The first raids of WoW: Forever unlock on December 9, five weeks after launch, for level 60 characters. All three are planned to reset weekly.

The three raids

  • Barrow Deeps: 10 players, 8 bosses, inside Mount Hyjal. Entrances from Mount Hyjal, Winterspring and the Blackmaw Hold dungeon in Azshara.
  • Hyjal Summit: 20 players, 13 bosses, near the World Tree Nordrassil.
  • Onyxia's Lair: 40 players, Dustwallow Marsh, the three-phase fight you remember. You need the Drakefire Amulet from a faction-specific attunement chain; you do not have to wear it.

Before December 9

  1. Hit 60 and run the level 55–60 dungeons: Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Dire Maul, Scholomance, Stratholme, and the new Blackmaw Hold and Shaper's Terrace. See our dungeon leveling path.
  2. Start the Onyxia attunement early. It is a long chain on both factions, and the 40-player raid needs 40 attuned people.
  3. Max a crafting profession and Cooking. Camp Feature recipes from skill 140 drop in dungeons and raids, and a full camp before a raid night is free stats for the whole group.
  4. Sort out hit. Forever has a hit chance system; check your class and race (a Dwarf gets 1% from Artisan's Precision).
  5. Plan your Legacy points: three Legacy challenges are raid kills (Onyxia, all 13 Hyjal Summit bosses, all 8 Barrow Deeps bosses).

Our take: the 10-player raid is the real gate

Onyxia is a single boss and most 40-player guilds will clear it in the first week. Hyjal Summit is large, but a 20-player roster is easy to fill. Barrow Deeps is the one we would watch. Eight bosses for ten players means every player matters, there is nowhere to carry someone, and a small guild or a group of friends can raid on their own schedule. If Blizzard tunes it like a real 10-player raid and not a 40-player raid cut down, it will be the raid everyone talks about in December.

We will add boss pages once the raids open and the fights are known. Until then, anything you read about the boss mechanics is a guess.

Sources