WoW Forever expands level-60 raiding with different group sizes instead of relying only on traditional 40-player raids. Barrow Deeps is a 10-player raid, Hyjal Summit is built for 20 players, and Onyxia's Lair preserves a 40-player experience. New tier sets, a legendary reward, redesigned itemization, and future raids create a broader endgame progression path.
Raiding remains a major part of the level-60 endgame, but Forever is changing one of Vanilla WoW's most recognizable assumptions:
Not every serious raid needs 40 players.
Blizzard's new Forever raids use smaller group sizes.
The two major new raids confirmed so far are:
Barrow Deeps — 10 players
Hyjal Summit — 20 players
Forever also keeps room for larger Classic-style content. Current raid materials list Onyxia's Lair as a 40-player raid, giving Forever three different raid sizes rather than forcing every endgame encounter into one format.
That is an important design direction.
A 10-player raid can feel closer to a highly coordinated dungeon group.
A 20-player raid provides more roster depth and class coverage.
A 40-player raid preserves the scale and social identity associated with original Vanilla raiding.
Forever appears interested in using all three where they make sense.
The current raid structure is easiest to understand like this:
10-player raids — smaller organized groups, tighter responsibility per player.
20-player raids — larger endgame encounters with more room for class variety and specialized roles.
40-player legacy raids — large Classic-style encounters such as Onyxia's Lair.
This is not the same as Retail WoW's flexible raid-size model.
Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit are being designed around their specific player counts rather than one encounter dynamically scaling from a small raid to a large one.
Blizzard has also shown that 10- and 20-player raids are part of Forever's longer-term content direction, not just an experiment for the first pair of new raids.
Barrow Deeps is Forever's first major 10-player raid.
It is a huge underground complex associated with the Night Elves and their ancient barrow dens.
Blizzard describes the location as containing dangerous prisoners normally kept away from outsiders. The raid has three entrances located around the world, with one entrance connected to Mount Hyjal.
That already makes Barrow Deeps unusual.
It is not being presented simply as one cave with one doorway.
The three-entrance design suggests the underground network is geographically tied into multiple parts of Azeroth.
The Night Elves use the depths to imprison dangerous threats.
Blizzard has teased one particularly infamous prisoner without officially confirming that character's identity.
Because the teaser strongly points toward familiar Warcraft lore, speculation is inevitable.
But until Blizzard names that prisoner directly, it should remain speculation rather than being treated as a confirmed boss.
The important confirmed point is that the raid explores dangerous Night Elf prison depths and corruption beneath the world.
Ten-player raiding changes group organization significantly compared with Vanilla's 40-player raids.
Every player occupies 10% of the raid.
That means:
Individual mistakes matter more.
Utility choices matter more.
Class composition may require more planning.
Players are likely to have more visible responsibilities.
Communication can be much simpler than managing a 40-player roster.
It also makes organized raiding more accessible to smaller guilds and friend groups.
You still need coordination, preparation, tanks, healers, and damage dealers.
You simply need fewer people before the raid can begin.
Hyjal Summit is the major confirmed 20-player raid.
The raid is located within Forever's version of Mount Hyjal, where players explore the aftermath of Archimonde's defeat and the damage left behind after Warcraft III.
The central raid problem is new:
Power is being drained from Hyjal Summit.
A 20-player group is needed to confront the threat.
This is not simply the Burning Crusade version of Hyjal copied into Forever.
Forever is telling its own continuation of the original Azeroth timeline.
That distinction matters.
The famous Burning Crusade raid revisited the historical Battle for Mount Hyjal through the Caverns of Time.
Forever's Hyjal is instead concerned with what happens after that battle in this alternate continuation of Classic Azeroth.
Twenty players give Blizzard more room to create encounters built around broader class representation without returning completely to 40-player raid management.
A 20-player raid can reasonably support:
Multiple tanks.
Several healers.
Melee groups.
Ranged groups.
Different forms of crowd control.
Specialized utility.
Class buffs.
Encounter-specific responsibilities.
Forever's broader class philosophy makes this particularly relevant.
Blizzard is intentionally preserving differences between classes rather than giving everyone equivalent interrupts, mobility, healing, control, and defensive tools.
That means raid composition can matter without every raid necessarily requiring forty characters.
Forever also includes the return of Onyxia's Lair as a 40-player raid according to current raid and roadmap material.
This is significant because it shows Blizzard is not simply declaring traditional 40-player raiding obsolete.
