#1 - March 23, 2016, 2:35 a.m.
If you see anything I've missed (or am wrong about) please feel free to list it in the thread somewhere. It's great if you include a description as well.
GeneralSnapshotting: Originally a huge part of DoT (damage over time) classes; largely Warlocks, Restoration Druids, Restoration Shamans, Balance Druids, or Shadow Priest. Disarms: It doesn’t feel great to have silence’s/interrupts still in the game when melee have little to no way to stop physical damage. With the amount of uptime from melee now it's needed more than before. Buffs: They aren’t unique anymore. Shamans and paladins bring unique buffs to raids/ parties. I feel like this hurts diversity in comps allot now. Mana: mana feels completely useless, but this seems like it's generally getting changed in Legion.
Dispel: The dispel everything model still seems awkward.
WarriorEnraged Regeneration: Granted the warrior self healing on a minute cooldown. Non-passive (good for the game) defensive ability. Impending Victory: Improved version of victory rush. Taunt: (being removed from DPS specs) An ability which forced the target to hit the warrior. Could be used on pets to get yourself out of cc before it landed. Strong Utility in both pve and pvp. Die By the Sword: (removed from Fury) Granted the user 100% parry could be used preemptively a physical form of crowd control. Spell Reflect: Allowed the warrior to preemptively stop incoming crowd control on themselves. (strong counter play ability) Charge Stun: Allowed the warrior to break up or disrupt an enemy from landing a crowd control on a healer or team mate. Could set apart a good warrior from a bad one. Intimidating Shout: An AoE physical fear (unique) that set warriors apart from rogues or other melee. Also fit in with the disruption type play style (fantasy) of a warrior. Intervene: A strong counter play ability which allowed the warrior to eat one incoming physical ability on a team mate. (occasionally used to outplay another player by stopping a stun or other physical ability, and could completely shift the arena or situation in your favor) Defensive Stance: Could be used to lower the damage you are taking. Became an issue when it became able for warriors to sit in it with little to no damage repercussions. Berserker Stance: High risk high reward stance that allowed warriors to pump out more damage at the expense of taking more damage.
PaladinHoly Power: Efficient use of this resource could set a paladin apart from one another. Made them unique after the removal of personal buffing/ judgement management. Hammer of Wrath: Iconic execute type ability to the paladin class. Avenging Wrath granted the player the ability to use this at any health percent; thus changing the rotation of the ret. Exorcism: Ranged Spell; very iconic to the paladin class (damage to demons and undead). Empowered Divine Storm: (Passive) added rng aoe fun to the Retribution spec. Divine Plea: A mana regeneration tool that replaced Judgement of the wisdom. (Personal only) Word of Glory: (removed from ret) Consumed 1-3 holy power for a moderate heal. Added to the support aspect of Retribution paladins. Divine Purpose: Added the RNG factor of vanilla paladin back to the game granting random chances to deal increased damage (Templar’s Verdict) or even stronger support to your partners through Word of Glory. Seals: Originally a strong identity of the paladin class. A good paladin was easy to identify and swapped seals constantly to counter their enemies abilities. This included healing, slowing, DoT, or AoE portions of seals. Auras: added to the uniqueness of paladins. Strong group wide buffs that separated them from other healers. (Devotion Aura, Concentration Aura, Retribution Aura, etc) Turn Evil: Allowed the user to fear undead/demon targets. Allowed for counterplay against Warlock/Death Knights. Rebuke: A melee ranged interrupt, distinguishes a good Holy Paladin. Ret Hand of Sacrifice Dispel: Could be used to get a partner out of a crowd control effect. (Allowed for additional utility and potential outplaying) Judgement Buffs: Keeping an uptime on these separated a good holy paladin from a bad one (cataclysm).
HunterKill Shot: Fulfills the fantasy of the class. Not a super strong execute but felt good to use. Stampede: Design changed in Legion. Completely different spell. Glaive Toss: removed all together in Legion. Arcane Shot: Gone from Survival/Beast Mastery. Instant filler spell. Master's Call: Freedom granted from a hunter's pet (utility for you or party member). Disengage: removed from survival in Legion. Traps: the removal of traps from Beast Mastery and Marksman will really kill the fantasy that has been around since vanilla. A hunter landing a good trap made them unique from melee/casters (Both offensive and Crowd Control). Scorpid Sting: Originally increased the damage of your next Chimera Shot. Interesting variation in the rotation of hunter. Gave the ability to set up burst on a target. Scatter Shot: Originally used when hunter trap was no instant trigger. Allowed for counter play from the enemy players to stop the trap on their partner. Scare Beast: Allowed for unique counter play versus shamans, druids, and hunters. Being one of the few crowd control abilities that could be used on feral druids. Silencing Shot: A blanket silence on a target. Best fit in the marksman hunter class, added a niche to the spec. Hunter Deadzone: Separated hunters from a caster or melee. Doesn’t fit in the current game. Viper Sting: Over time mana drain type ability. Situationally strong. (Doesn’t currently fit into the game) Aspects: Aspect of the fox/dragon hawk allowed for additional skill plays from the hunter in order to minmax damage. (most fits the marksman class fantasy) Aspect of the Fox (WoD version) was probably the most interesting. Granting their team a cast while moving ability. Spirit Bond: Passive ability that granted you and your pet healing. With the removal of pet feeding it brought back the identity of a pet being part of the hunter. Wing Clip: Allowed for a hunter to slow a target in melee range. Personally felt allot better getting slowed by a hunter this way than a passive ability (Frozen Ammo). Eyes of the Beast: Granted the hunter the ability to see through the eyes of the pet. Added to the pet control aspect of hunters. Volley: Essentially a better designed Barrage. Interesting filler between multi shot.
