WotLK Beta Patch-Notes - General section Impressions

Here are my thoughts about the newly released info shown on wowindsider about the WotLK Beta patch notes, General section:

• "Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells." - this will definitly improve the mess that is the current ratings system, not to mention be a huge benifit for classes that rely on both melee and spell damage, such as paladins. Still you got to wonder, will we see e.g. rogues in PuGs now rolling on caster gear because of haste/crit/hit ratings on it? I smell yet another excuse for ninjas and loot-whores to run rampant! But in all seriousness, this is a change for the better. Thumbs up.
• "Spellpower" - I like this change as it will make tooltips shorter :) Also, it will be a bit weird to have only e.g. +1k spellpower on my priest instead of +2k healing. Will have to wait and see but especially during leveling for example of my priest this will be a definite help. Thumbs up.
• Transportation to Northrend - I'm sorry, but why do Horde get transportation from 2 major cities, while Alliance get one from Stormwind and one from... Menethil Harbor?! Since mages can now teleport/portal to Theramore, it would have been a better choice IMHO. Having transportation from SW and another major city such as Darnassus would have made even more sense. Thumbs down :(
• Dungeons - there are already 2 starting-level (70-72) instances, compared to only Ramparts in TBC. Win all-around and a solid Thumbs up.
• Classes - I'll make a seperate post for each class I play.
• "Macros and key bindings are now saved server-side" - I only play from one computer so this has never been an issue for me, but a nice buff for people playing from multiple comps. Thumbs up.
• "Shift-clicking to loot mail" - about time :) Thumbs up.

That's it for now, I'll cover classes and loot in a seperate post. Looking good for now but too little info at this stage, I guess we'll all have to wait for more info.