This page covers a healer-focused strategy for Illidan Stormrage in the Black Temple in The Burning Crusade. While it's tailored for healers, other roles may also find the information useful. If you have any suggestions or feedback, you can leave a comment below or tweet @PrestonDvorak.

This guide has been updated and maintained based on my own experiences with the encounter, combat log information, and Dungeon Journal information. I'll continue to update it as-needed.

General Mechanics and Abilities

Stage One - You Are Not Prepared

This stage begins the encounter and ends when Illidan reaches 65% health.

• The tanks will be dealing with Shear, which greatly reduces maximum health.
• Don't stand in front to avoid Draw Soul.
• Avoid the locations of Flame Crash.
• When affected by Parasitic Shadowfiend, move as far away from other players as possible before the effect expires and spawns two Parasitic Shadowfiends.
  • Parasitic Shadowfiend
    • Runs towards a player and attempts to infect them with Parasitic Shadowfiend.

Stage Two - Flames of Azzinoth

This stage begins when Illidan reaches 65% health and ends when both Flames of Azzinoth are killed.

• Illidan assaults players from the sky.
  • Stay more than 10-yards away from as many players as possible to avoid chaining the damage from Fireball.
  • Deals heavy damage over time to random players with Dark Barrage.
  • Avoid the paths of Eye Blast and the Demon Fire patches left behind.
• One Flame of Azzinoth spawn from each of Illidan's glaives.
  • Flame of Azzinoth
    • Must remain within ~25-yards of their respective glaive to avoid gaining Uncaged Wrath, which greatly increases damage dealt and movement speed.
      • Additionally, players must stay within ~25-yards of the Flames of Azzinoth or they could be charged by a Flame and cause it to move too far from its glaive.
    • Don't stand in front to avoid Flame Blast.
    • Avoid the Blaze patches left behind as it moves.

Stage Three - The Demon Within

This stage begins when both Flames of Azzinoth are killed in stage two and ends when Illidan reaches 30% health.

• Illidan lands and switches between his Normal Form and Demon From every ~60-seconds.
• Normal Form
  • Continues to use Shear,  Draw Soul, Flame Crash, and Parasitic Shadowfiend.
  • When affected by Agonizing Flames, move more than 5-yards away from other players to avoid chaining the damage.
• Demon Form
  • This form is commonly tanked by a Warlock.
  • Stay more than 15-yards away to avoid Aura of Dread.
  • Stay more than 20-yards away from the tank to avoid Shadow Blast.
  • Stay more than 5-yards away from other players to avoid chaining the damage from Flame Burst, which deals light damage to all players.
  • Summons four Shadow Demons with Summon Shadow Demons.
    • Shadow Demon
      • Fixates on a random player with Paralyze, stunning the player.
      • If the fixated player is reached, Consume Soul kills them.

Stage Four - The Long Hunt

This stage begins when Illidan reaches 30% health and ends when he is killed.

• Players are stunned for the first ~30-seconds of this stage while Maiev Shadowsong appears.
  • Maiev Shadowsong
    • Puts down Cage Traps that can be used to stun Illidan and greatly increase his damage taken.
    • Deals light damage over time with Shadow Strike.
• Illidan continues to switch between Normal Form and Demon Form, with the same abilities as stage three.
• Normal Form
  • When Enraged, should be brought over a Cage Trap to negate most of the duration of the effect.

 

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Resistance Levels

• The Warlock tank should use 365 Shadow Resistance.
• Flame of Azzinoth tanks should use as much Fire Resistance as possible, up to the maximum of 365.
• All other players should use as much Fire Resistance as possible without sacrificing other stats.

Healing Notes

Quick Notes

The notes below mostly pertain to progression difficulty, meaning if you out-gear the encounter or use extra healers they may not apply.

• Use Cooldowns
  
  • as-needed during stage two
  • on Flame Burst
• Other things to watch for
  • This is a long encounter with healing requirements that increase as the encounter progresses. Do what you can to conserve mana in stage one.
    • One small benefit is the ~30-seconds of roleplay between stages three and four, where a small amount of mana can be regenerated.
  • During stage three and four, players may move out of range when dealing with various abilities.

Debuffs to Track

Major

• Shear greatly reduces the maximum health of affected players.
• Dark Barrage causes players to need heavy healing over time.
• (Optional) Aura of Dread causes players to take greatly increased shadow damage, however, players should generally be avoiding this.
• (Optional) Paralyze incapacitates players, but there generally won't be anything that can be done to save them besides killing the Shadow Demon.

Minor

• Agonizing Flames causes players to need light healing over time.

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Useful Addons

DBM Settings

Below are the DBM settings I'll be using for Illidan Stormrage in the Black Temple. You can set them up however you'd like, but these ones should work well as a starting point.

Healer DBM Settings for Illidan Stormrage

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