Molten Core

Molten Core is a 40-player raid at the bottom of Blackrock Mountain, the lair of Ragnaros the Firelord. It was one of the two raids in World of Warcraft at launch, alongside Onyxia's Lair, and for most of 2005 it was where level 60 players went to earn their first full epic gear. Its ten bosses drop the Tier 1 armor sets, half of Thunderfury, and the [Eye of Sulfuras] that becomes Sulfuras.

Background

The Core is a cavern of lava rivers and fire elementals at the heart of Blackrock Mountain. In the lore, the Dark Iron dwarf sorcerer-thane Thaurissan tried to end the War of the Three Hammers by calling on the power of fire, and summoned Ragnaros into Azeroth by accident. The Firelord's arrival tore apart the land around the mountain and enslaved the surviving Dark Iron Dwarves. Ragnaros has slept in the Core ever since, with his elemental lieutenants and the Flamewakers guarding him.

The dwarves of Blackrock Depths still serve the elementals, which is why the raid's entrance sits at the bottom of that dungeon. Ragnaros himself cannot be fought until his steward, Majordomo Executus, is defeated and agrees to wake his master.

Getting in

Players can always reach the Core through the portal at the end of Blackrock Depths, past the Grim Guzzler and Emperor Thaurissan's throne. Walking through a full dungeon before every raid gets old quickly, so nearly every raider does Attunement to the Core instead. Starting at level 55, Lothos Riftwaker (standing on the chains in the middle of Blackrock Mountain, near the Depths entrance) asks you to bring back a [Core Fragment] from the cave just outside the Molten Core portal. Once you've done that, Lothos teleports you straight into the raid whenever you ask him.

The other piece of preparation is water. Seven of the bosses guard Runes of the Firelord, and Majordomo Executus only appears once every rune has been doused. In patch 1.12 that takes an [Aqual Quintessence] (single use) or an [[forever:item:22754]] (reusable), both from Duke Hydraxis of the Hydraxian Waterlords, a group of water elementals living on an island off the coast of Azshara. His chain starts with The Molten Core, which asks you to kill a Firelord, a Molten Giant, an Ancient Core Hound and a Lava Surger inside the raid, and later sends you after the four Flamewaker bosses. Killing anything in the Core also earns Waterlord reputation.

Bosses

Most guilds fought the bosses in roughly this order, set by the layout and by the rune requirement.

Between bosses the raid fights packs of Core Hounds, Molten Giants, Firelords and Lava Surgers. Several trash packs respawn if the raid takes too long, which punished slow guilds.

Loot

Tier 1 sets

Every boss except Ragnaros drops Tier 1 pieces, and the belts and bracers drop from trash. Each class has its own eight-piece set: Lawbringer for paladins, Might for warriors, Cenarion for druids, Earthfury for shamans, Giantstalker for hunters, Nightslayer for rogues, Prophecy for priests, Arcanist for mages and Felheart for warlocks. For example, Golemagg drops chest pieces such as the [Breastplate of Might] and [Lawbringer Chestguard], and Magmadar drops the legs. See Tier Sets for how the sets fit together across raids.

Ragnaros drops Tier 2 legs instead, such as the [Judgement Legplates] and [Leggings of Transcendence]. Those were the first Tier 2 pieces most players saw, months before Blackwing Lair opened.

Weapons and other famous drops

• Thunderfury. Garr and Baron Geddon each have a small chance (about 3% in our data) to drop one half of the Bindings of the Windseeker. With both halves, ten [Elementium Bar], and the [Essence of the Firelord] from Ragnaros, a player can free Prince Thunderaan through Highlord Demitrian in Silithus, defeat him, and complete Rise, Thunderfury! to wake [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]. The Elementium comes from Blackwing Lair, so the sword could only be finished after patch 1.6.
• Sulfuras. Ragnaros has a rare chance to drop the [Eye of Sulfuras]. A blacksmith combines it with a [Sulfuron Hammer], which takes [Plans: Sulfuron Hammer] from the Thorium Brotherhood and a [Sulfuron Ingot] from Golemagg, to make [Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros], a two-handed mace.
• Ragnaros's other loot includes [Bonereaver's Edge], the agility ring [Band of Accuria], the rogue dagger [Perdition's Blade], the caster neck [Choker of the Fire Lord] and the [Crown of Destruction].
• Shared Flamewaker and non-Flamewaker loot. Many bosses share a pool of low-chance epics, among them the [Talisman of Ephemeral Power] trinket and the [Quick Strike Ring].
• Class quests. Majordomo's cache can hold the [Ancient Petrified Leaf], which hunters take to The Ancient Leaf to start the quest for the bow Rhok'delar and the staff [Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers].

Crafting materials

Trash drops [Fiery Core] and [Lava Core], and core hounds can be skinned for Core Leather. With reputation, the Thorium Brotherhood in Searing Gorge sells recipes that turn these into fire resistance armor and some of the best crafted weapons of the time.

Strategy notes

Fire resistance is the theme. Ragnaros, Majordomo's healers and Baron Geddon all do heavy fire damage, so guilds learning the instance often built fire resistance sets and stocked Greater Fire Protection Potions. Molten Core was the first raid where a whole guild had to prepare a resistance set and consumables, and that habit carried into every later raid in this list.

The Ragnaros fight lasts up to three minutes before he submerges and eight Sons of Flame appear. Melee have to watch for Wrath of Ragnaros, a knockback that can throw them into the lava, and the tanks have to hold him through it. Guilds that couldn't kill him before he submerged had to burn the Sons quickly and finish him in the second phase.

Other mechanics shaped the route. In the early patches the hunter's Tranquilizing Shot came from a book dropped by Lucifron, so Lucifron had to die before Magmadar. Shazzrah sits next to Baron Geddon, so they're usually pulled one after the other. Majordomo has to be beaten before anyone can summon Ragnaros.

History

Molten Core shipped with the game in November 2004; Warcraft Wiki dates it to patch 1.1.0, the release build. In a 2014 retrospective, Blizzard explained that it was nearly cut before launch. The team finished it in about a week: Jeff Kaplan placed the creatures, Scott Mercer designed the boss fights, Bob Fitch built the loot tables and Pat Nagle wrote the Hydraxis quest line. The attunement quest came later, in a patch. The same retrospective says the Core started as a single room in Blackrock Depths with only Ragnaros in it before it grew into its own instance.

Early patches tuned it repeatedly. Patch 1.2 let players who died in the Core recover their bodies at the Blackrock Depths instance portal. Patch 1.5 added more epic items to the boss loot tables. Later patches made it harder to stay out of combat during boss fights. For most guilds Molten Core was the first raid they cleared, and it stayed their weekly farm long after Blackwing Lair opened.

Molten Core taught a generation of players to raid. It brought in 40-player raid leading, loot systems such as DKP, and weekly lockouts. Killing Ragnaros became a milestone for any guild, though he was no longer the top raid boss once Blackwing Lair opened in July 2005.

Later history

Molten Core was never removed, but it became soloable content once later expansions raised the level cap. Patch 3.0.8 removed the need for the Waterlords' water: killing a boss now douses its rune automatically. For the game's tenth anniversary in 2014, Blizzard briefly ran a retuned 40-player Raid Finder version that awarded a Core Hound mount. The original version came back with World of Warcraft Classic in 2019 as one of its launch raids.

Sources

• Molten Core, Warcraft Wiki
• Attunement to the Core, Warcraft Wiki
• Re-visiting Heroism's Past: Molten Core, Blizzard Entertainment, April 2014
• Patch 1.1.0, Warcraft Wiki