Ye Olde Raid Guide: Molten Core

Welcome to the second edition of “Ye olde raid guide”. This will be a series of posts covering everything you need to know to clear old raids at max level. We continue with the legendarily epic eternal classic for all time; Molten Core.

Molten Core

Very few raids have so many draws as this one. There’s an achievement, a massive reputation grind, another quick reputation grind, two legendary items, the first ever raid tier set, several rare patterns and many gold-making opportunities.

To enter Molten Core you need get attuned by doing a quest in Blackrock Depths or simply walking through Blackrock Depths.

This raid was designed to be a difficult and awe-inspiring 40-man raid for level 60. This was clearable by three people at level 80 and can now be soloed by most classes at level 85. However, soloing it will be a very long and slow process and not nearly as fun as bringing your friends!

Tip: Bring a mage, druid or shaman for decursing. There are plenty of curse debuffs in this raid that are percentual and could possibly hurt quite a lot.

• Wowpedia link
  

  Ragnaros

• Location: Blackrock Mountain
• Size: 40-man
• Level: 60
• Attunement: Attunement to the Core
• Bosses:
  • Lucifron
  • Magmadar
  • Gehennas
  • Garr
  • Baron Geddon
  • Shazzrah
  • Sulfuron Harbinger
  • Golemagg the Incinerator
  • Majordomo Executus
  • Ragnaros
• Why would you want to go there:
  • For the achievements:
    • Molten Core (personal)
    • Molten Core (guild)
    • Hydraxian Waterlords – Exalted with the faction
    • Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros – Legendary item
    • Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker – Legendary item
  • For the items:
    • Tier 1 raid gear
    • 2x Bindings of the Windseeker for Thunderfury legendary
    • Eye of Sulfuras for Sulfuras legendary
    • Sulfuron Ingot for Sulfuras legendary
    • Blood of the Mountain for Sulfuras legendary and other craftables
    • Fiery Core and Lava Core for Thorium Brotherhood reputation and more
    • Formula: Enchant Weapon – Spellpower for Enchanters
    • Pattern: Core Armor Kit for Leatherworkers
    • Pattern: Core Felcloth Bag for Tailors
    • Pattern: Flarecore Wraps for Tailors
    • Plans: Elemental Sharpening Stone for Blacksmiths
    • Schematic: Biznicks 247×128 Accurascope for Engineers
    • Schematic: Core Marksman Rifle for Engineers
    • Schematic: Force Reactive Disk for Engineers
  • Other:
    • Hunters can tame Magmadar for a sweet lookin’ core hound pet. Be aware that doing this means not being able to finish the instance though.

Kill the bosses in the order that they are numbered, you won’t be able to access Majordomo Executus and then later Ragnaros, unless all the other eight bosses are dead.

Walkthrough

To enter Molten Core you need to go through Blackrock Depths and enter via an instance portal. You only need to do this once though since there’s an attunement quest offered by a blood elf named Lothos Riftwaker at the bottom of Blackrock Mountain (on the way to Blackrock Depths). The quest itself requires you to go all the way though Blackrock Depths and find the instance portal to Molten Core, just next to it will be a quest item to pick up.

Once everyone is attuned you can start rampaging your way through this epic 40-man raid. Follow the path given by the boss numbers in the map above. You want to kill every single boss in there to be able to unlock the last two.

All the trash rewards reputation with Hydraxian Waterlords up until you’re Revered, they also drop a lot of Fiery Core and Lava Core which is used for Thorium Brotherhood reputation and crafting, so most people will probably want to kill everything in sight. Nothing will really be able to harm you that much, so go ahead, pull like crazy!

You should begin by getting into Lucifron and Magmadar‘s cave over to the left, in there you’ll find big trash packs of core hounds. You should AOE down all of these at the same time and not pull another pack until the first pack has despawed. If you engage a second pack before the first pack has despawned, they will all respawn (indefinitely). So either take all packs at once with massive AOE or just one pack at a time.

Garr, drops the right half of Bindings of the Windseeker

Lucifron and Magmadar will both be push-overs, just dps away. Have your decurser watch out for the Lucifron’s Curse debuff which increases costs of all abilities by 100% for 5 minutes. This can of course be quite annoying and should be decursed right away.

