The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

First. A moment of silence.
/pray

 

So I stopped being stubborn and stopped complaining, sucked it up and did some research. And as expected, especially with anything Blizzard tends to produce, there are good things (glyphs!), bad things (bye tree form...) and the really shitty ugly crap (raid lockouts).  

A focus on tree restoration druid

I think the most difficult thing about producing a huge patch like a pre-expansion patch is changing things prematurely, especially with an expansion like Cataclysm, where things are going to drastically change. Change is good; it keeps the game fresh, especially as it begins to show its age. But when you have plans for players to continue in WotLK end game, and don't plan on changing anything there (which honestly, wouldn't be in Blizzard's best interests), you really have to be careful what you change.

The Ugly (Pull my hair out)
-Raid Lockouts: The new raid lockout is this: 10 man or 25 man; not both. The lockouts are shared now, which honestly, isn't too bad. It allows for some flexibility (if say you lose a couple people in your 25 man, you can split into 2 10 mans and continue.) My GM is all gungho because it levels the playing field. We can now compete with 25 man raids as far as progression goes.
The change to raid lockouts brings one huge change: gear. Gear is now the same between the two, but will be distributed evenly as far as quantity goes. I can say this is amazing, which it is; but it'll be amazing when Cataclysm hits. This isn't Cata. We are technically still doing ICC content. So those of us who balance doing 25 mans and 10 mans do kinda hit a bad wall. I PuG 25 mans for a chance at gear that is better than what can be found in 10 mans. I can no longer do that because I am dedicated to a 10 man. While hardmode gear is 25 man iLevel, its not the same gear. Things like, the trinkets, the jewelry (which won't matter anymore because of stat changes) I am now losing out on. In the end, this won't matter, but this is a huge annoyance that I will have to deal with for the next 2 months. 

-Emblem Conversion
Every huge patch that comes out before a huge change (a new raid or expansion) Blizzard decides to slap their dedicated raiders in the face and hand out gear. Nothing changes about this; I can point out blogs I have written about the frustration of this when Emblems became easier to get (from Conquest, then to Triumph) It's really nothing new. But it is by far the most annoying thing Blizzard does. Granted, for the best gear you will still have to earn (like tokens or trophys) and there is only so much emblem gear you can get, but it still kicks people in the face who have devoted time into earning the Frost gear. Really does make me wonder if I should just wait around, waiting for Blizzard to hand out the free goods.
This isn't even the worse part. The worse part is the Emblem conversion rate that will go into the new system of "emblems" which is now just basic points, called Justice Points (think Honor points without the honor gear.) The conversion rate is somewhere along the line of 11.5, where it began at 2.75 (completely ridiculous). This is a good thing, however, gear is about 2k and up (60 emblem pieces are now >700 jp, 95 emblem pieces are >1000). That is a lot more points then what they were. And while this could be a balancing act because of Triumph badges gaining status as Frost (which is what's happening), it does f*ck over those of us who have been trying to save some Frosts for something. And considering a lot of people are running ICC and not doing much else, having some kind of stock of Triumph badges isn't necessarily in some people's reach. The conversion rate was a lot lower at one point, making me completely say, forget it, when it came to rushing off to farm badges. Now I feel like I should've. 
edit (10/16): the only problem atm with purchasing gear with JP is that it feels like a slower gain. 16 per a boss. It does make it more fair though, imo. 

The Bad  (I hate this, but it ain't so bad.)
-Gear Bonuses
As a class who wears Leather, I always had the advantage of grabbing some cloth gear. Cloth gear is much more suited for Tree healing, specifically because there is far more of it out there, allowing for more emphasis on which are dps and which is heals (This is clearly due to the fact that there are cloth dps classes, and a cloth healing class). There are obvious boomkin pieces and obvious tree pieces. A lot of the ICC and Frost Emblem pieces emphasize the boomkin part (no Spirit. All Haste, Crit and SP). A lot of tree druids and resto shamans have cloth pieces as their BIS. Now this is a complete disadvantage (this also attributes to Boomkins, who have to find hit rating on other gear, since pretty much all leather has no hit on it.) The bonus for using the "right" gear is 5% intellect increase. Five percent extra spellpower, mana pool, and crit. That is no small bonus. That is huge. Cloth isn't that easy to replace either, apparently. Because of the emblem conversion rates, I do not have the points to get a new leather piece to replace my cloth piece. Relying on drops is difficult. Gear is still expensive. It kinda sucks. Once I replace those cloth pieces tho, that 5% will be a nice little something to roll around in.

