WoW Unveils New Plunderstorm Abilities and Features

Plunderstorm has made a triumphant return to World of Warcraft, delighting fans with a slew of new features and enticing rewards. This pirate-themed battle royale mode, where 60 players vie for supremacy and loot in the Arathi Highlands, went live again on January 14 after a brief delay. While it doesn't have an official end date yet, players can look forward to enjoying Plunderstorm for at least a month as they eagerly await Patch 11.1.

The revamped Plunderstorm offers several new points of interest and mobs, with non-elite enemies now respawning shortly after being defeated, ensuring a constant flow of plunder until the Storm engulfs them. To enhance mobility, fast travel horses have been introduced across the map, allowing players to swiftly navigate the battlefield in search of chests, elites, and opponents. Additionally, the in-game map now features zone threat indicators, showing where fights are most frequent, and players can even select their preferred 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. On the offensive front, Aura of Zealotry not only passively boosts the movement speed of the user and their team but also allows for casting Consecrate, creating an area that damages enemies and further enhances ally movement. 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 offers teleportation to a marked point, damaging and slowing foes. Cooldown adjustments to existing spells and a new UI for ability management keep the gameplay fresh and exciting.

A new Plunderstorm Practice Lobby has been introduced, providing players a space to test abilities, adjust keybindings and transmogs, and socialize. From the Practice Lobby, players can queue for games or access the Plunderstore, where they can obtain Plunderstorm rewards. This functionality is also available from the login screen and within retail World of Warcraft via the PvP interface.

Curiously, the three-person Trios mode is absent from this iteration of Plunderstorm. While it's unclear why Blizzard chose to remove this mode, fans are hopeful that it will be reintroduced before Plunderstorm sets sail once more.