Updates

Talents

• Level 16
  • Fiery Brand
    • Attacking a different Hero from the last Hero attacked now resets progress on the previously attacked Hero.
    • Blinds and Evasion now prevent any progress from being granted.
    • If the target gains Stasis or Invulnerable, progress will be lost.
    • Stacks now last 300 seconds.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Dive [Q]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Dive to play sound and visual effects twice if Illidan is targeting another Illidan.
• Level 16
  • Fiery Brand
    • Bonus damage is now dealt before the primary Basic Attack damage. All other effects will still occur if this kills the target.

Bug Fixes

• Level 4
  • Hunter's Onslaught
    • Now causes Immolation to heal Illidan for the damage dealt.
• Level 10
  • The Hunt
    • Fixed issues that caused Illidan to Hunt towards the enemy Hall of Storms.

Bug Fixes

• Difficulty updated from Medium to Very Hard.
• Fixed an issue that caused Unending Hatred to stop displaying bonus damage on the talents tab of the scoreboard after reaching the quest milestone.
• Fiery Brand icon updated.

Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • All Level 4 Talents have been moved to Level 7.
• Level 7
  • All Level 7 Talents have been moved to Level 4.
  • Unbound [W]
    • Hero hits for quest completion reduced from 30 to 15.

Developer Comment: We don't mind when Illidan players prefer to shy away from teamfights earlier in the game, but we want to make sure it's not the only option. We're swapping his healing talent tier with his mobility talent tier to help achieve this.

Bug Fixes

• Metamorphosis Illidan, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, Odin Tychus, and Archon Tassadar can no longer mount as a caboose on the Toy Train.

Updates

Talents

• Level 4
  • Rapid Chase [Q]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Dive by 1 second when it deals damage to an enemy Hero.
• Level 7
  • Hunter's Onslaught [Trait]
    • Healing increased from 25% to 35% of damage dealt.
• Level 16
  • Fiery Brand [Passive]
    • Attacks required to deal bonus damage reduced from 4 to 3.
    • Damage reduced from 9% to 7% maximum Health.

Developer Comment: We're making some simple changes to underperforming talents that should make them more competitive.

Updates

Base

• Health increased from 1650 to 1725.
• Health regeneration increased from 3.44 to 3.59.

Talents

• Level 16
  • Fiery Brand [Passive]
    • Damage increased from 8% to 9% maximum Health.

Developer Comment: It's just a little more Health on Illidan. What could go wrong?

Updates

Abilities

• Level 4
  • Rapid Chase [Q]
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 15% to 20%
    • Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
• Level 7
  • Reflexive Block [Q]
    • Number of attacks blocked increased from 2 to 3

• Level 16
  • Fiery Brand [Passive]
    • Damage increased from 7% to 8% maximum Health
  • Blades of Azzinoth [Active]
    • Now starts with Blades of Azzinoth able to be cast when the talent is picked

Developer Comment: Due to his resourceless, infinitely life-stealing, highly mobile nature, even a small buff can turn Illidan into an unstoppable nightmare. It's been long enough though, and a few talent buffs couldn't possibly cause him to go wildly out of control… right? Right.

Updates

Abilities

• Metamorphosis (R)
  • Bonus Health increased from 200 to 220

Talents

• Level 16
  • Fiery Brand (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 6 to 7% Maximum Health

Bug Fixes

• Can now correctly cast Dive on Ragnaros in Molten Core form.

Bug Fixes

• Hitting two Heroes with Sweeping Strike at maximum range will now correctly apply the bonus damage granted by the Battered Assault Talent.
• The volume for Illidan's voiceover during The Hunt has been reduced to better match other game sounds.

Bug Fixes

• Abilities that can interrupt Dive, like Li-Ming's Wave of Force, will no longer cause Illidan to become briefly unresponsive.

Updates

• Abilities

  • The Hunt (R)
    • Cooldown increased from 60 to 100 seconds

  Developer Comment: With his built-in cooldown reduction from Betrayer's Thirst, we wanted to give his enemies a bit more time to prepare – I'll bet he didn't see that coming.

Bug Fixes

• Evasion will no longer prevent damage over time effects from displaying on Illidan's Health bar.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Unending Hatred (Passive)
    • Increased the amount of Basic Attack damage gained from killing Minions from .1 to .2

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to respawn at his death location if he cast Sweeping Strikes in the same moment that he was killed.

Updates

Abilities

• Metamorphosis (R)
  • Will now clamp the cast to the maximum range of the Ability

Bug Fixes

• The Hunt voiceover will no longer play slightly early.

