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Many people in the tribe of late have expressed an interest to me about going forth into the Molten core, trying their hand at the games second hardest instance in the hope that they can find new adventures and gear that is purple. So I thought I would try to come up with a guide to assist you in learning just what it takes to be one of the Horde's elite Molten core runners.

Allow me to cover some of the basics first. Getting a steady role in a molten core comes in two different ways.

(1) The most surefire one is being one of those people who decide to join in the beginning of a raid. Not the beginning of that day, but from that groups start up. This is a rocky proposistion, filled with nights of frustration as you lose over and over again while learning the encounters. Arguably the most satisfying thing you can do however, is help make a raid a success.

(2) joining an established group. THese are people who know exactly what they are doing because they mainly came from the 1st option..and they tend to stick by people who have been with them from the beginning. Getting into one of these involves having good connections (your welcome Molotov!) having a good reputation, and having gear that doesn't make you an embarassment to your profession! A little luck doesn't hurt either. Make a name for yourself, battle in warsong, quest with people outside the tribe, get to know folks and hope it pays off. This is by far the more difficult way in.

Certain things I cannot stress enough. Have good gear if you want to join Molten Core. It does make a difference when you need that much more mana to heal with. Skill is still primary, but skill and gear will win the day every time.

So allow me to present Damoxians guide on class roles within Molten core.
Please remember, what you like to play in pvp and lesser instances often means little in the core. Be flexible enough to change your game style.

A) Warrior. (1) There are two types of warriors found within the molten core, there are the true tanks, defense specced warriors who are meant to hold aggro at any cost, and there are the damage dealers, armed with arconite reapers and Obsydian edged blades. One thing that must be kept in mind however, is that the second class of warrior better keep the gear he needs to play the role of a tank. Several times in the Molten core there will be just to many enemies to contend with without a contingent of strong and defensive minded tanks around to suck up aggro. Major domo requires six warriors alone! And none of them better be seen without a hefty shield on there arm. (2) Like all classes, know when to hold aggro and when not to, changing to a different take in mid fight due to bad anger management will cost a sloppy warrior his life. (3) if your a main tank, get the mods that help. Find the ones that announce when Magmadar will fear next or when Gehennas will bring down his curse that makes you heal at half efficiency, announcing these can save everyone a lot of time. Make a habbit of looking for them.

B) Mage - Have evocation is tip number one. I'm sure most of you do but if you do not, get it. You may have 8k mana, but these fights, especially the bosses, last a long time and you'll need to eek out mana as best you can to fight. (2) get the decursive the mod. Many times doing damage will take a back seat to de-cursing people in the raid, being able to press one button to run through a priority list is much more effecient than doing it manually and will save the lives of many of your fellow raiders. Plus it annoys the hell out of warlocks like me in pvp. (3) learn when to attack and when not to. You want to know the number one class for dying in Molten core...Rogues...but your a close second. Don't just lay down all your DPS (Damage per second) on every creature you can. You will die and you will die in the blink of an eye when some creature strikes you for 2k every other second while your tank comes running up to try to taunt it off. (4) Raid assist, to help with that decursing. You may not think you'll use it much, but it does come in handy.

C) Priest - (1) Spirit gear. Have a set of this with you. While you might have gotten away with just having high int for your early career, it will not be enough in Molten core. Molten core relys heaviy on what is called a healer rotation. A set of healers will step in to cast healing spells, when mana is drained they will call in the next group while they fall back to regen mana. If you rely on int gear, you'll come back for round two with too little mana to make a difference and that you want to avoid at all possible. (2) Decursive. Like mages your going to need this mod, dispelling is just as important as healing in some encounters. Fighting Barron Gheddon is not easy when everyone in the group is being killed by their own mana (have to hate that). (3) Raid assist. Download this mod and install it...if you don't have it you have wasted the raids time by applying for joining them. This is the single most valuable tool a Priest can have on hand. Learn it, love it and look for updates all the time. (4) Regents. Always bring candles, lots and lots of candles, be willing to expend a good 2 dozen for a bad raid night and a good 8 on a great one. Do not be caught without them!

