Molten Core Guide (with pictures)

[Matt]

So, you've decided to start raiding Molten Core (MC)? The first thing that you will need to do is aim for 200 buffed FR if you are a melee and around 180 for casters. Hunters can get away with almost zero. To help gain the required FR, follow the:

Guide for easy Fire Resist ring

• 1)First, visit the Hydraxian Waterlords in Azshara. They are on a small island off the south eastern coast (79,73). The leader will give you two quests:
• A) Kill water elementals in EPL.
• B) Kill wind and rock elementals in Silithus.
• 2) Once this is done, visit them a second time and they will have a quest to collect the Eye of the Emberseer. This CAN be done in a raid.
• 3) Next, kill one Ancient Core Hound, one Molten Giant, one Firelord, and one Lava Surger. Easy enough to do on an MC raid.
• 4) After this, they will not give you any further quests until you reach Honored with them. Elementals in Silithus, the Burnning Steppes, and everything in MC will give reputation.
• 5) Once Honored, they will ask you to collect the Hands of Shazzrah, Lucifron, Gehennas, and Sulfuron. Now you get to kill these bosses. Have fun.

And you're done! They give you one of two nice fire resist rings, and a Aqual Quintessence (AQ). You can only carry one AQ at a time, but they will give you another if you lose yours. Most of the bosses in MC have a burning rune near them that the AQ is used on. Once all the runes are out, Majordomo will appear. More Info on the final reward.

Ok, got that ring? Good, let's move on shall we?

Trash Mobs:

Firelords
Immune to crowd control, has a chance to silence, and also dots targets. Pallies need to cleanse on these. The general strat for killing these type of mobs is this; MT gets some sunderage up, usually 3 to be safe, Firelords spawn Lava Spawns as you're fighting them so DPS needs to move to and kill the spawns as they spawn. Mages should be dropping blizzards on these guys to hit them + spawns. Once you have killed a few Firelords it becomes very routine and boring.

CoreHounds
Immune to crowd control, there are different types of Corehounds. One that debuffs, one that aoe fears, one that stuns, and another that does a spell/attack speed debuff. These have to be turned away from the raid because they have a forward facing aoe, Lava Breath, that will kill your raid fast. There are several that patrol on your way down the cavern that respawn every 15 mins, and will do so untill you kill Magmadar.

Lava Surgers
Banishable and very easy fight. They will randomly charge at people in the raid and hit anyone in their path for 1k during that charge. It's best to have the MT tank it away from the raid and do ranged dps. Like Corehounds these will respawn untill Garr is killed.

Lava Annihilator
Banishable and loves to bounce around with agro. Best way to fight these is EVERYONE stands at their feet and dps it down. With MT establishing agro before everyone engages.

Lava Packs
Consist of Lava Elements, Flamewalkers, and Firesworns. These you will encounter after Garr's lair when clearing to Baron/Shazz. When you pull these you need to banish the elemental and have 2 tanks pickup the Flamewalker and Firesworn. Dps them down and then kill the elemental. They have a very nasty AoE and some fun debuffs. FR is very much needed for Lava Packs.

Boss Fights

• Lucifron
  
  A paladin runs in and shield pulls, pulling Luci back to the yellow dot where the MT is waiting. Luci is kept up above in this position so that his curse avoids hitting the bulk of the raid. Three healers--a priest, a pally, and a druid--will move up near the MT where the turquoise dots are, so that ideally, they are within line of sight of the MT, but out of line of sight of Luci. In addition to healing, the pally and druid will be cleansing the MT and this group of MT healers.
  
  In the meantime, 2 hunters have been paired with the other two tanks. Each hunter will fire a distracting shot at one of the adds, pulling him down to the very bottom of the cave. The green paths show where the adds should move to; the dark blue dots are the bulk of the raid. The raid will kill first one add, then the other. When both adds are dead, the raid moves up to where the MT is and kills Lucifron.
  
  Under NO circumstances should anyone go anywhere near the cave that you entered the room from--this is the brown triangle on the map. This will pull the imps and possibly the elemental from the other room, which is a definite raid-wiper.
  
  Lucifron has several abilities to be aware of:
  • Impending Doom: a magic debuff that does tons of shadow damage after 10 seconds. 2 pallies will be assigned to dispell this from the bulk of the raid; the pally in the MT group is responsible for getting this off of the MT group.
  • Lucifron's curse: Doubles the cost of abilities. 2 mages will be assigned to decurse the bulk of the raid; the druid in the MT group will decurse that group.
  
