Breakfast Topic: What spell, skill, or talent do you miss?

Sometimes, the skills were worthless, and it's a good thing they went away (or at least, not a bad thing). Sometimes, though, we really did lose something special. For me, the talent that always makes me a little verklempt is Unholy Blight. Back in the early days of Wrath, Unholy Blight was an engine of destruction. For around half your runic power bar, it would summon a swarm of insects that would surround you, inflicting AOE damage to all enemies in melee range of you and infecting them with a disease that would make your strikes hit harder.
This, of course, was incredibly powerful. It made keeping threat as an unholy tank a breeze, and it made sure unholy DPS death knights topped the damage charts whenever there was an AOE fight. But what really made it awesome for me was the way it made me feel. I was a death knight, a walking tower of death, decay, and fear. My aura of malevolent power was so amazing that my enemies felt it gnawing at their very souls. That's why, whenever I look at the current talent and its silly little Death Coil damage boost, a single tear rolls down my cold, undead cheek.
What about you? Whether they've been removed or just nerfed beyond recognition, what old-school spells, talents, or skills do you miss?
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 8)
MattKrotzer Aug 17th 2011 9:52AM
Not really sure I get that. I've been having a blast with Firelands and the Molten Front. Of course, my playtime has been limited for much more than my scheduled raid nights lately, but I'm definitely enjoying WoW more right now than I had in months prior.
RavenJet Aug 17th 2011 8:33AM
I do rather miss my old spell and firestones, I still keep my last spellstone in the bank as a memento but much do I miss what used to be one of my favorite talented spells for affliction: Dark Pact.
My mana refil macro used to have Dark Pact as it's main use, with an alt-mod to life-tap. Being able to drain-tank when solo'ing without having to sacrifice life was awesome. My fellhunter main pet wasn't very mana dependent so I could easily stay topped up by stealing his mana. A lot of destro's at one point used to spec into this affliction spell then put their imp's on passive and just use them as a giant fast-regenerating mana battery. That was back in TBC of course, by wrath this wasn't really feasible for them anymore.
I do understand why it was removed, and in a sense it never really fitted the warlock core mechanic - sacrifice our own health for power, then replenish that health by stealing it from our enemies.
What makes me sad is that they took Dark Pact away for this primary reason - but then broke the other side of the mechanic completely.
So if there is something I miss even more than Dark Pact ? I miss when Drain-Life rotations were viable early in Cata. Ultimately I was forced to accept the reality and with it massively regear and regem (with DL locks were stacking mastery, with SB rotations we need practically everything a lot more than mastery) and change my rotation and play style.
But I truly do miss the drain life rotation, it was more fun to play and much more inline with the entire warlock ethos - especially on the affliction side.
Dhoum Aug 17th 2011 10:07PM
I, too, miss Drain Life. And the old Fel Armor health regen. And getting a decent health return (and damage, for that matter) from Death Coil. Hell, what happened to ALL the self-heals? Even my Prot pally barely has any left. I miss being able to help out my healers. Okay, I also miss being able to solo stuff.
RavenJet Aug 18th 2011 2:03AM
You are right of course. Self heals were nerfed massively early in cata when several were dropped and the others have been steadily needed ever since. I find it ironic since the original cata plans was to make them essential. Healers were badly nerfed and basically we were all told how crucial survival was. Even if you sacrifice 5% dps to get a self heal that was meant to be essential. All that now remains of that plan is triage healing. I will cast drain life only if I'm in a bad state health wise to buy my healers some time.
Gendou Aug 17th 2011 8:35AM
I can't believe no one has said Eyes of the Beast.
That was a fun but (mostly) useless spell I wish they'd retained.
Udderpowered Aug 17th 2011 8:56AM
I couldn't believe I didn't see this on the first page of comments! I loved that spell, running up the BG as a spider just snooping around trolling people was brilliant, so pissed they removed it.
Bring it back!
Natsumi Aug 17th 2011 9:05AM
They removed it to prevent Huntanks from being raid viable.
puffcake Aug 17th 2011 8:41AM
I miss the freeze effect that used to be on frostbolt/blizzard. Mmmm, nothing like rooting a mob in place and smacking it in the face with ice without ever getting hit. I also miss the extra boom on deep freeze on bosses.
Neofox Aug 17th 2011 8:41AM
I miss Frostbite so much. I've been a mage since early TBC (was a paladin before that), and I was always frost spec. My friends knew they'd always find me in BGs, clad in Merc gear, freezing and shattering things into beautiful oblivion. Frostbite gave a 15% chance for your chill effects to freeze the target in place for 5 seconds. I guess they decided to remove it because they wanted to add the new "Shattered Barrier" talent, which is an AoE freeze when your Ice Barrier breaks. I wish so much that they would remove Shattered Barrier and bring back Frostbite.
Also though, I do miss Divine Intervention. My old paladin used to always receive praise from the whole group when he was able to completely save the healer right before a wipe in a dungeon. I miss that.
WoW has changed far too much for its own good. (Not the spells, but as a whole. That is why it has recently lost about a million players, and that steady growth it saw during TBC has all but faded away.)
:'(
Dreadly Aug 17th 2011 8:45AM
Will of the Forsaken, when it was still awesome.
xxxwrathxxx Aug 17th 2011 8:44AM
Unholy Blight...the real one.
I used to love being a Undead Death Knight(Is that a pun?), with a swarm of bugs around me.
Yes its cool that I know basically "chuck" a swarm at an enemy but i liked it better when they surrounded me.
Bob Slocum Aug 17th 2011 8:47AM
Swirly ball. Bring it back.
Pantro Aug 17th 2011 8:52AM
Permament Tree form come back D:
Josho Aug 17th 2011 8:54AM
Divine Intervention, simply because pally suicide is awesome. Speaking of paladins, I still occasionally end up refreshing my seal after judgement. Old habits die hard, I guess. :(
Terrë Aug 17th 2011 8:54AM
I'm with Nyclaops on the hunter volley. I miss it dearly, esp when I'm having to hug something close and don't have any shots i can fire at close range.
I also miss the hybrid abilities of many classes. The new trees are too rigid IMO.
redwinger_6 Aug 17th 2011 8:58AM
Volley for hunters.
RS Aug 17th 2011 9:18AM
Multishot is nice, but there was just something cool about raining down arrows from above.
Farming definitely go a little trickier, not impossible. just trickier.
Straz Aug 17th 2011 9:31AM
Only thing I really miss about Volley was the lack of minimum range. I always thought it looked stupid.
osteenq Aug 17th 2011 9:01AM
The old pet stances. There was nothing wrong with them.
Natsumi Aug 17th 2011 9:03AM
Except Aggressive Stance, that was broken as hell.