Instead, Forever appears willing to mix old and new structures.
Onyxia's Lair represents the large-scale Classic style.
Barrow Deeps represents the smaller 10-player approach.
Hyjal Summit sits between them at 20 players.
That gives raiders several different social and organizational experiences.
That is not confirmed.
The current Forever raid information identifies Onyxia's Lair as a level-60, 40-player raid, but detailed Forever-specific information is still missing.
Blizzard has not fully confirmed:
Whether encounter mechanics change.
Whether the attunement remains identical.
Whether the original loot table is retained.
Whether gear is rebalanced.
Whether old quest rewards change.
Whether the raid receives additional items.
Do not automatically use a Vanilla Onyxia guide as a permanent Forever guide.
The broader Forever itemization overhaul makes changes entirely possible.
For new raids, the strongest evidence points toward 10- and 20-player formats being major long-term sizes.
Blizzard's announced future raid direction continues to include both 10-player and 20-player content.
However, Forever is also keeping 40-player Onyxia and has teased future revamps of iconic raid content.
So the more accurate answer is:
Forever is expanding beyond 40-player raiding, not necessarily deleting it.
That distinction is important.
Players who enjoy smaller organized groups gain major new options.
Players who enjoy enormous Classic raid nights can still have a place in Forever.
Blizzard has not yet published a complete mandatory raid-progression chain.
That means we should not state:
"Barrow Deeps must be cleared before Hyjal Summit."
or:
"You need full Barrow Deeps gear before entering Hyjal."
Those requirements have not been confirmed.
What we do know is that both new raids are maximum-level content, and Forever's endgame includes level-60 zones, high-level dungeons, reputations, quests, professions, and raid rewards.
A sensible character progression path will likely involve preparing through these systems before tackling harder raid encounters.
That can include:
Level-60 quest rewards.
High-level dungeon equipment.
Profession gear.
Reputation rewards.
Useful consumables.
Appropriate class talents.
Weapons.
Raid-specific preparation once mechanics become known.
But the exact minimum gear requirements remain something players will need to determine through testing.
Not officially.
The fact that Barrow Deeps uses 10 players while Hyjal uses 20 players does not automatically prove a strict progression order.
Raid size and raid difficulty are different concepts.
A 10-player encounter can be extremely demanding.
A 20-player raid can contain easier introductory bosses.
Until Blizzard reveals boss tuning and loot levels, the safest approach is to treat Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit as two separate maximum-level raid experiences.
Once their rewards are known, players can determine whether one naturally helps prepare for the other.
Raid gear is one area where Forever could feel very different from simply replaying Vanilla.
Blizzard is reworking itemization throughout the entire game.
The stated goal is to preserve Classic's recognizable stats while making gearing less solved and giving more items legitimate situations where they are useful.
Changes include:
Unified Hit for physical, ranged, and spell interactions.
Unified Critical Strike.
Better support for hybrid classes.
Reduced dominance of weapon-skill gear.
Spell Damage and Healing on more caster weapons.
New effects that reduce dodge or parry chance.
More situational trinkets.
Environment-specific and enemy-type item effects.
This matters enormously for raiders.
Forever gear is not supposed to reduce every class to one obvious list where the same few items dominate indefinitely.
Different encounters may reward different equipment decisions.
Blizzard has explicitly confirmed new tier sets as part of Forever raid progression.
That is one of the most important pieces of confirmed raid loot information.
What has not been revealed yet is the complete structure.
We do not yet know:
How many pieces are in the first tier.
Which raid drops which pieces.
Whether pieces drop directly or through tokens.
Exact set bonuses.
Armor appearances.
Class-specific stat distribution.
Whether 10-player and 20-player raids share tier progression.
Whether Onyxia contributes to the new tier structure.
Those questions should remain open until Blizzard publishes the actual loot tables.
Forever's itemization philosophy is already changing set bonuses outside raids.
Blizzard says existing dungeon sets have been reviewed and their bonuses improved to feel more useful and exciting.
That does not reveal the new raid-tier bonuses directly.
But it tells us something about Blizzard's design priorities.
Set bonuses are supposed to matter.
They should support how a class plays rather than existing only as weak statistical decoration.
Given the broader class redesign, raid sets may also have more room to support builds that struggled in Vanilla, including hybrid roles.
Exact bonuses still need to be confirmed.
Blizzard has also confirmed a new legendary reward connected to Forever's high-level progression.
