First raids open December 9 — not November 4
Forever launches 4 November 2026 at 15:00 PST globally (Blizzard’s pre-purchase article and the Battle.net shop). That clock does not open raids. Official What’s Next sets the first raid date at 9 December 2026. The gap is about five weeks of leveling, gold, professions, and dungeon gear. Treat November as a 1–60 season. Treat December 9 as the raid season.
The setting is after Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core, inside a Year-1 time bubble. New stories are not supposed to break original Azeroth’s foundation. Molten Core is after that bubble, not a launch-week or December 9 product in the written What’s Next. Level cap 60 “for the foreseeable future” is on-stage wording; official copy says the adventure goes to 60.
Eastcoast, on the official launch thread, wrote: “New zones. Undead paladins. Dwarf shamans. New races. 10/20 player raids. I’m in love.” The sizes he named match the two official raids. Calendar: release date. Weekend index: BlizzCon 2026 recap. Hub: WoW Forever.
| Raid | Size | Opens | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Barrow Deeps | 10 | 9 December 2026 | Official What’s Next |
 | Hyjal Summit | 20 | 9 December 2026 | Official What’s Next |
| Onyxia’s Lair | 40 | Roadmap slide | Roadmap-announced — omitted from the written recap |
Barrow Deeps: 10-player, max level, three doors
Official What’s Next: Barrow Deeps is a 10-player raid at max level, unlocking 9 December 2026. It is a Night Elf prison. It has three world entrances, one of them in Hyjal. An “infamous” prisoner is teased. That is the entire official write-up. Boss count: unpublished. Loot table: unpublished. Attunement: unpublished. Lockout: unpublished. Whether the three doors are equivalent, or one is a shortcut, is unpublished.
Hyjal as an overworld is one of the four named playable additions at launch (What’s Next + Found Photos). Press calls Hyjal a level-60 endgame leveling zone: aftermath of Archimonde, Darkwhisper Gorge, reputations, and the outdoor approach to both Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit. You can stand in Hyjal from 4 November. You cannot open the raid lock until 9 December.
New tier sets and a legendary “revealing in full” later are official What’s Next sentences. They are not a Barrow Deeps drop list. Do not guess a token or a two-piece bonus. Pre-raid path: nine new dungeons and leftover Vanilla instances. Offer: Barrow Deeps $149, live checkout, fulfillment from 9 December.
Hyjal Summit: 20-player, the summit drained of power
Official What’s Next: Hyjal Summit is a 20-player raid unlocking the same day, 9 December 2026. Official write-up: the summit is “being drained of power.” Boss count, loot table, attunement, and lockout are unpublished. Whether it shares a lockout with Barrow Deeps is unpublished. Whether it needs Barrow Deeps first is unpublished.
This is a larger lockout than Barrow Deeps and a different ticket on our shelf ($249, verified live). It is still not Molten Core. The Year-1 bubble sits before Molten Core; Hyjal Summit is the 20-player raid inside that bubble. Homesteader, same official thread: “After watching the presentation, they nailed it! It’s classic + and a place to play forever.” That is a weekend reaction, not a loot table. If you wanted a 40-player Vanilla-shaped first raid on December 9, read the Onyxia row — and read the caveat on it.
Onyxia’s Lair 40: roadmap-announced, not in the written What’s Next
Rework versus Vanilla Onyxia: unpublished. Boss list, attune, and lockout: unpublished. We will not write “Blizzard’s December 9 raids are 10, 20, and 40” as if the written recap said that. We will write “official article: 10 and 20; slide/press: 40 as well.” If you are booking a hold, book the two official names first. A 40-player lock that exists only on a slide can move, shrink, or land later without the written article being “wrong.”
Bosses, loot, attunes, lockouts: unpublished. Transmog is not.
Still unpublished for every Forever raid:
- Boss lists and counts.
- Loot tables (tier pieces, weapons, the named legendary).
- Attunements (whether any exist; Molten Core / Onyxia-style chains are a different product’s memory).
- Lockouts (weekly? shared? per raid?).
- World bosses.
What is written, and it changes how you think about a drop: Deep Dive transmog. Opt-in city NPC. Classic Mode at first launch turns transmog off; you still collect. Epic raid appearances go to the binder only. That is the opposite of the dungeon rule (Uncommon/Rare dungeon appearances go to all eligible looters). Plate-to-plate and the other armor-type rules hold. You do not wear high-level appearances until 60 except rare cosmetics. Coverage also says PvP appearances still need ranks.
Combat notes that will hit raid loot when tables exist (Deep Dive): combined hit, combined crit, weaker per-item weapon skill, +heal includes one-third bonus spell damage. Press added Expertise. Those are itemization rules, not a Hyjal Summit spreadsheet. Class kits except Paladin are still unpublished — 
classes.
Spring and Summer 2027 — on-stage slide, not the written recap
The official written What’s Next does not reprint the 2027 rows. Icy Veins’ recap of the on-stage slide does:
- Spring 2027: two raids (one 10-player, one 20-player), two dungeons, new quests and a playable area, a new legendary questline, a PvP season refresh.
- Summer 2027: a revamped iconic raid, a new raid, expanded world content, two dungeons, another PvP season refresh, professions and Legacy updates.
No names. No days. The “revamped iconic raid” is not identified as Molten Core or as anything else — do not fill that cell. Molten Core remains after the Year-1 bubble in the setting copy, which is a different statement from “Summer 2027 is Molten Core.” 
Hardcore is “sometime between 2026 and 2027” on the same slide class, after launch, with no calendar day — Hardcore, not a December 9 raid add-on.
Darkspear Islands (15 vs 15 battleground, control points plus Arathi Basin-style flags) is a launch PvP addition, not a raid. Bracket unpublished. Original battlegrounds remain in BlizzCon coverage. PvP notes belong next to honor revamps and 2027 season refreshes, not inside a Barrow Deeps lockout. 
Realmless rulesets: realmless.
Raid holds with LFCarry (from December 9, character at 60)
Live checkout on /wow-forever/raids:
Barrow Deeps10-player · $149Hyjal Summit20-player · $249- Barrow Deeps (10-player): $149. Default on the page.
- Hyjal Summit (20-player): $249.
Fulfillment starts 9 December 2026 — the day Blizzard opens the raids. We do not start a Forever raid before that clock. The character should be 60. Loot is group loot on the live configurator. Loot priority is quoted in chat before the lock, in writing you can keep. We do not run a gold-pot auction for the raid. Self-play (you stay logged in; a Pro plays with you) or piloted are both options on that page.
November work that makes December 9 possible: 1–60 from $259, dungeon runs from $9 (leveling tier; 55–60 is $29 live), 
from $19 per 100g (1,000g $150), professions from $89, coaching $29/hour. Combo-specific 1–60: 
Undead Paladin $259, 
Dwarf Shaman $259. How this differs from Classic raid cadence: Forever vs Classic.
Sources
- Blizzard’s What’s Next recap — 9 December; Barrow Deeps 10, three doors, Night Elf prison, infamous prisoner; Hyjal Summit 20, summit drained of power; tier sets and a legendary later.
- Blizzard’s Deep Dive article — epic raid appearances to the binder only.
- Blizzard’s pre-purchase article — launch clock. Setting articles: after Forsaken Kingdom, before Molten Core.
- Wowhead Forever liveblog, Icy Veins and Blizzard Watch roadmap recaps — Onyxia 40 on the slide; Spring / Summer 2027 rows.
- Official forums — Eastcoast and Homesteader quotes.
- Siblings: dungeons, leveling, BlizzCon recap, release date.