  
  Also, the two guards will mind control those at the top of their aggro list. For this reason, all warriors need to burn up their intimidating shout AS SOON as the pull is made, so that it cannot be used by these mobs and cause everyone to run into the imp cave. If you are mind-controlled, let the raid know over vent or in raid chat--priests should be ready to dispell this.
  
  This IS a tough fight, and requires more than just good healing and lots of dps to get Luci down. It takes coordination and paying attention to your specific role in the fight. One mage not decursing can really mess up the fight for everyone. I'm saying this for two reasons--first, you shouldn't be discouraged if you don't kill Luci on your first try and second, to encourage you to bring your best game to the table for this fight.
  
  Here is a simple flash as well:
  http://members.chello.nl/wjh.groot/L...actics-WoW.swf
  
  
• Magmadar
  To begin the fight, the MT stands in the middle of Mag's cavern, and healers back up so that they are at max healing range. Once the MT is in position, a pally will shield pull to the MT so that he doesn't have to move.
  
  Magmadar has a frontal attack that should only hit the MT. To accomplish this, once the MT has aggro, the rest of the melee and the melee healers run around BEHIND Magmadar. Casters and the rest of the healers will be standing in front of Magmadar, but out of range of his frontal attack. Here is the positioning:
  
  
  T=Tank, M=Melee, N=Nukers, H=Healers. The green circle is Mag's fear range, which I'll say more about later.
  
  Here are the things Mag does and how we need to deal with them:
  
  AoE Fear: This is a fear that will hit anyone within the green circle area. Casters can avoid this by staying at max casting range. Most important, however, is that the MT does NOT ever get feared, otherwise Mag will run loose. Having a dwarf priest who casts fear ward on the MT makes this easier. If no dwarf priest is available, the MT needs to stance dance. In other words, he will switch to Berserker stance, cast Berserker rage, and then return to Defensive stance--a cycle repeated throughout the fight. In case the MT does get feared, the secondary tank needs to be ready to jump in and get Mag back into position. Mag's fear is on a 30 second cooldown, which CTRABossMods will keep track of, so the MT can time his casting of Berserker rage correctly.
  
  Fire Glob spit: Magmadar spits out globs of fire that will do massive damage to anyone who stays in them. Move out of the fire globs. Also, pallies should be cleansing the DoT caused by these fire globs.
  
  Frenzy: Every so often, Magmadar will go into a frenzy, where he does way more damage. This frenzy can be countered by the Tranq shot that drops off of Luci. The first few Magmadar fights will be tricky, since Tranq shot will often miss. Once a few hunters have it, however, they can set up a rotation so that if one person misses, someone else can back him up. All hunters should download this mod: http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=1718 which will say when you have cast tranq shot, and will also let the raid know if you have missed. During the first few fights when we only have one or 2 tranq shots, healers will have to pay special attention to when Tranq shot misses, since the MT will then require mad healing to stay alive.
  
  So, stay out of the fire globs, use Tranq shot to keep Magmadar calm, and have the MT stance dance to avoid being feared. Other than that, it's just a matter of dpsing him down!
• Gehpenis
  Gehennas is the third boss in MC and is very similar to the Lucifron fight. As with Luci, the adds are split up, killed, and then the raid moves to fight Gehennas.
  
  Here is the positioning:
  
  The red dot is Gehennas, and the pink dot is the MT. The MT will hold Gehennas in the back of his cave the entire fight. The green dot is the healers/decursers for the MT.
  
  The yellow dots are Gehennas's two friends. They will be pulled off the MT by hunters with distracting shot, and held by MT2 and MT3 apart from each other. Each of these adds has a stun that lasts 4 seconds and hits anyone in an 8 yard radius. It is important that we keep them apart, so that their stuns don't overlap. These adds will be killed first by the bulk of the raid--the blue dot--and then the raid will move to the MT to fight Gehennas.
  
  Gehennas does a rain of fire, so if you see this happening, move out of it. Most casters should be able to cast outside of the range of this AoE. He also does a nasty anti-healing curse that decreases all healing effects by 75%. 2 mages will be assigned as permanent decursers for the raid; the druid in the main healing group will be responsible for keeping this curse off of the MT.
  
  Fairly straightforward, if you keep the adds separated.
• Garr
  Garr is a big rock guy with 8 little rock friends who circle around his feet. He does a few things that we haven't seen before:
  • 1. He eats buffs if you get within 20 yards. It's normal to come out of this fight with few or no buffs.
  • 2. He has an AoE called Magma Shackles that will slow everyone within range.
  • 3. When his adds die, they make Garr do more damage. If all of his adds die, he starts spawning magma elementals that blow up and do a lot of damage to the raid.
  
