The Gaming Lizard

Rumor mills are going overdrive, especially after Blizzard's latest announcement that come Tuesday, all servers are down for a 12 hour maintained. Changes of cataclysmic proportions are coming and for those who have not been paying much attention to MMOchamps or WoWhead, they may find themselves akin to a headless chicken once 4.0.1 hits.

Fortunately, this blogger has managed to grab hold of the Hitchhiker's Guide to 4.0.1 from a poor time-warping mage. If you don't mind the bloodstains, let's take a look at what is in store for us in the future.

The talent system has been overhauled, making it more truncated and cleaner. At level 80, we are restricted to only 36 talent points out of 41 for Level 85. Nonetheless, most if not all class are in a good position to pick up all the core talents for their respective roles.

Talent Calculator can be found here.


Upon reaching level 10, you have to choose between 3 of the talent trees and stick with it until you have 31 points in that tree before being able to take talents in other trees. For choosing your path, you are given unique abilities that suits your role. Enhance Shammy gets a Mana-regen skill that Ele lacks.

Your Mastery is also pre-determined and unlocked at level 80 by training for it at your class trainers. Mastery is the new secondary stats, together with Haste/Expertise/Spirit ect, that has varying degrees of usefulness depending on class and specs.


Many classes/specialization are getting revamp class systems that makes them truly unique even among their classes.

Most notably, Fatkin gets a Balance bar; Warlocks get Soul Shard counter, Paladins get Holy Power and Hunters uses Focus instead of Mana.


Power Aura is a vastly popular addon that display graphics and sound whenever a certain proc happens. This makes it tremendously and sometimes mandatory for classes who depend on procs.

Blizzard added its own version of Power Aura and decorated it with eye candy graphics. Above, A Frost Deathknight with Rime and Killing Machine up.

Not only are the graphics more beautiful that Power Aura's collection, Blizzard sealed the deal by highlighting your affected abilities! This effectively killed Power Aura although Blizzard's version lacks the customization ability of Power aura and is limited to only a few procs for each spec. Sound is also missing from it as well.


A nicer and larger character panel allows you to view all category of stats that you wished, instead of changing it like we do currently. There is also Gearscore implemented in it as well.


Say your prayers for MP5 and Armor Penetration as they are removed from game. Covering MP5's role is Spirit, which also gives Hit when specced for it. ArPen lives on but no longer as a gear stats. Spellpower on gear is dead as well, with Intelligence filling up its shoe.

What about our gear you ask? Well, Blizzard has kindly revamped ALL gears that ever existed to the new Cataclysm model. For example, Deathbringer's Will becomes this.


Reforging brings us another revolutionary way of playing with our stats. Hit Rating too much on the trinket but can't find an appropriate replacement? You can now reforge 40% of the stats into a new one that is not on the gear. Just find the Reforger, usually hiding by Enchanting Trainers' homes and hit him up.

Unfortunately, it is limited to secondary stats and for good reasons too.


Glyphs are now organised into 3 categories: Prime, Major and Minor. Prime glyphs are mandatory glyphs that gives a straight dps increase. Major glyphs offers utility and will be hard to max-min. Minor glyphs give you convenience like reduced reagent costs or cosmetic changes.


Profession tab is now cleaner and sleeker, showing you the relevant trade abilities like Disenchanting or Prospecting.

And no, Archeology is not in 4.0.1

Mount and Companion Tabs have been shifted to Skills and offers you a preview of the mount and its name. Yes, you get a fricking seahorse mount in Cataclysm.


Both 25man and 10man ICC and RS now uses the same lockout so you can only visit the raid 1 time weekly.


All your precious Badges are now going to turn into either money or Justice Points, a low tier points for Cataclysm, depending on badge type.

Opps, it appears we have come to the end of the Guide. Hope it's an enjoyable read and feedbacks or comments are greatly welcomed - Just chuck a mail down the nearest black hole. Before we part, I will offer you three words of wisdom when dealing with 4.0.1