Adding heat levels was a great way to make Molten Core slightly more challenging, especially combined with the Season of Mastery (SoM) tactics. In my opinion, SoM’s Molten Core (MC) and Blackwing Lair (BWL) are still the best-tuned raids I’ve played. These changes add a deep RPG element that is missing from classic WoW today. You prepare for an encounter and then win—it’s both classic and true to the RPG experience.
I see a lot of criticism regarding the heat levels, and I can somewhat understand why. The 96 and 226 fire resistance hard caps may not have been the best approach. A system with softer transitions would have been better, allowing players to go in with less fire resistance but risk being almost one-shotted by mechanics.
Also, the three heat levels could have been reduced to two:
- Level 1: Some fire resistance needed.
- Level 2: A lot of fire resistance needed.
They could have added the graphical changes at Level 2. As for the extra loot drops, I’m skeptical. Molten Core already drops way too much loot. Just increasing the drop rate for rare items would have been sufficient.
The biggest problem was the “one-stop” approach to fire gear. Blizzard should have added more item drops in instances instead of relying so heavily on new crafts. This would have encouraged more players to run dungeons for fire resistance gear. Adding the updated dungeon set from the get-go was a failure in this iteration. In SoM, it worked because loot was scarce, and you would still wear a lot of dungeon set pieces in BWL for that reason.