This is one of the most exciting unrevealed parts of the endgame.
However, Blizzard has deliberately withheld the important details.
We do not yet know:
The legendary item's name.
Its weapon or armor type.
Which classes can use it.
Which raid contributes to it.
Whether Barrow Deeps is involved.
Whether Hyjal Summit is involved.
Whether multiple raids are required.
Its exact quest chain.
Its crafting requirements.
Its final stats or effect.
Do not trust speculative "Forever legendary guides" that present those details as confirmed.
There is not enough official information yet.
Forever's optional transmog system has an important special rule for raid loot.
For Bind-on-Pickup Uncommon and Rare dungeon items, eligible players can receive the appearance without competing for the physical upgrade.
Epic raid items work differently.
The appearance is granted only to the player who actually receives and binds the item.
That preserves the prestige of raid epics.
If a rare raid weapon drops, the entire raid does not instantly unlock its appearance just because one player won it.
The player receiving the item owns that visual accomplishment.
This also leaves organized raid loot decisions in the hands of the raid group.
One of Forever's broader goals is to create a permanent level-60 game where player effort remains important rather than being erased every time another expansion raises the level cap.
BlizzCon coverage describes Forever as a long-term home where previous effort should continue to matter.
That does not mean later raids will never provide stronger equipment.
New progression still requires desirable rewards.
Instead, the philosophy appears aimed at avoiding expansion-style resets where almost every previous endgame item becomes irrelevant overnight.
This could create a much wider long-term gearing environment.
An older raid trinket might remain situationally useful.
A profession item could stay valuable.
A specific weapon may continue supporting a niche build.
A new raid then adds options rather than simply deleting everything that came before.
Exactly how successful that becomes will depend on future item tuning.
Ten-player Barrow Deeps makes class composition particularly interesting.
In a 40-player raid, there is enough roster space to bring many classes and still cover specialized utility.
With only ten players, every slot carries much more weight.
That does not necessarily mean Forever will demand one perfect composition.
Blizzard is trying to improve historically weaker roles and builds so more of the class roster is genuinely useful.
Protection Paladins are receiving real tank tools.
Retribution gains better offensive support.
Hybrid stats are easier to gear.
Healing specializations receive broader itemization support.
The goal is stronger class identity without automatically turning unusual specs into dead raid slots.
Still, smaller groups will need to think carefully about what tools they bring.
Forever's combat design emphasizes tactical class tools.
That philosophy applies heavily to dungeons and should influence how players think about raiding as well.
Useful tools include:
Interrupts.
Dispels.
Crowd control.
Emergency healing.
Threat management.
Defensive cooldowns.
Buffs.
Movement abilities.
Class-specific utility.
A class doing slightly less theoretical damage may still provide something essential to the encounter.
That is very different from evaluating every raid slot purely through a DPS ranking.
Because exact boss mechanics and attunements remain unknown, preparation should focus on fundamentals.
Reach level 60.
Finish useful high-level quest chains.
Run high-level dungeons.
Upgrade weak equipment.
Develop your professions.
Acquire strong consumables.
Build a talent setup suited to your raid role.
Understand your class utility.
Carry appropriate food.
Repair before entering.
Coordinate with your guild or raid group.
Once encounter-specific mechanics become available, you can add resistance gear, consumables, specialized talents, or particular item swaps where needed.
Do not spend heavily on speculative resistance sets before Blizzard actually confirms what encounters require.
This remains unconfirmed for the new raids.
Forever is heavily inspired by Classic, where attunements often connect raids to the wider world.
However, current information still lists Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit attunement requirements as unknown.
Onyxia traditionally requires a long attunement questline in Vanilla, but Blizzard has not yet confirmed that the Forever version keeps that process unchanged.
So for now:
Do not assume no attunements.
But also:
Do not assume the Vanilla attunements are copied exactly.
Both possibilities remain open.
Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit are new Forever raid experiences, so their encounter structures are being created specifically for this version of Azeroth.
The complete boss lists have not yet been revealed.
That means players cannot yet reliably determine:
Number of bosses.
Required tanks.
Required healers.
Resistance needs.
Fight lengths.
Enrage timers.
Optional bosses.
Trash difficulty.
Raid-specific consumables.
Any guide presenting complete boss strategies before those encounters are testable is speculative.
Potentially very important.
Forever adds more than 600 profession recipes and advanced Blueprints tied to dungeon bosses. Camping can also provide pre-group utilities, profession workspaces, repairs, and non-stacking campsite buffs.
