WoW Forever raids: the Barrow Deeps (10), Hyjal Summit (20) and Onyxia's Lair (40) unlock on 9 December: locations, boss counts, attunement

Blizzard's opening line covers all three: 'On December 9, level 60 players can put their preparation, teamwork, and mastery of their classes to the test in three raids: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, and Onyxia's Lair.' The three differ mainly in group size, 10, 20 and 40, and Blizzard presents that as the choice: 'Whether you plan to explore Mount Hyjal with 10 or 20 players or face Onyxia with a full group of 40, choose the raid that fits your group and start getting ready.' On resets it says: 'With all raids currently planned to reset each week, you can settle into a consistent schedule and return with your group for another run.'

Boss counts appear in two places. The raid overview gives eight for the Barrow Deeps and 13 for Hyjal Summit, and the Legacy system article repeats both in its raid challenges ('Defeat all 13 Hyjal Summit bosses', 'Defeat all 8 Barrow Deeps bosses'). Onyxia's Lair has a single named encounter, with three phases.

Blizzard describes the smallest raid this way: 'Hidden beneath Kalimdor, the Barrow Deeps is a maximum-level raid for 10 players. The prison once held Illidan Stormrage for 10,000 years, but its dark passages have been opened. Now, players will descend into the fabled prison to learn what became of those left behind—and how the wardens plan to contain the danger below.' The quick facts place it 'Within Mount Hyjal, with multiple entrances connected through Mount Hyjal, Winterspring, and Blackmaw Hold'. The layout line is: 'Entrances connected to Mount Hyjal, Winterspring, and Blackmaw Hold give raiders multiple paths into Barrow Deeps. Inside, 10-player groups will face eight bosses as they explore the prison's depths.'

Blackmaw Hold is also one of the nine new dungeons, the level 55–60 furbolg city in Azshara. Blizzard's dungeon article ends its Blackmaw entry with 'you may discover a path leading even farther below Azeroth'. Blizzard has not explicitly connected that line to the raid entrance, but the two articles point in the same direction. A group levelling through Blackmaw Hold will be close to one of the Barrow Deeps' entrances. Blizzard has not said which entrance leads to which part of the raid, or whether the entrances differ in any way.

Hyjal Summit is the largest raid by boss count. Blizzard: 'At the peak of Mount Hyjal near the World Tree Nordrassil, Hyjal Summit features 13 bosses and begins with a battle against an ancient guardian. From there, raid groups can choose from multiple paths across the mountain, exploring ruins above and below ground as they confront the forces threatening Hyjal and open the way to the final encounters.' The closing line is 'Choose your route, coordinate with your raid, and uncover what waits across one of Warcraft's most iconic locations.'

So the order is: a fixed first boss (the 'ancient guardian'), then branching paths, then 'the final encounters'. Blizzard does not name the guardian or any other boss, and does not say how many paths there are or whether a raid has to clear every path before the final encounters open. The BlizzCon recap gives the setting, the mountain in 'the aftermath of Archimonde's defeat', in a Forever set 'after the events of Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core'. Mount Hyjal is also one of Forever's three new zones, so groups will have quested on the mountain before raiding its summit.

'Deep in Dustwallow Marsh, Onyxia's Lair is a level 60 raid for 40 players.' Onyxia is 'a dragon of the Black Dragonflight and the younger sister of Nefarian'. Her 'three-phase encounter turns up the heat with powerful fire attacks that can punish an unprepared raid', and Blizzard tells players to 'build their fire resistance before entering, then be ready to reposition and work together as the battle shifts around them'.

Entry needs preparation. The lair 'requires each member of the raid to carry the Drakefire Amulet to enter', earned 'through a faction-specific attunement questline'. The Alliance chain goes through Blackrock Depths and Stormwind, and the Horde chain goes through Lower Blackrock Spire, Desolace and Dustwallow Marsh. Both end with General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire. The amulet only has to be in your inventory, not equipped. The Onyxia page lists both chains step by step with Blizzard's quest names, and covers the fire-resistance effects Blizzard has documented for Forever.

