FeenixServerProject/Phoenix_1.12_Bugtracker — Issue #319: Onyxia Deep Breath and Exploit issue
Author: Juv-Vike
Created: 2011-11-21 03:07:17+00:00
State: open

Let me preface this by saying the fight is perfectly doable as is and that this is mostly to bring to light some issues and exploits ive witnessed in horde pug groups to combat an issue with totems and deep breath.

At this time i have 5 very well geared characters and usually try to join 1-2 Ony pug groups a week aside from my guilds normal run. Since i first did Onyxia on this server i've known about her deep breath "chaining" off totems and players that were not standing on the walls. Essentially if a person or totem is about 8-10 yards away from the wall they will get hit by the deep breath and this makes everyone on that persons side get hit by it as well. That suggests that the deep breath spell Id is incorrect. Although it can be avoided, the breath should only hit a certain zone and not splash damage around a person or totem that gets hit.

So I've noticed more than one pug that try get around this issue... because of the uncoordinated nature of most pugs they are trying to make it as simple as possible. I don't condone this tactic and have left several pug groups when they've resorted to this exploit. I personally find it rather silly but apparently its the only way some people have been able to kill her with less aware players. The exploit is that the group can stand in the entrance area of Onyxia's lair and avoid the deep breath and fireballs during phase 2. Also, while at least 1 person is alive inside and out of LoS of Onyxia she will stay in combat and stay in phase 2 allowing the people that died to run back.

I'm not sure if this is a horde only cheap tactic because of the totem chaining issues but i can say most pug groups are pretty quick to give up on the normal strategy and do it this way.

In summation these 3 points are what I see as current issues with Onyxia:
- Deep Breath has incorrect Spell ID; Damage splashes around affected target instant killing an entire zone
- Totems, like in many instances, act like players and can be affected by deep breath, chaining as mentioned before.
- Players can LoS Onyxia in the entrance during phase 2 to keep her in combat indefinitely without taking damage.