WoW: Forever Raids and Endgame: What to Do at Level 60

If you hit 60 in WoW: Forever this week and went looking for a raid, you did not miss anything. Blizzard did not launch Forever with its raids open. All three unlock on December 9, 2026, and until then the level 60 game is dungeons, PvP and the prep work Blizzard wants you to do first. This guide covers what each raid is, the one attunement you need, how gear works before and after raids open, and what Blizzard has put on its roadmap for 2027. It uses Blizzard's own posts first and Warcraft Wiki second, and everything here is about Forever, not Classic Era or Midnight.

Onyxia's Lair, from Blizzard's Forever raid overview.

Raids are not open yet

Blizzard's raid overview, posted October 20, says that "on December 9, level 60 players" can take on Barrow Deeps, Hyjal Summit and Onyxia's Lair. The November 4 launch post repeats the date. Today is November 13, so that is still 26 days out. Blizzard has not given a time of day for the unlock, and its roadmap graphic carries the usual line that content and timing are subject to change.

Blizzard's stated reason for the gap is to give players "time after launch to reach level 60 and prepare their groups." The hotfixes so far point the same way. On November 10 Blizzard made Engineering's Swiftstrike Shot and Swiftfeather Arrow no longer Bind-on-Pickup and noted they "are not available until raids unlock." The same day it cut Enhancement Shaman's Stormstrike damage, which our November 10-11 hotfix breakdown covers in full.

The three raids at a glance

All three are level 60. Raid sizes, locations and boss counts come from Blizzard's raid overview. The boss counts also match Blizzard's Legacy System post, which offers one Legacy Point each for defeating Onyxia, all 13 Hyjal Summit bosses and all 8 Barrow Deeps bosses. Blizzard also says all three raids are "currently planned to reset each week." Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit are new raids. Despite the name, Forever's Hyjal Summit sits on Mount Hyjal itself and shares no bosses with The Burning Crusade's Caverns of Time raid. Onyxia's Lair is the one returning from the original game.

Remember that ruleset and faction lock who you can raid with. Blizzard's What's New post says characters can raid together only within the same ruleset and faction, so a 40-player Onyxia group has to come from one ruleset and one faction.

Barrow Deeps

Blizzard describes Barrow Deeps as the prison under Kalimdor that held Illidan Stormrage for 10,000 years, now opened up. It is the 10-player raid, with eight bosses. It has three entrances, through Mount Hyjal, Winterspring and the Blackmaw Hold dungeon. Blizzard has not published the boss names. Warcraft Wiki lists them as Deepscar Matriarch, Khalith the Dreadspinner, Amethrax, Ravus and Darlissa, Elder Tangleclaw, Well of Sorrow, Del'lynar Songwood and Sonya Darkhallow, with Sonya Darkhallow as the final boss. Treat those names as provisional until the raid opens.

Hyjal Summit

Hyjal Summit is the 20-player raid, at the top of Mount Hyjal near the World Tree Nordrassil. Blizzard says it has 13 bosses and opens with a fight against an ancient guardian. After that, groups "can choose from multiple paths across the mountain" before the final encounters, so the boss order is not fixed. Warcraft Wiki lists the bosses, starting with Bandalar and ending with Nythus the Dreambound. Like the Barrow Deeps list, those names are not from a Blizzard page.

Onyxia's Lair

Onyxia's Lair is the 40-player raid in Dustwallow Marsh. Blizzard's overview calls it a "three-phase encounter" with heavy fire damage, and it gives two pieces of advice: build up fire resistance before you go in, and be ready to reposition as the fight changes. It is also the only one of the three that Blizzard gives an entry requirement for. Every member of the raid needs the Drakefire Amulet.

The Onyxia attunement, step by step

Blizzard says each player earns the Drakefire Amulet "through a faction-specific attunement questline," and recommends starting early, bringing friends for the elite quests and allowing for several trips into high-level dungeons. Both chains end with General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire. The steps below follow Blizzard's own walkthrough.

Alliance

1. In the Burning Steppes, take "Dragonkin Menace" from Helendis Riverhorn.
2. Follow the six quests all named "The True Masters." The chain leads you to Marshal Maxwell at Morgan's Vigil, also in the Burning Steppes.
3. "Marshal Windsor": go into Blackrock Depths to find Marshal Windsor, then report back in "Abandoned Hope."
4. Loot A Crumpled Up Note from enemies in Blackrock Depths. It starts "A Crumpled Up Note." Take it to Windsor in his cell.
5. "A Shred of Hope": get Windsor's lost information from Golem Lord Argelmach and General Angerforge in Blackrock Depths.
6. "Jail Break!": help Windsor escape Blackrock Depths, then return to Marshal Maxwell.
7. "Stormwind Rendezvous": meet Squire Rowe at the Stormwind gates, then complete "The Great Masquerade" with a group.
8. Highlord Bolvar Fordragon sends you on "The Dragon's Eye."
9. "Drakefire Amulet": take the Blood of the Black Dragon Champion from General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire to get the amulet.

