Great guide! Interesting read, I got a lot of good advices. One that I really missed although being obvious is "Don't engage / don't jump first in teamfights". When you see a good Illidan in ranked you may miss it (i did ^^).
I'm not good enough to play him in Hero League right now, and in Quick Match since noone ever looks at the map you're always alone so it's even harder. BUT Illidan is always great great fun, even vs the AI. It helps getting the basics right. I like Heroes that play with a twist (Nova's invisibility, Murky's squishyness, Brightwing's teleports) so he's coming into my favorites list.
edit: after 5 quick matches (3 wins) and 1 Hero League game (won) I really dig him more and more, and this guide is to thank for that. Thank you. I think 2 things should be noted: 1. You cannot take it easy. You have to be focused all the time, you make 2 or 3x more decisions than anyone else while in fights. It's really tiring (and thrilling). 2. You shouldn't hit tab to look at the stats. It's depressing. I never seem have the most kills, or even the less death, or a good siege damage, exp is bad too. And the worst part is hero damage. But your impact in the game really shows. So if you ask a teammate to stop dying or look at the map, you'll automatically get "Dude your hero damage is lower than *insert any hero name here*.".
On August 25 2015 00:00 A_Scarecrow wrote: after seeing this i decided to play hots for the first time. (sc2 player only really) and had alot of fun with illidan. took 2 games before i got the hang of it and was blown away by its late game power got north of 30 kills and very few deaths many games. my question is though if you team doesnt complement this character who would be a good range toon that is similar in style?
also if u need to carry ur team is their a build for that?
Yay! Illidan is my bae, I think he's so much fun. If you want a mobile ranged hero with a similar feeling, I'd recommend Valla. She's only 2000 gold, so she's super easy to get ahold of. Unlike Illidan, she's a bit easier to learn, but she still has a ton of potential based on your skill and knowledge of the hero .
As far as builds, Illidan only really functions well with the two builds I mentioned in the guide. If you need to "hard carry", I'd suggest going for the Metamorphosis build and maybe swapping out Stoneskin for Blood for Blood at level 16 to help you stay alive a bit easier.
Glad you've joined the ranks!
Sidenote: As a Starcraft player, you might enjoy playing The Lost Vikings too. Just a tip!
i tried valla dont like her too easy. though maybe i expect too much since i play sc2 at a high level will get lost vikings once i get the gold. ill try meta more had more success with the hunt i managed to solo 3 guys at once with illidan (even though they already used their heroics) was quite surprised tbh. ill play this when im not playing or running sc2 tournaments
if you want a challenge Hero Brawlers are probably not the thing for you. Atleast in a mechanical sense. Heroes is quite a challenge though when it comes to team organisation. Not compareable with a GvG MMO though.
As for Vikings, maybe a fair warning. Since they lost alot of team fighting power and other people usually don't care that you can basically soak 3 lanes, Vikings can get a little frustrating to play. Since you really need to try and get that early game lead that Vikings can provide on some maps. But on a few maps you can split push like mad the whole game. Then it feels like a dow2 ish Rts. Abathur is nice too, if you don't afk slug.
I personally like Zagara the most. While she is really easy on the mechanics side, there is alot of strategical depths to her.
On August 27 2015 08:33 FeyFey wrote: if you want a challenge Hero Brawlers are probably not the thing for you. Atleast in a mechanical sense. Heroes is quite a challenge though when it comes to team organisation. Not compareable with a GvG MMO though.
As for Vikings, maybe a fair warning. Since they lost alot of team fighting power and other people usually don't care that you can basically soak 3 lanes, Vikings can get a little frustrating to play. Since you really need to try and get that early game lead that Vikings can provide on some maps. But on a few maps you can split push like mad the whole game. Then it feels like a dow2 ish Rts. Abathur is nice too, if you don't afk slug.
I personally like Zagara the most. While she is really easy on the mechanics side, there is alot of strategical depths to her.
i dont mind strategical play im usually a leader in most of the matches. my mechanics will always be high for the game but i sometimes over use illidan and barely win.
yeah gvg is fun wow pvp (close enough) was fun but once you hit glad the grind next few seasons is killer. reason im trying to make heroes work i want something to do while not playing sc2.
On August 27 2015 08:33 FeyFey wrote: if you want a challenge Hero Brawlers are probably not the thing for you. Atleast in a mechanical sense. Heroes is quite a challenge though when it comes to team organisation. Not compareable with a GvG MMO though.
As for Vikings, maybe a fair warning. Since they lost alot of team fighting power and other people usually don't care that you can basically soak 3 lanes, Vikings can get a little frustrating to play. Since you really need to try and get that early game lead that Vikings can provide on some maps. But on a few maps you can split push like mad the whole game. Then it feels like a dow2 ish Rts. Abathur is nice too, if you don't afk slug.
I personally like Zagara the most. While she is really easy on the mechanics side, there is alot of strategical depths to her.
i dont mind strategical play im usually a leader in most of the matches. my mechanics will always be high for the game but i sometimes over use illidan and barely win.
yeah gvg is fun wow pvp (close enough) was fun but once you hit glad the grind next few seasons is killer. reason im trying to make heroes work i want something to do while not playing sc2.
Everyone plays Vikings wrong, so that's probably the main reason why they get a lot of flak. The big thing with Vikings is to just ignore splitting up early until the first objective and then start pulling ahead on XP from there. Unless my team really sucks, we usually always get to level 10 first, and then it just usually snowballs. Vikings have a lot of versatility and many options since you have 3 of them to play around with (for instance, Olaf can solo a temple on Sky Temple or Erik can go grab watchtowers and take merc camps with Bribe while you're pushing a lane). All it takes is some common sense and the mechanical knowledge to juggle more than one hero.
