Weapon Throw

Weapon Throw is a Tactics Barbarian skill unlocked at Level 14. The Barbarian hurls a weapon, damaging the target and slowing its speed.

Background

Weapon Throw in action.

The Barbarian hurls his weapon at an enemy, maiming the target.

Skill Rune Effects

The following is a very quick summary. See the Weapon Throw rune effects page for a more thorough description of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

<skill class="Barbarian">Weapon Throw</skill>

Skill Design

This skill, without runes, causes the barbarian to throw ethereal-looking weapons of various types at the targeted enemy, causing damage and slowing them. The weapons seem to be selected randomly from a pool of possibilities.

Synergies

The following Barbarian passives provide a benefit to Weapon Throw, runed or not:

• Bloodthirst - The Barbarian gains life based on the amount of damage he deals always.
• Weapons Master - Provides a damage bonus when the Barbarian is wielding a sword or dagger.
• Berserker Rage - Inflicts additional damage while the Barbarian is at maximum Fury.
• No Escape - Increases the damage of Weapon Throw and generates Fury.
• Brawler - Increases the Barbarian's damage when he is swarmed.

Development

Weapon Throw was first seen at BlizzCon 2009 where it was a Tier IV skill in the Battlemaster Skill Tree. Flux had this to say about it:[1]

I haven’t used it, but one assumes it’s a sort of magical skill, where the melee weapon is not actually discarded, but only projected as a sort of virtual ranged weapon, while remaining in the Barbarian’s hands for additional use. Handy to whip this out once in a while to deal with a pesky ranged attacker, or something with wings?

At BlizzCon 2010, after skill trees were removed, Weapon Throw had been moved up to Tier 2, but seemed otherwise unchanged. Although it was available in the demo, there are no gameplay reports detailing any usage of this skill.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, allowing skills to unlock steadily from levels 1 to 30. Consequently, all skill levels were adjusted and Weapon Throw became a level 7 skill.

Beta

The Diablo III Beta started in September 2011, and while it ran, all of the skills continued to undergo extensive iteration. Skill changes varied from changing the levels the skills are unlocked, to changes in resource cost, damage, and even function. A few skills were removed altogether, and a few new ones were added. Also, the entire skill system received an overhaul with the Beta Patch 13 update in February 2012, with physical runes replaced by rune effects that automatically unlock at various levels for the different skills.

Weapon Throw remained at level 7 when the beta started. With the Patch 13 changes, it was classified as a Tactics skill and moved to level 15, putting it out of reach for the remainder of the beta. For the Beta Patch 14, it was dropped to level 14.

In Other Games

Although Weapon Throw is not a skill in Diablo II, all classes in D2 possess the generic skill Throw, which allows the character to, well, throw weapons. All throwing weapons are physical and finite, and can run out unless replenished.

Media

Weapon Throw can be seen in action on video here:

• Video: August 2011 Barbarian Skill Animations

You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Weapon Throw specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Barbarian Skill Trees and Stats
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report — IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Silva's Barbarian Runestone Effects — IncGamers 6th Sep 2011
• Barbarian Active Skills — Blizzard's Official Diablo III Site

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