ILLIDAN STORMRAGE
"Betrayer...in truth, it was I who was betrayed. Still, I am hunted. Still, I am hated. Now, my blind eyes see what others cannot. That sometimes the hand of fate must be forced!"
***
Illidan is the brother of Malfurion and a Night Elf Demon Hunter in his own right. He fought against the demons in their first invasion, though by unconventional means that others (possibly rightly) distrusted. He was imprisoned for recreating the Well of Eternity on the summit of Mount Hyjal, an action which the Night Elves believed would cause the demons to return. He was cursed by Sargeras which left him "blind" but still able to see all magical properties around living or non-living objects. After being released from his prison 10,000 years later by Tyrande Whisperwind, he consumed enormous power from the Skull of Gul'dan, and transformed into a demon to defeat an all powerful Dreadlord known as Tichondrius. Illidan went on to try to destroy the remaining Undeads and Demons, but was consistently hunted by the Night Elves he originally intended to help. Forming new allies in the Naga and Blood Elves, Illidan became the leader of his own army.
Size: 11/10
Illidan’s main humanoid body is slightly smaller then Ganondorf’s, but his horn increase his height considerably to be a head taller then Ganondorf. In addition, his wings behind him can also be hit just like his main body, increasing his width to be slightly larger then even Bowser’s. Illidan is truly massive, dwarfing most characters, and would probably be around the same size as Ridley if he were in Brawl. Illidan being such insanely good combo food is among his biggest disadvantages.
Weight: 6.5/10
While powerful, Illidan isn’t nearly as heavy as the other power oriented characters. This is mainly due to his size coming from his wings and horns.
Walking Speed: 8/10
Illidan regularly travels long distances, he doesn’t do much dilly dallying.
Running Speed: 6.5/10
While among the faster runners, Illidan isn’t spectacular in this department.
Traction: 3/10
Despite being badass, Illidan’s size coupled with his large wings and horns tend to get in his way a lot.
Power: 8.5/10
Despite not being all that heavy, Illidan’s power still is perfectly in line with his massive size.
Attack Speed: 2/10
Illidan’s days as an agile Night Elf are long past. While Demon Hunters such as Illidan are initially agility based, they gain more strength then agility as they become more powerful, much less if they turn into a half demon.
Range: 6.5/10
Illidan’s moves rarely go below average in range, but they rarely go above average either. Illidan’s range is fairly standard for a sizable heavy hitter.
Priority: 9.5/10
Illidan has plenty of moves which count as grabs as well as disjointed ones, and his other moves which are more normal generally have good priority. Illidan can out prioritze nearly any attack with practically any of his own attacks.
First Jump: 5/10
Nothing too special. Illidan’s size prevents him from gaining much ground.
Extra Jump: 10/10
Illidan has a ridiculous EIGHT extra jumps. While they’re only as good as Charizard’s pathetic mid-air jumps, the sheer quantity of them is amazing.
Recovery: 7/10
While Illidan has eight extra jumps, his up special doesn’t help him gain any extra ground. However; Illidan’s up special does make it much harder to gimp him, helping his recovery to be above average.
Fall Speed: 6.5/10
Illidan doesn’t fall quite as quickly as the other heavyweights, but it’s still up there. Illidan’s reduced falling speed allows him to actually have a decent air game, but it’s not fantastic.
Crouch: 8/10
Illidan furls up his wings and brings them down to his sides as he gets down on all fours, greatly reducing his otherwise massive size.
Glide: 1/10
While it’s rare for a character to have a glide at all, Illidan’s glide is inferior to that of the other characters, not helping him in his recovery. It’s duration is very short, and Illidan turns very slowly/awkwardly while gliding. This makes Charizard’s glide look good.
Crawl:No
Hover:No
Wall jump:No
Wall cling:Yes
BASIC ACTIONS/ANIMATIONS
Standard Pose:
Illidan stands tall with his wings fully extended, holding a blade in each hand, ready to strike.
Idling:
Illidan puts his hands behind his head and tightens the blindfold over his eyes.
Walking:
Illidan walks in a normal fashion, though rather slowly.
Running:
Same as above, but Ilidan picks up the pace.
Dashing:
Illidan leans forward, moving his legs slightly faster.
Crouching:
Illidan gets down onto all fours like an animal, staying close to the ground. Illidan furls up his wings and brings them to his sides, greatly reducing his size. He’d be able to crouch under projectiles like Snake if not for those annoying horns sticking up.
First Jump:
Illidan gathers strength in his feet before hopping up with all his force, standing perfectly straight, somewhat like Ganon’s dair. It takes a lot of effort with his large size.
Extra Jumps:
A simple flap of Illidan’s wings, like the multiple jumps of Meta Knight or Pit.
Shield:
Illidan furls up his wings around himself and puts own his blades in a defensive position as the usual bubble shield forms.
Spot Dodge:
Illidan lifts up one leg as he leans into the background, flapping his wings slightly to keep himself from falling over backwards, then comes out of it. Very quick without a horrendously low duration, unlike Dedede’s. One of the better spot dodges.
Roll:
Illidan flaps his wings in the opposite direction you told him to roll, propelling himself in the direction you did tell him to roll. Somewhat laggy for a roll but covers an above average distance.
Air Dodge:
Illidan leans far back into the background, then flaps his wings rapidly to get back up into his standard aerial position. Awkwardly long duration for an air dodge with a bit of ending lag.
Asleep:
Illidan lies on his stomach, covering himself up with his wings as he slumbers.
Dizzy:
Illidan drops his blades and gets on his knees, holding his horns as he bucks his head about, seemingly in pain.
Wall Cling:
Illidan impales his horns into the wall to hang from it. Bad starting and ending lag for a wall cling, but Illidan can hold the position longer then most.
***
Neutral Special - Immolation
Illidan turns to face the screen and claps his two blades in front of him. This has average starting lag but no ending lag. After doing this, a circle of flame comes around Illidan. . .And never goes away. You can disspell the flame by using your neutral special again.
