Windzarko
Well-Known Member
For the sake of those who don't closely follow WoW fansites or haven't heard this by word of mouth already, this is to clear things up a little bit and give everyone a heads-up as to what to expect over the next few weeks:
Patch 4.0.1
This patch will leave the world in its current state, but will give us many of the other changes for the expansion.
A large part of this patch is currently on the background downloader (Stage 3, in fact), and it's getting closer to release. Short of any shocking revelations on the PTRs/beta realms, I'd say to expect it either Wednesday next week or the week after.
This isn't complete (and might have some inaccuracies, anyone who knows differently feel free to correct me), but here's a quick digest of what I can remember:
*Class changes
*Some new class abilities
*Some alterations to existing abilities (from smaller changes like Avenger's Shield no longer dazing to total revamps of some spells)
*Some class abilities available at earlier levels (eg Shaman's Lava Burst is now a pre-60 spell; these kind of things obviously won't affect our level 80s, but will affect people still levelling, and the people with LX characters)
*Not going to list loads of class changes or anything here since the list would be vast. The one thing I will say is that Death Knights will no longer be able to DPS or tank with any of their three trees; Blood will be for tanking, Frost for Dual-Wield or 2H DPS, and Unholy for 2H only (I think).
*Stat changes
*Armour Penetration is gone as a stat on gear. Some specs might still have some armour-ignoring bonuses amongst their talents, but that'll be it; ArP is gone.
*Spirit is a mana regen stat for healers, although classes with both a healer spec and a DPS caster spec (Shadow Priests, Elemental Shammies, Boomkin) will get talents that convert spirit to hit for them. Spirit-based mana regen for other classes doesn't happen in combat at all anymore, although it might still happen outside of combat. And the old "five second rule" (where you regen mana as if out of combat if you haven't cast anything that cost mana for 5 seconds or more) won't work, it's based on being in or out of combat only now.
*Haste will affect the regen rate of energy (for rogues and kitties), focus (for hunters) and mana (for Enhancement Shammies, Retadins and maybe Protadins, but not for anyone else). It still shouldn't affect cooldowns or GCDs for melee abilities unless you expressly have talents for that.
*Attack Power and Spellpower will largely be gone; Plate wearers get their AP from Strength, other physical DPS get theirs from Agility, and casters get their Spellpower from Intellect. There may still be some items (weapons and maybe some trinkets and the like) which have AP/SP on, but otherwise it should be gone from gear.
*Defense Rating is gone; classes intended to tank will become crit-immune through talents or spec-specific abilities, and the Defense and Defense Rating stats will disappear. Tanking gear will still have the avoidance stats and more stamina on, though.
*New 31-point talent trees (this will of course mean a free respec for everyone, since the old trees just flat out won't exist any more)
*The new method of speccing: you choose your spec (ie choose your primary talent tree), which gives you your spec's defining ability and a few passive bonuses, and then you put talents into that tree until you've spent 31 (ie far enough to get down to the bottom of the tree). Once you've got at least 31 in a tree, the other two trees become available to put points into as well (basically you can't spend points outside of your main tree prior to spending 31 points in the primary).
*Talent points won't be earned every level, but every other level (if there's exceptions to that, I'm not aware). You should get either a talent point or a new ability/spell from the trainer every level, with it alternating back and forth so there's something new every time (for the most part).
*The removal of Weapon Skills and Spell Ranks
*If your class can use a weapon type, then you can always use it to the fullest ability your level allows.
*If you've learned a spell (either from the trainer or via talents), it'll scale with your level, every level, and thus never require you to return to the trainer to pick up new ranks of it.
*If you've yet to learn a trainer-taught spell for your class, it'll be visible but grayed-out in your spellbook and will tell you when you can learn it. Handy for working out if it's worth getting back to a city or not when you level, no?
*Major changes to the Glyph system
*A new third type of Glyph, the "Prime" glyph has been added. Prime Glyphs are basically pretty direct increases to the abilities they modify; % damage increase or % healing increase, for example. Some do it a little differently, like giving Hemo a bleed effect based on the attack's damage (which still effectively works as a straightforward damage increase)
*Major Glyphs will be the more "interesting" ones in that they shouldn't be simple % damage increases or anything, but do more interesting or useful stuff. For example, there's one to put the dazing effect back on Avenger's Shield (if you miss it that desperately), or ones that decrease cooldowns or increase durations on various effects.
