Hyjal Summit: 13 bosses, 20 players and a choice of routes

Hyjal Summit is the biggest of Forever’s first raids by boss count. Blizzard’s raid overview of 20 October lists it as a level 60 raid for 20 players, with 13 bosses, opening on 9 December.

Where it is

At the peak of Mount Hyjal, near the World Tree Nordrassil. The raid begins with a battle against an ancient guardian.

A raid with a map, not a corridor

After that opening fight, the overview describes a choice. Raid groups pick from multiple paths across the mountain, exploring ruins both above and below ground as they confront the forces threatening Hyjal, before the way opens to the final encounters.

That makes route planning a real raid-leading job. Blizzard’s own advice is to choose your route and coordinate with your raid. The overview does not say how many paths there are, whether every one must be cleared before the final encounters open, or whether a raid can split its week across them. Those are the questions a raid leader will want answered first.

Not the Hyjal you might remember

Players who raided in The Burning Crusade will remember a Hyjal raid reached through the Caverns of Time, a replay of the Third War’s battle for the mountain. Nothing in Blizzard’s overview connects Forever’s Hyjal Summit to that raid. It names no bosses, mentions no Caverns of Time and describes a different structure, with an ancient guardian at the start and branching paths after it.

Bringing old boss names or tactics to this raid would be guesswork.

Thirteen bosses at 20 players

The Legacy system guide confirms the count: one raid challenge is to defeat all 13 Hyjal Summit bosses.

At 20 players, Hyjal Summit sits between the 10-player Barrow Deeps and the 40-player Onyxia’s Lair. Thirteen bosses is the largest roster of the three; the overview gives no clear times, so it says nothing about how long a full clear takes. For most guilds the more pressing number is the 20, a raid size that matches neither of the others, which is the problem our raid-size planner works through.