Molten Core

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Molten Core
Level: 60-70
File:Molten Core Graphic.jpg
Location	Blacrock Mountain

Molten Core Bosses

Ragnaros and Executus, with player character shown for scale.

Molten Core is located beyond Blackrock Depths, in the deepest part of Blackrock Mountain. It is the home of the Firelord Ragnaros - one of the four elemental lieutenants of the Old Gods - and his elemental minions. Molten Core is a 40-man raid, and requires attunement to enter. The one-step attunement quest is called Quest:Attunement to the Core, and requires a run through almost to the end of Blackrock Depths to complete.

History

The Molten Core was created during the War of the Three Hammers, more than 300 years ago. Near the end of the war, Thaurissan, the leader of the Dark Iron Dwarves, sought to summon a powerful fire elemental to defeat the combined forces of the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer clans. He was more successful than he could have imagined, as he released Ragnaros the Fire Lord from millenia of captivity under the Redridge Mountains.

Ragnaros destroyed the city of Thaurissan (named after the Dwarven leader) and created the volcano of Blackrock Spire. He dwells there to this day with his elemental servants and the enslaved remnants of the Dark Iron dwarf clan.

From the World Dungeons page on the official World of Warcraft Community Site:

The Molten Core lies at the very bottom of Blackrock Depths. It is the heart of Blackrock Mountain and the exact spot where, long ago in a desperate bid to turn the tide of the dwarven civil war, Emperor Thaurissan summoned the elemental Firelord, Ragnaros, into the world. Though the firelord is incapable of straying far from the blazing Core, it is believed that his elemental minions command the Dark Iron dwarves, who are in the midst of creating armies out of living stone. The burning lake where Ragnaros lies sleeping acts as a rift connecting to the plane of fire, allowing the malicious elementals to pass through. Chief among Ragnaros' agents is Majordomo Executus - for this cunning elemental is the only one capable of calling the Firelord from his slumber.

Geography

Sub-Regions

Magmadar Cavern

Ragnaros' Lair

Overview

On release, Molten Core was the only 40 man instance in the game, thus Ragnaros was the first "game end boss". With the advent of Blackwing Lair, Ahn'Qiraj and Naxxramas, defeating Ragnaros is no longer the pinnacle of raid achievement. However, slaying him is still considered a very important step in raid progression before engaging into more challenging content. It is the first raid encounter which requires a concerted effort in acquiring massive amounts of a particular statistic (in this case, fire resistance). Moreover, the encounter is the first one to demand the extensive use of consumables, at least in the learning process and in the first few kills. As such, it is a very important stage in the evolution of a raiding guild.

Molten Core poses an interesting problem to advanced raiding guilds. Killing Ragnaros requires a full Molten Core clear, all 9 other bosses must be down in order to be able to summon him. On one hand, for guilds deep into more challenging instances the time required to clear MC (3 hours for a reasonably mature guild) is wasteful and inhibits raid progression. On the other hand, many guild members, (especially recruits), will need to farm Ragnaros for the Tier 2 pants he drops. For many classes, better pants won't be found until deep into AQ40 or Naxxramas. Exacerbating this is the fact that trash mobs in MC respawn fairly quickly, so the instance must be run (more or less) all in one night.

Thus, while Molten Core helps the itemization of the raid significantly, the time cost required to farm Ragnaros often hurts raid progression. Guilds commonly struggle with balancing these competing goals. Usually guild members are very happy when they are finally able not to run MC any more, especially since most of the encounters only require large amounts of DPS.

However, as of the burning crusade expansion, this is no longer the case. As this instance is largely obsolete with the introduction of outland green items with superior stats to most of tier 1 (and the fact that most higher instances are lower than 40man, making them a much more practical way to go) With this in mind, the future of this instance is debatable. In it's current state, it looks only set to gather dust as level 60's visit the auction house to pick up their gear. However the Lava Cores that drop are mats for the best scope in the game and some guilds still run it for the Legendary items...

