Barrow Deeps: a 10-player raid into the prison that held Illidan

Illidan Stormrage spent ten thousand years in a prison beneath Kalimdor. In Forever, that prison is a raid. Blizzard’s raid overview of 20 October describes Barrow Deeps as a level 60 raid for 10 players, with eight bosses, opening on 9 December.

The premise

The Barrow Deeps lie hidden beneath Kalimdor, and the overview places the raid within Mount Hyjal. The prison’s dark passages have been opened. Players descend to learn what became of those left behind, and how the wardens plan to contain the danger below.

That leaves a lot unsaid. The overview does not name the prisoners who stayed, the wardens or the danger. Fans of the lore will have their own expectations of who might guard Illidan’s old cell; for now, the raid’s cast is unannounced.

Three ways down

The detail that sets Barrow Deeps apart is access. Its entrances are connected through Mount Hyjal, Winterspring and Blackmaw Hold, giving raiders multiple paths into the prison.

Blackmaw Hold is also one of Forever’s new five-player dungeons, at levels 55 to 60, and its preview hints at a path leading farther below Azeroth. The overview does not explain how the three entrances differ: whether they lead to the same part of the raid, whether one needs a key, or whether a group must clear something first. It describes an attunement only for Onyxia’s Lair, but that is not the same as saying Barrow Deeps has none.

Eight bosses

The overview says 10-player groups will face eight bosses as they explore the prison’s depths. The Legacy system guide agrees: one of its three raid challenges is to defeat all 8 Barrow Deeps bosses. Plan on eight.

What a 10-player group can prepare

Boss names, mechanics and rewards have not been published. What a group can settle now is its roster and its route to the raid. The developers’ broader aims for raid encounters are in our piece on raid mechanics, and roster questions for guilds juggling several raid sizes are in our raid-size planner.