When Illidan is sorrounded by fire, he takes 1% damage per second, but anyone within a character distance of Illidan is also vulnerable to damage. Foes can take 3 hits of 1% per second from this. This can really help Illidan rack up damage, but if he uses it carelessly he'll take damage due to not being up against the foe. Only activate this when you intend to be up in your foe's face or grab them. You can't just casually activate and deactivate Immolation due to the lag, so actual thought is required to minimize the damage done to yourself.
Side Special - Sleep
Illidan grabs both his blades in one hand so he has one free, then does a wiggling motion with it as a sound of passing out as heard (The same one as when the Dreadlord casts sleep in Warcraft 3.). This has lag on both ends, but it's below average. The hitbox for this move is inbetween a Battlefield platform and half of Battlefield away from Illidan, being around the size of Wario. If anybody is at this location, they will fall asleep. Once you've hit with this, activate Immolation then go up and grab your foe. You've got all the time in the world to do so unless your foe is at a low percentage, say under 40%.
This can make foes fall asleep in the air, and they'll drop until they button mash out of the sleep. This can be used to gimp from the safety of the stage, but foes will button mash out of the sleep far too easily at low percentages.
Up Special - Mana Burn
Illidan turns to face the screen and claps his blades together up above his head. A bolt of lightning will start going upwards at the rate of Din's Fire (Slow but slowly increasing) for as long as you hold B, and Illidan will also levitate in place. The lightning bolt does nothing whatsoever and is merely for visual effect. Upon releasing B, an explosion the size of Wario occurs at the end of the lightning. The explosion is disjointed and does 13% with above average knockback. If you don't release B, the maximum the lightning bolt will go is the same as Din's Fire before letting out it's explosion automatically.
This does NOT cause Illidan to go into his helpless state, but has average starting and ending lag to prevent you from stalling in mid-air with it. This is mainly used to get rid of those annoying edge hoggers, and you can then recover with your mass extra jumps. This can potentially be used to stop enemy approaches, but it's lag makes it rather predictable.
Against foes with mana, such as Arthas or Shaman (By Vaul in MYM 3), this move will cause them to lose 20 of their mana. This can't be spammed to burn their mana due to the lag, but you'll want to use this whenever given the chance for a free hit on one of these enemies. If you use this on an enemy Illidan, they'll be unable to use Immolation for 30 seconds.
Down Special - Dragon Egg
Illidan stomps down his feet as they glow with some sort of green energy, summoning a dragon egg. This has below average start up lag and no ending lag.
This does nothing at first, the egg just sitting there. The egg is around Wario's size, and cannot be picked up. However; the egg CAN be attacked, having a small 25 stamina. Illidan can only have one egg out at a time.
Pressing down B when you already have an egg will cause your egg to hatch. The longer you wait before hatching the egg, the more matured the creature inside it will of become, being more powerful. Either a Snap Dragon or a Dragon Turtle will come out of the egg to aid you in battle. The max you can let your dragon creatures mature for is 30 seconds, but it's near impossible to reach that high. Below are the various properties of the Snap Dragons/Dragon Turtles.
If Illidan so chooses, he can play defensively next to the egg, his playstyle aimed towards defense anyway. Should Illidan choose to use this approach, he can activate Immolation next to the Dragon Egg to help nurture the creature growing in the egg by warming it, healing them by 3% per second.
If you make an egg, you need to have every intention of staying close to it. If you abandon your egg and the foe cracks it open, the creature inside it won't be fully formed and the foe can feast on the "scrambled eggs" to heal themselves of 8% damage.
Dragon Turtle:
Dragon Turtles can be as small as Squirtle, or potentially slightly bigger then Bowser himself with a full 30 seconds to mature. Dragon Turtles prefer to stay at a distance and use projectiles and will only advance towards the foe when they're out of their projectile range, probably due to their slow movement speed, as slow as Bowser's walk. Despite this, Dragon Turtles have some powerful close up attacks when allowed to mature. . .The turtle will use one attack every 2 seconds it's in range. The minimum turtle health is 5 while the max is 35.
Attacks:
Rock Hurl: The Dragon Turtle spits forward a rock. This is it's default attack in Warcraft 3. This is the only attack you can be assured that your turtle will have no matter how early you hatch it. With 10 seconds for the turtle to grow in the egg, this has the range of a Battlefield platform. It can be as low as no range at all based on the turtle's maturity, making it essentially useless, or it can be the range of all Final Destination for an adult turtle. The rock slowly increases to the size of a party ball as the turtle matures, and can do up to 17% damage with above average knockback at max maturity. For, say, 10 seconds of maturity, it will do 10% with merely below average knockback, and a bare minimum of 2% and flinching.
Whirling Fortress: When the turtle has been given 12 seconds to mature, it will gain this attack. This functions just like Bowser's up special of the same name, and the turtle will attempt the attack when a foe is half a Battlefield platform away from it. At the minimum, this attack is around twice as laggy as Bowser's up B, but at max charge it's even faster.
Spiked Carapace:
When the turtle has been given 18 seconds to mature, it gains this attack. Basically just like the last attack, but the attack in question this time is Bowser's usmash, which the turtle will use when foes approach the turtle from the air. The turtle will always have spikes on it's back if it is allowed to grow this long. This is the first notably powerful attack your turtle will gain, but it's very hard to get it to survive this long.
Spike Fortress: When the turtle has been given 24 seconds to mature, it gains this attack. Just like the previous two attacks, blah blah, but this time the turtle gets Bowser's dsmash. The turtle will only use this attack when foes are right up against it. This move gives the turtle good KOing ability.
Mother's Babies: If the turtle is given a full 30 seconds to reach adulthood, it will become a mother. This does nothing for the most part, but once the turtle goes down two babies Dragon Turtles will spawn in it's place. While they aren't matured at all, it's a nice bonus.
Snap Dragon:
Infant Snap Dragons are only as tall as a crouching Kirby and are only as wide as the pink puffball. Once reaching adulthood, though, Snap Dragons can potentially be almost as long as a Battlefield Platform and reaching Kirby's full height. While the basic attack of Snap Dragons is a projectile like Dragon Turtles, once they gain other attacks they'll prefer to run up to their foe to attack at melee range rather then camping. Snap Dragons are much faster then the turtles, having a minimum of Bowser's running speed and a max of Meta Knight's. Unlike Dragon Turtles, Snap Dragons also have a single jump the height of Falco's (Who has the best first jump in the game) to chase after you. Snap Dragons attack once per 1.5 seconds, and their health can be anywhere from 1-20. Yeah, they're pretty delicate.
