What are your thoughts on the Plunderstorm?

I’m not sure anyone predicted “Warcraft Battle Royale with spells” when patch 10.2.6 mysteriously appeared as a simple pirate flag on the 2024 road map, but that’s pretty much what Plunderstorm is. Now that it’s been out for over a week, I’m curious what everyone’s experience has been.

I’m not a big Battle Royale fan, although I did play a little PUBG before Fortnite stole most of its glory, so I kind of knew what to expect when it was announced. It also helped that I’ve been watching my kid play Fortnite for the past several years, although Plunderstorm is definitely less complicated. I’m always excited to try new things, so I’ve been playing since it went live and while I haven’t won yet I’ve played well enough to have some thoughts.

My main gripe with the mode is that players don’t start off with thirty seconds or a minute of immunity. It’s not that I mind getting killed 15 seconds into the fight, it’s that it’s counterproductive to everyone — even the person that kills players early on. If you give players time to gather some plunder and spells before killing them, you’ll build your own strength faster when you do kill them after the immunity ends.

My other gripe is that spell RNG can make or break your game; being stuck with uncommon versions of spells will get you killed in the mid- and late game. I’m honestly not sure what a fix for that would be — perhaps fewer spells in general? an alternate means of upgrading? — but it definitely feels bad to be underpowered.

Of course, some of that is my fault because my favorite gameplay mode is ninja bush. Once I turn into a bush I’m not getting out until I have to — if you see bush traversing the field, it’s probably me. Thankfully I don’t always get the option to turn into a bush so I’m not always useless heading into endgame, but even though it actually hurts my progress on the renown track (when you’re a bush, even a mobile one, you’re not going to be getting much plunder) I can’t resist being sneaky greenery.

What about you? Have you given Plunderstorm a try yet? What are your likes and dislikes? Have you had the joy of being a ninja bush? Let us know in the comments below!