I know that Onyxia isn’t the most complicated fight out there, but I thought some younger resto druids out there may benefit from a guide to the fight.
The fight, like the old version, is a three phased encounter.
Phase 1
Once your tank gets Onyxia to her tank spot (usually the north part of her lair), you should only have to heal the MT. Take care to stay to the side of the dragon. If you get too far towards the head you can get cleaved and if you get too closed to the back you can get tail swiped into the whelp caves (Bad!). As I mentioned above, during phase 1 you usually only have to heal the tank unless someone does something they shouldn’t. So keep full HoTs up on the Main Tank and Nourish when needed.
Once Onyxia gets to 65% health, she moves to the middle of the room, flies up in the air and phase 2 begins.
Phase 2
At the beginning of phase 2, everyone needs to group up in the middle of the room. A lot of whelps will spawn, these need to be AE’d down ASAP. Be careful not to throw out rejuvs on people too early, because if you get agro from the whelps you will likely die.
After the whelps are dead, (or before if your slow killing the whelps) a lair guardian will spawn. This guardian will need to be tanked and a healer will need to be assigned to this tank. As a druid, it is unlikely you will be assigned to this role, but if you are just keep up full HoTs and cast Nourish when needed. Take care to stay more than 10 yards away from the guardian or you will eat his fire AE and likely die.
As a druid, your more likely role during phase 2 is to raid heal. While in the air, Onyxia shoot fireballs at people. That person and anyone else close to them will take some fire damage. The damage is not particularly severe, but players should still try to keep spread out to mitigate the damage.
The other thing you will need to pay attention for is Deep Breath. During Phase 2, Onyxia roams from corner to corner in her lair. From time to time you will receive a raid emote “Onyxia takes a Deep Breath”. When you see this emote, look at Onyxia, take note of what direction she is facing and quickly get out of her path. If you do not, you will likely die. Also, while running for cover, be careful not to get near the whelp caves.
Once Onyxia’s health reaches 40%, she lands and Phase 3 begins.
Phase 3
The moment Onyxia lands she will do an AE fear. Hopefully the tank will have some type of fear protection so he can position Onyxia (Same place as Phase 1). After she is positioned, the fight is identical to phase 1 except that she now fears and there are lava eruptions in the room. Again make sure you stay to the side of Onyxia. The lava will add some extra raid damage that you will need to deal with, but primary heals should be on the Main Tank. She will fear the raid every few seconds during phase 3. As long as no one gets feared into the whelp caves you should have no problems.
The “hardest” part of this fight is Phase 2 and the transition to Phase 3. Once she is positioned in Phase 3 and all the whelps adds are dead you’ve practically already won.
When my guild does this fight on 10 man, we usually bring 3 healers. I’m pretty sure that 2 would be sufficient.
