Molten Core Raid Guides (Updated for the Season of Mastery)

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.

Molten Core is the first major raid in World of Warcraft Classic. Deep within Blackrock Depths, you are able to enter Molten Core, where you can work your way through the raid to ultimately defeat Ragnaros. However, getting into Molten Core requires some work ahead of time.

There are two ways to get into Molten Core: completing the attunement, or traveling through Blackrock Depths.

Getting attuned to Molten Core means completing the quest Attunement to the Core from Lothos Riftwaker in Blackrock Mountain. Completing this quest will allow you to talk with Lothos to simply be ported into Molten Core, instead of needing to run into the raid yourself. Running into the raid yourself is possible, but quite time consuming. The entrance to Molten Core is deep within Blackrock Depths, meaning you and a group of 4 other players will need to spend time clearing through the dungeon to get into the raid. In a raid of 40 people, if you need everyone to run into Molten Core this way, that means a group of 5 would need to clear all the way through Blackrock Depths into Molten Core, only to then have the remaining 35 people travel through Blackrock Depths 5 at a time into Molten Core. While this is possible, it would be quite time consuming, and you would most likely spend 1-2 hours just getting everyone inside.

On the other hand, the attunement quest itself is quite easy. You can pick up Attunement to the Core at Level 55, and all you need to do is clear through Blackrock Depths to the entrance of Molten Core just once to retrieve the rock fragments found outside the entrance. Once you return to Lothos with the fragment, you can talk to him anytime in the future and he will simply teleport you into Molten Core, allowing you to access the raid easily.

Molten Core is a 40-man raid, which means you can have up to 40 people in your raid group while inside. While you can complete Molten Core with almost any raid composition, there are definitely some key classes to have. An ideal raid group would have something close to the following composition.

• 8 Warriors (2 dedicated Prot Warriors, 2+ Warriors that can off-tank when needed)
• 6 Rogues
• 7 Mages
• 4 Warlocks
• 5 Priests (1 Shadow, the rest Healers)
• 3 HuntersHunters
• 2 Restoration Druids
• 5 Holy Paladins [A] / 5 Restoration Shamans [H]

For more information about the best healers, tanks, and DPS, check out the tier lists for each here.

While the above setup is what would be considered an optimal group in a perfect world, it is extremely important to emphasize that you could complete Molten Core with almost any raid composition. At the end of the day, players are more important than specs and classes in WoW Classic, so try not to focus too much on crafting an ideal group.

Trash pulls can be some of the most dangerous in Molten Core, even more so than some bosses. The key to not wiping in Molten Core is consistency and safety; always pull trash back in as small of groups as possible, and always clear more room than you think you will need before pulling a boss. The most dangerous trash mobs are listed below.

• Lava Surgers are large rock elementals that will knock back anyone near them, so do not tank them close to edges. Since these are elementals, Warlocks can use Banish on them if necessary.
• Lava Elementals are large rock elementals that will stun and put a fire debuff on anyone nearby. Make sure to always tank these away from the ranged in your group. Since these are elementals, Warlocks can use Banish on them if necessary.
• Molten Giants and Molten Destroyers are large giants that will stun people near them. Tank these away from the ranged, and make sure to focus one down at a time.
• Firelords are fire elementals that spawn adds. Kill the adds as they spawn, while killing the main Fire Lord quickly as well.
• Ancient Core Hounds are large dogs that breathe fire in a cone in front of them. When killing these, make sure your tank faces them away from the raid.

1. Lucifron
2. Magmadar
3. Gehennas
4. Garr
5. Baron Geddon
6. Shazzrah
7. Sulfuron Harbinger
8. Golemagg the Incinerator
9. Majordomo Executus
10. Ragnaros

Each boss page contains a list of the loot that the specific boss drops, but you can see a full list of available drops on our Molten Core Loot page.

You can find overviews of the Tier 1 sets for each class in our Tier 1 Sets Overview, which contains images of each set, as well as their set bonuses.

If you clear the first 8 bosses in Molten Core, Majordomo Executus will not be there. This is a problem, since not only can you not kill him, but you need Majordomo to summon Ragnaros. You will not be able to fight either without the necessary items to summon them. To spawn Majordomo, you will need to get him to come out by using a specific item from the Hydraxian Waterlords, the Aqual Quintessence.

Inside Molten Core, there are seven burning runes placed around the raid on the ground, that look like the picture above. If you douse all seven runes by having a player use a Aqual Quintessence on top of them, Majordomo will spawn. This means you will need seven Aqual Quintessences to douse the seven runes, since each Quintessence is consumed on use. This can either be done by having seven players all carry a single quintessence, or if necessary, you can have one or more players run to Duke Hydraxis on his island in Azshara to get another one before summoning them back to in front of the raid. This method can take lots of time to douse all the runes, especially with only one or two people doing the dousing. However, you are limited by the number of players in your raid who have done the necessary quest chain to get Aqual Quintessences.

To be able to get Aqual Quintessences from Duke Hydraxis, you must have completed the quest chain that starts at the Duke.

1. Accept and complete Poisoned Water and Stormers and Rumblers from Duke Hydraxis. These will send you to the Eastern Plaguelands to kill poisoned elementals and Silithus to kill Dust Stormers and Desert Rumbler.
2. Turn in the quests above, then get Eye of the Emberseer. This quest requires you to kill Pyroguard Emberseer in Upper Blackrock Spire for his eye.
3. Turn in the eye, then get The Molten Core. You will need to kill a few different types of trash mobs in Molten Core.
4. The next quest is Agent of Hydraxis, which requires you to be honored with the Hydraxian Waterlords. For the most efficient reputation gain, clear Molten Core weekly, but if you feel like you really need to farm it up, you can farm elementals in Silithus, but it will be significantly slower.
5. Once you are honored, get the quest Hands of the Enemy. This requires you to kill and loot the hands of four bosses in Molten Core.
6. Return to Duke Hydraxis to get your Aqual Quintessence. You can now return to him for another one anytime you need another.