Illidan Stormrage is the last boss inside the Black Temple. He carries the title Lord of the Outland and is neither demon nor night elf. Wow Wiki suggests you bring 1 uncrushable tank, 2 off-tanks with max fire resistance and non-critable, 1 Warlock tank with max shadow resistance, 8-9 healers, 12-13 DPS that includes at least 2 mages.

Phase 1 - Normal Form

Phase 1 begins after a scene between Illidan and Akama. After he states his famous line, "You are not prepared" he will engage. The tank should be standing closest to him to grab initial aggro. During this phase he will use the following abilities:

1. Melee: Hits for 8k on plate with his main hand and 3k with his off-hand.
2. Flame Crash: A jumping attack that results in a Flame Crash. It creates a blue flame under Illidan that does 5k fire damage every 2 seconds for 60 seconds to anyone in 10 yards.
3. Shear: Debuff that decreases the health of the target by 60% for 7 seconds. Takes 1.5 seconds to cast and it's recommended you use Shield Block at this time.
4. Draw Soul: This is a frontal cone AOE that inflicts 5k shadow damage and also heals Illidan for 100k per target it hits. Do your best to keep Mortal Strike, Aimed Shot or Wound Poison up. It's good to note that he often casts this after Flame Crash. It's completely resistable and has a 1.5 second cast.
5. Parasitic Shadowfiend: Randomly targets a raid member and gives them a debuff that lasts 10 seconds. During this time the target will take 3k shadow damage per tick and at the end of the duration will spawn 2 shadow fiends. Unless the tank receives this debuff, the victim and one mage should move away from the group. When the fiends spawn, the mage should Frost Nova them and quickly burst them down.

When he reaches 90% HP, he will call for help, but Akama will kill them.

Phase 2 - Flight

At 65% Illidan will take off into flight. This is the most difficult phase of the fight. He will be immune to all damage and will throw his Azzinoth blades to the east and west sides of the circle. Each blade will spawn a Flame of Azzinoth that you must kill in order to start Phase 3. Illidan has a few abilities that he uses during this fight:

1. Eye Beam: Casts blue fire from his eyes dealing 19k damage to targets in its path. This leaves behind a trail that will deal 2k fire damage to those standing in it. Lasts one minute.
2. Fireball: An blue fireball volley that deals around 3k fire damage to those within 10 yards.
3. Dark Barrage: Effects a random target dealing 3k shadow damage a second for 10 seconds.

Positioning is the key to success here. Each off-tank should pick up a Flame of Azzinoth. The raid should stay within 25 yards of the Flames while spreading slightly. This is to minimize the Fireball volley damage. Circle of Healing and Chain Heal will really be useful here. The tank must kite the Flames while also keeping away from his Eye Beam.

Phase 3

After you have successfully killed the Flames, Illidan lands. He switches between Phase 3 and 4 every 40 seconds or so until he reaches 30% HP. During Phase 3, he uses all the same abilites he had in Phase 1, but adds a new spell:

1. Agonizing Flames: He will cast this on a random player and it's much like a Mage's Flamestrike. Initially it does 4k fire damage and another 3k every 5 seconds for one minute. The damage increases with time, so do your best to avoid these as you won't last too long in them!

Spread out to avoid the Flamestrike damage. Be on the lookout for his Parasitic Shadowfiends and plan a meeting spot for the mage and affected target. Your best bet is to have at least one mage on both sides of the raid so the player can run towards them away from everyone else. After 40 seconds or so, Illidan will go into Phase 4 (demon form)

Phase 4 - Demon Form

Illidan will kneel down and cast his spell Demon Within. Here's a list of his abilities he will be using during this Phase.

1. Shadow Blast: Deals around 10k shadow damage to the player with the highest threat. It also hits anyone within 20 yards of that player.
2. Flame Burst: Hits all players for 3700 fire damage every 10 seconds. All players that are too close will recieve extra damage from overlapping radiuses.
3. Summon Shadow Demons: 4 Demons will spawn at his feet that will cast a beam at a player and paralyze them. At this point the Demon starts moving towards the player and if he reaches them, they will die.
4. Aura of Dread: Illidan gains a 15 yard aura that deals 1000 shadow damage a second. Along with this it places a stacking debuff that will increase shadow damage taken by 30%.


While he's in demon form a Warlock with max shadow resistance should tank him. Be sure the raid stays a fair distance from the Warlock to avoid the Flame Burst damage. Melee should stay rather far away on one side and won't be engaging in the fight during this phase. Setting up Frost traps, Earthbind Totems around the raid should be useful with handling the demons. Make sure you burn them down quickly with any AOE ability you may have so they don't reach the targeted player. It's advised you don't drop Illidan to 30% during his Demon Phase because your raid won't be positioned correctly. If you see this might happen, slow your DPS until he's out of form.



Phase 5


At 30% health he will "Imprison" all raid members during a short cut-scene. He will now switch between Phase 4 and 5. Phase 5 replaces Phase 3 except for the fact that he does a Soft enrage every 40 seconds. This will increase his attack speed and damage. Be sure the tank saves their cooldowns for this to help minimize damage. This will last 20 seconds. During Phase 5 Maiev will also enter the battle and place demon traps on the ground. The idea is to have the tank drag Illidan to it and trap him. He will then take 100% damage and lose his enrage buff. It's advised that only experienced raids use these traps as it may mess with positioning and cause a wipe.

Congratulations on your defeat! Looks like you were prepared after all!