In the mythology of World of Warcraft, Ragnaros is know as the Firelord. In Ancient times, he fought in the name of the Old Gods against the Titans. Eventually, his power was sealed into the Molten Core. When a dwarf unlocked the bindings holding Ragnaros captive, Ragnaros began to create an army of living stone. The Molten Core is the easiest of the raid instances Blizzard has provided its maximum level player, but is by no means a push over. The key to many of the boss encounters in Molten Core is teamwork and cooperation. Getting forty players all on the same page in regards to who does what and when, can be a taxing task. It is essential during the Ragnaros fight that everyone is playing to their top game. If one player fails at their role, the entire raid can crumble.

The fight doesnt start until a player, usually the main tank, talks with Majordomo Executus, the boss right before Ragnaros. This allows the leaders to talk about the strategies they will use, and placement of the group. The room is huge, after all, it is the domain of a fire god. There are rock outcroppings sporadically placed along the edge of a spiraling land mass surrounded by lava. As the spiral pulls towards the center, where Ragnaros will eventually be, it becomes very thin. The main tank and off tank both stand fairly close to each other at the tip of the spiral. The melee group positions itself further back on the spiral, near the last outcropping before the spiral begins to tighten. The ranged damage players spread out over the rest of the board, within range of the soon-to be target. The healers assigned to each group get close enough to heal their players. All players prepare for one of the most awe inspiring moments in WOW.

The Ragnaros encounter has two stages that will repeat. The first stage is an all out brawl where Ragnaros will take as much damage as you can dish out. In this stage Ragnaros has a couple of attacks in his retinue. The Wrath of Ragnaros is signaled by speech and text saying, Taste the Flames of Sulfuron. This attack knocks back all players within melee range, potentially throwing them into the lava and out of the fight. All melee except the main tank back out before wrath occurs. Ragnaros will use wrath every 25 seconds. It can be resisted, so having the main tank in fire resistance gear is mandatory, and melee damage suggested. If the main tank resists wrath, the melee fighters can run right back in and join the fight. If the main tank is thrown, the off tank runs in and picks up Ragnaros, and the melee group gives him a few seconds to gather more threat. Ragnaros also throws a fire ball at ranged fighters, damaging then, and knocking everyone around them into the air. This attack does not affect the person it is casted on, but those around him, thus why the ranged units must be properly spread out. This first stage lasts for 3 minutes. If the group hopes to take down this powerhouse of WOW, he needs to be at or below 40% life at the end of 3 minutes.

Stage 2 is known as the Sons of Flame. When Ragnaros retreats, he spawns 8 small fire elementals to attack the raid party. They dont do much damage to melee fighters, but they do have a nasty aura effect seen elsewhere in WOW that steals magic users mana, and damages them for it. Each warrior in the group, ideally four to five, should try to grab and hold two Sons. Healers need to keep the warriors alive, so they can hold them while the rest of the group takes out the Sons one by one. Ragnaros returns to the playing field after a minute and a half or when all sons are dead. It is a good idea to have a Warlock banish one of the sons, giving everyone a moment to get back into position before Ragnaros returns.

Hopefully in the transition between stage 1 and stage 2, many of the players survived. If too many died during either stage, the remaining portion of the Ragnaros fight becomes exponentially harder. When Ragnaros pops back up, its the same fight as stage 1. If the group was abe to get Ragnaros down to about 40% before he sank back into the lava, chances are they can do the remaining damage within 3 minutes. When Ragnaros dies, prepare for a lot of congratulations, great loot and look forward to a long raiding career in WOW.