World of Warcraft

Onyxia's Lair, located in southwestern Dustwallow Marsh, is home to Onyxia, daughter of the ancient Deathwing of the black dragonflight. Her brother, Nefarian, rules over Blackrock Mountain and Blackwing Lair.

The black dragonflight are shapeshifters, and Onyxia's humanform is Lady Prestor of Stormwind. There, she meddles with the internal affairs of the humans. Further questing reveals that she is involved with why prisoners in the stockades were not killed or why the Defias were involved.

Entering Onyxia's Lair requires a Drakefire Amulet, which requires players to go through an elaborate series of quests. Once inside the job only gets harder.

Map (needs to be ported to the wiki!)

(Compiled by Atlas Mod)

Getting the Drakefire Amulet (Horde) (needs to be ported to the wiki!) The Horde side of getting this amulet will carry you to Badlands, through western Kalimdor and to Blackrock Spire, as well as meeting an old hero from the relics of the WC3 expansion bonus campaign.

The quests begin at Warlord Goretooth in the Badlands (the infamous "Warlord runs") who asks you to retrieve some documents from Lower Blackrock Spire, killing the Ogre, Troll, and Wyrmkin bosses along the way.

If the documents aren't on the Wyrmkin boss, backtrack to find out who they are on, and loot them. Return to Goretooth, who will in turn follow up by sending you to Thrall.

After hitting org and talking to Thrall, he'll send you to Upper Blackrock Spire to kill Rend Blackhand.

Return his noggin to Thrall who will give you a trinket, a mad lightning bolt buff to the head, and send you to find Rexxar, champion of the Horde.

Rexxar and his big bear Misha wander the north/south running roads between southern Stonetalon and northern Feralas. Once you find him, he will send you to talk to Myranda the Hag in southern Western Plaguelands, standing on a stump near the graveyard.

An unlikely venue for an unlikely meeting is to be followed by a very foreseeable quest back to Upper Blackrock Spire.

Here you are to loot 20 Dragon Eyes from any of the dragonkin in UBRS.

Completing this nets you a dragonkin disguise, which you will now use to infiltrate a cave in southeastern Duskwallow Marsh and speak with Emberstrife of the black dragonflight.

He will have you kill 3 elites dragons:

A bronze dragon named Chronalis in Tanaris by the Cavern of Time
A green dragon named Somnus by the eastern lake shore near the Sunken Temple in the Swamp of Sorrows
A blue dragon named Scryer in a cave near the southwestern wall-bend in Winterspring

As a follow up to this, Emberstrife will have you go to kill Axtrox of the red dragonflight near Grim Batol in the Wetlands.

He will give you a medal for your achievments, which he tells you to show to general Drakkisath in UBRS

If you attempt to do that he won't give two craps about your medal and slice you to ribbons. Instead seek out Rexxar once more.

He will tell you to kill General Drakkisath and get his blood. The blood is a loot drop so the amount of it will be limited. make sure you link your medallion for him before he dies for comic relief.

Find/return to Rexxar and he will craft for you the Drakefire Amulet.

Getting the Drakefire Amulet (Alliance) (needs to be ported to the wiki!) Onyxia's hold on Stormwind is clever and cruel. Along the way you will find old heroes and lead up to one of the best-scripted events in the game. The fun starts in The Burning Steppes at the local Alliance outpost in the southeastern area. The series will have you travelling between Stormwind, redridge, Burning Steppes, and Blackrock Depths mostly.

Speak with Helendris Riverhorn in the Burning Steppes to get the quest "Dragonkin Menace".

Upon completion accept the follow-up; "True masters, which will have you travel to and speak with someone in Redridge, then Stormwind, then redridge again, then back to the Burning Steppes.

Marshal Maxwell will give you a quest to search for Ragged John

Finding him sends you to Blackrock Depths with the quest "Abandonned Hope" in search of Marshal Windsor.

Find Marshal Windsor in one of the jail cells to have him send you back to Marshal Maxwell.

At this point, a random drop in Blackrock Depths will be a "Crumpled Note" which begins a quest.

Showing the note to Windsor sends you out to kill General Angerforge and the golem lord Argelmach to retrieve some documents.

