Throwing weapons have been a part of worlds, both real and fantasy, for ages. Entire sports are dedicated to the art of throwing a projectile as accurately and as hard as possible. And for some time, they were a part of WoW’s history too.
However, throwing weapons were eventually removed, as they were considered an afterthought and not worth the effort of adding more when they would be neglected in favor of more standardized ranged options (the main three trifecta: Bows, Crossbows, and Guns).
Ever since their removal, I’ve always held a bit of a grudge for it. Many RPGs neglect throwing weapons and treat them as afterthoughts, something token to “appease” the people that want them, and unimportant. World of Warcraft is far from an exception, except it took the extra step to remove them entirely.
With the advent of Melee Survival, and in the wake of Heroes of the Storm, there’s always been a thought in the back of my mind, which has been brought to the front of my mind with the new Covenant abilities and after leveling a Survival Hunter to max: Why are there plenty of abilities to throw a weapon from your pocket, but we don’t have anything actually based around a THROWN weapon?
To clarify that a bit, Rexxar from Heroes of the Storm is a pretty easy example. If you haven’t played HotS (and I wouldn’t begrudge you for it), Rexxar is a hero that engages in both melee and ranged combat; his bear, Misha, is extremely durable and offers high CC to pin down enemies, while Rexxar himself throws axes from afar. If Rexxar is engaged in melee, he will use the axes in tandem and can fight competently in the fray, but his best option is usually to fight from afar. His auto-attack range is actually quite low, thanks to his weapons of choice (thrown axes).
Another example, one that seems to resurface in most expansions: WoW’s own Naga. Have you noticed many of the Naga enemies, especially fodder, have spears and if you don’t engage them in melee, they will hurl spears at you and use special attacks based around their THROWN spears.
Throwing weapons are still in WoW but only as references or for enemy/NPC spells. Certain classes have abilities to throw a weapon out of thin air (such as Warrior’s “Heroic Throw”, or Rogue’s “Poisoned Dagger” and “Shuriken Toss”), including the very class that Rexxar embodies; Hunter. Survival Hunter specifically has access to these throw-based abilities.
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Charkram. A talented spell on a low CD, available in the last row. The Hunter throws a pair of chakrams at the target enemy and continuing through them until the blades reach max range, upon which they return and dealing damage again. This damages all enemies in the chakrams’ path, dealing double damage to the primary target.
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Harpoon. A low-CD engagement spell that hurls a harpoon at an enemy, rooting them in place and dragging the hunter to them. In the first row, a talent can be taken to cause Harpoon to inflict bleed damage, generate Focus, and reset its own cooldown if you kill an enemy.
And now a brand new spell in Shadowlands:
- Death Chakram. Available to Necrolord Hunters. The Hunter throws a chakram at their target. It deals light Shadow damage and attempts to bounce to nearby enemies, dealing increasing damage with each bounce, up to 7 instances of damage. Each time it deals damage, it generates a small amount of Focus.
So Blizzard knows that throwing weapons are cool, and Hunters are the de-facto class for using them. But why, then, is there nothing designed for actual throwing weapons? Why are there no throwing weapons available? Why can a lot of NPCs (especially generic soldier NPCs) and no small amount of enemies throw weapons as not just a special ability, but as their primary method of attack…but us PCs, the heroes of Azeroth, not pick up an axe and hurl it without needing some special on-cooldown spell?
This is my request to Blizzard: Please bring back throwing weapons, and don’t just neglect them. Make throwing weapons that are actual dungeon and even raid loot on par with the other Hunter weapons. And to make them require the least amount of development effort, please make them a “Ranged Weapon” so they work with existing specs.
I understand making new animations for these throwing weapons would require work and no small amount, since that would almost certainly mean re-rigging them to work with new spells that have been developed for players since throwing weapons last existed. But there’s already rigs for thrown weapons in the game, animations, models, and plenty to work on as a base. None nearly as complex as what a player will have, but they ARE there.
Imagine an Arcane Shot with your equipped javelin; you hurl your energy-coated javelin at supernaturally high speeds, travelling as fast as an arrow and landing with a satisfying “THUD”.
How about Aimed/Steady Shot with an equipped throwing axe? You slowly reel back with the axe raised high as the cast progresses, then snap forward and hurl it.
Or even Multi-Shot with daggers! You hurl a swarm of daggers instead of arrows or pellets, like Fan of Knives but in a big cone.
Then the cream of the crop: Rapid Fire. With your throwing weapon of choice, you hurl a ton of them over the duration.
I know most of these examples had abilities associated with certain weapons, but this is just to show that you CAN do these with a variety thrown weapons and even make them FUN.
If balance is an issue, then instead of balancing with the thought of two different weapons being dual-wielded (such as the pain of Enhancement Shaman, Fury Warrior, and all Rogues), why not just make the MODEL of the weapons dual-wielded as appropriate (such as for some axes, daggers, and hammers), but consider them “two-handed” like other Ranged weapons? Give them similar stats to existing ranged weapons; attack speed, DPS, damage ranges, stats provided, etc. Just give them a similar statblock overall to the other ranged weapons, and make the model one- or two-handed as appropriate.
Sorry that this is going to read like a novel, and this is probably the last thing on anyone’s mind coming into Shadowlands, but I needed this off my chest. I’m a passionate fan of throwing weapons in fiction, and one of my top class fantasies as a Hunter has always been to hurl weapons, just like other Hunters shoot a bow or wield a spear; as my primary method of attack.