Ready Check: Onyxia
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 23rd 2009 at 8:00PM
Hi howdy and hello, everyone. I'm Matthew Rossi, famous for being tail whipped into the cave on our first Onyxia 10 attempt yesterday. Twice. Despite having been a veteran of the original raid, which means I've heard this kind of ranting many, many times. What I'm getting at is, there are certain things you do not do in a successful Onyxia kill (then and now) and if you go in cocky, thinking that you're mister fancy pants Conquerer of Ulduar, then she's going to embarrass you. If, on the other hand, you just go in and kill her, it's much less embarrassing all told. As long as you keep her mechanics in mind, she's not a terribly complicated or hard fight, but she's been updated and tuned fairly well for an 80 raid.
Before we get to the meat of things, two caveats: one, she can hit very, very hard. On 10 man, as I dragged her back into position (we'll go more into that) I found that I went from 45k health to 11k health in two seconds. My healer actually screamed on vent. Later, we had a discussion about how mister tank doesn't go out of range on mister healer without warning. Secondly, I'm not sure if I'm just remembering it differently or if it has actually changed, but her hit box seems a lot smaller than it was at 60. It does not seem possible to melee her while she's in the air, for instance, and my melee DPS reporting having to come in fairly close to hit her.
Not to worry, though. You'll have plenty to do without being able to melee Ony. She brought friends! Oh, so many friends if you're not careful.
The Fight
Onyxia has a fair amount of abilities which come into play as the fight progresses.
Phase One
Ony really only has four abilities to worry about in phase one. What they all basically boil down to is, if you are not the tank, do not stand in front of Onyxia. If you are in the raid at all, do not stand directly behind Onyxia. These are both bad places to be. In front of Onyxia, you will be subject to Wing Buffet, which will not only knock you back but will deal up to 24k damage (31k on 25's) to you (ignoring any armor) - this ability fires in a cone, so it's best to make sure you don't inch up into it by mistake. If this ability fires at the same time as her Cleave, any non-tank unlucky or stupid enough to be in front of her will be dead. So please, please, please don't stand in front of Onyxia if you are not the tank.
It's usual for the tank to run in ahead of everyone else and then move Onyxia into position facing away from the entrance to her cave so that he can ensure he won't be Wing Buffeted too far away from where he is tanking her, using the wall as a backstop.
She also breathes fire on people in front of her. You don't want that either. Fire bad. Fire very bad. Fire hit for 22k or so (as much as 30k in 25's) so all told, being in front of Onyxia is something only one very strongly motivated brick of meat should be attempting.
Meanwhile, while all of that horrible spiky and burny stuff is going on in front of Ony, the one place you may feel motivated to stand in (directly away from it all) may ultimately be worse for the raid. Onyxia also has an ability called Tail Sweep, and what that does is inflict a bunch of damage to you (I didn't take it in 25's, but in 10's it did about 6k to me) and toss you backwards. Now, to the left and right of Onyxia's cave as you enter are two side chambers full of whelp eggs. If you get hit by Tail Sweep, you have a good chance of breaking some or all of these eggs and spawning a whole lot of annoying little dragon whelp adds to come swarm your raid while they're trying to deal with that great big giant dragon, which is very very bad. So it's best not to stand directly behind her, as Tail Sweep is also a cone and can be avoided by standing to one side or another instead.
So there's phase one for you: don't stand in front or behind her unless you're the tank, who will be in front of her, and do that funky DPS. Once you get her to about 65%, the fun really starts happening.
Phase Two
Ony is a fickle lady, and she gets bored easily. At about 65% health she decides that she's not really interested in being stabbed, shot and set on fire (or whatever it is you're hitting her with) and she walks to the back of her cave and takes off into the air. That's when several things start to happen.
First off, she breaks a lot of the eggs in her whelp caves herself and unleashes about 40 whelps on the raid. This is fairly easily dealt with. The entire raid collapses to a center point and the tank (or tanks if you have more than one) gathers up the whelps, which are then DPS'd down by the raid. It shouldn't take long if the raid gives the tank enough time to lock down threat so they don't peel off of him and run around the room chasing that one nuke-happy mage who opened up before the tank had even reached them.
