World of Warcraft Shows Off New Plunderstorm Abilities and Features

Summary

Plunderstorm, World of Warcraft's pirate-themed battle royale, has returned with exciting new features and rewards! Expect respawning enemies, fast travel horses, and helpful zone threat indicators on the map. Players can also collect powerful offensive and utility spells, including Aura of Zealotry and Void Tear.

Plunderstorm has officially returned to World of Warcraft, bringing a revamped battle royale experience with enhanced abilities, features, and improved quality of life. While an official end date remains unannounced, players can anticipate enjoying this popular game mode for at least a month.

World of Warcraft recently announced the January 14th return of Plunderstorm, the 60-player battle royale set in the Arathi Highlands. Following a short delay, the pirate-themed PvP battle is now live, offering a thrilling diversion while players await Patch 11.1.

This iteration of Plunderstorm boasts significant enhancements. The battlefield features revamped points of interest and mobs; all non-elite enemies now respawn, providing a continuous stream of plunder until the Storm intervenes. Horses scattered across the map offer rapid traversal, enabling quick access to chests, elite enemies, and opponents. The in-game map now displays zone threat levels based on combat frequency, and players can even select their starting deployment zone.

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 with new and returning rewards
• Game mode access while on World of Warcraft: The War Within characters
• New abilities:
  • Offensive:
    • Aura of Zealotry – Passively increases allied movement speed. Casting consecrates the ground, periodically damaging enemies. Consecration grants enhanced movement speed and melee attack power.
    • Celestial Barrage – Summons a barrage of moonbeams, damaging enemies. This spell can be empowered for increased range.
  • Utility:
    • Call Galefeather – Summons Galefeather to knock back enemies with powerful winds.
    • Void Tear – Creates a Void mark. Recasting instantly returns the player to the mark, damaging and slowing enemies. The recast is instantaneous during any spell cast.
• Ability balance changes:
  • Earthbreaker – Cooldown reduced by 2 seconds at all ranks.
  • Slicing Winds – Cooldown increased by 2 seconds at all ranks.
  • Star Bomb – Cooldown reduced by 2 seconds at all ranks.
  • Storm Archon – Cooldown reduced by 2 seconds at all ranks.
  • Toxic Smackerel – Cooldown increased by 1.5 seconds at all ranks.

This Plunderstorm iteration introduces several new spells for players to collect and upgrade. Aura of Zealotry offers passive speed buffs for players and allies, and allows for Consecration to damage enemies and further enhance allies. Celestial Barrage is a powerful, chargeable line attack. Utility spells include Call Galefeather, summoning an eagle to knock back enemies, and Void Tear, enabling teleportation to a marked point while damaging and slowing foes. Cooldown adjustments to existing spells and a new UI for ability selection enhance the gameplay experience.

A new Plunderstorm Practice Lobby allows players to experiment with abilities, adjust keybindings and transmogs, and socialize. Players can queue for matches or access the Plunderstore (where Plunderstorm rewards are obtained) from the Practice Lobby, login screen, or even within the retail WoW PvP interface.

Notably, the three-person Trios mode is absent from this event. The reason for its omission remains unclear, but hopefully, Blizzard will reinstate it before Plunderstorm's departure.