Onyxia to return, DOTs suddenly in demand!

One of my favorite things about Wrath of the Lich King is that with it Blizzard is finally bringing back a quintessential fantasty staple: Dragons. If you played at all during Vanilla WoW, you would remember that the game used to be chocked full of them. Nefarion and his 3 drakes, Azuregos, and even Ahn'Qiraj had you consorting with the Bronze Dragonflight.

But it all started with the Broodmother herself: Lady Onyxia. For most players it was thier first real raid, the first time they ever saw that many people together. There was something magical about seeing 10 frostbolts arcing through the air during the air phase, something wonderful.

Onyxia holds a special place in the hearts of vanilla raiders. A friend of mine still has a 24x36 glossy poster of his guild fighting Onyxia in his room, complete with Magister's Shoulders and Glowing Brightwood Staff. He doesn't even play WoW anymore, but Onyxia was just that special.

Therefore, it's no real surprise that it's been announced that Onyxia is coming in patch 3.2.2.

According to Zarhym Onyxia will be coming back as a up to date encounter with both 10 and 25 man versions. Her loot will also be updated, including high level versions of the classic t2 helms we all fought over (and cried over when double Stormrage dropped...again) in addition to a 310% speed mount fashioned after the big lady herself.

He assures us that the encounter will be getting tweaked to fit modern raiding, but that we still have those lovely Deep Breaths to look forward too. Perhaps now we'll be able to figure out what causes them.

In addition to this, Blizzard will be offering another pet for those who log on during thier 5th anniversary, a tiny Onyxia whelpling. The anniversary event begins in November, so most likely we'll see something on the PTRs pretty soon.

I for one am super excited about this. Onyxia was always one of my favorite encounters and I still refer to it when discussing great encounter design. I can't wait to see what they do with it knowing what they do now, especially considering how one of the biggest parts of the fight, the random fear, is something that Blizzard has moved away from since BC.

So until we see this on the PTRs, get your DOTs out and practice running to the center!