-Healing changes and how they effect ICC
The bad news is that healing is changing a lot. So if you like the current style, well too bad. The good news is that because of gear and the fact ICC isn't changing at all, healing for now, will typically stay the same. Yes. I freaked out for no reason. At least for now. Cataclysm will be where healing will take a turn for the worse, according to the test realms. However, there is still plenty of time (and patches) for change.
I am a little frustrated that the spells I need to use now, and the spells I have been using are becoming needed/obsolete. I don't remember the last time I used spells like Healing Touch and Lifebloom. I use Regrowth a lot now. From what I have read, ICC healing will be maintained as a tree in the form of Rejuvenation and Wild Growth. Swiftmend, which coupled with Efflorescence is pretty bad ass. They also recommend practicing Lifebloom rolling on the tank.
Some blogs I have read now suggest that druids take the role of Tank healer, which honestly, abhors me. I play AOE healing classes for a reason. I hated Disc priests until it became a raid healing class. But luckily, for now, it looks like nothing except my mana pool will change.

-The Talents
Many of the new talents are pretty neat. And I understand the corporation of dps talents into the resto trees in hopes that healers don t just chill out anymore. A huge part of this is giving healer's dps talents that restore some mana back, thus further emphasizing what Blizzard wants healers to do. The problem is, the druid tree has pretty much no talents that make it worthwhile dpsing (except out of sheer boredom). Fury of Stormrage makes dpsing for resto druids cheap and will not effect our mana pool at all, but besides that there's really nothing we're getting. Shamans are getting talents that make Shocks and Lightning Bolts give mana returns, thus giving a reason to dps. Not druids. Nature's Grace is in the balance tree that may help; it increases haste after a moonfire or insect swarm, however I have not seen a talent tree that utilizes it.
 
The Good (Cool!)
Despite my complaints, there are always some good things to look forward too.
-Glyphs
With the changes to healing, the glyphs definitely make everything better. The creating of Prime, Major, and Minor glyphs, each with their own distinct category, not only make things simpler, but their changes to the glyphs are really good.The rejuvenation glyph is an increase in the spell's healing, the lifebloom glyph reminds us that now that we re expected to lifebloom, Blizzard will reward us. I love the new entangling roots glyph, which although might not be that important in Cata (we'll see) is going to be helpful in ICC.
The best part of the glyph changes is the permanence. While I'm interested to see how this will effect the market for glyphs in the long run (obviously, for now it'll boost the price of glyphs by a ridiculous amount), being able to switch glyphs when needed and not be forced to carry a stack of them with you, is incredibly nice. It allows for customization, although with the adding of another type of glyph, this may not be as necessary as it is now.

-In game events and Lore
Leave it to Blizzard to drop some bosses that drop 10 ICC gear level items. But hey, I remember Zombie invasion and laughing at low levels getting killed by mobs when Orgimmar got attacked. While some of these events get tedious, I still enjoy them for the most part. I hope that an in game event will show Thrall giving up war chief to Garrosh. While the Alliance seems stable as far as their leaders go, the Horde is going through some rapid changes, you know, with Thrall gone, and Garrosh kicking out and alienating his other leaders (namely, Vol'jin and Sylvanas, who has kind of lost her mind anyways.) I'm excited to see Lorthemar's new model and hear his new lines (its about time Blizzard starts treating the Blood Elf leader like a leader...)

Cataclysm may have just gotten its release date, but that was just the beginning. Changes are always going to be bad and good. Balancing is hard to do in a game this massive. For the most part, Blizzard holds its own, but sometimes, I really do wonder they are thinking.

Cheers!