I dont think any of mine have moved over into main match. Yea mine just got removed the minute i got pulled in.
2 Likes
Just learned at Renown 5 a vendor opens up in retail that grants properties of player power. This is the very TIP of the iceberg of what can be considered a very bad game design choice. The event should have stayed cosmetic, now you’re tying player power to it and that just makes it seem likes its a necessity to participate.
19 Likes
Killed 7 people in the last game in the new PvP mode. Got 226 plunder total. Surely this is a mistake? Its better to PvE and hard farm than to PvP in the new BR PvP game mode?
-Edit-
Not to mention this is a limited time offering… which means players are incentivized not to play the game but instead drop in, farm a quest, then die… over and over. Thats the current meta.
This has been an interesting strategy on mixing two very disliked systems. Limited time FOMO inducing events, and yet another renown bar. I dont know if this is a beta test for another game, or another potential game mode?? But it wasnt ready to be an official patch.
11 Likes
I imagine a lot of people will hate Plunderstorm off the bat because it isn’t improving their character, yet still feel FOMO over cosmetic rewards. Season 3 dropped in November, and crest/flightstone acquisition is still the biggest time sink on a new character. Rewarding some is fine as breadcrumbs for new/returning players or alt #22.
I would be worried if this was redeemable next season, but that won’t happen, right? 
4 Likes
The event rewards reputation based off how much plunder you’ve earned. 1 for 1.
The best methods of gaining reputation quickly are to go on a pve killing spree. Drop to certain locations, kill all the easy mobs. Get your quest finished (to kill 10 mobs- that rewards 250 plunder).
From there it’s up to you.
Many of you will find out you can get really quick reputation gains if you die shortly after the initial stage of the match. Many people, myself included, are earning 500-800 reputation every 3-5 minutes.
Playing the entire match after the initial feat of strength to win. Does nothing for your player progress / collection progress.
It’s a fun event. Winning can be a lot for many. With no incentive for plunder / rep - such minimal gains from player kills or even a portion of their total plunder when killed. There isn’t much reason to play it out.
I enjoy the game mode quite a bit. It’s fast paced. Combat is iffy until you learn which abilites do what, and more importantly at what ranks each ability empowers you the most. Allowing you to crush the opposition.
Tweaks to the end game plunder is a must if you want more engagement. If it matters that much, iunno. You’ll still have dozens of people per match vying for 1st. Many will opt out I think after some time.
3 Likes
This game mode, like all PvP, is already having its meta’s and if you don’t know the meta or have spent time playing a game like this in the past… there’s just no way of getting to the number 1 spot. And the only way to get the new Feat of Strength is to somehow do that.
This is the only achievement tying your character back to this event, to denote “I was here”. Not the last 10, or even a FoS for “You did it”. Nope. It’s only for being the last person alive of 60 in this. None of the titles in the renown track port over to the retail game either. So all you’ll have is some Tmog and mounts to ever be able to show “Yes, I slogged thru that.” But no achievement.
like currently, apparently its “Find Fire Twirl” or whatever it’s called and somehow upgrade it or bust. No matter how long you last on your own, if you don’t have it upgraded to rare status at the end, you might as well just go stand inside the storm.
8 Likes
I want to echo whoever said the mount for dropping in needs to handle much better.
5 Likes
It’s been a day and I’ve played up to renown four so here’s what I think so far.
I don’t have much experience in the BR genre. It’s not my preferred type of game in general. The closer-quarters type of combat is more interesting to me than something like a fortnite or other shooter games. So that’s neat I suppose. It kind of fits into something more like arena fights than shooting your way through a building.
That’s about as far as I can enjoy it though. The rewards are neat and compel me to play but it almost makes it worse. Because I feel I must play to get the rewards, being limited time of course, it brings a great deal of resentment. I find myself looking for the most efficient way to get the plunder I need (basically, do the quest and get whatever other random stuff I find nearby) and then find someone to end my game so I can move onto the next one. There is little incentive for me to push for being first when the reward for being first is a lower renown-per-minute ratio than just churning games quickly.