Attacks:
Venom Spit: The Snap Dragon spits forward a small poisonous projectile the size of a gooey bomb. The projectile travels half of Battlefield before vasishing, being unaffected by gravity like the fireballs of Mario and Luigi. An infant Snap Dragon's projectile only does 1% and not even so much as a flinch. . .With 1 stamina, infants are completely and utterly useless. There is zero point in instantly hatching a Dragon Egg. Anyway, if the Snap Dragon is more matured, it can deal up to 15% additional poison damage. . .Over 15 more seconds. Poison effects do not stack.
Venom Stream: The Snap Dragon gains this attack rather early on with only 10 seconds of being in the egg. The Snap Dragon will only use this attack if the foe is off the stage and out of melee range. With above average starting lag, it will spew forward some poisonous acid in the same quantities as Mario's fully charged FLUDD. This obviously assists Illidan in gimping the foe, but does no damage.
Venomous Bite: The Snap Dragon gains this halfway on it's level to adulthood at 15 seconds of being in the egg. The Snap Dragon comes up to the foe and takes a quick bite out of the foe's flesh for small range and decent priority. This attack has non existant starting lag, and with the Snap Dragon's running speed this can make it quite annoying to deal with as it comes into your face hastily to use this attack. This has the same properties as Venom Spit and gets powered up at the same rate, but this actually does average knockback.
Venom Choke: The Snap Dragon can use this attack after being in the egg for 20 seconds before Illidan hatches it. The Snap Dragon gets up on it's hind legs to decrease it's width and increase it's height massively, then tries to grab the foe with it's front legs. This counts as a grab. This has pretty bad start up lag, but no punishable ending lag as the Snap Dragon falls back down to it's feet if it misses. Should the Snap Dragon grab someone, it will put it's mouth inside the foe's and rapidly hurl out acid, damaging at at insane rate of 10% per second and leaving the foe poisoned for the same amount of time as it's Venom Spit attack. Button mashing is required to escape like any other grab. This is an insane damage dealer, but your foe is a fool if he lets the Snap Dragon get this close to adulthood anyway, and even then the attack is rather telegraphed.
Mother's Babies: This is just like the Dragon Turtle's "attack" of the same name. By reaching adulthood the Snap Dragon has become a mother, and will spawn babies once it dies. While Snap Dragons are much less useful then Dragon Turtles as infants, a whopping 5 infants will spawn from a mother's corpse.
Phoenix:
What?!? There's a THIRD monstrosity that can spawn from the eggs? But you didn't mention that earlier! I thought I was finally done with the specials! **** you Warlord!
To make a Phoenix come out of your Dragon Egg, you have to activate Immolation next to it. What? I thought that healed the egg! Yes, but if you stand next to the egg with Immolation active for 5 seconds straight, the Dragon Egg to turn into a Phoenix Egg, indicated by it turning red and gaining a fiery aura.
Upon opening a Phoenix Egg, the Phoenix will come rushing to Illidan wherever he is, doing 5% fire damage and mediocre knockback to anything it touches on the way. The Phoenix cannot be attacked, being completely invincible, and is around the width of a Battlefield platform but only as tall as Kirby no matter how long you leave it in the egg. Once the Phoenix reaches Illidan, it'll go under Illidan's legs and he can ride it as a recovery, albeit he'll take 2% per second due to the sheer heat of the thing.
Illidan can be knocked off the Phoenix with any half decent attack, and his only means of attack while riding the Phoenix is to push A to cause the Phoenix to launch a fiery projectile forward. It goes forward a Battlefield platform and is the size of Kirby, dealing 8% fire damage and below average knockback to anything it touches. You can't move and shoot at the same time and this has average start up lag, so only use it when you need to defensively to recover (The move's obvious use - seeing Illidan's up special doesn't let him actually recover).
The phoenix will last 5 seconds after it comes out of the egg before turning into a Phoenix Egg once more. If you're still on the way recovering, the egg will fall down into the Abyss, but if you do recover the egg will be there waiting for you to use as a recovery once more. . .If your foe doesn't destroy it. Your egg's health renews every time the Phoenix turns back into one, so if you defend your egg well enough you could potentially use this as a recovery many times - provided you can set it up in the first place, that is.
Standard Attack – Demon Slash
This is the basic attack of Illidan and all other generic Demon Hunters in Warcraft 3. First Illidan does a casual slash forwards with minimal starting lag and very slight ending lag that reaches out a below average distance with disjointed priority, dealing 5% and a stun. Upon the second press of A, Illidan spins around and slashes foes with both of his blades for little lag on either end. The first disjointed blade slash as Illidan spins does 5% and more hitstun, having only tiny range. The second disjointed blade slash as Illidan spins does 6% with below average knockback and decent range. It’s very hard to hit foes with the tiny range of the first part of the second hit, but the rest of the move is easy to go through. If you do hit with all parts of the move, this does an impressive 16%. The best time to interrupt the move is after Illidan does the first basic slash.
Dashing Attack - Bull Charge
Illidan lowers his head so that his long horns point forwards and keeps running forwards for as long as you hold A. Illidan’s running speed is slightly increased here. Upon releasing A, Illidan headbutts his horns upwards, having good range, disjointed priority and dealing 10% damage and average (Close to above average) knockback. Illidan headbutts up with very little lag, but there is notable ending lag. This can be used to travel the stage faster, but is bad as an approach, as once you start the attack your options are incredibly limited.
Forward Tilt – Hitting ‘em while they’re down
This is a two part ftilt like Snake’s, where you can hit A shortly after the first attack to perform a second attack. The first part of the move has Illidan raise a blade over his head for below average starting lag, then slam it down in front of him with above average range and disjointed priority. If foes are too close to Illidan, they might be able to avoid it, particularly if they’re small. The slam down knocks foes to the ground but deals no other knockback, just 9%.
