World of Warcraft Shows Off New Plunderstorm Abilities and Features

Summary

Plunderstorm has returned to World of Warcraft, bringing exciting new features and rewards! Expect respawning enemies, fast travel 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, the popular pirate-themed battle royale, has made its triumphant return to World of Warcraft on January 14th. While an official end date remains unannounced, players can anticipate at least a month of swashbuckling action in the Arathi Highlands. This iteration features significant improvements and additions.

The battlefield itself boasts revamped points of interest and mobs. Non-elite enemies now respawn, offering a continuous stream of plunder until the Storm reclaims them. Fast travel horses provide swift traversal across the map, aiding in the search for chests, elite enemies, and opponents. The map now displays zone threat levels based on combat frequency, and players can even choose 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 with 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. Consecration grants enhanced movement speed and melee attack power.
    • Celestial Barrage – Summons a barrage of moonbeams, damaging enemies. This spell can be empowered for increased range.
  • Utility:
    • Call Galefeather – Summons Galefeather to knock back enemies with strong winds.
    • Void Tear – Creates a Void mark. Recasting instantly returns you to the mark, damaging and slowing enemies. Recasting is instant during any spell cast.
• 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 exciting new spells. Aura of Zealotry passively buffs movement speed and allows consecration for area damage and allied buffs. 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 slow effects. Existing spells have received balance adjustments, and a new UI streamlines ability selection.

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

Note that 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.