The game doesn’t feel intuitive. If you haven’t played these other type of games in the genre it simply doesn’t make sense and there’s no “tutorial” mode to try something out to learn what you’re dealing with. Or what the various abilities do (30s before launching isn’t really enough time to get that feel, either.)
I don’t begrudge people who do enjoy this style of game and I’m not one to complain about “dev time” etc. that was spent in creation of this new mode. Warcraft is a community of millions with a variety of interests and needs to bring in new players to sustain long-term. So I’m happy to bring more people to the community as a whole. But having 40 levels of in-Warcraft rewards, requiring 40ish hours of gameplay if you’re doing it at a somewhat reasonable pace, seems excessive.
It’s an unfortunate case of multiple layers being at odds with what players want:
Many rewards but limited time
Significant time investment but less to do in WoW so… shrug?
PVP focused for a largely PVE community
Is entirely in-house community requiring subscription which basically makes the player base the beta for the potential in a broader market.
PVE focused rewards from a game that is ultimately PVP which leads to an awkward game structure. After all, nobody plays RISK so they can capture Madagascar and quit to move on to the next round. (Showing my age here…)
If there’s going to be a significant PVE renown component to the game, maybe add a touch more to the questing. Progressive quests to gain additional renown by doing more tasks to keep people in the game longer. Add a 60s timer at the beginning that is entirely PVE so the mass contingent of people playing for the rewards can get in and start doing the PVE stuff, the PVP people can get their initial power ups going, and then open it up to the bloodbath.
12 Likes
I’ve now gotten the Plunder Wonder feat of strength for being the last one alive & hit renown 5. So far my opinion remains the same, the game mode is fun, fast-paced and has potential but the rewards structure should not exist for a time-limited event. I wish it was not the case because I think it will sour the event for people, it should have just been a cosmetic reward at an early point and people who enjoy it keep playing. I hope the issues regarding the rewards does not deter making different game modes in the future just implementing incentives in a better way.
Then this is compounded with the trader’s tender issue. They are a reward which was supposed to be an easy currency to get when it is available but it takes awhile to grind here, combined with a few months items on the post having been increased and people feel more like thinking “what am I missing out on the post” vs “what am I getting”. This is a separate issue that semi-relates due to this having one of the only sources for tender.
6 Likes
Ready to Plunder? Arrgh not yet! - Initial Impression of Plunderstorm
To have a more clear split between topics of the latest Mode and everything revolving it I decided to split my feedback into two chapters - The First is Revolving the Announcement and Marketing of the Mode and what had been better to do if something else like this comes to WoW, and the second chapter revolves around the mode itself. Additonal I want to talk also about Modes like this should be evergreen instead of temporary modes.
- Chapter I: The Announcement and how it was handled
- Chapter II: Chapter II - Plunderstorm a Battle Royale which left a lot to be desired
- Bonus: New Modes should be evergreens instead of FOMO Experiences
Chapter I - The Announcement and how it was handled
What really went wrong in my point of view was that it was indicated as a retail patch experience in the “Modern WoW Roadmap” - It would be ten times better to say we have another fun surprise along Modern and Classic WoW. This way we wouldn’t have the negative backlash as many player expected a Modern WoW Retail Experience from it. The teasing on the day of the patch date announcement also didn’t helped this circiumstance. I know you worked very long on this and were hyped to come out with it, but the way you did you set false expectation to the playerbase.
Some players may hoped to have an experience with their characters instead they now have to wait till the next “patch hits” as BR is just not for everyone to enjoy and a majority of the current player base are not PvP Enjoyers per se.
Chapter II - Plunderstorm a Battle Royale which left a lot to be desired
Initial I want to say for what it is supposed to be “a temporary game mode” (even if it should have been an evergreen - more to that later on) it checks a mark, and I’m happy they’re trying something new. On a closer look, there are several flaws with it in my point of view.
First I want to talk about the Hit Feedback and Damage Calculation going with it.
