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So yesterday brought patch 3.2.2 for World of Warcraft, and the much anticipated Onyxia revamp. Brought all the way from being a raid encounter for level 60s in vanilla WoW to a PUG’s nightmare for level 80s. I think the encounter is tuned perfectly (or at least the 10 man version which is the one I did) to be quite a challenge to get her down the first time, but once you got her it will probably be a cake walk just like the old days. But, again, if you are running with a PUG expect tears, more tears, and quite a lot of blood.
I actually tanked her on my orc Warrior back in vanilla WoW, and it was a really fun experience to do it again (I almost shed a tear from the nostalgia of standing in front of her), but with a new Warrior and all the new things we have.
I have here done a quick overview of the fight, what I think about it, and – from a tanking Warrior’s perspective – and how to easiest get her down in a PUG.
Phase 1
Onyxia will be a tank and spank fight until she reaches 65% and she run to the back of the cave and fly up. She will do Cleave and Flame Breath in a cone in front of her, so no one but the tank stand there. She will also do Wing Buffet which does damage and knocks you back. Like most dragons she also has a Tail Swipe to anyone dumb enough to stand behind her.
Who tanks the first phase doesn’t matter. I did it one time and off-tanked two other two times. I did however have some strange things happen with my various debuffs. Sunder Armor would for example not be applied, despite that I hammered Devastate 30 times. The same thing with Demoralizing Shout (I would see a “miss” all the time) and sometimes Thunder Clap.
As a main tank just run towards where she is sleeping, charge the last bit to get rage, deliver a Shield Slam, turn her around, and walk backwards to the opposite side of the entrance. Walk. If you run you will run faster than your healers and… well, die. Once at the wall hug it all the time so you don’t get thrown around by the Wing Buffet.
(Ah the Wing Buffet. Back in the old days this nasty thing reduced your threat, which led to hilarious moments when Onyxia would turn to face the raid and do a Flame Breath and/or Cleave. Joy.)
If you are off-tanking your priorities are first to handle any whelps stupid raid members triggered by standing close to the tail and getting knocked back close to the whelp cave. Always keep an eye out for stray whelps, and when you pick them up bring them to the DPS and have them killed. Otherwise just keep all the debuffs up on Onyxia (Sunder Armor, Thunder Clap, Demoralizing Shout).
Phase 2
Onyxia will fly up in the air and will be up there casting Fireballs and Deep Breath until she reaches 40%. Fireballs is random and can’t be done much about, while Deep Breath means instant death if you are caught in it. Since melee can’t hit her in the air it’s up to the range DPS to bring her down.
Immediately upon entering this phase 40 whelps will spawn from left and right side. Shortly thereafter Lair Guards – similar to the trash mobs – will start spawning, and keep spawning until she is down. Random whelps will also appear during this phase.
This is the hard part.
Whelps
There are different strategies to handle the whelps. One is to have a tank at each side to pick up the whelps, and then dragging both groups together for AoE. This was the strategy I used all the time, but it has some drawbacks. One is that as a warrior you will suck at picking up the whelps since they come in a long line (they always get aggro on a healer) instead of nicely grouped up all at once. Basically what happens is that you do a Thunder Clap and get maybe half of them, but then you got a cooldown on your Thunder Clap. If you do a masterfully aligned Shockwave you can pull it off until Thunder Clap is ready, but it will be tight. Except a few whelps to run away no matter what you do.
Meanwhile the paladin on the other side throws down one Consecration and gets them all. Am I jealous? Maybe a bit.
The other strategy is to have all raid members to the center, and have the tank(s) pick them up there. By doing that you only require one tank (preferably a paladin), and you get all whelps in one place right from the start for AoE happiness. But this require everyone to know what to do, and most of the time everyone is chasing Onyxia trying to land a few last hits on her before she flies up. Make it clear that when Onyxia start moving towards the back of the cave everyone run to the center.
Lair Guards
The other good thing about the second strategy is that you leave one tank free of pesky whelps hitting him when he go and grab the Onyxia Lair Guards that spawn during this phase. Use Taunt when they are coming (towards a healer most likely).
Don’t tank the Lair Guards close to the raid (here is one of those trial and errors). They will do an AoE called Blast Nova which will likely kill any raid members close by. It has a cast time so melee should have plenty of time to run out of it, but if a healer is standing nearby and is unaware… In fact even the tank should take the time to run out of it, because there is no reason standing in there. Everyone should also try to keep them disarmed to reduce the damage the deal.
It is preferably to only have melee take care of the Lair Guards while range DPS try to take down Onyxia to 40%. But if you get swarmed by Lair Guards for some reason (maybe you got too few melees) have the range DPS lend a hand.
Deep Breath
At random times (conspiracy theories say otherwise) Onyxia will do an emote “Onyxia takes a Deep Breath”, which is the equivalent of hearing “Nuclear Launch Detected” in StarCraft. This means that Onyxia will soon cast a blanket of fire across the room, and instantly kill anyone caught in it. If you have Deadly Boss Mods (you should) you will have a big blue text appear on your screen with a sound effect that (for those of us familiar with Karazhan) will make you panic and start running in circles away from the Big Bad Wolf. You can’t miss it.
You can either look up at Onyxia and figure out which direction she will cast it in (and run the other way) or you can do like everyone else and run like a madman to the closest wall. Hugging a wall is safe. Standing out in the open is not.
Just like a shirt from Penny Arcade says: “Save a Raid – Hug the Wall”.
Phase 3
Phase 3 is exactly like Phase 1, except Onyxia will also do a fear on the entire raid, and flames will start coming up from the cracks in the floor. Hit repeatedly until she is not moving any longer.
Now the cracks are easy to spot, so they only time you would be hit by the flames is when you get feared. Obviously having a tank that can break fear (or even better be immune to it) is preferably, since Onyxia won’t turn and cast a cleave or breath on the raid. To my knowledge Druids and Paladins don’t have anything like that, and I have absolutely no clue about Death Knights. But Warriors have Berserker Rage, which we have used to break Onyxia’s fear since level 60.
Of course there is Tremor Totem, Fear Ward, Will of the Forsaken, Every Man for Himself, trinkets, etc, but you can count on Berserker Rage. Onyxia won’t (or at least didn’t use to) do the fear more than once every 30 seconds, which means Berserker Rage will be available all the time.
Good luck!
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