8. Onyxia’s Lair (Vanilla)
Few raids are as memorable from the original version of World of Warcraft as Onyxia’s Lair. Back in those days, raids were 40-man lagfests of pure chaos ultimately leading to a mass celebration of screaming through static-filled mics on poorly designed chat channels and Onyxia’s Lair was no different. Although the raid only held one boss, she was an absolute monster. Being the daughter of Deathwing, Onyxia was not only hard, but her command of the black dragonflight had many players raging for weeks at a time. But the fight was also well tuned and extremely fun. Upon taking the dragon down, players were rewarded with her head which could be turned into either the Horde or Alliance’s main cities to instill a buff for all to enjoy. As an added bonus, turning in the head also had the NPC shout your name throughout the city, so everyone knew who had slain the powerful beast.
This raid was so beloved in fact, that in Wrath of the Lich King the raid was completely revamped and re-tuned for level 80 players to enjoy. And while many were sad to see the original form of the raid go, since it became inaccessible, they were also excited to delve back into the fearsome dragon’s lair.
