Patch 4.01 this week - the highlights

Extended maintenance tomorrow, so we're all expecting the patch to drop tomorrow. But before this happens I figured I would go through a couple of things once more that had me worried myself. I got the answers, so I figured I would sooth other people's minds as well.

The list below is just highlighting things that I found confusing myself and that I went out to hunt information about. If you're unsure about anything still, leave a comment and I'll try to hunt down an answer for you.

And remember, this information comes from the PTR patch notes, blue posts, beta experience, etc. I too have to wait for the patch to actually drop to read the exact patch notes. So if something does turn out to be different (because they always do) don't blame the messenger.





What will be in this patch?

Talents
MMO has a talent calculator ready with the new talents in it already. Do remember you only get to spend 36 points at 80.

Glyphs System
In the talent calculator you can fill in glyphs. There will now be 3 different types of glyphs; Prime, Major, and Minor. You will only have to learn the glyphs once and after you can replace them by using Dust of Disappearance your local scribe can provide you with.

Reforging
You will be able to go to a special reforger (just ask a guard) who can then, for a price, change one stat to another. I won't give a list of all the possible changes, just go by a reforger and check it out. Reforgers can be found in cities.

Badges are all gone
Instead of Badges you will get Justice points (dungeons) or Valor points (raids). MMO champion has a converter in this post of how many points you will get for the badges you currently have still.

What you need to know is that with this patch all of your badges will be converted, but come Cataclysm there will be a cap of 4000 points. So you do have some time to spend your points on gear still.

Guild Member Cap
The cap for guilds will be implemented. This is set to 1000 members. If you have more people they will still be able to stay in the guild, but you cannot invite new members until you drop below this number.


Stat Changes
Already with this patch you will see an enormous change in the stats on your character sheet. Spellpower is gone (except for weapons), and so are armor penetration, defense, and some others. Your stam will be much higher and so will your manapool.

Developers expect this to make things much easier, so much that the ICC chill of the throne effect will be gone.

New Launcher
Technically this should allow you to play while you're still downloading parts of the game, but my experience on beta is that your game experience will be much better if you wait until it's green.

Flexible Raid Lock System
There has been a complete review on this system by MMO champion, you can find it at the bottom of this post.

Ingame Power Auras
Certain spells have gotten their very own ingame power aura! Go play and I'm sure you'll find one or two popup :)

New party/raid frames
The game will have a whole new party/frame layout. I've been healing with it on beta and it's very workable. I would advice to try it out and see if it works for you. For me I did find some issues still so I will be healing with my old friend grid, but I think for a lot of people these new frames will have all and more you could wish from raid frames.

Raid Mounts
No changes in this patch, go farm your ZG, ICC, Ulduar, etc mounts!

One rank
All spells will have only one rank. There simply aren't anymore ranks anymore. So you also won't have to go to your trainer to learn rank 13 of such and such spell, instead they simply level up with you.

Redesigned Character Sheet
Relax your stats overview is not gone! Just click on the little arrow in the bottom right and you can open and close a sliding pane that will show you your stats.

Guild Roster
It's taking me quite a bit of getting used to, since I still automatically press O to see who of my guild is online, but it's now hidden under J. Or under the tabard icon in the bottom bar of course. The guild roster view is completely changed, take a moment and get yourself familiar with it again. It has loads of handy information now.

Guild Achievements
Yes, they too are in now. There will be two things you need to level in this new system. One is your own reputation with your guild, and two is the level of the guild.

With each guild level you also gain guild perks. But certain of these perks you can only make use of if you have a good reputation with your guild.

You can level both by a variety of things, for example doing quests and run your dungeons, basically play the game and your guild rep and guild level will increase.

What is NOT in this patch?

Any new content.
With this I mean changed zone, new dungeons, raids, etc. But there will also not be new gear yet, only the current gear converted to new stats.

Level cap is still 80
Not until the expansion drops will you be able to start levelling again.

Professions
The professions panel may have undergone a facelift, the professions are still the same. Not until Cataclysm will you be able to level these again, and pick up archeology of course!