Crafting may help raiders through:
Consumables.
Gear.
Food.
Profession utilities.
Special recipes.
Preparation tools.
However, Blizzard has not yet revealed whether the first raid tier requires profession-crafted items for specific legendary or attunement progression.
That remains unknown.
Blizzard's publicly shown content direction makes one thing very clear:
Raiding is intended to continue expanding.
Future updates include additional 10-player and 20-player raids, while Blizzard has also announced plans for a revamped iconic raid and further new raid content.
That suggests Forever's raid philosophy is not:
"Replace Vanilla raids with one new raid tier."
It is:
Keep building more level-60 raid content into the same persistent version of Azeroth.
That has major implications for progression.
Instead of chasing a new level cap, characters remain at 60 while Azeroth gains new challenges.
The long-term question becomes how Blizzard expands gear horizontally and vertically without making earlier raids meaningless.
Its itemization philosophy suggests the developers are actively thinking about that problem.
Several major raid details remain unrevealed.
We still need confirmation on:
Full Barrow Deeps boss list.
Full Hyjal Summit boss list.
Exact Onyxia changes.
Raid lockout lengths.
Attunements.
Loot tables.
Item levels.
Tier-set piece locations.
Tier bonuses.
Legendary identity.
Legendary quest requirements.
Resistance requirements.
Raid reputation systems.
Difficulty modes, if any.
Whether any raid supports fewer players than its listed size.
Exact progression relationships between raids.
That is a substantial amount of missing information.
For now, guides should focus on the confirmed raid structure rather than filling those gaps with assumptions.
Forever's raiding approach combines several eras of WoW design without simply copying one of them.
From Vanilla, it keeps:
Level 60.
Large-scale raids.
Class identity.
Preparation.
Distinctive loot.
A meaningful outdoor world.
From later WoW design, it borrows the practical lesson that smaller raids can support more guilds and tighter teams.
Then Forever adds its own direction:
New 10-player raids.
New 20-player raids.
Legacy 40-player content.
New tier sets.
A new legendary.
Reworked itemization.
A permanent level-60 progression model.
The result is a raid ecosystem that can support very different kinds of players.
You might have a tight 10-person team for Barrow Deeps.
A larger guild roster for Hyjal Summit.
And a huge organized group for Onyxia.
Those experiences can coexist rather than one replacing the others.
What raids are confirmed for WoW Forever?
The major confirmed new raids are Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit. Current raid material also shows the return of Onyxia's Lair.
How many players are needed for Barrow Deeps?
Barrow Deeps is designed as a 10-player maximum-level raid.
How many players are needed for Hyjal Summit?
Hyjal Summit is designed for 20 players.
Is Onyxia's Lair still a 40-player raid?
Current Forever raid information lists Onyxia's Lair as a 40-player level-60 raid. Blizzard has not yet fully detailed how much of the original raid will be changed.
Are all WoW Forever raids 10 or 20 players?
No. New raids prominently use 10- and 20-player formats, but Onyxia's Lair preserves a 40-player option.
Does WoW Forever have new tier sets?
Yes. Blizzard has explicitly confirmed new tier sets as part of Forever's raid rewards. Exact bonuses and drop locations have not yet been revealed.
Is there a legendary item in WoW Forever?
Yes. Blizzard has confirmed a new legendary reward, but its identity and complete acquisition process remain unrevealed.
Do you need to clear Barrow Deeps before Hyjal Summit?
Blizzard has not confirmed a mandatory progression order. Barrow Deeps being a 10-player raid does not automatically make it a prerequisite for the 20-player Hyjal Summit.
Will raid gear be different from Vanilla gear?
Forever broadly reworks itemization across the game, combining Hit and Crit categories, improving hybrid support, adding new item effects, revisiting old drops, and adding hundreds of new items. Exact raid-specific loot remains unrevealed.
Will WoW Forever raids have attunements?
The requirements for Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit have not yet been confirmed. Onyxia traditionally had a Vanilla attunement, but Blizzard has not confirmed that Forever uses the identical quest chain.
Does Forever have raid transmog?
Forever has optional transmog. Epic raid appearances are granted to the character that actually acquires and binds the raid item rather than automatically being shared with all eligible raid members.
Will WoW Forever get more raids?
Yes. Blizzard's long-term direction includes more 10- and 20-player raids, additional new raids, and a future revamped iconic raid.
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