Onyxia (tactics)

Onyxia is a level ?? black dragon boss in Onyxia's Lair.

Phase One
Onyxia melees for about 12,000-15,000 on plate. Onyxia is tauntable.

Phase Two
Onyxia takes off at 65%, has no threat table, cannot be attacked from melee, and uses the following abilities:

Phase Three
Onyxia lands at 40% HP. She regains all her phase one abilities and gains some additional abilities.
 * Spawn Onyxian Whelps - Small numbers of whelps will continue to spawn in phase 3.
 * Spawn Onyxian Whelps - Small numbers of whelps will continue to spawn in phase 3.
 * Spawn Onyxian Whelps - Small numbers of whelps will continue to spawn in phase 3.

Strategy
This is (still) a very simple encounter overall. For strategy videos of both the 10-man and 25-man encounter, look below the loot table on this page. You ideally want 2 tanks, 2 healers, 3 melee DPS, and 3 ranged DPS for 10 man, and 2 tanks, 5 healers, 8 melee DPS, and 10 ranged DPS for 25 man.

Phase 1
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 need to stay to either side of her, just within range (which is wider than it looks). If melee DPS is too close to her head, they will be killed by Cleave; if they're too close to her tail, 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 2
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. 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, as having more than one up at a time can overwhelm a tank.  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, leaving not enough DPS to kill the Guards quickly enough, and allowing them to overwhelm the raid.  This AoE has a cast time, and is easy to run out of if you don't underestimate its range.  Onyxia must be brought down as quickly as possible by ranged DPS, as the Guards will stop coming once phase two ends.


 * 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 down to 40% to start phase 3, although they must interrupt this to AoE the packs of whelps. Melee dps should focus on killing the Onyxian Lair Guards.

For raids looking to complete the Many Whelps! Handle It! (10 player) / Many Whelps! Handle It! (25 player) achievements, the instant her feet leave the ground, send one player down each entrance of the egg cave. Each player should look to spawn about 25 eggs, then turn around and exit the cave without doing anything that causes aggro. Note that the 40 whelps she normally spawns will still spawn, so it will take some high-level coordination to AoE down roughly 90 whelps. There is no indication that players have spawned enough whelps until Onyxia dies, so don't be afraid to pop more than 50 eggs.

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 the 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.

Differences from level 60
Onyxia no longer drops threat between phases 1 and 3, and she is no longer immune to fire effects and abilities.Wing buffet no longer lowers aggro. Deep Breath is cast more often, and the cast time has been increased. Onyxian Lair Guards now spawn in phase 2, and melee can no longer hit Onyxia in phase 2. Lava eruptions happen during the Bellowing Roar fear, not just after it.

In a Nutshell

 * Do not stand behind or in front of her (except tank);
 * tank her facing the wall;
 * when whelps spawn, quickly gather and nuke them;
 * quickly kill any Lair Guards that spawn;
 * dots, dots, dots;
 * and for the love of god, when she breathes RUN!!!

Solo strategy
Onyxia is easily soloable in 10-player mode. Just nuke her in phase one (to 65%), dragging her to the northern end of the room. Once she hits 65% health, keep nuking her, as she'll run to the south end of the room to take off. Ideally, get her beneath 40% health so she'll land automatically, which requires taking off 1.2M/5.6M health in 10/25-player mode. If she's not beneath 40% health before she takes off, DoT her up and use whatever ranged abilities are available.

The Onyxian Whelps will spawn no matter what, so gather them up and AoE them down. They have 63K/189K health each. If Onyxia is in phase 2 for longer than 15 seconds, she'll summon an Onyxian Lair Guard with 189K/630K health that will need to be killed as well. Repeat guards are summoned every 30 seconds thereafter, and if she's up for longer than 90 seconds, she'll summon another wave of whelps.

Once she lands to start phase 3, clean up any remaining adds, then finish her off.

Loot
In addition to the items in the tables below, Onyxia is guaranteed to drop the following each time she is killed:
 * Enlarged Onyxia Hide Backpack
 * Ashen Sack of Gems

Very rarely, she may also drop the Reins of the Onyxian Drake in both 10- and 25-player modes.

Related achievements
Two of the new achievements are named after famous sentences taken from the Onyxia Wipe Animation. "She Deep Breaths More" is a nod to the common forum complaint that, after every patch, bugs or intentional changes result in Onyxia deep breathing more often.
 * Onyxia's Lair (10 player)
 * More Dots! (10 player)
 * Many Whelps! Handle It! (10 player)
 * She Deep Breaths More (10 player)
 * Onyxia's Lair (25 player)
 * More Dots! (25 player)
 * Many Whelps! Handle It! (25 player)
 * She Deep Breaths More (25 player)

Quotes

 * Intro
 * yell


 * Phase 2 (at 65%)
 * yell


 * Phase 3 (at 40%)
 * yell


 * Killed a player
 * yell


 * Kite her from her lair
 * yell

Videos

 * 10-player version
 * (text guide)
 * (text guide)
 * (text guide)
 * (text guide)


 * 25-player version
 * (example fight)