WoW Forever raids: ready by 9 December for all three

The countdown runs to the start of 9 December (UTC). Blizzard hasn’t announced the unlock time in each region yet, so treat it as a guide to the day, not the hour.

Which raids open in WoW Forever on 9 December?

Three raids open globally on 9 December: Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and a returning Onyxia’s Lair. Each is a different size, which is the part a guild needs to plan for.

Raid	Size	What’s confirmed	Not announced yet
Barrow Deeps	10-player	3 entrances around the world, one in Mount Hyjal	Bosses, attunement, tier set
Hyjal Summit	20-player	Opens 9 December	Bosses, attunement, tier set
Onyxia’s Lair	40-player	Returning	Whether it’s reworked, attunement, tier set

Everything here comes from Wowhead’s raid overview and Blizzard’s roadmap, as collected by Wowhead. Two more raids follow in spring 2027. We’ll update this post as Blizzard fills in the gaps.

How does one guild field a 10, a 20 and a 40?

Build for 40, then split. A guild that can fill Onyxia’s Lair has the people for two Hyjal Summit teams or four Barrow Deeps groups. The hard part isn’t numbers, it’s that every smaller group needs its own tanks and healers.

There are three common ways to do it:

Approach	How it works	Good for
One team, all three raids	The same core runs everything, on mains, across the week	Guilds of 40 to 50
Two teams	Team A and Team B each run their own Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps, and join for Onyxia	Guilds with two schedules
Mains and alts	Mains run the 40 and the 20, alts fill the 10-player groups	Guilds short on tanks and healers

Where do alts come in?

Alts fill the tank and healer seats the smaller raids multiply. By rule of thumb, a 40 needs 4 to 6 tanks, but four 10-player groups need about 8. A druid main with a warrior alt, or a priest main with a paladin alt, is worth more to a guild with three raid sizes than to one with a single raid.

Ask now. A roster call that asks for alts tells you who could tank or heal a second group if asked. Paladins can tank and taunt in Forever, and the new race and class combinations open more options (see Wowhead’s new combinations guide). How alts earn loot and attendance belongs in your main and alt policy.

Lockouts for the new raids aren’t announced. Whether the same character can run Barrow Deeps more than once a week, or which raids share a lockout, is something to plan around once Blizzard says.

How many raiders does each size need?

More than the raid size, because people miss nights. Use the calculator below to check your roster against each size. It uses rule-of-thumb tank and healer counts, not anything Blizzard has said about these raids.

It opens on 20-player, the middle size. Switch to 10 or 40 to check the other raids. If you plan two Hyjal Summit teams, check the 20 twice with each team’s numbers.

Do WoW Forever raids need attunement?

Not announced yet. Blizzard hasn’t said whether any of the three raids needs an attunement, a key or a quest chain. Until it does, the best preparation is getting raiders to 60 and geared in the level-60 dungeons.

If attunements are announced, they’ll likely take time, so build the habit now: a weekly guild dungeon night at 60, on the same night you plan to raid. Our guide to running Forever’s dungeons as a guild covers how.

What should each raid have ready by 9 December?

A roster, a night, a signup sheet and consumables. Tick these off per raid. Your ticks save in this browser, and each list copies for your officers’ channel.

Consumables depend on professions, so make sure the guild has an alchemist and more than one cook by December, and that someone in the guild covers each profession’s camp object.

How should signups work for three raids in one week?

One sheet per raid night, posted a week ahead, with a clear cutoff. Three raid sizes means three kinds of sheet, and raiders need to know which one they’re on. Put the raid and size in the sheet’s title.

For the 10-player groups, one sheet with several groups at the same time works better than four separate sheets. Each raider signs up once and the officer places them.

Before December, check what classes your raid team leans on. The class tier lists on Wowhead are a starting point, but your own roster decides the comp.

When the comp is the question, our guide to building a Forever raid comp picks up from here.

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Raids are the last item on a long list. Everything before them is in our WoW Forever guild checklist.