World of Warcraft is releasing a wild battle royale mode today as part of its Plunderstorm 10.2.6 patch, but you don't have to fight other players to fully enjoy it, Blizzard developers said.
“Even if you're not the one directly attacking other players, you can run around and kill monsters, open chests and still collect loot along the way,” said Orlando Salvatore, a senior software engineer at Warcraft. Of course, you are still a viable target for other players.
The 60-player free-for-all mode, which runs on a separate server than your regular WoW characters, launches today. Looting is the currency dropped from monsters in the zone, other players, chests, and by winning the game. Looting grants you reputation levels similar to the reputation levels in the current Warcraft Dragonflight expansion. With each new Notoriety level (40 in total) you will receive Plunderstorm rewards – mounts, pets and transmog items.
But just because you can earn Plunder by killing other players doesn't mean you have to, the developers said in an interview with PC Gamer. They wanted everyone to enjoy the experience.
“We want players who just want to have a good time, who want to go in and have an amazing pirate party with their friends, collect loot, fight monsters and play it all because of the cool abilities that are included,” said Salvatore. “There is a gold monster on the map that drops loot. There are chests that can be opened. Even if you don't win, you can earn stuff and still have fun. That’s what we really focused on.”
For this reason, class-to-class or skill-to-skill balance was not the developers' priority. Abilities are looted throughout the game, so they are often random and come from random ground spawns. For example, Mana Sphere is a charged AOE spell that casts a sphere and hits all enemies in its path. Fiery Ax is a melee ability that hits nearby enemies in a cone-shaped area. “Quaking Leap” takes you into the air; If you hit it again, you will land on your opponents with a bang and cause damage.
“They are intentionally designed so that casual PvP players can enjoy the combat,” said Ray Bartos, lead producer. “It varies from game to game.”
“We’re less concerned with the min-max and more concerned with how much fun the players are having,” Salvatore said.