Bug Fixes

• Quest progress icons will no longer continue to appear after completing the Unbound Talent quest.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Unending Hatred (Passive)
    • Increased Basic Attack damage bonus upon quest completion from 10 to 20
  • Battered Assault (W)
    • Added functionality:
      • Now also increases the duration of Sweeping Strike from 3 to 5 seconds
    • Increased the bonus damage gained from hitting 2+ Heroes with Sweeping Strike from 125 to 150%
• Level 4
  • Unbound (W)
    • No longer reduces the cooldown of Sweeping Strike
    • Added Functionality:
      • Quest: After hitting 30 Heroes with Sweeping Strike, gain a second charge of Sweeping Strike
• Level 7
  • Thirsting Blade (Trait)
    • Increases healing amount of 50 to 60%
• Level 16
  • Marked for Death (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 225 to 180

Developer Comment: We're aiming to make a few of the earlier talent choices for Illidan more competitive options, and open up a greater variety of playstyles for Illidan players. By increasing the bonus of Unending Hatred, we think farming Minion waves and Hunting into fights will be enticing on certain Battlegrounds. By allowing Unbound to grant 2 charges of Sweeping Strike, we think that Talents like Battered Assault and Blades of Azzinoth will showcase an Illidan that can dance across an enemy team and do a lot of damage while doing so.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause odd movement behavior after learning Unbound and then casting Sweeping Strike.

Bug Fixes

• The visual effects for The Hunt will now properly display on the Ability's target during replays.
• Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Illidan to fly back to his death location if he was killed while using Dive.
• Voiceover that plays while casting The Hunt is now only audible for Illidan and his target.
• High pitched ambient sounds that play while casting The Hunt are no longer audible for the target's allies. Lower-pitched ambient sounds will still play for all players and observers.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing the tooltip for Illidan's Friend or Foe talent to display incorrect data.

Bug Fixes

• Issuing an attack command on an enemy while using Sweeping Strike in the opposite direction will now always cause Illidan to travel the full Sweeping Strike distance, both before and after learning the Unbound Talent.

Bug Fixes

• Illidan's Betrayer's Thirst Trait will no longer provide cooldown reduction for Basic Attacks that miss due to Blind or Evasion effects.
• Illidan's voiceover for The Hunt is no longer audible for players who are not near the target.

Updates

• Betrayer's Thirst (Trait)
  • Heal amount granted per Basic Attack decreased from 40% to 30% of damage dealt.
  • Thirsting Blade (Talent)
    • Basic Attack Healing during Sweeping Strikes decreased from 60% to 50%.
• Dive (Q)
  • Friend or Foe (Talent)
    • Range bonus decreased from 33% to 20%.
  • Reflexive Block (Talent)
    • Block charges granted after casting Dive reduced from 3 to 2.
• Sweeping Strike (W)
  • Battered Assault (Talent)
    • Damage bonus increased from 100% to 125%.
  • Unbound (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction is now also granted when Sweeping Strike hits non-Heroic enemies.
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 5 to 4 seconds.

Developer Comment: We're pretty happy with the Talent diversity and playstyle that Illidan has after the Talent Update, but he's a little too hard to kill right now. We're aiming to remove a little of his “snowball” survivability when he's ahead by reducing the healing from his Trait and nerfing a few of his over-performing survivability Talents.

We're also providing small buffs to a few Talents that we think add fun and interesting gameplay decisions to Illidan, but aren't winning as much as they should (such as Battered Assault and Unbound).

