Phat Loot Phursday: Onyxia Scale Cloak
We did Quel'serrar a while back, so with Onyxia headed back to the game, we'll look at the other piece of gear that involved the black dragon we love to hate.
Name: Onxyia Scale Cloak (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDB)
Type: Cloak
Armor: 43
Abilties:
- +7 Stamina, +16 Fire resistance. Ah, the days of level 60, they seem so far gone now. Compare this to a prime tanking cloak nowadays, and take a look at just how far we've come.
- On equip, protects the wearer from being fully engulfed by something called Shadow Flame. What is Shadow Flame, you ask? Here's where this item really gets interesting: sit back and enjoy a tale of old level 60 raiding.
- Shadow Flame is actually an ability used by Nefarian, Onyxia's brother, and a few other bosses in Blackwing Lair. He casts a huge unblockable AoE during his fight -- unblockable, that is, unless you're wearing one of these cloaks (although since then, Ice Block and Divine Shield will both stop it).
- But to get a cloak (see below) you'd have to beat Onyxia, so this item was basically meant to send guilds back to the big dragon even while they were working through BWL. Interesting little mechanic, though you always used to hear guilds say they were trying to "get more cloaks" so they could go after Nef.
- This item doesn't seem to be returning in the anniversary patch, unfortunately. We get a new Vendorstrike, but no Onyxia Scale Cloak?
And to get the pattern in the first place, you have to down Onyxia, take the head to a faction leader, and then they'll send you to a quest giver that will teach you the recipe for the cloak. Feeling nostalgic yet, old-school raiders?
Keep in mind that if you are 70, you won't see the exclamation point to find this quest. You'll have to turn on low-level quest tracking if you want to see it. And you'll probably have to do it before patch 3.2.2, since the old Onyxia is likely going bye-bye.
Getting Rid of It: You never know when Nefarian might return -- maybe for the 10th anniversary? But in case you're not worried about that, you can trade the cloak in for 1g 51s 98c, disenchant it into a Large Brilliant Shard, or sell it on the AH, as it is BoE.
Filed under: Items, How-tos, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Instances, Quests, Raiding, Bosses, Phat Loot Phriday






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Euan Aug 20th 2009 9:05PM
The scales from Onyxia didn't "drop", they had to be skinned (skinning 300 + skinning enchant + Finkle's Skinner please), and yielded 2-4 a time.
arilasWL Aug 20th 2009 9:09PM
The Ony scale is not a drop (as stated above), you need to skin her to receive it.
Seraphna Aug 21st 2009 10:27AM
Actually no, you skinned her for her scales, which helped make the cloaks, you got the recipe by turning in her head, as a Leatherworker you were then awarded the recipe by one of the NPCs at the turnin.
Sanguinefrozenboy Aug 20th 2009 9:14PM
I remember a few level 70 BWL pugs where me and a few close friends were the only ones with cloaks and everyone was freaking out because they kept getting breathed on.
(lol I bet my sentence is full of grammar and spelling errors.)
Tito Aug 20th 2009 9:19PM
Could you only raid Onyxia once a week back in Vanilla Wow?
Oh god thats terrible. Nearly a whole year just to get a raid geared for Nefarian. =/
kia Aug 20th 2009 9:24PM
It meant guilds in BWL had earned the right to be there. It really meant something to be in a BWL guild at the time.
CkVega Aug 20th 2009 9:32PM
What usually happened is that the people that you kitted up with cloaks left to join guilds that were already progressing into BWL, it was harder for newer guilds to get a foothold in BWL because of it.
equiraptor Aug 20th 2009 9:33PM
Yes only once a week, no not nearly a year. Skinning Onyxia would give two to four scales per kill (as Euan said). That'd make 2.5 to 5 months. It'd take you that long to get everyone geared up from Molten Core (remember, 40 people need those drops, and there wasn't a token system yet, so once all your warlocks (of which it seemed you'd have about 2) had their Felheart, any more Felheart that dropped was wasted chances for others to gear.
Progression was slow and challenging back then. My hunter will never sell or disenchant her epics from those days.
Savant2k Aug 20th 2009 9:40PM
Ony was on a 3 day lockout back then I believe, could be wrong it's been a while.
Acidburn Aug 21st 2009 1:24AM
The original poster haven't done the whole thing even once. First of all, scales are skinned, 2nd - skinning yelded 2-4 at once, so on average you needed around 3 months to get 40 man raid geared up with cloaks.
Bullseyed Aug 21st 2009 10:00AM
"Progression was slow and challenging back then. My hunter will never sell or disenchant her epics from those days."
Because progression was EARNED back then, instead of the entitlement system we have in place now.
Vadim (Motat) P Aug 20th 2009 9:32PM
Sorry but the drop rate for the scales is 2 - 4. I got 4 on my druid last time I did it (3 - 5 days ago). So unless your the most unluckiest player in the game there is no way it would/will take you 40 resets to get everyone a cloak. Maybe 10 resets if your lucky... and you CAN buy those scales of the AH so even faster.
Fartmasterking Aug 20th 2009 10:09PM
Well......from what i heard the shadowflame thing does like 30k damage or something so....very very very deadly spell people, very deadly, and undispellable!!!
also the cloak looks badass even these days, much better then half the cloaks you see these days
Knucker Aug 20th 2009 9:47PM
I still have one of these stupid things in my bank.
Furydeath Aug 20th 2009 9:50PM
(although since then, Ice Block and Divine Shield will both stop it).
It will NOT stop the last tick of 20k.
Kanap Aug 21st 2009 8:10AM
thats cool, i can still survive a 20k tick and live.....
scotty Aug 20th 2009 9:58PM
Or, you could be one of those pro players who knew where to stand where the breath wouldn't hit you... (no, I'm not going to tell you where)
Griffe Aug 20th 2009 10:40PM
For those of you playing at home, the answer is "behind the throne" :)
kymali Aug 20th 2009 10:03PM
I still have four scales in my bank (collected at 70) I did have nine half way through TBC but we needed to kit some TBC babies out with cloaks when we decided to do some 'Golden Oldies'. They sit right next to my Drakefire amulet (which I can't vendor now its not needed)
Thorie Aug 20th 2009 10:23PM
By "fun in the California sun" you mean being in a large, dimly lit building full of thousands of palest of pale people staring into a large computer screen?