What really bothers me is that it is really hard to tell if you are doing supposedly more damage with a ranked up skill because the hit itself of a improved skill doesn’t feel really more impactful at first glance. There are several Skills you can notice a difference between a Green, Blue or Purple skilllevel but those tend to be a bit overtuned in general in comparision to other skills.Now let’s talk about the Interface and Visual Perception. For that I’m using a screenshot as reference.
Overall, the Interface is spotless and sleek. I also like the choice to have no add-on support for the mode. But what is really needed is at least the possibility to move the bars to a preferred position. Having them at the bottom of the screen alongside the health bar creates a conflict for the eyesight of the player. He no longer can focus in his Visual Perception only on the combat action, and is forced to split his attentions to 2 area of the screen at the same time. It hasn’t been rarely the case I lost a fight just because I focused too much on the action because I forget to check my health due to its awkward positioning. Esp. when zoomed out this is the case - only if you are more zoomed in it is better from a visual perception. With the possibility to zoom out it should been considered to have the possibility to change positioning of the basic UI Elements.
As the Game Mode is still in its early iteration phase I will avoid to talk too much about balance - I just want to point out that a skill shouldn’t do immense damage while also allowing the player to move at a fast pace - this is esp. the case for the Fire Swirl ability. It should either be a slow damage ability with some movement component to it or a utility tool with chip damage. Both together feels like flawed design with only very specific counterplays to it that requires aiming while the skill itself is just press and forget.
Lastly, I want to spend time on the topic of Uniqueness.
It is very obvious that former Devs of Spellbreak (former Proletariat Employees which have been acquired by Blizzard in 2022/2023) worked on this Game Mode as it has a lot of similarities to that game - yet it is missing a lot of its own spice. For someone that played now “both versions” I felt a bit underwhelmed on the lack of integration of unique elements from the WoW Universe. Using the Warfronts Map of BFA didn’t help that impression. I don’t want to be too negative about it, but it kinda feels like Spellbreak in a WoW Warfronts Disguise.I would have liked to see a unique map with unique wow elements (f.e. Elevators, Portals or the Production Lines of the Siegecrafter Blackfuse Encounter) to make the map more dynamic and unexplored. As many players know the layout of the Warfront it really doesn’t hold a longterm motivation and is solved rather quickly.
When those issue I described would have been addressed and given a second thought I could see this being a success - It is good to have more PvP Elements in the WoW Universe but please for Good’s sake don’t forget about actual WoW PvP while doing so.
I would rate it a 6,5/10 atm. for being a temporary mode - As a permanent integration, it would be around a 6/10. Also, If you may plan to have this an evergreen it needs regular update to it on a steady pace not like every 3 month like it is in modern wow.
Bonus: New Modes should be evergreens instead of FOMO Experiences
I kinda teased it a bit now but I believe this game mode should stay instead of being a FOMO experience. In the past we have seen a lot of fun modes be introduced and then abandoned after the expansion or few patches (Isle Expeditions, Torghast) yet those would hold a lot of potential to hold players in the game. One of WoW strongest aspects isn’t often respected and utilized when developing content - its variety.
“Have you ever thought about being an archaeologist?” WoW got that for you
"Would like to have stable full of horse? " - WoW got that for you
Versus
“You like to explore far away islands?” - Wow had that for you spent dev time on it and scrapped it afterward.
Sadly, this theme park aspect rarely gets utilized when considering and developing a feature to the game, it is always FOMO. Players are sick of this stuff - it is also very demoralizing to play when you know it will be gone shortly. Esp. if this ressources could have been spent on a permanent experience rather then a short term one. WoW got a lot of content that is always fluctuating (mostly the expansion itself and the raids attached to it) so having some constant elements coming to the game is needed in my point of view to provide distation from potential content droughts. Those would also need some attention every few patches to keep them fresh and rewarding.
Also, the barrier of entering this new mode locked behind a sub is a mistake, as Battle Royal may spark the joy to potential new persons to give wow a try in general. You could keep the rewards behind a subscription but offer a “free 2 play” week for the game mode. Rewards for the actual modern wow and classic should also be easier to be obtained, and the renown tracks should if the mode stays provide mostly Plunderstorm specific cosmetics.
