A new look at the Hunter Artifact Weapons in Legion

The lore behind the Hunter artifacts was recently revealed by Blizzard. Marksmanship gets a bow/crossbow, Beast Mastery a gun, and Survival a spear. If you don’t like the looks of these weapons, keep in mind that you can transmog them even though they’re artifacts. However, you cannot transmog into another spec’s artifact.

Here is how they envision the three Hunter specs in Legion along with their weapons:

Originally Posted by Blizzard

  • Beast Master Hunters are uniquely bonded with the beasts they hunt, blurring the lines between predator and prey. To offset the dangers they face in the wild, they wield the rifle Titanstrike, a techno-magical engineering marvel, perfect for staying on target.
  • Marksmanship Hunters are at their best killing from afar. Having a trustworthy weapon in hand is vital, and no finer bow exists than Thas’dora, Legacy of the Windrunners.
  • Survival Hunters are masters of enduring in the wild, using traps and snares to bleed their enemies. With the Ancient-touched Talonclaw, Spear of the Wild Gods in hand, they can finish their foes with one final thrust.

Source: MMO-Champion
Source: MMO-Champion

Beast Mastery — Titanstrike

Much thanks to @TheSlickrock for obliging my request for some high quality pictures of the Beast Mastery guns on display at BlizzCon.

The lore behind Titanstrike is pretty cool, if you ask me. It’s powered by a Titan relic and was crafted by Mimiron! It sounds very engineering-centric. I wonder if this means our artifact quest will take us back to Ulduar to meet up with Mimiron? Maybe he’ll have another big red button for us to push…

Originally Posted by Blizzard
A peerless example of techno-magical engineering, the Titanstrike was designed by Keeper Mimiron, a titanic watcher and brilliant inventor. Securely housed in the heart of the rifle, a relic known as the Thunderspark powers the Titanstrike, harnessing the essence of storms and focusing it into concentrated blasts of energy. The rifle’s power source can also be credited to Mimiron, who devised it for his comrade, Keeper Thorim, in ages past.

The general opinion I’ve seen on Twitter is that a lot of people aren’t a fan of the gun for Beast Mastery. For some of them, it’s the very fact it’s a gun and not a bow, and for others they just don’t like the look of it. Personally, I like guns, and I definitely like at least some of these variations but need to see them in motion to form a proper opinion. The “Eagle Eye” variant looks pretty sharp. The “Cobra Shot” gun/crossbow/hybrid looks like it could have a cool firing animation too.

Image gallery source: Wowhead

Source: MMO-Champion
Source: MMO-Champion

Marksmanship — Thas’dorah

We’ve seen most of these looks from back at Gamescom, and the name hasn’t changed either. The one BIG change is that there appears to be a Crossbow variant! This bow also has some serious lore to back it up… it was formerly wielded by Alleria Windrunner.

Originally Posted by Blizzard
A proud heirloom of the Windrunner family, Thas’dorah was carved from a bough of the mother tree of Eversong Woods shortly after the elven kingdom of Quel’Thalas was founded. Handed down to the eldest of each generation, the bow was last wielded by the high elf Ranger Captain Alleria Windrunner. It disappeared along with its owner following the destruction of the orcs’ homeworld, Draenor, and the subsequent formation of Outland.

Image gallery source: Wowhead

Source: MMO-Champion
Source: MMO-Champion

Survival — Talonclaw

Nothing has changed here since Gamescom, except the weapon has been renamed. Originally known as the Eagle Spear, it’s now Talonclaw, Spear of the Wild Gods.

Originally Posted by Blizzard
The Highmountain tauren crafted this spear, which predates the first demonic invasion of Azeroth more than ten thousand years ago. Talonclaw’s wielders have fought alongside many guardian animal spirits, also known as Ancients, to defend the world of Azeroth and its wildlife in particular. Over the millennia, these Ancients have bestowed their blessings on the weapon, imbuing it with a portion of their power.

Image gallery source: Wowhead

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

53 thoughts on “A new look at the Hunter Artifact Weapons in Legion”

  1. I have to agree, as a diehard BM I do not like the gun. It’s not JUST that it’s a gun, though that is a large part of it, it’s that it’s so plain and generic compared to the bow. It’s also not something with known, established lore to it.

