Raids overview

Everything the guild does at 60 points at December 9, 2026. That is the day all three launch raids open, five weeks after launch. Sizes are fixed, there is one difficulty, there are no attunements, and nobody outside Blizzard knows the lockout rules yet. This page is the officer-level summary. The per-raid pages (Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, Onyxia’s Lair) hold the detail.

The three launch raids

Raid	Size	Location	Bosses	Page
Barrow Deeps	10	Beneath Mount Hyjal, three entrances	8 listed in beta Legacy data datamined	Barrow Deeps
Hyjal Summit	20	Top of Mount Hyjal, the new level-60 zone	13 listed in beta Legacy data datamined	Hyjal Summit
Onyxia’s Lair	40	Southern Dustwallow Marsh (Wyrmbog)	1	Onyxia’s Lair

Barrow Deeps is described by Blizzard as a level-60 “maximum-level challenge”. Hyjal Summit is, in Lead Software Engineer Nora Mills’ words at BlizzCon, “by far our largest raid in WoW Forever”. Onyxia at 40 was confirmed by Tim Jones at the September 17 Q&A. verified

December 9: how the date conflict got resolved

Two dates circulated after BlizzCon. Here is the evidence.

Claim	Where it came from	Verdict
Barrow Deeps and Hyjal open Nov 4, Onyxia Dec 9	A wowsod.pro “what we know” article dated Sept 14	Wrong. Written before the roadmap was read closely. The same article admits the roadmap graphic adds Onyxia to “the December 9 raid wave”.
All three raids Dec 9	Blizzard’s roadmap slide and What’s Next recap (“New raids unlock on December 9”); Blizzard Watch’s roadmap transcription lists all three under Dec 9; the Sept 17 Q&A devs explained the “five-week window” between launch and raids	Correct. verified

The five-week gap is deliberate. Devs said it gives leveling groups and guilds time to enjoy the journey, run level-60 dungeons and craft pre-raid gear without feeling rushed. verified

See Launch timeline for the full calendar and First eight weeks for the guild plan around it.

Structure rules that apply to all three

Fixed sizes, no flex. “You get what you get.” One difficulty for dungeons and raids. verified
No Raid Finder or automated matchmaking. You form the group yourself. A Looking for Group tool exists. verified
Every tier ships a 10 and a 20. Tim Jones: “If you’re a 10-man group and you don’t have interest in doing 20-man content, that is perfectly fine. We want to make sure that there is challenge and rewards in the 10-player content.” verified
40-player raids are exceptions. “Players should not expect a 40-player raid in every tier.” Onyxia is the launch exception. verified
Tier pieces are obtainable across all three sizes in a tier, per one reading of the panels. unverified
Cross-ruleset raiding is not possible. Normal, PvP and RP characters cannot raid together. Pick the ruleset before launch; see Join. verified
Meeting stones do not summon. Warlocks still matter for logistics. verified
No level cap increase planned. 60 is the endgame for the foreseeable roadmap. verified

Attunements: none at launch

Lead Software Engineer Ana Resendez and Associate Production Director Clayton Stone, in a BlizzCon interview: launch raids “will not require attunement quests”; you “assemble the group, travel to the raid and go inside.” Stone declined to promise this for future tiers. verified

Practical prerequisites are still real: level 60, a full fixed-size group, someone who can physically reach each entrance (no meeting-stone summons), and a Warlock plus two helpers for summons.

The vanilla Onyxia attunement (Drakefire Amulet) is therefore presumed gone, but Wowhead still lists it as “TBD in Forever”. Treat as no attunement expected, confirm at launch. Detail on the Onyxia page.

Lockouts: nothing announced

Devs did not answer lockout questions at the September 17 Q&A. verified absence

Vanilla baseline for reference only: Onyxia 5 days, Molten Core and BWL 7 days, 5-player dungeons no lockout but a 5-instances-per-hour cap, Dire Maul and UBRS “raid-style” ID persistence. vanilla baseline Whether Forever’s 10 and 20 share an ID, whether Onyxia stays on a 5-day timer, and whether the instance-per-hour cap returns are all open.

Tier and loot philosophy

Stated intent: raid loot in Forever is meant “to stay relevant for longer” through incremental progression and rare chase items; every boss is meant to have chase drops. verified
Tier sets: “Season 1” tier for all nine classes, datamined with 2/3/4/5-piece bonuses rather than vanilla’s 3/5/8. Bonus flavor: 2pc small stat (hit, attack speed, defense, spirit), 3pc cooldown or new functionality, 4pc damage or healing, 5pc resource or cooldown. Which bosses drop which slot is not documented. datamined
Crafted raid-tier epics: the reagent Malleable Essence of Nature comes from disenchanting Hyjal Summit or Barrow Deeps drops and feeds roughly 72 patterns sold by Aisarra Nightmeadow in Mount Hyjal. Full detail on the Hyjal Summit and Loot systems pages. datamined
Legendary: Blizzard confirmed “a legendary reward” tied to the launch raids, and a separate “New Legendary questline” on the Spring 2027 roadmap. Item, weapon type and eligible classes are unknown. verified existence
Transmog: raid epic appearances go only to the looter; dungeon uncommon and rare appearances go to the whole eligible group. See Transmog and mounts. verified

What comes after December 9

Blizzard’s roadmap slide, as transcribed by Blizzard Watch: verified

Window	Items
Sept 17 to Oct 22, 2026	Beta to level 30
Oct 27, 2026	Early name reservation and character creation
Nov 4, 2026	Launch
Dec 9, 2026	10-player Barrow Deeps, 20-player Hyjal Summit, 40-player Onyxia’s Lair
Winter 2026-27	Hardcore ruleset (no date)
Spring 2027	2 new raids (10 and 20), 2 new dungeons, new quests and zone, new Legendary questline, PvP season refresh
Summer 2027	Revamped iconic raid, new raid, expanded world content, 2 new dungeons, PvP season refresh, Professions and Legacy updates

Cadence is roughly three content drops a year, seasonal rather than dated. Hardcore, when it arrives, gets its own Legacy Challenges and dead characters may transfer to another ruleset including PvP. verified

What this means for the guild

The 10-player Barrow Deeps is the guild’s home raid. It is weekly, trust-based, and Blizzard has promised challenge and rewards at that size.
Hyjal Summit at 20 is a stretch goal. Thirteen bosses is a long instance; expect multi-night clears for the first month or two.
Onyxia at 40 is one boss. Join a cross-guild effort or host one with simple rules rather than trying to fill 40 from a friends-and-family roster.
Write the loot rules before December 9. See Loot systems and the guild’s Loot rules.
Stop worrying about world buffs and resistance sets. See Consumables and Pre-raid gear.

Unknown as of 2026-09-24

Raid lockout rules for all three raids (duration, whether 10 and 20 share an ID, Onyxia 5-day vs 7-day).
Raid unlock hour on December 9.
Boss mechanics for all 21 new encounters, boss-to-tier-slot mapping, whether tier drops in Barrow Deeps or only Hyjal.
Legendary item, class eligibility, and whether the launch-raid legendary and the Spring 2027 questline are the same item.
Identity of the Summer 2027 “revamped iconic raid”.
Hardcore ruleset date.