Blizzard Entertainment has dropped its strongest hint yet that Molten Core will not be a straight copy of the 2004 raid when it eventually arrives in World of Warcraft: Forever. The tease came during the latest episode of the official WoW: Forever Podcast, which went live on the World of Warcraft YouTube channel today as an end-of-beta special.
Host Josh Corbett asked the panel whether Molten Core would get new mechanics or feel out of place next to the brand new raid encounters coming at launch. The team stopped short of a full reveal, but the answer made it pretty clear that something bigger is planned for Ragnaros' home.
Blizzard Is Keeping Molten Core Close To The Chest
Corbett framed the question around an awkward scenario. With the new 10-player Barrow Deeps and 20-player Hyjal Summit raids packed with fresh mechanics, he wondered if players would eventually step into Molten Core and find what he called "pedestrian mode Molten Core again."
The first response from the panel was a polite dodge. "We'll have to talk about the future of Molten Core when we start to talk about the future of Molten Core," one developer said. "We're going to have to back pocket that one for right now and play that one a little close to the chest. We don't have too much to share about Molten Core quite yet."
That could have been the end of it, but another member of the panel quickly added that players probably should not expect to simply stand in place and tank and spank Golemagg the Incinerator. "There might be a little more to it," they said, before joking, "I like saying things that might get me in trouble on this show."
"Revamped" Is The Word Blizzard Keeps Using
The panel then pointed back to the language it had already used at BlizzCon. "What was the word we used at BlizzCon? I believe we used the word revamped," one developer said, which another quickly echoed. Corbett summed up the moment by saying it sounds like it is "not going to be your granddaddy's Molten Core."
Blizzard has not shared when Molten Core will be added, what new mechanics it will have, or whether any of the classic bosses will be reworked from the ground up. For now, the confirmed raid lineup at the level cap is Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, and the 40-player Onyxia's Lair, which all unlock a few weeks after launch. The team also noted on the podcast that it is holding off on the older raids for now so players can start with new territory.
It's no surprise fans have been asking about this. Molten Core is one of the most famous raids in MMO history, but by modern standards most of its bosses are very simple. Plenty of players have joked for years that the raid mainly tests whether your group brought enough Fire Resistance gear and kept everyone awake for Ragnaros.
Classic Dungeons Will Stay Authentic
The Molten Core question led into a bigger discussion about how WoW Forever treats older content. Lead Encounter Designer Michael Nuthals said the team wanted the original dungeons to feel authentic, and that its new dungeons were designed to sit right beside them. "We wanted our experiences to feel like the team in 2004 could have made" them, he explained, pointing to new dungeons like Halls of Fame, Ruins of Lordaeron, and Drowned City.
To get there, Nuthals said the encounter team "booted up our internal era clients, the 1.15 builds" and played a ton of classic World of Warcraft to get the feel back under their fingertips. The goal was low complexity encounters that feel like an adventure. He compared it to "a game master is leading me through an adventure," using the example of a locked door that a rogue, a Seaforium charge, or a key found elsewhere in the dungeon could open.
Clay Stone added that the team started from a place of "let's be additive here," since so many memories have been formed around the content players already know. "How do we just add to that," he said, while leaving the door open for changes later down the line.
Another developer brought up the original Cataclysm expansion as an example of what the team wants to avoid. It reshaped the world and added a lot of content, but it also took things away from players. "We don't want to be destructive," they said, describing the goal as preserving those formative memories and adding to them.
Small Changes Are Already In Place
The panel also made it clear that existing dungeons are not completely frozen in time. According to the team, one of its pillars is keeping things approachable and familiar, but quests and new objectives already add some slight differences to older content. "We're just getting started, so there's a lot of things that could happen over time," the developer said.
That leaves Molten Core in an interesting spot. Blizzard clearly wants its legacy dungeons to feel like the game players remember, but the team is also openly calling its version of Ragnaros' lair "revamped." With the new raids launching with more than 20 new bosses, it would be strange for Molten Core to be the one place where nothing new happens.
World of Warcraft: Forever launches on November 4th, and the beta wraps later today with a final day of chaos across the starting zones.
Would you rather Blizzard leave Molten Core exactly as it was in 2004, or give every boss brand new mechanics?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.