For the next part of the move, Illidan swings his other blade to smack the foe away with above average knokback and 12% with the same range and priority as the first hit. This has average start up lag and slight ending lag. It’s very unlikely you’ll hit foes with the second hit if you didn’t hit with the first, but this has KO potential, and when combined with the first hit does a ridiculous 21%. Think Snake’s ftilt, but a lot laggier and less broken.
Up Tilt – Totem Pole
Illidan turns to face the screen, then lifts up his blades above his head. Illidan’s blades and horns all become disjointed hitboxes here, and Illidan stays in this stance as long as you hold A. Illidan has below average lag coming or out of this stance. Contact with either of the blades does 5% and weak set knockback into the horns, while the horns do 10% and average upward knockback. Excellent for stopping approaches and completely defends Illidan from above.
Down Tilt – Wing Propellers
Illidan extends out his wings slightly, them normally being furled up against him when crouched, but still keeps them low to the ground to keep his hurtbox relatively small. This creates a small gust of wind behind Illidan that pushes foes back slightly, and if any foes are directly behind Illidan they take 6% with small knockback. This also propels Illidan forward very slightly. However, Illidan can spam this attack many times in succession, able to use it 10 times in a single second. Illidan could potentially hit foes at low percentages with this multiple times. This would be a great damage racker if the move didn’t try so hard to separate the foe from Illidan by propelling him forwards and foes backwards, though against a wall it could net a nice 30% or so. Illidan goes faster and faster the more he uses this move in succession, potentially able to go as fast as Sonic if he uses it enough. This can be used as an alternative to running, but it takes Illidan a good bit to get going and is only notably useful on stages like Bridge of Eldin.
Ledge Attack – Spinning Wings
Illidan flaps up Ganondorf’s height above the ledge, then spins around in place to hit foes with his wings. Every time one of his wings comes around it does 8% and below average knockback. It’s very unlikely you’ll hit with this multiple times unless the foe is at very low percentages. There are a total of 6 hits dealt over a rather lengthy second and a half, after which Illidan will fall back down and regrab the ledge. This ledge attack doesn’t actually allow you to climb onto the ledge, unlike more standard ones.
Ledge Attack Over 100% - Blade Toss
Illidan tosses his blades one by one onto the platform as he slowly climbs up. This defends Illidan quite well as he comes up, though the duration of the attack is quite long. Each blade deals 7% and below average knockback. Illidan is vulnerable at the end of the attack though as he picks up his blades again, the move having notable ending lag.
Rising Attack (Either Side) – Gust
Illidan covers himself with his huge wings, then spreads them out to create a strong gust of wind on either side of him to blow foes away. Gusts of winds are blown in the direction Illidan is facing, being as strong as Dedede’s neutral special in reverse, but with double the range range. Little starting or ending lag, but the attack has an above average duration for the gust of wind to take place. This does no damage.
Tripped Attack – Bucking Bronco
Illidan bucks his head around violentely as he gets up in completely random directions. Contact with Illidan’s flailing horns as he does this does 10% and average knockback. This has no start up or ending lag, but has a second long duration, and the randomness of it doesn’t make it particularly reliable.
Forward Smash – Guillotine
Illidan first claps his blades together in front of himself with above average range, counting as a grab. This part of the smash attack comes out very fast with little starting lag. Next, Illidan slams his head downwards to hit any foes he’s captured with his massive horns after massive wind up lag, dealing 22% and high knockback uncharged and 30% with ridiculously high knockback fully charged, then also suffers large wind down lag to boot. While this is easy to hit with, if you don’t hit foes with the initial grab you’re going to be MASSIVELY punished, with an enemy’s fully charged fsmash. Also, even if you do hit the foe with it, if they have a low percentage they’ll probably be able to survive it and come back to punish you due to the ridiculous lag. This is to be used strictly as a KO move, and even then, it’s too laggy to use outside one on one where other foes can interrupt it.
Up Smash - Grabbing by the Horns
Illidan does a jerking motion upward, impaling foes on his horns. This has little start up lag, but is slightly punishable if you miss due to below average but noteworthy ending lag. The horns reach out about Mario's height above Illidan, and it counts as a grab. How so? Should you hit anyone with this move, they'll be impaled on Illidan's horns. You can then rapidly rotate the control stick to gain momentum as you spin your horns around for 3 seconds. The more you spin the control stick around, the more knockback the attack will have after the 3 second period, where Illidan will fling the foe upward. Charging only increases the damage dealt, it able to be anywhere from 17-24%. The average ratio of knockback for a good control stick rotater would be high, making this a fine KO move for Illidan. This is an amazing anti aerial move, but Illidan is still vulnerable from his sides and this move takes far too long to ever use in a FFA.
Down Smash – Heightened Senses
Illidan sits down and crosses his legs, bows his head, and folds his arms (Still holding his blades) as he charges. He’s toning out all his other senses as much as possible, and with him already being blind, this increases his other senses even more-so. Upon releasing the charge, Illidan uncrosses his legs and gets back up with above average lag, begging to be punished. What the hell?
If anyone comes within the distance of a Battlefield platform of Illidan as he’s “charging” the Smash Attack, he’ll teleport behind them and slash them with both of his blades. This is disjointed due to Illidan striking with his blades, has average range, and comes out nearly instantly, though it has slight ending lag. It does 17% and above average knockback uncharged and up to 24% and high knockback fully charged. This is an excellent defensive tool, KO option, and good for catching foes off guard, but if a foe predicts it they can power shield and punish you. Better yet, a foe can get out of the range of the dsmash as you enter the stance and wait for you to come out of the stance to punish you horribly. This is very tempting to use often, but it’ll become horribly predictable and your bane if overused due to the potential for being punished it has.
Neutral Aerial – Elemental Orb
Illidan raises both of his hands above his head and holds them up there as an orb of venom appears and circles around him. This has little starting lag or ending lag, but has a slightly lengthy duration of three quarters of a second. The orb is the size of Kirby and is disjointed. Contact with the orb does minor knockback, but a massive 15% damage. . .Over 30 seconds from poison. Hitting an already poisoned foe with this will simply renew the poison.
