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Two Bosses Enter: Illidan Stormrage vs The Twin Emperors

Dan O'Halloran
Contributor
Updated ·4 min read


Two bosses will enter... but only one will get to leave! Every week at WoW Insider, we pit two of the baddest bosses in the World of Warcraft against one another in a fantasy death match -- in the end to emerge with a single boss of bosses, victorious above all others. And the best part? You get to tell us who walks away the winner and who doesn't get to leave our arena at all.

Today, the terror of the Black Temple, Illidan Stormrage throws down against Ahn'Qiraj's double trouble, The Twin Emperors. Who will survive to move on to the Final Four and who will face defeat at the hands of a superior foe? Read on for the details and the chance to cast your vote




Illidan has a wide array of abilities at his disposal to wipe out any opposition. He's capable of heavy melee damage, high fire and shadow damage, and can summon a variety of minions to keep you occupied. Illidan's abilities at the start of the fight are as follows:

  • Shear reduces the health of his main target by 60%

  • Illidan will occasionally jump into the air and land in a patch of highly damaging blue flame

  • Illidan will randomly target players to cast a parasites debuff on, which does shadow damage over time and then summons two parasites to attack the target

  • Draw soul does heavy fire damage to targets in front of Illidan and heals Illidan

For phase 2, Illidan offers a different range of ways to kill you:

  • Illidan will summon two massive fire elementals, the Flames of Azzinoth

  • Every 30 seconds, Illidan will sweep an eye beam across the platform, doing heavy fire damage and leaving a trail of damaging fire behind it

  • Illidan shoots fireballs that do splash damage

  • Dark Barrage does heavy shadow damage to a random target, though it's rarely cast

For phase 3, Illidan acts nearly the same as phase 1, only with the addition of agonizing flames, a fire spell that does damage on initial impact and damage over time afterwards.

For phase 4 (a quick phase, at 30 seconds long), Illidan will unleash the demon within. He turns into a black demon with powerful abilities, but is unable to move. During this phase, he'll cast:

  • Shadow blast, a high damage shadow attack with splash damage

  • Flame burst, an AoE fire-based DoT that does splash damage

  • Aura of dread does a high amount of shadow damage over time as well as increasing the damage taken by shadow spells (stacks)

Phase 5 is like phase 3, only with the addition of the following:

  • Maiev Shadowsong joins the fight -- and though we usually don't consider adds for fights, we're keeping Maiev in this fight because Illidan is just incredibly powerful. (And Maiev would be hunting him down whether he was in the Black Temple or not.)

  • Illidan can Enrage, randomly.

For those of you familiar with the fight, you'll notice something missing -- this is because we aren't considering instant-kill abilities. In a one-on-one encounter, they make the fight predictable and dull. However, if you're still curious for the full details of the fight, check Bosskillers.


The Twin Emperors, Vek'nilash and Vek'lor, reside in Ahn'Qiraj, and are the final hurdle before players reach C'thun. And they are quite the challenge, capable of dishing out large quantities of both physical and magical damage. The twins share a single health pool, so killing one kills both.

We are going to remove two elements of the Twins encounter from this match: their use of adds in their room and their ability to heal each other when in close range. Illidan does not have a way to separate them during the fight and does not stand a chance with this ability intact. So consider this match up with no bugs and no proximity superheal.

Both Emperors have the following abilities:

  • Twin Teleport: Every 30-40 seconds the twins switch places.

  • Berserk: After 15 minutes, the twins will berserk dramatically increasing their damage output.

Emperor Vek'nilash deals only physical damage and is immune to magical damage. He has the following unique abilities:

  • Uppercut: Knocks back random target in melee range.

  • Unbalancing Strike: Does high damage and reduces the target's defense for 6 seconds.

Emperor Vek'lor deals only magical damage and is immune to all physical damage. He has the following unique abilities:

  • Shadow Bolt: As expected, a single-target shadow damage attack.

  • Blizzard: A frost AoE with a slow effect.

  • Arcane Burst: An arcane AoE that knocks back and slows. Used whenever anyone is in melee range.

Some other things to remember about these death matches: we're not looking at autoattack dps, but special abilities when it comes to deciding the victor. Also, these fights are in a neutral Arena, so don't factor in the environment where the players encounter these raid bosses. Look at their abilities and then vote on who will win and who will get pwned!
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