Horde

1. In the Badlands, take "Blood and Thunder" from Warlord Goretooth in Kargath. It leads to "Warlord's Command" in Lower Blackrock Spire.
2. Report to Eitrigg in Orgrimmar, then to Thrall.
3. "For the Horde!": go back into Lower Blackrock Spire for the head of Warchief Rend Blackhand.
4. "What the Wind Carries," then "The Champion of the Horde": find Rexxar, who wanders the roads of Desolace.
5. "The Testament of Rexxar": deliver it to Myranda the Hag in the Western Plaguelands.
6. "Oculus Illusions": collect Black Dragonspawn Eyes.
7. "Emberstrife": use the Amulet of Draconic Subversion to find the drake Emberstrife in Dustwallow Marsh.
8. Four "The Test of Skulls" quests: bring Emberstrife the skulls of Scryer, Somnus, Chronalis and Axtroz.
9. "Ascension...": take the Dull Drakefire Amulet back to Rexxar.
10. "Blood of the Black Dragon Champion": kill General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire, then return to Rexxar for the Drakefire Amulet.

The amulet only has to be in your bags. Blizzard says it "does not need to be equipped to enter." The Horde chain has more open-world travel, including four named dragons to kill for Emberstrife. The Alliance chain spends more time in Blackrock Depths. Both end in Upper Blackrock Spire, so either way you will need a group.

What to do at 60 before December 9

Blizzard's posts and the wiki point to four things you can do now.

Run the level 55-60 dungeons. Blizzard's dungeon post adds two new max-level dungeons: Blackmaw Hold in Azshara (55-60), a furbolg city with multiple routes, and Shaper's Terrace in Un'Goro Crater (58-60), where you bring power crystals from the zone to consoles inside. Warcraft Wiki's dungeon table also lists the returning dungeons that run up to level 60: Blackrock Depths, Lower and Upper Blackrock Spire, the three Dire Maul wings, Scholomance and Stratholme. Blackrock Depths and both Spires are also where the Onyxia attunement takes you.

Do the Lord Valthalak dungeon set questline. Blizzard's Legacy System post lists completing it as one of the Adventure challenges, so the questline that upgrades the dungeon armor set is in Forever. The same post awards one Legacy Point for defeating the final boss in all of the level 46-60 dungeons.

Climb the PvP ranks. Forever's Honor system is covered in the next section. Ranks have a weekly cap, so this goal rewards starting early.

Get your consumables and resistances ready. Onyxia rewards fire resistance, by Blizzard's own advice. Warcraft Wiki's Forever page adds that world buffs are removed inside dungeons and raids, so do not plan a Classic-style world-buff routine for raid night.

How gear progression works

Forever keeps the Classic structure of blues from dungeons, epics from raids and a parallel PvP track, but Blizzard changed a lot of the items along the way.

Dungeons. In its Deep Dive recap Blizzard says every dungeon drop was re-examined, hundreds of new drops were added, unique dungeon boss items are now blue quality, and set bonuses were improved. It also merged spell, melee and ranged hit into one stat, did the same for critical strike, and gave spellcaster weapons spell damage and healing. So a Classic gear list will steer you wrong in places.

Reals. Per Warcraft Wiki's Forever page, Tarnished Undermine Reals drop from level 55+ dungeon bosses, and Pix Xizzix in Booty Bay trades armor, crafting reagents and recipes for them.

PvP. Blizzard's PvP progression post explains the two tracks. Honor buys the gear, and Rank Points move you up the ranks. Honor buys a blue-quality set. Each epic piece needs the matching blue piece plus an Emboldened Seal, and seals have rank requirements. The main gear unlocks by rank:

The other ranks give tabards, combat potions, a battle standard and mounts. The new Darkspear Islands battleground (levels 30-60) adds two reputation factions, Darkspear Raiders and Theramore Expeditionary Force, whose vendors sell trinkets, rings, cloaks, weapons and armor at different reputation thresholds.

Raids. Blizzard's What's Next recap says Hyjal Summit and Barrow Deeps bring "new tier sets, and a legendary reward" that Blizzard has not fully revealed. Its November 5 "Forging Forever" video shows Forever's first legendary, Taldramir, the Whispering Wood. Warcraft Wiki lists it as a two-handed staff and says how to get it has not been announced. Blizzard has not said that Taldramir drops from these raids, so do not assume it does. One more raid detail from the Deep Dive: an epic raid drop's transmog appearance goes only to the player it binds to, unlike dungeon blues, whose appearance goes to every eligible looter.

The roadmap after December

Blizzard's roadmap, shown at BlizzCon in September, gives seasons rather than dates after December 9:

The graphic does not name any of the 2027 raids, including the "revamped iconic raid." Any name you see for them is speculation until Blizzard announces it. Blizzard has also not said whether the spring legendary questline is the one for Taldramir.

What Blizzard has not said yet

• The exact unlock time on December 9. Only the date has been announced.
• Loot tables and tier set bonuses for Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit.
• Official boss names. The lists above are Warcraft Wiki's, not Blizzard's.
• Whether Barrow Deeps or Hyjal Summit need an attunement. Blizzard's overview names an attunement only for Onyxia's Lair.
• How to get Taldramir.

For the basics of Forever itself, see our WoW: Forever explainer. To pick a raid role before you hit 60, see the WoW: Forever classes guide.