World of Warcraft is full of incredible weapons, and to be honest, I’ve actually never been super into Ranged weapons or characters (I like the Hunter’s gameplay, but prefer the “fantasy” of melee characters).
But when it comes to the two bows from Sunwell Plateau, they are in a completely differently league of their own.
I remember when they were first datamined back in the day, I kept getting frustrated because I thought pictures of them were just “concept-art” – it didn’t even register to me that the in-game weapons could look so beautiful, like actual pieces of artwork made into actual weapons!
And by the way, don’t take this as some sort of complain against modern weapon designs; I think gear in general looks pretty great. I’ve been a little underwhelmed by some of the Class sets the past few years, but mostly because they I miss Class-based designs where most sets today are clearly designed around the drop location (which just leads to losing a bit of class identity). I think everyone would agree, the Arathi armor sets are some of the best designs WoW has seen to date.
I do wonder how the SWP bows managed to look so freaking incredible, though, and if that design philosophy could influence new weapons in the future?
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Well, this is one of the few times I agree with you.
I love the legendary bow so much, I created a character and mog for it.
The Golden Bow is good too but I think the legendary bow, even though it’s low res now, is still perfect in my eyes.
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I just wish they had more than 6 pixels
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Wish we got some iconic updated weapons for the anniversary. Black Bow of the Betrayer is one of the best looking bows in the game.
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I still have mine. I refused to get rid of my Rhok or BBotB. I wanted both so bad back in the day…
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I’ll be honest, I’m not even sure how you would “update” them, other than if there are higher-res textures to pull from?
I wonder how much of their look comes from the fact they have really dramatic lighting “painted” onto the bow itself.
Either way though, I think the bows both look incredible. Makes me curious what the process for creating them was, if it differed in some way?
Not a bow, but I will always love the wolf slayer sniper rifle from kara. It took me years to actually get my hands on it but it’s one of the only guns I ever use on my hunter aside from one from argent tournament raid and it’s recolor.
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It’s kinda wild how well it has held up after all these years. Looks better than most of the guns from the post-WoD era.
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Right, I also appreciate it not being yet another blunderbuss the barrel is large still but you’d think by now we’d have maybe gotten away from that shape. Even things named rifle use it and it’s like…why?
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I dunno, the Honor PvP gun model is one of the best gun models they released in a long time.
…Granted, it’s the only PvP gun before we are once again swarmed with bows, but I’m happy for at least something.
My Hunter uses Thori’dal even though it is starting to show its age and I will always theme his mog around it. There is just no replacement for the beautiful blue magical projectiles that it shoots in my eyes.
The Golden Bow is lovely for belf themed mogs though, I will say. Really hope both of these bows see an update one day. 
Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle from Karazhan.
If that got an updated HD look to it, I think it’d easily be one of the best weapons in the game.
Same. I based my entire mog around it. It’s too good.
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Yeah, but THIS matches my Sylvanas ranger mog
Thori’dal is awesome. Best part is when you use it as a mog it mogs the arrows, too.
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I actually didn’t know that!!
Very cool!
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