*Minor Glyphs are a mix of "quality of life" and aesthetic/fun/silly: unlikely to be anything powerfully significant for the most part. Things like a glyph to change the appearance of the Shaman's ghost wolf form, or to reduce mana cost on buffs.
*You get three of each Glyph slot: you unlock one of each kind at levels 25, 50 and 75 (so we'll have all of them available to our raiding characters already).
*Once you use a Glyph, you permanently learn it. If you ever remove it from your active glyphs, you can put it or any others you've learned straight in the empty glyph slot without needing a new glyph. You do, however, require a special reagent for removing a glyph that's currently in use; Vanishing Powder for now, Dust of Disappearance once we're 81+. This stuff is made by Scribes, so at least they can still get some income now that glyphs aren't one-use-only
*Interface changes, and many of them
*The spellbook has changed to show when you learn stuff, and is less cluttered now that you only get one rank of each ability. More nicely laid out as well, if you ask me. The spellbook will also have tabs for your professions, mounts and mini-pets.
*The character info screen is bigger now and gives more detailed information, including the ability to mouse over stats and get more detailed info than before; for example, mousing over hit will tell you how much chance you have to miss targets of various levels (including Boss level; thus, no excuse for not knowing your hit cap!).
*Maps will be updated in Cataclysm to show where things like flight paths can be found, as well as just looking nicer and being a bit more informative about what's in the zone. I doubt that the flight paths element will make it into this build, and the actual updated maps are for when the world gets all b0rked, so that definitely won't be in yet.
*Warlocks and Paladins get a new bar under their health/mana bars that shows their new resources; Soul Shards for Warlocks and Holy Power for Paladins. Don't hold me to it, but I think they might have upgraded the appearance of Rogue/Kitty combo points as well...
*If you have any special procs in your spec (and maybe your gear, not sure if that's implemented yet or if that won't happen till Cata's raid gear), then they don't just show up as a time-limited buff clustered with your other buffs anymore. You'll get a visual indicator in the middle of your screen, near your character, and any abilities on your action bars that are affected by the proc will be highlighted; for example, a Fire mage getting his Hot Streak proc for an instant-cast Pyroblast will get an appropriately fire-themed visual indicator in the middle of his screen, and the Pyroblast button on his bars will be emphasized.
*The functionality of stuff like the mini-map has been improved.
*Other bits and pieces have been improved or added. One of my personal favourites is a button that only appears when you're dead and running around as a ghost: the "return to graveyard" button, which will teleport you back to the spirit healer your ghost spawned at. I'm sure anyone who's ever gotten lost as a ghost before, or did a long run only to realise their body was unreachable, will appreciate it as much as me
*New currency systems
*PvE and PvP will each use a two-tiered currency system. For PvE, you'll have Justice Points and Valour Points. For PvP, you'll have Honour Points and Conquest Points. Justice and Honour are the "lower tier" points for each system, and will let you buy more basic, or older (once the patches progress and more gear is added) equipment, and Valour and Conquest points are the "higher tier" points that get the newest and shiniest stuff. Every time they introduce a new tier of content, all the higher points will get converted to the lower points, and the previously highest tier of gear will become available for the lower points instead. There's a cap on how many of each point you can earn. At this point, I'm not certain if we'll have access to Justice or Conquest points before 85.
*All current tokens you have will be changing in some way; Emblems of Triumph and Frost will be converted into the new Justice Points whilst any older PvE tokens (including Badges of Justice from Burning Crusade) will be converted to gold. All PvP-related tokens (including remaining BG marks, Venture Coins, Stone Keeper Shards, Spirit Shards, and current Honour and Arena points) will be converted to the new Honour Points.
*At this point, I don't know what's happening with such tokens as the Dalaran cooking daily marks, but I doubt they'll just be completely cleared away without either a replacement or recompense.
*Guild Stuff
*Not sure how much of this is going in with this patch, but guilds are getting a major overhaul.
*Guild level: as the guild does the kinda stuff they always do (questing, dailies, dungeons, PvP, raids, etc), they generate experience for the guild. The guild can level up through 25 levels, unlocking guild perks and sometimes other special bonuses at each level. It can also get us access to more gbank tabs and the like!
*Guild reputation: based on your contribution to guild experience, your guild rep rises and can give you access to certain shinies that have been unlocked by the guild's level; stuff like banners, mounts and so on. This is earned purely by you, it isn't influenced by officers/the guild mster.
