Plunderstorm Returns to World of Warcraft with Enhanced Features and Rewards
World of Warcraft's pirate-themed battle royale, Plunderstorm, has returned, bringing with it a host of new features and quality-of-life improvements. While the end date remains unannounced, players can anticipate at least a month of high-seas PvP action. The event, initially slated for January 14th, launched after a short delay.
This iteration of Plunderstorm boasts significant enhancements. The Arathi Highlands battlefield features revamped points of interest and respawning non-elite enemies, ensuring a constant supply of loot. Fast travel horses now populate the map, enabling quicker traversal and access to chests, elite enemies, and opponents. A new map overlay displays zone threat levels based on combat frequency, and players can now select their starting deployment zone.
New Plunderstorm Features:
- Revamped points of interest
- Respawning non-elite enemies
- Fast travel horses
- Zone threat level indicators on the map
- Selectable deployment zones
- Practice Lobby
- Plunderstore with new and returning rewards
- Access from World of Warcraft: The War Within characters
- New abilities:
- Offensive:
- Aura of Zealotry: Provides a passive movement speed buff for allies and a consecrated area-of-effect damage and buff.
- Celestial Barrage: A long-range, chargeable line attack.
- Utility:
- Call Galefeather: Summons an eagle to knock back enemies.
- Void Tear: Teleports the player to a marked location, damaging and slowing nearby enemies. The return teleport is instant during spellcasting.
- Offensive:
- Ability balance changes (including adjustments to Earthbreaker, Slicing Winds, Star Bomb, Storm Archon, and Toxic Smackerel cooldowns).
A new Plunderstore offers rewards, accessible via the Practice Lobby, login screen, or the retail WoW PvP interface. The Practice Lobby itself allows players to test abilities, adjust keybindings, and socialize.
Notably absent is the three-person Trios mode from the previous iteration. Blizzard has yet to explain this omission.
