Amazing how times change.

♦ Praetorian · 11/03/05, 3:16 AM

Around eight months ago, after a full week of repeated wipes, we finally killed Onyxia. It was exhilarating and a relief. We'd blown through Molten Core in February, but Onyxia was on a different level entirely. For those first weeks, we were thrilled to kill her on the first attempt. Sometimes she'd fear someone into her tail. Sometimes she'd take a lot of deep breaths. Sometimes she'd ping-pong around a dozen people after landing and refuse to stick to our tank. All we wanted was some measure of consistency. Everyone's been there.

Onyxia used to be frustrating, and now it's free loot. Somewhere along the line that happened, and it was rewarding.

Now, for all the complaints about itemization, it seems we've actually been getting stronger and stronger over the past months. A lot stronger. And so, that brings us to this:

10 people, one corpse. Who would've thought it possible seven months ago?

(The raw statistics, for the curious: 2 warriors, 2 priests, 2 shamans, 2 druids, 2 hunters. A lot of consumables. No buffs from other classes -- no AI, no soulstones, nothing we couldn't obtain given our class composition. 42 minutes of combat. No out of combat rezzing. One hell of a rush. Size of raw uncompressed FRAPS'd avi: 31.2 gigabytes. Edited video coming soon.)

Now with video evidence (mirror). See if you can spot the ten people hiding in the whelp pits helping out!

Track list for the video here.

Alsander · 11/03/05, 3:34 AM

EJ is the greatest guild in the history of the world :911:

chalon · 11/03/05, 3:35 AM

Nicely done. Phase 2 must have been rather interesting ;).

I'm guessing we'll see her 5-manned in the expansion, hehe.

♦ Praetorian · 11/03/05, 3:42 AM

Originally Posted by chalon,November 3rd, 2005 @ 4:35AM

Nicely done. Phase 2 must have been rather interesting ;).

I'm guessing we'll see her 5-manned in the expansion, hehe.

Phase 2 was by far the hardest. It took probably 20-25 minutes, featured upwards of 10 Deep Breaths, and I was sure it just wasn't possible at least a couple of times during the whole thing.

Then Onyxia landed and tail swept someone into the eggs. :angry:

Mochiloc · 11/03/05, 3:44 AM

Originally Posted by Praetorian,November 3rd, 2005 @ 2:42AM

Phase 2 was by far the hardest. It took probably 20-25 minutes, featured upwards of 10 Deep Breaths, and I was sure it just wasn't possible at least a couple of times during the whole thing.

Kaubel was also sure it wasn't possible, so he gave up early on in Stage 2.

Slug · 11/03/05, 3:51 AM

Gurg, look at the time. You should be in bed, not up slaying dragons. :D

Good deal, guys. Now we need to take 40 of our hardest hitters and see how fast we can just burn her. I'm interested to see how they handle existing content once the expansion hits, down the road. If they don't slap level caps on some of the existing content, things could get interesting as they play catch-up on the things people figure out are easily exploitable with overleveled characters.

At level 70, Onyxia 10-mans would likely be free nexus shards for a short bit of work. A group of 40 decently geared 70's could likely shred through some or all of the core in no time for shard or cash gathering purposes.

Noone's going to want to slog through dungeons they know they can blow through at higher levels or if there's easier access to better loot outside it to begin with. Puts the potential out there for the complete skipping of a good bit of non-expansion content unless they figure out ways (onyxia scale cloak, etc) to actually force people into it. Noone ever does RFC or WC on their alts in an actual group these days, if at all. I can see that happening to the existing raid instances unless Blizzard gets a bit more strict on quest/item rewards from previous dungeons being instrumental to even attending future ones at all.

It'll be a tough thing for them to balance, caps or not.

MrKiddieGrinder · 11/03/05, 4:26 AM

ZZZZZZ

edit: I enjoyed Hellsoap's fun-time pvp video very much and I want to see more

Ailideon · 11/03/05, 7:26 AM

no Kaubel flex infront of the dragon?

illfittingshoes · 11/03/05, 8:08 AM

Meanwhile, in Onyxia's Lair v.2...

OH GOD WHERE'S THE HEALING?! Shit burn her down guys- we have no druids, 3 shamans and 2 priests with no mana, 10% left. How do 20 out of 40 Elitist Jerks die to Onyxia in ONE FIGHT?! I mean, we're pro, right? right?? Come on guys, we can do this! We're fucking ELITIST JERKS here... oh thank god she's finally done. res the dead. ;_;

hamlet_the_lesser · 11/03/05, 9:34 AM

wow very nice guys. 40 minute fight almost sounds fun.

fraidykat · 11/03/05, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by illfittingshoes,November 3rd, 2005 @ 8:08AM

Meanwhile, in Onyxia's Lair v.2...

OH GOD WHERE'S THE HEALING?! Shit burn her down guys- we have no druids, 3 shamans and 2 priests with no mana, 10% left. How do 20 out of 40 Elitist Jerks die to Onyxia in ONE FIGHT?! I mean, we're pro, right? right?? Come on guys, we can do this! We're fucking ELITIST JERKS here... oh thank god she's finally done. res the dead. ;_;

Shockingly, I pulled aggro. I was feinting and vanished once and I didn't know what was going on. Then someone told me that Hellsoap was tanking.

Cardrian · 11/03/05, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by illfittingshoes,November 3rd, 2005 @ 7:08AM

Meanwhile, in Onyxia's Lair v.2...

OH GOD WHERE'S THE HEALING?! Shit burn her down guys- we have no druids, 3 shamans and 2 priests with no mana, 10% left. How do 20 out of 40 Elitist Jerks die to Onyxia in ONE FIGHT?! I mean, we're pro, right? right?? Come on guys, we can do this! We're fucking ELITIST JERKS here... oh thank god she's finally done. res the dead. ;_;

Yeah I managed to tank onyxia like a champ for like 20 seconds there. :angry:

• bartolimu · 11/03/05, 12:14 PM

I tanked her for a good 30 seconds once and lived. I credit my warlock hps and good healers with keeping me up (FR helped for the breath too). Then Moz got her back and I ran off to shoot shadow bolts from somewhere safe.

aquacadet · 11/03/05, 12:35 PM

I won $6 off gizamaluke thanks to your efforts. I thank you guys for doing it on the first attempt.

Rodnik · 11/03/05, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Alsander,November 3rd, 2005 @ 2:34AM

EJ is the greatest guild in the history of the world :911:

Those ten members are good players....im sure thats what you actually meant.

Edit: How the hell did steelfleece make it...this is the guy who pulls agro on vaelestraz in the first 2 seconds.