*Guild achievements: pretty straightfowards; achievements earned collectively. Sometimes it's a matter of having one of each race or class at the level cap, or all the professions at the level cap. Sometimes it's doing content in a guild group (where the vast majority of the group are in the guild, but a few can be non-guildies). Guild achievements can unlock some stuff, and give the guild a hefty chunk of XP as well.
*More flexibility and control: this only really applies to guild master (and to officers, to a lesser extent), but the interface for fiddling with the guild is getting so much better that I nearly hugged my monitor when I saw it. Truth.
*Other stuff
*More Pre-Cata events. I think that 4.0.1 might be the end of the Troll/Gnome quest chains for retaking their home areas, but we'll get new quest chains in Org/Stormwind related to the Twilight's Hammer and suchlike. There's also going to be a large-scale elemental invasion event (think the pre-Wrath Zombies stuff but significantly less annoying and griefable/rage-inducing) at some point, might be 4.0.1
*Yeah, there's probably quite a bit more stuff that I forgot, but the stuff above should be enough to keep people going, surely? If I did forget anything of critical importance, I'm sure someone will shout it out.
*What isn't happening in this patch
*The Cataclysm (and all the associated world/quest changes)
*New race-class combos (I think)
*The new races
*Archaeology
*Flying in Azeroth (won't happen until you actually own Cataclysm itself)
*Any of the post-80 content
Patch 4.0.3
Yes, odd numbering jump, and don't ask me why as I don't have a clue.
This patch is the "true" pre-Cata patch; this is where the world changes, we get all the pre-81 shinies we didn't get with 4.0.1, and so on.
This one will be put out a week or two in advance of the actual expansion release; chances are that we'll get it between the middle of October and the middle of November. This could get pushed back based on the beta, of course. Regardless, the expansion itself should come swiftly after this patch.
*World changes
*Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms get torn a new one and whilst some places will still be recognisable, others will be totally different; for example, the Thousand Needles is getting flooded.
*New Troll and Gnome characters will start in their own starting areas now rather than their previous shared ones; Echo Isles for Trolls, the surface area of Gnomeregan for Gnomes. They still share the same zone as before, but their initial questing will be seperate and tuned for them lore-and-theme-wise.
*Outland and Northrend will be unaffected, as will the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas (so far as I know).
*The levels for several instances will change, and some instances will be quite significantly different, such as Stratholme.
*ZG will cease to be a raid instance and will become part of STV's questing experience. AQ20 will become AQ10 but remains a level 60 instance.
*Quest changes
*The whole 1-80 questing experience changes; some old quests may still be in place but will have been retuned, had their text updated and likely had their rewards overhauled.
*Lowbie quest rewards will no longer be so frequently shite and loaded with pointless Spirit (except where genuinely relevant).
*The flow of questing will change so that you don't end up being forced to bounce around all over the world if you don't want to. This also means several zones had their levels changed, such as WPL and EPL (40-ish and 50-ish respectively, if memory serves).
*Other stuff
*If they're not in with 4.0.1, then the new race-class combos will be in with this patch (or should be, at least)
*Any of the stuff I mentioned in 4.0.1 that actually ISN'T in that patch will be in this one
*More pre-expansion events, likely of a more significant tone now that the world will have been all b0rked...
*Stuff that isn't in this patch
*New races
*New areas
*Ability to level past 80
*Ability to fly in Azeroth
*Archaeology (I think)
*New BGs/Arenas/dungeons (so far as I know; the PvP content might be in but if it is, I'd not be surprised if you can't access it till 81+ or till you buy the expansion)
*Anything that requires that you can level past 80, duh.
Cataclysm
The actual expansion itself; whilst 4.0.3 will basically be all of the expansion content put into the client and ready to rock, lots of stuff won't be accessible until you have the serial key put into your account, and the techs switch the expansion content on on the servers.
I'd list what's happening in Cataclysm, but... well, go look it yourself, if you really want to know!
TL;DR version:
*One patch is coming very soon with many mechanics and UI changes but no world changes
*Another patch will come not too long after that with most everything else
*The expansion will come swiftly after that second big patch.
*If there's anything you have left to do before 4.0.3 (when the world changes), GET IT DONE SOON.
One final note:
Most everyone is going to have to relearn many elements of their classes and learn to adapt to the changes. If you want to be able to raid with us at 85, I'd VERY strongly recommend paying attention to theorycrafting as soon as the patches go in, and continue to pay attention and learn as you level up to 85 after launch. We won't be taking people that can't pull their weight skill-wise to the level 85 raids; you have been warned!