Updates

• This Hero has received significant Talent changes
• Shadow Shield (Talent) removed
• Regeneration Master (Talent) removed
• Seasoned Marksman (Talent) removed
• Follow Through (Talent) removed
• First Aid (Talent) removed
• Giant Killer (Talent) removed
• Blood for Blood (Talent) removed
• Stoneskin (Talent) removed
• Health increased from 1426 to 1650
• Health Regeneration increased from 2.97 to 3.44
• Attack Speed increased from 1.66 to 1.82 attacks per second
• New Talent (Level 1): Unending Hatred
  • Permanently gain 0.1 Basic Attack damage for each enemy Minion killed nearby, and 1 damage for each enemy Hero killed nearby
  • Upon reaching 20 bonus Basic Attack damage, gain an additional 10 Basic Attack damage.
• New Talent (Level 16): Fiery Brand
  • Every fourth consecutive Basic Attack against the same enemy Hero deals damage equal to 6% of the target's maximum Health
• Betrayer's Thirst (Trait)
  • Healing received increased from 20% to 40% of Basic Attack damage dealt
  • Thrill of Battle (Talent) removed
  • Thirsting Blade (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 4 to Level 7
    • Increases Betrayer's Thirst healing from 40% of Basic Attack damage to 60% of Basic Attack damage while Sweeping Strike is active
  • Hunter's Onslaught (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 7
    • Healing increased from 15% to 25% of Ability Damage done
    • Now only affects Basic Abilities
    • Healing doubled against Heroic targets
• Dive (Q)
  • Lunge (Talent) removed
  • Friend or Foe (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 4
    • Targeting an ally no longer reduces Dive's cooldown
    • Now also increases Dive range by 33%
  • Rapid Chase (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 4
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 20% to 15%
  • Reflexive Block (Talent)
    • No longer triggered by Evasion
    • Casting Dive now provides 3 Block charges. Each charge reduces damage taken from the next incoming Basic Attack by 75%
  • Marked for Death (Talent) redesigned and moved from Level 4 to Level 16
    • Dive deals an additional 230 damage (+4% per level) each time it is cast against the same target within 10 seconds
• Sweeping Strike (W)
  • Damage bonus duration reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
  • Fel Reach (Talent) removed
  • Second Sweep (Talent) removed
  • Battered Assault (Talent) redesigned
    • Hitting 2 or more enemy Heroes with Sweeping Strike increases its damage bonus from 35% to 100%
  • Immolation (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 1
    • Damage reduced from 29 (+4% per level) per second to 22 (+4% per level) per second
  • Unbound (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 4
    • Now also reduces the cooldown of Sweeping Strike by 5 seconds if it doesn't hit any enemies
  • New Talent (Level 13): Nimble Defender
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with Sweeping Strike grants Resistant for 2 seconds
  • New Talent (Level 16): Blades of Azzinoth
    • Hitting an enemy Hero with Sweeping Strike grants 1 Blades of Azzinoth stack, up to a maximum of 5.
    • Upon earning 5 stacks, Blades of Azzinoth can be activated to gain 75% Basic Attack damage for 8 seconds. Activation consumes all stacks.
• Evasion (E)
  • Duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
  • New Talent (Level 13): Elusive Strike
    • Reduce Evasion's cooldown by 3 seconds for every Hero damaged with Sweeping Strike
  • Sixth Sense (Talent)
    • Ability Damage reduction increased from 50% to 75%
    • Now only affects the first 2 Abilities that would deal damage while Evasion is active
• Metamorphosis (R)
  • No longer increases Attack Speed
  • Health bonus increased from 183 (+4% per level) to 200 (+4% per level)
  • Demonic Form (Talent)
    • Now also provides a 20% Attack Speed bonus
• The Hunt (R)
  • Nowhere to Hide (Talent)
    • Now also passively reveals all enemy Heroes who are below 25% Health

Developer Comment: Illidan has had many problems with his Talent tree that have often led to one viable choice at each tier. The goal of the Talent system is to provide meaningful and tactical decisions, and this just hasn't been the case with Illidan. His new Talent tree puts damage, survivability, and utility options within their own tiers, and allows you to customize how you want to do those things based upon your opponents and your preferred playstyle.

We also wanted to really embrace the skill cap required to play Illidan while not making him too difficult to pick up and learn. Some of his Talents are now harder to pull off, but offer much higher bonuses if you're able to use them effectively. If those aren't for you, then you can always pick the Talents that are more consistent and easier to use.

Finally, we buffed Illidan's base kit to make up for losing some of the Talents that he was previously relying on. Overall, we think Illidan is now a lot more fun to play, and that you won't know exactly what your Talent build will be until you're in a game.

Illidan Talents

• White text indicates a NEW Talent
• Blue text indicates a MOVED Talent

Updates

• Basic Attack damage increased from 74 (+4% per level) to 78 (+4% per level)

Bug Fixes

• Illidan's Sweeping Strike will now properly deal damage when the Immolation Talent damages the target at the same moment.

Bug Fixes

• Illidan will no longer fly to the enemy Hall of Storms if the target of The Hunt is killed before the Ability completes.

Updates

• Metamorphosis (R)
  • Radius decreased by 25%
  • Damage decreased from 200 (+10 per level) to 20 (+4 per level)
    • Check out the recent for more information about this change

Bug Fixes

• Corrected a texture issue on the Spectre Illidan Skin.