The first thing I did after playing a few games of World of Warcraft’s new battle royale game mode, Plunderstorm, was immediately start to think about which zones would work as potentially strong maps for the new limited-time event.
Currently, there’s only one map available to play in the new BR, but it’s one of the most iconic zones in WoW history: the Arathi Highlands. If Blizzard can turn Arathi into a place that’s eligible for 60 players to drop in and play in an all-new environment, then certainly the WoW devs can take existing zones and throw them into the same formula. I imagine many WoW fans would be hyped to see their favorite zones and locations from the Azerothian overworld serve doubly in a competitive BR setting.
The marks of a good battle royale map are extensive places of interest, as well as variance in art style between them. You don’t want your map to be too big, either, as some of WoW’s bigger zones (especially ones from recent expansions) wouldn’t work too well without the assistance of mechanics like Dragonriding. I personally can’t imagine running around the Azure Span, for example, but many of WoW’s older, underused areas are definitely worth revisiting and could easily make for strong Plunderstorm maps.
Here are five World of Warcraft zones we think would be excellent rotations to the Plunderstorm lineup, should Blizzard ever decide to expand the game mode.
The Jade Forest
One of the most iconic battles in WoW history took place in the Jade Forest during the opening moments of the Mists of Pandaria storyline, and it’s definitely possible that we revisit it with our Plunderstorm characters.
At first glance, the Jade Forest has a lot of properties similar to the Arathi Highlands map in the current version of Plunderstorm. If you took the Arathi Highlands map and flipped it vertically, you’d get a layout that’s arguably similar to that of the Jade Forest.
The Jade Forest has everything you’d want in a relatively strong battle royale map. From a river that runs through the center of the zone all the way to its southernmost point to a bridge that connects two vertical landmarks in this northern sector and a massive statue in the middle of the zone where end-of-game battles can take place, the forest is truly stacked with points of interest that can make every round of Plunderstorm that’s played here absolutely electric. The Jade Forest is a naturally solid pick to be a battle royale map in the future, and with how popular it is as a leveling zone among the player base, we’d be surprised if it wasn’t picked by Blizzard at some point down the line.
Suramar
For years, WoW players have wanted Suramar to be a more active zone, with many fans pointing toward its capital, Suramar City, as the biggest missed opportunity in the game. Fortunately for fans of the franchise, Suramar has the perfect layout for a potential BR map, with enough points of interest (and variance between them) to make it a worthy battleground for Plunderstorm. You’d likely have to close off many of the doors inside Suramar City, and you’d probably have to wall off the entrance to Meredil as well to prevent ratty players from camping, but with the right adjustments, Suramar could be a perfectly sized map for WoW’s newest game mode.
Mount Hyjal
The biggest thing that stands out to us about Mount Hyjal is how varied the zone is between each of its POIs. From the lush, green sections of the map near Nordrassil to the molten red segments near the Firelands and all of the blackened, charred waste in between, Hyjal is surprisingly one of the most colorful zones in the game. These variances in locations make it perfect for a battle royale map as the idea of having fresh areas to start and end each game at is very intriguing.
The only downside to Mount Hyjal as a potential map is that there’s a lot of verticality in the zone. Trying to climb the main mountain that leads from its lower level up to Nordrassil could be very annoying without the assistance of some added abilities.
Grizzly Hills
It’s hard to find many WoW players who don’t hold some kind of love for Grizzly Hills. The zone, complete with its beautiful soundtrack, has been home to countless memories for thousands of WoW players over the years. It just so happens that the (surprisingly massive) zone would be a great spot to have a Plunderstorm battle.
There are so many POIs already built into this zone, with spots like Drak’tharon Keep, Thor Modan, Dun Argol, and the Amberpine Lodge all having their own unique styles and elements that make them enticing to drop at. Plus, just imagine a round of Plunderstorm ending in the broken trunk of the giant, warped World Tree of Grizzlemaw right in the center of the zone.
Tiragarde Sound
Of course, the pirate-themed game mode has to feature the home of Azeroth’s pirates, Freehold, in some capacity. Freehold would make the perfect pre-game hub before each Plunderstorm game played on the Tiragarde Sound, which is an incredibly unique zone when it comes to its layout.
The Tiragarde Sound is a really unique zone in that it’s not vertical or horizontal by nature, but instead can be viewed as an upside-down “L.” The broken-up design of this map makes it really intriguing as a potential battleground for Plunderstorm as it’s definitely different from a traditional battle royale map with a lot of open space. Tiragarde Sound has a ton of water and a lot of interconnected island chains that could be interesting in a BR setting, especially when you consider the zone’s unconventional shape. Plus, having the main city of Boralus right in the middle of the zone serving as a point of Interest would be very cool to see.