      1. I have changed.I now welcome melee hunter idea. Also why isnt there a heavy weapons spec? dual wielding and using grenades and artillery

  2. I am one of the many people who dislike the gun. I’ve always thought of my lovely hunter as having forged his way in the wilds. Utilising what is all around him befriending the beasts and creating weapons from what can be found and created in nature like a bow. The whole idea of a gun is less natural, it would need to be engineered and made from metal and bolts which would be harder to come across in the wild. But It’s of course a personal thing. I understand they want to go back to the core of the different classes but to me a gun in the hands of my hunter has never been the fantasy. I could go MM for the bow but then I loose the pet the other quintessential part of the hunter fantasy in my head. I feel hunters are one of the classes where instead of distilling the class fantasy they’re tearing it apart.

    1. I have to agree. I like the engineering aspect so it’s not like I hate guns. For me MM seems the better spec for a gun for some reason. I also know they’re trying for distinction in the specs. For some classes there really is a big difference in the weapon of choice by spec, for hunters, I don’t think so. It’d be nice to swap either weapon on either ranged spec. I’ve collected a lot of bows, crossbows & guns – close to 200. Xmog changes will make all this easier. When in BM spec, I almost always use a bow and I switch it up, I’ve got lots of great ones, like to get them all out once in awhile. Also, match the weapon to the gear set at times.

      1. I agree wholeheartedly. MM are supposed to be the snipers, so technically a gun would be far more appropriate than a bow. And BM, seeing as the spec closest to nature, would use a bow for being far more silent. It just doesn’t make sense to switch them around. I wonder if we’re going to be able to change one into the other, so that one could grind in order to get both artifacts and just get the look of the bow on Titanstrike.

  3. Am I the only dedicated BM here besides Bendak who doesn’t hate the gun? My fave is the Razorback.

    Look, BM hunters don’t lose themselves in the wild like SV hunters, there isn’t a need as much to go “all natural” with it.

    I think of BM hunters as the balance between being “civilized” like MM hunters and losing themselves in the wilds like SV ones. Mimiron made our gun to keep us rooted, to be a counterpart to the wild savagery of our beasts and with our weapon to create a balance within us.

    When you hunt with dogs (the closest irl equivalent to BM) you either use the animals to flush out game and use a gun, shoot your quarry and use a gun dog to retrieve, or use large dogs that fight the prey and finish the prey off with a kill gun. Really a gun is the best choice for our spec.

    Also if you don’t like how the gun looks, that is what transmog is for.

    1. I don’t mind it as well. IMO the eagle eye seems interesting specially if it is somewhat like our current engineering gun.

      I prefer the bow but I don’t dislike the gun, I have no idea what I’m going to run on Legion, probably everything lol

    2. I can imagine Elves being less happy with a gun but personally I prefer guns on my Dwarf so I’m happy. Based on the images I like Eagle Eye best but maybe some of the others will have really cool animations.

    3. Well the point is a lot of BM hunter players are now … let’s say sad, that what they get is gun. There are races where the gun just looks good and races where it just looks like the biggest mistake. I personaly hate guns. They are mostly just ugly and the sound they making is the worst. I love sound in wow, but everytime there is some hunter with gun…gosh I would be happy just to stun him for rest of the raid.

      And yeah…there is always the transmog. But it is kind of sad don’t you think? Blizz said: ”We will give you some epic weapon, you will be feeling like the badass.” I was hyped about it…finally I can perhaps change the bow I have since BC. And what we get? Some crapy looking gun…I mean just by looking at that design. This is horrible. It doesn’t give that hey I am freaking badass feeling. I think currently there are much better looking guns in game than this crap.

      And it is hard to say what true BM hunter should looks like. If you are elf, you mostly play or feel that your character is stalking from shadows. Be quiet and let your beast hunt down the prey. Even if I do not play elf, I see my BM hunter as quiet, stalker type. If you have gun it is too violent, to loud. MM is much better option for gun (with current plan when they do not have pet anymore), MM=sniper. Much better reason to use gun.

      Well to conclude…It is sad that after so many promises from Blizzard, majority of BM hunter comunity is saying:”F* that gun I’m gonna transmog it as soon as possible.”

    1. Yes, you can transmog your artifact weapon to bow, gun, or crossbow. You can’t transmog a different artifact’s appearance though, so no mogging the MM bow as BM.

      1. Ok, thanks for the info. I feel a little less of a loss now, if I can play the only “real” hunter they have left us (BM) and have my weapon look like a bow. I do have some pretty cool bows in my transmog closet!

