Shot of the Week: Glaive Toss

Each week we’ll look at the history and utility of some of the greatest abilities in the Hunter’s arsenal

Anyone here old enough to remember the movie Krull? It’s an 80’s moving that featured a dude tossing around a glaive. You now get to be that dude.

Glaive Toss is a level 90 talent, and the go to spell for PvE. It’s an AoE ability that works well as a single target spell. For more extreme AoE situations Barrage is better, but Glaive Toss works pretty darn well, and it’s fun.

“You hurl two glaives toward a target, each dealing 437 to 1308 (+20% of Attack Power) damage to each enemy struck and reducing movement speed by 30% for 3 sec. The primary target will take four times as much damage from each strike.

The glaives will return back to you, damaging and snaring targets again as they return.”

What I like about this ability is that it requires skill and thought to maximize it’s damage. If you’re in an AoE fight you want to try and target the mob in the back of the pack. That way the glaives will hit all of the mobs in front of your target. You also need to be mindful of your position for the glaives’ return so that you ensure they hit all of the targets a second time.

Tossing glaives may seem out of character since Hunters are used to dealing damage with guns, bows and crossbows, but this is well implemented and does not feel out of place. It has a very distinct animation that really stands out above the others. When you fire Glaive Toss everyone in your party and raid will know it. Depending on your distance from the target, the flight time may exceed the GCD, so don’t get caught staring and wait too long to fire your next ability.

Glaive toss is one of my favorite abilities. With a short cooldown, low focus cost and great animation I make every effort to fire it when it’s up. On a side note, I really hope that blizzard takes a look at all the Hunter shots in Warlords of Draenor and finds ways to make their animations on the same level as Glaive Toss.

Happy Hunting!