World of Warcraft adds an experimental 60-player battle royale mode known as "Plunderstorm" that pits players against a variety of monsters.
The new update launches without any player testing and the new mode can be accessed by choosing the Plunderstorm event when logging into the modern Warcraft client. The rewards for the event include a parrot mount and crab pet that is available to both modern and Classic players.
World of Warcraft Plunderstorm
(Photo : Blizzard Entertainment, Activision / Screenshot taken from official website)
The dual-mode rewards are also another of the new firsts for the massively popular MMORPGs. However, Classic players will have to download the modern client to play the new update but are not required to own Dragonflight.
It is also clear that Spellbreak had an influence on the new game mode on WoW based on the in-game screenshots that have been seen so far. Some of the spell-pickup mechanics look quite similar to the now-dead battle royale developed by Proletariat.
This comes as Blizzard acquired the studio that was responsible for the game back in 2022 and the majority of its team members were absorbed into the Warcraft team. Blizzard's lead software engineer Orlando Salvatore and lead producer Ray Bartos talked about the new mode, according to PCGamer.
Salvatore said that the company was inspired to add the huge gameplay addition for a typically tiny, late-expansion patch by the most recent Season of Discovery spin-off of WoW Classic. He added that the battle royale mode was created in secret.
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Developers were also said to have compensated for the lack of public testing by conducting wild in-house trials for the new mode. Salvatore added that the entirety of Blizzard came together to participate in playtests and give feedback on the experimental game mode.
Referring to WoW's next expansion which is scheduled to release later this year, the lead software engineer said that they were focused on trying to "break the rules." He noted that they were trying to give players something that was super exciting before the launch of The War Within.
New Battle Royale Mode
When players first log into the new Plunderstorm server, they will be greeted with a logo that hangs next to the Warcraft logo. After selection, they will then be sent off on a parrot and the game takes place in Arathi Basin, said Polygon.
This is a familiar environment to any player who has already enjoyed a few battlegrounds in the past. The new game mode also took inspiration from the Warcraft 3 meta of taking a hero around to little monster camps, killing enemies, and leveling up.
While this is available, players can choose to entirely ignore it and focus on the player-versus-player aspect of the battle royale. However, Plunderstorm has a variety of amazing rewards that can be acquired by completing the mode's PVE challenges.
Diving into the Plunderstorm battle royale gives all players an even starting field with no classes for their characters. The abilities that they can use will also depend on what they loot around in the arena. These new skills offer some interesting new skills that are not available in the main game, according to RockPaperShotgun.
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