Yes, I'm looking right at you here. You know who you are.
After the whelps are dealt with, we still have another party favor, as Onyxia begins summoning lair guards. These are basically just beefier versions of the patrols you face cutting your way to Onyxia, with a couple of abilities to make tanking them interesting. First off, they cast Cleave just like their momma. Yet again the core lesson of raiding here is don't stand in front of anything. Secondly, they cast Ignite Weapon which gives them a huge AoE damage ability while it's up, so warriors or rogues should be using their various disarms to keep this mob from having a polearm equipped as much as possible. (I know hunters with Chimera Shot can technically disarm, but as ranged you're more valuable DPSing Ony, which we'll get to in a second.) Thirdly, they have a channeled Fire Nova that does a lot of damage to anyone in melee range if they don't die fast enough. Basically, since melee can't hit Onyxia very effectively during this phase (I couldn't at all) a good strategy for these Lair Guards is to have them tanked and burned by melee before they can do much damage, either killing them quickly or ranging the Fire Nova depending on how much melee DPS you have available.
If you have two tanks, it's best to have the off-tank tanking these and the MT picking up any that spawn while the current one is still up. I've seen reports that two are supposed to spawn at once every 30 seconds, but I didn't see more than one spawn every 30 in both 10 and 25, so pay attention as they may change this.
Meanwhile, Ony herself isn't idle. She's up in the air, pelting the raid with Fireballs that do significant damage (around 5k in 10 and 8k in 25's) and also breathing. Like humans, Onyxia takes a lot of deep breaths following the birth of her whelps. Unlike humans, her deep breaths create a patch of flames on the floor that ticks for about 9k damage every quarter of a second. This is a cone cast on the ground directly in front of where she's facing while she's airborne, and it can be avoided by not being where she's facing when she's casting (it's an 8 second cast, meaning that you should have plenty of time to get out of the way especially if you have someone calling it).
As long as people don't stand in the burning floor (and really, now, if you've played WoW at all the past four years you've already learned that the floor is where all evil lurks and you're properly suspicious of it) the ranged can simply keep pumping as much damage as possible (especially damage over time spells which continue to tick while everyone is running away from the cone of burning death on the floor) until Onyxia is at 40%.
At this point she lands. Finish off any remaining Lair Guards fast (this is why we have the MT trying not to be tanking any adds if possible) as the tank picks Ony up. Get some Fear Wards out, drop some tremor totems, do anything you can think of to break or interrupt fears because here comes phase three, the original 'running around like a chicken' phase.
Phase Three
Phase three basically repeats phase one with two exceptions. You still don't want to be standing in front of or behind her, as all those Cleaves, Fire Breaths and Wing Buffets still apply. (Again, if you are the tank, go ahead and stand in all that.) The two new abilities added to the mix are Bellowing Roar - everyone runs around screaming "OMG I just remembered I'm fighting a huge freaking dragon we're all gonna die aaaaaaaah" for three seconds unless various fear breaks are used - everything from Will of the Forsaken to Every Man for Himself to Berserker Rage to Fear Ward or Tremor Totem - heck, a PvP trinket works if that's all you have access to - and Eruption, where molten hot magma bursts forth from the incredibly visible cracks in the floor.
Ah, the floor. Source of all that's deadly and corrupt in the World of Warcraft. Horde and Alliance could be at peace if not for the floor. In all sincerety, the only time you should take any damage from Eruption is if you're unlucky enough to be feared into it.
There are also a few straggler whelps to deal with from time to time, but they're almost more atmosphere than an actual threat at this point. Just burn her down and collect your shiny new retro skinned loots, I say. Congratulations! You've just killed Onyxia. Again. You monsters! She had a family! And you killed all of them, too!
Strategy from wowwiki
This is (still) a very simple encounter overall.
