WoW’s Plunderstorm battle royale mode is much more popular the second time around: ‘I can just play and screw around’

World of Warcraft’s controversial battle royale mode relaunched a week ago, once again pitting PvE mount and transmog collectors against hardcore PvP enjoyers. And this time around… almost no one is complaining.

Blizzard made some smart changes to the way its pirate-themed Plunderstorm worked. The rate of earning plunder, the game mode’s currency, has increased. Players are given the opportunity to choose where on the map they bomb into, and NPC mobs respawn, enabling PvE players to focus almost entirely on NPCs instead of each other (until some PvPer comes a-hunting, of course). Random horses allow players to zoom around the map.

But most importantly, perhaps, all of the new transmog and mounts are on a vendor for plunder, instead of being attached to renown levels. This means that players who are solely after the new mount, or pet, or nifty black pirate transmog armor pieces, can just grind what they care about and then jump out, instead of having to pick their way through 40 levels of reputation against people who are enjoying, you know, winning. Many players report being able to buy all the new transmog items in a single evening.

“I have to say it is MUCH more enjoyable knowing I don’t have to do another maxxed-out renown track to get what I want,” writes one player on Reddit. “As such, the stress is almost completely lifted off it and therefore I can just play and screw around.”

A rare peace in the World of Warcraft

Plundestorm is a separate game mode in Warcraft, launched from the PvP tab in game (new this year) and from the main login screen for the game. A battle royale based on Warcraft characters, it gives you sometimes-goofy abilities as random spawns and drops, which you then use to attempt to become the last player standing.

It debuted last spring, and the PvP battles quickly transitioned into forum and subreddit battles, as players debated whether having these collector-friendly rewards tacked to a PvP battle mode was a good thing.

For casual players this year, just logging in and playing a game to complete a daily quest will easily get you most of the way toward earning everything you’d like to buy. For hardcore players, two wins (particularly in duos and, this week, trios) will get you almost anything on the list you’d like.

“I only need to play it once a day,” writes a rewards-focused player. “I don’t enjoy it, but I’ve done worse for transmog.”

PvPers say they’re having a rollicking good time actually battling, with some even claiming to go out of their way to avoid the “baby seals” who are just there for the mogs. It’s not as hardcore as other Warcraft player-versus-player modes, but a fun break from the real thing, they say.

For those who want to compete, a new practice mode lets players try out spells before rampaging with them on the battlefield.

Blizzard’s updates after players’ uproar

Plunderstorm, like Mists of Pandaria Remix and some of the anniversary events, are the product of the Live Updates team, one of the best additions to Warcraft’s development cycle in a long time. This team works on special events that are specifically timed to occur when the game’s main story and activities hit a minor lull—during raid progression at the end of a season, for example, as is the case now.

I spoke with Warcraft vice president Holly Longdale last September about the game mode and the player grousing about its structure. “We know Plunderstorm was very polarizing. You either like PvP or you don’t,” she said then, adding that killing Warcraft senior game director Ion Hazzikostas in Plunderstorm was the “second-best day of my life.” If Blizzard did bring the game mode back, she said then, they would structure it differently.

“We don’t want anyone to feel like they have to go and have a bad time and feel shamed by super-awesome PvPers so you can get a mog—that doesn’t feel right,” she said.

As a result, players say, the changes Blizzard made have nailed the balance between PvE and PvP, giving the two groups of players one game mode that both enjoy.