Patch 4.0.1
This patch will leave the world in its current state, but will give us many of the other changes for the expansion.
A large part of this patch is currently on the background downloader (Stage 3, in fact), and it's getting closer to release. Short of any shocking revelations on the PTRs/beta realms, I'd say to expect it either Wednesday next week or the week after.
This isn't complete (and might have some inaccuracies, anyone who knows differently feel free to correct me), but here's a quick digest of what I can remember:
*Class changes
*Some new class abilities
*Some alterations to existing abilities (from smaller changes like Avenger's Shield no longer dazing to total revamps of some spells)
*Some class abilities available at earlier levels (eg Shaman's Lava Burst is now a pre-60 spell; these kind of things obviously won't affect our level 80s, but will affect people still levelling, and the people with LX characters)
*Not going to list loads of class changes or anything here since the list would be vast. The one thing I will say is that Death Knights will no longer be able to DPS or tank with any of their three trees; Blood will be for tanking, Frost for Dual-Wield or 2H DPS, and Unholy for 2H only (I think).
*Stat changes
*Armour Penetration is gone as a stat on gear. Some specs might still have some armour-ignoring bonuses amongst their talents, but that'll be it; ArP is gone.
*Spirit is a mana regen stat for healers, although classes with both a healer spec and a DPS caster spec (Shadow Priests, Elemental Shammies, Boomkin) will get talents that convert spirit to hit for them. Spirit-based mana regen for other classes doesn't happen in combat at all anymore, although it might still happen outside of combat. And the old "five second rule" (where you regen mana as if out of combat if you haven't cast anything that cost mana for 5 seconds or more) won't work, it's based on being in or out of combat only now.
*Haste will affect the regen rate of energy (for rogues and kitties), focus (for hunters) and mana (for Enhancement Shammies, Retadins and maybe Protadins, but not for anyone else). It still shouldn't affect cooldowns or GCDs for melee abilities unless you expressly have talents for that.
*Attack Power and Spellpower will largely be gone; Plate wearers get their AP from Strength, other physical DPS get theirs from Agility, and casters get their Spellpower from Intellect. There may still be some items (weapons and maybe some trinkets and the like) which have AP/SP on, but otherwise it should be gone from gear.
*Defense Rating is gone; classes intended to tank will become crit-immune through talents or spec-specific abilities, and the Defense and Defense Rating stats will disappear. Tanking gear will still have the avoidance stats and more stamina on, though.
*New 31-point talent trees (this will of course mean a free respec for everyone, since the old trees just flat out won't exist any more)
*The new method of speccing: you choose your spec (ie choose your primary talent tree), which gives you your spec's defining ability and a few passive bonuses, and then you put talents into that tree until you've spent 31 (ie far enough to get down to the bottom of the tree). Once you've got at least 31 in a tree, the other two trees become available to put points into as well (basically you can't spend points outside of your main tree prior to spending 31 points in the primary).
*Talent points won't be earned every level, but every other level (if there's exceptions to that, I'm not aware). You should get either a talent point or a new ability/spell from the trainer every level, with it alternating back and forth so there's something new every time (for the most part).
*The removal of Weapon Skills and Spell Ranks
*If your class can use a weapon type, then you can always use it to the fullest ability your level allows.
*If you've learned a spell (either from the trainer or via talents), it'll scale with your level, every level, and thus never require you to return to the trainer to pick up new ranks of it.
*If you've yet to learn a trainer-taught spell for your class, it'll be visible but grayed-out in your spellbook and will tell you when you can learn it. Handy for working out if it's worth getting back to a city or not when you level, no?
*Major changes to the Glyph system
*A new third type of Glyph, the "Prime" glyph has been added. Prime Glyphs are basically pretty direct increases to the abilities they modify; % damage increase or % healing increase, for example. Some do it a little differently, like giving Hemo a bleed effect based on the attack's damage (which still effectively works as a straightforward damage increase)
*Major Glyphs will be the more "interesting" ones in that they shouldn't be simple % damage increases or anything, but do more interesting or useful stuff. For example, there's one to put the dazing effect back on Avenger's Shield (if you miss it that desperately), or ones that decrease cooldowns or increase durations on various effects.
*Minor Glyphs are a mix of "quality of life" and aesthetic/fun/silly: unlikely to be anything powerfully significant for the most part. Things like a glyph to change the appearance of the Shaman's ghost wolf form, or to reduce mana cost on buffs.
