Author: Philipp Sattler
Those: Blizzard
March 29th, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. – Shortly before the Creator Royal, the streamer tournament in WoW's Plunderstorm, the top players show the weaknesses and problems of the new Battle Royal mode.
The Plunderstorm in WoW was an experiment on Blizzard's part that didn't appeal to everyone, but did win some fans. So many, after all, that some of the most influential streamers and YouTubers will host the Creator Royal next weekend and fight for $50,000 in prize money.
In order not to lose out against other experienced players, the participating WoW streamers and YouTubers of course practice diligently reveal several massive problems with the Plunderstorm. At a tournament these could cause absolute chaos and we are already seeing players on the live servers trying to gain an advantage with this.
Also read these interesting stories
Didn't Blizzard get it? WoW developers announce further experiments after “successful” Plunderstorm
Is the Plunderstorm in WoW Patch 10.2.6 a success? Blizzard sees it that way and immediately announces further experiments.
WoW: Pet friends strike now – all shop pets in a package are 65 percent cheaper
Spring has sprung in the WoW shop and pet lovers are currently getting their pets at a particularly low price.
Immortal players and no end
Among many smaller things, two issues are really relevant. First and most important: The closing storm was supposed to kill players, that don't slide further into the middle. This is the absolute basis of every battle royal.
But you don't necessarily die in the Plunderstorm if you just stay on the outside of the storm. Blizzard recently reduced the cooldown time for reviving your fellow player to ten seconds. If a team uses revives and heals wisely, the duo can survive indefinitely in the storm and thus secure one of the top places – without having to fight for it. You can see it clearly in the video here:
Recommended editorial contentHere you will find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations will only be displayed if you confirm this by clicking on “Load all external content”:Load all external contentI agree that external content will be displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy.
The second point concerns the end of the round. Actually, in a battle royal the circle should always close. But in the Plunderstorm it stops at some point. In the end, you're left with a not-so-small area. The developers probably thought that nothing more was necessary since the players would then kill each other anyway. In practice, however, a stalemate situation can quickly arise in which there is no winner – especially in connection with the error mentioned above. Also here in the video:
Recommended editorial contentHere you will find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations will only be displayed if you confirm this by clicking on “Load all external content”:Load all external contentI agree that external content will be displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy.
The developers should react as quickly as possible, for example by increasing the damage from the storm and allowing the circle to close until the end. Otherwise, the Creator Royal could turn into a mess, albeit a fun one. And since the Plunderstorm isn't well received by players anyway, the devs might want to forego it.