WoW Classic

Forever's First Raid Calendar Starts With Your Group Size

Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit, and Onyxia open together on December 9 with different roster sizes. Plan the regular night, awkward headcounts, partner groups, and Onyxia access before promising every lockout.

World of Warcraft: Forever is live, but its first raids are scheduled for December 9, 2026. Before the guild fills that first calendar, find out which evening people can attend together—and whether that gives you ten, twenty, or enough for a forty-player run.

These are three separate level-60 raids in Forever, with different encounters and group sizes. They are not three size settings for the same instance.

Blizzard currently plans weekly resets for all three. That provides a rhythm for a regular night, not a requirement to clear every available instance. Eight or thirteen bosses also says nothing certain about how long a first clear will take. Treat those counts as the scope of the raid, not an estimated finishing time.

Build around the night people can attend

Start with the people who can attend the same evening, in the roles they will actually play. A guild with a dependable twenty can make Hyjal Summit its main appointment. A smaller circle can build around Barrow Deeps. Neither needs to recruit to forty before doing any raiding at all.

The awkward case is a group of fourteen friends. Ten-player content means four cannot all join the same run; twenty-player content means finding six more. Those are real social costs, not a problem solved by saying every size has an option. Discuss recruitment, a fair rotation, or a recurring partner group with the affected players before advertising the raid night.

If rotating Barrow places is the plan, publish who sits and how the next run changes that. A rotation that leaves the same four friends out every week has quietly become a permanent bench. If people dislike that trade, recruitment or a partner group may fit them better.

Choosing Barrow because ten people are available says nothing about how quickly they will kill its eight bosses. Leave room to learn the encounters before adding another raid to the same evening.

Twenty names do not automatically create two working ten-player teams. Each Barrow group needs its own tanks, healers, damage dealers, and someone comfortable calling an unfamiliar encounter. A roster built to function as one larger raid may need role changes or another volunteer before it can split sensibly.

If you do split, decide how substitutes and late arrivals work before the first reset. Avoid leaving one group permanently dependent on the other group's only available healer. Give both teams a usable plan for an absence and a clear point at which they will regroup, recruit, or postpone.

A forty-player run can be a separate agreement

Two established twenty-player groups can discuss an Onyxia night together without turning both guilds into one forty-person progression roster. The useful work is practical: choose the organizer, confirm who will invite, agree how loot is handled, and publish the same start and finish time to both groups.

A partnership can still be work. One guild may expect a training run while the other expects a fast clear with reserved loot. Start with a trial night, agree what happens if either side is short or missing amulets, and make sure the same rules reach both teams. A larger invitation list will not settle those differences by itself.

That is a scheduling choice, not a claim that Onyxia's gear is irrelevant. A player may want a particular drop, the encounter, or a run with friends. Make room for that goal honestly instead of quietly adding another required evening to a guild advertised around one raid night.

Forty is the announced raid size, not proof that every smaller group will be unable to kill the boss. It is also not evidence that an old twenty-player Classic clear will translate to Forever. Do not promise an underfilled run until current tuning and the group's own results support it.

Check Onyxia's entry item before filling the roster

Onyxia's Lair requires the Drakefire Amulet. This is an attunement: a faction-specific quest chain that grants access to the raid. Blizzard says the character entering must carry the amulet in their own inventory; it does not need to be equipped. A level-60 character with good dungeon gear can still be the person waiting outside.

Record the current quest stage as well as the final yes-or-no answer. Alliance characters follow the Marshal Windsor investigation; Horde characters work through their own chain involving Goretooth, Rexxar, and Emberstrife. Both routes eventually need the Blood of the Black Dragon Champion from General Drakkisath and the appropriate turn-in for the finished amulet.

Someone who needs a dungeon visit can join a planned group. Someone who has the blood but has not turned it in needs a different reminder. Someone who owns the amulet should check it is actually in their bags before travelling to Dustwallow Marsh. An old raid achievement or a friend's completed chain does not answer those character-specific questions.

Blizzard also recommends preparing fire resistance for Onyxia. That does not establish a universal resistance number or a reason to copy an old Vanilla shopping list wholesale. Check the Forever version's current encounter and item guidance before spending heavily on a loadout that may not fit the character's job.

Use November to make the group easier to assemble

Plan a few shared dungeon and quest sessions around the people who need them. The Onyxia chain is an obvious reason to coordinate, but so is helping a future tank or healer reach the point where they can join the same content as everyone else. A signup sheet is more useful when it leads to a group invitation this week.

For some players, the access chain is part of the adventure: a series of shared trips that makes the first entry matter. Others see another barrier between a late-starting friend and the raid. Organize help for the specific remaining step rather than treating either reaction as a test of whether someone belongs in the guild.

For the new raids, use the Forever-specific guidance as it arrives. A name such as Hyjal Summit can tempt an experienced player to import another version's entrance, quest chain, or boss order. The announced twenty-player raid has thirteen encounters and branching paths; it is not permission to reuse a Burning Crusade attunement plan.

There is no need to turn December 9 into a leveling ultimatum. It is an opening date, not a deadline to have cleared every raid. A group with later starters can publish its own first organized night and use the intervening time to build a team that is more likely to return.

A useful first calendar names the primary raid, the evening people can support, the backup plan for an absence, and the next session helping people get ready. Publish that night first. Leave the extra lockouts open until the group wants them and can staff them.