Onyxia ( tactics ) Onyxia is a level ? ? black dragon boss in Onyxia ' s Lair . Onyxia ' s 10 - man abilities . Onyxia has approximately 4 , 900 , 000 HP . Phase One . Onyxia melees for about 12 , 000 - 15 , 000 on plate . Onyxia is tauntable . Phase Two . Onyxia takes off at 65 % and has no threat table . Phase Three . Onyxia lands at 40 % HP . She retains all her phase one abilities and gains some additional abilities . Strategy . This is ( still ) a very simple encounter overall . For strategy videos of both the 10 - man and 25 - man encounter , look below the loot table on this page . You ideally want 2 tanks , 2 healers , 3 melee DPS , and 3 ranged DPS for 10 man , and 2 tanks , 5 healers , 8 melee DPS , and 10 ranged DPS for 25 man . Phase One . The tank should run slightly ahead of the rest of the raid and grab Onyxia , quickly turning her away from the raid and then backing off to the Northern wall , where the tank will position themselves with their back to the wall to minimise the effect of the knockback from Wing Buffet . Only the tank should be in front of Onyxia , to minimize damage from fire breath and cleaving . During phase one , the only damage to the raid should be upon the tank . Ranged DPS and healers need to stay to either side of her , fairly far back . Melee DPS need to stay to either side of her , just within range ( which is wider than it looks ) . If melee DPS is too close to her head , they will be killed by Cleave ; if they ' re too close to her tail , they will be tail swiped , possibly into the whelps , usually resulting in a wipe . Phase one ends when Onyxia is reduced to 65 % health . Phase Two . During this phase , Onyxia takes to the air and moves randomly around the room , casting Fireball on raid members . There are three main things to watch out for : During this phase of the encounter ranged DPS should be focused on bringing Onyxia down to 40 % to start phase 3 , although they must interrupt this to AoE the packs of whelps . Melee dps should focus on killing the Onyxian Lair Guards . Phase 3 . Onyxia will land on the Southern side of the room and immediately cast Bellowing Roar , causing the raid to run in fear for the next 3 seconds . Finish off whatever adds remain while the tank positions Onyxia . Note that , unlike the level 60 encounter , the tank will have retained aggro on Onyxia from phase 1 . It ' s advisable to ensure that the tank is unaffected by the initial fear , so that Onyxia can be positioned correctly ( fear ward , berserker rage , tremor totem ) . Phase 3 is essentially the same as phase one aside from periodic fears , some raid damage from eruption and occasional whelp spawns which are not too dangerous . Differences from level 60 . Onyxia no longer drops threat between phases 1 and 3 , and she is no longer immune to fire effects and abilities . Wing buffet no longer lowers aggro . Deep Breath is cast more often , and the cast time has been increased . Onyxian Lair Guards now spawn in phase 2 , and melee can no longer hit Onyxia in phase 2 . Lava eruptions happen during the Bellowing Roar fear , not just after it . Related achievements . Two of the new achievements are named after famous sentences taken from the Onyxia Wipe Animation , later transformed into a Raid Assistant . " She Deep Breaths More " is a nod to the common forum complaint that , after every patch , bugs or intentional changes result in Onyxia deep breathing more often .