World of Warcraft is bringing pirate-themed battle royale-inspired gameplay to the Arathi Highlands in the form of Plunderstorm, the newest limited-time event available to all active players as of today. The event comes as part of Dragonflight update 10.2.6 and will give players the chance to get in on fast-paced action to collect plunder and earn rewards for both modern and Classic WoW.
World of Warcraft’s Plunderstorm event is described by Lead Software Engineer Orlando Salvatore as a “big departure from what we normally do.” The event will offer both solo and duo play and a separate character screen to join the pre-match lobby area for ease of access, while leaning heavily into the battle royale-style aspects that “break all the rules” of typical WoW gameplay. Diving into Plunderstorm (or perhaps more appropriately, being shot from a cannon into it) will allow players to progress through a renown track with the Keg Leg Crew up to renown 40 to earn rewards, including a parrot mount, Pirate Pepe pet, and transmog rewards for modern players.
If you’re wondering what makes Plunderstorm so battle royale-inspired, think teams (or solo players) searching for plunder, racing to find different loadouts, an encroaching storm circle and a battle to be the last one (or duo) standing at the very end. If you’re a World of Warcraft and Fortnite fan, this might just be the event for you. Salvatore describes it as a “unique player experience” that keeps the look and feel of World of Warcraft with a new spin on it.
A new way to play
One of the key pillars of creating Plunderstorm was the idea of ‘pick up and play.’ In other words, dialling in on simplicity and ease of access for players, both veteran and new alike. Part of this involves a rework of World of Warcraft’s typically quite bloated UI, and dialling down abilities on the hotbar to include a handful of abilities and a consumable health potion to allow players to really focus on the dynamic gameplay. Salvatore says balancing simplicity with ensuring the experience remains enjoyable and something players will want to return to has been “one of the most challenging but rewarding parts,” of working on Plunderstorm.
“You have a whole spellbook you can go through [usually], by limiting that to now four spells plus a consumable…what do you lose?” he said. He says the gain is the opportunity to increase the depth of those slots and make each ability “crunchier” and “super fun to press,” opting for abilities that are all visually desirable to use. One of these abilities is Toxic Smackerel, which Lead Producer Ray Bartos says does exactly what it says on the box with a huge impact – something the team tried to replicate across all the available abilities.
Plunderstorm steps away from typical World of Warcraft territory in a number of other ways, with class and gear set aside to level the playing field, as well as no support for third-party add ons. Salvatore says the choice to remove add-ons for the event and simplify what abilities and options players have is to avoid the “napkin math” that can come with more typical WoW playtime, given the short timeframe players have within the game to make choices (and hopefully survive to the end).
If you’ve been fiending some swashbuckling action, or just want to try out the fresh take on WoW combat in high stakes battle royale style, Plunderstorm is available to play now. The event is only live for a limited time from today onwards for all active World of Warcraft players (from both modern and Classic), and the Dragonflight expansion isn’t required to jump in – although players will need to download and install the client to access it.
Image: Blizzard
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