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Plunderstorm is Back! But is it Better Than Ever? | Arlee in Azeroth

Robin Baird Posted:
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Columns Arlee In Azeroth 0

Plunderstorm, Blizzard’s experimental battle royal mode using World of Warcraft as the base, returned on Tuesday, January 14th. With it, we have a whole new slew of transmogs to chase, and PvPers can vie to be the last one standing. Additionally, Blizzard implemented a ton of changes that should help players who are only in it for the cosmetics while also keeping the game mode fun for players in it for PvP. Let’s jump in and look at some of these changes and why, despite having no interest in PvP, I am enjoying Plunderstorm more this time.

One of the first things I noticed when hopping into Plunderstorm was that the character I set up last year was there just as I left her. This is admittedly a small thing, but it was a welcome surprise. Once cross-faction guilds went live, I faction switched my main to high mountain tauren, and I love it. However, I missed my night elf's look and planned to recreate her in Plunderstorm again. Seeing her precisely as I had left her was a great way to kick off this year’s run. You can still go in and change your Plunderstorm character’s race and look if you’d like; that option hasn’t been taken away.

One of my big frustrations with Plunderstorm last year was it used a modified renown system where rewards were unlocked as you increased your rank. Of course, some of the most desirable rewards were at the very top ranks, and if Blizzard hadn’t boosted the plunder gains, I’m not sure I would have finished everything last year. Even with the buff, the last few levels were a pain because, after a month, I was ready for it to be over. As someone who doesn’t enjoy PvP, I can tolerate only doing a few matches in a row before needing a break. Needing to get to that last rank to get the last thing I wanted only caused my frustration levels to go up.

This time, the plunder we gather is currency to spend on various cosmetics. To gain the 40 ranks of renown, it took 35,000 plunder, and this year, it would again cost you 35,000 plunder to buy all the new things. It gets a bit murky for players who didn’t make it through the grind last year, as they could need to acquire as much as 70,000 plunder to buy everything. However, I prefer the currency method to the renown ranks because this allows me to target the things which matter the most to me. After acquiring those items, I can decide if I want to play more based solely on how much fun I have and not on how much I want a specific reward.

There has also been a significant improvement in acquiring plunder —non-elite mobs now respawn rather quickly. Previously, players who had no interest in the PvP aspects of Plunderstorm and just wanted to collect plunder were incentivized to land and gather as much as they could quickly and then just die. Nothing is inherently wrong with that, but it didn’t feel great as a player. I even felt forced to participate in the running into the storm meta because, eventually, all the available plunder had been collected, leaving me with the choice of dying or fighting other players. This year, I haven’t run into this situation at all, and I’ve even seen mobs respawn as I am running through an area, and I love it.

One change I wasn’t sure if I’d like was the ability to queue for Plunderstorm from World of Warcraft rather than having to go back to the character select screen. This and the plunderstore are in a tab on the PvP queuing menu (shares with delves, raids, and dungeons). I thought queuing this way would bypass the Plunderstorm lobby and directly put me into a match. However, the queue is to get into the lobby, and then you must wait for the match to start. I am a little disappointed with this flow because I had hoped to spend the queue time gathering resources, but doing it this way allows for chaining different Plunderstorm rounds together.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that when I finished with my run of Plunderstorm matches, WoW loaded back to the character I was previously playing, and I could pick up where I had left off. I’ll probably use the ability to queue in from WoW to add more variety to leveling alts. Whether questing or running dungeons/timewalking to level alts, I tend to be slow. On my main, I nearly always need to focus on getting things done to be raid and M+ ready, so on alts, I tend to do more random things. Even so, I do get bored with leveling often. Being able to break things up seamlessly with Plunderstorm will be fun.

Plundertorm is still a game mode that is not for me, but I appreciate the changes they have made this year to make it easier for players who only care about collecting cosmetics. From what I have seen so far, players who love Plunderstorm are also having a lot of fun with it. Hopefully, this will result in a good balance for both groups. Plunderstorm will be available until February 18th.



In this column, Robin explores everything World of Warcraft, covering its past, current and future.


Arlee

Robin Baird

Robin loves RPGs, MMOs, JRPGs, Action, and Adventure games... also puzzle games... and platformers... and exploration games... there are very few games she isn't interested in. When it comes to MMOs she focuses on WoW and GW2 but will pick-up other games as they catch her fancy. She's a habitual returner to FFXIV because that game is an all-around great MMO.