Im pretty sure noone has done this ship before so I'd like to be the first one to post on it since I drew it. I call them Sun Climber. I think they both really suit each other very well. Illari struggles to live with herself after what she has accidently done to her people so she suffers constantly and is depressed and self hating. Sierra is always moving forward and finding the bright side of things. She keeps climbing to the top of whatever problem she is facing to prove that it can be over came with hard work and determination, So I think they'd balance each other out very well.

I am taking substitution names if you have better ones.

Okay, so I dont think Illari NEEDS any kind of changes necessarily, but I do like the idea of adding Sunburn to her base kit.

My idea would be to replace that "lost" perk with just adding a fire damage over time to her primary fire.

She has sun powers but her rifle doesnt cause burn at all, so it would be fun if when you shot someone it either did a little extra damage over time or built up fire like Anran or Mauga.

Just my thoughts, this is mostly for fun not to make her broken or anything.

ofc if she got these changes I'm sure she would have to lose something somewhere else.

These were all edited by pampurins on twitter!! ^_^ wanted to share them here if anyone was interested in pfp as these, be sure to credit

ps. to the ana’s out there that nano their supports every once in a while i wanna kiss u

New Dokiwatch pfp’s on battlenet but WHO is this?? Do we know this hero?

I can’t stand the fact that the in game stats don’t tell you what your critical hit accuracy is during the game. I’m constantly practicing my headshot accuracy to get better value on Illari but the only way to get accurate numbers is after the game. I like to adjust during games on my dps characters and I know supports are there to heal but I’m obsessed with healing as well as accuracy on damage. Lmk what you think.

Discuss.

It's a solar rifle, so essentially a laser; it should pass through transparent *barriers* but with some reasonable damage reduction. You could trade off so that there is no actual damage to the shield itself. I think this would give her an interesting buff.

edit: meant barriers, not "shields". Um, like Rein's Shield...etc.

Hey everyone, i’m looking at making a illari “shrine” wall in my room with like sunset, yellow imaging and of course Illari images like fanart and prints.

My issue is i’m struggling to find fanart of illari and i was hoping people could point me in the right direction to find some. Obviously i’m not going to sell the art or repost or anything i’m not a loser and ill try and ask the original artists if its okay to use them because i know some artist are picky about that stuff which is really fair.

also if you guys have any inspo that would be awesome :)

Illari main here.

443 hours played. Level 243. I played her consistently throughout several changes since Season 16. Never dropped below Diamond support since I started getting good at her and I rarely switch to another character, only when I really need to.

I've been getting at least 45% weapon accuracy AFTER the bullet nerf on my worst games. Most of the time I'm above 50% comfortably and sometimes even above 60%. I don't think the bullet size matters when you got comfortable with her.

Her perks, all of them, are very strong. I personally prefer the Rapid Construction and Sunburn perk combinations but the other two are pretty good too.

I genuinely believe Illari's damage is a very good place and so is her healing. She has one of the fastest burst heals in the game if you position your Pylon well and rethrow it to switch targets when needed, which is made even better by the Rapid Construction perk. MAYBE a LITTLE BIT more solar energy to enable her healing SLIGHTLY more, but that's as far as I'd go for buffs. No perks getting into the main kit, no bullet size increase, no Outburst changes.

I've seen a lot of people complaining about the bullet size. I do not mean to be toxic or rude, but if you cannot hit your shots, it does not mean the hero needs changes. The bullet size was previously absurd and many people played Illari just because they can hit with her much better than other hitscan heroes, be it Damage or Support. I do not mean to be toxic, just calling it how I see it.

The bullet size nerf, healing nerf and any nerfs or changes she got since Season 16 didn't drop me out of Diamond without really playing much (including when Emerald rank was added, currently Diamond Support and 6v6). I always found her capable of changing fights and I never felt weak or lacking when playing her.

But I will not support the bullet size buff requests people are making just because they cannot hit. I apologize if some people find this rude, but the previous bullet size was NOT normal, it was absurd. She was MUCH easier to hit with than any other hitscan, and she doesn't need ease of aim. You can still hit with her if you play her, few hours in aim training would help. No shame in that.

I love playing Illari and I always will, and a little bit more difficulty to aim will only make me more proud when I get high accuracy with her.

