Plunderstorm has triumphantly returned to World of Warcraft, offering players an enhanced pirate-themed battle royale experience in the Arathi Highlands. With its launch on January 14, after a brief delay, this thrilling mode promises at least a month of intense PvP action, serving as a delightful diversion until Patch 11.1 rolls out.
This iteration of Plunderstorm is packed with exciting new features and quality-of-life improvements. The battlefield is now more dynamic than ever, featuring new points of interest and mobs, with non-elite enemies respawning to ensure a constant flow of plunder. Players can utilize fast travel horses scattered across the map to swiftly navigate and engage with chests, elites, and opponents. Additionally, the in-game map now displays zone threat levels, based on fight frequency, and allows players to select their initial drop location, adding a strategic layer to the game.
New World of Warcraft: Plunderstorm Features
- New points of interest
- Respawning non-elite enemies
- Fast travel horses
- Zone threat indicators on the map
- Selectable deployment zones
- Practice Lobby
- Plunderstore featuring new and returning rewards
- Game mode access while on World of Warcraft: The War Within characters
- New abilities:
- Offensive
- Aura of Zealotry – Passively increase movement speed for your allies. Cast to consecrate the ground, damaging enemies periodically. While in consecration, gain enhanced movement speed and melee attacks.
- Celestial Barrage – Call down a barrage of moonbeams, damaging enemies. This spell can be empowered to greatly increase its range.
- Utility
- Call Galefeather – Call forth Galefeather to knock enemies back with heavy winds for a short duration.
- Void Tear – Tear into the Void, placing a Void mark. Recast Void Tear to instantly return to the mark, damaging and slowing enemies. The recast can be performed instantly while casting any spell without interruption.
- Offensive
- Ability balance changes
- Earthbreaker – Cooldown decreased by 2 seconds at all ranks.
- Slicing Winds – Cooldown increased by 2 seconds at all ranks.
- Star Bomb – Cooldown decreased by 2 seconds at all ranks.
- Storm Archon – Cooldown decreased by 2 seconds at all ranks.
- Toxic Smackerel – Cooldown increased by 1.5 seconds at all ranks.
In this latest run of Plunderstorm, players can collect and upgrade several new spells. The offensive spells include Aura of Zealotry, which boosts movement speed for the player and their team and allows them to cast Consecrate to create an area of effect that damages foes and buffs allies, and Celestial Barrage, a powerful, chargeable line attack. On the utility front, Call Galefeather summons an eagle to knock back enemies, while Void Tear enables teleportation to a marked location, dealing damage and slowing enemies in the process. Alongside these new abilities, cooldown adjustments and a new UI for ability management keep the gameplay fresh and engaging.
A new Plunderstorm Practice Lobby has been introduced, where players can experiment with abilities, adjust keybindings and transmogs, and socialize. From this lobby, players can queue for games or visit the Plunderstore, where they can acquire Plunderstorm rewards. Access to the Plunderstore and the game mode itself is available from the Practice Lobby, the login screen, and even within retail WoW via the PvP interface.
Notably absent from this iteration is the three-person Trios mode. While the reasons for its exclusion remain unclear, fans are hopeful that Blizzard will reinstate it before Plunderstorm sets sail once more.
