- This article is about the in-game boss. For character biography, see Onyxia. For the original encounter at level 60, see Onyxia (original).
 Onyxia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Race | Black wyrm (Dragonkin) |
| Level | ?? Boss |
| Reaction | Alliance Horde |
| Location | Onyxia's Lair, Dustwallow Marsh |
Onyxia is a level ?? black dragon boss in Onyxia's Lair.
Onyxia's 10-man abilities
Onyxia has approximately 4,800,000 HP.
Phase One
Onyxia melees for about 12,000-15,000 on plate. Onyxia is tauntable.
Flame Breath — Two second cast, 45 yard frontal cone. About 20,000 damage unresisted.- Cleave — 100% Weapon damage cleave in her frontal arc. Cast often.
- Wing Buffet — ~15,000 physical damage in a 20 yard frontal cone. Ignores armor.
- Tail Sweep — ~5,000 physical damage to targets near her tail. Ignores armor. Large knock-back, often into the whelp caves.
Phase Two
Deep Breath IS random!
Onyxia takes off at 65% and has no threat table.
- Fireball — Two second cast, random target in the raid. 10 yard AoE. About 5,000 damage unresisted.
- Breath — Onyxia emotes "Onyxia takes in a deep breath..." and about six seconds later all targets in a direct line in front of her will take repeated 4,000-5,000 Fire damage hits. The number of times hit depends on how close to the middle of the line the target is. Being in the middle of the breath is generally fatal.
- Spawn Onyxian Whelps - At the beginning of phase two and about every 90 seconds after Onyxia will spawn 40 Onyxian whelps with 60,000 HP who melee for 500 or so on plate. 20 will come from each side of the whelp cave.
- Spawn Onyxian Lair Guard - Every 30 seconds or so in phase 2 Onyxia will spawn an Onyxian Lair Guard with 190,000 HP. This will cast Ignite Weapon which adds 25,000 fire damage to its melee attacks, and Blast Nova which does 25,000 fire damage to targets within 10 yards. Note that these guards can be disarmed, which prevents them from being able to damage anyone with Ignite Weapon.
Phase Three
Onyxia lands at 40% HP. She retains all her phase one abilities and gains some additional abilities.
- Bellowing Roar — 1.5 second cast, 100 yard AoE fear. Three second duration.
- Eruption — During the duration of bellowing roar lava will erupt from the cracks in the floor. Being touched deals about 5,000 Fire damage.
- Spawn Onyxian Whelps - Small numbers of Whelps will continue to spawn in phase 3.
Strategy
Map of Onyxia's lair, showing raid positioning for Phases 1 & 3
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 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. 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.
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. 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 next to her.
- Tank her facing the wall
- When whelps spawn, quickly gather and nuke them
- Quickly kill any Lair Guards that spawn.
- And for the love of god, when she breathes RUN!!!
- More Dots!
Loot
|
[Enlarged Onyxia Hide Backpack] | 
|
[Ashen Sack of Gems] | |
|
[Head of Onyxia] | 
|
[Emblem of Triumph] |
| 10-player | 25-player | Type | Spec |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Empowered Deathbringer] | [Raging Deathbringer] | One-Hand axe | |
| [Sharpened Fang of the Mystics] | [Honed Fang of the Mystics] | Dagger | Healing |
| [Rusted Gutgore Ripper] | [Tarnished Gutgore Ripper] | Dagger | Physical dps |
| [Snub-Nose Blastershot Launcher] | [Rifled Blastershot Launcher] | Ranged | Gun |
| [Antique Cornerstone Grimoire] | [Antediluvian Cornerstone Grimoire] | Off-hand | Spellpower |
| [Reclaimed Shadowstrike] | [Reinforced Shadowstrike] | Polearm | Attack power |
| [Reclaimed Thunderstrike] | [Reinforced Thunderstrike] | Polearm | Attack power |
| [Glinting Azuresong Mageblade] | [Polished Azuresong Mageblade] | One-hand sword | Spellpower |
| [Singed Vis'kag the Bloodletter] | [Tempered Vis'kag the Bloodletter] | One-hand sword | Physical dps |
| [Gleaming Quel'Serrar] | [Burnished Quel'Serrar] | One-hand sword | Physical dps |
| [Keen Obsidian Edged Blade] | [Sharpened Obsidian Edged Blade] | Two-hand sword |
| 10-player | 25-player | Spec |
|---|---|---|
| [Fluttering Sapphiron Drape] | [Flowing Sapphiron Drape] | Caster cloak |
| [Runed Ring of Binding] | [Signified Ring of Binding] | Defense ring |
| [Eskhandar's Choker] | [Eskhandar's Links] | Defense neck |
| [Purified Shard of the Scale] | [Shiny Shard of the Scale] | +mp5 trinket |
| [Purified Shard of the Flame] | [Shiny Shard of the Flame] | +hp5 trinket |
|
[Sparkling Onyxia Tooth Pendant] | 
|
[Polished Dragonslayer's Signet] | |
|
[Purified Onyxia Blood Talisman] |
|
Related achievements
Three of the new achievements are named after famous sentences taken from the Onyxia Wipe Animation, later transformed into a Raid Assistant. "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.
| 10-player mode | 25-player mode | Objective |
|---|---|---|
 Onyxia's Lair
|
Onyxia's Lair
|
Defeat Onyxia |
| More Dots!
|
More Dots!
|
Defeat Onyxia in less than 5 minutes |
| Many Whelps! Handle It!
|
Many Whelps! Handle It!
|
Cause 50 Onyxia Whelplings to hatch within 10 seconds of Onyxia's liftoff, and then defeat her |
| She Deep Breaths More
|
She Deep Breaths More
|
Defeat Onyxia without anyone taking damage from a Deep Breath |
Patches and hotfixes
Patch 3.2.2 (2009-09-22): The Brood Mother Returns: After years of lurking in her lair battling the many brave adventurers who travelled from afar to challenge her, Onyxia returns to commemorate World of Warcraft's five-year anniversary.
- Onyxia has been scaled to offer new challenges to level 80 players in 10- and 25-player modes.
- Adjusted for modern raiding, but with the fundamental experience of fighting the Brood Mother still in effect, including the horrors of her Deep Breaths!
- Onyxia will now drop level 80 item versions of some classic loot items from the level 60 encounter.
- [Onyxian Drake], a very rare 310%-speed mount modeled after Onyxia herself will be available for the luckiest of challengers.
Videos
10-man encounter
25-man encounter
Video links
YouTube Lost Society 10 man, embedded text guide YouTube Tremor vs Onyxia 10 man narrated guide, embedded text guide YouTube Defias Onyxia 25man tactics (embedded text guide) YouTube Matrix Onyxia 25man (example fight)References
External links
Random Ravings Onyxia phase 1-3 guide with tricks. The Fluid Druid Onyxia tactics guide, updated for 3.2.2.