  
  Because killing his adds makes Garr more powerful, we want as many of them to stay banished as long as possible. The MT will be assigned to Garr, each warlock on an add, and warriors picking up the remaining adds. If necessary, a druid in bear form or a ret. pally can fill in if there aren't enough locks/warriors. Once the pull is made, the raid will start by killing the adds that are NOT banished. Warlocks will use their voidwalker during this fight in case their add becomes unbanished--hopefully, the voidwalker will hold off the add long enough for the warlock to get it rebanished. A hunter will also be paired with each warlock, and the hunter will send their pet in to attack the banished add as well--again, to hold off the add long enough to get it rebanished.
  
  Once all the non-banished adds are dead, the raid goes full dps on Garr, then kills the banished adds.
  
  Notes on positioning:
  
  Positioning isn't as key for this fight as it is for others. His AoE is irritating, but not deadly.
  
  Casters should fight the adds from as far away as possible, because periodically, Garr will order one of them to explode, doing damage to everyone within range.
  
  The adds shouldn't be moved too far away from Garr, because if they are, they will become enraged and run back to him, making them difficult to get under control again.
  
  Garr himself isn't that bad, but managing his adds is a bit tricky and will take some practice.
  
• Baron
  Baron Geddon is an enormous fire elemental in Molten Core. He is fought in Garr's room, and if everyone pays close attention to his abilities, it's not too bad of a fight.
  
  A hunter will pull Geddon with his pet, using eye of the beast. Ideally, this pet will have a high sprint ability as well as high fire resistance. The pet will pull Geddon from his starting point to where the MT is waiting in the middle of Garr's cavern.
  
  The rest of the raid will be positioned in 8 groups around the MT. The two groups nearest the tunnel to Geddon's room will shift over to the next group's position as the pull is made, so as not to aggro Geddon. These groups will move into position once Geddon is in the middle with the MT.
  
  Here is the positioning and the pull:
  
  Geddon's abilities:
  • Living Bomb: He turns members of the raid into bombs, who after about 8 seconds, explode, significantly damaging themselves and those around them. CTraid will alert the raid as to who is the bomb. If you are the bomb, run to the far edges of the cave, ideally in a place where the ceiling is low, so that when you explode, you won't get tossed very far up into the air. Some classes can counteract the bomb with abilities such as mage ice block, pally shield, etc. If you do get tossed up in the air, you can take a potion before you fall to prevent you from dying. The most important thing, though--IF YOU ARE THE BOMB, MOVE AWAY FROM THE RAID.
  • Ignite Mana: He burns 400 mana from raid members for 3 seconds. Each group will have a pally or priest responsible for cleansing this--it's important to get it off very quickly, otherwise, the raid will be out of mana in no time.
  • Inferno: This is a channeling spell that does massive fire damage to those within range. You can see it, because rings of fire pulse from around him. Whenver this happens, everyone, including the MT, needs to get out of range. Casters and ranged dmg should already be out of range of this ability.
  
  
  Fire resistance gear is very helpful for this fight, but other than that, it's just a matter of cleansing the ignite mana, moving out of range when he does inferno, and paying attention to when you are the bomb.
  
• Shazz
  Shazzrah is fought in a circle like the diagram for Geddon, each group with a mage or druid in it. The circle needs to be large enough to avoid Shazz's AoE.
  
  A hunter pet pulls Shazz into Garr's room, and the groups near the door move into place after the pull is made. The MT holds him in the middle of the circle.
  
  Here are Shazzrah's abilities:
  • 1. He blinks to a random target. If this happens, that target MUST walk him back to the middle of the circle NO MATTER WHAT. Don't run away, don't stand still...run to the middle of the circle, so that the whole raid isn't wiped when he does AoE.
  • 2. Arcane Explosion. Just like the mage ability, only worse. Does about 1000 dmg/hit.
  • 3. Counterspell. Irritating, can be avoided by timing your casts correctly, but it will probably hit you once or twice during the fight.
  • 4. Shazzrah's curse, which increases magic damage taken by a lot. Mages will be responsible for decursing their group. That's their number 1 priority.
  • 5. Magic damage reduction. Shazz casts a buff on himself that reduces magic damage by 50%. A mage needs to keep detect magic up the entire fight, and if a priest sees this buff go up, he needs to dispell it.
  
