As reported by the folks over at PC Gamer, the naked act of lizard
matricide took place earlier this month on the European Zandalar Tribe
server. Players allegedly came from a smattering of guilds, to strip off
and work out just how to take down one of Warcraft's most notorious
bosses.
It's not that Onyxia isn't numerically less intimidating than before, mind. From a stats perspective, she should be just as tough a
fight as she was 16 years ago. Instead, fan repository Wowhead revealed
that a good deal of theorycrafting went into the fight. For a start, the
raid consisted of a hell of a lotta frost mages. Casters aren't nearly
as affected by losing their weapons as melee fighters, the thinking goes
- and it helps for a later phase that seems Onyxia take flight.
A few melee fighters (mostly Paladins) jump in to provide buffs, with one
poor naked sod tasked with tanking the Dragon's aggression without
their usual suit of plate. There's a staggering precision to the way
buffs are distributed, potions consumed, and spells paced out to ensure
that nobody unintentionally nicks aggro off the main tank - though
there's an awfully close call early on in the fight.
It's been a long time since Onyxia was a threatening presence in WoW proper. Hell,
I've even popped in to bop her with a fireball on my grossly
overlevelled main once or twice. But if WoW Classic gave the impression
that she might once more bring fear to adventurer's hearts, it's been
heartily crushed by a nudist murder brigade.
