Hello! This thread is about ability animations in wow. Over the years there have been some incredible animations in the game. Animations are very important for a game’s wellbeing and immersion. I would like people to express what they like or dislike about certain animations. Obviously this is a subjective topic so I will start of by making a small list of my own.
Good animation examples:
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Lava Burst
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Bloodthirst
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Condemn
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Demonbolt (WOD animation)
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Old windfury proc (TBC – not sure when it changed)
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Whirlwind and Bladestorm (Old pre-legion versions)
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Soul Fire
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Divine Storm (pre-Legion)
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Rising Sun kick
Bad Animation examples:
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Shadowbolt (New post Legion version)
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Frostbolt (New post Legion version)
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Whirlwind and Bladestorm (New versions)
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New 2h special ability animations (Slam, Crusader Strike, etc… excluding some e.g. Obliterate)
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Incinerate (New. Old one was fine)
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Demonbolt (Legion version)
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Almost all new legion rogue animations (Mainly because of sound)
My favorite complete specs in terms of animations were:
Please share your favorite and least favorite animations! What are the reasons behind it?
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Most new ones, I prefer the older ones.
They weren’t as overly flashy, and didn’t have awful sounds.
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I do agree that looking at the overall picture, older animations were better
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One of the main reasons i dont play retail anymore is the bad visuals and sounds!
I love fury warrior in classic. The animations, the sound and the overall feeling is just great to play.
I like most melee abilities. The only one I really dislike is the one that makes me look like I’m swinging a baseball bat.
Caster battle stance. I wish they would get rid of it.
Also I wish they would fix DK eyes, I would like if they would allow us to have normal eyes as an option that was promised aeons ago.
I know, these are not abilities, but these are pretty much the only animations that bother me.
Yes, I think you are talking about the one performed when templar’s verdict is cast. My favorite melee ones are the 2h female orc animations in classic
I do completely agree that this is just redundant and looks bad
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I agree! most monk animations just look very good!
Templars verdict.
It used to have a cool animation but now it sucks.
this
i wish they could get rid of cringey battle stance on belfs.
to answer op question, humans … everything, they looks so outdated
Generally happy with animations, but Judgment bothers me. It’s throwing a hammer, and given that paladins are generally in melee range, throwing anything at point blank range looks stupid.
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I like most of animations. So i will only point out some that are anoying me personaly.
First of… Zig zag batman…like why the F i have to watch big meta colosal batman zigzaging on my screen? DH animations in pvp or close pve clusters are insanely anoying imho.
Tree form aka brocoli and spirit crane kick on monks looks stupid. Imho. Especialy on pandarens.
Moonfire sunfire animations especialy in aoe pve and when there are more moonkins are insanely anoyng aswell…
Also if we talk about sounds… Most of warrior shouts sounds mongoloidic and basicaly entire ww monk arsenal.
If you meet ww+ arms war in arena or bg and you play with sounds on …it sounds like youre in middle of the male - only adult movie with all the yelling and slapping…
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maybe i’m old but the all old animations and sounds
for example like ambush was so pleasant for my ears
nowdays it’s more i would say REALISTIC
And of course the OLD windfury was 1000 times better then the new one
I miss ret paladin templar verdict sound from CATACLYSM
they changed it in MOP
and i miss the old school divine storm it looked way more like storm
new one looks like from heroes of the storm.
One bonus
Hammer of the Righteous on prot paladin nowdays sounds ordinary but in MOP or WOD it sounded more EPIC and looked more EPIC.
and i forgot about the old school judgement i prefer the OLD one
it’s shame that you can’t choose
Totally agree with every point made
Not a fan of animations which arent race specific. Lava Burst would be one of them, just feels cheap to me.
For me it is on Retribution Paladin:
- Shield of Vengance - Bad - Could be a hand gesture implying a “shield build-up” instead
- Divine Storm - Bad/Good - Depends on the Taste
- Templar’s Verdict - Good - Classic animation and body language
- Wake of Ashes - Good - Feels powerful (and actually is with right rotation use)
- Blade of Justice - Bad - Feels too simple imo. Could be more of a rounded “Uppercut”-animation with the weapon to support the “sword from ground” thing
- Judgement - Good - Feels fluent and heavy/strong
- Crusader Strike - Good - Classic Weapon Smash. Feels good
Representing only my opinion. Feel free to disagree 
Going to have to agree with what many others have said: The older animations kindda look worse because of the lower polygon count and textures, but they are far more unique per different race and more importantly they are far more readable because each individual spell is not so flashy that they cover each other up. It’s always clear which dangerous and/or important spells are on a target in tBC, whereas in retail you kindda need an addon or incredible game awareness to be quite sure.
And Blizzard knows this, which is why they introduced spell culling, but that can make it even worse by literally hiding the dangerous spell because Blizzard might have miscalculated in their design how dangerous it is. Really frustrating stuff.
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