Tanking Illidan Stormrage - A guide for protection Paladins

[Viskahn]

im going to be tanking illidan for the first time tonight and i am petrified at the thought of it (we have killed him a fair few times, but its only ever been with our MT (warrior) tanking.

this guide has reassured me somewhat, since i meet and exceed pretty much all the requirements for it.

still, /scared x100.

[Worldie]

Good luck, it's not that hard, i'd say tanking illidan is the easiest part of the encounter

[Viskahn]

thanks, at the moment they are failing on council whilst i wait in orgrimmar (sitting out), getting more and more nervous -.-
im worried about how i have gimped my stats a bit to get unshearable though.
in my "unshearable" set, totally unbuffed im sitting at;

15.1k life
17k armor
29% dodge
19% parry
17.4% block (using libram of repentence to get unshearable)
498 defense
358 spelldamage


frankly im still not convinced that im well geared enough for illidan, but circumstances have conspired and i am the only one tonight who is available to do it because i havent got a full FR set.

[Worldie]

your stats are fine, i had less HP than you when i tanked him for the first time, and i think less dodge also.

Just don't panic, think about him like if it was Moroes.

[Viskahn]

your stats are fine, i had less HP than you when i tanked him for the first time, and i think less dodge also.

Just don't panic, think about him like if it was Moroes.

thanks, i think i needed to hear that
im not the type to panic, and ive stocked up on every consumable i can think of. even got destruction potions and greater wards of shielding for the pull.

ah well, ill post here on how it goes once the raid is over.

[Viskahn]

1-shotted that noob!
i was almost shaking throughout the fight, but he went down without a hitch.

now i feel like screaming out...this was a really important kill for me, since ive had a lot of grief recently from various people in the guild and generally people havent been taking me seriously as a tank, so to do it on the first try so perfectly feels sooo good.

thanks worldie for the support! <3

[Worldie]

yw, welcome to the club

altho you can't say you successfully tanked Illidan if you didn't take at least one shear

[Viskahn]

yw, welcome to the club

altho you can't say you successfully tanked Illidan if you didn't take at least one shear

but i DID take one shear! the trusted pocketwatch bailed me out there though.

it also didnt help on the first trap, since i didnt know what the damn traps LOOKED like..i saw some blue thing on the floor (not a flame patch) and went over to it, and about 10 people start yelling on vent "NOOO WHERE ARE YOU GOING WTFOMG"

[Worldie]

hah legendary.

[Worldie]

Hum i did some improvements to the format, it should be more readable and less wall-of-text now.

[blish]

A little off Topic sry, but in the next few days our guild Will be doing Illidian for the first time and just would like to Know how SR should the Warlock tank have unbuffed.
Council took bout 7 goes, how many days or Weeks would be a rough idea for this fellow.

[Seloei]

Illidan is "more or less" determined by the quality of your flame tanks. That is the hardest phase of them all in the fight to get right. When you get that down you are almost finished.

Haven't had the pleasure of seeing him yet (only hit council yesterday) but from what i've gathered the lock just needs capped SR gear, stamina and enough SD to keep agro. (Main part of damage done is in the tank'n'spank phase)

Oh err... since i'm probably going to be on the flames... is there anything else to do after their dead? And the usual kite plan is a triangle/box around the warglaive while dodging beams?

[Worldie]

For blish, capped. A unresisted hit will be 12k damage which will most likely oneshot him. During the Demon Phase there's almost no DPS on the boss, so the lock can just happily spam Searing Pain.

If you tank the flames you should just get a healing weapon/shield/libram and help healing, and maybe a little help in dpsing down the shadow demons, that's it.

Our complete uselessness in the rest of the encounters if we tank the flames is one of the reasons for which i'm for Paladins tanking Illidan. Warriors can still put some little dps and apply debuffs/intervene, we might as well go afk and nothing would change

[Elsie]

Shit, i got Shear: Ok, it happens, bad timing on skills, Shear landed exactly between HS refreshes, and you are now down to 6k HP. Ok, it's not done yet, you are still there.
First of all, pop a trinket. Just do it. The added avoidance might prevent your death.
Second, let healers know in advance that it's possible you get a "unlucky Shear", and instruct them on how to prevent death. There are 2 things they should do: shield you as soon as you get Shear, and spam you for those 5 seconds of Shear. The PW:S will simply prevent a MH+OH hit to oneshot you. The spamheal will make sure you are istantly topped if a hit lands. Also, let protection warriors (if you got any) istantly Intervene you.
You still might die, but the chances for that to happen are fairly lower. I've personally survived multiple Shears, and eventually a Shear during a Enrage (Dodge is serious business)

The best thing I can think of to do for Shear (and enrage) is Nightmare Seed + Shadowmoon Insignia trinket for 3750 bonus HP. 20,000 HP isn't a stretch for a tankadin on illidan. With shear and procs you'd still have 11750 HP - pretty good.

Also might want to add Shadowmoon insignia under trinkets, and Scroll of AGI under scrolls. Purely for thoroughness.

[Worldie]

Mh i didn't talk about the Insigna since it's 3 minutes cooldown, that's it.

Scrolls of agility might be good to add, true.