The patch so far

It's been about 10 days now since I've been able to play around in 4.01. So far any group content I've done has been as a tank, so I still don't have any insights on Kitty DPS. But tanking hasn't been terrible.

So far I've tanked the headless horseman about a half dozen times, Heroic UP once, most of Ulduar (still working on that Ironbound Proto--only have Yogg left), ICC 10 up through Rotface and ICC 25 through the entire Plague wing and Princes.

The hardest part so far has been learning my new rotations. Although "rotation" isn't really an accurate representation of what I'm doing right now. I'm sort of hitting whatever isn't on cooldown since the only thing Bears do that doesn't have a cooldown anymore is Lascerate. I'm slowly settling into a prioritization system, though. It basically goes like this:

1. If Lacerate is active and close to expiring and, refresh it.
   
2. Get at least one stack of Fearie Fire (Feral) on the target.
   
3. Mangle whenever it's available.
   
4. Lacerate up to 3 stacks.
   
5. Pulverize if the buff has less than 3 seconds on it.
   
6. Get F3 up to a full 3 stacks.
   
7. Lacerate

Also, I'll Maul anytime it's available and I have more than about 40 rage.

If I'm trying to hold more than two enemies, then Swiping any time it's available becomes top priority.

It's a very different style of playing Bear than I'm used to. If I lapse into auto-pilot I find myself making a lot of mistakes, still. But I'm getting better. Pretty soon this will be the norm for me. And then I'll hit 81 and will have to work Thrash into the mix.

AoE tanking is definitely harder now, but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Swipe does a lot more threat than it used to, so even though I can't just spam it, it's usually enough to hold threat as long as the DPS don't go all out AoE before the mobs even get to me. It's definitely been a little harder in instances than in raids due to Vengeance not building as high or persisting as steadily there, plus the lack of any OTs to help out if my Growl and F3 are both on cooldown.

Bosses haven't been an issue at all. The only time I've lost control of something (even in that 30-45s range that some tanks seem to be having issues in) was when we did Vezax in hard mode last night. But that was to a Mage standing in the black goo of uber spell damage. So it's understandable.

I haven't done any reforging of my gear yet, mostly out of sheer laziness. But it hasn't been a problem so far. Maybe I could be doing better, but through the content I've tanked I've been doing well enough. With less than 6 weeks to go before the expansion, that's good enough for me.

I am anxious to get a few cracks in at the Lich King. I was really worried that defeating him post-patch was going to be really tough, but based on everything I've seen so far, it'll be easier than before.

Hopefully we'll have a few more Kingslayers in our guild before Dec 7.