Ooh, that shovel is going to be useful for mushroom farms.
Significant cooldown huh? I liked being able to point the sword straight up to get out of monoliths (or failing Mystcraft ages), though it often takes like 5 clicks with the early 1.2.5 version. And it does definitely give you a smaller hop while you're in midair, or swimming; it is quite a lot of effort to fly, but leaping from the ground to your roof is quite possible (if likely to be painful). Skylands is hideously dangerous. I for one haven't found durability to be a problem though; I carry like three Pickaxes of the Core and only one sword. Also, it seems like right-clicking the sword (my version anyway) while in midair in any direction can prevent falling damage; even straight down. Makes it easy to get into obelisks, too. Click before you splat.
Does anyone know if there's a simple "colored torch" mod? Preferably an easily multiplayer-friendly one? I used to use wool to mark my mineshafts, with two pieces along a wall or floor: Blue means "this way home", red means "dead end / fully explored", yellow means "Unexplored and I will do this later", white means "I'm exploring this way right now". It would be nice to have torches instead, and either color them with dye or maybe even just right-click them. My friends like to use "torch on the right wall", which works, until you find big rooms with six entrances or loops.