  4. I am also a gun hater. It doesn’t look bad, but I hate them so much. I hate the sound, I dislike the animation. Bows are just so much more elegant. Plus, I play a Belf. Elves use bows. They just do. A gun just doesn’t work for me. Have they said anything about how artifacts will work? Do they transform if we change our spec? Can I go Marksman, get a bow, and then go back to BM and keep it? The bow looks amazing, but I love beast mastery.

    1. The artifacts are individual per spec (unless we hear different tomorrow). You have to acquire all of them separately. No transforming when you swap specs.

  5. It’s like you guys forget about dwarven hunters…you know, the race that represents the hunter class in the original wow cinematic from 2004?

    Also, hardly any weapons have established lore. Foomhammer and Ashbringer – that’s it. Other weapons might have been wielded out crafted by major lore figures, but they have never been seen in game.

    I for one am thrilled with all our options. My only hope is that they will allow artifacts (and only artifacts) to be transmogged to other artifacts, though that would really only matter for a few classes.

    IMO, shamans have much more to be angry about. Elemental gets a fist weapon, which you will never see unless you unsheath weapons, which automatically sheath again when you start casting.

  6. I wish MM got the gun. I hate the barrage animation with a bow on my Draenei. Spurts one blast then nothing even though I still do damage. Guns and crossbows dont have that problem.

  7. I can’t wait for more details on survival.

    My ideal surv spec:

    Heavy use of traps
    Mid range weapon thrower
    Dual wielding axes in melee
    Utility based pet use.

  8. I feel like my only grievance with the bow has to be is that it seems very similar (almost too similar) to the bow used by the god Hou Yi in Smite, specifically the red variation. For anyone who is unfamiliar with what I am referring to here is a link for your visual comparison, http://i.imgur.com/YH4ui5L.png.

  9. As a BM Belf I must agree the gun does’nt work for me. Elves use bows its just that simple. Also from a lore perspective a Windrunner bow makes much more sense for a belf. The gun does look pretty cool I must admit but, I’M AN ELF I DON’T USE GUNS!!!! C’mon blizz throw us some kind of bone maybe let BM and MM choose which quest they want to undertake for their weapon. Sure I could transmog but then I wouldn’t have a cool looking artifact bow.

  10. These are exciting times!
    For my sense of things, a Marksman (just by name alone) would use a gun for it’s pure accuracy. Beast Master would use a bow since he is out hunting with his pet, probably a closer shot and a gun would hurt your pets ears!

    1. I agree with you. Guns are very Un exciting unless if you’re a dwarf or human imo
      Plus they’re so noisy during game play. Before we had transmog I almost never used guns even if they were higher I lvl for that reason

      1. It might be too much trouble for you, but there have been addons that tone down the noise of guns in the game for quite a long time.

  11. When trying to think of what I see people transmog their weapons, I see primarily bows and guns (I can’t think of a time that I’ve seen crossbows really). So yeah, Marksman is obviously getting Alleria’s bow, that just makes sense, so BM getting guns seems to be the logical choice from that stand point. However, I just don’t see how Titanstrike fits the Fantasy of Beast Masters. If going by the above logic, (that guns are for Beast Masters), then the argument is, who do we know in the Lore, that we’ve interacted with, that has mastery over beasts and who uses guns.

    Hemet Nesingwary.

    His entire quest line is about Mastery over beasts (it’s quite literally called that).. he’s about hunting them and he uses guns.

    If there is a way to perhaps shoehorn Nesingwary into giving you his father’s gun or some other similarly interesting story device, then yeah, I could see this flying. But the lore revealed behind this weapon doesn’t invoke that sense of Fantasy to me

  12. Bows are my favourite weapon. Not just in WoW but in pretty much everything.
    My least? Firearms. So yeah, not a happy Worgen at all.
    Bows are elegant, silent & powerful. The perfect predatory weapon for a Hunter.

    Guns are, loud, clumsy & imo ugly. They are for big game hunters, aka trophy hunters.
    Not for those who live in the wild like the beasts they call friends.

    If you’re a Dwarf guns work for your race, they just look right.
    But with Trolls, Tauren & the elves guns just look out of place.

    I’m seriously considering changing to Survival as I love that wolf-head polearm/staff.
    But that means giving up my Loque’nahak & there isn’t a chance of that.
    So basically my only choice is to either abandon my class identity & go with Blizzard’s big game hunting engineer version of BM.
    Or mog it into my Dragon Slayer’s Shortbow & miss out on one of the coolest parts of the expansion, skin collecting.