D) Druid - (1) read the above for priests, everything that holds true for them holds true for you. (2) if you are a feral specced druid, get ready for a lot of dissapointment on rolling options. Molten core raids are about strengthening the Raid, not the individual. Play bear or cat on your own time because in here it is not something people want from you. (3) know when to combat rez. This is imperative as at times rezzing a priest or shaman away from a boss can allow him to go around rezzing people in turn. A main tank dying needs to be brought back to life right away before all hell breaks loose. Use good judgement here.

E) Shaman - (1) your a priest, not a warrior. Get used to healing in Molten core, thats what your for. Mana tide and restoration are beautiful things for a shaman to have in this instance. You might be an elemental god in pvp, but here it means nothing because at times priests and druids will be doing dispells. Read the Priest write up for further essentials. (2) Totems, Fire resistance is useful almost every time, just make sure you run up close enough so the tank gets the effect as keeping him alive is the most important thing. Mana regen can be crucial on longer fights. Always keep in mind that mana put into damage totems is probably better spent on healing.

F) Rogues - (1) get used to dying. Rogues will die, they will die a lot in Molten core. (2) Stamina > Agility. To stay alive you need health, Molten core is unforgiving on rogues for more than a single hit, so agility is secondary to having the ability to take a punch so that healer can keep you alive. Keep your agility gear for other instances, but make sure you bring stamina and attack power to the core. (3) feint, vanish, anything that reduces aggro is essential here, rogues die often because they deal horrendouse damage and then are snuffed out at a moments notice. Be patient, like the mage you need to know when to just lay back. (4) your here to do damage. You may have wacky stealth, the ability to sap 2 men at a time. It does not matter. Molten core doesn't reward subterfuge overly much, except for dodging aggro. You are here to hit enemies and hit them hard.

G) Warlocks - (1) come with shards...come with more shards than you care to think about, you'll be summoning, you'll be handing out health stones, you'll be soul stoning priests. You will not waste them on shadow burns and soul fires, because they are more valuable in use elsewhere. (2) Shadowbolt, one of the few spells you will use in this instance. When everything is immune or resistant to fire, shadow damage becomes king. Spec for damage with this if you can. (3) Banishment - This comes in real handy in many fights. All rock type elementals in this instance are banishable, fire types are not. If you can manage curse of shadow before a banish, it will hold much easier than without, where creatures may break it in a few seconds. Once you banish something, count to 28, then chain cast banish until your creature breaks and is then re-banished. (4) Agrro managament, those shadowbolt crits cause problems, count to five after you land one before casting again. (5) curse of shadows/elements. Have one of these be the only curse/dot that you cast, keep it on an enemy at all times. Don't fill up debuff slots with corruption or immolte as they will be washed away before they can do enough damage. Curse of doom may seem useful, but most creatures here self cleanse some dots away long before this one could be put to use. (6) destructive reach is a great talent, several creatures have AOE's that this can help avoid, without it, you get hit with all sorts of nastiness (7) Don't pick up fellheart horns, because if you get them, I become less cool due to lack of rarity! (8) If you don't know dark pact, at least know improved lifetap. Shadow bolt burns through a lot of mana, your going to lifetap to keep yourself active, make sure do it effeciently or else your going to find stray bolts flying around killing you more often than you like.

H) Hunters - (1) distance shooting, pick up the talent that increased the distance you can fight from, much like the warlock, you want to stand outside of several nasty AOE effects. (2) distracting shot. You will be a puller, you will from range draw out creatures that can flatten you in two hits..and you will not want to feign dead so it runs loose. Get used to the occasional death here, especially against lava packs. You control the start of several fights, we are counting on you. (3) Feign death. Cowards! Still this is great for losing aggro when you've started piling on crits, use it once in a while to keep from being the critters big focus. If you have jumper cables, feign to break combat, hop up and use them on a priest. You can save the Raid! (4) realize that sadly, some good weapons may not be availbe to you, because melee weapons especially will be favorably given to rogues and warriors. (5) pets. Using your pet to draw out entirely distant enemies is a good way to draw aggro without having to risk your own neck. Say goodbye to fluffy and hello purple loot.