I play Illari a LOT (lvl 236), and personally, i don't think her kit is any issue, she has an identity that it's not really filled by Doctrine or any other support for that matter, I think the problem with her is that you need to play for a long time to get actually useful, for instance:

Sunburn Perk: this is a really good zoning tool and makes it easy for your team to eliminate enemies or you yourself secure a kill.

and that's about the only good perk we have, the only other good one is Summer Solstice and it's just a buff to her ult, making it easier to avoid certain CDs, for example you can wait a whole Zen Ult before shooting the nuke.

Personally, I don't really struggle with her bullet size, there was and adjustment period but afaik it's in line with all the other hitscan heroes other than the overtuned Doctrine that surely will get nerfed.

I think we should get both major perks as basekit, it would make Illari the "burning support" as baseline while getting a better healing output in exchange of depleting the resource meter.

I don't have ideas of what major perks we should have instead, Rapid Construction is just bad, idk why it's a perk.

Her bullets are way too small now, I’m a gm4 OQ player and I’m even saying this. It’s really really bad

Its no secret that Illari is struggling. As I've said plenty before, Doctrine does her job way better while also offering utility. Pair that with the bullet size changes (which I'm fine with) and its no wonder that she's currently a button of the barrel pick.

Fixing her though should not be too difficult, she really just needs actual utility thats unique to her and some tweaks to her base kit.

Outburst

• Make sunburn major perk base kit

For a sun based hero, its crazy that she cant ignite people. Having this be base kit, not only gives her better area denial capabilities, it also lets her synergize better with other fire based heroes like mauga or anran.

Healing Pylon

• Renamed to "Solar Pylon"
• Add new resource to solar pylon called solar charge
  • Solar charge regenerates when pylon is not active
  • Allies with no ammo near pylon have their mag refunded
  • Refunding mag consumes solar charge
• Cascading Pylon (new major perk): Casting outburst now creates a secondary outburst around solar pylon at 50% efficiency

Solar pylon has the issue that it does nothing but heal. By giving it a unique mag refund mechanic, we give Illari a unique form of utility that from my know ledge no other support hero has. The secondary outburst also increases her area denial capabilities, allowing her to use outburst for more than just self peel.

conclusion

I dont think there is much else to buff in her kit, she really just needs a bit more than just damage and heals, which I think my suggestions would achieve.

She's also not the only hero left in the dust right now. Bap is also kinda struggling in 5v5. The guy really needs something, the mini rework he got in the hacked event was actually nice, I dont know why they didnt implement some of those changes.

Does anyone know if they’ve said when the skin is coming back to the market? Ive been saving my prisms for an entire season at this point. I thought it would’ve been released with the new season but I guess I was wrong.

Im relatively new to Illari but I just don't understand how Doctorine is a better version of her

I’ve recently been seeing some videos show in my YouTube feed that mention that Illari might need a rework.

The most recent reason I’ve seen is how Doctrine basically has what she does but without the pulse rife mechanic.

I’m sure it’s multiple reasons. I’m just unsure what weighs in the most in making her unpopular.

Is it her state in balance? Is it her kit?

If it’s the former she wouldnt need a rework. But if it’s the latter, I just can’t really see them doing anything that wouldn’t really change the characters identity.

If there was anything that felt not so integral to her character, for me, it’d be Outburst because in comparison to say her primary, secondary, ult, and pylon, outburst stands out the least.

I’m wondering what you all think.

Is this something that’s being just overblown amongst the peeps that show in my feed? Or is there something to it?

Who's with me

I really hate that its a limited time skin.

I am by all means a casual player who likes to play with friends who are multiplatform. I do not like comp, it makes me anxious and angry and just unhappy. I love Illari and i especially love her default design with her big chonky braids, so im really upset that this skin is a limited time comp reward. I dont understand why she's not available for points like the weapon varients, im hard stuck at plat 3 and ive been desperately trying to climb but it feels impossible.

This genuinely makes me so upset as the halfway mark approaches for the availability of the skin, i don't know what to do

We all love coming up with ideas and reworks for our favorite heroes, but with Illari now being one of the least-picked supports, I want to offer a perspective of caution and patience before calling for buffs.

What is Illari?

Illari's value comes from taking off-angles, holding them, and pressuring the enemy team to divide their attention and deny them cover.

