How to Get Started in Molten Core in World of Warcraft

Last Updated: October 7, 2022

Molten Core is one of the original World of Warcraft raid instances. An instance is an area separate from the live world that only members of your group can enter. Instances that require between 10 to 40 players to complete are called raids. Even though you can currently complete Molten Core alone, it's still called a raid because at the time it was released, it took a larger group. Molten Core has been in the game since 2004 when the maximum level a player could reach was 60. At that time, the fights were challenging for a group of 40 players. Now, many years and several expansions later, it can easily be done solo or with a few friends to keep you company.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Forming a Group to Conquer Molten Core or Doing It Solo

1
Go with a group if you’re just starting out. If it's your first time doing Molten Core, or if your character is below level 85, it's recommended to go with a group.
- It was not even possible to do Molten Core alone until two expansions after it was released.
2
Rally up your friends. You can ask your friends to help you if they have some spare time, or if you’re in a guild, ask if one of the guild officers or a guild event coordinator is willing to schedule a guild event to do Molten Core.
- If none of your friends are available to help, you can go to a major city and try to form a group by asking in the public chat channels. Some players may also be willing to sell tours of Molten Core (or other raids) via the trade chat channel.
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3
Soldier on alone only if your character reaches at least level 85. For the solo adventurer, once you are around level 85 or higher the enemies in Molten Core can become quite trivial. It depends on your gear as well, but your stats will reach a point that enemies are attacking you for minutes and your life will barely drop.
- This is a steep difference from going in at level 60 where you will die within 20 seconds without getting healed.
4
Travel to the raid. Once you have either formed your group or decided to take it on alone, you will need to travel to the raid.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Traveling to Molten Core

1
Enter Molten Core through the main entrance. Molten Core is located on the continent of Eastern Kingdoms. It's deep inside Blackrock Mountain, which is on the border of Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes. The walk-in entrance is located in Blackrock Depths, a dungeon in Blackrock Mountain.
2
Be teleported to Molten Core by Lothos Riftwaker. The other way to enter Molten Core is by speaking to Lothos Riftwaker (a non-player character) near the lava in the center of Blackrock Mountain. He can teleport you directly inside.
- Originally, you would have had to do a quest before Lothos Riftwaker would teleport you, but now that the quest is several years old, it's been changed and you don't need to do it anymore.
3
Be summoned inside by a Warlock. If you are in a group with a Warlock and he is already inside Molten Core, he can summon you in.
- It will take 2 other people with him to create the summoning portal, so in total it takes 3 other people besides yourself.

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Fighting the Enemies of Molten Core

1
Know how to identify a boss. When you enter Molten Core, you will be greeted by a pack of level 62 Molten Giants. In total, there are 10 bosses in raid and a whole lot of smaller level 58–63 enemies.
- When you move your mouse over an enemy, it will show their level on their nameplate. If you are looking at a boss, his nameplate will read “Level ?? Boss,” and there will be a picture of a skull.
2
Locate and defeat the bosses. Before you can spawn the final boss, you must defeat all of the previous bosses (except for Lucifron, who can be skipped). When looking at your map, you can see the location of each boss marked by a skull. The final boss of Molten Core is Ragnaros. Press M to open up your map, and you will see a section right in the middle of the map called Ragnaros’ Lair.
3
Proceed with caution when taking on the Core Hounds. Most of the enemies in Molten Core, including Ragnaros, are simple: when you get their life to zero, they will stay dead. The Core Hounds in Magmadar Cavern (open up your map and near the top you will see a section titled Magmadar Cavern) are an exception.
- These Core Hounds are linked together in packs of 5, and they will revive a few seconds after dying unless all other Core Hounds in their pack are also dead.
- It’s suggested to use area-of-effect (AOE) abilities on the Core Hounds.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Understanding the Raid Lockout System

1
Know how often you can slay a boss. Just like every other raid instance, Molten Core operates on the standard lockout system. This means once you kill a boss, you are locked to that instance until the lockouts reset every Tuesday.
- If you killed a boss and got locked to an instance, then you will not be able to join another instance of Molten Core in the same week. For example, if your friend killed a boss in a separate instance, you will not be able to join his instance until Tuesday.
- This also means you can only kill a boss once per week, since once you kill the boss he is dead in your instance until the reset.
2
Be aware that the lockout system serves a purpose. A weekly lockout is aimed to slow down the speed at which loot can be acquired. Since you are only able to kill each boss in Molten Core once per week, that means you are also only able to receive loot from each boss just once per week.
3
Monitor your lockouts. If you ever want to check whether you are locked or not, and when your lockout expires, type /raidinfo to bring up a menu. This will bring up a window titled “Raid Information,” and it will tell you the exact number of days,hours and minutes until your lockout resets.
- The lockouts always reset on Tuesdays.