*You get three of each Glyph slot: you unlock one of each kind at levels 25, 50 and 75 (so we'll have all of them available to our raiding characters already).
*Once you use a Glyph, you permanently learn it. If you ever remove it from your active glyphs, you can put it or any others you've learned straight in the empty glyph slot without needing a new glyph. You do, however, require a special reagent for removing a glyph that's currently in use; Vanishing Powder for now, Dust of Disappearance once we're 81+. This stuff is made by Scribes, so at least they can still get some income now that glyphs aren't one-use-only
*Interface changes, and many of them
*The spellbook has changed to show when you learn stuff, and is less cluttered now that you only get one rank of each ability. More nicely laid out as well, if you ask me. The spellbook will also have tabs for your professions, mounts and mini-pets.
*The character info screen is bigger now and gives more detailed information, including the ability to mouse over stats and get more detailed info than before; for example, mousing over hit will tell you how much chance you have to miss targets of various levels (including Boss level; thus, no excuse for not knowing your hit cap!).
*Maps will be updated in Cataclysm to show where things like flight paths can be found, as well as just looking nicer and being a bit more informative about what's in the zone. I doubt that the flight paths element will make it into this build, and the actual updated maps are for when the world gets all b0rked, so that definitely won't be in yet.
*Warlocks and Paladins get a new bar under their health/mana bars that shows their new resources; Soul Shards for Warlocks and Holy Power for Paladins. Don't hold me to it, but I think they might have upgraded the appearance of Rogue/Kitty combo points as well...
*If you have any special procs in your spec (and maybe your gear, not sure if that's implemented yet or if that won't happen till Cata's raid gear), then they don't just show up as a time-limited buff clustered with your other buffs anymore. You'll get a visual indicator in the middle of your screen, near your character, and any abilities on your action bars that are affected by the proc will be highlighted; for example, a Fire mage getting his Hot Streak proc for an instant-cast Pyroblast will get an appropriately fire-themed visual indicator in the middle of his screen, and the Pyroblast button on his bars will be emphasized.
*The functionality of stuff like the mini-map has been improved.
*Other bits and pieces have been improved or added. One of my personal favourites is a button that only appears when you're dead and running around as a ghost: the "return to graveyard" button, which will teleport you back to the spirit healer your ghost spawned at. I'm sure anyone who's ever gotten lost as a ghost before, or did a long run only to realise their body was unreachable, will appreciate it as much as me
*New currency systems
*PvE and PvP will each use a two-tiered currency system. For PvE, you'll have Justice Points and Valour Points. For PvP, you'll have Honour Points and Conquest Points. Justice and Honour are the "lower tier" points for each system, and will let you buy more basic, or older (once the patches progress and more gear is added) equipment, and Valour and Conquest points are the "higher tier" points that get the newest and shiniest stuff. Every time they introduce a new tier of content, all the higher points will get converted to the lower points, and the previously highest tier of gear will become available for the lower points instead. There's a cap on how many of each point you can earn. At this point, I'm not certain if we'll have access to Justice or Conquest points before 85.
*All current tokens you have will be changing in some way; Emblems of Triumph and Frost will be converted into the new Justice Points whilst any older PvE tokens (including Badges of Justice from Burning Crusade) will be converted to gold. All PvP-related tokens (including remaining BG marks, Venture Coins, Stone Keeper Shards, Spirit Shards, and current Honour and Arena points) will be converted to the new Honour Points.
*At this point, I don't know what's happening with such tokens as the Dalaran cooking daily marks, but I doubt they'll just be completely cleared away without either a replacement or recompense.
*Guild Stuff
*Not sure how much of this is going in with this patch, but guilds are getting a major overhaul.
*Guild level: as the guild does the kinda stuff they always do (questing, dailies, dungeons, PvP, raids, etc), they generate experience for the guild. The guild can level up through 25 levels, unlocking guild perks and sometimes other special bonuses at each level. It can also get us access to more gbank tabs and the like!
*Guild reputation: based on your contribution to guild experience, your guild rep rises and can give you access to certain shinies that have been unlocked by the guild's level; stuff like banners, mounts and so on. This is earned purely by you, it isn't influenced by officers/the guild mster.
