Things That Directly Affect Me - Patch 3.2

I don't usually comment on the patch notes because, hey, everyone else is doing the same thing. The patch notes today have so much that affect me that I felt I would comment on the ones that really grabbed my attention. I skipped a lot, mostly because they are items that only affect me when the whim strikes me to play something other than my priests, which lately hasn't been striking me as much. The screenshot? Completely unrelated, but I felt this needed something at the top. :)

Priests

• Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.(Does this mean I will be using this less in groups? I glyphed this spell!)
  
• Talents
  
  • Holy
    • Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.(I think I like this better now.)
      
  • Shadow
    • Dispersion: Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.(I'm addicted to the spell as it is. Now I can use it 33% more often. Yowzas!)
      
    • Improved Mind Blast: Redesigned. Now, in addition to reducing the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds, while in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 20% for 10 seconds.(Yum, a Mortal Strike of my very own *hugs self* How does this help me in PvE though?)
      
    • Vampiric Touch: The amount of damage done when this spell is dispelled has been doubled.(YAY. More penalty for someone dispelling my VT. But wait, how does this help me in PvE?)

Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface is now active(Now I can send tells faster to all my friends with names at the character limit. Here's looking at you, IGeightyate.)

Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame. This feature can be enabled through the chat settings by right-clicking on a chat window.(So in LFG, I won't have to shift and click on someone to find out what they are? Hot Sauce. Now, can we have shades for specs? Hot pink for ret pally, light pink for healy pally, and regular for tanks? I get carried away sometimes)

Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.(I hesitate to get rid of my RatingBuster. I'll turn it off for a day or so and see if I miss it.)

Item Level: A new option has been added under Display in the Interface Options to show the item level on item tooltips.(No more guessing if an upgrade really is an upgrade? Sometimes, if the stats are really close, I find myself going to WoWHead to check I-level. This will save me time)

Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.(I see me getting a Greedy achievement here soon. I usually pass if it's not something I can use, but Halinka does like her shopping..)

Wolvar and Gorloc orphans have arrived in Dalaran and need your help! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District (completing the quests being offered for this event will not count toward any Children's Week achievements). Players have a limited amount of time to care for these orphans before they take their leave. They will then return again for the regularly-scheduled Children's Week next year.(The question here is, will it get me a mini pet, or some other vanity item to clog my bank with? Yesterday I checked Delgada's bank, and found more than 50 slots dedicated to vanity items. GUH.)

The ravasaur trainer Mor'vek has returned to Un'Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount... if they can survive the creature's deadly poison. (Halinka is gunning for a Wintersaber mount. It is only fitting that Delgada should be able to get something equally unpleasant to grind for.)

Cooking

• Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.(I don't use it. But Halinka cooks everything, then sells it. This will make an already profitable item even more worth farming.)
  
• Chef's Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster. (It will be a long time before any of my characters have this. But I want it. Cooking faster means more time doing something else while standing in the middle of Dalaran. Oh, wait, I wasn't doing anything anyway...)
  
• Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.(Finally. After I have almost all of them. Oh well, I know some other people who will be happy for this change.)
  
• Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.(More tokens means faster recipe buying. Halinka likes that.)
  
• The recipe for Captain Rumsey's Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward Crate, Barrel, or Spice Bag from the cooking dailies.(More booze! That makes 4, doesn't it?)
  

Enchanting

• Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.(Delgada and Shawndra are happy girls. Finally, a reward for the hard, costly grind of enchanting.)
  

Fishing

• Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.(Any character I have a fleeting interest in has their cooking and fishing near their level, Carlotta being the exception, because if she is farming, it's for herbs, not fish. Another way to earn those cooking tokens is great, though!)
  

Herbalism

• Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
  
• Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown. (As this is my newest go-to profession for my alt characters, I am thrilled. A free heal that doesn't have a cooldown, doesn't take me out of form, and scales with max health. This could also be a valuable 911 button for tanks out there.)
  

Skinning

• Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.(My second new go-to profession for my alts, every bit of critical strike rating is great.)
  

Tailoring

• Embroideries improved.(Waiting to see how "improved" they are.)
  

Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran. (more mini pets for me! Last night Delgada got her Sprite Darter Hatchling after brutally murdering at least 50 Sprite Darters. She is 5 from the 75 pet achievement. Halinka is also looking forward to getting the last 2 for her 50 pet achievement. Neither of them are looking forward to working for the Argent Crusade, though it seems Halinka may need to.)

Glyph of Shadow: This glyph can now be triggered by critical strikes from periodic damage.(I have seen dots and channeled spells crit so often lately, that I can't wait to see my dps go up :) )

Battlegrounds Battleground experience has arrived!

• Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).(Rowena would be worried if not for the next bullet point)
  
• Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.(10 gold is less than a daily away. To not have to worry about accidentally leveling into the next bracket is wonderful. If new items come out for the 10- 19 bracket, Rowena will be able to get them without a reroll. Ahh, if only this worked in real life. To be 19 forever...)
  
• Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.(Now, when someone asks me to run a dungeon, I can astound them with my tanking skills (as a rogue) And, Rowena can now finally build up her arsenal of weapons, and have the specialty sets she will need for going up against the more hard core twinks. Stamina set? You bet. Avoidance set? Coming along nicely. Glass cannon? Whoa baby!)
  
• Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.(Any little bit of guilt Rowena had killing players that wandered unknowingly into Warsong Gulch with less than blues on is now gone.)
  
• Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered.(Yeah, we don't think we'll need to turn on that experience gain again. You won't be getting any more gold from Rowena!)

Added after posting, an item at the very bottom of the patch notes says I am one of the lucky ones that got my game graphics messed up this patch. There doesn't seem to be an update to the drivers my laptop is running, so I added SET fixedFunction "1" to the config.wtf file(as prescribed). Voila! No more graphics problems. If you are running a laptop that has Intel 965 Mobile Express chipset drivers on Windows Vista prior to version 7.15.10.1559 (December 2008), make sure to apply this easy patch before the servers come back up. They say 3pm, but we all know that great content requires long patch day downtimes. Anyone got any good movies they can recommend?