The 2.1 patch and you!

From AJS.COM

This article is part of the World of Warcraft: Raiding the Metagame series.

The World of Warcraft 2.1 patch is huge, and will change the game in many ways. It's safe, in some ways, to say that when it lands, we won't be playing the same game anymore. In order to hit the ground running, I'd like to review the general changes:

The Black Temple: This is the big pyramid in Shadowmoon. It is one of the 25-man raid instances intended for guilds that have progressed through 10-man content as well as Grull's Lair and Serpent Shrine.
Druid Epic Flight Form, Nether Drake: Epic mounts. Yay epics!
Ethereum Prison, Skettis, Ogri’la: Level 70 quest areas with expanded quest chains (epic mount cash farming!)
Glancing Blows: This is a mechanic that reduces crits against high level opponents. It's being tuned down.
Spell Haste: It's now harder to get 1% spell haste, but channeled spells will now get the benefit.
Crowd control breaks: Forms of crowd control that have a chance not to break on damage (e.g. Frost Nova) are now broken slightly easier, but are more resistant to crit damage.
Gear matching in battlegrounds: This will, when there are enough players, isolate players with high-level gear to their own battleground, and generally matching like gear to like gear. This has been a long-time promised (originally slated with 2.0, then with TBC's release).
Mounts, auto-dismount and pets: Any action that would require dismounting will now automatically dismount you and continue the action. Also, pets will automatically be dismissed when mounting, and will return (without soul shard or happiness loss) when dismounting.

1 Class-specific changes
2 Trade-skill changes
- 2.1 Jewelcrafting
- 2.2 Leatherworking
3 External links
4 WoWWiki

Class-specific changes

Hunter

2.1 will change the hunter class forever. Just to summarize, here are the highlights:

Hunter's Mark will improve every time you fire a ranged shot (this is reported to be an overall 4% dps boost on average)
Survival will get many enhancements, making it a viable raiding spec
Kill Command is off the global cooldown (hunters have been asking for this since before the TBC release)
You can train your pet with new abilities that increase attack speed and avoid AOE damage
Your pet heals will be instant-cast HoTs that cost less and heal more than previously.
Downranking Arcane Shot won't be as useful
Pets are dismissed when you mount, and automatically re-summoned (without happiness loss) when you mount/dismount

The largest changes are to Survival, so let me touch on that specifically. Survival will get a 4% boost to dps from Survival Instincts. Also, Expose Weakness will max out at a 100% chance to proc per crit (previously 30%). Snake trap will also work with Survival talents as one might expect. These changes will significantly alter the balance between the specs, though it's not clear if Survival will end up being more or less dps than Marksmanship now, or if they'll be roughly the same.

Mage

2.1 will change Mages, though not as much as some classes. The central changes are:

Arcane Missiles along with all channeled spells get a re-vamp that makes it work more consistently and work with Spell Haste.
A number of changes to Frost, including a bump in dps
- Ice Barrier gets a new, trainable rank
- Arctic Winds increases all Frost damage by 1-5%
- A "Hypothermia" effect on Ice Block will mean that it can only be cast every 30 seconds.
- Frostbolt rank 12 damage has been buffed slightly.

Overall, mages don't see a lot of change, other than the frost dps-boost and loss of the ice block / cold snap / ice block combo. While this is generally decried as a nerf, there's little argument that mages remain one of the most viable raiding and PvP classes in the game.

Druid

Most of the news is good for Druids. The buffs are strong and the nerfs are relatively weak.

As mentioned above, the big change is the Druid Epic Flight Form quest chain
Cyclone won't CC big red hunters/pets anymore
Gift of the Wild 1+2 are trainable
Threat reduction for Improved Leader of the Pack and Swiftmend and the Subtlety talent applies to all spells
Lifebloom +healing effects have been improved
Mangle(Bear) is getting buff to damage and a nerf to threat that should balance out in terms of total threat

The reaction, as always, is mixed. However, it's safe to say that druids, like hunters, have gotten much of what they've asked for... a rare thing in WoW patches.

... more classes to come...

Trade-skill changes

Jewelcrafting

UI changes will make JC easier to manage.
New gems and cuts are being added, both to the normal list and for end-game Hyjal and Black Temple gems.
Thorium Setting only requires 2 thorium bars now
Prospecting now always yields at least 1 gem.

Overall, the changes are aimed at decreasing some of the skill-up hurdles and expanding this new profession.

Leatherworking

Knothide Armor kits are better for skill-ups (less mats, and more skillups)
Additional snakes that drop cobra scales are in the highlands of nagrand as well as in shadowmoon valley. (major LW request)
Drums of Restoration nerfed slightly.
Nethercobra Leg Armor, Nethercleft Leg Armor buffed slightly

There's not a lot to say here. Leatherworking gets some obvious improvements, but nothing shocking.

... more professions to come...