Barrow Deeps

Barrow Deeps is the raid the guild will actually live in. It is 10 players, one difficulty, no attunement, and it opens on December 9 alongside the other two. Blizzard has promised that 10-player content will have real challenge and real rewards, so a friends-and-family roster does not need to feel like the 20 is the “real” raid. Everything below the boss list is datamined or vanilla lore; nothing about mechanics is public.

Location

Beneath Mount Hyjal. Wowhead’s raids hub lists three entrances, one of them in Mount Hyjal; the other two are unannounced. datamined Mount Hyjal is a new level-60 zone with its own flight paths; the first trip is probably a run from Winterspring or Felwood. vanilla geography

Meeting stones do not summon in Forever, so someone has to walk there and a Warlock plus two helpers handles the rest. verified Finding the entrance is a week-5 job; see First eight weeks.

Lore

In Warcraft III the Barrow Deeps are the night elves’ prison vault and the sleeping place of the Druids of the Claw. It is where Illidan Stormrage was held for 10,000 years. Wowhead’s one-line summary for the Forever raid: “The Night Elves hold dangerous prisoners here.” Blizzard teased an “infamous prisoner”. unverified phrasing

Whether Illidan is an encounter is not confirmed. His name does not appear in the datamined boss list below.

Size and rules

Field	Status
Size	10, fixed, no flex, one difficulty verified
Level	60, described by Blizzard as a “maximum-level challenge” verified
Attunement	None for launch raids verified
Lockout	Unannounced. Devs did not answer at the Sept 17 Q&A.
Cross-ruleset	Not possible. Normal, PvP and RP characters cannot raid together. verified

Known bosses

Eight encounters appear in the beta Legacy Challenges menu, as reported by Blizzard Watch. datamined Legacy lists are not a kill order and Blizzard has released no mechanics.

#	Encounter	What is known
1	Deepscar Matriarch	Name only
2	Elder Tangleclaw	Name only. “Claw” fits the Druids of the Claw lore
3	Khalith the Dreadspinner	Described as a colossal spider transformed by demonic influence unverified
4	Well of Sorrow	Name only. Likely an object or environmental encounter rather than a creature
5	Amethrax	Name only
6	Del’lynar Songwood	Name only. Night elf naming
7	Ravus and Darlissa	Name only. A council or duo fight by the name
8	Sonya Darkhallow	Name only

None of these are vanilla bosses. There is no 1.12 baseline to fall back on; every mechanic will be learned on the night.

Loot highlights

Chase items. Blizzard’s stated intent is that every boss has chase drops and that raid loot “stays relevant for longer”. verified
Tier. Season 1 tier for all nine classes is tagged to Hyjal Summit in the files. Whether tier drops in Barrow Deeps, or whether “tier pieces obtainable across all three sizes” means Barrow Deeps drops some slots, is unknown. unverified
Malleable Essence of Nature. “Acquired from disenchanting items from Hyjal Summit or Barrow Deeps.” This is the reagent for roughly 72 crafted epic patterns sold by Aisarra Nightmeadow in Mount Hyjal. Barrow Deeps is the 10-player guild’s only source of it. datamined
Transmog. Epic appearances go only to the looter. verified

Malleable Essence of Nature: why it matters here

A 10-player guild that never steps into Hyjal Summit still gets crafted epics if it disenchants its unneeded Barrow Deeps drops. That changes loot night:

One designated Enchanter must be in every raid.
Disenchanted BoP loot becomes a guild resource, not a consolation prize for the person who “won” it.
Decide before December 9 who holds the essences and how crafted pieces are assigned. The working proposal is on Loot systems and the binding rule is on Loot rules.

Crafted set names in the files: Conviction, Demonheart (Tailoring), Grimstitch, Spiritcaller, Grovekeeper (Leatherworking), Justice, Glory (Blacksmithing). Class mapping is not documented. See Professions for who can learn what.

Tier sets

Season 1 tier has 2/3/4/5-piece bonuses. datamined The 4-piece is where the damage and healing bonuses sit, so the fourth piece matters more than the second when the loot council is deciding. Set details and the per-class bonus flavor are on the Hyjal Summit page since that is where the files tag them.

Working composition

Blizzard has not published a tank/healer split. The guild default, built from vanilla norms and Forever’s class kits:

Tanks	Healers	DPS	Reasoning
2	3	5	8 bosses, unknown mechanics; a second tank covers adds; 3 healers survives learning wipes. Drop to 2 healers once farmed.

Full reasoning and the buff coverage table are on Raid composition.

Prep checklist

Before the first pull:

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Boss mechanics for all 8 encounters and the actual kill order.
Whether Illidan is an encounter or only flavor.
The two unannounced entrances.
Lockout duration and whether the 10 and 20 share an ID.
Whether tier drops here or only in Hyjal Summit.
Essence drop rates and the crafted-set class mapping.
Whether master loot exists (affects how soft reserve is run).