Villains: Get Stormraged.

In WoW’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade, it became obvious that Illidan was the main baddie.

This fact became self-evident at the release of patch 2.1.0 – the opening of Black Temple, where the self-proclaimed Lord of Outland made his debut. He celebrated this event by mercilessly extinguishing all hardcore raiders for weeks to come.

Illidan was the perfect villain. In the extradimensional realm of Outland, this angry elf demon was often seen wielding the wicked Warglaives of Azzinoth, legendary items sought by Rogues and Fury Warriors alike. He appeared to revere cruelty, as indicated by his vicious, shadowy wingspan and demonic horns.

With respect to Warcraft Lore, it’s important to know what made Illidan such a convincing villain. The first thing to know is that his actions in WoW pale in comparison to his former exploits. Essentially, his meddling with the Well of Eternity, Queen Azshara, and the likes of Deathwing serve to better enforce his status as Über-villain.

Addicted to magic, power, and stricken with jealousy (with regard to his love interest, Tyrande), Illidan was banished to prison by his brother for creating a second Well of Eternity atop Mount Hyjal – an act of extreme danger that resulted in the exile of the Highborne after they tried to blow things up with a magical storm!

While in prison for ten thousand years, Illidan had plenty of time to contemplate the finer parts of life;

Isolation can do that to the mind. Now, after all the long centuries you kept me chained in darkness, it is only fitting that I bury you in turn. –Illidan

Upon being released from prison, courtesy of Tyrande, Illidan went off to cause more problems. He allied with the demons, turned into a demi-demon himself (after obtaining the powerful and corrupting Skull of Gul-dan), and escaped to Outland, where he sought to establish dominance. While in Outland, Illidan was once again lead to do evil things in the name of untold powers of magic, a temptations made worse by his demonic connections (Kil’jaeden). He also made friends with Lady Vashj and Kael’thas Sunstrider: reputed to not be the nicest kids on the block.

Now, players who worked their way through The Black Temple may recall Illidan’s distinct omnipresence. Unlike other bosses, Illidan seemed to possess this aura that authenticated his evil villain status. He was not just after unlimited power and glory, he wanted to spread wholesale death and destruction without provocation. When you got to Illidan, it was truly a feeling of epic accomplishment (usually preceded by extreme frustration, courtesy of the Council fight). When his chamber doors became unlocked, the raid would race up dual stair-cases, and fight a few trash mobs. Then, through the final doors (assisted by the Shade of Akama, and some epic cut-scenes), you were in, and there was no going back. The presentation of the encounter was flawless, and the delivery spot-on. When you got to Illidan, you knew that s*** was going to hit the fan, because this was a half-demon that simply needed to be slain. No compromises were to be made. You thought to yourself, Illidan, the one who’s taunted me since the beginning of The Burning Crusade, is about to bite the dust!
This was motivation enough to endure the countless wipes that were to follow.

As far as WoW boss fights go, the Illidan fight was technically impressive to say the least. Raid awareness, reaction time, positioning, and communication skills were all put to the test here, and it took no small amount of elbow grease and Redbull to stay focused. As some might remember of Ensidia’s (then Nihilum) world-first Illidan kill video, their main tank Kungen enjoyed brief internet acclaim for his liberal use of his custom ‘MAX FOCUS’ raidsay macro.

When the fight started, all types of rocket-ships and pain-trains assailed the main tank. Illidan’s leaping shred attack was almost always accompanied by a 1/3rd or more hp cut of even the sturdiest tanks, and this was the easy part. The annoying part of phase one came when he spewed out shadowy elementals that rushed your raid group, exploded, and caused confusion. After what seemed like an hour of this nonsense, Illidan went airborne, and left two parting gifts in the form of ridiculous fire elementals. These elementals were no easier to tank than Illidan himself, and they had to be positioned near firewalls that would instagib if touched. To make matters worse, he blasted the scared, crying raiders with laser beams that only Chain-Heal and Circle-of-Healing spam could remedy. As a healing priest, this had to have been my least favorite part of the fight! From there, with the fire elementals slain, you needed a pro warlock tank to take shadow-bolt hits for a while, and avoid dying to AoE volley attacks that pummeled the raid.

With the warlock tanking phase complete, you bore witness to an epic moment in video game history, that of Maiev Shadowsong finally hunting her long-sought prey. Even now, I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t seen this cinematic, so I’ll end it on a suspenseful note. All in all, if you haven’t killed Illidan, and have an active WoW sub, I recommend you do so asap. If not, then go play My Little Pony the MMO, or Hello Kitty Online. I’m sure those games have excellent villains to contend with.