World of Warcraft Shows Off New Plunderstorm Abilities and Features

Plunderstorm has made a thrilling return to World of Warcraft, offering players a refreshed pirate-themed battle royale experience. This exciting game mode, which pits 60 players against each other in the Arathi Highlands, is back with a host of new features and rewards. Originally scheduled for January 14, Plunderstorm faced a slight delay but is now live, much to the delight of fans eagerly awaiting Patch 11.1.

The revamped Plunderstorm boasts several enhancements designed to enrich gameplay. The battlefield now features new points of interest and mobs, with non-elite enemies respawning to ensure a continuous flow of plunder. Fast travel horses have been introduced, allowing players to swiftly navigate the map in search of chests, elite enemies, and opponents. A new map feature displays zone threat levels, indicating areas where battles are most frequent, and players can now choose their starting deployment zones for a strategic advantage.

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.
• 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 iteration of Plunderstorm, players can collect and upgrade new spells to enhance their arsenal. Offensive spells like Aura of Zealotry, which boosts team movement speed and allows for damaging consecration, and Celestial Barrage, a potent line attack, provide players with diverse combat options. On the utility front, Call Galefeather offers crowd control by summoning an eagle to knock back enemies, while Void Tear provides tactical mobility and crowd control with its teleportation and slowing effects. Additionally, cooldown adjustments to existing spells ensure balanced gameplay, and a new UI facilitates ability swapping and pickup.

A dedicated Plunderstorm Practice Lobby has been introduced, where players can experiment with abilities, adjust keybindings and transmogs, and interact with the community. This lobby also serves as a gateway to the Plunderstore, where players can acquire the latest Plunderstorm rewards. The Practice Lobby is accessible from the login screen, within the game itself via the PvP interface, and even while playing retail WoW, ensuring seamless integration with the broader World of Warcraft experience.

Interestingly, the Trios mode, which allowed for three-person teams, is absent from this run of Plunderstorm. While the reasons for this omission remain unclear, fans hope Blizzard will consider reintroducing it before the game mode concludes. With no official end date announced, players can look forward to at least a month of plundering adventures in Plunderstorm.