Morrowind talk:Throwing Weapons

Not sure anyone has mentioned it on this site yet, but regarding throwing weapons (throwing stars, knives etc), holding down the mouse so you are throwing the weapon with full damage, also has an effect on the SPEED with which you are throwing the throwing weapon with, and also the RANGE.

Try this with a throwing star, first of all throw of a load of steel throwing stars by fast clicking, and you'll see they move towards their target quite slowly. Also notice they are firing quite low under the onscreen crosshair, because of their low speed.

Next, hold down the mouse button and throw an individual steel throwing star one by one, holding down the mouse button so the animation is locked, and release them one by one (so full damage). You'll see the throwing star is thrown at a much faster speed, and it reaches its target much quicker, and also has longer range (before it hits the ground due to gravity). Also notice this longer held throwing star before release, is actually hitting a lot closer to the crosshair on the screen than if you were just fast clicking the throwing stars with low speed.

This point that I am trying to make is valid with ALL marksman weapon. Try with a bow / crossbow and you'll see the same result, just like with a throwing star.

Get a bonemold bow and some bonemold arrows (any bow and arrows will do) and spam click the arrows without holding the firing animation down, so the arrows are released as quickly as possible. You'll see the arrows fly slowly, and quite below the crosshair, and also their range is limited, they will fall down quickly due to gravity.

Next, hold down the fire button and release the arrow after you fully charged it back, you'll see the arrow fly really fast, a really long distance and also very accurate right on the crosshair.

This same applies with a crossbow. If you just spam click to fire a bolt after a bolt after a bolt, all the bolts released will fly a bit more slowly, at a slightly smaller range, and also a little bit below the crosshair. Now try firing the crossbow after you fully hold back the mouse button and then release it (so full damage). The bolt will fly faster, longer range, and close to the crosshair.

To sum all of this article, since I have not seen this written anywhere on this site, and have done numerous experiments with latest Steam version of Morrowind (no mods installed, no Tribunal, no Bloodmoon, the two addons were deselected before starting game):

If you spam click bows / crossbows / throwing weapons, they will have much faster firing rate but the projectile fired / thrown will move much slower towards the target, it will have smaller range (so gravity will pull it down quicker because of slower initial speed) and also the projectile will be quite some distance below the crosshair on the screen, making aiming a little bit trickier.

If the bow / crossbow / throwing weapon is thrown after having held back the mouse button for full animation (so full damage), the projectile will fly much quicker, have a longer range (before gravity pulls it down to the floor) and also the projectile will hit closer to the onscreen crosshair, making aiming easier.

I have not seen this written down anywhere, and I hope it helps someone. Victor.

Interesting, maybe this should be mentioned somewhere like the Marksman article or maybe the Combat article. Looking closer at the Combat article, speed and range are kinda brought up, like with arrows: "Arrows in Morrowind take a long time to be pulled down by gravity, so aiming above the target is necessary only for more distant targets." Bolts: "This makes them ideal for rapid firing in close quarters, though they can be used for medium-to-long range attacks as well (but be warned that gravity will bring down a bolt that wasn't fully drawn back sooner, making rapid-fire long-ranged combat less than ideal for crossbows)." Throwing weapons: "It also deserves mentioning that Thrown Weapons move much more slowly than Arrows or Bolts, and succumb to gravity sooner." I think you're right, though, and that it should be put somewhere. Specifically, that charging the attack does more than just affect the damage of the weapon, but that it also affects the speed and range of the ammunition. Maybe a note in the weapon damage section or somewhere on the marksman page? Not sure.--Croup shrunk (talk) 18:06, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Enchanting Power of Throwing Weapons

On the throwing weapons chart, perhaps there should be a column listing the enchantment points. I can see why this isn't listed for arrows and bolts: in the vanilla game, without mods or third party patches, you can't enchant arrows and bolts. But you can enchant throwing weapons. Granted, most throwing weapons can't be enchanted very much. The best one is in Tribunal (and the Tribunal weapons page actually does list enchantment points), some throwing weapons have 0 enchantment points even. But I think plenty of players would have interest in enchanting their throwing weapons. Unless someone thinks it's a bad idea I'll probably add it. --Croup shrunk (talk) 18:06, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

I went ahead and added the enchant column to the throwing weapons table. I noticed the Tribunal throwing weapons chart has a Speed column. I didn't add that to this one, because all the vanilla throwing weapons just have a 1.0 speed anyway. In Tribunal, one of the listed darts actually does have a different speed than the others, so it's useful information. I'm open to adding the speed column here if anyone thinks it should be though. --Croup shrunk (talk) 19:02, 21 September 2019 (UTC)