Molten Core ( original ) The Molten Core is a level 60 raid dungeon located within Blackrock Mountain , home to Ragnaros the Firelord . It was one of two forty ( 40 ) player raid dungeons available upon release of " World of Warcraft " , with the other being Onyxia ' s Lair . Considered the pinnacle of raiding achievement at the time , the Molten Core enticed adventurers to enter the instance in the search of realm glory . Just before the re - opening of the Dark Portal , Ragnaros , the land ' s fiery overlord was cast down from his dark throne and returned to the Firelands . He now rages war on the world tree Nordrassil . Encounters . Upon successful completion of the encounters , all bosses drop tier 1 set items - excluding Ragnaros , who drops tier 2 leg items . In addition , trash mobs may drop Fiery Cores , Lava Cores , and Core Leather , which can be used to craft armor and weapons available with Thorium Brotherhood reputation . Quests and Reputation . Gaining Entry . There are three possible ways to enter Molten Core : Killing NPC s within Molten Core rewards reputation with Hydraxian Waterlords . The Hydraxian Waterlords offer a quest chain , eventually rewarding Aqual Quintessence , which was at one point required to douse the Runes of the Firelord in order to summon Majordomo Executus and consequently , Ragnaros . Presently , defeating bosses will automatically douse their respective runes . History . The Molten Core was created during the War of the Three Hammers more than 300 years ago . Near the end of the war , Thaurissan , the leader of the Dark Iron Dwarves , sought to summon a powerful fire elemental to defeat the combined forces of the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer clans . He was more successful than he could have imagined , as he released Ragnaros the Firelord from millennia of captivity under the Redridge Mountains . Ragnaros destroyed the city of Thaurissan and created the volcano of Blackrock Mountain . He dwells there to this day with his elemental servants and the enslaved remnants of the Dark Iron dwarf clan . The burning lake where Ragnaros lies sleeping acts as a rift connecting to the plane of fire , allowing the malicious elementals to pass through . Overview . On release , Molten Core and Onyxia ' s Lair were the only 40 man instances in the game , thus Ragnaros was the first " game end boss . " With the advent of Blackwing Lair , Ahn ' Qiraj , Naxxramas , and the raising of the level cap with the game ' s expansions , defeating Ragnaros has long since ceased to be the pinnacle of raiding success . However , prior to the Burning Crusade , slaying him was still considered a very important step in raid progression before engaging in more challenging content . It was the first raid encounter which required a concerted effort in acquiring massive amounts of a particular statistic ( in this case , fire resistance ) . Moreover , the encounter was the first one to demand the extensive use of consumables , at least in the learning process and in the first few kills . As such , it was once a very important stage in the evolution of a raiding guild . However , as of the Burning Crusade expansion , this is no longer the case , as this instance is largely obsolete with the introduction of Outland green items with superior stats to most of Tier 1 ( and the fact that most higher instances are lower than 40 man , making them a much more practical way to go ) . It is now typically only run for the achievement , or by players seeking to craft or . Prerequisites and Quests . While technically there are no prerequisites to enter Molten Core through its entrance at the bottom of Blackrock Depths , every Core raider will want to complete the quest to enable the shortcut at the bottom of Blackrock Mountain . This quest is given at level 55 by Lothos Riftwaker who is located just outside The Quarry , on the way to Blackrock Depths . Once attuned you can access Molten Core by talking to Lothos again . When dead ( as ghost ) you also have the possibility to jump into the lava near Lothos . This can also be done by living players if they have a way to slow fall , or by jumping first onto the small ledge in the pillar on the right as you enter the main chamber of Blackrock Mountain , healing , then jumping down , back toward the wall of the lava pit , to cover the remaining distance to the platform below . There are very few quests that involve the Molten Core . The only significant quest chain is the Hydraxian Waterlords chain , which can be started by a visit to Duke Hydraxis off the coast of Azshara . Completing this quest chain will require killing one of each of the trash mobs in the Core , and then defeating the four Flamewaker bosses in Molten Core ( Lucifron , Gehennas , Shazzrah , and Sulfuron Harbinger ) . In addition , all the trash mobs and bosses in Molten Core provide Hydraxian Waterlord reputation . The final reward options for this quest chain are or , both rare rings with high Fire Resistance . Before Ragnaros can be summoned , the raid must defeat Majordomo Executus . Majordomo Executus will only appear if the raid douses the seven runes that are located near certain bosses in the Molten Core . Prior to Patch 3 . 0 . 8 , the runes could only be doused with the use of Aqual Quintessence ( which can only be acquired by speaking with Duke Hydraxis ) , or via the use of Eternal Quintessence ( usable once per hour , and which can be obtained from Duke Hydraxis when a player reaches Revered status with the Hydraxian Waterlords ) . With the introduction of Patch 3 . 0 . 8 , killing the boss that is associated with a rune will now automatically douse the rune . Raid Mechanics . Molten Core is a raid instance . This means that it is on a strict timer schedule , which resets once a week , and once a character has been " saved to the instance " by killing a boss , that character cannot enter a different instance of Molten Core that week . Each of the bosses in Molten Core has a very specific loot table , which includes the Tier 1 armor pieces as well as a number of other epic - quality items . In addition , the trash mobs in Molten Core provide Fiery Cores , Lava Cores , and Core Leather , which can be used with recipes earned at high levels of Thorium Brotherhood reputation to craft epic armor and weapons . It is generally the case that a raid progressing through Molten Core will use these Cores to craft Fire Resistance armor , which will allow the melee DPS of the raid to survive the final encounters with Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros . Expansion Relevance . With the arrival of " " the popularity of the Molten Core took a turn for the worse , with items available in the expansion superior in quality to that of the Molten Core or any of the other forty player instances at the time . However , frustration with the hours - long instance duration were alleviated , allowing players to power through the Molten Core in record time - trivializing content . New abilities and better gear reduced the numbers of players needed to complete Molten Core from 40 to below 10 . In " Wrath Of the Lich King " , it is possible for some classes to solo Molten Core . The classes doing this are usually Paladins and Death Knights , but Hunters , Shamans , Warlocks and Warriors have also managed to single - handedly defeat bosses . Video guide . How to solo Molten Core :