Let's not get too distracted by Onyxia until Rag is down, but, y'know, once we knock Rag to pieces this weekend we should get back to slicing up some big black dargon.

My thread on the raid forum about dealing with Onyxia:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... dID=544523

A couple quotes from another Ony thread:

Likwid wrote: Follow this and i promise you will kill Ony next try.

Let your tank DPS Ony until 97% in phase 1. No one else DPS's.. When she hits 97% everyone auto attacks.. slow DPS.

Make sure your tank has rage built up when Ony is about to land in Phase 3.

All Rogues/Priests/Hunters/Mages = Vanish/Feint Death/Fade/Ice Block when Phase 3 starts.


Last thing is DO NOT RESIST OR TRINKET OUT OF ONY's FEAR it build aggro. The only person you want resisting Ony's fear is your MT.

Needle wrote: The transistion is really just one of the places where all 40 people have to be paying attention. That's usually a problem for MC guilds as nothing in there requires perfect exexcution by all 40 people at one time.

Some people also say to use 2 tanks to help deal with fears; other people say to have all the tanks try to get aggro once the transition comes.

Discuss.

i like that deal with the vanish/feign/fade/ice block idea. that will really help us in the phase 2-3 transition i think. of course, this would mean that all of our mages would have to specc frost if they already arent specced so. but overall the strat looks good to me

Well, I think most of our mages do happen to have ice block, but those that don't will be in the same situation as warlocks. Except they still have blink, so they can get to the tank's spot faster if they have aggro.

The ice block is a good idea but sometimes the biggest problem with that is sometimes the whelps spawn just a few seconds before phase 3, which means that the mages have to be blasting them so they don't go off and have a merry time killing the healers. The last 2 times that I was at Onyxia whelps were still up when she had landed so it might be impractiable to have the mages all iceblocked.

We oughta try using 2 tanks next time. And make sure dreadmear unplugs his microwave beforehand.

ceo wrote: And make sure dreadmear unplugs his microwave beforehand.
word

so this means I dot the bitch up as she's landing right?

On the multiple tank front. Several times another warrior has gotten aggro and we try to pass it off to ranzor, as far as I am concerned we should take whoever gets aggro and heal them if they are potential tank. Hell I will switch to my warden staff and bear tank her.

pancake wrote: On the multiple tank front. Several times another warrior has gotten aggro and we try to pass it off to ranzor, as far as I am concerned we should take whoever gets aggro and heal them if they are potential tank. Hell I will switch to my warden staff and bear tank her.

I'd agree with this. Hell, I'd even say the person MTing in phase 1 shouldn't necessarily be who we want to pick it up in phase 3. I'd have far less mitigation than our standard MT if I were to try and pick it up with deathwish on in mostly dps & fr gear, but that's pretty much a guarantee that I'll have agro for at least 30 seconds. If whoever was MT in phase 1 keeps trying to establish agro during this time, they should be next in line if I die. If I live through all that, I could even stop trying to build agro once the MT's had a good 30 seconds to build up some of their own and we could do the switch then.

onyxia doesn't hit very hard and her firebreath is about 2k. if you have about 6.5k HP fully buffed then you can live through it easy.

only thing you need 2 tanks for is between fears. they can take turns swapping aggro. but with 2 tremors and decent timing you don't need 2.

I've become pretty convinced that this is the real deal (from the onyxia thread I started, linked above):

Mallus wrote: Some myths and truths about Onyxia:

Aggro Wipe:
There is no Aggro Wipe. Ever. The aggro you create in phase 1 is still there in phase 3. Aggro never diminishes over time. You keep all the aggro you generate the entire fight. The knockback effect removes about 4 sunders worth of threat. This is why you have to do slow dps in phase 1.

No Aggro in Phase 2:
This is Bull!@#s. Aggro is generated in phase 2 just like it is in phase 1 and 3. This is why mages and warlocks are usually first to die if your main tank screws up.

Taunt:
Onyxia is immune to taunt.

Melee are useless in phase 2:
Wrong. In phase 2, melee can use special attacks such as sinister strike, mortal strike, and SUNDER ARMOR. The problem is warriors have very few ways to generate rage to use these special attacks. It is not possible to do white melee damage in phase 2.

With all that in mind.. read post #7 here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... post544945

surefire way to kill her. never fails.

The post he referenced reads as follows:

Mallus wrote: we had this problem... we wiped on onyxia 6 times our first night trying her.. we did some research talking to other tanks and havnt wiped on her since.

the key for us is to give your tank 5 mighty rage potions.. and make sure your tank knows how to use his rage generating abilities. our tank downs a rage potion 2 seconds into the fight, and then keeps drinking them everytime the cooldown is up. he uses bloodrage everytime its up, and in phase 2 he uses berserker rage and challenging shuots a whelp group to shoot up to a full rage bar instantly.

what does the tank do with all this rage? he sunders onyxia. onyxia can be sundered in phase 2, but the problem is she's not hitting your tank and your tank cant do white damage.. so he's not getting any rage. using the bloodrage, rage pots, and berserker rage abilities.. the tank can keep enough rage to sunder her the ENTIRE time in phase 2...

this is how we do it.. it costs us about 10g for rage pots every week.. (our guild bank pays for it) and it never fails. onyxia goes straight back to the main tank and never even thinks about attacking anyone else.

phase 1:
wait for main tank to get about 10 sunders.
rogues do full hard dps the entire time. feint everytime its up.
hunters do full hard dps the entire time. feign death everytime its up.
casters wand.

phase 2:
everyone hits onyxia as fast as possible. priests blast her. druids blast her. rogues backstab her.
main tank sunders her the entire time.

phase 3: get back into positions, let the main tank confirm he has aggro.. give him about 3 seconds and then wtfpwn onyxia.

Several people, including one who says he's been main tanking her for a year, chimed in and said that this post is exactly correct. This post makes a lot of sense, and is the first thing I've seen that believably answers my questions. None of this nonsense with weird whelp aggro -> onyxia aggro stuff or whatnot.

Remember how we used to turn DPS off completely every 10% so the tank could hold aggro? Then we stopped recently because the tank never lost aggro in phase 1? Well, that still means he had less of an aggro lead than he used to when we turned off wand DPS, so by phase 3 instead of being on par with the raid, he's way behind.

In addition or instead of the mighty rage potion strat, we could also just let the MT do about 15% of her health all by himself before turning on DPS.

I will brew up some rage pots tonight.

this research by amun and all the discussion, is extremely benefical and i'm glad you guys posted it.

I'd like to do onxyia some more, and remember we've got to.

Not just for the tier 2 helms and the other uber loot, but for the onxyia scale cloaks we'll all need in BWL.

Snazzy can also make Mighty Rage potions and i'll farm up some gromsblood for our next onxyia attempt.

When is the next MW Onxyia?

If we start doing onyxia, im going to have to get off my lazy ass and get the key

I would really like to try the new strat so one of you sign up types get on it.