I had a go at Onyxia (10 player) last week after doing very little research as to what tactics other hunters were using. After about half a dozen unsuccessful attempts at trying to get the whelps under control in phase 2, I got to a position where my pet was passive and being attacked by the airborne boss and I was lying on the floor pretending to be dead. Watching what happened then presented a simple phase 2 strategy that makes this fight fairly long but very easy.

Phase 1 - have your pet tank Onyxia at the back of the room (set your pet onto Ony from the entrance and run around to one side, once your pet has been knocked back once run behind the boss and set pet passive for a few seconds to get it to run towards you and turn the boss 180 degrees, set pet to attack again and move out of the way, further knockbacks will eventually place your pet on the back wall). Once your pet is in position use Stay to mark a home position for it. Each knockback taken by your pet takes 10K off it's threat total so you'll probably find you need to use FD a few times during this phase to avoid pulling aggro.

At around 64% Onyxia will start the transition to phase 2, you need to make sure you have FD off cooldown at this point. When the boss starts walking towards the entrance set your pet passive, get as many shots as you can at the boss but, most importantly, start looking for a good spot to Feign Death. My favourite spot is near the wall, around 10 o' clock as you look into the room from the entrance since here maybe two thirds of the Deep Breath attacks miss altogether.

Phase 2 - once Onyia is airbore whelps will appear from the pits on either side of the room and make a bee-line for you. Feign death before they reach you and they will return to their spawn points. At this point your pet will be drawing fire fom the boss away from you at the back of the room but taking negligible damage. You will be susceptible to Onyxia's Deep Breath attacks whilst feigned, but Spirit Bond should mend up most of that after it happens.

Key here is not to break FD too early, instead watch the whelp pits. When you initially feigned the whelps disappeared out of view back into the pits, after a few seconds they will start to appear again but with no-one in aggro range, instead of entering the room they'll simply stack up at the entrance to the pits. Eventually after about a minute or so they will despawn. At this point you have around 30 secs of clear time to wake up and shoot Onyxia. I found I could take between 4% and 6% off her health in this time. Whilst you're hitting the boss watch for dragonkin entering the room or whelps respawning and be ready to hit FD again to restart the cycle.

The one complication in Phase 2 is that if Onxyia does a Deep Breath towards the entrance whilst the dragonkin guards are running in (or still running out after you've feigned) they'll pick up aggro on your pet and start attacking it. If this looks like it can happen then play safe by feigning early or even staying dead for a complete whelp cycle.

Phase 3 - starts when the boss has 40% health so it can be useful to ease up on the final Phase 2 attack period to leave her with 41%, that way you can force the transition on the next cycle before any further whelps or dragonkin complicate matters. Leave your pet passive as Onyxia lands and use misdirects to move the boss into position before finally letting it off its leash. This final phase is a simple tank and spank, just take care that neither you or your pet get feared into the whelp pits, if your pet moves into a dangerous position just set it passive for a few seconds to get it back to its safe place.

In MM spec with a turtle pet the fight took me just over 19 minutes but at no point was I ever below 75% health and, more importantly, had total control of what was going on at all times. Just to make the kill all that much sweeter when I opened up the loot window there at the top of the list was Reins of the Onyxian Drake, and I didn't have anyone to roll against :-)

The phase 2 strategy appears viable for 25 player mode though each time you get to attack the boss you're lucky to get even 1% off her health which makes the fight extremely long. Onyxia consistently makes the phase 2 transition with 64% health remaining - so it's along way to 40%. This in turn increases the chances that you'll make a mistake at some point and the dragonkin will end up killing your pet. My best attempt so far had Onxyia at around 53% after 30 minutes or so - after which I sort of lost he will to return for a while. As a result I've yet to see if the transition to Phase 3 can be handled in 25 player. However if it can then the the final phase should be fairly easy to manage.

And two more options:

3. Tame him (it?)
4. Immature Venom Sac - Item - World of Warcraft Last only an hour though, so it may be necessary to clear some or all of BWL beforehand. Luckily lower blackrock spire is nice and close. It worked for me (at level 85) every time against Chromaggus' poison (admittedly I did this some months ago, but I can't imagine anything significant was changed here between the cataclysm and now)

Looking at the list for Ulduar boss kills, was Flame Leviathan omitted because your class doesn't really matter for tactics to solo it, or something?
There's an old post here in the thread on normal 10 and 25man FL, so they've been downed for ages now, but what about hard modes? Has anyone attempted him with towers still up? If not I should take a look at it next reset

Durendil, I haven't seen this video in your post so there it is! =)
Kel'thuzad 10ppl solo

well you have 2 ways here, the risky one and the lame one. this video shows lame method =)

1 way. on 2nd phase catch tombs with deterrence (timer needed) and hide if its in cd. U can also heal 1 tom with spiritbeast's heal
2 way. on 2nd phase stay out of los of Kel literally all the time. Your pet is doing all the dps, and it will be VERY long fight (around 15 minutes), but no risk involved, except your pet may die from 2 big bugs (mine died 2 times in this vid)

5. Purification Potion
It removes Brood Affliction: Green & Brood Affliction: Black & also one stack from Brood Affliction: Red.

Yogg down!

Durendil vs Yogg-Saron (4 keepers) - YouTube

This boss is all about Feign death. Always FD at a precise timing: use FD not too soon but not too late, and leave FD not too soon but not too late. Fun fun fun!

Please read the wowhead/wowpedia guide on this boss, I don't have to courage to talk about all his abilities.

Remember to activate the four keepers by talking to them. They will give you +40% damage done, along with many buffs.