Phase One
The tank should run slightly ahead of the rest of the raid and grab Onyxia, quickly turning her away from the raid and then backing off to the Northern wall, where the tank will position themselves with their back to the wall to minimise the effect of the knockback from Wing Buffet. Only the tank should be in front of Onyxia, to minimize damage from fire breath and cleaving. During phase one, the only damage to the raid should be upon the tank. Ranged DPS and healers need to stay to either side of her, fairly far back. Melee DPS needs to stay just within range (which is wider than it looks). If melee DPS is too far forward, they will be killed by Cleave; if they're too far back, they will be tail swiped, possibly into the whelps, usually resulting in a wipe.
Phase one ends when Onyxia is reduced to 65% health.
Phase Two
During this phase, Onyxia takes to the air and moves randomly around the room, casting Fireball on raid members. There are three main things to watch out for:
- Onyxian Whelps. At the beginning of this phase, and subsequently about every 90 seconds, 2 packs of whelps will spawn, one from the egg chambers on each side of the room). These whelps should not be underestimated, as they can do considerable damage with all 40 attacking the same target. They should be gathered by the off tank and then killed with AoE attacks.
- Onyxian Lair Guards. After about 15 seconds and subsequently about every 30 seconds, an Onyxian Lair Guard will spawn at the entrance to the room (2 of them on 25-man?). These need to be tanked with a dedicated healer for the tank. Melee DPS should focus their attention on killing these as fast as possible. If you aren't able to kill one before the next one spawns, some ranged DPS may need to assist. Be aware that the guards hit very hard, and have a periodic AoE (Blast Nova 10 yard range) that can easily kill the melee DPS around it if not careful. This AoE has a cast time, and is easy to run out of if you don't underestimate its range.
- Deep Breath. At random periods during phase two, Onyxia will emote that she is taking a deep breath. When this happens, note her position, direction and get out of her path. A few seconds after the emote, she'll fly straight in the direction she's pointing, and leave a trail of massive, fiery damage about 10 yards wide. If in doubt, run all the way to the nearest side of the room, or against the wall behind her.
During this phase of the encounter ranged DPS should be focused on bringing Onyxia herself down to 40% to start phase 3, though must interrupt that to AoE the packs of whelps. Melee dps should focus on killing the Onyxian Lair Guards.
Phase 3
Onyxia will land on the Southern side of the room and immediately cast Bellowing Roar, causing the raid to run in fear for the next 3 seconds. Finish off whatever adds remain while the tank positions Onyxia. Note that, unlike the level 60 encounter, the tank will have retained aggro on Onyxia from phase 1. It's advisable to ensure that the tank is unaffected by this initial fear, so that Onyxia can be positioned correctly (fear ward, berserker rage, tremor totem).
Phase 3 is essentially the same as phase one aside from periodic fears, some raid damage from eruption and occasional whelp spawns which are not too dangerous. She does nothing else special and will die upon reaching 0% HP.
Onyxia Tip!
October 5, 2009
In phase three of both 10 and 25 man Onyxia (read all about it here), you will find yourself being regularly feared. The floor will also be exploding. My advice had been simply to "try not to stand on the cracks of the floor", however there is a nifty little space I found that you can stand on and avoid any floor damage, as well as any possibility of being feared into a whelp cave.
During this phase, you can jump up onto a ledge (approximately where the red arrow is pointing) which will put you above the level of the exploding floor. When you get feared, you'll run along the red oval, never having to worry about running toward the whelps while you can't control your movement :)
And another tip for hunters:
One tip to help you and your raid cope with Deep Breaths: Since you're obviously a hunter, use Track Dragonkin to be able to see Onyxia easily on your mini map (don't get her mixed up with the whelps, however :) ). Occasionally ping her location on the mini map to inform your raid members of her position. She will always deep breath across the room, meaning that if she's a the 3 o'clock position (by the eastern whelp cave), the deep breath will aim for the 9 o'clock position (the western whelp cave). Standing at either 12 o'clock or 6 o'clock (or around either of the two) means you will be perfectly safe from taking deep breath damage.