Post Patch 5.04: The Little Things

So. The other behemoth in the room. The contender to face off against new release MMOs...Patch 5.04! YAY!!!!!
Kinda....I personally hate giant patch releases. Especially pre-expansion ones. It's cool when new things get added, but usually they break the game, addons, other things...my class sometimes. They involve lengthy maintenance and sometimes, lengthy downloading. Or in this case, optimization... I didn't mind the optimization, but the time left indicator was really odd. It sat at 0% for about 30 minutes, then creeped to about 4%...then shot to 100%....very accurate.
I also don't like patches because they break addons. I really like my UI, and am pretty reliant on things like Adibags to not make myself go nuts. I also feel uncomfortable without my Vuhdo, even though I've successfully healed without it. Just not the same.
Despite all this stress, I'm still incredibly pleased with the new patch. It brings about a ton of changes, but they are all, in my opinion, good, and I feel that there is something exciting for every class.Whether it be cosmetic glyphs, quality of life changes, or just new abilities, Mists of Pandaria is starting to look good.

Guild Rep and Experience Cap Gone!
You can also earn the same amount of rep and exp at all levels, so I've been seeing level 40s with exalted guild status...cool but crazy!

After nearly a month of grinding dailies for rep, I finish off two weeks worth in 10 quests...

Four days of dailies later...

Hunters are cool! :D
Between our new talents, (A Murder of Crows, Blink Strike!) to glyphs (Fetch!) and quality of life improvements (bai bai range), I've been absolutely in love with my hunter. Beast Mastery got a lovely boost, and pets got a great revamp. We have some new and unique utility and I can't wait to go tame some more pets in MoP.

One of the new families: Water Striders.

  My biggest applause goes to the revamp of hunter pets. Being able to instantly switch from Tenacity to Cunning to Ferocity outside of combat, and with whichever pet you want, is a great change. It allows for people to use the pet they love, only having to consider abilities, and only really, at certain times. So outside of dungeons/raiding/bgs, you can use whatever you want, which is nice if you're leveling/questing. For those more important PvE endeavors, pets still offer different buffs, but some are changed and some are new.
Cats and Spirit Beasts now offer a boost to Mastery. (This replaces the Agility/Strength buff.)
Hyenas and Serpents increase Melee and Range speed by 10%. 
Water Striders offer casters a 5% increase to Spell Power and Crit.
Water Striders are a cool addition to the pet family. Not only do they offer a buff to add to our utility arsenal, but they also give us Water Trot, our version of Water Walking. Love it! Been easily getting around Tol Barad using this pet when I do dailies. :) The other addition in patch 5.04 (excluding the MoP families) is Basilisks, who have a stone CC ability.
I also like how our ranged weapons now appear on our backs. Makes me feel very Katniss. I recently got the beautiful Golden Bow of Quel'Thalas and it looks amazing and uncomfortable on my hunter's back. :)

Still tryng to figure out a transmog outfit to match. It's a lot harder than it looks :(.
Account-wide Pets and Mounts

You've been far to unused for far too long.

So, a long time ago, I was running my bf through Stratholme on my paladin. And guess what dropped...Rivendare's Mount! I don't play my paladin...ever, but it all paid off in the end. Account-wide mounts are an amazing thing to behold. Now I get to enjoy my Rivendare's Mount, Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank (arch mount), and Phosphorus Stone Drake on all my toons. Love it! :D

Druid Stuff
Tree form's back

  While my days as a druid have been numbered thanks to recent events, I still have a lowbie I've been leveling for fun. Once I hit level 25, I grabbed my glyph and went for it. Gotta love those shaking roots. :)
Boomkin on mounts.

Enough said.
No more fishing poles.
I suddenly had this crazy idea that I wanted to level fishing on my hunter, since I've only ever leveled it on my druid. I forgot to put a fishing pole on, so I was surprised when I looked and I didn't need it.

I think it's kind of clever they just made it a stick with a string. It reminds me of my days as a kid at the park lake. :)
Until then, just enjoy the view. 
These are just the little things; mostly nonessential or cosmetic. The big changes, such as the leveling experience, the LFR loot system, Talents/Glyphs changes and of course, Healing Mushrooms are for another post. I'm still finding new things every day.