Thrown Weapons

[bonemage]

There were changes to thrown weapons in the latest patch (2.0.1). This makes them useful as stat sticks. As a warrior, ranged weapons are for pulling, sometimes for minor hits while rooted in PvP, but mainly to boost stats. As I've made Durambar a weapon master (297 bows, 298 staves, 299 guns, all other weapons are 300) in all but thrown weapons (never paid for that training) as they were so useless for so long.

Having looked at thottbot.com and found a couple thrown weapon skills, I'm curious to see how it really is on the live realm, especially for warriors. Is it instant? Can you throw on the run? One version has a throw range of 5-30 yards, one 8-30 yards (that is the same as bows, guns, crossbows). The instant attack will be much better for pulling, PvP, everything, but I'm also curious about the range. Granted, the data is from the uncategorized spells, so the 5 yard min range could be an NPC attack, but that's why I'm asking here. I would really like to know these things prior to me training the skill, because once I train it, I'll have a neurotic compulsion to train it to 300 before the expansion, and I'd prefer to deal with that compulsion only if I'll be happier with thrown weapons. I'm hoping a few minutes is all it would take to check this out for me, and keep me from hours of grinding a useless weapon. If they prove useful, I'll gladly deal with my completionist quirks.

[Concillian]

It's a faster bow / crossbow / gun

That's about it. I haven't noticed anything else different.

I have used them in PvP even though my skill is still pretty low (only at ~140 or so killing rats when defending the farm). I killed a mage by being able to get 2 throws off in the time I would have had 1 crossbow shot while frost nova'd.

I haven't noticed the range specifically, but I don't think it's 5 yards, There is one case where a mage looked far enough away for me to use a ranged weapon but must have been JUST inside that range, because I couldn't throw at them. Given that I'm used to the range for a crossbow, I think he was very close to that range, so I doubt that they are 5 yards minimum.

My experience is with the throwing axes that Voone drops:

http://www.thottbot.com/?i=54222

[bonemage]

Thanks for the info. What about the instant cast? Shooting on the run would be awesome for pulling. The delay on shooting sometimes trying to get a patrol means I miss them and have to wait for them to come back. Being able to throw on the run would get me to switch to thrown weapons. Shooting on the run would also be fun and somewhat helpful when trying to close range in PvP.

[Kevin]

My experience after the patch is very limited. I did use them prepatch because they were much much much better for tricky pulls with the faster speed.

I will say be very very careful. My L37 warrior is a smith. I got the plans for Whirling Steel Axes I made some because I didn't have a ranged weapon with stats. I needed to do a pull. I did a throw. They were all gone.

I haven't tested yet but they now have a durability after the maintenance today. I don't recall seeing one the other day so they may be alright. But if you get a nice stat stick that isn't showing durability, Don't throw it. It won't break it will just be gone.

Edit: In the past I was never able to shoot on the run.

Edit2: You get a "Can not do that while moving" message trying to throw on the move, which is a good thing in my opinion, would be a bit to powerful throwing on the run.
And Whirling Steel Axes are still 1 throw then they are gone...

[bonemage]

Concerning the disappearing of thrown weapon stacks, thottbot (I know, not too reliable) has a post by a user stating that another crafted thrown weapon suffer from the problem you listed, but not dropped ones. His post can be found on the same page as Conc's link, near the bottom. "Clicky"

[Concillian]

Thanks for the info. What about the instant cast? Shooting on the run would be awesome for pulling.

No, the functionality is the same as shooting a bow / crossbow / gun. Throwing weapons are generally faster than these, but other than that, no diffferent. It's just a quicker "wind up" before the projectile heads towards the target because it's faster.