SANITY: If it reaches 0, you kill your pet, and then you die. You regenerate 20 sanity per second while standing in a green beam.

PHASE 1: The guardians.
Your goal is to kill 8 guardians near Sara, to kill her. They explode as they die, damaging everyone near (including enemies).
Put your pet under Sara in defensive stance and all will be alright.
They also have a shadow volley, so stay 30 yards away from them. They spawn from green clouds, and touching a cloud will maje a guardian appear.

Sara "buffs" you too. She should both damage and heal you during this phase with sara's blessing (40K heeal, 60K damage), wich, in conjunction with her fervor (+100% damage taken), can hurt. But she's quite capable of using her blessing three times in a row, healing you to full.

TRANSITION: Kill the 9th guardian if it spawns. If it doesn't, try a bandage. And get away from the boss.
She will become angry with you. FD:
-if you FD before she becomes hostile, she will remain friendly and cast her phase 1 spells. Wich means you will enter the brain romm with a DoT and +100%damage taken. Then you will die.
-If you FD after she becomes hostile, she will rip your sanity to shreds, and stun you at the worst moment possible: during the 3rd tentacle spawn.
So, FD after she becomes hostile, but before she becomes a Val'kyr. Look your focus, and as soon as it turns red, FD.

PHASE 2: The tentacles.

Don't bandage or mend pet. Sara doesn't like it.

Constrictor Tentacle: 20K, Constricts you You cannot move, nor can you control your pet, except with kill command.
Deal with it with the following macro:
/target constrictor tentacle
/cast kill command
/cast explosive trap (doesn't always work)

Corruptor tentacle:120K Bad. Ass. You really don't want it to cast anything. If you can't despawn it, kill it.

Crusher tentacle: 400K. Reduces damage done, can melee. Safe to ignore.


Now, the FDs: the first FD should despawn the first tentacles (except constrictor, of course). Second FD: after you have been captured by the second Constrictor and used Kill command. As soon as the corruptor spawns, move (if the constrictor is dead) or use deterrence (only thing that breaks FD while you're being constricted). Third FD: same as 2nd, but try t FD on a portal spawn, as to not un-FD to take the portal.
PUT YOUR PET ON ASSIST

ILLUSION ROOM:
Icecrown: 2 multi-shot per pack, pet does the rest.
Wyrmrest: An arcane shot and normal shot are usually enough. Your pet does the rest.
Stormwind: Same as wyrmrest, you might want a steady shot or two.

Brain: Get it to 30% before the end of the cast. Get out by the portal before it finishes - it's an instant wipe.

PHASE 3: The immortals, the god and the FDing hunter.
Distract the first immortal guardian with a carboard assassin (or detterence... But do NOT use snake trap).
Kill any corruptor, quickly!
Summon your tanking pet, and guide it to the door, as far as possible from guardian spawn points. Misdirect the guardian, FD and look around.
Once the 2nd immortal spawns, stay FD 2-3 seconds, then finish off any immortal and attck yogg. Misdirect and kill the 3rd immortal. FD as soon as available, and wait for the 4th guardian to appear. Wait 2-3 seconds. Dps.

The phase goes on as follows:
Interrupt life drains!
One out of two guardians is misdirected to your pet. FD as soon as available to despawn one out of 2 immortals. Kick immortal ass as a priority, then dps Yogg when no adds are up.
Keep your pet at the end of the room.
When your sanity is low, dps an immortal whiles standing in a green beam.


Good luck


In the end, it was both a good and bad soloing. Good because I love trying and trying a boss, making up strategies (FD,FD,FD..., kill command, 30-yard range, all these small details that make a difference between a wipe and a win), improving them each good try (I got him on the 1rst try where I dropped the carboard assassin, allowing me to prepare for a clean phase 3). Bad because I hated phase 1. And spent a lot of money on flasks and scrolls. Phase 1 and 2 get real old real quick.
I fear that in the end, Madness did consume me^^ Trust me, Yogg-Saron's laughter in phase 3 drives everyone insane.


One last thing: I discovered, much to my dismay, that forgetting to activate the keepers can lead to an early death. Even soloers can fail to notice certain details

As far as usefulness is concerned, for those wishing for hard mode, the keepers rank in this order of usefulness (always remember the 10% damage buffs):
-Mimiron: not any use if you despawn tentacles.
-Hodir: you can deal with higher damage taken.
-Freya: you could always determine a strategy where you dps the guardians when Yogg casts his gaze, and dps the boss when he isn't.
-Thorim: I'd like to see someone solo Yogg without this guy! If only the guardians didn't have their life drain...

My video of soloing Anub'rekhan 25-man (world second, the world first video disappeared some time ago).
Durendil vs Anub'Rekhan 25 - YouTube

No idea why you keep getting nuked. Maybe it's because of serpent sting? Do you usually FD Before or after misdirecting the lords to your pet? I never had any problems with this.

I had the same problem then I just killed all the adds from the ground. Inside "the safe zones".
Takes a litle more time but you get no damage.

Congratulations on the Yogg kill, Durendil. I wish that you'd slow down so that some of the rest of us could get a crack at it.

I do have a question, though. Why is it that you didn't bother putting your pet on Yogg to help with the overall DPS? And why did you feel the need to feign off guardians when your pet never looked to be in danger of dying?

What's the status of ruby sanctum kills? The list doesn't have each boss itemized.

I killed Saviana Ragefire today, but wasn't able to hold up after Baltharus split, or get even close on the trash with the commander in it. You can trap the commander, but the other 4 mobs hit too hard.