World of Warcraft used to have players that were excited and couldn’t wait until Blizzard expanded on their class, gave them more utility and flavor, a cool new spell or other form of content.
Nowadays the subscribers (money cows), especially in this sad end of the forums, are anxious about which part of their once glorious class is gonna be taken away next.
This will be my going-away message, in the hopes that someone will steal the source code for World of Warcraft and build retail-ish private servers with all of this content re-added.
(Fat chance).
Here is a list of abilities and functionality that was removed, or even worse, turned into an unusable dead talent node.
- Black Arrow / Flayed Shot
The one I miss the most, getting Kill Shot procs felt so good. And the Venthyr animation was sick. Just enough abilities again to make me resub in Shadowlands. Absolute blast.
Black Arrow also got reset whenever it was dispelled. Now after taking it from Survival it’s being given back to MM/BM. Utter joke.
- Spirit Bond
2% HP every 2 sec. Incredible mastery for Survival. Now you need around 85% Mastery to get the same. And it’s only achievable with Ruby Feast, War Mode gear and other buffs in World PvP.
- A Murder of Crows
Coolest and most annoying ability in the game. Now BM only and is never picked.
- Counterattack
A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent’s attack. This attack deals AP*0.2+X damage and immobilizes the target for 5 sec. Counterattack cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried.
What if auto-attacks meant something again? And that Parry and Dodge would play a part. This would add some flavor to specs like Survival, which were good at dodging and parrying. Also fun and reactive.
- Master’s Call glyph
Made Master’s Call last 8 seconds. This should be how it works by default. It has always been dispellable anyway.
- Aspect of the Monkey
18% dodge
Yes.
- Scare Beast baseline
Very cool utility that could help you vs Druids and other pets. Right now you need the talent points you can get, and even into Ferals it ain’t that good, because he’s the kill target. Usable during Turtle.
- Aspect of the Cheetah
Hunters used to be the most mobile class. 30% movement speed on 10 sec cd, no daze in Draenor.
- Glaive Toss / Chakrams
Some skill required to use this perfectly. Both looked fancy as well.
- Explosive Trap
Will never get picked as long as it’s in a choice node with Intim. They also nerfed the knockback distance heavily for players.
- Wyvern Sting
Incredibly cool ability that sends some sucker to dreamland for a bit.
Now you have a still target you can launch in any direction with a well-placed Explosive Trap.
- Snake Trap
Way cooler than Ice Trap / Tar Trap.
The snakes would chase enemies, constantly reapplying the 12 sec slow after the root.
- Deterrence
Yes, 2 charges are way better than the useless, slightly slower death version we have now. Also cool animation.
- Barrage
Was fun to have an aimbot for every mob within viewing distance. Also very good damage.
- Survival Tactics/Craven Strategem
One of the most unique abilities in the game, that helped immensely in a game where Hunters have very few ways to prevent damage from casters, as kiting melee is very different.
It fit very well into the self-sufficient theme that Hunters used to have.
Going from 15 sec to 30 seconds is still an enormous let-down.
- Aspect of the Fox
The best utility spell in the game, period. Casters and healers loved you. Getting a raid spot wasn’t hard. Hunter utility now is a joke. An annoying red arrow? Come on.
- Trueshot aura
More utility that made other melees love you.
- Freezing Arrow
AoE incap. Oh, the control.
- Wailing Arrow / Silencing Shot / Spider Sting
Instant silence with much higher skillcap than Chimaeral, which is counterplayed by several classes. Spider Sting was unique in that it would activate if they cast something, making it proactive.
- Survivalist
Killing a target gives you and your pet 15% health over 10 seconds.
- Chimaera Shot
Colorful looking ability in an otherwise boring array of arrows. Now is never worth picking, even in 2-target/cleave scenarios and for MM only. Used to heal you for 5% max HP with its 9 sec cooldown.
- Camouflage
Used to be usable in combat, making it almost like the super OP Shadowmeld.
You could use it indefinitely if you waited the whole 60 seconds in stealth, only appearing for a brief moment.
- All forms of Pet utility
Combat res, stat buffs, disarms, roots, Bad Manners (your Monkey pet hurls you-know-what at your enemy, blinding them for 4 sec). It didn’t break from damage either.
You could also have a pet kick, very useful.
Pets used to be super fast also. Now they are more of a liability. Ferocity pets had CC trinket as well, aaand a self-res. Much higher skill-cap to know when to use the different pets in PvP.
You could change the specialization of your pet anytime, which gave you much higher freedom selecting the pet you actually like. At this point I’m sick of that undead raptor.
Probably more I’ve forgotten, but this is most of it, and it makes me sad how many spells I actually got down.