WoW's Plunderstorm: New Abilities & Features Unveiled

Summary

Plunderstorm, World of Warcraft's pirate-themed battle royale, has returned with exciting new features and rewards! Expect respawning enemies, fast travel via horses, and helpful zone threat indicators on the map. Players can also collect powerful new 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 quality-of-life improvements. 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 return of Plunderstorm on January 14th. This pirate-themed battle royale pits 60 players against each other in the Arathi Highlands for supremacy and loot. Following a short delay, Plunderstorm is now live, offering a thrilling PvP experience while players eagerly await Patch 11.1.

This iteration of Plunderstorm boasts several significant enhancements. The battlefield features revamped points of interest and respawning non-elite enemies, providing a constant stream of plunder. Fast travel horses offer swift traversal across the map, aiding in the search for 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 featuring 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 and granting enhanced movement speed and melee attack buffs.
    • Celestial Barrage – A damaging barrage of moonbeams, empowerable for increased range.
  • Utility:
    • Call Galefeather – Summons Galefeather to knock back enemies with strong winds.
    • Void Tear – Creates a Void mark; recasting instantly teleports the player to the mark, damaging and slowing enemies. Recasting is instantaneous during spellcasting.
• 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 and a consecrating area-of-effect attack, while Celestial Barrage is a powerful, chargeable line attack. Utility spells include Call Galefeather, summoning an eagle for crowd control, and Void Tear, enabling teleportation with damage and slowing effects. Existing spell cooldowns have been adjusted, and a new UI facilitates ability swapping and acquisition.

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