  
  Also a good thing to do is have a Hunter with an assigned healer stand in the middle next to the maintank and use distracting shot to pull Shaz back to the MT.
  
  
• Sulfage
  Sulfuron is a lot like Lucifron--it's all about dealing with his 4 adds. He himself isn't that bad, but his adds have a number of tricky abilities:
  • 1. They heal each other if they're close enough.
  • 2. They cast shadow word: pain on everyone around them--this needs to be dispelled.
  • 3. They cast immolate, which also needs to be dispelled.
  
  
  A warrior is assigned to each of the adds. A pally will pull, hunters will pull off the adds to their warriors, and the MT will grab Sulfuron.
  
  The dps group will be standing farther back, up the hill. The warriors will bring the adds, one at a time, up to the dps group, where they will be killed. The other warriors and their healers will be down the hill, holding their adds until they are called to bring them to the dps group.
  
  Rogues should be ready to kick the adds any time they try to cast something.
  
  Priests and pallies need to be dispelling like mad.
  
  Even though Sulfuron doesn't have special abilities of his own, he still hits hard, and his healers need to be aware of this at the beginning of the fight.
  
  Here is a diagram, more or less, of the positioning:
  
  Notice how the one add is pulled farther up the hill to the dps group, to facilitate his being killed.
  
• Golemagg
  Golemagg looks like an enormous Molten Giant with two core hound friends. These adds will not die--they need to be offtanked up away from the raid until Golemagg is down, at which point, they disappear.
  
  Here is the positioning for the fight:
  
  The bulk of the raid is on Golemagg, except for the OT warriors, their hunters, and the OT healers (2 on each OT), who pull the core rager adds way back up the hill.
  
  Both the core ragers and Golemagg himself hit pretty hard, so healers need to be focused on keeping these 3 tanks alive above anything else. Golemagg also does a fire DOT that should be cleansed.
  
  The only other thing is that at 10% health, Golemagg causes the earth around him to shake, doing major damage to those near his feet. Anyone who does ranged damage should be aware of this, and stay away. Healers on the MT also need to be aware of this, as the MT will need extra healing to stay alive.
  
  Remember! Golemagg has an ubr seksi loot table. 2 Tier 1 Chest + an item every time he is such a push over considering what it takes to get to him. I hope this guide helps some people out![/QUOTE]
• Majordomo
  
  Majordomo is the second last “boss” of Molten Core. I use this term loosely however as he is not the real MoB that needs to be killed in this fight. Majordomo comes with 4 healers and 4 elite guards, making this a total of a 9 enemy encounter!
  
  Majordomo’s Abilities
  
  Majordomo has several abilities that he uses in the fight. They are as follows:
  • Teleport – Any enemy near Majordomo can be targeted with this random target spell that teleports its target into the nearby fiery pit. There is nothing to counter this ability aside from running out of the pit. This ussually targets the closest player to Majordomo. When this ability actvates it seems to clear his aggro list as well and he will attack someone nearby. It is important to have a secondary tank ready to pick him up ifhe teleports your main tank.
  • Purple Shield – While this shield is up, Majordomo reflects melee damage back to those inflicting it. It reflects up to a set amount of 100 dmg per hit back at the attacker. This spell lasts for 10 seconds before fading.
  • White Shield – While this shield is up, Majordomo reflects magic damage back to those inflicting it. Each magic attack has a 50% chance to reflect back to the attacker. This spell lasts for 10 seconds before fading.
  • Fire Blast – Majordomo can also unleash a damaging area of effect flame attack. This attack hits nearby players with moderate fire damage.
    Uber Mode - When Majordomo is down to one follower, he and his follower will enter uber mode. While in Uber mode, they hit MUCH harder and every available healer will need to focus on the main tank.
  
  
  Healer’s Abilities
  
  • Heal – Obviously, the healers can do healing spells. These heal any target mob, but can be broken by stuns.
  • Random Shadowbolts – The Healer’s will also dispense random target shadow bolts at raid members in range.
  • Purple Shield – While this shield is up, the healer reflects all melee damage back to those inflicting it. This spell lasts for 10 seconds before fading.
  • White Shield – While this shield is up, the healer reflects all magic damage back to those inflicting it. This spell lasts for 10 seconds before fading.
  
  
  Elite’s Abilities
  
  • Purple Shield – While this shield is up, the Elite reflects all melee damage back to those inflicting it. This spell lasts for 10 seconds before fading.
  • White Shield – While this shield is up, the Elite reflects all magic damage back to those inflicting it. This spell lasts for 10 seconds before fading.
  • Fire Blast – Elites can also unleash a damaging area of effect flame attack. This attack hits nearby players with moderate fire damage.
  