If Illidan is immolated when he uses his nair, though, the orb will be an orb of fire rather then an orb of venom. While this still does the same low knockback as the venom orb, it does 10% all at once rather then 15% over a lengthy duration.
Forward Aerial - Cloud
Illidan rapidly clangs his blades together in front of him, making a cloud of blue fog in front of himself. This takes a full 1.5 seconds, making it rather laggy. The cloud of fog is around the size of Bowser, and floats where it was created for 8 seconds before vanishing into mist. You can have as many clouds up as you want, but considering they last for such short periods of time it's rather pointless. This does no damage, but foes who go into the cloud will be unable to use their specials. This means you can predict where your foe will use their up special, then create a cloud there to prevent them from being able to do so. if Illidan uses this in the air, he’ll flap his wings rapidly to stay in place. Due to how laggy the move is, you can’t use it when a foe is recovering, and instead must use it in advance where you think they’re going to recover.
Back Aerial - Doom
Illidan both blades in his left hand, then turns around and reaches out with his now free right hand behind him with average range. Illidan turns his whole body around in the process, making him face the opposite direction like Marth’s bair. This has average starting lag and the ending lag is also quite notable if you miss with the move. Should Illidan’s hand come into contact with anyone, he’ll grab them, the move counting as a grab, then quickly cast a spell on them before releasing them. The target will be “doomed” for the next 7 seconds, taking 1% damage per second. This on it’s own is far from notable considering how dangerous the attack is to use, but if the target gets KOd while under the effects of Doom, a Doom Guard will be summoned.
The Doom Guard appears on the same platform as the foe when they respawn from being KOd, towering over them. The Doom Guard will use one of it’s four abilities or a basic attack before vanishing and letting the foe continue as normal. It is impossible to dodge the attack the Doom Guard does on you, and you’ll be forced off the respawn platform instantly with no invincibility frames from coming off the platform.
Burning Sword: The Doom Guard’s basic physical attack. This simply does 17% fire damage and above average knockback.
War Stomp:
The Doom Guard stomps on the platform, spiking the foe down to the ground underneath the respawn platform for 12% damage. Once they hit the ground, they’ll be in their dizzy state from the force of the stomp, stunned. This gives you 12% and a free chance to get in a good hit.
Dispel Magic:
The Doom Guard casts a spell on the foe that makes purple energy pulsate through them. For the next 15 seconds, they will be unable to use special moves. On some characters such as Marth this is near meaningless, but on others it can have a more notable effect.
Cripple:
The Doom Guard casts a spell on the foe that makes red energy pulsate through them. This lasts 15 seconds, and during this time the foe’s movement and attack speed are slowed by 25%. This makes speedy characters lose their advantage and slow characters nearly defenseless.
Rain of Fire:
The Doom Guard raises up it’s sword, causing fireballs to rain down on the victim. This does multiple hits of up to a massive 26%, but with good DI it’s possible to get out with as little as 8%. This takes place over 3 seconds, giving Illidan plenty of time to smack the foe out of the fire if he so wishes.
You’ll only be wanting to use the bair when your foe is at a high percentage and you know you can finish them in an instant. Trying to go out of your way to hit with this move may cause trouble, though, so it’s not always worth it. The best time to aim for using this move is when a foe already isn’t going to make it out on the platform, so you can doom them before they fall to their death. Using doom on a foe does NOT give them back their extra jumps/up special. Against Illidan, if you know you’ll be unable to recover, just accept your fate so Illidan can’t doom you to make your next stock go off to a bad start.
Up Aerial – Unholy Frenzy
Illidan turns his head to face the sky, looking straight up to the sky with nearly no lag on either end. During this time, his eye becomes very crazy, resembling the one in the picture. This has tiny range above Illidan. This move ignores whatever the foe is doing, not knocking them out of their move, but also unable to be outprioritized. Should a foe be hit, one of their eyes will turn crazy like the one in the picture as they go into the unholy frenzy. They’ll attack 10% faster, but take 1% damage per second for the rest of the match, it never wearing off. If Illidan doesn’t hit anyone with this move, though, he’ll get the effects of it, going under the unholy frenzy.
Only one player can be under the effects of unholy frenzy at a time per Illidan. If you’re hit by Unholy Frenzy though, all is not lost. Your uair is replaced with this attack, and you can use it to pass off the effects of unholy frenzy to somebody else. This means that this is a prime attack to use on people with otherwise good uairs, such as Wario.
Down Aerial – Condemning to the Abyss
Illidan slowly crosses his arms and raises them above his head, holding his blades in either hand. This has a ridiculous one and a half second start up lag. Illidan will then uncrosses his arms as he slashes down in an X formation with both blades, dealing 21% with average range, disjointed priority and spiking foes downwards as powerfully as Ganondorf’s dair, the definition of spiking. This –would- be utterly unusable due to the lag, but you can hold A for Illidan to stay at the part of the move before he does the actual attack. This gives the move a lot more mind game potential. While still not as good as Illidan’s other aerials at gimping, it’s still an option.
Grab - Blind Grasp
Illidan grabs the blade in his right hand with his left hand, then reaches out with his now free right hand to grab the enemy. Should Illidan grab anyone, he'll hold them by the neck tightly. Of particular note is that if the foe is asleep, Illidan will grab them more lightly so as to not awaken them, and their sleep timer is reset upon being grabbed. This is laggier then the average grab, but not terrible, and has the same unholy range of Dedede's grab. However; Illidan is very bad at dashing grabs. . .
Pummel - Strangle
Illidan simply strangles the enemy, there being neck snapping sounds like Snake's pummel. This is one of the fastest pummels and it's quite powerful at 3% a pop, giving Illidan an excellent grab game, much less with coupled with Sleep and Immolation.
Forward Throw - Bloodlust
Illidan rapidly starts biting into the flesh of the victim with vampiric fangs. It seems that half demon part of Illidan is a Dreadlord. . .
