Patch 2.1.2 preliminary notes

[Quark]

* Arena and Honor Rewards: As part of the inauguration of Season 2, the costs of all Arena items and Honor items has been reduced.

Yay! Or so I thought, until I read further ...

* Sword Specialization: The change to Sword Specialization making its extra attacks appear in yellow has been reverted. Extra attacks will appear in white and act like any auto-attack. They will no longer reset the swing time of your weapon.

Good change, as otherwise Sword Spec was vastly superior to any other weapon spec for dual wielders - an offhand procing a mainhand, non-dual-wield miss penalty, non-glancable attack is a little ridiculous. Now it just procs a mainhand attack.

* PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde have all been redesigned. The trinkets for all classes now have the same effect: Dispels all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character.

Wondering if this was truly all abilities or just those that were previously dispellable, I wasn't sure what to think. Seeing this:

Yes, the trinkets will remove all "movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character." That includes Cyclone as you lose control of your character. The phrasing in quotes can be taken quite literally.

I hate this change. No, let me rephrase that. I absolutely despise this change and will be completely unsatisfied with this arena patch, which I was hoping would address the real imbalances in Arena play (hello Warrior/Paladin).

Sap, Blind, and Gouge. One is extremely hard to pull off and easily counterable (just enter combat), one is on a long cooldown and already dispellable, and one takes an exorbitant amount of energy and a decent cooldown considering it's removed on any damage. All just received a huge nerf. Even my stuns are now screwed.

I thought I hated Warrior/Paladin before. Now I won't even win versus a bad team, only completely a moronic Warrior/Paladin team will lose. I can't believe Blizzard thought this change would be beneficial without a complete rebalance of classes that absolutely depend on their limited CC.