This is my feedback,
Yumuros - Thrall EU
14 Likes
I’m still torn on whether or not I even want to play one match of Plunderstorm because I don’t want to be an engagement metric for it. Most of my thoughts are summed up here in a thread I made in the Plunderstorm forum.
16 Likes
I would like to be able to tune settings separately from my main game.
The usual sound/graphics are tied to the same profile as my wow.
I think the keybinds can also only be changed during a game, this can be a bit annoying.
I think some more balancing of certain spells could be done a bit better, level up also seems to make a great difference maybe too much. I’m not a fan of br games but I recognize it can be fun.
It could be interesting to let people create their own lobbies of 20 to 30 people in private games. I know some people have already started to “sync queue” which is trying to sync their queues at the same time so they can get more people in the same game.
I’m a bit on the side of many people that this doesn’t really replace in-game content. This is a completely new game for me and that’s fine. But this happens when we could use a bit more new dungeons or raid content as s4 will be old content or even get new bgs which doesn’t seem a priority.
3 Likes
Thanks for all of the great feedback in this thread. It helps us navigate how the game is feeling and these posts bolster what we’ve seen in other threads, on social media, etc.
We’re definitely looking at which builds are prevailing most and which abilities players are enjoying. It’s important to us that this mode still maintains a “party” feel, while not becoming too frustrating during the times when you aren’t getting a significantly better spell. One of the pillars of Plunderstorm is “Pick Up & Play”. Part of that is not necessarily giving you perfect knowledge of how much more exact damage you’ll be doing as you level or rank up spells, but instead, we want to make sure things feel better as you level. Some abilities may simply feel better to rank up and that can be because of multiple reasons.
This wasn’t just one team at Blizzard that worked on this. It was a tremendous amount of effort between all of us here. We care deeply about a fun player experience and this was developed to be a fun thing you can jump into and play with low barriers to entry. Hopefully, players can walk away feeling like they could gain a sense of understanding the game after just a few matches.
We are listening to feedback here and elsewhere, and we’re looking into changes we might make that would meaningfully make the plunder aspects of Plundertorm more rewarding. Ultimately, not every player in every match can play their way to a ton of plunder, but we want to support as many different playstyles as we can.
We’ve already seen a lot of feedback that the game could more-clearly communicate facts such as: how Renown is earned through Plunder, the clarity of the winning bonus, and more. We’re talking about all of that as a team, looking at how plunder progression has been going, and making sure that this is a rewarding experience.
As always, continue to leave your feedback here. We’re listening and working to increase the fun.
7 Likes
Having gotten a day to play around with it, I really welcome the general freshness of a type of content like this. It’s not, by any means, everyone’s cup of tea, and the way it was advertised led to a lot of betrayed expectations. After the terrible display that was the 10.2.5 patch, which also had no PTR and was highly anticipated, the continued hyping up of 10.2.6 works against what would otherwise be more a broadly welcome sentiment. It does little to build trust in just allow the team to work in secrecy when it sometimes comes across as completely disconnected.
Poor handling of its announcement aside, I really enjoy the twist that Plunderstorm brings to the type of gameplay everyone is used to in WoW. It shines best in Duos I think, but it’s very fun to mix and match what spells each teammate gets, and then trying to combo them. It can maybe get a little repetitive over several matches, if the player isn’t having much fun to begin with though.
The plunder system is interesting but a little unclear on how it ultimately plays into the reputation, as others have mentioned. I like that it’s shared between the whole party in duos as well.
My main feedback is on smaller but still, I think, convenient things - it’s unclear in Duos who will be steering the parrot while dropping into Arathi, as who is team leader seemingly doesn’t matter. I’d almost guess it’s based on which teammate comes first alphabetically, based on my own matches. The other issue is that changing outfit/weapons/title requires always talking to the orc in the waiting lobby, rather than be saved between matches.
