Fans of Blizzard's Warcraft series of strategy games were finally able to become a more direct part of the story when World of Warcraft came out ages ago. Since then it has seen eight expansions, including the hotly anticipated Shadowlands. In turn, players have seen fan-favorite characters return and fall, explored new regions, and even traveled back in time.
Now, in Shadowlands, Sylvanas Windrunner destroys the Lich King's Helm of Domination, destroying the barrier between Azeroth and the Shadowlands, the lore's version of the afterlife. Additionally, Blizzard has teased quite a few new changes that may have a huge impact on the way both beginners and vets play the acclaimed MMO. However, for returning fans, just what old expansion features are they going to miss the most?
10 Corrupted Items Added Thrill To Items
Players of WoW felt the presence of the Old God N'Zoth during Battle for Azeroth. With N'Zoth's presence, gear obtainable in Season 4 had a chance to get Corrupted. In turn, players wielding these powerful items receive a Corruption stat that gives them a unique aura at a certain threshold. Moreover, certain items grant Corruption-related buffs and debuffs depending on intensity.
Granted, Shadowlands and its storyline made the concept of Corrupted Items obsolete. After all, the heroes destroyed N'Zoth's body at the end of Battle for Azeroth. However, Blizzard should consider enhancing the MMO's lore by periodically introducing special item "properties" such as Corruption that may add flair to an expansion's flavor throughout its duration.
9 Attunements Made The Endgame Mysterious
In WoW, instances serve as special "confined" areas that enable players and parties to privately interact with dungeons. Since the Burning Crusade, certain dungeons actually required players to have access to certain items or complete certain quests in order to enter a particular instance. While this feature is now largely absent since Mists of Pandaria, the idea itself has merit from a lore perspective.
Granted, it can be annoying to be blocked from enjoying a raid just because there's a lack of an item or an achievement. However, players who know they need to access special items or finish certain questlines may appreciate the level of depth instances have with relation to the game's overall lore.
8 Stances Made Warriors Diverse Fighters
Despite their seemingly ordinary nature, Warriors end up dominating DPS and Tanking charts depending on the build. Moreover, Warriors nowadays can become just as fast-paced in combat as they could become more defensive. However, expansions prior to Legion actually gave Warriors access to Stances - or innate buffs that enhanced a particular fighting style.
At the moment, the absence of Stances as a mechanic doesn't diminish the Warrior's role in the battlefield. However, Stances in prior expansions gave Warriors the much-needed weapons master flavor that separated them from other classes. Moreover, the buffs offered by Battle Stance, Defensive Stance, Gladiator Stance, and even Berserker Stance gave Warriors more flexible battle options that could greatly add to their creativity today.
7 Raise Ally Made Death Knights More Flavorful
Death Knights today probably know the Glyph of Raise Ally and its entertaining addition to teams. With this Glyph, Death Knights can use the Raise Ally ability to raise an ally as ghouls with partial health and mana. Despite their limited abilities, the opportunity to resurrect an ally as undead definitely added to the flavor of Death Knights.
Unfortunately, it might seem such a shame to realize that the Raise Ally Glyph wasn't a Glyph before. Throughout Wrath, Raise Ally was actually a part of the Death Knight's general repertoire. Having Raise Ally as a regular ability nowadays could greatly enhance the Death Knights' flavor as representatives of death.
6 Symbiosis Made Druids Extra Flexible
Given their ability to tap into primal energies, Druids can synchronize and manipulate the elements around them. Moreover, Mists of Pandaria expanded the Druid's repertoire with the Symbiosis spell. With Symbiosis, Druids can target a non-Druid player, and both would gain access to special abilities. Throughout Mists, Symbiosis allowed Druids to gain around 40 unique spells and bestow 18 other spells to non-Druids.
For instance, Balance Druids who target Arms Warriors will grant Stampeding Shout in exchange for Intervene. Meanwhile, a Feral Druid targeting a Beast Mastery Hunter would grant Dash in exchange for Play Dead. This unique ability could definitely spice things up in team-based PvP or Raids.
5 Defense, Resistance, Weapon Skills Made Battles Exciting
Players of earlier WoW expansions would remember certain Attributes, especially if they've ever tried to engage in hardcore PvP and raiding. These included Defense, Resistance, and even Weapon Skills. Albeit now absent post-Wrath of the Lich King, these Attributes had a pronounced impact on combat engagements. For instance, Weapon Skills represent a character's weapon proficiency, which can increase the chance of hitting an enemy in combat. Meanwhile, Defense Rating and Resistance decreased the chance to be hit and magic damage, respectively.
Granted, these Attributes seem redundant and too insignificant to affect the way characters perform in the base game. However, these stats do represent some of the deeper roleplaying aspects of the MMO's story. They also make battles more exciting, given the fact that these otherwise-minuscule statistics can still affect the way players take or deal damage.
4 Core Abilities Added Insights To Classes
In essence, the Core Abilities Tab lists some of the most important abilities for each class specialization. As such, players get immediately acquainted with some of the baseline abilities they need to pay attention to. Unfortunately, some players think the Core Abilities Tab becomes redundant when players can see the same information in other tabs.
As of Legion, players no longer have access to the Core Abilities tab. However, the Core Abilities Tab might not have been such a harmful feature to retain. A lot of players may greatly benefit from knowing just which abilities they need to pay attention to when building characters, especially when building healers with powerful healing spells or gearing for a powerful spellcaster DPS.
3 Reforging Gave An Alternative To Enchantments
Back then, players who didn't like items they've picked up needed to Disenchant their current item and remake another one, hoping they get the stats they like. Beginning in Cataclysm, Reforging allowed players to "replace" 40-percent of one statistic in exchange for another. That way, instead of Disenchanting undesirable items, all classes had a fair share of getting a decent item. This is extremely helpful to DPS-oriented classes, such as the Hunter or the Rogue.
Unfortunately, Warlords of Draenor removed the Reforging system entirely from the game. Granted, Reforging may seem redundant given improvements to Enchanting and even the Transmog system. However, being able to reroll a specific stat on an item via Reforging would be a nice touch.
2 Glyphs Added Thrill To Abilities
In Wrath of the Lich King, Glyphs came alongside the Inscription Profession. Glyphs initially served as a means to augment various abilities in the game. Beginning Mists of Pandaria, the Glyph System now focused more on adding cosmetic changes to spells and extremely minor enhancements.
Granted, some might complain that Glyphs simply made class builds more complicated. However, the impact of Glyphs pre-Mists ensured gamers wouldn't easily ignore the Inscription profession. At the end of the day, this added a method of player uniqueness that had a technical impact on the game.
1 Talent Trees Paved Way For Unique Builds
Today's characters possessed Specializations that pave the way to certain Talents, accessible in the Specializations & Talents Tab. This process determines their Role (between DPS, Healer, Tank), granting additional abilities and potential resources. At Level 30, characters can train in Dual Talent Specializations to unlock a second Spec.
Granted, today's Specializations & Talents make classes more straightforward. However, before Mists of Pandaria, the previous "talent trees" option made level progression more meaningful. After all, players not only got to choose between Talents at certain levels, they also select a Talent across all trees. Of course, this held a greater risk of making "sub-optimal" builds, but this still gave players more agency.