Help with 3rd stage Onyxia transition

S

Sabin Figaro

Veteran XV
Man our group just got demolished on the transition. Can someone give some pointers on it. As a priest I try to run to the north edge and jump on the wall, while healing the main tank, but I can never get there before I get hit with the breath or get feared into the middle.


Tips in general and what I should do as a priest would be appreciated. Our best attempt tonight was 29%
 
there is a spot where you can jump up onto that wall on the left and right sides (to the north). once up top, you can be feared off; granted, you will be feared, you will just be safe from splashes.

you horde or alliance? if horde, have shamans throw down the correct totems (grounding?), and all your undeads can use wotf. if alliance...dunno, never done onyxia with anyone but horde.

when we were 1st attempting her, we would all down a greater fire pot when she landed, to take some dmg from the fear/splashes.

@ stage 3, before she fears, the ground will tremble slightly (keep an eye out for it, you'll see what i mean). at this point move your char from side to side. for some reason you don't get feared as much when you move slightly before the fear. as a warrior, i use the ground tremor to time my zerk stance/berserker rage so am immune to that fear.
 
When she starts to land, everyone should lay off a bit and the MT should do his best to grab aggro off her, and let the knockback she does move her. Casters are gonna get feared a lot so everyone has to watch out for the main tank and put fear wards on him, maybe one of the healers if you have enough dwarf priests. You just have to have people not DoT or attack for a brief period while the MT grabs Onyxia from the landing.

After that if you're melee, there are two spots where you will take tail damage, but about 90% of the time not be feared into the lava. They're sort of diagonal towards the entrance from the center on each side (they're the largest areas without any fissures). With tail swipe currently broken you can sit there without any sort of problems after main tank gets aggro.
 
When she starts to land, have everyone haul ass to their respective sides and get healers up on the walls. The MT should still be front and center getting aggro on Onyxia again, and pulling her back to the standard tanking spot.

To defeat the fear problem, wait for the ground to shake and then walk directly backwards until the fear hits. You'll get the symbol on your head but just stand still. You should have a dwarf priest or two around for fear ward on the MT to aid in aggro mgmt.
 
Jimmy said:
When she starts to land, have everyone haul ass to their respective sides and get healers up on the walls. The MT should still be front and center getting aggro on Onyxia again, and pulling her back to the standard tanking spot.

To defeat the fear problem, wait for the ground to shake and then walk directly backwards until the fear hits. You'll get the symbol on your head but just stand still. You should have a dwarf priest or two around for fear ward on the MT to aid in aggro mgmt.
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Listen to this man

Main thing is lay off dps until tank positions her and has lots of hate
and of course position yourself where he says.
 
Get a good tank :)

Our tank (a TW man) gets agro right away and holds it, even though we have mages/hunters/rogues unloading on Onyxia when she is in the air.
 
Calder said:
Get a good tank :)

Our tank (a TW man) gets agro right away and holds it, even though we have mages/hunters/rogues unloading on Onyxia when she is in the air.
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everyone (ranged dps) should be unloading on her in stage two; the MT can't really do anything @ that stage. it's the transition from 2 to 3 where the MT can lose aggro due to retarded dps classes. there's nothing an MT can do besides taunt/mocking blow/sunder once she is off of him @ stage 3; by which time she has breathed on that particular side once or twice. as long as no one over aggros, it doesn't take anything special to hold aggro @ stage 3.

which reminds me of another tip: make sure who ever pulls aggro off of MT starts running directly towards the MT. if people try to run away (which seems to be the instict) they will just get more ppl killed. don't let them do that; make sure they run towards the MT position.
 
Hunters feign, rogues vanish, mages and locks lay off at like 42%

Half the time she doesn't even kill anybody when she comes down for us.
 
We run to the sides to jump on those ledges, but it always seems like she gets a breath off on either side and decimates half the group... we are getting better at the first two stages and usually have less than 3 deaths by stage 3.

So Jimmy, you're saying if you just walk backwards until fear hits you wont go anywhere? I think a lot of people are preoccupied with getting on the ledge right at stage 3's start to avoid being feared into the lava and not doing their job and the MT dies. I know if I could just walk backwards and not worry about the ledge things would go more smoothly for me. Our group is frankly not organized enough to make a quick transition if our MT goes down.
 
If you're horde, you should be undead, thus you can use wotf at the first fear to position yourself. You can also use the pvp trinket to dispel a fear.

If you're alliance, you should be dwarf, and use fear ward on you ( I'm pretty sure it's possible), and positionned on the north east or west.

Also, if you're moving foward and backward while being feared, you have a pretty good chance that the fear will get you but you wont move at all. That's what I'm doing as a priest in that fight...

GL
 
HERE'S A COOL TIP:
have your highest dps rogue NOT VANISH and position himself at the 12 o clock spot, onyxia should charge him on landing giving the mt valuable time to get the mob under control

holding back while the ground shakes will in fact lock you in place


also just fyi onyxia is immune to both taunt and mocking blow
 
Sabin Figaro said:
So Jimmy, you're saying if you just walk backwards until fear hits you wont go anywhere? I think a lot of people are preoccupied with getting on the ledge right at stage 3's start to avoid being feared into the lava and not doing their job and the MT dies. I know if I could just walk backwards and not worry about the ledge things would go more smoothly for me. Our group is frankly not organized enough to make a quick transition if our MT goes down.
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Yeah. Just wait for the ground to rumble and then pull back until the fear hits (maybe 1-2 seconds after the shake?). The fear will hit and you'll see the symbol above your head, but you won't move anywhere (frozen in your spot).

As far as the MT going down when she lands, there should be some priests/druids/shamen already in a relatively safe spot up near the wall that can keep him up until most of the other healers have gotten up there. Then go back into your healing rotation. ALL DPS should not be engaging Onyxia at this time while the MT builds hate and repositions her to the standard spot.

Note - if the MT positions Onyxia a little off-center, melee can stand up on the wall (only on the "close side") and attack her from there. You won't get hit by the lava splashes, but you will still get feared. No biggie, though, because you'll just run down the length of the wall a little (not off), so you can just turn around and start hitting again.
 
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