First eight weeks

Launch is Wednesday November 4 at 15:00 PT and raids open Wednesday December 9 at an unannounced hour. That is five weeks of leveling and prep, then three weeks of raiding inside this eight-week window. Blizzard built the five-week gap on purpose so nobody has to race. This plan uses it.

Calendar

Date	Event	Status
Oct 27, 2026	Early name reservation and character creation	verified
Nov 4, 2026, 15:00 PT / 23:00 UTC	Launch	verified
Dec 9, 2026, hour unannounced	All three raids open	verified date
Winter 2026-27	Hardcore ruleset, no date	verified

Full roadmap on Raids overview and Launch timeline.

The plan

Week	Dates	Goal	Concrete actions
0	Oct 27 to Nov 3	Names, charter, roles	Reserve names (three per account, upgrade owners get more). Ruleset and faction locked; on the PvP ruleset it is one faction per account. Publish Loot rules v1 for the 10 and the 20. Pin a consumables and First Aid reminder.
1	Nov 4 to 10	Launch, guild formed	Guild charter signed day 1 or 2. Leveling pods by timezone. Everyone picks professions with an eye to: one Enchanter per raid, one Alchemist, First Aid on every character. No pressure on pace; the five-week window is Blizzard’s design.
2	Nov 11 to 17	30s to 40s	Riverglades (35-45) as a group detour. First riding purchases (price unknown; save gold). Weekly level census poll.
3	Nov 18 to 24	45 to 55	Alcaz Prison (48-53), BRD groups. Officers draft raid rosters from the census. Test loot addons on live (Gargul and RCLootCouncil retail builds) and pick the fallback.
4	Nov 25 to Dec 1	First 60s	Blackmaw Hold, Shaper’s Terrace, Strat, Scholo, UBRS circuit. Hyjal questlines for Guardians of Hyjal rep and zone gear. Enchanter starts stockpiling. Alchemist and cook stock a raid kit. Confirm world-buff status from anyone who can test.
5	Dec 2 to 8	Pre-raid week	Most of the roster at 60; carry stragglers through dungeons. Finalize 10-player roster A (and B if 16 or more). Raid-Helper events posted for Dec 9 and 10. Warlock plus summon plan; find the Barrow Deeps entrance(s). Fire resistance for the Onyxia tank only.
6	Dec 9 to 15	Raids open	Barrow Deeps night one (expect a partial clear of 8 bosses). If 20 or more are ready, one Hyjal night to learn the first bosses. Post loot history the same night.
7	Dec 16 to 22	Second lockout	Aim for a full Barrow Deeps clear. Hyjal progression night two. First crafted essence pieces assigned. Onyxia: join a cross-guild 40 or host one with SR rules.
8	Dec 23 to 29	Holiday week	Light schedule; Barrow Deeps farm only. Review: does the 10 still need 3 healers? Re-check addon Forever support, Warcraft Logs, softres. PvP night for Darkspear Islands rep and Honor gear for alts.

“Second lockout” in week 7 assumes a weekly reset. Lockout rules are unannounced; if Forever uses something else, the week 6 to 8 rows shift but the actions do not change.

Week-by-week detail

Week 0: before launch

Names. Two-part names (first name plus surname). Reserve for mains and the alts you will actually play.
Ruleset. Normal, PvP or RP. Characters on different rulesets cannot raid together, and the PvP ruleset locks the account to one faction. verified This is the one decision that cannot be undone by rerolling later. See Join and PvP.
Loot rules v1. Soft reserve plus MS>OS for the 10, loot council rubric for the 20, essence policy, BoE policy, legendary placeholder. See Loot systems for the reasoning and Loot rules for the text.
Profession plan. Who is the Enchanter, who is the Alchemist, who cooks. See Professions.

Weeks 1 to 3: leveling

Pods by timezone, not by class. Nobody waits for a tank who is asleep.
Level First Aid as you go; healing potions are First Aid in Forever, so it is not optional. verified
Riding price is unknown; start saving in week 2. Gold buying is punished up to permanent account loss. verified
The level census is the roster tool. Officers cannot draft a raid from vibes.
Test the retail builds of Gargul and RCLootCouncil on live in week 3. Neither has a Forever flavor as of September. If they fail, the fallback stack (Raid-Helper, Discord SR thread, /roll, pinned sheet) is the plan.

Weeks 4 and 5: the pre-raid window

The dungeon circuit: Blackmaw Hold, Shaper’s Terrace, Stratholme, Scholomance, UBRS, BRD, LBRS, Dire Maul. Blackmaw and Shaper’s are new and untested; expect surprises. See Pre-raid gear.
Hyjal questlines with the guild. Rep, gear, and everyone learns the way to both raid entrances. See World bosses and reputations.
Consumable stockpile per role. See Consumables.
World buffs: ask anyone who reaches 60 early to test whether any world buff persists inside a raid instance. Until someone does, the guild assumes they do not work.
Roster A for Barrow Deeps: 2 tanks, 3 healers, 5 DPS, plus bench. See Raid composition.
Fire resistance for the Onyxia main tank only. Nothing else.

Week 6: raids open

Night one is Barrow Deeps. Eight bosses with no public mechanics; a partial clear is a success.
If 20 are ready, a Hyjal night is a learning night. Thirteen bosses; do not expect a clear.
Loot history posted the same night, every night.
The unlock hour is unannounced. Post the event for the evening and adjust if the doors open earlier.

Weeks 7 and 8: settling in

Full Barrow Deeps clear is the week 7 goal.
First crafted pieces from Malleable Essence of Nature get assigned by the same rules as drops.
Onyxia: one boss, 40 people. Join a cross-guild run or host with soft reserve. See Onyxia’s Lair.
Week 8 is the holidays. Farm only. Use the quiet to review healer count, addon support and whether Warcraft Logs or softres.it gained Forever support.
First PvP night for Darkspear Islands rep and Honor gear for alts.

Things to explicitly not do

Do not	Why
Farm world buffs	Reported not to work in raids; no blue post. Assume no. unverified
Farm resistance sets	Only the Onyxia main tank needs fire resistance.
Copy Classic Era BiS lists	Every dungeon drop was re-examined; the lists are wrong. verified
Run gold-split pugs	GDKP is banned and Blizzard is watching gold flow. verified
Promise Molten Core dates	The “revamped iconic raid” is unnamed.
Quote lockout rules	Nothing is announced.
Farm the Onyxia attunement	Launch raids need none. Confirm at launch before anyone runs the BRD jailbreak.

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Raid unlock hour on Dec 9.
Lockout rules, which decide what “second lockout” means.
Riding price, which decides how much gold weeks 2 to 5 need.
World buffs in raids.
Whether the loot addons’ retail builds load on Forever.