Things I like about 3.1 so far...

Well we europeans got 3.1 last night and although I didn't do any raiding, I got to play with the new mechanics. These are the things I love so far:

* Dual-Speccing: I am addicted to this feature. Having the ability to switch between Retribution and Protection with a 5-second cast is seriously fun. I've always liked Retribution, but having carved Ulushnar a niche as a decent Tank, I was unwilling to ever give that up. Now I no longer have to worry about it, and I'm actually considering some casual PVP as Ret with a friend. In fact I suspect armory lurkers will probably see Ulushnar in his Ret gear as much as his Prot gear.

* The new Guarded By The Light: I'd read about it, but some part of me refused to believe it. A 100% chance to refresh Divine Plea just by hitting someone?!! It sounded like madness but I now have the evidence of mine eyes. This is the kind of skill I've been wanting since Chaotic Divinity's Gruul days. I can finally keep up a solid threat rotation as an off-tank without going out of mana.

* Sacred Shield/the new Divine Guardian: Ok, so Sacred Shield got nerfed to one target per Paladin. But it was also made useful to Retribution and Protection Paladins with two sneaky buffs. The first was the fact that it now benefitted from the spellpower given by Sheath of Light and Touched by the Light. Wether this was a concious change or a bug fix I don't know but it was overdue. The second was the Divine Guardian talent, which now forms a staple of both my Protection and Retribution specs. It increases the duration and effectiveness of Sacred Shield. Of course it also makes it another button I have to press in my crowded rotations, but I can probably spare the Global Cooldown once a minute.

Tonight, we're going to Ulduar, let's see how that works out.