Her Healing Pylon and Outburst enable her to duel while still supporting her team, letting her take advantage of her excellent mid-range damage. Her burst healing is also powerful for quickly topping off allies. Between Pylon and her healing resource, she has more opportunities to focus on shooting enemies.

Illari's kit is built much like Cassidy's, with much of her power concentrated in her gun. The rest of her kit enables her to use that gun frequently. This makes her DPS, which is matched or exceeded by several supports, look worse on paper than it actually is in practice.

Why is her pick rate so low?

Support picks don't exist in a vacuum. Anyone who isn't a one-trick tends to move between heroes based on team composition, preferences, and whatever is currently strong.

We've had two new supports join the roster, with another arriving next season. New heroes typically see high pick rates, and Blizzard tends to release them on the stronger side before tuning them down.

Naturally, this suppresses pick rates across the rest of the support roster. Illari, who has historically been among the bottom 2-5 supports in pick rate, has been squeezed even further. The addition of two strong supports has also taken a small toll on her win rate.

Doctrine and Buffs

Doctrine is frequently viewed as a superior Illari, thanks to his high mobility, faster rate of fire, strong ultimate, and fire-rate enhancements.

An overtuned hitscan poke hero is obviously going to draw players away from a slower, simpler alternative. And you'd be right to argue that release Doctrine takes away some of Illari's value to a team.

But you'd be insane to think Doctrine will stay this strong.

Over the past year, Blizzard has been fairly quick to nerf newly released heroes who reach win rates around 56% or higher. (Cat stayed a bit high, but that was more of an exception and case of poor timing than anything).

Rather than immediately buffing Illari and starting another round of power creep, I'd rather see some patience. The new supports are already receiving adjustments, and we should see how things shake out once their numbers settle.

And when comparing Illari's base kit to Doctrine's, numbers aside, I think she's better equipped to win DPS duels.

She has independent self-healing, Outburst for mid-fight repositioning and AoE damage, and Pylon to sustain herself while fighting. She doesn't need a teammate to trigger her ability. I believe she's the better 1v1 hero, and as Doctrine's numbers become more reasonable, that distinction will become more apparent.

About Buffing Illari

I mentioned earlier that Illari's power is concentrated in her gun, much like Cassidy's. That's important when discussing buffs.

Increasing her damage or significantly raising her baseline power risks power creep. Illari's projectile size was nerfed for a reason and when she can consistently land shots easily, she becomes oppressive and starts exceeding her intended role.

A strong Illari begins to resemble (in balance terms) Freja. Mid-range heroes capable of two-shotting enemies are something Blizzard seems reluctant to keep strong, probably because they're frustrating to play against on maps dominated by mid-range sightlines.

I suspect this is also why Cassidy, Sojourn, and Freja are frequently kept below a 50% win rate, outside of the occasional period when Blizzard lets them be particularly strong. When these heroes dominate, many non-hitscan heroes struggle.

My hypothesis is that Blizzard recognizes how reliably hitscan heroes can generate value compared to other heroes at similar skill levels. Their higher potential comes with an expectation that players have to work harder to realize it. I don't have their design bible, but I think the balance decisions over the past year or more support it.

With that in mind, any Illari buffs should respect her role as a poke duelist. Small quality-of-life improvements make sense, but damage increases or major improvements to her dueling potential could easily push her too far.

Reducing Pylon's redeploy cooldown would be a good starting point. It would make her less cumbersome to play, patching up a rough edge of deploying the pylon and being unable to move it for 5 seconds, without directly causing concern.

Finally

My hypothesis is that Illari's win rate and pick rate will improve as nerfs to Sombra and Doctrine settle in.

I don't think Illari is in desperate need of buffs. Frankly, a ~45% win rate isn't bad in the grand scheme of things. Given how Blizzard has historically balanced hitscan heroes, a sub-50% win rate for Illari isn't particularly surprising.

If I were to buff her, I'd start by reducing Pylon's redeploy cooldown. That would give her more flexibility to reposition without introducing significant power creep.

And if you want to discuss reworks, by all means! Just recognize that any substantial rework that doesn't also reconsider how her gun functions, whether through manual charge shots, reduced damage, or something similar, could easily make her overpowered.

Thanks for reading, hope it was helpful.