  
  Strategy
  
  The first thing to know about Majordomo is that he does not need to die. In fact you must not kill Majordomo, it’s his retinue of guards that must die for you to win this encounter. Once all the guards are killed, the ‘Domo will submit and the battle will end.
  
  Knowing that the guards are the target, a few things are critical to winning this battle. You can sheep the guards, however you can only keep them “chain-sheeped” for half the battle (until 4 are dead), after which the Majordomo will do an emote and they will become immune to sheeping. Also note; that you can stun the guards. This is important for stopping spell casting (the healers). Note also that you can not sheep the elites, only the healers.
  
  First off, make sure to have the Main Tank on the Majordomo, and then distribute offtanks to all the other unsheeped mobs. A second offtank should also join the Main Tank to pick up agro from the Main Tank when he gets teleported to the fiery pit.
  
  Be sure to keep notice of which shields are up on the mobs. White means that casters should take a break from hurling DPS, and purple means that melee classes should stay back (aside from the tank, who should be keeping agro).
  
  There are numerous “successful” strategies on which order to go at the guards in. However the two that seems to work best are the following:
  
  1-4-3 Method
  
  -Kill an elite
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill an elite
  -Kill an elite
  -Kill an elite
  
  2-4-2 Method
  
  -Kill an elite
  -Kill an elite
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill a healer
  -Kill an elite
  -Kill an elite
  
  Of course I highly suggest that you practice, and find your own ways of dealing with this interesting encounter. There is no “right” way to do it, but we want to avoid the wrong ways (the ones that end with 10 minutes worth of ressing).
  
  Once the 7th guard is dead, the 8th and final will enter "Uber" mode. In this mode he grows roughly 50% in size and hits far harder, so be careful. Once all the guards are dead, the Majordomo submits
  
• Rag
  
  Ragnaros is the final boss in Molten Core. He is a huge fire elemental that is summoned by Major Domo in the center of a rock and lava spiral room. He is also one of the hardest Bosses in the game to defeat.
  
  Ragnaros's Abilities
  
  Ragnaros has several abilities that he uses in the fight. They are as follows:
  • Wrath of Ragnaros - Melee Knock back - When this ability is used characters in melee range are sent flying and knocked down, Ragnaros will call out "Taste the Flames of Sulfuron!". It will take a several seconds to get back up from this ability and you then need to run back into melee range as you can be sent flying very far and end up in awkward positions. Very often you will come down in lava and have to find a way out fast or die due to the lava damage. It is resistable and your tanks should have high fire resistance stats (250+) so they can resist it most of the time. It hits for 1000 damage and is on a 25 second cool down timer. The melee DPS characters (rogues) should back away before the timer goes off to avoid the damage and thowback.
  • Ranged Knock back - Ragnaros can effect a player that is at a distance with a ranged knock back. This will knock them back as well as knocking down and damaging other players around the player. The area of effect is fairly small so with proper spacing no more than one player should be knocked down. The target is picked by random. This attack happens every 20-30 seconds and will be announced by Ragnaros saying "By fire be purged!"
  • Lava Splash - At various times a lava splash will be triggered which cause large damage to all those hit. It will effect anyone within close proximity to a lava flow. With decent fire resist (150+) it should be resisted most of the time. Damage is reduced by fire resist and normal damages related to fire resist are: 0FR/800, 100FR/400 and 200FR/200.
  • Elemental Fire - This is a debuff that Ragnaros puts on whoever has aggro. This should always be seen on the main tank, if its not someone is doing too much aggro and should slow down. This does several thousand damage over a period of time, so the main tank must be healed constantly to prevent this from killing him.
  • Magma Blast - If no one is engaged in melee with Ragnaros he will start throwing magma blasts at random characters. This ability hits for 4000-6000 damage so can kill most non tank players in 1 hit. It is easy to avoid though, always have someone in melee range of Ragnaros!
  • Melt Weapon - A very nice gold sink that Blizzard implimented is that every time you hit Ragnaros your weapon is damaged. The only way around this is to be prepared, if you are melee bring spare weapons and ensure the raid has a repair-bot for between every few attempts.
  • Summon Sons of Flame - After 3 minutes of combat Ragnaros will summon 8 Sons of Flame. After 1 1/2 minutes or once they are defeated Ragnaros will reappear. If you or Ragnaros is not dead after a further 3 minutes this process will repeat until your group or Ragnaros is dead.
  