Originally I liked Abathur too because it felt like you were playing a macro game, but I've since lost interest in him because I think he spends too much time not doing a lot. The pace of playing Vikings is hectic and fun. Abathur is a slug, no matter how you slice it up.
Last night I played a game where our first two picks were Illidan / Abathur. Then Leoric and Valla (me) and final pick... Nazeebo. Our Leoric d/c-ed from start through the first two tributes (we really thought he rage quit). And yet, we hit 10 first because Abathur split pushing while we try to contest tributes with a bot is a thing.
With a constant 1-level lead, once Leoric reconnected. we decided to ignore their tank and go all-in on their dps. Turns out without support we had a *lot* of damage. Plus a level lead makes us that much tougher. So we just blew them up almost every team fight and ended up 3, 4 levels up.
I guess the lesson here is never underestimate the power of split soaking during objectives.
On August 25 2015 00:00 A_Scarecrow wrote: after seeing this i decided to play hots for the first time. (sc2 player only really) and had alot of fun with illidan. took 2 games before i got the hang of it and was blown away by its late game power got north of 30 kills and very few deaths many games. my question is though if you team doesnt complement this character who would be a good range toon that is similar in style?
also if u need to carry ur team is their a build for that?
Yay! Illidan is my bae, I think he's so much fun. If you want a mobile ranged hero with a similar feeling, I'd recommend Valla. She's only 2000 gold, so she's super easy to get ahold of. Unlike Illidan, she's a bit easier to learn, but she still has a ton of potential based on your skill and knowledge of the hero .
As far as builds, Illidan only really functions well with the two builds I mentioned in the guide. If you need to "hard carry", I'd suggest going for the Metamorphosis build and maybe swapping out Stoneskin for Blood for Blood at level 16 to help you stay alive a bit easier.
Glad you've joined the ranks!
Sidenote: As a Starcraft player, you might enjoy playing The Lost Vikings too. Just a tip!
i tried valla dont like her too easy. though maybe i expect too much since i play sc2 at a high level will get lost vikings once i get the gold. ill try meta more had more success with the hunt i managed to solo 3 guys at once with illidan (even though they already used their heroics) was quite surprised tbh. ill play this when im not playing or running sc2 tournaments
I think people tend to underestimete a bit the difficulty in HotS. Its not SC2 but its not as easy as many people seens to think. The main reason is that many individual mistakes go unnoticed either because the enemy team fails to punish or because its overshadowed by lack of teamwork. Hitting skillshots with Valla is indeed easy as pie, and her mobility does make her easier. But the skill ceilling goes quite high when it comes to making full use of her sick auto attack damage (and trait) and mobility. In other words any noob can play Valla with one hand and do good dps, but its still clearly noticable when someone is actually good (or bad) with her.
On August 25 2015 00:00 A_Scarecrow wrote: after seeing this i decided to play hots for the first time. (sc2 player only really) and had alot of fun with illidan. took 2 games before i got the hang of it and was blown away by its late game power got north of 30 kills and very few deaths many games. my question is though if you team doesnt complement this character who would be a good range toon that is similar in style?
also if u need to carry ur team is their a build for that?
Yay! Illidan is my bae, I think he's so much fun. If you want a mobile ranged hero with a similar feeling, I'd recommend Valla. She's only 2000 gold, so she's super easy to get ahold of. Unlike Illidan, she's a bit easier to learn, but she still has a ton of potential based on your skill and knowledge of the hero .
As far as builds, Illidan only really functions well with the two builds I mentioned in the guide. If you need to "hard carry", I'd suggest going for the Metamorphosis build and maybe swapping out Stoneskin for Blood for Blood at level 16 to help you stay alive a bit easier.
Glad you've joined the ranks!
Sidenote: As a Starcraft player, you might enjoy playing The Lost Vikings too. Just a tip!
i tried valla dont like her too easy. though maybe i expect too much since i play sc2 at a high level will get lost vikings once i get the gold. ill try meta more had more success with the hunt i managed to solo 3 guys at once with illidan (even though they already used their heroics) was quite surprised tbh. ill play this when im not playing or running sc2 tournaments
I think people tend to underestimete a bit the difficulty in HotS. Its not SC2 but its not as easy as many people seens to think. The main reason is that many individual mistakes go unnoticed either because the enemy team fails to punish or because its overshadowed by lack of teamwork. Hitting skillshots with Valla is indeed easy as pie, and her mobility does make her easier. But the skill ceilling goes quite high when it comes to making full use of her sick auto attack damage (and trait) and mobility. In other words any noob can play Valla with one hand and do good dps, but its still clearly noticable when someone is actually good (or bad) with her.
I've played Valla and Illidan mirrors against Zuna before in the early alpha, and let me tell you, the difference in skill level was VERY obvious, as he was able to get solo kills on me several times with both heroes.
Update: Added a little blurb on the Level 13 talents including Lunge in the list of viable talents. This is in response to a recent Chinese team taking it against a team with minimal stuns and ability damage (in other words, a team composition focused on auto-attacking), which I soon thereafter decided to play around with in QM and HL. I believe it has some niche uses, and the level of freedom that comes with it feels incredible. I suggest everyone give it a try sometime ^^.
EPT
.
