Onyxia's Lair

Entering the Lair

Horde

The raid will meet and group up at Brackenwall Village in Dustwallow Marsh, just like we meet up in Kargath before MC. When everyone has arrived we will move as a group to Onyxia's lair, which is in the south of Dustwallow Marsh.. It is marked on the map by the words "The Wyrmbog" and a cave icon. To enter the lair you must have completed the Horde Onyxia Quest, which you can read about here, and have your drakefire amulet. When everyone is ready, the raid leader will ask you to zone in.

Alliance

Since we don't have to worry about ganking, we meet outside Onyxia's Lair. Read here about the Alliance Onyxia Quest, and don't forget to have your Drakefire Amulet with you.

Warders

There are four Onyxian warders before Onyxia. Three of the warders must be killed before the raid can fight Onyxia. The fourth warder does not move and may be skipped in the chamber just before Onyxia. The patrols are staggered; the first warder comes further out of Onyxia's lair than the second, which comes further than the third.

Warders are pretty tough mobs for groups just starting to attempt Onyxia, they take a while to kill even with 40 people. They have a nasty melee attack but the real danger is the fire nova they cast that hits for about 1000 damage per. The main tank will engage the warder well clear of the body of the raid. Wait for a call of 'DPS ON' then ranged and casters may attack at will. Melee however are better to shoot their guns then melee- just stay clear of the nova. Feel free to charge in and try and land a concussive blow or an intercept stun, but be aware that you are not a priority target for heals. WIth a group of Rogues/Protection spec Warriors, melee may stunlock a warder while it is destroyed. Killing them in this way is good practice for Sartura in AQ40.

Time to slay a dragon!

Phase 1 (100% to 65% health)

Getting in Position

The main tank will charge right at the dragon and do a couple of aggro building attacks. He will run straight through Onyxia and into the main tank position shown in this picture.

The rest of the raid will run from the entrance to either west or east side depending on what side of the raid tab you are in. Press 'O' in raid in game and look at the group set up. People in odd groups appear on the left side of the tab, people in even on the right side. Which side you are on in phase 1 is based on which side of the raid tab you are on. Left side goes left, right side goes right. Run about 75% of the way along your side so you are positioned well away from the egg pits and against the edge of the lair. Take care to avoid the tail because if she swipes it and hits you, you will go flying into the egg pits.

Hunters are the one exception. They will run to the two humps near the entrance. From these humps they are out of range of the tail but close enough to attack her.

Note: On Stormrage, we typically have the hunters go to the same positions as the rest of their groups and fight from there.

Fighting through Phase 1

Phase 1 is all about controlling your damage. Taking aggro from the tank even once is enough to seriously damage the raid's chance at a successful fight. DPS will be off for 1 minute at the start of the fight to let the tank build aggro.

During this period, and other DPS off periods, there should be no attacks on Onyxia from anyone except the main tank. None. Period.

DPS will then be turned on. Mages should be using frostbolt for greatest efficiency. Warriors and rogues should be attacking with auto swing only. One more time: Warriors and rogues should be attacking with auto swing only. Seriously guys, not doing this one easy thing will make phase 1 very difficult.

Druids and shamen should stick to healing in phase one, they shouldn't be doing melee attacks. One shaman will be in the MT's totem dood.

DPS will be on for about 1 minute, then off for 30 seconds, then on for a minute, and so on. Warriors and rogues should be attacking with auto swing only. Once more in case you missed it

Hunters are the only classes exempt from this rule. After the first minute hunters can go full DPS the whole time and feign death as soon as it is available, as often as possible. Hunters can ignore DPS breaks as long as they keep feigning, but if a feign is resisted, stop attacking for a bit to make sure you don't pull aggro.

Onyxia's Attacks in Phase 1

She has a straight melee attack which hits me for about 700 in my tanking gear and a tail swipe which does about 1000 damage and knocks back a long way. The tailswipe is only done to people right behind her. Her third attack is a big AOE fire attack in a cone from her head that hits for about 3000-3500 damage (ouch!). The fourth attack is a knockback attack, which flings the tank away from Onyxia and, sometimes, into the players lining either side of the lair. The tank has to move back to his position quickly, facing her away from the sides, to stop the flame attack hitting everyone.

Healing in Phase 1

This is the only part of the Onyxia fight where there has to be a proper rotation. We will aim for 6 priests to fight, any more is bonus. The rotation is three groups of two. The first two priests, group 1, will heal to 50% mana then break. The second two will do the same, then the third. When the rotation gets back to the first two priests they will have full mana.

Druids and shamen should be covering heals whenever they think the main tanks need it. When Onyxia hits 65% she will turn around and take flight.

Phase 2 (65% to ~40% health)

I shall incinerate you from above!!