Prerequisites and Quests

While technically there are no prerequisites to enter Molten Core through its entrance at the bottom of Blackrock Depths, every Core raider will want to complete the Attunement to the Core quest to enable the shortcut at the bottom of Blackrock Mountain. This quest is given at level 55 by Lothos Riftwaker who is located just outside The Quarry, on the way to Blackrock Depths. Once attuned you can access Molten Core by talking to Lothos again. When dead (as ghost) you also have the possibility to jump into the lava near Lothos. This can also be done by living players if they have a way to slow fall, or by jumping first onto the small ledge in the pillar on the right as you enter the main chamber of Blackrock Mountain, healing, then jumping down, back toward the wall of the lava pit, to cover the remaining distance to the platform below. Do not attempt to jump into the lava, as it will cause both falling damage and fire damage upon landing, resulting in an instant death.

There are very few quests that involve the Molten Core. The only significant quest chain is the Hydraxian Waterlords chain, which can be started by a visit to Duke Hydraxis off the coast of Azshara. Completing this quest chain will require killing one of each of the trash mobs in the Core, and then defeating the four "naga bosses" in Molten Core (Lucifron, Gehennas, Shazzrah, and Sulfuron Harbinger). In addition, all the trash mobs and bosses in Molten Core provide Hydraxian Waterlord reputation. The final reward for this quest chain is  [Tidal Loop] or  [Ocean's Breeze], blue rings with fire resistance.

Before Ragnaros can be summoned, the raid must defeat Majordomo Executus. Majordomo Executus will only appear if the raid douses the runes that are located near certain bosses in the Molten Core. Dousing the runes requires a vial of  [Aqual Quintessence], which can only be acquired by speaking with Lord Hydraxis. Once a player reaches Revered status with the Hydraxian Waterlords, Hydraxis will provide a vial of  [Eternal Quintessence], which can be used once every hour without a trip back to Azshara.

Raid Mechanics

Molten Core is a raid instance. This means that it is on a strict timer schedule, which resets once a week, and once a character has been "saved to the instance" by killing a boss, that character cannot enter a different instance of Molten Core that week.

Each of the bosses in Molten Core has a very specific loot table, which includes the Tier 1 armor pieces as well as a number of other epic-quality items. In addition, the trash mobs in Molten Core provide Fiery Cores, Lava Cores, and Core Leather, which can be used with recipes earned at high levels of Thorium Brotherhood reputation to craft epic armor and weapons. It is generally the case that a raid progressing through Molten Core will use these Cores to craft Fire Resistance armor, which will allow the melee DPS of the raid to survive the final encounters with Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros.

Resources

• Leather
  •  [Core Leather] (Skinning Ancient Core Hounds, 310 skinning required - use Finkle's Skinner from The Beast in Blackrock Spire or  [Zulian Slicer] from High Priest Thekal in Zul'Gurub.)
• Ore
  • Dark Iron Deposit
• Random drops:  [Lava Core],  [Fiery Core] &  [Sulfuron Ingot]

Dungeon Denizens

File:Optimized moltencorehound.jpg

Ancient Core Hound

• Molten Giant
• Molten Destroyer
• Firelord
• Lava Annihilator
• Ancient Core Hound
• Lava Surger
• Flame Imps
• Core Hound Pack
• Lava Pack
  • Lava Reaver
  • Lava Elemental
  • Flameguard
  • Firewalker

Guides

Some of Ragnaros' minor minions waiting to welcome you into the Core.

• How to solo Attunement
• Molten Core strategy guide including all bosses
• Inner Sanctum's Molten Core Strategy Guide
• The Pocket Guide to Molten Core
• Conquest guide

Loot

All Tier 1 sets, and much more Epic quality gear. Special profession recipes. Special crafting items, e.g. [Core Leather].

For more details see: Molten Core Loot