Take them back to Windsor and be prepared, as the follow-up quest is the famed "Jail Break."

Escort Windsor around the jail and detention areas of Blackrock Depths (this must be done in a 5-man group) grabbing his gear and searching for a friend. He inevitably chooses several incorrect doors causing your team to fight a few sub-bosses. Make sure that you clear out most of this beforehand, is he sometimes misses mobs and will simply keep walking.

Once he grabs his gear he'll break into a run and book it for the exit. He exudes a buff that increases attack speed, so everything after this is easy. The quest ends when he makes it to the instance portal, and more importantly, when the quest says it is complete.

Windsor will, before you leave, inform you to meet him at Stormwind. make haste to the front gates of Stormwind and wait for him to show up. he despawns after a while if kept waiting, but returns every once in a while.

You now need to follow Marshal Windsor as he confronts the Stormwind guards and has them bow down and out of the way, and then follow his slow march to the throne room, guards bowing as he goes. At this point he will confront Lady prestor, the little King will go run off, and Highlord Bolvard Fordragon will begin taking on all of Onyxia's guards which were disguised as the room's guards.

In a recent patch it seems that you will actually need to assist him against the mass of dragonkin. Once they are dead, Fordragon will tell you to seek out a dragon that lives amoung humans to assist you.

You will find this dragon in a very unlikely place; Winterspring, in a small cave along the west wall as it slopes to the southern path. Work your way through a cave of blue dragonflight to a rune on the ground which teleports you up on top of the cave, near an NPC.

This shapeshifted blue dragonflight will inform you that to craft a Drakefire Amulet you need the blood of a black drake.

You will find this blood off Lord Drakkisath, back in Upper Blackrock Spire.

Return when you have it and she will craft for you the Drakefire Amulet; the key to Onyxia's Lair.

Beating Onyxia (needs to be ported to the wiki!) Onyxia is a difficult boss, but also the source of much end-game loot for many epic weapon quests. She also has a chance of dropping the tier 2 helm of any class. Onyxia's lair has only a handful of NPC's in it; a few dragonkin guards that guard the short pathway to the main lair. Kill these with a coordinated burst of stunning, high damage and keeping casters back. Onyxia can be divided into three stages.

First Stage: Have the main tank make the run down to greet Onyxia, followed by the remainder of the raid. It is best to have the raid form two groups on the back wall on either side of the main tank. This helps to avoid her frontal swipes and flame breath as well as any tail swipes she uses. It is important and sometimes a challenge to keep focus on the main tank, but hopefully he has enough fire resistance to stay up. Once roughly one third of her health is gone this easy stage is over.

Second Stage: Onyxia will take off into the air, flying high above everyone and situating herself in the northern area. In addition, her little dragon whelps will hatch and begin to swarm in intermittently. Her primary attack during this phase is to fire large bolts of fire everywhere. For this reason, many find it smart to have the raid fan out around the room and avoid a fireball hitting more than 1 person, if any. The tanks should concern themselves with protecting the casters and eliminating the whelps. After another third (or so) of her health depletes she will again land.

Third Stage: The third stage is the hardest, and if a group wipes it is likely from this stage. In addition to some straggling dragon whelps, Onyxia now has an attack which AoE Fears everyone in the room, causing bursts of fire to shoot up from between the ridges in the floor. Walking through a wall of fire hurts you, and such an ability is used very often. Controlling the surround chaos is key here. Focus on downing Onyxia's health and keeping the main tanks up and holding focus. Raid leaders main institute the use of macros designed to designate "No DPS", "Light DPS" and "Heavy DPS" variations to help the tank hold Onyxia's focus. Eventually, hopefully, Onyxia will die, and your group will jump around cheering. Onyxia can be skinned, yielding leather that can be used to make 18-slot bags and cloaks. One person can loot the Head of Onyxia, which can be turned in at Stormwind/Orgrimmar. The hanging of the head exudes a buff to the entire city called the "Rallying Call of the Dragonslayer" which is a great boon in combat. Many guilds will defeat Onyxia prior to another instance or battleground to gain an edge. In Stormwind, the head will be chained up under an archway to the left of the main pathway into the city. In Orgrimmar, Onyxia's head is placed on a pike near the entrance.

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