In summary, I like the novelty of this. If it means that we’ll get new game modes that play on other genres using the WoW gameplay, then a battle royale was an interesting place to start!
5 Likes
Thank you for taking the time to respond here Kurbeegold.
After doing this quite a lot, mostly because of how much “Plunder” is required to actually complete this event but moving on, While I think the “Pick up and play” is there, it needs fine tuning. Players should be told what each of these does, how to gather the “Power ups”, be provided tools to help the common player quickly pick this up… Not be bait for players who can pick things up fast, or at this point players who’ve been “sweating” it. Currently, if you didn’t get the FoS right out the gate, it’s going to be harder and harder and harder for a player who hasnt gotten it to get it. Lets not even mention that theres appparently also a winning bonus? So, not only is a player that makes it to the end getting a FoS, but also getting more stuff for it? understandably, but still a feels bad for those who can barely sometimes even make it to be #40 in standing or who get constantly ganked right out the gates
It also worries me that you point out a lot of time, resources, and personnel went into this. What was sacrificed on the other end to make this happen? What did TWW just lose for this? Midnight? The last titan?
I wish this wasn’t so PvP heavy, This is a fun thing, It could have been so much better if this map was bigger, maybe less players, maybe less RnG on abilities. Currently if I don’t get the Fire twirl, and somehow find upgrades to it, I might as well quit because theres no way I’ll make it to the end. Ever. Especially with all the sweats and hardcore PvP people who are playing this event way more than I ever will be able to.
12 Likes
On this note, I feel a lot of frustrations are in regard to how little plunder is being gotten to fill the renown bar. I made a remark after the post you quoted that I think this game mode would benefit from an automatic participation reward as many people are dying right as soon as they land.
To further incentivize, not just the last man standing; but I feel like the higher you place in the rankings, the more bonus plunder you receive once you die. I placed #5 in a match just a bit ago and if it weren’t for the daily that we get; I probably would have only walked away with 500 or so plunder. It’s not right to only greatly incentivize someone to hit 1st place.
Another point of contention IS the daily. It resets with each match so you cannot requeue to try to finish it. Say your daily is to loot 2 items. If you loot one then meet an early end you have to queue back up but upon getting into the game your daily is not only reset but it could be a completely different set of requirements. This in itself is extremely frustrating.
15 Likes
I’ve done quite a few matches now and I’m almost renown 9. I understand the system much better now. I feel like this game mode would be better if it were maybe 30 people in a match instead of 60. It reduces the likelihood that you and at least one other player will land at the same spot and one of you die right away. It gives you a chance to figure out the system while doing PvE to level, gain and try out abilities, etc.
Right now the meta for the most efficient plunder gain is land, get 300-500 plunder, die, leave game, and repeat instead of playing a match to win. I did a few matches last night where I ended up in the top 10 and then finally won a match (which I got nearly 1000 plunder from) but it took quite a while for the match to finish. The storm had almost completely collapsed on us by that point. So, while it’s nice that I have the Feat of Strength now, I don’t think that will be my goal in the future as I’m only doing this game mode for the transmog.
40 renown and however much plunder it takes to get there is also quite a slog. I don’t feel like there should be that many levels on a limited time event. If it was a permanent feature, fine, you can grind that out at your own pace. But as has been said many times now, the FOMO is strong with this one. If you significantly curtailed the number of renown levels, people could grind out what they wanted and then stop playing. Then, only the people who truly enjoyed playing it would continue to do so and you would get really improved feedback about the system from the people that actually want to play it.
15 Likes
Ya I did one match not too long ago where my daily was to loot two chests but I died so early that I didn’t even get to loot one.
5 Likes
I wish I could last long enough to get the only achievement for this entire event or “win” one of these. sighs
3 Likes
I came close at #5 but knew I wasn’t going to last as I was only level 5 by the time there were only 15 of us left, but some guy vastly out leveled the remainder of us and had every meta skill at epic.
I decided to hide with my back to the storm and when I was finally found I high tailed it into the danger bubble.
5 Likes