Depends on what you consider small, most of Illidan's AoE spells are a few dozen meters in size
That is pretty big
No doubt he'd be hit by a few but he is very good a darting in and out of combat
Does it oneshot in universe?
or does it just do his base damage regardless of armor or other shielding?
I'm assuming it's the later in which case Meruem eats it for breakfast
Illidan has that as well though, its not something that only Meruem has
No he doesn't at least not on his page and you have yet to prove that he does
A 30% evasion chance isn't instinctive action or precog
His mage spells are listed
here.
It doesnt give full context tho
Otherwise I would have never found out the stuff I'm about to say below
"Causes an explosion of magic around the caster, dealing (56.26% of Spell power) Arcane damage to all enemies within 10 yards."
If i'm reading this correctly this only does half of Illidan's normal damage
"10% of base mana"
Meaning he can't use it over and over again
"Unleashes a wave of flame, inflicting Fire damage to nearby enemies and reducing their movement speed for 6 sec"
This is viable but I also assume he can't spam it without running out of mana
and Frost Nova hit everything in 15 yards. (Frost Nova also freezes targets in place for a bit. They can still do fight, they just cant move from the place they were frozen).
"Blasts enemies near the caster for [19 * ((([(1)])) * 1)] to [21 * ((([(1)])) * 1)] Frost damage and freezes them in place for up to 8 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect."
Only Viable if Illidan wants to run away or get a cheeky shot off
It also has a 25 second cooldown and takes 7% Mana
So not something he can use often in the quite literally minutes he has to kill Meruem
Other notable AOE spells are Ring of Frost, Blizzard, Dragons Breath, but they are all targeted and can be dodged
Don't really matter since even if he doesnt dodge them the first time (Which is extremely unlikely given Meruem's insane perceptions), he most certainly will dodge them the second time (Photographic memory of every move Illidan uses)
"Summon a Water Elemental to fight for the caster for 45 sec"
"16% of base mana"
"Cooldown: 3 Minutes"
I really don't see how an unskilled water elemental is doing anything other than MAYBE distracting Meruem
And he's a genies so he'd probably figure something is up
He could just easily overpower and kill it or wait it out since Illidan would only get the chance to use this spell like MAYBE 2 times before Analytical kicks in
All-in-all a nonfactor
Spells listed here are Slow,
Valid but wouldn't completely negate Meruem's ability to fight since once again he has insane percep
See reasons above
"Creates 3 copies of the caster nearby, which cast spells and attack the mage's enemies. Lasts 30 sec."
Nice, this might actually make Meruem run
And then he realizes it's timed and just waits it out
"3 Minute Cooldown"
Oof, yep it's a 2 use ability then
*'''Fire Blast:''' Blasts the enemy at a range of 56 yards for Fire damage. Castable while casting other spells. Always deals a critical strike. Has 4 charges. Using Fire Blast on a target not afflicted by Ignite will refund a charge. Other damaging spells have a 10% chance to reset the cooldown on Fire Blast and to causes the next Fire Blast to stun the target for 2 sec and spread any Fire damage over time effects to nearby enemy targets within 12 yards.
The place I was linked to says it has a 20 yard range
Also that's only a 10% chance to stun
So what I'm hearing here is that they would start out fighting in melee, in which they are pretty even. Once that isn't working, Illidan would turn to magic and Meruem would go on the defensive to dodge and adapt to all his moves, then eventually move in for the kill once his precog/adaptation kicks in.
Yes
And I'm not saying it'd be easy
But Meruem has the genius intelligence to figure out when and where Illidan would use his moves that can hit him
A Photographic memory that catalogues every single one of Illidan's attacks to where he either can't use the same attack twice or can't use the same attack with the same effectiveness (How he beat Netero + Precog)
A 10x durability Amp which he can maintain for literally the entire fight if he wants to (He's far superior to Netero who could maintain the shit for 18 hours)
A Perception diff so high he can quite literally see things that statue his own speed (So he's dodging or blocking whatever Illidan throws at him even if he's more skilled)
And Precognition that can allow him to adapt and dodge attacks that blitz him and accurately predict the next place he will be, which being SUPER generous and saying that Illidan has the skill and blitzing ability of Netero would take place in less than 5 Minutes
Illidan has wincons and annoying abilities to stall him out
But Meruem is a master at predicting his opponents next move even without the precog
Which is why I once again say Meruem takes this High-diff (Because Illidan would just spam his slows and AOE's since nothing else in his arsenal would work)
