Onyxia's Lair

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Onyxia's Lair
Dungeon Type:	raid
Level:	60+
Player Limit:	40
Location:	Dustwallow Marsh

Onyxia's Lair is a location set in Blizzard Entertainments video game and book series, Warcraft. In the MMORPG World of Warcraft it acts as an instance dungeon in the virtual world.

Background

Onyxia, and all the dragons, are shapeshifters (another example of a shapeshifter would be Nefarian). So far, Onyxia is seen in two guises. The first is Lady Katrana Prestor, through which Onyxia influences the politics of Stormwind and has tremendous influence over the Human's leader. The other form she has is that of her true form, a dragon the size of a small town. While residing in her "Lair" she usually must transform in order to feed - but a doomed group of players attempting to kill her will do just as well. Onyxia's Lair is located at the south-west corner of Dustwallow Marsh in Kalimdor. For the Alliance, Dustwallow Marsh can be accessed easily by a ship that leaves from Menethil Harbor in Wetlands and for the Horde, the quickest way is to enter Dustwallow from the Barrens.

Onyxia's Lair contains eggs that hatch into dragons, very similar to the ones in Blackrock Spire and in the Leeroy Jenkins video. It is most easily accessible, for Alliance players, by swimming south after coming out of Theramore, even for players with epic mounts. For Horde players, a swift mounted ride East from Brackenwall Village gets you to her lair.

Onyxia's Influence

Onyxia is the Brood Mother of the Black Dragonflight. While only experienced players can face her, in-depth observation leads to seeing the extent of her influence over all gameplay on the Alliance side.

One of the first encounters most players have with an obvious Onyxia-related quest is the Missing Diplomat chain. During that chain, you investigate the disappearance of a diplomat, with the trail ending in Dustwallow Marsh, with the conclusion that a more powerful force than simple bandits were involved.

Also, during the quest to gain access to Onyxia's Lair, you learn the identity of her alter ego in Stormwind. This information sheds a new light on the Stockades situation and why some criminals were not executed as planned by their trials. Most of these criminals were in fact part of the Defias organization, which is a direct link to the Defias quests available starting at level 14. The same Defias organization was involved in the kidnapping of the diplomat.

Presumably though, the extent of Onyxia's influence goes beyond Stormwind's internal feud, as Onyxia has worked to intensify the conflict between the Alliance and Horde, and the Black Dragonflight is also the main enemy in Blackrock Spire, and in Blackwing Lair.

Instance

Onyxia's Lair is very short and simple, a corridor leads down and then turns to the left. It leads to a vast room with a huge dragon standing at the end. A full 40 member raid is allowed in her lair. Onyxia is quite powerful, and only seasoned groups will attempt to kill her with less than the allowed maximum of 40. However, recent videos on the internet have shown successful Onyxia raids with as few as 6 people. [Google Video here]

While the lair is simple, getting access to the lair requires completing one of the longest and hardest quest lines in the game. The quest line is different for the Horde and the Alliance but it requires many steps and both Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire must be completed, several times.

Attunement

To gain access to Onyxia's Lair you must first receive the Drakefire Amulet; this acts as the "key" to the lair. For Alliance side this quest chain starts in Burning Steppes as the "Dragonkin Menace" quest. This eventually leads into Blackrock Depths, and to one of the largest scripted sequences in the game (a parade of sorts through Stormwind with all the guards saluting Marshal Windsor - here you learn the true identity of Lady Katrana Prestor, and an epic battle between her guards and the Human's leader ensues). After this you will be tasked to find someone to make the key. This crafter requires some dragons blood from the main boss in Blackrock Spire to create the key.

The steps for the Alliance quest include:

1. Kill dragons in Burning Steppes; with the exception of the "baby dragons", all of them are elites
2. Travelling: Redridge, Stormwind, Redridge again, then back to Burning Steppes
3. Find Windsor in BRD
4. After speaking to Windsor, the chain seems to die until you find a crumpled note; it is a random drop off most mobs in Blackrock Depths
5. Kill Golem Lord Argelmach and General Angerforge in BRD, and return their lost information to Windsor
6. Get Windsor out of BRD alive
7. Speak to Maxwell, meet Windsor at the gates of Stormwind
8. Escort Marshal Windsor to the throne room, where he confronts Prestor/Onyxia
9. Speak to Bolvar, then go to Haleh in Winterspring
10. Kill General Drakkisath in UBRS, get his blood, then return to Haleh

The steps for the Horde quest are much different:

1. Complete LBRS Generals slaying quest with single group (5 players)
2. Raid UBRS, kill Rend Blackhand, and return his head to Thrall
3. Find Rexxar, the Champion of the Horde, in Desolace or Ferelas
4. Raid UBRS, get 20 Dragon Eyes
5. Kill elite drakes in Winterspring, Tanaris and Swamp of Sorrows in a 5-man group
6. Kill one more elite drake in Wetlands
7. Find Rexxar, The Champion of the Horde, in Desolace or Ferelas
8. Kill General Drakkisath in UBRS and collect his blood
9. Return to Rexxar a final time to gain your key

The first step for Horde is much easier now that the documents don't vanish after they are collected. This was a recent welcome addition as opposed to players running through LBRS as many as 20-30 times hoping to find the documents that randomly spawn and vanish after one player collects them.

Loot

Once Onyxia is killed she will drop some very sweet loot for your raid. The possible loot that she may drop is:

• Tier 2 Helm • Onyxia Hide Bag (18 Slot) • Head of Onyxia • Ring of Binding • Mature Black Dragon Sinew • Ancient Cornerstone Grimoire • Sapphiron Drape • Eskhandar's Collar • Deathbringer • Shard of the Scale • Vis'kag the Bloodletter

See also

• Warcraft Universe
• Locations in the Warcraft Universe
• Organizations in the Warcraft universe

External links

• [[wowwiki:Onyxia's Lair|]] at WoWWiki, a World of Warcraft wiki

 

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