I'm really missing the red crosses that used to appear when you leveled. My first dominion match post-patch had me placing 4-5 ability points at a time, because I didn't notice myself leveling.

I'm trying to be more conscious of it now, and keeping an eye out, but I think there definitely needs to be a bigger visual cue on level. This may not be as large a problem in Summoner's Rift, when leveling happens at a slower pace, but it might be.

personally i havnt ever had an issue since it gives a small visual cue and a sound to go with it...if it had too much of an animation it might get in the way of seeing other things

I haven't had trouble noticing the level, but I have caught myself not noticing the 6-11-18 R availability a few times and instead just grabbing another rank of QWE.

Not really sure why; it's not like the new UI is harder to see or anything. I guess it's just a familiarity thing.