Cataclysm Stat Changes

As I usually spend a while browsing through Wow.com, I just came across a special little post about the upcoming gear stat changes for Cataclysm. As of writing this, I haven't even finished reading the post and have already found the need to write about it. The stat that's changing that has prompted me to stop dead in my reading tracks and come furiously write about is Parry.
Parry has two upcoming changes (as of current, as we all know Blizz likes to change things on the fly sometimes so this also may change). The first change is that you will no longer be able to can 100% avoidance from Parry. This isn't a big deal because I don't know many who can claim that they have 100% avoidance from Parry.
The second, and most exciting for me as a Dual Wielding Frost Tank, is that Parry will no longer speed up an attack. In short, parry hasting is gone in Cataclysm!
As a Dual Wield Frost Tank, parry hasting is bad. Like LeBron James sweatsocks wrapped around Limburger cheese in the middle of July bad. For those who don't know, Parry hasting is what happens when a boss parries your attack, causing their next attack to come faster. This can cause what is known as a Parry gib, or a fast attack you're not ready for that kills you. Typically this only happens if you're low on health. Otherwise you just take another hit quicker and causes a bit more stress on your healer(s).
Instead, a parried attack as well as it's next attack will hit for 50% damage, should they land at all (they can still be dodged, absorbed, etc).
With the removal of this mechanic, this makes the lives of a Dual Wield Frost tank a lot easier.
Other stat changes are as follows:
Stamina - Non-plate wearing classes will see a lot more, bringing health pools a bit closer together for all classes
Spirit - Nnly on healing gear now. Other mana based specs and classes will have other systems put into place to regen mana. Elemental Shaman and Balance Druid are having special systems designed for them. Buffs that provide spirit will boost primary stats along with likely changes to 5 Second Rule and other regen mechanics being redesigned
Intellect - once again (for those Vanilla Wow vets) grants Spell Power but will provide less mana than current levels
MP5 - Gone with classes that utilize it being redesigned for Spirit usage
Spell Power - Now only on weapons and just to distinguish them as caster weapons
Attack power - Removed from most items but will still be a game mechanic through the appropriate gains with Strength and Agility
Parry - see above
Resilience - Changed to affect only player damage and player crit damage.
Block Value - Gone. All shields now give a 30% passive block value but could still be modified from talents and other effects. Effectively becomes Block Rating
Weapon skill - Gone. All classes will start with maxed weapon skills.
Gem colors - Few stats will be changing. Hit rating may become blue instead of yellow.
Defense - Gone. Tanks will become uncrittable through use of Bear Form, Frost Presence, Defensive Stance or Righteous Fury
Haste - Haste will be changed to allow resource recovery to happen faster. The intention is to "do stuff more often".
Mastery - A new stat that allows players to be better at whatever makes their main talent tree powerful or unique. It will apparently be tied directly to talents so whatever you gain from improving this is directly related to your class and spec. More details will come on this as Cataclysm draws near.
Armor - Being rebalanced to reflect the armor changes in Cataclysm. Bonus armor will go down a bit overall. Mitigation difference will change so that plate isn't a huge jump over all others.
Strength, Agility, Hit Rating, Experise and Crit Rating - No real changes to these stats other than ones listen within other stats. They will still appear on gear and function the same though caps (such as for Hit Rating) are likely to change
Armor Penetration - Gone from gear, still present in talents and abilities
Spell Ranks - Gone. All spells will have one rank that scales with level. Some new spells will be introduced to fill in the gaps.

Combat ratings (hit rating, for example) will obviously raise. Apparently, all ratings will be harder to cap.

Reforging is an interesting concept. In theory, Blizz is making it to where if you have an abundance of a certain stat (again, using hit rating as the example), you can "reforge" your items to convert 50% of that stat into another stat. Some conversions will be forbidden (Stamina -> Strength, as noted by Wow.com).

Melee DPS classes will be seeing more stamina, more strength (plate wearers)/agility (leather/mail, attack power becoming agility and stamina, armor penetration becomes Haste and Crit.

I won't go into the changes for healers and caster DPS as they're a bit beyond the scope of this blog, even though I'd already detailed some of their changes with other stats.
I'm looking forward to a lot of the changes, as well as the changes to the talents themselves. I can only hope that they continue to improve Dual Wielding for Frost and make it bigger and better!