  
  Sons of Flames Abilities
  
  Mana Burn Aura - This has a fairly small radius but still covers 5 - 10 yards. It converts mana to damage for everyone in the area at a very fast rate. Casters and players with mana need to clear the area FAST.
  
  Strategy - Ragnaros
  
  Ragnaros is fought by himself other than when his Sons of Flame are summoned. While they are summoned, he retreats and is not involved with the fight.
  
  There are a few basic strategies to use with Ragnaros before dealing with the major ones. The first is to make sure you are spread out so that his ranged knock backs do not take out large groups of players. The second is to not fight too close to the edges of the walkways in the area. You can be knocked over into the lava flows and killed. Some lava flows are very difficult to get out of as they have few access points. Also while fighting Ragnaros as with most bosses in the Molten Core it is critical to be buffed for fire resistance. A lot of the damage caused is fire based and can really be cut down on if you have the proper buffs and auras up.
  
  On the topic of fire resists, all members of the raid should have at least 100 fire resist. The ideal mix seems to be 100-150 for casters and ranged support (Hunters and healers), and 200+ for melee and close support (Paladins). Also your main tanks that will be holding aggro should have at least 250 and ideally over 300 to have a reasonable chance to resist the knockback attack. A tank with 300+ fire resist would be able to resist the knockback at least 75% of the time.
  
  For Ragnaros you will need the main tank and an alt holding aggro with several healers healing them. You will also need a 3rd tank waiting just outside of melee range so that when Ragnaros uses his melee knockdown ability they can step in and grab agro while the main tanks recover (if they are not lucky enough to resist the knockback).
  
  After the 3 minute point in the fight with Ragnaros, he will disengage and summon 8 Sons of Flame. These are mobs that must be dealt with before Ragnaros will re-appear. Please see the following strategy section on them. Once they are killed you return to using Ragnaros strategy.
  
  Strategy - Sons of Flame
  
  The sons spawn from around the spiral that Ragnaros is along the west, north and east side, and then rush south to meet the raid. The sons damage is entirely fire based, so with decent fire resistance you will take very little damage from them.
  
  The Sons should be tanked and banished while one is being dealt with. It is important to always have at least one that is not banished at a time, as sometimes when all the remaining live sons are banished they count as being dead and Ragnaros will re-appear. If this happens you are very likely looking at a wipe. Also you must deal with the Sons quickly as Ragnaros will surface after 1 1/2 minutes if they are dead or not. To accomplish this every MUST be assisting one person that is picking targets. If attacks are spread out they will take to long to kill. With all DPS on one Son you should be aiming to drop one every 10 seconds or less.
  
  When you are nearing the 90 second point in the fight it is critical that you send the main tank, secondary tank and their healers back to engage Ragnaros when he re-enters combat. If the tank is not there Ragnaros will start throwing Magma blasts. Once the rest of the group has killed any remaining sons they should re-enter combat with Ragnaros.
  
  Strategy - General
  
  Setup is very important in the fight. All melee and close support need to be on the inner ring engaging Ragnaros while he is up. All the healers and ranged support should be on the secondary ring away from Ragnaros. They must also stay away from the lava flows or they will be affected by the lava splashes. Also all players should spread out so that they are not knocked back and damaged when Ragnaros uses his ranged knock back ability. This means that melee should be around Ragnaros generally on the south, west and north parts of the inner ring, and the ranged is on the south and west portions of the outer ring.
  
  here is a position guide as a basis for the Ragnaros fight.
  
  
  When the Sons are about to spawn it is important the the ranged collapse and set up back from the lip of the southern outer ring. This is where the Sons of flame will rush to. Just before Ragnaros submerges melee should collapse to the center of the outer southern ridge, to be ready to engage the Sons. Once Ragnaros submerges the main tank and his healers can head there to help as well.
  
  In general you need to get Ragnaros down to roughly 30-40% before the first wave of Sons to have a legitimate chance of defeating him before a second wave spawns. This is the ideal way to defeat him. If a second wave spawn it is much harder to survive as you have likely lost many players by this point. If a second wave does spawn and you had gotten Ragnaros down to less than 5% health your main strategy should be to delay the spawns (trap, banish, kite, etc) for the 1 1/2 minutes and then kill Ragnaros when he resurfaces. Over all though your best plan is get enough DPS on him in the first 3 minutes to drop him below 40%. Two waves of sons is an excellent recipie for a wipe.