Raid Rx: Healing Onyxia
by Matt Low 
Sep 28th 2009 at 2:00PM
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. Onyxia's the latest raid boss to challenge healers. Here's some phase-by-phase tips to help you get through the ordeal.
I finally managed to heal this fight through a lag infested night when patch 3.2.2 landed. Onyxia was a pain in the butt to heal at level 60. Have things changed since then?
No, not by much. In some of the pickup Onyxia groups I joined on my alts, I've seen tanks drop several times. I don't want to guess who the blame should go on to (tank or healer) but I'll provide some pointers and observations for all the healing classes to help streamline the entire healing process.
My colleague, Matthew Rossi, has written a fairly detailed piece on what the entire raid can expect throughout Onyxia's various phases. While the encounter is easy in terms of theory, in practice it can still be challenging for healers if they let their guard down. Do not take Onyxia too lightly.
Setting up and the pull
Having six healers is a good number for raids who are unfamiliar with the fight. As players gain more practice, Onyxia is doable with five healers. Any combination of healers will work. A Paladin or Shaman with Fire Resistance buffs will come in handy (but that can be any spec).
When pulling, hustle in with the tank. You'll want to send three healers to Ony's left and three healers to Ony's right. As Rossi found it, it's a very bad idea for the tank to escape the range of healers. Druids and Priests should have no problems on the pull if they can keep up with the tank running in.
In case you didn't get the hint, run in with the tank when they're pulling. The onus is on you to stay with them! If the tank gets Ony into position but dies because you're not in range, that is a healer position problem. There is no reason not to catch up with the tank since the tank and healers don't move much initially. You don't have to outrace him but you should be within 20-35 yards at least. Give him a bit of a lead-off and he should be fine.
It's hard to believe, but the pull is one of the dangerous components of the fight.
Oh, and park a Shaman with the group the tank is in.
Phase One
Her Flame Breath (not to be confused with Deep Breath) and Wing Buffet will be the biggest threat. If anyone gets caught in a cleave, don't bother getting them back up.
This is the stage where no one should be sustaining any kind of damage. All healers will want to focus in on the main tank and apply as much HoTs as possible.
Expect 25kish-type hits from Onyxia on tanks who are sporting Ulduar level gear or higher.
- Priests: Keep Power Word: Shield up on every cool down. Extend that tank buffer as much as possible. Keep cycling Renew, Flash Heal, and Penance (if you have it).
- Shamans: Make sure there's an Earth Shield up. You can probably get away with Lesser Healing Wave spam here. But the choice is yours.
- Paladins: Sacred Shield on the tank at all times and maintain the Flash of Light HoT component. Beacon them in case you need to switch off to cover someone who happened to pull whelps. If that happens, you'll have other larger problems however.
- Druids: HoT up the tank with your Rejuvenation and Regrowth. Not much more I can add than that really.
Here's a case study of a pickup Onyxia that I participated in. This is a death log of one the melee DPS. This isn't a death log of the tank who died. But let's assume it is. Do not let four seconds of time go by without an actual healing spell landing. Keep dropping heals on your tank and do not be complacent.
Side note: The addon is called Obituary. Very handy for troubleshooting deaths. Recount works as well.
Phase Two
Standby for incoming whelp spawns. Your DPS should be able to handle them fairly easy. The raid isn't going to be taking a lot of damage at this point.
So why not have some fun?
- Priests: Holy Nova!
- Shamans: Magma totem and watch the numbers fly!
- Paladins: Consecration!
- Druids: Rock 'em with a Hurricane!
Of course, if anyone comes in danger you should stop what you're doing and get them back into the green.
You'll also wish to send one or two healers to the entrance to heal the tank who is picking up incoming Dragonkin guards. Heal at range and stay away from the guards as much as possible.
Fireball damage should easily be manageable and should not pose a threat unless the entire raid is standing on top of each other. Have the raid do themselves a favor and spread out around the room.
Keep an eye on her or keep an ear open for your raid leader for the dreaded "DEEP BREATH" call. When you see or hear it, make a beeline for the side of the room and get out of the way of her breath (someone give her some mints).
Phase Three
This phase is just about identical to phase one. Priests will wish to rotate Fear Ward on the tanks. If your raid is blessed with the company of a Shaman, have them drop Tremor totem. You did place them in the tank group like I suggested earlier right?
No matter the case, simply keep rolling as much HoTs and shields as you can on your tank. The worse thing that can happen at this stage is if the tank gets gibbed while all the healers are scrambling around from being feared due to Onyxia's Bellowing Roar.
One last thing: Keep an eye on the ground. Specifically, stay away from the cracks on the floor. Eruptions will hurt but it shouldn't be anything you guys can't handle if you get hit by one from fear.
Want some more advice for working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered with all there is to know! Looking for less healer-centric raiding advice? Take a look at our raiding column Ready Check. Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Tips, Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Maxpowr Sep 28th 2009 2:03PM
Priests holy nova? lmao. I hope you meant to say "MOAR DOTS!!!!!"
Glofindalle Sep 28th 2009 2:12PM
So yes the tank does get hit hard but I havnt heard anyone on our server complain at all about it being a difficult healing encounter.
Williamshat Sep 28th 2009 2:16PM
I'm sorry but this fight is not a hard fight to heal. It's more about range than anything else. As long you have one healer north and one south or NE, SW or however ony is spliting the room you'll be fine. On 10 man I would even say you could 2 heal it.
