On March 20, 2024, Patch 10.2.6 will be released on the European servers of World of Warcraft. Among its features: the battle royale mode Plunderstorm! We had the opportunity to chat with two Blizzard developers about the feature in advance and here we summarize all the important insights.
What is Plunderstorm? The new game mode for World of Warcraft is a PvP experience in Arathi Highlands, where all players fight against each other to determine the last and thus victorious survivor.
The principle, known from Fortnite and other battle royale games, works in WoW as follows:
- You do not jump into the fight with your high-level, well-equipped WoW heroes, but with characters that only have basic clothes and abilities.
- Defeat creatures and players to level up during a match and gain access to new skills.
- If you collect a spell you already know, it will be upgraded.
- All characters have access to a healing ability and a double jump. There is no fall damage.
- In Plunderstorm, there is no equipment, no inventory, and no spell book to deal with. Only the unlocks on your action bar affect the player experience. The bar consists of seven slots for spells and skills.
- The maximum level for characters is Level 10.
- Each match is expected to last about ten to 15 minutes.
- No WoW addons are allowed in Plunderstorm.
How or where do I sign up for Plunderstorm? Download the Dragonflight client (regardless of whether you own the current expansion or not) and log in with your WoW account – you need an active subscription.
Once you are logged in, you will find two options in the character selection window: Dragonflight and Plunderstorm. If you click on the latter symbol, you will enter the corresponding character window, where you can customize your alter ego and join a match.
Similar to other battle royale titles, you can start a solo or duo match. If you register solo, you will only encounter other solo registrants. Through Duo, you will face other teams of two. You can team up with a friend before registering or try your luck with a randomly assigned partner.
What rewards can I earn through Plunderstorm? By completing quests and collecting loot, you will earn glory for your account. Every advancement in the glory rank system is rewarded by the developers with loot.
Highlights include a parrot mount (for Modern-WoW and Classic) and the pet “Pepe the Pirate” (only for Modern-WoW). There are also various transmog skins in pirate design (only for Modern-WoW). You can claim the items from Da’kash in the waiting area of Plunderstorm.
Winning a match earns you a special tabard and an exclusive eyepatch (only Modern-WoW).
An experiment like the Season of Discoveries
What else did the developers reveal? In the conversation, lead software engineer Orlando Salvatore and lead producer Ray Bartos repeatedly emphasized how extensively the mode was tested internally – the entire WoW team, as well as many other Blizzard employees, were involved. The reason for this is clear: there was no PTR for Patch 10.2.6.
Similar to the Season of Discoveries, Plunderstorm is also an experiment intended to surprise WoW fans. At the same time, such a mode has never existed in WoW before. Therefore, it is all the more important that all game and interface elements are easy to understand.
Although Plunderstorm is said to be available for only a certain period of time (the developers did not specify an exact timeframe), a team will be ready from the release date to promptly address player problem reports and provide bug fixes.
In designing Plunderstorm, the team did not only look at battle royale games but also drew inspiration from other genres. The monster camps that heroes could level up in may remind you of Warcraft 3. There are also influences from the fighting and MOBA genres.
What will happen to Plunderstorm in the long term and whether there will be further experiments of this nature depends solely on player feedback, according to the devs. However, the team has already learned a lesson from the lead-up to WoW Patch 10.2.6.
According to the two developers, too much hype was built up too early (e.g., due to the pirate flag in the roadmap and various tweets), only to then maintain silence for weeks to avoid hinting too much about Plunderstorm. They can understand the players’ criticism of the Dragonflight team’s communication.
Finally, the Blizzard employees confirmed once again that shortly after the launch of WoW Patch 10.2.6, the public test server for the upcoming Season 4 content will go online. If you are looking for more information about the next endgame phase of Dragonflight, check this out:
