Plunderstorm Guide
Plunderstorm is a pirate-themed limited-time battle royale event in World of Warcraft available for six weeks starting March 19. The following guide contains everything you need to know about the event.
Introduction
Plunderstorm is a battle royale 60-player pirate-themed event taking place in Arathi Highlands. The goal is to be the last man standing and survive the incoming storm to claim victory.
Plunderstorm Availability
Plunderstorm is available for six weeks from March 19 to April 30, 2024.
Who Can Participate in the Event?
Plunderstorm is open to all players with an active World of Warcraft subscription. You will not be playing your own character so the Event does not have any level requirement.
To participate in the Event, you must download Modern WoW through Battle.net.
When you launch Modern WoW, select Plunderstorm from the World of Warcraft game menu and can create a new ready-to-play character. Choose between Solo or Duo to play alone, with friends, or a random player.
You can access chat, customize characters, and see the queue from the Character Select Screen. However, you cannot use any addons to customize your UI.
Plunderstorm Map
The zone used for the battle royale is Arathi Highlands.
Event Start
When you enter the game, you will find yourself along with the remaining players in Brew Bay. Here, you can fight NPCs, open treasure chests, or talk to the Keg Leg's Crew quartermaster, before the game begins. However, note that all progress done in this lobby area is temporary and will be removed when the match starts.
Da'kash Grimledger is the Keg Leg's Crew quartermaster. Talk to him if you would like to find out your current Renown standing with the Keg Leg's Crew. He can also change your title and weapon appearance.
When the 30-second timer expires, your character will be cannoned in the air and placed on a parrot mount and you must steer to your landing location. This is simply done by right-clicking and holding the mouse button in the direction you would like to land.
Plunderstorm Abilities
At the beginning of a match, you will start with 3 abilities — a main attack ability (R), a healing ability (T), and a usable item (5).
- Slash (R) — Slash enemies in a short range in front of you.
- Health Brew (T) — Chug Keg Leg's restorative brew, restoring health immediately and an additional amount over time. Direct damage interrupts this effect.
- Barrel Consumable (5) — Use: Move at rapid speed for a short duration. Jumping or running into other units will cause the barrel to explode. Can roll on water.
All characters also have access to a double jump by hitting the space bar twice. The "F" key is used to Interact with objects, and "G" is bound to the Ping function.
You can collect spells, abilities, and upgrades by opening treasure chests and killing enemies.
Upon picking up, spells and abilities are automatically added to your Action Bar, with 2 slots dedicated to offensive skills and two for utilities such as leaps, speed boosts, and crowd-control.
The default keybinds for the abilities are R, T and 1 through 5.
Some abilities are more action-based and require good positioning and player targeting.
You can replace abilities by looting a different one from the ground.
Upgrading Plunderstorm Abilities
Your abilities can be upgraded by discovering higher-quality versions from treasure chests or finding the same ability elsewhere and stacking it to Rank 3 (epic).
A List of all Plunderstorm Abilities
Here is a list of all Plunderstorm spells that you can collect and upgrade during the Event. Please note that we only list the base abilities that are not upgraded.
Offensive Spells
Upgrades increase the damage, range, and decrease cooldown of abilities by 2 seconds each.
- Earthbreaker — Sunder the earth in an area around the caster, damaging and stunning enemies hit. (2-second cast, 12-yard range, 18-second cooldown)
- Fire Whirl — Engulf yourself in flames and rush forward, damaging enemies you pass through. (1-second cast, 8-yard range, 18-second cooldown)
- Holy Shield — Hurl a blessed shield forward, damaging enemies in its path before returning to you. Recast to trigger a holy explosion at the shield's location. (1-second cast, 40-yard range, 14-second cooldown)
- Mana Sphere — COnjure a Mana Sphere, then project it forward , damaging and knocking back enemies it passes through. Hold to increase sphere size. (1.8-second cast, 60-yard range, 14-second cooldown)
- Rime Arrow — Fires an icy arrow that seeks your current target, damaging them and nearby enemies. (0.5-second cast, 45-yard range, 10-second cooldown)
- Searing Axe — Slam down a molten axe, spewing molten lava forward that damages and knocks back enemies struck. (Instant, 15-yard range, 12-second cooldown)
- Slicing Winds — Envelop yourself in razor-sharp winds, then lunge forward, damaging enemies in your path. Hold to increase lunge distance. (1.4 second cast, 12 second cooldown)
- Star Bomb — Channel the cosmic void, compressing it into a bomb that explodes after a short delay. Enemies struck are pulled into the blast. (2.25 second cast, 40-yard range, 18-second cooldown)
- Storm Archon — Call forth elements, unleashing a destructive barrage in front of the caster. Recast Storm Archon to call another element. Can be cast twice. (Instant, 20 second cooldown)
- Toxic Smackerel — Smacks the target in front of you with a toxic mackerel, poisoning them and inflicting damage. Poison inflicts damage-over-time. If a target is already poisoned, Toxic Smackerel deals bonus damage.
Utility Spells
Upgrades reduce cooldown by 2 seconds.
- Explosive Caltrops — Evade backwards while spreading explosive caltrops that slow and damage enemies that trigger them. (Instant, 18 second cooldown)
- Fade to Shadow — Fade into the shadows, teleporting in the direction you are moving while entering stealth for a short duration.
- Faeform — Transform into a Fae creature, gaining immunity to harmful debuffs, increased movement speed, and damage reduction for a short duration. Cannot attack while transformed. (Instant, 18 second cooldown)
- Hunter's Chains — Chain yourself to your current target. While chained, recast Hunter's Chains to advance to your target's position. If your chained target moves out of the chain's range, they will be pulled towards you. (0.25 second cast, 35-yard range, 18-second cooldown)
- Lightning Bulwark — Raise a charged bulwark that negates damage taken briefly. Receiving an attack grants bonus movement speed, removes harmful debuffs, and harms enemies near the caster for a short duration. (1.25-second cast, 14-second cooldown)
- Quaking Leap — Leap forward in a large arc, then crash down damaging and stunning enemies you land on. Recast while airborne to crash down early. (0.5 second cast, 40-yard range, 14-second cooldown)
- Repel — Erect a powerful arcane barrier that repels all damage and harmful debuffs. Then, silence and knockback enemies around the caster. (Instant, 10 yard range, 22 second cooldown)
- Snowdrift — Create a snowy blizzard in an area around the caster, periodically affecting enemies with a stacking slow. (0.5-second cast, 15-yard range, 14-second cooldown)
- Steel Traps — Toss a cluster of steel traps directly in front of the caster, rooting and damaging enemies that trigger them. (Instant, 12-yard range, 18-second cooldown)
- Windstorm — Turbulent winds form in front of the caster that surge forward, damaging and stunning the first enemy struck. (Instant, 60-yard range, 14-second cooldown)
Consumable Items
The "5" key is bound to consumable items that you will find scattered throughout the map. Everyone begins with the Barrel consumable.
Plunder
Plunder is the main currency of the Event. Plunder is immediately noticeable in-game as gold piles on the ground. Collecting Plunder increases your reputation standing with Keg Leg's Crew at a rate of 1:1.
Sources of Plunder
There are multiple sources of Plunder:
- You can collect gold piles on the ground near enemies to gain Plunder.
- Plunder drops from enemies you kill. Elites drop more Plunder than standard mobs.
- You can earn Plunder from completing match and daily quests.
Experience
Gather Experience by killing mobs and opening treasure chests to increase your player level. Your health and damage of your abilities will increase with each level.
Plunderstorm Activities
During a Plunderstorm, you want to collect as much Plunder as you can to increase your Renown with the Plunderstorm Faction, collect XP to increase your level, and collect spells and upgrade them.
This is done by opening treasure chests, killing mobs, enemy players, and completing quests.
Match Quests
When you land, you will receive one of six quests that rewards 250 Plunder.
Daily Quests
A daily quest called Captain's Orders is available every day and rewards you 800 Plunder.
The Encroaching Storm
The storm will converge every so often, forcing players to move into the marked area. You must avoid the storm by being in the designated area before the timer is up.
Event End
Plunderstorm ends when your character dies or when you are the last man standing. Upon death, you can either leave the game or spectate others.
Plunderstorm Renown
For the duration of the Event, you will increase your reputation standing with the Keg Leg's Crew. The faction has its own Renown track progression. You can see your current standing on the character screen or by talking to the Quartermaster at the beginning of the game.
For every Plunder you collect, you will gain 1 reputation with the Keg Leg's Crew.
Plunderstorm Renown Rewards
Players participating in the Event earn cosmetics, pets, titles, battle pets, Trader's Tender, and mounts as they progress through the Plunderstorm Renown Track in both Modern WoW and Wrath Classic. A victory is not required to claim loot from the Event.
- Renown 24: Rewards 250 Trader's Tender;
- Renown 33: Rewards 500 Trader's Tender.
Other notable rewards are the Plunderlord parrot mount, a transmog set, and a Pepe outfit.
At Renown 5, players will unlock a Plunderstorm vendor on live servers at the Valdrakken Inn, who sells Pirate's Booty, an account-wide Normal Difficulty Amirdrassil gear piece (Item Level 454+) and other items.
You will find a full list of Renown rewards available with every level here.
Plunderstorm Renown Farming Tips
The following section contains tips for efficient Renown farming.
- Avoid PvP and focus on solo content during the Plunderstorm. It is difficult to kill other players and dying gets you nowhere, so try avoiding PvP from the beginning of the match by steering to a remote location.
- Always focus on completing the daily and match quests for extra Plunder.
- At the beginning of a match, try landing onto Elites and killing them.
- Farm a lot of Plunder!
Changelog
- 21 Mar. 2024: First post-launch guide update.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Guide added.
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