Illidan does 4 bites into the foe, each dealing 1% damage to the foe and healing him of 1%, before letting the victim go. This is generally inferior to your down throw in that it heals less and deals less damage, but at least you don’t have to put the foe to sleep, right?
But that’s not all. Each time you use this throw, Illidan’s bloodlust is increased from his previous sample and he’ll more savegely attack the foe when using this throw. Each time you use this throw, Illidan does 2 more bites, healing himself for 2% more and dealing 2% more damage to the foe with each use. This can potentially max out at an impressive 16%, the same amount as Dedede’s unholy bthrow while also healing you for 16% in the process. Nice! However; if you don’t use this throw for 15 seconds, Illidan’s bloodlust will settle down and it’ll revert back to the normal form. If you do use this, you’ll be using it a lot to build up Illidan’s bloodlust, then just as much to keep his bloodlust in tact.
Back Throw – Vice Grip
Illidan releases his grasp on the foe and gets back into his normal stance very quickly, then joins both of his two blades together around the foe to trap them in a bladed hulahoop of sorts. The effects of the throw depend on the size of the enemy. If the foe is very large, they’ll get suffocated as they get squeezed within the small space. Bowser, for example, would take 12% damage. However, a smaller character around Lucario’s size would only take 7%. Exceptionally small characters such as Kirby or Jigglypuff are too small for the blades to even constrict them at all, them able to get out of the throw early and punish Illidan as he goes through the whole animation. If the foe takes any damage, they always get knocked to the ground.
Up Throw – Seismic Toss
Illidan drops both of his blades and grabs the victim in a bear hug, then flies up double Ganondorf’s height. Illidan then crashes into the ground, letting the foe go to do 10% great vertical knockback for a throw, above average by normal standards. The throw has a very long duration, particularly as Illidan bends down to pick up his dropped blades after the main throw is complete. This is Illidan’s only throw that does any form of knockback, and it thankfully has KO potential. Unfortunately, it’s nearly unusable in free for alls due to the horrible lag.
Down Throw - Dream Eater
Illidan drops both of his blades, then places both his hands on the victim's head. Normally, this throw does nothing and the foe can move instantly and punish Illidan, who has horrible ending lag. What the hell?
However; if the victim is asleep, five glowing orbs of darkness will come up out of the victim's head per second and surge into Illidan. Each orb deals 1% to the victim as it comes out of them, and heals 1% as it goes into Illidan. This throw will keep going on until the victim wakes up, at which point Illidan will hastily pick up his blades and leap backwards (He won't go off any edges) as the foe drowsily gets up.
Final Smash - Metamorphis
The Demon Hunter turns into a massive demon! Just a tad bit ironic, no? Less so for Illidan, considering he’s now only half Night Elf and half demon.
Illidan’s demon form is around triple his normal height and double his width, making him truly massive. Unlike the normal transformation in Warcraft 3, Illidan keeps his demon hunter blades while in demon form. Illidan’s moveset in this form remains largely unchanged, but his moves have absurd range due to his new size and are 1.5X as powerful. Illidan also has infinite midair jumps with his now truly massive wings. This lasts 20 seconds, but Illidan is perfectly vulnerable during this time. While his weight is 1.5X heavier and he has infinite recovery, if he’s at an absurd percentage before he uses his final smash he could still possibly be KOd.
Several of Illidan’s moves have rather notable changes during his final smash.
Neutral Special – Chaos Shot
When under the effects of the final smash, Immolation will always be up, and it won’t do any damage to yourself. Due to this passive bonus, Illidan gets a new neutral B. It’s the basic attack Demon Hunters use when in demon form in Warcraft 3, Illidan included. Illidan reels his body back, the launches it forward to make a large fiery rock shoot forward. Average starting and ending lag, but the fiery rock is the size of Bowser and goes forward at the speed of the Koopa King’s run, unaffected by gravity. Upon contact with anyone, the insanely high priority projectile explodes, dealing 20% fire damage and high knockback. Illidan must wait for his current “chaos shot” to explode before firing another.
Down Special – Demonic Portal
Rather then laying an egg, Illidan summons a demonic portal. The portal functions just like the egg in that you can only have one out at a time and that the creature within it will get stronger the longer you leave it inside the portal without opening it. The portal’s health is buffed to 50 from the egg’s mere 25. The portal/creatures summoned from it will last even after the main final smash is over, as otherwise this move would be rather useless. There is only one creature that can be summoned from the portal, which is a Felhound.
Felhound:
Newly spawned Felhounds are only the size of Ivysaur, but upon becoming fully matured they can become as long as Ganondorf as is tall and just as tall as the Gerudo Warlock. Felhounds easily outclass Snap Dragons and Dragon Turtles in being adept at both long range and short range combat. Felhounds move about very quickly at Captain Falcon’s running speed. Felhounds share the ability to jump with Snap Dragons, jumping up as high as Falco’s first jump. Snap Dragons attack once every second, and their stamina can be anywhere from 15-60 based off how long they spent in the portal. Felhounds are very aggressive and will constantly run towards their master’s enemies unless they’re off-stage, in which case they’ll wait at the ledge. When it comes time to attack, they’ll use the move in their arsenal with the smallest range that can still connect at the current distance the hound is from the enemy.
Attacks:
Chomp:
The felhound does a simple bite forward, having minimal range but good priority. This does as little as 7% and low knockback but up to a potential 24% with huge knockback. While very powerful and this has little to no warning of when it’s going to occur, if you keep even the slightest distance from the Felhound this probably won’t hit you.
Firebolt: The Felhound gains this attack after spending a mere 8 seconds in the portal. It hurls out a fireball that function just like Mario’s from his neutral special. Considering the felhound doesn’t spam these, this is basically just an annoyance and nothing more. This can be powered up, though, to do average knockback and 14% if the hound stays in the portal long enough.
Mana Burn: The Felhound gains this attack halfway along the way to becoming maxxed at 15 seconds within the demonic portal. This functions essentially just like Illidan’s up special, but the Felhound can aim it in any direction it pleases, and will always aim it directly at enemy players. If a foe is off stage, this is the ranged attack the Felhound will always use in an attempt to gimp the enemy player. More time in the portal means longer range in this attack, max charge doubling the distance of how far the attack can go out from the Felhound.
