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 ) . Preparation . 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 Nova s 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 groups is 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 - and unless each group is more than 10 yards away from the center , whenever the center group is hit everybody will take damage . 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 Trap s and Earthbind Totem s 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 : Aggro : Summon minions to attack Akama : Attack Maiev : Killing a player : Phase 2 : Beam During Phase 2 : Metamorphosis : Phase 5 Enrage Enrage : When Maiev enters the battle : Death :