3.1, Hardcore Casual Style

FINALLY patch day is here. No not because I can go to the Tournament or raid Ulduar.

I can finally comment on the patch notes. As the great George Carlin once said, "I never give credit for unfinished work."

So, let's explore those patch notes! Well, at least the ones that I care about. Apparently, there's a new instance or something.

The Argent Tournament Begins!

As the might of the Scourge wanes under the pressure of Azeroth’s heroes, the Argent Crusade have taken a foothold in Arthas’s back yard. Off the northeastern coast of Icecrown, the Argent Crusade have sounded the call for the most bold and brave adventurers of the Horde and Alliance to take part in the Argent Tournament. Representatives of all ten faction capitols, from Undercity to Exodar, have traveled to the tournament grounds to find champions among their heroes who will prepare for the inevitable battle against the enemy of all living beings, the Lich King.
As excited as I am to participate in this, I think I'll avoid it for the first week or two. Once the madness dies down, I'll be all over it.

General

All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
For the record, I called swimming mounts during last year's Blizzcon.

Players level 40 and higher will now be able to visit their trainer to pay a one-time fee and access the dual talent specialization feature.
I'm not as excited about this as others, but I do like the flexibility for my Paladin and Shaman. Still a little unsure on the implementation, but that's for another post.

Death Knight

OMFGEverything
Yeah, DKs were severely BALANCED in this patch. Please note the absence of the word "nerf" in that sentence. Now I'll have to COMPLETELY rework T's Guide.

Hunter

Ammunition: All types of gun and bow ammunition now stack to 1000. All quivers and ammo pouches no longer provide haste. 15% ranged haste is now built into the hunter's Auto Shot.
Nice. Still stage one of the plan for ammo to be completely non-consumable, which I believe will lead to special effect ammo.

Gorillas now have a new family ability, Pummel, which works like the warrior ability and has a single rank.
Thunderstomp is no longer a gorilla-specific family ability and is now available to all Tenacity pets. It has been reduced to one rank.
I love this for one reason: less Gorillas. I love my monkey and will be happy when he's more unique.

Paladin

Spiritual Attunement: Removed from trainers. It is now available deep in the Protection tree for 2 ranks at 5/10%.
Lots of crying over this one. I'm 100% behind this for "working as intended" reasons.

Lots of Protection changes that I will have to look into in more depth. Expect a post about this later.

Shaman

Flametongue Weapon: Bonus damage from spell power now based on weapon speed. Slower weapons will benefit more from spell power.
FINALLY an end to the Shaman weapon speed/imbue debate. Once again "working as intended" with slow/slow Windfury/Flametongue.

Spirit Weapons: Now reduces all threat generated by 30%, not just physical attacks.
Very nice, especially since a significant portion of Enhancement's damage comes from spells.

Stormstrike charges have been increased by 2, and cooldown reduced by 2 seconds.
Improved Stormstrike redesigned: When you Stormstrike, you have a 50/100% chance to immediately grant you 20% of your base mana.
Still undecided on this. I felt Shaman mana regen was in a good place. Possibly a change for PVP purposes?

Unleashed Rage: Reduced to 3 points, down from 5. No longer increases agility, but instead increases your total expertise by 3/6/9.
It bothered me that other classes had similar talents for less than 5 points. Thank you Blizz.

Warlock

Curse of the Elements (Rank 5): Increased to 13% spell damage, up from 10%.
I liked this in Affliction, but I'm cool that it makes room for the new Malediction.

Malediction: No longer increases the effect of Curse of the Elements, but now also increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Corruption and Unstable Affliction spells by 3/6/9%.
Pandemic: This talent has been reduced to a 1-point talent. Now grants your Corruption and Unstable Affliction the capability to critically hit.
Still a little unsure on this whole "DoT crit" thing.

Suppression: Now increases spell hit for all of your spells.
Nice!

Lots of other Affliction changes. Siphon Life is rolled into Corruption. Immolate is out of the rotation. While I though Affliction could use a LITTLE fine-tuning, I wonder if this is too much. I'd hate for it to become easymode top DPS.

Again, further posts to follow.

Professions

Northrend herbs now yield more herbs on average.
Whee! Herb amounts were balanced around one craft using them in the old days. Now, with Inscription, demand has risen without much supply increase.

Added around 50 new glyph recipes. These new recipes can be obtained from Books of Glyph Mastery found as world drops on Northrend monsters. Reading a Book of Glyph Mastery randomly discovers one of the newly-added recipes.
I like. Hopefully the drop rate isn't retarded.

The Lightweave tailoring enchant now sometimes grants a temporary spell power bonus instead of dealing direct damage to your target.
Warlock FTW. I hated the idea of dealing HOLY damage.

All in all, good patch for Sam and Co. I'm sure there are others out there upset over some changes, but they're not here, are they?

What else do you like/hate?