Skeletal Hound: The Felhound gains the ability to use this after being in the portal for 22 seconds. This isn’t an actual attack, but when the Felhound would normally die it will be resurrected as a skeleton. It can still do all it’s attacks while in this form, meaning you essentially have to kill the hound twice. Once the final smash is up, you’re pretty much already dead, so you’d probably be better off simply destroying any portal Illidan makes.
Devour Magic:
This replaces the Felhound’s basic chomp attack, it gaining it after staying the full 30 seconds in the portal. The Felhound bites forward, having the same effect as chomp, but also causing a small explosion in front of itself that destroys any projectiles, items, character specific items like Snake’s mines and what not. For everything the Felhound devours, it will heal 10 HP. If you let the Felhound stay in the portal for too long, there's no way it’s ever gonna go down.
Up Special – Mana Incinerate
Like the Felhound’s version of Mana Burn, Illidan can aim Mana Burn in any direction while in demon form, rather then simply above him. This allows you much more freedom with the move, it being useful for gimping foes rather then simply eliminating edge hoggers.
Back Aerial – Black Doom
Whenever Illidan performs his bair, a Doom Guard is instantly summoned where Illidan did the attack. The bair can still function normally. . .But there’s not much point in going out of your way when you can make Doom Guards on your own casually. Upon summoning the Doom Guard, it will do one of it’s attacks at random, then vanish. Unlike normal, the Doom Guard’s attacks are actually able to be dodged, so the Doom Guard isn’t nearly as fearsome as normal.
Up Aerial – Insane Frenzy
If Illidan casts the frenzy on himself, he won’t take 1% per second but will keep the 10% attack speed bonus, effectively removing the risk of using the move. If you don’t want to use it on your enemy, you can still just casually use it at the start of your final smash to get the attack speed bonus. If you have this version of Unholy Frenzy active when the final smash expires, you will simply revert to normal at the end of the Final Smash, so there’s no penalty for using the free attack speed.
OVERALL PLAYSTYLE – EYE OF THE STORM’S RAGE
Illidan is a ridiculously large target and can be brought up to utterly ridiculous percentages by something as pathetic as Sheik casually walking up to him and spamming her utilt. You’ll want to do everything in your power to nullify this very glaring flaw by playing defensively. While Illidan doesn’t have the range or projectiles to keep foes at bay, he doesn’t really have another option, as he’s horrible at approaching due to his low attack speed. Further encouraging Illidan to play defensively is his down special. You’ll want to be very protective of any eggs you produce. While you could prepare the egg to be a Phoenix egg for recovery, Illidan’s recovery is already pretty good so it’s generally better to have it turn into a Snap Dragon or Dragon Turtle. While one may think enemy projectiles would prevent Illidan from playing defensively, he can quite easily fly over them with his many jumps, and still has a long range attack in his Side Special, Sleep.
Illidan’s main means of damage racking are his throws, and they also work into his defensive playstyle quite nicely in that two of them heal him in the process. Against large foes you’ll want to abuse your bthrow for all it’s worth, while against smaller foes you’ll want to work up your fthrow to be a high percentage to make it a truly deadly force.
While Illidan’s damage can be racked up quite easily, he has no problems making it back to the platform. Eight midair jumps combined with his up special makes annoying to gimp. When it’s time for the foe to recover, Illidan is rather exceptional at gimping his foe. This is one of the few times where it’s okay to be aggressive, as your egg is perfectly safe due to the foe being off the platform and Illidan’s aerials are made for gimping. They’re certainly not for damage racking. Even if you’re too afraid of having the enemy gimp YOU due to your large size, the least you can do is make a cloud with your fair in the path they’re going to recover to prevent them from using their precious up special. If your foe isn’t gonna make it back, your job still isn’t over. Go down and doom them with your bair! This will cause them to start their next stock with a decent amount of damage already on them or make the first bits of damage easy for you to get on, helping Illidan with his horrible damage racking problem.
In Free for Alls and team matches, Illidan can’t play defensively, and several of his throws with laggy animations along with other grab like moves such as fsmash and usmash are highly likely to be interrupted. The problem isn’t so much hitting them, it’s not having your moves interrupted before the actual damage and knockback is dealt. In Free for All, Illidan will mainly want to simply add to the chaos by gimping foes knocked out by other foes, as well as dooming ones that are destined to go down into the pit. In team matches, Illidan himself won’t be playing all that defensively, but his temmate will have to if Illidan’s KO potential is to be taken advantage of.
Illidan requires actual discipline to use in that you have to avoid being too reckless. Players who constantly pursue their enemies will have to restrain themselves when playing Illidan most of the time. On the other hand, players who use more standard slow characters will have to get used to going crazy on their foe when they’re off stage. Illidan isn’t particularly comfortable for players already used to other characters to pick up, having a high learning curve. That’s not to say he isn’t popular with the casuals, though, as his flashy attacks and his attacks that require actual thought to dodge would result in him performing quite well in a casual environment. Illidan would be one of few characters casuals and competitive players could both love without being blatantly overpowered.
***
Up Taunt – Holding Back
Illidan folds his arms and chuckles slightly, saying “You shall never know my –true- power”.
Side Taunt – Blind Titan
Illidan extends out his hand and says “I see. . .” before pausing and saying “absolutely nothing.”.
Down Taunt – Maniacal Overlord
Illidan turns to face the screen and fully extends his wings, making his hurtbox absurdly large. He raises his hands above his head as he laughs maniacally and dramatically. This is decently laggy for a taunt, and when you’re made even larger from it this makes it rather annoying to actually use it to gloat over a defeated enemy.
Entrance – Demonic Portal
A demonic portal like the one in Illidan’s Down Special when using his Final Smash appears. A Felhound attempts to come out, but it’s pulled back in with a yelp as Illidan comes out in his massive demon form from his final smash. Illidan reverts back to his normal form just barely before the fight starts.
