Plunder is a major component in Plunderstorm, a limited time Battle Royale game mode for World of Warcraft. Collecting Plunder translates into gaining reputation with Keg Leg's Crew, the new Plunderstorm exclusive faction (with a similar renown system to Dragonflight reputations).
You earn Plunder by killing non-player enemies, killing other players, looting Golden chests, completing a daily and per-match quest and for winning the match (being the last player or duo alive).
It requires 2,500 reputation (Plunder) per level of renown, with a maximum of level 40 achievable. Each renown level grants its own reward, with most rewards being for Dragonflight and Plunderstorm, but a few for Wrath of the Lich King Classic. Keg Leg's Crew renown rewards include pirate themed Transmog appearances, battle pets, mounts and titles. You can read our List of all Plunderstorm Renown Rewards (Keg Leg's Crew) article for the full breakdown of what is available!
Plunder Farming Strategy and Tips
The best source for farming Plunder is to start by killing non-player enemies, notably the elite mobs (shown on the mini map as a star), this will also level you up quickly. Whilst doing this, you want to be completing the World Quest for that match (found on the right of your screen) and looting as many golden chests as you can. Ideally you land somewhere that other players don’t at the start and focus on the chests and elite mobs.
Bonus Tip: As your Plunderstorm game begins, you can gain a significant early advantage by landing your Parrot on one of these elite mobs, or at the very least land on an enemy. This will instantly kill the elite, almost granting level 2, but most importantly an early spell; which will help significantly if multiple parties have landed at the same location or to just kill more elites even faster!
The best game mode for farming is Duo, as you also earn the plunder your teammate picks up, meaning that the plunder you earn in the game will be higher than if you were to solo. If you don’t have anyone to queue with, remember that you can queue on your own into the Duo mode and it will assign you to a random player in the match lobby that is also queuing on their own. That being said, if you’re a solo player with a lot of success at winning and getting late game kills, or consistently land somewhere without competition it's possible you will earn renown equally as fast in solo mode.
What about PvP? Killing other players (and looting the plunder they drop) at the start of the game is less rewarding than farming non-player enemies and chests, however, later into the game killing other players is how you really stack up the plunder for a match; this is because players still alive towards the end of the match have collected the most plunder, making these kills very rewarding. Finally, if you can, winning the game awards 500 plunder extra.
Do I have to do PvP content to earn the renown rewards?
If you really dislike the PvP aspect of the new game mode, it is very possible to farm the renown purely with PvE, it will just be more likely to take more matches to achieve it. Make sure to focus on farming the plunder that you can by killing non-player enemies, looting golden chests and completing your World Quest; try to start in an area of the map with elites that others haven’t landed in. When you’re forced into PvP, give it your best (since a kill might get you some bonus plunder for the match), and once dead, queue again and repeat the process!
Plunderstorm Builds
With every match of Plunderstorm resetting your build, there is an aspect of randomness to which spells and abilities you can pick-up, but knowing which abilities stand out for different reasons can help you make decisions on which to use. It’s also worth noting that some choices do come down to personal preference, some abilities are quite even, but it's how well you use them that counts (whether they are aimed, ranged vs melee, aggressive or kiting, etc.).
Plunderstorm builds for farming and for winning share a lot of overlap, notably those that have higher damage, an AoE component and improved movement, but these are some that are more effective in the PvE early game of killing elites and looting as many chests as possible:
- Fire Whirl (offensive), high AoE damage
- Star Bomb (offensive), high AoE damage
- Searing Axe (offensive), melee AoE ability that has short cooldown
- Earth Breaker (offensive), fair amount of AoE damage
- Faeform (movement, CC immunity and damage reduction)
- Quaking Leap (movement)
- Fade to Shadow (movement, blink)
Again, this is not an exhaustive list, but these are abilities that we personally have been preferring when given the opportunity at the start of the game to farm Plunder and level up quickly.
Some of these abilities, such as Star Bomb are not as effective in the PvP aspect of Plunderstorm, so keep that in mind and check out our PvP focused Strategy guide to learn more about how to get more wins.
We hope that this article helps you to unlock the wide range of rewards available in Plunderstorm quicker than before, and that you enjoy the new game mode whilst doing so!