The BlizzCon recap tied the raids to 'raid encounters, new tier sets, and a legendary reward we're looking forward to revealing in full'. The 20 October raid overview does not mention loot at all, so nothing more has been published: no set names, no set bonuses, no legendary name or type, and no word on which raid drops what. The Deep Dive's itemization section gives the only context: 'set bonuses have been improved to feel more useful and exciting' across the game, hit and crit are merged, and trinkets are 'pushed toward more varied, situational effects'.

In Classic, legendaries were long quest chains built around a raid (Thunderfury from Molten Core, Atiesh from Naxxramas). Whether Forever's legendary works the same way is not stated. 'Revealing in full' suggests Blizzard plans a separate reveal.

Lead encounter designer Mike Nuthals told Kotaku (Rebekah Valentine, 14 September 2026) that flex raiding is out, but that every tier would have at least one 10-player option and one 20-player option, sometimes with a 40-player raid as well. That is Kotaku's paraphrase. Tim Jones's quote is direct: '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 and there will always be a 10-player raid for groups.' Kotaku compares this with Season of Discovery, where 'a lot of raid groups dropped the game when raids jumped from requiring ten players to 25'.

The December release matches that description exactly: a 10-player raid, a 20-player raid and, this time, a 40-player one. The interview remains the only statement about the sizes of later tiers. It is press-reported, and Blizzard's own roadmap says only 'more raids'.

The Legacy system has a Raids category worth 'a total of 3 points', one per challenge: 'Defeat Onyxia', 'Defeat all 13 Hyjal Summit bosses' and 'Defeat all 8 Barrow Deeps bosses'. Each challenge 'earns you one Legacy Point', and the points are 'Battle.net account-wide and available to all your non-Hardcore characters'. So a single Onyxia kill is worth the same as a full Hyjal Summit clear. The Dungeons category next to it has three more points, one each for defeating the final boss in all level 15 to 25, 26 to 45 and 46 to 60 dungeons.

Blizzard's count of what one character can earn without making alts includes '6 from Dungeons and Raids', and these three raid points are half of that. The points pay for perks (up to 16 spent per character at launch) and unlock the Legacy track's four rewards. One Resourcefulness perk, 'The Quick and the Dead', 'makes party and raid buffs free after resurrecting, speeding up wipe recovery'.

Four Deep Dive systems change the hour before a raid. Camping: 'Placing a campfire creates a campsite where players can rest and gain access to useful benefits such as vendors, repairs, profession workspaces, and one-hour buffs', with up to three profession objects (five or ten with a Cooking-upgraded campfire). Each object grants a buff that is 'a variant of, and do not stack with, buffs normally provided by specific classes'. A raid group camping outside the instance can therefore cover a missing class buff, but not double one. Food: 'food buffs … have received a major update', and crafted food 'can grant a small experience bonus and stat boosts'.

Reagents: the Legacy Resourcefulness tree holds 'Reagent Economy', which 'can remove reagent requirements from class abilities, making buffing easier'. Appearances: 'For epic raid drops, appearances are granted on acquisition only to the player the item binds to, preserving the prestige of higher-level rewards and leaving organized loot decisions in the hands of raid groups', so collecting appearances cannot compete with need rolls in a raid. For Onyxia specifically, the class deep dives add raid-wide resistance: Paladin resistance auras 'now affect all raid members within 30 yards', and Shaman 'Resistance Totems now provide their resistance bonus to the entire raid group'.

Raid teams form inside one ruleset. The ruleset article says 'Players can group, run dungeons, and raid with others who have chosen the same ruleset. Cross-ruleset grouping is not supported', and factions stay separate. Hardcore, which arrives after launch, is 'a fully enclosed ecosystem'.

After December, the BlizzCon roadmap lists 'more raids, dungeons, PvP updates, world content, additional quests throughout the level 1–60 journey, Hardcore, a revamped iconic raid, and major updates'. Onyxia's Lair is the first original Classic raid confirmed for Forever. Blizzard has not said whether it is the 'revamped iconic raid' from the roadmap or whether that is a separate raid still to come. Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub, Ahn'Qiraj and Naxxramas are not named in any Forever article. Forever's story is set 'before Molten Core', so whether any of them returns is still open, and this page will add each one with its date only when Blizzard announces it.