TankSpot's Guide to Onyxia

This is an addendum to our strategy to defeat the Onyxia encounter. Enjoy!

TankSpot Forum Discussion:

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[CanadaMMA]

"And spawn many whelps."

You can almost hear the smirk cracking on lore's face as he says this.

[aurawolf]

Finally found this channel after so long! Thank you for the pro guide. Well done!

[nexusg]

I would like to see TankSpot videos start to explain group makeup and why. For instance, "We use two tanks in this encounter to immediately get agro on the whelps coming from both sides. To keep up on healing it's good to have 5 healers." -- That kind of thing.

[MrJowee]

Considering the little amount of DPS a tank does, it's not worth the risk of pulling the whelps from the OT and then having to deal with big adds as well. Remember, the big adds come about 15 seconds after the whelps. Also, the whelps don't hit very hard, so one tank should be able to handle it. Maybe a quick AoE that will mitigate damage, but don't take any risks.

[MrJowee]

The MT runs to where the raid entered the room (Ony will run to the same place when she takes off) and tank the large adds that enter. A DPS will have to be with him, as every 90 seconds another add spawns, regardless as to weather or not the first add is down.

[MrJowee]

That's the OT's job. MT takes the big adds, due to the fact that agro from phase 1 carries into phase 3, and it's easy to keep agro on Ony and one big add rather than a dozen drakes. Also, you can't just stand in front of the whelp spawn areas. They come from two sides, so you have to stand in the middle, and sort of run around picking them up.

[IronJesus]

Paladin Prot rotation is called 9:6:9. It's Holy Shield, Hammer of the Righteous, Judge, Shield of the Righteous, Consecrate, taunt, in between cd's and Avenger's Shield is for the pull/if you can weave it in. I can upload a video if you want, but figured a quick comment might help. ;)

[istaqa]

WE NEED TANKSPOT GUIDES BACK FOR CLASSIC!

[serenysmusic]

old school tankspot vids
i miss the wrath days
wheres my nostalgia glasses?

[foreverzerox]

not sure many people know this but as a warrior tank you could disarm the lair guards when they charge they're weapon. It'll buy you a few seconds from taking too much damage

[crrnhrn]

It changes as dps increases, in current content this is more of an issue, and is the point around which tank gear changes (survivability vs threat). At current (Trial of the Crusader) levels of gear, tanks need 6k tps to stay ahead of dps reliably.

If a healer gets aggro (and gets hit), there are problems, as healing isn't producing noticeable threat. There are encounters where a pally healer with Righteous Fury up is helpful to pull adds, but the tanks need to pick up the mobs quickly.

[HaVoKxii]

The ones I saw and knew are:
Mike's Scrolling Battle Text
Quartz (Cast Bar)
Pitbull (Unit Frames)
Bartender

All the others are raid addons I'm sure and hes customized his UI.

[thecatalyst]

what mrdrumline said, also looks similar to SCT, "Scrolling Combat Text" and ArcHud for the healthbars etc. if you want to check those out too.

[TarossBlackburn]

The elite guards should get their attention, too. They have two abilities to look out for: Burning Weapon and Blast Nova.
Those who can should concentrate on disarming/disabling them as soon as they finish their cast. It will reduce their damage output a lot.
The Blast Nova is an AoE that can not be interrupted (not with kick at least) and should be ran away from if at all possible. Specially if you have just been hit by Onyxias fireball, it will kill you.

[Uhdksurvhunter]

Easy encounter, if you have any warriors in the group you can reduce the damage of the warders fairly with disarm or with a rogue - Dismantle.

[Jetbence]

@CherubXRock
The casting bar addon is Quartz.

[Djumn]

You should've said when she runs towards the lift off area, "At this point, you have to throw many many dots"

[barrett]

You DO need to range her down. It has been CHANGED from the pre-BC version, you can NO LONGER MELEE HER IN P2. Period. Go to Wowhead if you don't believe me.

[TarossBlackburn]

I always love the movies you guys put up to prepare for raids and other information, but I do note that there's some information that you could've added to the guide.
From experience I find it's easy if you do have 2 tanks to both pick up the first whelpspawns and merge them in the middle for everyone to burn them down fast. After that ranged can go burn Onyxia from the skies. (cont)

[CanadaMMA]

I disagree. Everything is easier now because players are getting better and have more tools at their disposal

When the 40 man raids were out, new players didn't have A) A lot of the addons we take for granted now and B) experienced raiders to teach them the ropes.

Also, if you figure a player has roughly a 1% chance to fuck up and wipe the raid. then cutting those numbers from 40 to 25 or 10 is obviously going to lead to less wipes. It doesn't mean each individual raider needs any less skill.