by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

World of Warcraft’s 10th Anniversary event is upon us, and with it comes a nostalgia trip into the original 40-person raid, Molten Core. Here are a few important things to keep in mind about your trip into this level 100 LFR version of the raid.

• You need to have an iLvl of 615 minimum to even see Molten Core in the LFR dropdown menu.
• The raid requires 40 people, four of which will be tanks. If queues seem a bit longer than you remember for LFR, that’s likely the reason why.
• None of the mechanics of the boss fights or trash packs have changed; the numbers have been tuned up for a raid of level 100s, however.
• If you’re a class/spec that can dispel Curse effects (Mages, Druids, and Shaman) or have a racial ability that can do it (Dwarves) then hotkey that RIGHT NOW. Half the bosses in MC throw curse debuffs that dramatically impact the raid both during and after the boss fight, so being able to eliminate those curses quickly will really speed up your time.
• Many of the trash packs will stack physical debuffs on the raid that can’t be dispelled, which do things like nullify armor or reduce Fire resistance. These debuffs are no joke, and the raid should wait until those debuffs wear off before starting the next pull.
• Speaking of pulls: there is a LOT of trash. Between mobs that stun, mobs that fear, mobs that patrol, and the close proximity of some trash to bosses, you’re going to be downing a lot of trash. And if it’s not handled properly, the trash can be more lethal than the boss fights if you get a lot of packs stacked on you at once.
• If you can cast any resurrection spells (aside from Mass Resurrection, since that has a debuff on it) then definitely do your fellow raider a solid and raise the dead after a pull. You’ll have time because of debuffs falling off, you won’t need to worry about people pulling respawned trash on the way back in, and it spreads goodwill and charity in this holiday season!

TL;DR : A) When in doubt, kill the trash, B) decurse raise dead dispel, c) bank on 90 minutes at minimum from start to finish, d) for all bosses except Golemagg, kill the adds first.

As for your rewards? None of the bosses drop any loot, except for around 26 gold that every character gets (instead of splitting the gold reward). The trash mobs all seem to retain their non-gear drops from level 60, so expect to see Fiery Cores, Lava Cores, and Deeprock Salt all over the place. You can also farm Dark Iron Ore from nodes in the raid if you want. Since none of the bosses (except Ragnaros) drop any loot, don’t expect any Tier 1 gear or Thunderfury Bindings to drop; you’ll need to go back to classic Molten Core for that.

Killing Ragnaros the first time will give you an achievement, which in turn grants you the Core Hound mount, which you’ll then get in the mail. The Molten Corgi you should have already received just for logging in during the anniversary event. Ragnaros is guaranteed to drop a iLvl 640 helm appropriate to your armor class: helm appropriate armor class. There are also two other non-guaranteed drops: a Fire Elemental battle pet named Hatespark the Tiny, and the Flames of Ragnaros, a reusable item which lets you light non-ranged weapons on fire.

Note that there’s no loot lockout on Ragnaros, so if you don’t get the pet or the Flames item, you can queue up again to pick it up. And the anniversary event runs until January 6th, so you’ve got plenty of time.