You no longer need to be attuned to Molten Core in order to get inside. Molten Core was used as a temporary level 100 raid to celebrate WoW’s ten year anniversary.
I’m leaving this guide in for posterity, but it is no longer necessary. To get into MC, simply go talk to the elf. He still offers the old quest, but he will now teleport you even if you haven’t done it.
Bonus Edit for those wanting to play WoW Classic once it becomes a thing.
The flying tip to get to the door will not be possible. You will have to run up and down the chains. Also do not try to swim through lava. I wrote this as a level 90 and it didn’t hurt. At level 60 you will probably die. This also means you will have to make your way through the entire long ass dungeon.
I started playing WoW during Wrath of the Lich King. Blackrock Mountain is a place where I am forever lost and I usually avoid it.
However, several battle pets were added to old raids with patch 5.1 and I suddenly had a reason to visit Molten Core and Blackwing Lair.
These raids can now be entered without being in a group, but it is a real pain in the butt finding the damn things if this is content you have never done before. It is also much easier to farm the pets if you are attuned to the raids and can get right to them.
I had a tough time figuring out how to do these. It took me hours to make my way through the dungeons because I have no sense of direction. So my intent is to make easy guides that can help equally lost people out.
We are starting with the Molten Core Attunement!

I am already attuned on my Death Knight and several other Alliance characters.
Fortunately my Evil Paladin graciously volunteered to take a break from leveling and show the way.
First off, you need to go to Blackrock Mountain.

You can fly inside the Mountain now which makes things a lot easier. Fly down to the stone room at the bottom of the chain. If you don’t have old world flying, you can still do this by getting to the central platform and running down the chain.

Talk to the Blood Elf you find lurking in the stone room. Lothos Riftwaker will have a quest for you.
Once you are attuned, you can talk to him and he will teleport you into Molten Core. First though, you must make your way there the hard way.
To get there, head into Blackrock Depths.

There is a good map now that shows you how to get to the BRD entrance.
There are sometimes some rares here that are worth killing. A lot of the gear in this Mountain is good for transmog.

Once you are in the instance, head for a big iron gate. Open it and go through! You can see from the map that there is a fairly straight path to a circular area where a fire elemental boss is. That is where we are going. Most of the trash is easily avoidable at close to max level. If it does aggro, it isn’t hard to kill at all.
Kill Lord Incendius and his adds and then go to the right edge of his platform.
If you look over you will see lava and fire elementals below. Now we get to do something fun.
Jump into the lava!

EDIT: As of 6.0, the lava will kill you if you are in it too long. This is due to the stat squish. The damage is much higher with lower health, so be aware if you decide to go swimming!
The lava will hurt a little, but it isn’t really dangerous if you are a high enough level to be farming Molten Core. I do not recommend this method if you’re a level 60 looking to raid MC at level!
We are going to swim through the lava and skip a big chunk of the dungeon. You can also do this by going through the dungeon to the end, but I’m not making a guide for that.



Swim to the land and climb up. The bridge has a bunch of fire elementals guarding it that you will have to kill.
See, we just skipped a lot of bosses and trash!
Cross the bridge.

The core fragment you need will be all sparkly. Click it and you will have the quest item you need.
Now here is where things get kind of annoying. You can certainly run back through the entire dungeon and turn in the quest. I think that takes too much time.
I get lost easily–even with maps–and I knew it would be at least another hour slogging through the dungeon before I found the way out. So I hearthed back to the Shrine instead and then made my way back to Blackrock Mountain.
Whichever method you choose, the end result will be the same. Hand in your quest to Lothos and he will ever after teleport you to Molten Core when you ask.
Good luck pet farming!
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