Warcraft Experience

I will share the exact tactics we used to kill Onyxia. Once you know what to do, the fight is surprisingly easy.

Where is Onyxia’s Lair?
A surprising amount of people do not know where it is located, and it is easy to understand why. Believe it or not, this high level dragon is located in Dustwallow Marsh. She is located in the Wyrmbog, in the south-west region of the map. There is a cave that looks like the mouth of a dragon, this is the place!

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Items You Will Need
First of all, if you haven’t already, you will need your [item]Drakefire Amulet[/item]. You get this by doing the long string of quests that start in the Burning Steppes. The Drakefire Amulet is not only a decent stats neckpiece, it is also the key to Onyxia’s lair. It is not necessary to wear the neckpiece to get in the lair, you can get in just by carrying it with you. Everyone in the raid must have one!

Fire Resist Potions
While not necessary, it is a good idea to keep a few Greater Fire Resist pots with you, since they will come in handy to absorb the fire damage she will be dealing.

Fire Resist Gear
Be sure to have some decent fire resist. No need to go insane, because stats are better, but have at least 60 fire resist as a caster/ranged and 100 or more for melee. The Drakefire amulet conveniently adds +15 Fire Resistance, so if you don’t have a better neck-piece, you might consider wearing this for the encounter.

Some Set Pieces
It is a good idea to have some set pieces; at least the ones from UBRS. Stats are important if you want to last through the fight, and if you are wearing crappy green gear, you are most likely not going to last, or you’re going to absorb too much healing/mana from your priests.

Group Arrangement
Group 1 - Pally with FR aura, 2 Priests or 1 Priest/1 Druid, Main Tank Warrior, Warlock for Imp Buff. Be sure to use a warlock who has the improved imp ability. It adds 54.6 Stam.

All other groups can have a combination of 1 healer and 1 pally if possible with FR aura. Keep the ranged people in one group and the melee in another to ensure all get healing from their respective range.

Warders
After zoning into the lair, you’ll see 3 - 5 warders. Kill them at range, with minimal melee. They have a fierce AOE fire attack that can do lots of damage to many people. If only the tank is holding them, the attack isn’t too bad. Just try not to get more than one warder at a time, or you can have a wipe on your hands, or at least a slow-down.

Buff!
Ok, you’re through the warders. Wait in the little doorway to her lair, but be sure no one goes in yet. Buff up, soul stone the MT and healers. Drink whatever buff potions now.

Begin!
Send your MT in, and have the rest of the raid follow very closely in tow. Have even groups go to the north west side of the cave, and odd groups go to the north east side. Be sure everyone goes all the way to the north, and avoids the two whelp egg areas on both sides of the cave. If you go in there, many whelps will spawn, which is a mess.

Phase 1
With everyone in position, no one should be attacking Onyxia except the main tank. Let him get his aggro while the raid waits. Have the MT pull onyxia north middle side of the cave, so that the raid is on either side of her. The MT is pinned between her and the north wall. After about 30 seconds, the raid can begin LIGHT dps. If you try to be a dps hero here, you will pull aggro, and you will wipe the raid. DON’T do high dps here, just the lightest attacks you have. Casters use non-fire wands, rogues/hunters be sure to feign/vanish often to wipe aggro.

Phase 2
Once the Phase 2 signal comes, around 65%, Onyxia will become airborne. At this point it is crucial that the raid spread from each other. No one in the entire raid should be closer than 3 yards from the next person. If Ony sees you are close to someone else, she will do a deep breath, which will wipe most of the raid. If you see the deep breath warning, run to the walls of the cave as fast as you can, you might live, but probably not. During Phase 2, everyone does MAX DPS. No aggro to worry about here. Go balls out dps, and have her dotted constantly. Dots will also keep her from deep breaths.

Phase 2 also brings about the occasional whelp pack. When this happens, have a mage frost nova them, then have warriors/pallies hold them, while aoe’rs finish them off. Be clean, and still maintain the 3 yard rule.

At 42%, all dots should stop except from one chosen high dps hunter. Choose this hunter at the beginning of the raid. That hunter needs to sustain dots and high dps, while the rest of the raid needs to go back to wands and light dps. That hunter has a crucial role for Phase 3.

Phase 3
The toughest and sloppiest phase of all. Onyxia will start to land anywhere from 23% to 35% health. When she does, ALL DPS completely stops except for that chosen hunter. The MT needs to go back to the north side of the cave from phase 1. The raid should go to their phase 1 positions. The hunter will have aggro and should bring Ony to the MT. At that point the Hunter needs to feign death or die.

DPS remains off until the MT reacquires aggro. Once aggro is nailed down, everyone will go max dps but remain in their phase 1 positions. Now you must kill Ony as fast as possible, because everything is against you. The lava splashes will do lots of dmg, whelps will continue to come out, and Ony’s tail and breath will do loads of damage to anyone in its path. Stay parallel to her eye or chest and give it all you got.

Conclusion
With practice of phase transitions, you will effectively take down Onyxia. She is a quick instance boss with great loot, and her head can be turned into Stormwind for a great epic quest reward. One head per raid. She can be skinned and her scales can be used to make [item]Onyxia Scale Cloak[/item] for Blackwing Lair and Fire Resist.

View a movie of an Alliance Onyxia Kill here.