    I love the idea of artifacts. Your weapon leveling with you.
    But this to me seems to be removing choice.
    Not just with Hunters. Fire Mages are stuck with a sword, Frost DKs are stuck dual-wielding & Shadow Priests are stuck with a dagger.
    I wish they’d just let us choose. I’d pick up that bow in a heartbeat.

  13. This is tough for me, even though I play the gun race (dwarf) I hate using guns. I know there are rifleman in the Warcraft series but it just doesn’t feel magical or RP at all why not get an AR-15 or ak47 ? Okay I know that’s a stretch but I feel guns in game and in real life are stupid. Yeah I can transmog it but to what the bow I’ve been using for transmog since they released that feature? Cool. Let us transmog into the legendary bow and it’ll shut everyone up. I do think the gun models themselves look good but guns just aren’t for me I really hope that cobra one is a crossbow, it’s the best looking one they have.

  14. I love BM as i love my Pet, and I’m with other people. A Gun is something that is used for hunting game, not for living alongside it. Also MM to me is a sniper, makes more sense for them to have the gun. I hate the fact i won’t have a choice of having a bow as BM and will be stuck with those ugly guns or having to transmog away from the new artifact look 🙁 Comeon blizz give us some choice outside of 1 weapon 🙁

    1. Imagine all those people in the world today hunting, with dogs, and guns. :/

      And people need to stop saying give us a choice outside of 1 weapon. Do people really have ANY CLUE as to how difficult it will be to program in alll the artifact traits and talents to a multiple options on multiple specs? You have options, Xmog it to the bow variant.

      1. You must be confused on what the fantasy behind beast mastery is. We arent freakin nessingwary hunting for sport beast masters tame and become loyal companions with their pets, never will a gun fit that fantasy of being one with the beasts of the world and nature by association. Some gun engineered in one of the most technologically advanced city/fortress doesnt exactly scream “natural” to me.

        1. Ok, so xmog it into a bow if it doesn’t fit YOUR personal opinion on what the class fantasy is. People are acting like they are stuck with the gun for all of legion lol.

          Nobody every said that marksman was a hunting spec yet I see a number of posts stating that MM should have the gun?

      2. Actually, it wouldn’t be that hard. You just need to copy-paste the artifact, and then change the lines concerning name, type of weapon, and model

  15. I also do not like the gun, first the sound it makes and secondly the materials used.
    That’s why i Always transmog guns to bows. (Bow should Always be for BM and guns and crossbows for MM.

  16. I’m in love with the MM bow. Not only does it look AWESOME, but the lore behind it is amazing.

    The SV weapon makes a LOT of sense considering the changes coming to the spec.

    The BM gun… well… I believe the word I’ve been looking for is “underwhelming”. I look at it and say “meh”. I llive the Ulduar lore, and it’s gonna be cool to go back and work with Mimiron to create it, but… damn it’s ugly. And the name also is not great.

    One might say that it’s nothing, and that stats are the only thing that matters… but this weapon is supposed to be my only weapon for almost an entire expansion (at least), so the way it looks and how it’s called becomes something really important. If we take a look at names from Ulduar loot from WotLK, for example, we find some pretty cool names, like Touch of Madness, Aesuga, Hand of the Ardent Champion, Serilas, Blood Blade of Invar One-Arm… “Titanstrike” does not sound epic or legendary or artifacty. Not when the MM weapon is called “Thas’dora, Legacy of the Windrunners”.

    Also, keep in mind that the Windrunners are *famous* for being great marksmen. But Mimiron (or Thorim for that matter) are not really connected to beast mastery…

  17. Here’s the one ting I heavily dislike about it all: Originally, you had 4 hunter races (I hate that now everyone can be a hunter, but let’s forget about that for a minte)

    For the Alliance, you had the Elves and the Dwarves
    For the Horde you had the Tauren and the Trolls.

    Now, we have an Elven origins artifact (the bow)
    a Dwarven origins artifact (the rifle)
    and a Tauren origins artifact (the spear)
    But there’s nothing troll-related. Not even a trollish-feathery skin, or something.

    It’s true, in WC I, II & III trolls used throwing axes, but at least a skin would’ve been nice. It’s the Bat mount all over again (and the first one I saw on it when it was launched was a gnome ¬¬ I had to kill him)

Leave a Reply to KittyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.