WoW’s newest game mode, a pirate-themed battle royale called Plunderstorm, has been announced by Blizzard, and players are already getting ready to set sail.
The 60-player battle royale is a daring new game mode from the WoW devs, and it’s truly unlike anything the game has ever seen. To accommodate a 60-player match, Plunderstorm is definitely in need of a big map. Luckily for players, WoW has plenty of open-world zones that can make space for the plundering pirates taking part in the adventure.
At launch, there will be one map for Plunderstorm, the Arathi Highlands. Here’s all you need to know about it.
WoW Plunderstorm Arathi Highlands map, explained
The only map that’s available in WoW Plunderstorm upon the release of the game mode is the Arathi Highlands, which has been designed to accommodate the new game mode.
The Arathi Highlands appear to have a slightly altered appearance from what you see in the traditional WoW overworld as several key locations are being added to the map. The first of those locations is Ar’gorok, the Horde stronghold that was featured heavily in the zone when it was the centerpiece of the Warfronts game mode introduced during the Battle for Azeroth expansion. In fact, the entire western side of the Arathi Highlands map in Plunderstorm should look familiar to any player who participated in Warfronts back in the day.
Additionally, another new point of interest called Brew Bay (is it really a battle royale game mode if there isn’t an alliterative location?) is being added to the eastern shore of the Highlands. This location is found relatively near to where you complete the Illari Duskfeather quest line in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. Â
Will Plunderstorm eventually get new maps?
It’s unclear at this time if Blizzard will add any new maps to Plunderstorm, but we’d wager that if the game mode is a success and does relatively well, the WoW devs will be incentivized to expand upon it and add more maps in future patches.
Correction March 19, 4:45pm CT: A previous version of this piece stated that Freehold would be a visitable location in the Plunderstorm game mode. This is not the case.