Whelps

At the start of phase 2 about a dozen whelps will emerge from each pit. Two warriors, two mages and two priests should move down from their phase 1 positions to the whelp pits. These will be assigned before the fight. The whelps will continue to come in waves of 3-4 throughout phase 2 so one warrior should be camping near the entrance to the pit the whole time. The mages and priests should be ready to jump in with AE and heals as needed.

http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?ii69wckfzak Positioning Picture]

SPREAD OUT!!!! Onyxia's attacks in phase two all increase in their impact if there is clumping. A good way to judge positioning is that you should not be on the same plate of ground as someone else, and you should not be able to open a trade window with anyone else. If you can you aren't spread out far enough! There will be one person on Teamspeak calling out people who are too close together or areas where there are more space.

Onyxia's Attacks

Onyxia stays airborne throughout phase 2, attacking from the air around the edges of her lair. The first of these is an AE fire ball. The area is small, so it is easy to spread out and have this attack only hit one person. If you are hit by the AE of someone else's fireball, you are too close to them!!

The second attack is a cluster bomb. Onyxia will bomb an area with fire balls, one fireball to each person in the area. Spread out and the fireballs won't hit more than one person per volley. Spread out!!

The thrid attack is devastating. It will ruin your day . It is Onyxia's Deep Breath attack. This attack will spread about 5000 fire damage over a huge area. Getting one of these attacks is enough to pretty much end a raid. When the attack is about to go off, Onyxia will do an emote: "Onyxia takes a deep breath!" Run to the sides and you have a chance at living, stay in the middle and you will most likely die The deep breath attack is avoidable however. It will not happen if people are a) spread out enough and DPS is continuous and high.

Attacking Onyxia in Phase 2

The damage in phase two will be from ranged attacks only, it isn't really feasible to attack her with melee. Hunters and casters are standing in the middle of the lair in phase 2 so they can attack her when she moves around the edges without moving out of range.

Melee people should be helping by shooting their guns or bows when they can. Don't move to get into shooting range though, just wait for her to move.

We will try and keep 4+ DoT spells on her at all times. This is a good way to keep the damage going. Shadow word pain is very useful here. Any priests who have a little aman to spare should throw one up on her.

It is possible to sunder Onyxia's armour. One warrior should build rage off whelp tanking then move to directly under her. It's possible to jump in the air and sunder if you are right underneath. To avoid clumping, only one warrior will do this.

Healing

There is free for all healing in phase 2. The priests will be healing whelp killers and trying to stay as close to 100% mana for the start of phase 3 as possible. They do not have mana to throw around healing DPS people. If you are properly spread out you won't be taking too much damage. Just bandage yourself when possible.

Phase 3 (~40% health to the end)

This is probably the toughest part of the fight. At 40% health it is possible for Onyxia to land on the ground again. All DoTs are turned off at this point to ensure no one is doing damage when she lands. All damage from 40% to when she lands is done directly.

When she is landing the raid leader will call it on teamspeak. Everyone then has to run to the north west and north east sides immediately. If yopu are fighting whelps, leave them and run north. No matter what you are doing, get north. If you get knocked into the whelp pits, or feared in, the eggs will all pop and the whelps will destroy the raid The only people not moving north are the hunters who will return to The Two Humps just where they were in phase 1.

All DPS will be off to let the tank rebuild aggro and position her back where she was in phase 1. As soon as the minute is up, hunters will kick into the same routine they were in in phase 1. The rest of the raid will go full DPS. Take it easy on the special stuff though guys. Stealing aggro will wipe us here too. If you do manage to pull aggro, run to the main tank position and get her pointed away from the rest of the raid.

The Fears

Periodically the ground will shake for about 3 seconds then jets of lava will shoot up through the cracks and you will be feared. If you cross one of the cracks while feared you will take about 1200 damage. To help avoid this damage, stand at the base of the walls and you will often be feared into the wall instead of over the cracks. You used to be able to move backwards to avoid fear but it no longer works. Priests will be focused on the main tank so try and heal yourself with bandages and stay safe.

Trinkets like the mithril insignia and the pvp trinket as well as will of the forsaken for undead and fear ward for dwarf priests will work against this fear, but tremor totems won't. If you are not the MT avoiding fear may cause Onyxia to agro on you if the MT gets feared. This could equal a raid wipe if she breathes on the DPS group or tail swipes the opposite group into the whelp pits.

Healing

Healing is free for all in phase 3. Keeping the tank alive = win, so focus all heals on the tank. If you see someone in desperate need throw a heal their way, but it is your main job to keep the tank alive. Priests should try to throw a shield onto the tank if they see a fear incoming. It is during the fears that most tank deaths occur. The healers are feared, Onyxia crits, tank takes a dirt nap. Try to use your fear immunity wisely.

At 5% Onyxia will go nuts on damage to the tank. All heals will be to the tank at that point. Ignore everyone else, just keep the tank up.