The Great Onyxia Race

[MongoJerry]

This was a great accomplishment for this loose band of players who united for one solitary goal: To be the first group of Horde players on Tichondrius to kill Onyxia.

There was a small comical scene, while people were dancing about after the kill. People wanted to know what items dropped, but there was one problem. In our excitement, nobody had resurrected wayneigan, who as master looter was the only person who could tell us what was on the body. We resurrected everyone, and wayneigan gave us the rundown:



In addition, Onyxia dropped a Codex of Fortitude and some random blues and greens. I didn't win any of it, but I didn't care. (Although, those boots would've gone well with my belt). I had already gotten what I wanted -- watching Onyxia die -- and anything else was just icing on the cake. In addition, Onyxia dropped this:



Rubix won the roll, and the condition for letting him pick up the Head of Onyxia was that he had to do turn it in that night while the rest of the raid was there to witness the event. After all the loot was distributed, Onyxia was skinned (it takes 315 skinning skill to skin her) and she dropped this:



We also rolled on the scale (I didn't win). It turns out that there's some quest to collect and turn in ten of these scales. Assuming the scales get distributed evenly among the raid members, that would mean it would take on average 400 Onyxia kills over 5 1/2 years to complete this quest. Sounds doable. (Can you sense the sarcasm?)



Before heading to Orgrimmar to turn in the Head of Onyxia, we settled in to take some group photos. (Yes, this happened before she was skinned). If you prefer to see the group photo with the names turned on, here you go.

This was an amazing accomplishment that took a lot of work and patience to make happen, and I'm so proud and happy to have been a part of it. Finally, after dozens of runs in the beta and in retail, I had seen Onyxia fall.

Another thirty more kills, and I'll be even.



We ported to Orgrimmar and the first stop was the Valley of Wisdom, where Rubix presented the Head of Onyxia to Thrall. Thrall then told Rubix to take the head to Overlord Runthak, the head orc general (kind of the Horde equivalent of General Marcus Jonathan), near the entrance of the city to have the head put on display. When Rubix gave the head to Runthak, he linked the rewards he had to choose from:



Since he was a druid, Rubix chose the Dragonslayer's Signet. We made complete fools of ourselves in yells and in the Orgrimmar general chat, of course, and we made sure that everybody for miles around knew that we had killed Onyxia. More than a hundred people gathered in the main square in the Valley of Strength to wait for the big unveiling of Onyxia's head. The lag was horrific (a preview of Battlegrounds?). People kept asking when the head was going to come out, and we kept having to tell them, "Relax, it's coming. It's just lag." And finally, it appeared.



We all basked in the glory of our accomplishment and a big dance party ensued. In addition, we waited patiently for the buff that we had heard was supposed to come. Finally, a thunder sound was heard and light flashed all around us. The Dragonslayer Buff had come to everyone in Orgrimmar... except that it didn't show up on our screens. "Relax, it's just lag. Give it a minute," we were told. But then the server that runs Orgrimmar couldn't take it anymore and crashed. When we logged back in, we had been rolled back a few minutes. Everyone still had their items from the Onyxia run and Rubix still had his ring (and no longer had the Head of Onyxia), but there were no buffs and the big display of the Head of the Onyxia was gone. The only person who actually got to keep their Dragonslayer buff was a person who had ported to Undercity before the crash. We sent knowingly ineffectual petitions to game masters, asking that the head be restored, but there was nothing that could be done. Still we were happy. We knew what we had done, and screenshots are forever, right?



Was it all worth it? Oh, hell, yeah, I had a blast. But, no, let's talk practicalities. Is it worth it to run Onyxia? Yeah, it is. It took an enormous investment of time and effort to get to the point to where we could kill her, but the thing is, now that we've done it, we're confident that we can do this again and again with little difficulty. Once a person kills Onyxia, they get locked into the dead instance for five days, so Onyxia is can't be run multiple times a night. However, if a group were to meet once a week for an hour, they can get three high level epic items plus other delicious goodies each and every time. Plus they get the honor, buffs, and bragging rights that come with it. The group that killed Onyxia last Friday has already scheduled a new run for this week, and I hope that this is something that continues on an ongoing basis.

Onyxia Raid Video!

Rubix has done a fantastic job of putting together a video of the fight and the party afterward. It is really well done. For links, check out this Blizzard forum post:

First Tichondrius Horde Kill of Onyxia Video

Some comments on the video:

1. Before first contact, you'll see everyone jumping around. Right before they go, the Grim Vengeance raid leaders ask everyone to move down the hill and jump around to determine if anyone's AFK.

2. You can see me, an undead priestess in a yellow robe, early in the video running behind Rubix and cutting across in front of him while throwing heals on Venom. I wasn't in the first group of the healer rotation, but in those first few seconds, it's everyone's job to keep the main tank alive until everyone gets set.

3. In Phase III, you'll see Rubix doing a jig, moving back and forth, so that if he gets feared, he'll stand in one place rather than be sent off running.

4. In the final scenes, you can see me standing right behind Rubix. :-)

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Lurker Lounge for hosting my screenshots and for hosting the best game strategy discussions in the world.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the celebrations, I received a message from a friend in the Offenders, asking if I wanted to join them on their run. Apparently, they were still trying to kill Onyxia and needed some reinforcements (it was late in the evening). I replied:

I'm locked into the GV instance for five days. We killed her, you know.

There was a pause and then an obviously downcast reply came:

They ran her a 100 times more than we did.

This was an exaggeration, of course. GV/Basin had had only one more run and around eight more attempts than The Offenders had. I didn't say anything, but if I had, I would've said this:

Sometimes the most important part of winning a contest is just showing up.