Interesting what sort of unrelated good news can crop up when you ask around. Based on what we're picking up from the WoW's Europe (Germany) forums, Blizzard is planning to let World of Warcraft's druids be able to cast  Barkskin even in their Cat (their primary DPS form) or travel form.

As a recap, Barkskin provides the casting druid with a 20 percent damage reduction bonus. the spell further enables druids to cast spells without interruption, making it a favorite for those speccing in the Balance talent tree (Hurricane, anyone?). Getting into specifics, Synneth of the WoW Europe forums explained why Druids could look forward to this latest patch 2.3 change:

Excellent change, giving Druid more time in Cat form even whilst focused.

Where currently you would go Bear when focused, instead you can pop Barkskin and stay in Cat for an extra few seconds to finish off that Rip or otherwise - then switch to Bear. With -20% damage for those 12 seconds, the decreased damage taken with Bear+Barkskin will make up for the increased damage taken whilst staying in Cat.

In short, it allows us to use our damage form a bit longer than currently instead of being forced to loldpsbear form and reduced to tickling people.