Before a lot of classes got viable AOE, CC was really important. Fast forward 3 years later, every tank class has AOE abilities. Druids can swipe every target and do decent damage, they tried that in Burning Crusade and found it overpowered, so they nerfed it, then they buffed it in WOTLK. Paladins were not considered tanks in old wow. Either you were Ret with 31 points to get kings, or you were a healer. Paladins had no viable way to get mana back and all their tanking gear was made for Warriors, or had weird stats like the old strat blues had.Originally Posted by Bakis
There was no Seed of Corruption to spam
Rain of Fire and Blizzard were not worth using in instances, it was Arcane Explosion, Blast Wave, Flamestrike, or nothing.
Fire Nova Totem was a pain to use, and Magma Totem was not worth using(Though with old Flametongue totem, it was their best AOE besides chain lightning)
Oh how wow has evolved. Now every class except Rogues have multiple viable AOE's. I say viable because of energy costs.