General tips.

Don't be a leader, be a follower. One person leads Molten core, love them or hate them there is a reason. Start thinking you know better and you cause all sorts of chaos. Listen to your raid leader at all times.

Learn first aid. I don't care if you are a priest or a shaman, learn bandaging. Because it heals without mana, mana you need to spend on others. And you others, learn to bandage to that a healers mana can go to where it really belongs, the tanks. I cannot emphasize how valuable this skill is to know in keeping you alive during extended and mana intensive battles.

Learn Cooking. Those buffs some of the higher end recipies provide are absolutely great for seeing you through some of the tougher battles and its a skill i'm sorely lacking myself.

Alchemists are everyones friend. Potions...fire protection, healing, mana. All of these are in *massive* demand on raids. If you make them put some time in each week to step out and start concocting them. Your status as a loyal raider will be far more valuable than that foolish engineer who occasionaly throws out a chicken <sheepish grin>

Raid Assit. I mentioned it for specific classes that it is necissary for (You will be told to get it if you don't have it folks, honest) but everyone should probably take a look.

Damage meters. Do more harm than good, that guy who is at the top of the list for damage, he probably died a lot more than you. Steady DPS (Damage per Second) is more valuable than mass damage.

Tank aggro. Do not start firing as soon as the battle starts, always give your tank about 10 good seconds to build aggro before firing. Fail to heed this warning and its your funeral, quite literaly.

And the most important thing to being a successful raider is.
COME FOR THE ADVENTURE, NOT THE LOOT. Purples are great, don't live and die around getting purple items. You will be dissapointed at times, others you might think its unfair, but if you came just for loot you probably are not what the raid is looking for. More arguments come up over loot than anything else, nothing is sadder than fourty grown ups arguing about getting cooler looking pixels for their character. And people who do not yell and scream everytime they lose are far more beloved than those that do..trust someone that knows from experience.

Allright, variouse monsters you fight I may cover in the future, but for now I think this is a nice starting point to help people learn a little something about the utter basics of the core. Look for my sequal coming soon.

Craig -That guy who keeps Damoxian's soul.

PS. Post your own class tips if you have been to the core, obviously I know more about being a warlock than how best to handle being a rogue.
Thanks for posting this, DamoCraig! It will no doubt be invaluable to some of our Tribemates who are eager to try their luck at such things. The Core is still a bit in the future for me but I've already started to realize the value as you say of the spirit gear; my 8.5k mana disappears frightfully fast in some of the larger pulls toward the end of UBRS as it is. Fortunately, luck has been with me so far in collecting Devout pieces. Let's see if it holds. Wink
Damoxian,

Thank you so much for the informative guide on what is required and expected during a Molten Core raid.

I was very surprised to learn that Hunters are the preferred pullers in this dungeon. Seems I will need to brush up on my pulling skills again. I used to play a Ranger in EverQuest, and was counted on to pull in a number of situations. So hopefully, I haven't forgotten everything I used to know, and hopefully some of my EQ experience will transfer over to WoW.

One thing I found missing in your post that I think would be VERY helpful for me (and possibly other Tribe members) is your definition of "good" armor.

More specific, what should each class be focusing on for this instance? Should I be gathering Fire resistant armor pieces while sacrificing Armor and Agility, or should I just try to raise Agility as high as possible?

Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated.

Krell
60 Orc Hunter
Ironsong Tribe
thanks, damoxian. you rock as always. i noticed that you didn't mention much for rogues as far as some of the very useful stun, mez, and interrupt abilities. am i to assume most of these don't come into play very often, or are just overlooked and seen as unimportant?
Please understand that if I neglect to mention some of the finer points of your class, its most likely due to a lack of my own knowledge.

Krelldor - Set armor is considered preferrable, as a hunter you are not expected to take many direct hits, so a high agility is going to be a great asset to you. Fire gear is essential, especially on the last battle against ragnaros, where you are expected to have 150 fire resist....on equipment alone.

