WoW Forever Raids Guide: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, Onyxia and the 9 December Unlock

Forever goes live on 4 November 2026 at 3:00 PM PST. The raids stay closed for the 1st 5 weeks. On 9 December 2026 Blizzard opens all 3 at once: Barrow Deeps for 10 players, Hyjal Summit for 20 and Onyxia’s Lair for 40.

Those 5 weeks are the whole point of November. Level 60 takes about 150 hours of play. Then come the 1st dungeon clears for blue gear, gold for consumables and repairs, and a group that fits your raid size. Playing 3 hours a night, you hit 60 near 24 December and miss the 1st 2 weeks of raids. With a 1 to 60 boost, a booster plays your character 12 hours a day and has it at 60 in 14 days. The 5-week plan is below.

Forever is set in the years after Warcraft III. The Forsaken hold Lordaeron, and the night elves have just lost their immortality. Molten Core and the other classic raids come later in the story. Blizzard plans to bring them back as revamped iconic raids. The summer 2027 slot on the roadmap is the 1st of them.

The barrow dens of Kalimdor are sacred to the night elves. Their tunnels wind for miles under the mountains, and all of them lead to 1 place: the Barrow Deeps. This is where the night elves keep their most dangerous prisoners. In the lore it held Illidan Stormrage for 10,000 years, and Blizzard teases that you will see the cell of “an infamous demon hunter”.

Something is wrong in the Deeps. The corruption that troubles the furbolgs of Blackmaw Hold has reached the prison, and the night elves let nobody in, allies included. That is your way in.

Barrow Deeps is a 10-player raid at level 60 with 3 entrances in the open world. 1 sits in Hyjal, the level 60 zone that also holds Hyjal Summit. Blizzard hints that the tunnels under Blackmaw Hold, the level 55 to 60 dungeon, lead there too. The 3rd door is unannounced.

Boss names, loot table and lockout are unannounced. What is confirmed: every boss drops a chase item, and 10 players is the smallest raid size in Forever, so this is the raid a fresh guild can fill 1st.

Barrow Deeps has 8 bosses, and clearing all 8 counts as 1 raid challenge in the Legacy system.

At the Battle of Mount Hyjal, Malfurion Stormrage gave up the power that kept the night elves immortal to destroy Archimonde. It worked. Years later, someone or something is draining the power from the land around the summit. Blizzard describes snowy peaks, a river cutting through elven ruins and the whispers of ghosts from the Third War.

Hyjal Summit is a 20-player raid with 13 bosses, and Blizzard calls it the largest raid in Forever. It sits in Hyjal, the level 60 zone you can walk into from launch day. The raid gate stays shut until 9 December.

This is also where Blizzard teased “legendary power”. The 1st new legendary of Forever is tied to this tier. Its full reveal is still to come.

Blizzard’s BlizzCon roadmap lists a 3rd raid for 9 December: Onyxia’s Lair for 40 players. It is the only classic raid in the 1st wave, and the only 40-player raid until the revamped iconic raid arrives in summer 2027. Blizzard has said nothing else about it yet: no word on how the fight changes from the original, no boss list, no attunement. The roadmap carries Blizzard’s own note that timing can change.

Defeating Onyxia is also 1 of the 3 raid challenges in the Legacy system.

On our checkout Onyxia’s Lair is a $299 pre-order. If Blizzard moves it out of the 9 December wave, the pre-order is refunded in full.

Every raid boss drops a chase item. That is the drop you come back for week after week, so the boss you farm matters as much as the raid you pick. Name it before the run: on a LFCarry raid your loot priority is written into the order.

New tier sets exist for every class, and the set models are already in the game files. The 1st legendary is confirmed and unrevealed. Transmog changes 1 thing for raiders: an epic raid item unlocks its look only for the player who loots it, so a look you want has to drop to you.

Still unannounced: boss lists, loot tables, attunements and lockouts. This guide is updated the day Blizzard publishes them.

Blizzard plans 2 major updates in 2027, and both bring raids. A new raid tier roughly every 6 months means the gear you earn on 9 December stays best in slot until spring. It also means the 40-player format is here to stay: Onyxia’s Lair is the 1st classic raid to return, and summer 2027 brings the next one, rebuilt for Forever. Blizzard calls that a “revamped iconic raid” and has not named it.

Spring 2027 also adds a new legendary questline, so the legendary teased with Hyjal Summit is the 1st of at least 2 in the game’s 1st year.

On your own at 3 hours a night, 60 takes 7 weeks, and the raids open in 5. That gap is why the 1st 2 weeks decide the whole plan. A character that is 60 by 18 November gets 3 weeks of dungeons and gold. A character that hits 60 in late December raids in January.

The 1st clear of each new dungeon pays a large quest-XP bonus, and every dungeon boss drops blue items, so 1 tour of the 9 dungeons gears a fresh 60 faster than any farm. Hyjal holds both raid entrances and its own reputations, so park your hearthstone there for weeks 3 and 4.

The raid decision comes last. 10 players is the easiest group to fill. 20 is where the legendary was teased. 40 is the classic experience with the most moving parts.

A raid spot is a full clear with our group, self-play or piloted, from 9 December 2026. Your character needs to be 60. Loot is group loot, and the chase item you want is written into the order before the run. Cancel before the 1st session and the order is refunded in full.

Book the leveling together with the raid and the calendar works out: 60 by late November, raid on 9 December. Both orders show up in 1 chat, so the same team plans the hand-off.