It feels like Illidan’s only good build is Q build, with the talents that give you health on spell damage and extra damage on 16. I hardly ever see anyone go that build though, so I don’t know if i’m doing something wrong haha
FRESHLY PREPARED MEAT
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Whatever works for you. Just pick friend or foe. That is the only talent you need to pick.
The rest you just need to look what the enemy does. If you face a double mage you dont go for faster evasion. You take the spell armor.
The hunt is generally the better ult.
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Hunt is the easier ult and gives you a good ganking ability as a hero that excels at dueling people.
Metamorphosis is for people who know when they need another dodge to keep them in the teamfight longer.
In general there are two builds for Illidan:
The Q-build (/splitpush-build), (with UH, rapid chase, HA, hunt and MfD) which is his general go-to-build.
And then there is his hypercarry W-build (with BA, W-quest, Meta, ES and BoA). Which is only really rarely, rarely the right build to take (the enemy team shoude have mainly have AA-based damage, no shutdown which isnt good fr illidan to evade with his abilitys or his team is soly focused around enabling illidan), but in thoes few occasions where it is the right build to take, there comes often a point in the game (hit lvl 13, completed quest, and the enemys didnt basically win allredy) where u just win, the enemys can stop trying there is nothing more they can do.
And then there are variations of his go-to-build (generally every talent of illidan is viable):
Lvl 1: On 3 lane maps often UH, but on 2 lane maps mostly BA.
Lvl 7: FoF is needed if u have to escape an blow-up comp. But also RC is nowadays often needed, because of mobility powercreep, and illidan is often out-kited without it (espacily helpfull against heroes like tracer of lunara)
Lvl 4: all of them are good (HO is now propably the strongest)
Lvl 13: SS is by far the lowest powerlevel, but it often just has to be picked against high burst comps. ES is by far on the highest powerlevel of the 3. It grants much higher up time of his E, and there fore it is really good against AA focust heroes (also heroes with on hit effects or summons) and it lets illidan dive much better under forts. ND is for thoes occations when the other two do not make sense (like against a Naz or Lunara)
Lvl 16: MfD and BoA are both good. MfD lets u shred forts, makes u better in teamfights (and gives u more healing). BoA grants more healing, is the highest damage option but requires that illidan can stay longer in team fights, but it grands not a better PvE. And then there is FB which is by far the worst (grants no extra healing, no PvE, and less damage then the other two, and u do not want to focus the tanks). It only can be taken against Chogall and Deathwing (two high health/armor targets that u want to focus) besides those two, it shoudnt even be taken against a 5-tank team (its really that bad)
Hmm, ok the text got a little longer then planed. But i hope some things may help u further.
Edit: forgot that lvl 4 and 7 have been swapped
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I would definitely play Illidan way more if his health is increased by ~5% but his self-healing from trait reduced from 30 to 25%. That way he’s more resistant to blow-ups, but weakens him when he’s in the advantage.
You pick Illidan when you want to try to be an edgelord.
or when you want to pick a sub-par dps hero.
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I’m not a good Illidan, but I usually go for a splitpush build.
Immolation is pretty foolproof and gives Illidan needed unconditional AOE damage for early Knight Camps
Reflexive Block is good since it works in tandem with his Lifesteal when solo laning, where the others mostly shine in teamfights.
Friend or Foe is busted, always take.
The Hunt is like, WHY you pick the character. Being able to engage into teamfight (or into a favorable gank) from the solo lane/merc camp is huge.
Level 13 is pretty situation, but I usually go Sixth Sense.
Marked for Death ensures that you’ll be getting the pick on your The Hunt target, and also synergizes with Friend or Foe.
On Big Maps, Nowhere to Hide can actually be ok, but the right pick is Nexus Blades most of the time (Bolt of the Storm is some unconditional mobility for retreat incase you were stupid and misclicked something that wasn’t Friend or Foe)
Keep in mind I pretty much only play Solo QM, so my advice will not hold in ranked most likely.
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real talk. all his talents are pretty good. i go by whats situational. are they heavy cc. do i need block or armour? can i get enough aa to get value from more hp. i like meta solo play since his biigest issue is being able to survive burst and i pretty much go in for a few seconds at most until it gets dicey and look for an escape. ( meta helps with this) hunt also a great talent. hes very sitiational. yes there are heros that can damge better then him but he can bring alot to a game besides team fights
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The only real answer is “pick a better hero”.
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Thanks for the mini guide, I tried it out and I had a few good Illidan matches. 
It’s funny you mention ranked, I don’t think I’ve had a SL game this season where Illidan has been picked. Maybe this patch will change that.
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