Legion Survival Hunter Spell Animations and Artifact Preview, Method's Darkheart Thicket Guide

Posted 2016/03/16 at 2:03 PM by perculia

TalonclawDarkheart Thicket GuideDarkheart ThicketArchdruid GlaidalisOakheartDresaronShade of XaviushereHighmaulFoundryHellfire CitadelSurvival Hunter Spell AnimationsplaylistCarveFury of the EagleHarpoonButcherySpitting CobraSurvival Hunter Artifact AcquisitionTalonclawYouTube Artifact Acquisition Playlist

The Highmountain tribe lost their greatest weapon, the ancient spear of Huln Highmountain, long ago to a magically corrupted monstrosity.
They ask you to travel to Stormheim, kill their nemesis, and reclaim the spear for the fight against the Legion.

The Spear in the Shadow

Apata yells: I hope my brother didn't go after the beast himself. He can be... impulsive.
There is his signal! Let us land and see what he learned.

Apata says: Wuho! Have you found the monster?
Wuho says: Not yet, but it is indeed the foe we seek. The kvaldir here speak of a giant cat that made its lair in the deep swamps. They raided a wall of magic wards to keep it at bay.
Apata says: We must find a way through! Wuho, you and I should examine the wards while our friend searches the harbor.

Apata says: Calm yourself, Wuho!
Patience, brother. To gaze upon Talonclaw will be a sight to remember. Look! Our friend returns!
Wuho says: Our tribe's greatest weapon and its ancient enemy are but a few strides away! I will not be stopped by some foul fog and magic!
Apata says: Wonderful! I can just attach them here and... It is done. Let us go across!

Apata says: It is... eerily quiet.
I cannot sense any beasts at all!
And yet, I am certain we are being watched...
Apata yells: The beast is there! An'she protect us!

Apata says: It went into that deep patch of mist. It could be hiding anywhere! Do your have a trap strong enough to hold the beast?
It claws at us from the mist! Hurry! Hold off these lesser beasts until the trap is sprung!
It worked! Slay the monster!

Apata yells: Wuho! No!
Apata says: Beloved brother... I should never have brought you!
You shall be avenged! We must finish this, Dakarr,. Follow the monster!

Apata yells: Not again, beast! I will-- AAARGHH!!
It is... over for me... you must... finish this.
Slay... the monster. Find... Talonclaw...

Dorro says: At long last the monster is dead and our relic reclaimed. My spirit can finally move on from this place...
Hero, I sense your destiny lies with the ancient night elf who started you on this journey. Before I depart, I can send you back to the city in the sky.
May Talonclaw serve you well.

Survival Hunter Weapon ModelsTalonclawYouTube Artifact Models PlaylistLegion Dressing RoomArtifact Calculatorsave and share an Outfit with this artifact

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Comments

Comment by Arraya

I'm so happy to see Wing Clip and other vanilla spells returning :3

Comment by overthinker

I laughed at all the old Hunter abilities making a come back. I will deffinetly be lving up a serv hunter in Legion.

Comment by SilverDragon234

Can't miss a spear in hand, 'cause Talonclaw is mean to be the strongest two-handed spear there is.

Comment by sgtevmckay

That appears to be a lot of Attacks, compared to what I have seen in other classes (IMO)

I hope it is not button bloated in order to compensate for the shortcomings of Survival in the current release.

Comment by 1129472

Butchery is literally auto attack with some claw shreds going around the character, meh
Fury of the eagle is… literally fists of fury animation are you serious
many abilities share an animation, or a graphic like explosive trap/dragonfire grenade

This is probably the most disappointing melee class animations set so far, I hope these abilities get some serious touching up
Butchery should spin with the claw marks, it just looks awkward.
Fury of the eagle, please ANYTHING but grabbing a monk animation and pasting it to hunters.

Get some of your own unique animations instead of fancying up auto attacks and stealing from the other melees, you damn dirty hunters.

Comment by fluffyunicorn

Overall, I feel like the Survival Hunter attack/spell animations are very lazy looking. They lack any personality and flavor (which is supposed to be one of the goals of this expansion) and overall are very lackluster when stood next to other classes with great animations like Frost Death Knights. Frost Death Knights are a melee class with lots of nice abilities woven in, similar to how Survival Hunters seem like they will function. Sadly, while the Frost DKs have received very nice ability animations and spell animations, Survival Hunters have, what appears to be, three animations with differently colored textures on them for their entire kit. Some of the ability names also feel like they don't fit in with the rest. Butchery and Carve sound like talents ripped from HotS' The Butcher instead of abilities in the family of Mongoose Bite and Wing Clip.

A Murder of Crows: It looks different than it does on live, but it somehow looks worse? The crows look like they're just spinning around their target and not actually attacking it like they do now.

Butchery: What is there to say about this other than it's just the auto attack animation with an outdated and ill-fitting Feral Druid animation.

Carve: It looks fine, although a bit too simple for my taste. It's just a boring sideswipe with an arc of color. Spoiler Alert: This is going to be the trend for the rest of the abilities.

Flanking Strike: Simple but nice.

Fury of the Eagle: They chose one of the absolute worst ability animations in the game and tacked on some really shoddy looking... poison spears(?) to it. I think that some quick stabs and slashes with the weapon would look so much better than the current choice of animation.

Harpoon: Looks nice. Nothing more to say really. I like the eagle that appears behind you as you leap to your target.

