Weapon Throw (10 Fury): Throw an axe that deals 100% weapon damage and slows what it hits by 60% for 2 seconds.
Weapon Throw is going to be your default skill for dealing with enemies that run or stay far away- especially the hideously annoying/dangerous giant insects in Act II. The damage alone is merely passable- but when combined with the slow effect, this skill becomes extremely useful for those sorts of situations where you need to stop something moving about. This skill is especially strong in the hands of a two-handed weapon wielder, particularly given it doesn’t really care how slow or fast your weapon is- the real limiting factor on using it best is how long it takes the hurled axe to reach the target. Take care, though, Weapon Throw can eat through your Fury surprisingly fast.
Mighty Throw (10 Fury): Throw an axe that deals 130% weapon damage and slows what it hits by 60% for 2 seconds. .
Mighty Throw is nothing special, but it is a simple and useful improvement to the base skill. Really, there’s not much to say about it.
Ricochet (10 Fury):
Throw an axe that deals 100% weapon damage and slows what it hits by
60% for 2 seconds. It then bounces to up to two additional targets in
sequence for the same effect, each target within 20 yards of the last.
Ricochet, on the other hand, is a vast improvement on the base skill. Since enemies that flee or that stay at a distance are rarely solitary, the ability to hit multiple things with one Weapon Throw is invaluable- to say nothing of multiplying the total damage to as much as 300% of weapon damage! The only real issue is that it’s impossible to actually control which two nearby enemies the additional targets are. On the upside, it does occasionally bounce back to hit the first target a second time....
Throwing Hammer (10 Fury): Throw
an axe that deals 100% weapon damage and slows what it hits by 60% for 2
seconds, with a 50% chance to inflict a 1.5 second Stun.
If you’re going to fight a boss at range- or even a boss at all- Throwing Hammer is a very nice rune to have, and makes Weapon Throw extremely useful. While the stun is only a chance and not certain, it’s pretty easy to scrape enough Fury together to throw two or three hammers and thus ensure you get the stun.
Stupefy (10 Fury): Throw an axe
that deals 100% weapon damage and slows what it hits by 60% for 2
seconds and has a 20% chance of Confusing it for 6 seconds.
If you really want to change your throwing weapon into a weird utility, then you are looking for Stupefy. While Confusion can be very strong in some situations, as a Barbarian you’re generally throwing a weapon at it because you intend to kill it next- making Stupefy not as useful if you continue using Weapon Throw the same as you have been up until you get the rune. If, instead, you don’t use Weapon Throw very often and instead afflict things out in the far reaches of the field with it, you can accomplish some amusing damage while still wreaking havoc where you stand. That said, this rune bears mentioning more for the amusement than for anything else, since the rate of Confusion is very low.
Dread Bomb (All Your Fury, Minimum 10):
Throw a corpse that deals 100% weapon damage plus 3% weapon damage for
each point of Fury spent to all enemies within 12 yards of the landing
point.
Dread Bomb turns Weapon Throw into something that approaches the ‘ultimate projectile’- though that title should probably go to a Demon Hunter skill. Provided you take the time to charge up your Rage orb fully before throwing it, Dread Bomb can become one right nasty attack, and will leave a memorable imprint even if you can’t take advantage of its area of effect to hit multiple enemies. Not something you want to do frequently, since it consumes all your Fury. Then again, there are all these runes for generating silly amounts of Fury.... hmmm....
