitive scene. This completely shuts you down, because it completely and utterly eliminates all Skirmishes from the entire map. You are forced to go to Top Lane because Bottom is getting pushed by a Hammer with a support and a Ranged Assassin, probably into a Tyrael top lane that will destroy you in lane. You can't go mid because that's where high-control Heroes go, something that can stall like a Nazeebo, and you're Melee.
In the event you do get the ordinary 2-1-2 split though, you are actually useful here. The early game may be a little rough, depending on your lane partner and who you're versus, but your Level 10 - 16 is really strong on this map. After level 16 you are still good of course, Illidan only gets better as the game goes on, but the Dragon Knight becomes more relevant (And scales to practical invincibility with 1500-damage swings to Structures), and a DK with 4 Heroes behind it is impossible for a Melee to get close to.
So basically, do your best in lane, take advantage of your Skirmishing/1v1ing Power when your opponent sends 1-3 people to one Shrine. As long as you have the same number of people there, your skirmishing power should allow you to win fights. Your only match in this is Thrall, whom 16+ you cannot 1v1 or beat in a Skirmish most likely. If he's in the game too, good luck. o7
Finally, don't neglect how many camps are on this map! You can go merc-crazy here. While it is hard to sneak the bottom Bruiser Camp without drawing attention or suspicion, your Siege and Top-Side Bruisers are useful for lane pressure. Bruisers in particular can push a lane back and possibly turn the tables on Shrine control.
Map Information
Strangely enough, I win a lot of my Illidan games on this map, even though I don't find it particularly good for Illidan.
You will most likely be against a decent-strong laner, so play it cool and remember your job here is just to clear waves, ramp up, and get coins if possible from the Chests. When being bullied/abused/harrassed often in lane, consider backing up, hitting a Moonwell and taking your Siege Giants (You may as well take the Doubloon camp while you are here). They will alleviate some pressure. If you can get someone to pick up the slack and soak XP, you can also go take your Bruisers, which will benefit your team and also get you more coins. With 6 this early in the game, plus the doubloon camps, you can turn those puppies in and nearly do a full turn-in alone, even if you didn't get any from the Chests.
Late game, bottom lane is basically abandoned, but not enough to split-push because of how close it is to the turn-in. What I like to do in the late-game is essentially try to maneuver such that I can guarantee my team a Boss Camp.
So you tell your teammates where to go (Hopefully they're not derp and walk through vision), and then ninja your opponent's Siege Camp. Done properly, the first reaction when nobody is on the map and your camps are being invaded is that your opponents are doing that as they turn in. SURPRISE! Boss Camp gets capped a few seconds later. EZPZ.
Another really good option for catching back up in a game is to see when your opponent has enough coins to turn in later in the game (Probably when they're at like X/16). When they have enough, say you're behind and you know you can't contest. They'll be clandestinely scouting out the turn-in, but SURPRISE! You were never there, you're taking Boss Camp, knowing they'll be turning in right now.
Boss Camp will then relieve pressure on the map, forcing all the opponents to defend it, giving your team a safe turn-in. Win-Win!
Map Information
Oh boy! Garden! 40-minute match incoming!
Guess what? Illidan scales like a monster. SO MUCH TIME TO SCALE! (My secret strategy here is Seasoned Marksman + Thirsting Blade. It is only effective in long games. Thanks to the Mage Meta it is less effective than before, since Sixth Sense + Shadow Shield is essential. But in the event you're not vs Mages, in a 25+ Minute game this combination can be very effective.)
Once plants spawn, you'll be creeping up on Level 4. Once you hit Lv 4, you can solo the Shambler. Typically you'll need your teammates help to take it because the enemy team will stop you from soloing it, but hey, anything can happen in solo-queue, and it's good to know you have the potential to solo it from Lv 4.
Regardless, once your team secures at least 1 Shambler, go hog-wild on Merc Camps. If both teams get their side small camps of Seeds and each team gets 1 Shambler, neither team will get a Terror. This is great! This means you can take all the camps. ALL THE CAMPS!
So the game goes on and on and on, and lategame you do lategame Illidan things, destroying teamfights and being an unkillable nuisance and all that. There's not really much to say here, but here's a few tips.
A). If behind, go to the Shambler opposite the side where your opponents are taking their Shambler. No reason to fight for it when you'll die then lose ALL the seeds.
B). If you hit a camp ("Tag" it) before the Terror is taken by either team, the camp will remain and you will be able to capture it while a Terror is spawned. This is nice because the camp will be on its respawn timer while the Terror is up, PLUS it will push while either team's Terror is pushing. If someone does this to you, remind your teammate (The one that gets in your Terror) that he can just drop a W "Plant Pot" on top of the mercs and instantly kill them.
C). When a Terror spawns, you will notice all the Mercenary Camp icons will disappear. However, if someone tagged a camp, that camp will still appear on the map as a White Merc Symbol. If your team is nearby you can gank them, win a fight, then push with your Terror for a big advantage. If you can't exploit their position, you still know where they are and where they are coming from. This should give your team positional advantage, letting your Terror push further away from said tagged camp, for instance.
Unfortunately because of a text allowance issue (My guide had too many characters, RIP), the Match-Ups section of the guide was deleted.
Due to the fact that I no longer play Heroes of the Storm (As of Summer 2015), I'm afraid I don't have the up-to-date knowledge to recreate this section.
Shameless plug to my YouTube Channel here, but if you've ever heard of 'Pro as Heck' guides, or you want a little more chuckle in your life, you can check this comedy sketch of a video out. =)
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Offline
Sweeping Strike
Alternative Talent Breakdown
Garden of Terror
Adrenaline Boost
Block
Nova
Nowhere to Hide
Cleanse
The Butcher
Kael'thas
Jaina
Falstad
Spell Shield
Valla
Uther
Tychus
Flamestrike
Precision Strike
Strafe
Triple Tap
Judgment
Pyroblast
Muradin
Kerrigan
Rehgar
Malfurion
Brightwing
Li Li
Herbal Cleanse
Tassadar
Plasma Shield
Gazlowe
Robo-Goblin
Sgt. Hammer
Clairvoyance
Farsight
Tyrael
Nazeebo
Thrall
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