RoguePoisons: Allowed for different play styles based off the abilities of the enemy class. Shadow Walk: Strong counter play cooldown which allowed for a rogue player to predict where someone was stealthing in order to gain the upper hand by catching the enemy player in stealth first. Shiv: Awesome for applying poisons instantly to a target. (more unique when there were more types of poisons) Tricks of the Trade: Support cooldown that redircted threat to a target. Expose Armor: A unique ability rogues could do to increase the physical damage the target could take. Gouge: An additional ability with a positional requirement which could be used to stop a cast. Added to the micromanagement playstyle of a rogue Disarm Trap: Allowed the rogue to disarm a trap while in stealth. Cool ability to counter hunter traps on your healer.
PriestDark Archangel: Originally a sign that a shadow priest was bursting. Cool "Dark Angel" type aesthetic. Hymn of Hope: AoE channeled mana regeneration ability. Great for a caster heavy party/group. Vampiric Embrace: A moderate hybrid utility spell; which converted damage into healing for you and your party. Usually used to counter damage from the enemy team and better support your healer. Leap of Faith: “Life Grip,” one of the few abilities that could distinguish a good shadow priest. (Preemptively gripping a hunter trap or psychic scream) Shadow Word: Death: A strong counterplay ability that had a delayed damage effect to yourself. Allowing you to “death” yourself out of crowd control. Inner Fire/Inner Will: Allowed for a unique “aura” to change based on playstyle. Spectral Guise: gave priest a way to deal with their difficulty landing offensive fears. Became a problem when it could be paired with feathers (personal speed increases). Mind Control: A huge skill differentiation. A priest who could repeatedly get this off in arena’s was amazing. Chakras: having to switch to a specific chakra to chastise someone was unique and added more depth to the spec. Lightwell: The unique healing “totem” for holy priest. Periodically gave healing out to a partner when they took damage. Mana Burn: Assuming the cast was long enough it added a unique counter play type scenario where a priest could alter the pace of the game. (Doesn’t currently fit in the pace of the game) Shadow Fiend: Added to the offensive play style of a discipline priest, could also be used to restore mana on its melee attack. Unique mana regeneration type ability.
Death KnightGorefiends Grasp: AoE deathgrip became essential part of DPS DK that gave them raid utility. Desecrated Ground: Allowed the Death Knight to get of one CC ability and granted immunity while inside of it. Necrotic Strike: [Legion PvP Talents] Essentially amazing when used at proper times to slow down, cease, or weaken healing. Could be used to counter Healer cooldowns or synergized well with partner damage/cooldowns. Unholy Frenzy: [Removed in WoD]A utility ability that could be used defensively or offensively. The damage taken portion could be used to break crowd controls. (separated a good DK from a bad one) Rune Management: With runes being changed, there will be less differential between a player using their abilities at proper times and one who's not. Dark Simulacrum: [Legion PvP Talent] Very unique counter play ability. Allowed the Death Knight to ‘steal’ and ability from a caster. A well timed Dark Sim could completely change the trajectory of a game. Probably one of the most skillful things a Death Knight can do. Anti-Magic Zone: Cool utility spells that granted a team damage reduction from spells for a short amount of time. Icy Touch: Generally used for its purge.
ShamanTremor Totem: Originally usable while feared to get you and your partners out of the fear abilities. Which later became only usable preemptively to fear greatly increasing counter play. Mana Tide Totem: Strong raid/party cooldown which granted party members mana back at an increased rate. Added to the class identity of shaman buffing. Grounding Totem: Stopped incoming spells (supposed to be one) allowing for counter play through the stop of crowd control for yourself or teammates. Windwalk Totem: A party wide freedom which fixed some of the shamans core issues (mobility) as well as allowed them to play in more situations (melee heavy groups). Healing Stream Totem: A party wide low, but efficient healing totem. A well placed healing totem allowed for counter play giving your team the chance to catch an enemy player in a bad position. Frost Shock: A ranged slow ability that supported the shaman low mobility playstyle. Earthbind Totem: Pulsing AoE slow totem. Could be placed to slow down melee coming toward your totem. Unleash: Brought the unique elemental attunement of a shaman into the rotation. Just an extra button that could add for additional damage or healing at a crucial time. Earth Shield: Very unique preemptive healing ability that triggered healing upon taking damage. Keeping this up on the main target granted the class more skillful plays. Stormlash Totem: A unique totem that granted extra damage in the form of elemental damage. Granted extra burst opportunities every 5 minutes. Nature’s Swiftness: Granted an instant free heal on a 2-3 minute cool down. A nice clutch heal depending on the pace of the game. Water Shield: Unique mana regeneration tool for shamans. A good shaman would keep this up majority of the time.
