Warlocks are missing a major upgrade that came their way just one month after 1.12 (Aug. 2006) was released. This change was implemented in 1.12.1 (Sept. 26th, 2006). This was added as a fix to counter the 1.12 updates because the class was put at a serious disadvantage with vs. melee (fixed through Improved Howl of Terror).
Current Warlocks in Classic missed this balance change by literally one month. There was some confusion between some of the community if this change occurred during the BC patch or prior. This confusion is based on the fact that when Unstable Affliction was added, the talent tree was again rearranged, so some have confused this as the time that it was actually added, when this was not the case.
Also, some have pointed out that they cannot find a talent calculator with the 1.12.1 changes. This is because the talent calculator was finally updated when the BC talents were released.
I did a great deal of research to look at the arguments of both. I have included timestamped and archived verification in this post that will verify that Improved Howl of Terror was indeed added during patch 1.12.1. The information from source#1 cannot be edited because it is archived. Source#2 supports the patch it was added.
Improved Howl of Terror
Source#1: web archive, enter the old thottbot website, search time Nov. 16th, 2006 capture. Proceed to Classes hyperlink - Warlock - Skills - Howl of Terror (rank 2), scroll to comment posted by by OmNi_Death, compare date of archive with the time of the last comment post. This puts us just after the September 26th, 2006 patch.
Source#2: wowhead classic, search Howl of Terror, scroll to comments, see comment post By kidomex (stamped for Patch 1.12.1).
Both sources are during the same time frame and just following patch 1.12.1. Cutting off the implemented combat patch just one month prior to a major balance update to the Warlock class when content and other class mechanics are present, which the update was intended to address serves Warlocks a great disadvantage, especially in PvP.
Whether or not this can or will be implemented is of course up to the devs, but I wanted to provide my findings on the subject, at the very least, for reference purposes so others can find the info themselves. It was there and it existed.
