WoW Reveals: Plunderstorm Powers Unveil

World of Warcraft's Plunderstorm Returns with Enhanced Features and Rewards

Plunderstorm, World of Warcraft's pirate-themed battle royale, has returned, boasting significant upgrades and a fresh batch of rewards. While the end date remains unannounced, players can anticipate at least a month of swashbuckling action. The mode, initially announced for January 14th, launched slightly later than expected but is now live.

This iteration features a revamped Arathi Highlands battlefield with new points of interest and respawning non-elite enemies, ensuring a constant supply of loot. Fast travel horses expedite exploration, while a new map overlay displays zone threat levels based on combat frequency, even allowing players to select their starting location.

New Plunderstorm Features:

• Revamped Arathi Highlands with new points of interest.
• Respawning non-elite enemies.
• Fast travel horses for quicker traversal.
• Map overlay indicating zone threat levels.
• Selectable deployment zones.
• Dedicated Practice Lobby.
• Plunderstore offering new and returning rewards.
• Access to the game mode while playing World of Warcraft: The War Within characters.

New Abilities:

The Plunderstorm update introduces several new offensive and utility spells:

Offensive:

• Aura of Zealotry: Passively boosts ally movement speed. Casting consecrates the ground, periodically damaging enemies and granting enhanced movement speed and melee attack buffs within the consecrated area.
• Celestial Barrage: Summons a barrage of moonbeams, damaging enemies. Powering up this spell increases its range.

Utility:

• Call Galefeather: Summons Galefeather, an eagle that knocks back enemies with powerful winds.
• Void Tear: Creates a Void mark. Recasting instantly teleports the player to the mark, damaging and slowing nearby enemies. The recast is instantaneous, even while casting other spells.

Ability Balance Changes:

Existing spell cooldowns have been adjusted for balance:

• 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.

Practice Lobby and Plunderstore:

A new Practice Lobby allows players to experiment with abilities, adjust keybindings, customize appearances, and socialize. Access to the Plunderstore, where Plunderstorm rewards are obtained, is available from the Practice Lobby, login screen, and even within the retail WoW PvP interface.

Missing Trios Mode:

Surprisingly, the three-person Trios mode is absent from this iteration. The reason for its omission remains unclear, but players hope Blizzard will reinstate it before Plunderstorm's eventual departure.