Win Pose 1 – Through the Fire and the Flames
Illidan turns to face the losers, yelling out "YOU WILL PERISH IN FLAMES!”. Illidan pauses then attempts to use Immolation, but it causes a large explosion, backfiring on him. Illidan starts coughing and says “Ahem, sorry.”.
Win Pose 2 – Bloody Victory
Illidan stands on the side of the screen so the losers can still be seen, his blades impaled into the ground, saying “Demon blood is thicker than. . .Regular. . .Blood.”.
Win Pose 3 – Darkness Calls
Illidan stands in front of the losers, his wings fully extended and blocking of the view of them, saying "Darkness called... But I was on the phone, so I missed it. I tried to star-69 Darkness, but his machine picked up. I yelled 'PICK UP THE PHONE, DARKNESS!', but he ignored me. Darkness must have been screening his calls.".
Loss Pose – Tired from Battle
Illidan’s blades are impaled on either side of him while he claps, looking uninterested. He occasionally stops clapping, nearly falling asleep, but his blindfold keeps it from being obvious. He then snaps himself back awake and continues applauding the winner before gradually losing interest again. . .
Wiimote Noise
“I shall fight fire. . .with fire.”
Kirby gains Illidan’s long black hair as well as his demonic horns. Kirby can perform Illidan’s neutral special, it functioning quite well with his more aggressive speedy playstyle. In addition, Kirby’s usmash also gets replaced by Illidan, where he uses the horns gained in the Kirby Hat to grab foes. While Kirby can’t reach up as far due to his horns being a lot smaller then Illidan’s, he can spin foes he catches on his horns a lot faster, dealing more knockback. This gives Kirby a prime KO move against Illidan.
PRESS SELECT
Snake: How’s this crazy vampire moving around with a blindfold?!? Can he sense my movements or something?
Colonel: Nothing you haven’t done before, Snake. Just think back to when you were at the Big Shell. Don’t you remember how Vamp could sense your movements?
Snake: . . .The sad thing is you’re actually right. When you can’t call a freak show like this unique, you’ve seen it all.
Colonel: Well, you’re not entirely re treading the same ground here. Illidan isn’t actually a vampire. He’s half Night Elf, half Demon, and he has plenty of magic and minions at his disposable that Vamp could never dream of.
Snake: He can’t sense my movements through my blood like Vamp, right?
Colonel: Correct. . .Although he might take a taste of it.
Snake: I thought you said he wasn’t a vampire!
Colonel: True. . .But I never said he wasn’t vampiric.
Snake: …
-End Transmission
Assist Trophy – Lady Vashj
Vashj emerges from the assist trophy and says “Cursed sea water, I'll never get these coils out of my hair!”, then forms a mana shield around herself, it essentially looking like a blue version of the playable character bubble shield but with sparkles. Vashj then proceeds to fire arrows after foes. Her arrow firing functions just like Link’s neutral B, including the charge time. Vashj will only charge up arrows as much as necessary for them to reach a foe, though. Vashj generally doesn’t move, but if a foe is out of range of even her fully charged arrows she’ll slither towards them, though she’s unable to jump.
More notably, Vashj’s arrows are frost arrows, which will cause foes hit by them to turn a slightly pale blue for a second as their attack and movement speed are cut by 70%. Vashj fires arrows very quickly, so it’s possible she could keep you under this effect if you’re close to her.
Unlike most assist trophies that are actually useful, Vashj is vulnerable. However; Vashj’s mana shield prevents her from taking damage. If you attack Vashj, the damage will be dealt to her mana. Vashj has 120 mana, and each arrow shes fires uses 8 mana. When Vashj runs out of mana, she can be damaged normally and her arrows will no longer have the frost effect. Vashj has a pathetic 20 stamina hiding behind her buff mana shield. It’s in your best interest to try to attack her, as you’ll be waiting a lengthy 45 seconds if you wait for her to expire like any other assist trophy.
Boss- Tichondrius, The Dread Lord
Illidan was originally a normal Night Elf aiming to help the cause of good. However; he was left with no choice but to consume the Skull of Gul’dan and become half Demon in order to defeat this all powerful Dreadlord.
Difficulty- Medium High to High
Hp- Normal Boss Hp
Size- About double that of Ganondorf
Mobile- Yes (can move around like a human character, but cannot jump).
Knockback- Can not be knocked back.
Moves:
Dual Swipe-
Tichondrius claws at you twice using the exact timing and animation shown here. Each slash deals 5...15% and medium...great knockback. The damage dealt by these slashes heals Tichondrius.
Carrion Swarm-
A horde of skeletal bats is summoned by Tichondrius. They then patrol around him for 5 seconds. If a foe gets within 5 stage builder blocks distance of Tichondrius, the undead bats fly towards the foe at an average projectile speed. When a bat reaches a foe, they latch on to it, biting them repeatedly for 1...3% damage per second. They act just like Pikmin in this matter. There are a total of 18 bats, but only 6 may latch onto a foe. The entire swarm flies around the target foe. What is the point of this? The bats swarmed around that foe then use him as their new "orbit." If another foe gets near that foe, the bats not latched to the first target fly to a second target (with 6 bats per target, there is a maximum of 3 targets). The bats can not be gotten rid of like Pikmin, but they dissapear after the 5 seconds are over. This move has low beginning lag and high ending lag. No hitstun, flinching, or knockback is dealt by the bats.
*
Do NOT go near Tichondrius when he uses this.
Sleep-
Tichondrius throws a red energy ball at you. If it hits you, you're character takes 10...25% damage and is forced into a deep sleep for 3...7 seconds. Definitely an attack you would want to avoid. The projectile is the size of a large stage builder block and moves at an average projectile speed. It travels until it leaves the stage or hits something. The move is predictable enough to be avoided simply by jumping over the projectile or side-stepping it.
Inferno-
Tichondrius calls down an Infernal from the sky. If you are struck by it when it lands or as it falls, you take 20...40% damage and great...very high diagonal knockback. If you were on the ground, when it lands and within half of Final Destination distance from it, you are stunned for 1...3 seconds. The Infernal has 30...60 health and attacks your character with melee strikes, dealing 5...15% damage and medium...great knockback with each hit.