Hunters: You can tame Magmadar, but don’t do it when you’re in a group. Taming the boss means you haven’t killed it which means you won’t be able to kill the last two bosses in the instance and won’t get any achievements.

Once they’re down you go back out the same way you came in and continue travelling through the main cave. You’ll encounter Gehennas and Garr on your way. Gehennas casts another debuff; Gehennas’s Curse which reduces healing on you by 75%, this should also be decursed. Garr has abilities that slows everyone down to a dazed speed and he also removes all of your buffs and hots, so keep in mind to rebuff after he’s down.

Baron Geddon, drops the left half of Bindings of the Windseeker

After Garr you want to continue through the smaller pathway near where Garr was. In the following cave you’ll meet Baron Geddon and Shazzrah.

Baron Geddon patrols around the room and loves to engage you from behind while you’re working on some trash. Try to get the trash down before he comes towards you because the Baron can still hurt you. I’ve seen Baron Geddon cause several wipes during Wrath of the Lich King and he might still be able to do so if you don’t respect him. He will cast the Ignite Mana debuff on everyone which slowly drains their mana and damages them. He also casts Living Bomb which will send the target up in the air after 8 seconds and cause them to have a lot of fall damage, plus damaging any nearby allies.

Having said that, if you’re more than five people then he’ll probably be dead before he is able to cause anyone any serious damage.

Shazzrah puts yet another curse on you called Shazzrah’s Curse (beginning to see a pattern here?), which increases magic damage taken by 100%. Since nothing in the instance does all that much damage, this curse doesn’t really need to be decursed. He also interrupts and silences casters now and then. It doesn’t matter though, just dps away.

Golemagg the Incinerator, drops Sulfuron Ingot

Keep going up the ramp. When you see Golemagg, accessible through a quick jump down, keep on going to the right to Sulfuron Harbinger. This guy was originally supposed to be taken down by killing one priest at a time, to avoid them healing each other and Sulfuron Harbinger. Nowadays it’s easy to just AOE down the boss and his priests.

When you gotten him and his pals down go back to Golemagg. Focus the boss down and ignore his dogs, they get resurrected if killed.

You have now cleared all of the eight bosses needed to enable the Majordomo Executus encounter. Go back out to the big cave and up the ramp to meet him. For this encounter all you need to do is AOE all the adds down and then kill Majordomo. Easycakes. When he’s down you get a chest to loot, but there’s nothing spectacular in it anymore. The chest used to contain quest items for hunters and priests that started epic questlines for epic weapons.

Ragnaros, drops Eye of Sulfuras

Now only one boss remains, Ragnaros himself. Go back the way you came, all the way back to Garr. Then keep going a bit further back in the big cave towards the entrance. You’ll see another pathway to the right to yet another cave. This is where you’ll fight Ragnaros. Go to the centre of the big cave and speak to Majordomo, he’ll summon Ragnaros for you.

Ragnaros used to be a badass motherfucker, hardcore to the… eh… core! But nowadays you can just dps him down in a few seconds (make sure to bring some ranged though, melee’s will be knocked back). Let’s hope the Firelands version will be equally badass as this used to be. Check this out:

Well, that’s it. You’ve cleared Molten Core! 🙂

Quick Raid Leading Notes

• To be safe, bring a decurser such as a mage, druid or shaman.
• The attuned people can enter by talking to the blood elf at the bottom of Blackrock Mountain, those who aren’t attuned need to walk through Blackrock Depths. Make them pick up the quest so that they’ll be attuned next time.
• Remember, you need to kill all the bosses, no skipping.
• The core hound trash packs in Magmadar’s room need to be AOE’d down at the same time or they will respawn indefinitely.
• Baron Geddon can still be dangerous, he throws debuffs that damages you based on the amount of mana you have and causes AOE fire damage and throws you up in the air. Be careful if you’re in a small group.
• If you have a small amount of people, focus down adds one by one on Sulfuron Harbinger or they’ll just keep healing each other.

Cheers,
Gav