MageMirror Images: Should be baseline again. If used properly could give you a second of casting by dropping the targets focus. Mage Armors: Allowed for counter play depending on the matchup of your enemy. less physical damage taken, less crowd control taken, etc. Deep Freeze: 5 second magic stun, allowed the mage to set up shatter combos on their kill target (this is how it should be). With mages being strictly CC/Frostbolt bots it has made this a cc set up ability. Alter Time: Allowed for strong counter play or skill plays in general (snapshotting your buffs). Evocation: (assuming mana was valuable) A well timed evocation could shift the trajectory of a game. Also allowing to glyph for healing gave mages a unique healing ability. Fire Blast: Instant damage fire school ability. Could be used to eat a reflect/ grounding totem. Bomb Spells: Added an additional complexity to the mage specs. Frost bomb being the most unique and allowed for potential burst situations. Temporal Shield: Unique counterplay that allowed the mage to absorb incoming damage preemptively and convert it to healing. Mage Wards: Could be used against different spell classes to prevent incoming damage. (counterplay) Off Specialization Abilities: With the current direction of interrupts. It seems necessary to have multiple DAMAGING spell schools (generally Crowd Control abilities should be kept on the same school).
WarlockMana Drain: A channeled mana stealing ability. “Draining” the mana from the enemy target. Had unique counter play. (Doesn’t currently fit into the game). Soul Burn: Added complex choices to the affliction spec. Nightfall: Instant shadow bolt procs. More interesting burst as affliction. Fel Flame: an instant cast low damage warlock ability which allowed the warlock to cast something other than DoT effects while on the move. Great for killing shaman totems, reflects, and stopping node captures. Curses: HUGE class fantasy that has been missing since MoP. It allowed for unique play style that separated the class from Mages. (increasing spell damage taken, decreasing melee damage done, etc.); returning as pvp talents. Demonic Armors: Allowed for changing of different counterplay based off opponent. (similar to mage armors) Siphon Life: A DoT ability that healed the warlock per tick. Twilight Ward: A button on a reasonably short cool down that could be used to absorb incoming spell damage. Unique counter play.
Monk
Dizzying Haze:Provoke: Should be given to every spec. Gave them a nice way to reset a boss when paired with transcendence. Nice niche ability in PvE. Fortifying Brew: Unnecessary to leave WW with one defensive. Should be made baseline again. Statues: Huge part of the monk class. Should be baseline. Clash: Charged an enemy stunning the target. Very useful to the brew master spec. Added to the dizzy fist type aesthetic. Path of Blossom: create a Fire Blossom at your feet every 1 sec for 3 sec.
The blossom will last for 10 sec and deal X Fire damage to the first enemy that walks over it. Fire Blossoms cannot be created within 3 yards of an existing blossom. Cool ability in general.Zen Meditation: Transferred 5 enemy spell abilities to the monk and greatly reduced the damage they dealt. Allowed for strong counterplay when used properly [could be used to ground an enemy cc]. Spinning Fire Blossom: Very unique snare type ability. Projected a flower in a straight line in front of you dealing damage and rooting the target. Healing Spheres: Made monks a very unique healer. Instant cast ground based healing allowed for a unique level of healing which valued awareness/positioning. Spear Hand Strike: Healing monk’s lack a way to stop incoming crowd control or spells. Counter play type of ability. Juking interrupts has become a huge part of pvp as a caster. Grapple Weapon: Unique way a monk could increase their healing/damage output for the duration of a disarm. Cool minmax class fantasy ability. Storm Earth And Fire: A very unique ability, granted the target the opportunity to copy themselves repeating their abilities up to 2 targets. Could punish healers who sit behind pillar or try to drop combat in arena.
DruidSoothe: removed an enrage effect. Important in both PvE and PvP. (it served two functions removing reflect or removing enrage.) Off-Spec Form abilities: It feels odd having your other forms but nothing to really press inside of them. Having an extra kick or even pounce in cat form felt unique. Insect Swarm: Low hitting dot that lowered the hit chance of the target. Cower: A threat drop while in cat form. When healing for high amounts as any of the specs granted an interesting play style where the druid could change forms to drop agro. Cyclone: Originally having a unique DR made this ability very interesting. It had defensive and offensive capabilities. A large issue currently is druid specs are far more tanky than previous expansions. Genesis: Allowed for skillful plays between balancing HoT uptime and burst healing. (Unique) Hibernate: A well timed hibernate was amazing when playing against feral druids or shaman specs. Great counterplay and unique ability. Thorns: (mostly the Cataclysm variation) unique ability which could force an enemy target to swap off the thorned target. Unique playstyle against melee. Shapeshifting Slows: Very essential part of the class since vanilla. Although it became too strong with mana becoming less important. Symbiosis: Unique ability which granted druids abilities of other classes. Generally led to some symbiosis traits being stronger than the other. Added an ability to basically every class.
