Patch 5.1

Patch 5.1 will bring a number of changes to the play environment, and a decent amount of them are balance changes and UI changes that DO affect Free to Play players. An interesting feature is the "Crowd Control UI" that will help you discern when you are silenced, which should help some people out. Here's a short compilation of the changes directly affecting the F2P bracket. These are not complete changes and this post will be updated to reflect upcoming changes.

General

• The durations of all Disarm effects have been reduced to 8 seconds.
• The caster version of Rune of Perfection now gives +10 hit instead of spell penetration.
• The Booty Bay fishing tournament is now merged with the Kalu'ak fishing tournament, and can have three winners.

Classes

Druid

• Mangle has received a damage buff.
• Rake damage reduced by 18%.

Balance

• Starfire and Starsurge have received damage buffs.

Guardian

• Thick Hide now reduces physical damage taken by 12% in addition to it's previous effect.

Hunter

• Steady Shot is now usable while moving.

Marksmanship

• Careful Aim critical strike chance bonus lowered to 75% (from 90%), but health threshold reduced to 80% (was 90%).

Mage
Arcane

• Arcane has received a slight blanket nerf in damage to compensate for damage gained from the new Arcane Charge passive.

Priest

• Penance has received a big nerf in base damage but a buff in spell coefficient (to 103.7%, from 63.5%).
• Psyfiend Psychic Terror cast time has been increased to 2 seconds, up from 1.5 seconds.
• Dominate Mind no longer has a cooldown, but it's cast time has been increased to 2.5 seconds, up from 1.5 seconds.

Rogue

• Kick now costs 10 energy (down from 15).

Shaman

• Lightning Bolt damage increased slightly.
• All totems are now considered spells, and summoning totems can be prevented by silencing effects. Searing Totem, Magma Totem, and Fire Elemental Totem fall into the Fire school, while all other totems fall under the Nature school.

Warrior

• Execute damage slightly reduced.
• Impending Victory and Victory Rush damage changed to a base amount.

Fury

• Wild Strike damage slightly increased.
• Bloodthirst damage slightly reduced.