Hatchet Toss: The animation is, hopefully obviously, delayed. Aside from that, it's really boring looking. The hatchet looks like the hatchets every hunter had to dual-wield for the longest time in Classic; could a nicer model be chosen for the thrown weapon so it isn't, like the rest of the animations, so boring? Weapon in question: Bone Slicing Hatchet

Lacerate: The downward slash looks nice, but it's, once again, really plain looking. A lack of particle effects makes it hard to realize at first glance that an ability is even being used. I mean, look at Eviscerate: it's a plain ability-use swing animation, but at least you get the nice particle effects around you.

Mongoose Bite: I like the swing animation of it, but once again, the lack of particle effects makes me feel like you're just auto attacking, and that's boring for everyone involved.

Muzzle: For what I'm assuming is an interrupt, it's simple and quick without getting lost. It's nice.

Ranger's Net: Aside from it moving so quickly you can barely see it being thrown, the texture is just a spider web. Is an actual net asking too for much?

Raptor Strike: Simple and clean but looks good overall. The sound effect for it is nice, although the green crescent swipe is pretty meh.

Spitting Cobra: I can only dream that the Cobra model will get touched up for Legion like the sheep and deer were, but if it doesn't get retextured, at least its spit animation looks newer.

Sticky Bomb: Looks fine.

Throwing Axes: Same issue as Hatchet Toss. The axe used is just The Decapitator with the same animation from when you would right-click it for its use effect. If they just made a nice axe model for Survival Hunters they could use it for both Throwing Axes and Hatchet Toss.

Wing Clip: The exact same animation as Mongoose Bite with a differently colored arc for the swing. Please.

Caltrops: The animation is nice and the caltrops themselves, but why is there a Warcraft III Meat Wagon sound effect when they land? Are they meaty caltrops?

Dragonsfire Grenade: I'm not sure which animation is supposed to be for this, but if it's the first one, the grenade just jumping up 6 feet out of nowhere repeatedly looks silly. At least put an animation similar to the cracks on the ground left behind by a Warrior's Heroic Leap so that it isn't just phasing through the ground. If the animation is actually the second one, why is a bear trap being flung at your target for Dragonsfire Grenade?

Explosive Trap: See Dragonsfire Grenade

Freezing Trap: Tiny, green ice trap. It looks ridiculous(ly bad).

Tar Trap: Icy blue tar. Also looks ridiculous(ly bad).

Aspect of the Cheetah: Classic but good.

Aspect of the Eagle: Classic but good.

Aspect of the Turtle: The shell looks really nice.

Exhilaration: Not much you can do with this spell. It looks nice.

Camouflage: Same nice cloak effect. Looks fine.

Overall I feel like the Survival Hunter animations need a lot of fixing up before they're up to the level of the other previewed classes. The fantasy they're trying to sell me just isn't there, which is sad because of the hype of the revival of Melee Hunter that has been sorely missed for nearly a decade.

Comment by Fenzik

It seems pretty apparent that the vast majority of these are placeholder animations. So far Blizz has been kind enough to give each melee spec it's own stuff...and literally all of these were either taken from another spec or just look awful. They NEED to make it look like our toons are actually using a spear, rather than a 2 handed sword on a stick...

Honestly, I think making an animation vid for Survival was a bit premature. But what do I know?

Comment by perculia

Honestly, I think making an animation vid for Survival was a bit premature. But what do I know?

They were one of the first specs available on the Alpha - they have been playable for 3+ months. If they do get a massive revamp we'll mark the video as *early* and make another one. We've redone some artifact model videos so far.

Comment by 1547644

Fury of the Eagle: They chose one of the absolute worst ability animations in the game and tacked on some really shoddy looking... poison spears(?) to it. I think that some quick stabs and slashes with the weapon would look so much better than the current choice of animation.

Comment by TrveFenris

Auto-attacks from polearms are... Well... Broken since the beginning. I want to see some spears above the shoulders, you know. Less slashing, more thrusting/lunging.

Comment by Viterzgir

Comment by SeishaTheInsane

Totally agree with all of you, my Hunter is my main since 10 years, i am always happy of changes, but i recognize that we are still not the luckiest class about animations ... I hope this is only temporary and that there will be improvements, some animations are still work in progress I 'm sure. It is true that compared to other classes (dk , dh , paly or war for example) , I am feeling a little neglected :( We'll see !

Comment by Tbtorres

Is so great harpoon better than charge rofl

Comment by forvisk

It seems that most attacks are like using a two-handed sword or axe instead of a spear.

Comment by 1547644

It seems that most attacks are like using a two-handed sword or axe instead of a spear.

Yeah, I don't really understand what was going on there. I was watching the video with a friend and I remarked that he's holding the spear way too close to the bladed part and he looks like he's just holding the hilt of a sword. Why isn't the auto attack a type of stab and why aren't the special animations different kinds of lunges or something. He looks like he's never held a spear in his life.

Side note: the spear looks really short. Is it just me?

Comment by Bullerick

I heard about the ability "Spitting Cobra" but I didn't think that was literally a spitting cobra :D

Comment by Caelfury

The way he is holding and attacking with the spear drives me crazy.

Comment by 1054966

Fury of the Eagle is particularly atrocious in a set of animations that are either unfinished or just completely uninspired. Frost DK is so polished and beautiful, yet these are god awful. What happened?
Guys.

GUYS.

You need to remember the important facts of life, like how we are hunters. Hunters don't get cool effects, sillies :3

Comment by 1260938

Yup, they didn't really break themselves working on the hunter animations. Which kinda suits me cause I was suffering from alt-oholism and now I can pretty much remove hunter from that list because only MM remains as a spec I would enjoy.