One of the things i have noticed is that all miss chance is gone from the game. Dodge chance has either replaced it or the skill has been completely removed from the game. In this instance, the skill was removed. It was because you could tank mini boss and other such mobs easily like this using this skill.
Elude was dodge chance, not miss.
They changed sparks for the same reason they changed blinding light: Enemies you could use them on you didn't need to, and enemies you wanted to use them on were immune. The abilities were too difficult to balance properly. Same goes for haste effects.