World of Warcraft: Forever (WoW: Forever for short), a new version of World of Warcraft, opens its first three raids on 9 December. Blizzard, the company that makes the game, posted a raid overview on 20 October. It names the Barrow Deeps for 10 players, Hyjal Summit for 20 and Onyxia's Lair for 40.

A raid is a dungeon built for a large group, a dungeon being a private copy of a place to fight through. Blizzard says the three will test a group's teamwork. All three are for level 60 characters. A level is a number that rises as a character plays. Blizzard calls the Barrow Deeps a maximum-level raid, which we read as 60 being the top level.

Which raids open on 9 December, and how big are they?

Here are the three, smallest group first.

Every place in the Where column is a zone, a region of the world map, or a spot in one. Blackmaw Hold is one of nine new dungeons in Blizzard's dungeon guide. A boss is one of the toughest enemies in a raid. Blizzard gives a boss count for two of the three. For Onyxia's Lair it describes one fight, against Onyxia herself.

Blizzard says all three raids are currently planned to reset each week. A reset lets a group run the raid again.

What is inside each raid?

Blizzard gives each one a short story. In our words:

• The Barrow Deeps lies under Kalimdor, one of the game's continents. It's the prison that held Illidan Stormrage, a character in the game's story, for 10,000 years. Now it's open, and players go down to learn what became of those left behind. The wardens, its guards, have their own plan to hold back what's below.
• Hyjal Summit opens with a fight against an ancient guardian. After that, the group picks between multiple paths across the mountain, through ruins above and below ground, before the last fights.
• Onyxia's Lair is home to Onyxia, a dragon of the Black Dragonflight, a family of dragons in the game's story. She's the younger sister of Nefarian, another character in the story. Her fight has three phases, stages where the fight changes, and powerful fire attacks.

Blizzard tells players to build up fire resistance before Onyxia. Fire resistance is a stat, a number on a character, that cuts the damage fire does. The group should also be ready to move around as the fight changes.

How do you get attuned to Onyxia's Lair?

Every player in the raid needs the Drakefire Amulet. You earn it through an attunement, a chain of quests that unlocks the way in, and a quest is a task a character takes on for a reward. The Alliance and the Horde are the game's factions, and each has its own chain.

Blizzard's advice is to start early and bring friends for the elite quests, which are quests too hard to do alone. The chains also send you into high-level dungeons several times. The amulet only has to be in your bags when you go in. It doesn't have to be worn.

The Alliance chain, in our words:

1. Start in the Burning Steppes, a zone of the world map, with "Dragonkin Menace", then follow six quests all called "The True Masters".
2. Go into Blackrock Depths, a dungeon, to find Marshal Windsor, a character in the game, or proof that he died.
3. Find "A Crumpled Up Note" on enemies there and take it to Windsor in his cell.
4. Get his lost information back from Golem Lord Argelmach and General Angerforge, two enemies in the same dungeon, then break him out in "Jail Break!".
5. Meet him in Stormwind, one of the game's cities, and gather friends for "The Great Masquerade".
6. "The Dragon's Eye" sends you looking for help across the world.
7. Finish in Upper Blackrock Spire, another dungeon, by taking the Blood of the Black Dragon Champion, an item, from General Drakkisath, an enemy there. That earns the amulet.

The Horde chain, in our words:

1. Start in the Badlands, a zone of the world map, with "Blood and Thunder". "Warlord's Command" then takes you through Lower Blackrock Spire, a dungeon.
2. Report to Eitrigg, a character in the game, in Orgrimmar, one of the game's cities, then to Thrall, another character. "For the Horde!" sends you back into Lower Blackrock Spire for the head of Warchief Rend Blackhand, an enemy there.
3. Find Rexxar, another character, on the roads of Desolace, a zone, and carry his message to the Western Plaguelands, another zone.
4. Collect Black Dragonspawn Eyes, an item, in "Oculus Illusions", then use your Amulet of Draconic Subversion, an item, to find Emberstrife, an ancient drake, a kind of dragon, in Dustwallow Marsh.
5. Bring him the skulls of four named dragons, across four quests each beginning with "The Test of Skulls".
6. Take the Dull Drakefire Amulet he gives you back to Rexxar.
7. Finish in Upper Blackrock Spire by taking the same Blood of the Black Dragon Champion from General Drakkisath. Rexxar then hands over the amulet.

Compared: Blizzard's three raids and the beta's own list

Only Onyxia's Lair is both in Blizzard's overview and on the beta's own list so far. The beta (the test version people can play before release) has a client, the game program players install. It keeps a list of the dungeons and raids it can put a group together for.

Our dungeons and raids table reads that list, and in build 1.60.1.70450 (a build is one version of the test game) it holds four raids. Three of them are ones the overview doesn't name: Molten Core (one of the game's raid dungeons), Blackwing Lair and Zul'Gurub.

Our reading is that the client list shows what the beta's files hold, not what opens on 9 December. A build that adds the Barrow Deeps or Hyjal Summit to that list moves this table, and we'll update it.

How long do players get before the raids?

Blizzard's Forever page puts launch on 4 November. Blizzard says the 9 December date gives players time after launch to reach level 60 and get their groups ready. Our maths: that's 35 days, five weeks to the day.

The launch date, the name reservation window and the raid day are all on our calendar, and our release date piece covers launch day. The new dungeons piece covers Blackmaw Hold, one of the ways into the Barrow Deeps. Planning a raid character? Our talent calculator shows every class's choices.