WoW Forever pre-raid preparation: the December openings

Current access: live since November 4 #

WoW Forever went live in all regions on November 4 at 3pm PST / 23:00 UTC. Blizzard closed the beta on October 23, and name reservations ended November 3. The dated beta instructions and observations below are historical, not a way to join the closed test or proof of launch behavior.

The announced December opening #

The roadmap graphic and panel recap announce December 9 as the new-raid milestone. Blizzard’s October 20 raid overview adds the locations, boss counts and Onyxia attunement. Blizzard also announces new tier sets and a legendary reward tied to this content, without revealing full reward details.

No opening hour is published in the reviewed sources. Do not plan a first pull around a guessed time; check the current release-date and sources pages when the hour is announced.

Start the Onyxia attunement early #

Blizzard says every raid member needs the amulet to enter Onyxia’s Lair, and advises bringing friends for the elite quests and allowing several high-level dungeon runs. Blizzard also tells raiders to build fire resistance before the fight.

These quest names come from Blizzard’s October 20 overview, not from Kingy play. Forever quest text and steps can still change before December 9.

1. Alliance: start with “Dragonkin Menace” from Helendis Riverhorn in the Burning Steppes. The chain runs through Blackrock Depths (Marshal Windsor’s rescue), back to Stormwind for “The Great Masquerade”, and ends in Upper Blackrock Spire.
2. Horde: start with “Blood and Thunder” from Warlord Goretooth in Kargath, Badlands. The chain runs through Lower Blackrock Spire, Thrall in Orgrimmar, Rexxar in Desolace and four “Test of Skulls” quests from Emberstrife in Dustwallow Marsh.
3. Both chains finish by taking the Blood of the Black Dragon Champion from General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire, then turning in for the Drakefire Amulet.

Organize by announced group size #

These steps use announced rules only. Attunement routes, dungeon keys and loot tables from other WoW versions must not be transplanted into Forever without verification.

1. Separate interest in 10-, 20- and 40-player raid groups now. Recheck encounter and roster rules before assigning fixed roles.
2. Agree on the same ruleset and faction. Blizzard’s Deep Dive rules out cross-ruleset and cross-faction grouping.
3. Record December 9 as the announced raid milestone without inventing an opening hour.
4. Before setting an equipment requirement, check a current Forever guide with item sources and encounter evidence.

Announced systems to prepare alongside the raid #

Legacy challenges award shared points, with up to 16 spent per character at launch. Blizzard names Permanence as a perk that extends eligible party, raid and camping buffs. Its numeric effect and point cost are unpublished, so check the current client before including it in a group plan.

Honor is currency for PvP gear, earned from kills, battlegrounds and PvP quests. Rank Points come from battlegrounds and relevant quests and advance the familiar 14 ranks. Blizzard says ranks have a weekly cap, without publishing its numeric limit. The October 1 beta Honor cap is 25,000. Blizzard publishes rank-based equipment rewards and Emboldened Seal upgrades; no tested raid preparation route follows from that announcement.

Camping can give adventurers shared buffs, with one-hour rules and first objects unlocking at skill 20; exact recipes and placement rules are still unconfirmed. New tier sets and a legendary reward are announced for the raid milestone without full details.

Will raid gear keep scaling? What “horizontal” means #

Clay Stone told the YouTube channel Skill Up at PAX Australia that when Blizzard said “horizontal” at BlizzCon, it meant expanding the world of Azeroth, not horizontal character power. He named transmog, collecting, professions and the account-wide Legacy System as content that grows over time (Icy Veins report, October 12).

On power, the goal is to keep the gear jump between raid tiers as small as possible, so raid and dungeon gear stays viable for the hardest content. There will still be chase items, like The Burning Crusade’s Dragonspine Trophy, and older raids may stay best-in-slot for some specs on purpose. These are stated goals, not tested results.

What the beta can and cannot test #

The closed beta’s initial level-20 cap and October 1 level-30 cap did not cover maximum-level raids. Those tests do not establish raid strategies or loot; use the separately cited October 20 overview for announced attunement requirements.

Blizzard Support now explicitly states that beta progress will not carry over after official launch. The test is now closed; beta levels, equipment and Legacy progress are not secured launch progress.

Keep these questions open #

A page that named these answers without evidence would mislead a group plan. Check the sources page before setting a schedule, and use the contribution flow to send build-specific observations.

• Opening hour and any regional times for December 9.
• Attunement, entrance and faction requirements for each raid.
• Boss mechanics, phases and role assignments.
• Loot rules, difficulty structure and consumable expectations.
• Whether preparation tools such as Legacy perks interact with raid buffs at launch.

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