*Guild achievements: pretty straightfowards; achievements earned collectively. Sometimes it's a matter of having one of each race or class at the level cap, or all the professions at the level cap. Sometimes it's doing content in a guild group (where the vast majority of the group are in the guild, but a few can be non-guildies). Guild achievements can unlock some stuff, and give the guild a hefty chunk of XP as well.
*More flexibility and control: this only really applies to guild master (and to officers, to a lesser extent), but the interface for fiddling with the guild is getting so much better that I nearly hugged my monitor when I saw it. Truth.
*Other stuff
*More Pre-Cata events. I think that 4.0.1 might be the end of the Troll/Gnome quest chains for retaking their home areas, but we'll get new quest chains in Org/Stormwind related to the Twilight's Hammer and suchlike. There's also going to be a large-scale elemental invasion event (think the pre-Wrath Zombies stuff but significantly less annoying and griefable/rage-inducing) at some point, might be 4.0.1
*Yeah, there's probably quite a bit more stuff that I forgot, but the stuff above should be enough to keep people going, surely?
If I did forget anything of critical importance, I'm sure someone will shout it out.*What isn't happening in this patch
*The Cataclysm (and all the associated world/quest changes)
*New race-class combos (I think)
*The new races
*Archaeology
*Flying in Azeroth (won't happen until you actually own Cataclysm itself)
*Any of the post-80 content
Patch 4.0.3
Yes, odd numbering jump, and don't ask me why as I don't have a clue.
This patch is the "true" pre-Cata patch; this is where the world changes, we get all the pre-81 shinies we didn't get with 4.0.1, and so on.
This one will be put out a week or two in advance of the actual expansion release; chances are that we'll get it between the middle of October and the middle of November. This could get pushed back based on the beta, of course. Regardless, the expansion itself should come swiftly after this patch.
*World changes
*Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms get torn a new one and whilst some places will still be recognisable, others will be totally different; for example, the Thousand Needles is getting flooded.
*New Troll and Gnome characters will start in their own starting areas now rather than their previous shared ones; Echo Isles for Trolls, the surface area of Gnomeregan for Gnomes. They still share the same zone as before, but their initial questing will be seperate and tuned for them lore-and-theme-wise.
*Outland and Northrend will be unaffected, as will the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas (so far as I know).
*The levels for several instances will change, and some instances will be quite significantly different, such as Stratholme.
*ZG will cease to be a raid instance and will become part of STV's questing experience. AQ20 will become AQ10 but remains a level 60 instance.
*Quest changes
*The whole 1-80 questing experience changes; some old quests may still be in place but will have been retuned, had their text updated and likely had their rewards overhauled.
*Lowbie quest rewards will no longer be so frequently shite and loaded with pointless Spirit (except where genuinely relevant).
*The flow of questing will change so that you don't end up being forced to bounce around all over the world if you don't want to. This also means several zones had their levels changed, such as WPL and EPL (40-ish and 50-ish respectively, if memory serves).
*Other stuff
*If they're not in with 4.0.1, then the new race-class combos will be in with this patch (or should be, at least)
*Any of the stuff I mentioned in 4.0.1 that actually ISN'T in that patch will be in this one
*More pre-expansion events, likely of a more significant tone now that the world will have been all b0rked...
*Stuff that isn't in this patch
*New races
*New areas
*Ability to level past 80
*Ability to fly in Azeroth
*Archaeology (I think)
*New BGs/Arenas/dungeons (so far as I know; the PvP content might be in but if it is, I'd not be surprised if you can't access it till 81+ or till you buy the expansion)
*Anything that requires that you can level past 80, duh.
Cataclysm
The actual expansion itself; whilst 4.0.3 will basically be all of the expansion content put into the client and ready to rock, lots of stuff won't be accessible until you have the serial key put into your account, and the techs switch the expansion content on on the servers.
I'd list what's happening in Cataclysm, but... well, go look it yourself, if you really want to know!
TL;DR version:
*One patch is coming very soon with many mechanics and UI changes but no world changes
*Another patch will come not too long after that with most everything else
*The expansion will come swiftly after that second big patch.
*If there's anything you have left to do before 4.0.3 (when the world changes), GET IT DONE SOON.
One final note:
Most everyone is going to have to relearn many elements of their classes and learn to adapt to the changes. If you want to be able to raid with us at 85, I'd VERY strongly recommend paying attention to theorycrafting as soon as the patches go in, and continue to pay attention and learn as you level up to 85 after launch. We won't be taking people that can't pull their weight skill-wise to the level 85 raids; you have been warned!
