World of Warcraft Shows Off New Plunderstorm Abilities and Features

Plunderstorm has made a thrilling return to World of Warcraft, delighting fans with an array of new features and enticing rewards. This pirate-themed battle royale, where 60 players vie for supremacy and loot in the Arathi Highlands, is back in action after a brief delay. Originally slated for January 14, Plunderstorm is now live, offering players a fun diversion as they await Patch 11.1.

This iteration of Plunderstorm brings several exciting updates to the battlefield. New points of interest and respawning non-elite enemies enhance the dynamic nature of the game, ensuring a constant stream of plunder until the Storm engulfs them. Players can now utilize fast travel horses scattered across the map to quickly navigate to chests, elites, and opponents. Additionally, the in-game map now features zone threat indicators, showing where fights are most frequent, and allows players to select their deployment zones at the start of each match.

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.

Players can now collect and upgrade a variety of new spells in Plunderstorm. Offensive spells like Aura of Zealotry offer a passive speed boost to the player and their team, and allow casting Consecrate to damage enemies and buff allies. Celestial Barrage, on the other hand, is a powerful, chargeable line attack. For utility, Call Galefeather summons an eagle to knock back enemies, while Void Tear enables teleportation to a marked point, damaging and slowing foes. Cooldown adjustments for existing spells and a new UI for swapping and picking up abilities 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 the Practice Lobby, players can queue for games or access the Plunderstore, the hub for obtaining Plunderstorm rewards. This can also be accessed from the login screen and within retail WoW via the PvP interface.

Notably absent from this run of Plunderstorm is the three-person Trios mode. While the reasons for its exclusion remain unclear, fans hope Blizzard will reintroduce it before the game mode concludes. Plunderstorm is expected to remain available for at least a month, though no official end date has been announced yet.