Rawne - Stuns mezzes and the like are unfortunately not somethign that occurs in Molten core, with the sheer number of rogues a group has it would be far to easy I suppose to stun lock things into oblivion. To my knowledge they are immune to most effects that would keep them immobile. The only monsters that tend to be casters in the core are the main bosses, and like most main bosses they are immune to things that would hinder their casting. So no curse of tongues for me...no interrupts for you. Rogues are basically a fragile but dangerouse dps class in the Core.

Please keep posting questions, i'll answer them to the best of my ability as they come my way.
Damoxian is absolutely right when it comes to the following orders part of his guide. Keep the raid channel clear of all chatter except for the leader's orders, and do your damnedest to follow them to the letter. One person who can't keep his opinions to themself or can't follow orders can ruin a raid for the other 39. And even if the leader is dead wrong, follow his orders. It often works out so that 40 people doing the same wrong thing is better than 20 people doing the wrong thing and 20 people doing the right thing. At worst, you'll wipe and the leader will know it was his plan, not the execution thereof, that was flawed. At best, it might actually work.

I've only been on two MC raids so far, none of which ended in killing any bosses, so I don't have the authority behind my words like Damoxian does. But think it over, and don't be "that guy."
This post has inspired me to write a brief overview of the bosses. <This is my level of boredom on my vacation : ( > just so you know what is coming, this is not a guide to beat them, but a brief overview of what you are up against

Lucifron: 1st boss, Naga with 2 guards, has a nasty curse upping mana on spells, and a delayed damage magic spell, Keeping mages and Priests a bit busy antidebuffing.

Magmadar: Imagine The Beast X20, Giant core hound, no adds, no debuffs. Abilities include Fire breath, roughly 180 degree fire attack, if tank is tanking right, should not hat anyone but him, Fear, every so often Mag does a AoE fear spell. then the globs, Mag spits out a random fireball at one member of raid, does lots of DoT if in it at all, this can be nasty because he can fear you into globs.

Gehennes: 3rd boss, naga; Has two guards, they have nasty 180 degree slash attacks and should be offtanked and killed and kept away from mt, Gehennes has a curse that reduces healing effects by 75%, so mages are busy decursing. Last, Gehennes has a rain of fire spell, quite nasty, just move when it hits you.

Garr: 4th boss, elementalL; has 8 adds, all elementals and can be banished, Garr has a kite spell, and debuffs you, having a bunch of non useful buffs can help with this, ask locks for waterbreathing. once the 8 adds lose all their health they explode, noone but warriors should be effected, as rogues should run away. Once there are only 2 adds left, Garr tells his last two adds to explode... if not banished, they explode with a LARGE radius.

Shazzrah: 5th, naga: Imagine Molotov surrounded by level 30 flagged alliance NE rogues. Shazzrah has a very large radius of Acrane Explosion, he can blink very far, and he has an AoE cursee doubling the damage of AE. Easily my least favorite encounter in MC

Baron Geddon: 6th, elemental; A giant flame elemental, very very fun battle. Geddons main killing ability is an AoE magic spell which every tick does damage and takes mana from casters. Priests get to despell. but his fun ability is "Bomb"
he turns a random member of the raid into a living walking bomb, which after a certain period of time they go flying and damage themselves and everyone around them. and when he is at 2% he casts Armageddon and does tons of damage to those near him. <My favorite encounter>

Sulifron, 7th or 8th: Naga with 4 healer adds: Not to many abilities of note, healer adds can be kicked and shield bashed to stop casting... ^I feel like im forgetting somthing, but I dont think he has all that many abilities^>

Golmagg, 7th or 8th: Giant Destroyer x4, 2 hound adds: dogs dont die till golmagg dies, random fireballs from him, very stamina fight 750000 I think is his health. at 10% he goes psycho and does Earthquake, healers spam heals on MT, once he drops hounds drop.


-Tovs overview on the 1st 8 MC bosses

< To Damoxian, I owe you for dragging me along on that MC run thursdays ago>
Just for fun a blast from the past.
I still remember having to put on healing gear for Rag (and healing!) even while being enhancement, haha.