Hyjal Summit

Hyjal Summit is the biggest raid in Forever at launch: 20 players and 13 datamined encounters. It is where the files tag Season 1 tier for all nine classes, where the legendary reward is attached, and one of two sources of the crafted-epic reagent. For a semi-casual guild it is the stretch goal, not the weekly. Plan on multi-night clears for the first month or two.

Location

Top of Mount Hyjal, the new level-60 zone. Flight paths reported in the zone: Summit of Eternity and Tainted Foothills. unverified Mount Hyjal is reached overland; expect the first trip to be a run from Winterspring or Felwood. vanilla geography The Timbermaw tunnel between Felwood and Winterspring is on the road, which is one more reason not to be hated by furbolgs; see World bosses and reputations.

Lore

Set after the Third War. Malfurion sacrificed night elf immortality to destroy Archimonde at Nordrassil. Now, in Blizzard’s words, “someone or something has been draining power from the land.” Wowhead: “The Hyjal Summit is being drained of power, and it will take a full 20-player raid to slay the bosses within.” verified

Blizzard’s What’s Next recap: “Hyjal Summit will bring 20-player raid encounters to one of Warcraft’s most important locations” with “new tier sets, and a legendary reward we’re looking forward to revealing in full.” verified

Archimonde is not confirmed as a boss and does not appear in the datamined list.

Size and rules

Field	Status
Size	20, fixed, no flex, one difficulty. Nora Mills (Lead Software Engineer): “by far our largest raid in WoW Forever.” verified
Attunement	None for launch raids verified
Lockout	Unannounced
Cross-ruleset	Not possible verified

Known bosses

Thirteen encounters in beta Legacy data, per Blizzard Watch. datamined Legacy lists are not a kill order. None are vanilla bosses; there is no 1.12 baseline.

#	Encounter	What is known
1	Bandalar	Name traces to Warcraft III
2	Ancient of Decay	Name only. A corrupted Ancient by the name
3	Time-Lost Battalion	Name only. Plural: probably an add-heavy or gauntlet encounter
4	Sylvestris Dusksong	Has a datamined spell “Everlasting Bond” that links to the Stormwraith legendary breadcrumbs
5	Old Gloomlurker	Name only
6	Gharalis the Abyssal	Name only
7	Kathris the Haunted	Name only
8	Anara Chillwind	Name only
9	Elder Minderel	Name only
10	Tracker Stillwind	Name only
11	Council of Thorns	Name only. A council fight by the name
12	Nythus the Dreadbound	Name only
13	The Wild King	Name only. Placement suggests a final boss, but the list is not ordered

Loot highlights

Season 1 tier sets

“Season 1” tier for all nine classes is tagged to Hyjal in the files. datamined Bonuses are 2/3/4/5-piece, not vanilla’s 3/5/8:

Pieces	Bonus flavor
2	Small stat: hit, attack speed, defense, spirit
3	A cooldown or new functionality
4	Damage or healing bonus
5	Resource or cooldown

The datamined guide does not say which bosses drop which slot, and tier pieces are reportedly obtainable across all three raid sizes. unverified Loot-council rubric consequence: the 4-piece is the payoff, so a player at 3 pieces outranks a player at 1 for the same slot. Write that into Loot rules.

Tier appearances in HD and SD models are datamined; see Transmog and mounts.

Malleable Essence of Nature

Item 274030: “Acquired from disenchanting items from Hyjal Summit or Barrow Deeps. Its power can be harnessed in the creation of powerful crafted items.” datamined

Roughly 72 patterns use it, all sold by Aisarra Nightmeadow in Mount Hyjal:

Profession	Crafted set names
Tailoring	Conviction, Demonheart
Leatherworking	Grimstitch, Spiritcaller, Grovekeeper
Blacksmithing	Justice, Glory

Class mapping is not documented. Set names suggest cloth for healers and Warlocks, leather for Rogues, Hunters and Druids, and plate for Paladins and Warriors, but that is a guess from names alone and is not evidence.

Guild implications:

An Enchanter must be in every raid.
Disenchanted BoP loot becomes a guild resource; the proposal is a guild bank alt holds the essences and the loot council assigns crafted pieces the same way it assigns drops. See Loot systems.
These are early-raid crafted epics, not pre-raid. Nobody can make them before December 9.
Crafters need the patterns and the profession at cap. See Professions.

Legendary

Blizzard confirmed “a legendary reward” tied to the launch raids, plus a separate “New Legendary questline” on the Spring 2027 roadmap. verified existence Datamined breadcrumbs mention a Branch of Nordrassil, a Stormwraith, Moonglade and Un’Goro stages, and Sylvestris Dusksong’s spell “Everlasting Bond” linking to the Stormwraith. datamined Item, weapon type and eligible classes are unknown, and it is unknown whether the launch legendary and the Spring questline are the same item.

Guild rule to set in advance: once the item and its class list are known, name the first recipient before the first relevant drop. See Loot rules.

Other

Chase items on every boss is the stated design. verified
Epic appearances go only to the looter. verified

Working composition

Blizzard has not published a tank/healer split. The guild default:

Tanks	Healers	DPS	Reasoning
3	5	12	13 bosses, unknown mechanics; the third tank flexes to DPS on fights that do not need it.

Loot system recommendation for this raid is a loot council with a written rubric, because rolls waste a 13-boss instance with tier for nine classes and essences to assign. Detail on Raid composition and Loot systems.

Prep checklist

Twenty characters at 60 on the same ruleset, plus bench. Realistically this means 24 or more active players.
Loot council of 3 named, rubric written, loot history sheet pinned.
Tier priority order per class and role written down (4th piece beats 2nd).
Essence policy and Enchanter assignment agreed.
Warlock plus two for summons; entrance scouted; flight paths in Hyjal unlocked by everyone.
Guardians of Hyjal questlines done for rep and zone gear. See World bosses and reputations.
Consumables per role. See Consumables.
Two raid nights blocked per week for the first month.
Nobody is promised the legendary until the item and its class list are known.

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Mechanics and order for all 13 encounters.
Boss-to-tier-slot mapping.
Lockout duration and whether 10 and 20 share an ID.
Legendary item, class eligibility, and whether it is the Spring 2027 questline item.
Crafted-set class mapping and essence drop rates.
Flight path names in Mount Hyjal (unverified).
Whether master loot exists.