He has low winrates and low playrates across virtually ever level of play. He’s too dangerous to draft anywhere but the very end in order to avoid getting countered into oblivion.
I’ve been of the belief for a long time (I’ve been playing this game since Johanna patch) that Illidan’s trait has been broken since his release and that no amount of number changes or talent reworks will ever make him balanced while his trait is still as is. He goes through cycles of being underwhelming to overpowered because of it.
"Rich said on his stream a while back that it’s how Blizzard tends to “balance” their melee assassins:
Don’t touch in forever
rework —> rework is usually a little OP
Nerf —> hero is now pretty well balanced
Nerf again ----> hero can now be played in some limiting situations.
Nerf again ----> hero is not too good anymore but die hards will still play them somewhat effectively. … Kind of… Not really but we tell ourselves we can…
Nerf again -----> ummmm ok… But why?
see: 1)"
They refuse to make drastic changes to Illidan and Kerrigan but they NEED to do so.
Illidan deserves everything he’s getting and more.
He’s still a strong hero but they way people try to use him is outdated. He’s no longer the dueling/diving 1v5 your whole team hero he was but the mobility in his kit is ridiculous and let’s not even touch the topic of Evasion.
He has above average winrates in higher level play, his skill floor is higher than most other heroes.
Melee assassins are really delicate. Their numbers are padded due to their fundamental weakness of being melee and relatively squishy.
A melee assassin takes a lot more game knowledge to play than a mage does. With mages, for the most part, you just need to be good at landing their abilities without getting caught out. A melee assassin has to wait for the opportune moment to bring the fight to the enemy and get a pick as quickly as possible before the enemy team can collapse around them.
Same goes for Kerrigan, her winrates are abysmal at lower levels of play but she’s incredibly strong in the right hands, having well above average winrates in higher ranks.
Low pickrate but high winrate indicates an underpowered hero being picked into bad drafts and lower ranked players…see Probius for instance. It is not and has never been an indicator of a niche hero, so please don’t start that up. The arguement you are making is one that low ranking detractors made on the forums for ages and were shut down quickly by higher ranking players, before the game shuttered much of its playerbase.
I don’t need to be told basic game knowledge I already know. Melee assassins in this game are horrible. If you played any other MOBA you would realize that. Most of them don’t have much better basic attacks than ranged assassins and some have weaker AAs. Not to mention abilities that are not much use when ranged gets far better overall.
In other games what you say is true, they take more skill and game knowledge, for instance, Phantom Assassin in DotA 2 has a very high skill floor.
The only one worth playing in this game, practically speaking, is Zeratul and he is more like a mobile mage than a true melee assassin…or at least he is usually built that way.
Illidan needs a rework in general…to be honest Kerrigan needs a mini one herself, kinda like what Artanis got some time ago.
Let’s nerf abathur first before looking at illidan thanks.
Also i am unsure illidan is that bad some little damage buffs could easily make him be rexxar 2.0.
Same thing for kerrigan, let’s not forget she was above 60% after rework.
I think there are those of us that are just tired of seeing Zeratul the only successful melee assassin in the game with a ridiculously high winrate/pickrate. It’s time to show the other melee assassins some love.
Zeratul’s pickrate is currently big his global winrate is lower than kerrigan’s and thrall’s.
A good chunck of melees are above 50% global winrate btw.
Sonya valeera xul chen and greymane are below 50% not that bad.
What happened when kerrigan illidan sonya maeiv valeera and samuro where so strong any baddie could pick them? Ah yes they broke the game.
Whatever there are 3 bans and QM can burn.
Honestly. I’ma be that guy and say that I don’t think they want to buff Illidan since if they do; Everyone would play him with a permanent Aba on his head. And Illidan + Aba is the most broken thing in the game at the moment right next too / right behind a Twinblade Varian with an Abathur on his head.
When addressing heroes; Blizzard can’t JUST think “What can we do to make this hero better / more viable” they need to do that AND keep every other hero in the game in mind as to not accidentally make something which would be a broken mess when paired with certain heroes.
Imo Illi - Aba has been busted for ages and many runs that combo but with the more recent Aba reworks I think Illi just swept under the overall radar as Aba was played more than once in a blood moon too be a permanent gimp tool on top of a single hero’s head.
Personally I think Illidan is fine - While he is not played so much he is strong, if he is around and knows his deal; There will near closely be a contant preasure of camps in lanes and the backline is never safe - Dedicating all CC into Illidan may have him die but the remaining team will crumble as a result of the damage he did and all the CDs that was forced onto him as he dove in. Sure he is not as hot right now as Diablo or Flameboi KT - But looking at the numbers; That means that there is heroes out there who would need a change "More"than Illidan if that’s the metric we are going by.
He is mobile though, it is just as you say there are far more mobile ranged assassins now.
They need to rework Kerrigan into a bruiser as well. Both Illidan and Kerrigan would fit there, maybe as melee assassin/bruiser hybrids like Sonya and Thrall.
I never really understood why they made Illidan a ninja Elf or Kerrigan a Zerg Lurker for this game.
But then, the rule breaker; LEORIC with his almighty rework that stands above the rest, had actually gotten buffs but has always been balanced after said rework!
He IS fire.