Heuer Sep 28th 2009 2:22PM
2 healed a 10 man pug last nite. Easy as pie. 2 shamans ftw.
Clint Sep 28th 2009 2:26PM
I'd venture to say that with some crafty use of cooldowns in P2, provided all your raid members aren't retards you could solo heal this in decent gear. The tank really isn't hard to keep up. Just need your raid members not getting killed by aggroing all the whelps etc.
Clint Sep 28th 2009 2:26PM
Meant that for 10m version!
Tina Marie Sep 28th 2009 2:50PM
We 2-healed her last night on 10-man, but we lost one tank right after P3 started. We had some issues getting her settled back on the tank, the raid took some heavy damage, the healers got distracted trying to keep the raid up, and I suspect a Cleave flattened our MT as soon as he got her turned to the wall. We're mostly in heroic 5-man ToC/Badge/some Ulduar-10 gear.
One of the other tanks picked her up and we finished her off.
Delox Sep 28th 2009 2:56PM
This fight is 100% solo healable. Did it on a resto shaman, and our resto druid was able to do it as well. The caveat being that if someone gets hit by deep breath or the adds' novas, they're in real danger of dying, so you have to be on your game.
Heuer Sep 28th 2009 2:21PM
Phase 1 and Phase 3 for Shaman - a well timed riptide+chain heal combo much more effective. when you see her breath fires start cast chain heal. It is pretty easy to predict the spikes. With chain heal critting for 14-15k these days, its really the best. You will not run out of mana nearly as fast as LHW spam.
jellyphish Sep 28th 2009 2:22PM
The only problem I ran into was dps getting scorched by 'deep breath'. I suppose that's all on them, but trying to save any that get hit is next to impossible (especially with people running to all sides of the room...). Otherwise, the fight is cake in my opinion. And also, I agree with Max...wtf is holy nova?! haha
Jafari Sep 28th 2009 2:57PM
I think he's saying that healing during whelp adds is so easy, that you should join in the dps aoe party, with totems, holy nova, hurricane, etc.
Delox Sep 28th 2009 3:01PM
What's wrong with Mind Sear?
James Sep 28th 2009 2:23PM
I've tanked the encounter (I healed once with an incredibly fail pug so I won't count that) and thus far the most dangerous thing it seems to me for healing through is the whelps, not because they're that dangerous but because half the healers freeze up for 5 seconds or disconnect on the initial burn down of them :P
Tushar Bharadia Sep 28th 2009 2:29PM
+1 for the Scorpions reference
MinatorBearCat Sep 28th 2009 2:47PM
Unlike the rest of you - I appreciate this article, as I've never healed Ony. Any little bit helps. To the rest of you that say "Aw, that's easy!!!", please refer to Sir Robin the Chicken just before he got launched off the bridge.
tatsumasa Sep 28th 2009 2:51PM
i was raid heals for 10-person ony the first week and ended up doing dps through the third phase after i saw that nothing was really going on for me to heal other than a few hots tossed around. the only thing i would add is that your mt needs to have a good chunk of health to absorb those 24k hits. my undergeared dk tank only has about 32k fully buffed, so i wouldn't bring her in there to main tank. our mt had about 40k and that was just right.
two healers would be fine for 10-person.
Tridus Sep 28th 2009 2:53PM
I've both tanked and healed this fight. The biggest problem I've had is actually with the DPS.
The main issue healers will have is not being gibbed by whelps. At the start of phase 2, its helpful to run to a tank and all pile up. All the whelps will come to you, and the tank can easily pick them all up.
Tanking issues largely amount to gear, if you have it and know what you're doing, you're fine.
But I had a run where she was in the air for nearly 10 minutes. There is nothing tanks or healers can do there but pray you don't get some DK in greens who thinks he's l33t DPS.
Jon Do Sep 28th 2009 3:16PM
The hardest part of this fight is avoiding doing something stupid! Most of our problem was someone running the wrong way on deep breath or someone failing to get out of the big trash blast wave. Decent positioning on the far / north side should avoid ‘50 DKP minus’ (running into the egg tunnels).
Other than that, (10-man as holy priest) I'd say --
Phase 1:
- Have the healers stay up with the tank on the run-in and have a couple of them overhealing the MT; priests use PoM and PW:S early, Renew, reapply PoM and PW:S (Flash Heal if you proc an instant) to help absorb the hits as you get into position (too easy; stay awake for phase shift so you don’t get ganked)
Phase 2:
- PoM the off-tank, stack on the off-tank, Fade (so you can heal), and stay clear of the big add (blast wave); get a competent DPS marked and play “follow the symbol” on deep breath
Phase 3:
- Repeat of phase 1 + fear (run with a shaman to have tremor totem) priests fear ward the tank (but un-glyphed you’ll probably only have one)
Seriously, the main ‘learning curve’ is to learn to avoid stupid mistakes and Onyxia will be on farm.
AncaJenkins Sep 28th 2009 3:51PM
P2 of Ony kills us every time. We can't seem to keep our DPS on the whelps and keep them from dying. This is 10-man though and the article seems to be a little more toward 25-man. But, then again, our guild is still running heroics so we are mostly geared low anyway :)
Mohsus Sep 28th 2009 5:58PM
Roll juve and regrowth on tank...
Isn't that...what we always do?