Blizzard mulling 5-man Molten Core

When World of Warcraft began, Molten Core, a fiery dungeon deep below the surface, was game's most challenging 40-man raid. Summoning and killing Ragnaros, the 10th and final boss - a giant, screen-filling flaming hulk - was something worth shouting about.

These days Ragnaros can be soloed.

When World of Warcraft turned five, Blizzard revamped another old boss, Onia, turning her back into a top-level (80) encounter. Can the same be done for Molten Core?

"Yeah, it's kind of weird, I'm not sure there are a lot of players that would want to stop at level 60 and really focus on Molten Core before levelling up again," Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street told Eurogamer.

"We've talked about, are there ways to convert those down to five-player dungeons, maybe? The Upper Blackrock Spire used to be a raid, it was a 10-player dungeon, and we've changed that to be five-player content.

"But mostly," he added, "we think the old raid content is for players going back to do achievements or just wanting to see the content."

A small, fiery tear rolls down my cheek.

By today's standards, the encounters within Molten Core are drab, dreary - most of the bosses were super-sized rocks or dogs or lizards.

What's more, Ragnaros has already booked himself a ticket back to the top tiers of World of Warcraft raiding, as the boss of the Elemental Plane of Fire - a part of the Firelands raid. Apparently the version of Ragnaros in Molten Core was just a projection of him; not, as WOW lore has it, the servant of the old gods that fought against the titans themselves.