The time has come for the last installment of Hearthstone’s Book of Heroes single-player campaign.
With the introduction of the Demon Hunter class, the community was able to take a glimpse at the eventful life of Illidan, one of Warcraft’s most controversial characters. With the tenth edition of Book of Heroes, Team 5 sheds light on Illidan’s history once more.
In this extensive gameplay guide, we will navigate you and the Betrayer through the eight different encounters of “Book of Heroes: Illidan”!
Prince Arthas
As a first fight, this edition of Book of Heroes presents a fight against the future Lich King – ordered on Wish. The only real threat in this encounter is posed by the Festering Ghouls that deal damage based on the number of minions that died during the game.
Fully focus on board clear – because you can only do that anyway -, don’t get hit by Frostmourne too often, and you will defeat the aspiring human villain once more.
Tichondrius
The fight against Tichondrius gets a bit spicier. The main reason for that may be the prize both characters are fighting for: The Skull of Gul’dan!
You need to deal 40 damage to any enemies in total to surpass the first phase of this fight. Given the nature of our tempo-based Demon Hunter deck, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Just like during the first fight, board control is everything – don’t even try to kill Tichondrius.
That changes as soon as you obtain the precious skull of Illidan’s arch-nemesis. Your hero power changes dramatically, and you’ll easily out-tempo Tichondrius over time. Watch out for his copies of Soulwringer, don’t draw yourself into fatigue too quickly, and you should have no problems defeating the evil dreadlord.
Maiev Shadowsong
Maiev, Illidan’s personal jailer, poses the first threat of this chapter. Her hero power lets her equip Warden’s Glaive, a weapon that puts minions and their neighbors into the Dormant state.
It really feels like Maiev’s AI is programmed to be particularly aggressive, so try to stay healthy as much as possible. Her weapon lets her bypass Taunt minions with ease, so you’re very reliant on Lifesteal cards like Eye Beam.
What certainly will decide the game for you is a campaign-exclusive card called Mur’gul Reaver. This murloc is a board-presence value machine, so you should try to play it as soon as possible.
Other than that, Deathrattle synergy is the name of the game. Discover as many good Naga minions with Naga Allies as possible, keep the ball rolling, heal up, and escape the fangs of the Warden.
Malfurion Stormrage
This encounter is split into two phases. At first, Illidan tries to complete his ritual involving the Eye of Sargeras. Once you have spent 50 mana, you will unite with Illidan’s brother Malfurion to rescue their beloved Tyrande from the Scourge.
Malfurion plays a pretty lame Token Druid list. Just like against Arthas, keeping the board clear is all you need to do until you enter the second stage of the fight.
As soon as Malfurion is on our side, Death Knight Velas turns into our new opponent. From there on, your brotherly powers will have no problems defeating the lieutenant of the Lich King. One more tip: Try to ignore the campaign-exclusive “Blood Elf Allies” card. It’s never worth it.
Magtheridon
As we all know, Illidan wants to become Lord of Outland – and for that, Magtheridon has to go. I feel like this has been one of the toughest fights in all of Book of Heroes, so focus up!
The match starts with two Voidlords on Mag’s side and the entourage of Akama, Kael, and Vashj on your side.
First off, it is of utmost importance to always be aware of Mag’s hero power. 2-health minions will die and summon minions from his hand as a result. We will never be able to avoid this interaction but we should always try to get the most out of it. That also applies to Vashj’s Frenzy effect. The one thing we won’t have problems with is card draw because of Vashj, so it’s actually advised to not draw too many cards with Outcast cards like Crimson Sigil Runner or Spectral Sight – fatigue is a real thing in this fight!
Similar to the Blood Elf Allies card, the Broken Allies card produces similarly underwhelming results. In my opinion, the only good option is Ashtongue Slayer because it enables stellar trades with your perma-stealthed Akama on the board.
As already said, the key to victory is your respawning friends on the board. Their repeated damage will be able to grind down Magtheridon eventually – but only if you stay healthy. A campaign-exclusive legendary called Ruthless Wrathguard helps tremendously with that!
In combination with your powerful hero power, following our recipe to success will net you a win against the current Lord of Outland.
One last tip: Naga Allies almost always rewards you with a Coilfang Warlord, which may be the best Demon Hunter card for this game mode.
Anub’arak
Who would’ve guessed it – Anub’arak, another lieutenant of the Lich King, plays mostly Lich King cards. Besides that, he will basically use every bug or spider card in the existence of Hearthstone, and that combination honestly doesn’t pose too much of a threat.
Talking about combinations, Sulking Imp plus Ruthless Wrathguard serves as a great tool to refill your health while dealing with the board.
Last but not least, the special Lord of Outland card almost deserves to be played as a finisher because it’s just THAT flavorful!
Death Knight Arthas
This is the second time we’re facing Arthas in this adventure, and he has definitely leveled up since our last encounter.
But so did our deck! We’re basically playing a light version of OTK Demon Hunter, and that plays perfectly into our win condition. To win the fight against Arthas, we need to destroy the three obelisks on his side of the board.
Besides the usual removal, campaign-exclusive cards like Stolen Vengeance will turn to complete our combo into a piece of cake. Besides that, we don’t really need to kill all obelisks in one turn – but who wouldn’t want to pull it off in a single-player fight, right?
Two copies of Mo’arg Artificer and Talented Arcanist should be more than enough to bolster up your Felscream Blast in order to destroy all three obelisks.
But in the end, no effort made against Arthas will be enough. Even after you’ve achieved your goal, he takes back all four obelisks, becomes the Lich King, and sends you right into the final fight of the chapter.
Akama
Last but not least, Akama awaits in the final arena. Our former ally has become our deadliest enemy, as he tries to get us off the throne of Outland.
This time around, our deck finally includes Il’gynoth, which turns us into a fully-fleshed OTK Demon Hunter. We’d have a hard time against Akama’s stealth-focussed deck if it wasn’t for campaign-exclusive cards like Flame Crash and Summon Shadow Demons. The latter in particular creates an insane amount of tempo by bringing to 6/6 bodies to the board who also increase our Fel spell damage.
Sadly, our hero power doesn’t really do much in this final encounter. You’re able to discover a random ally for a whole 4 mana – and trust me, you want to do many other and better things with that amount of mana as OTK Demon Hunter.
Killing Akama through abusing Il’gynoth becomes an easy task – not least because he basically plays no board-clearing cards. That is why you’ll be able to stick minions like Mo’arg Artificer or Shadow Demons to the board over multiple turns, increasing your combo potential exponentially.
Once Akama is gone, a good friend will pay us yet another visit: Maiev.
As always, you should try to own a healthy board right before Akama dies because it will carry over to the fight against Maiev. At this point, you’ll only need to hold out for four more turns. Maiev will basically top-deck from turn to turn, so you shouldn’t have too many problems dealing with her minions one at a time – but always watch out for her hero power!
As soon as you survive the four turns, you will experience the most underwhelming finale of any single-player campaign: What once was a great face-off at the summit of the Black Temple now has turned into a small dialogue and basically no additional interaction between Maiev and Illidan.
Despite the fact that the last fight is a major letdown, Illidan’s Book of Heroes still tells a compelling story about the Betrayer – and rewards you with a Demon Hunter pack, of course, so go and get it!
