Shared Topic - The Good Old Days

This week's shared topic at Blog Azeroth was proposed by Mia of Chronicles of Mia:

Before I was going to bed, I heard someone talk to my husband about some changes in WoW they wish didn't happen. Like removing some quests, content, class changes. One of the things that popped into my head was "companion deaths". During the Ragnaros fight in Classic, I heard someone in vent go "Did someone's cat died?" and sure enough, my Black Tabby companion died. Everyone busted up laughing.


So I thought about some other changes that I would bring back...just for the day? For the week? and Permanently?

Ah, the good old days.  What a great topic to write about!  I decided to join in because there are so many things that I miss or remember which were removed... now where to start?

Quests
OK, my biggest bugbear was the massive long quest chain for Scepter of the Shifting sands, which now gives you Veteran of the Shifting Sands as a Feat of Strength.  Since I was only a few Elementium short of completing it the week before Cataclysm, I didnt' realise it was being removed or I might have tried harder to finish it.  Bring it back so I can complete it and get my achievement, damn you Blizzard.

Achievements/Mounts
Black Proto-Drake and Plagued Proto-Drake were two mounts I would have loved to get but missed out on them when they were removed in 3.1.  The were the rewards for Glory of the Raider (25 man) and Glory of the Raider (10 man) respectively.  I want them back, permanently.

Portals to Everywhere
I really liked how Dalaran and Shattrath had portals everywhere.  To Undercity, Thunderbluff, Silvermoon.  It's so annoying now that I have to fly everywhere.  I liked porting to Dal in WoTLK knowing I could get anywhere else by just walking down that path.  Now I have to take the goddamn Zepp to UC which is irritating - though it is reminiscent of the "Good Old Days" before we had flying mounts and the like.  And yes I could take the portal in Org to Twilight Highlands and fly to Undercity but that's not the same as porting to Mage Quarter like we used to.

Excessive Flight Paths
I remember when there was no flight path in Ratchet.  I remember thinking, why are they putting a flight path there?  We've got had one in Crossroads and Camp Taurajo (OMG there's another thing I wish wasn't taken away... poor dead innocent Taurens, damn you nasty Alliance).  But now there are flight paths everywhere.  When I open the flight path maps I see little Hermes boots all over the map.  I liked my map without the clutter, and only 1-2 flight paths per zone.  And we have flying mounts now too so do we really need all those flight paths for the levelling people?  I guess it was to make levelling easier.  But I think I liked it better the way it  used to be.  Bring back the fewer flight paths for a week!  Just to make my eyes feel better - and make everyone run more, exercise is good for your health :)

Epic World Events
For those who liked the lore of WoW, it was really fun to participate in the big event things that occurred throughout Azeroth.  Like the opening of AQ - where Horde and Alliance on each server had to collect items and contribute to the Ahn'Qiraj war effort.  I thought that stuff was really cool.  We need more things like that for everyone to contribute to, you feel a sense of Horde (or Alliance) community when we were all submitting our fish or ore or whatever it was you wanted to contribute.  I remember I was submitting Spotted Yellowtails - a byproduct of my fishing for Stonescale eels.  We need another big event like that I think, it brings out the competitiveness in us all as a server as well.  I wish people who weren't there could see the actual event again maybe just one day of the year.  That would be cool.

Druid changes
Mia says she misses the old cat and bear form without the excessive colours and markings.  What I wish they had done was keep the troll druid cat form like the tigers in the actual quest chain.  That would have been awesome.  But no, troll druids look like blue hotchpotch cats.  Oops that's not actually a good old days thing, but I got distracted.
I miss how we could downrank our Healing Touch for faster cast times and better mana efficiency.  They put Nourish in to make up for that I guess.  But what I REALLY miss is multi target lifeblooms.  Totally OP I know, but it was great when we used to have it.  I wish that would come back permanently, instead of when I'm in tree form - which I keep forgetting to use.

Outdoor bosses
Harpy's Nest talked about the outdoor bosses like Kazzak and the World dragons.  I do miss those too, and wish we had more of those to do.  Bring more things like that back, but you can't make the loot too good, or the big guilds will be camping them and the little guilds won't get a chance to bash at them.

Absent guildies and friends
Inspired by Children of Wrath, thanks for reminding me of these!  I miss when my husband used to play WoW and we'd tank/heal together.  I wish he would come back - maybe that would fix my guild's warrior tank shortage.  I miss healing with Beldarien, my favourite paladin healer in WotLK.  I miss Xynzelle's awesome mage DPS and his never ending streams of chatter in Vent.  I miss Epidemais' warrior tank (Toutatis) and his presence from game - I won't say I miss his druid so much because then there's MORE competition for my bloody tier stuff :P.  I miss Davith too - our rogue buddy from BC who left game for his girl and RL (how DO you get so big and tall and beefy by being vegetarian - seriously WTF).  And if Lacrox would come back more often that would be nice.  I miss listening to his dry humour on Vent and in game.

OK enough reminiscing!  Time for bed.  Thanks for reading :)