World Of Warcraft Prepares For Cataclysm With Huge Update

We're now less than two months away from the December 7 release date of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the third expansion for Blizzard's behemoth MMO. Dedicated WOW players won't need to wait until December to begin seeing changes in Azeroth, though. Today Blizzard has released the first of a series of major patches that will add in some of the changes Cataclysm is bringing to the game.

Here's a rundown of some of the biggest additions to World of Warcraft in today's patch 4.0.1, as per the patch notes:

-Reforging is now in the game. This allows players limited control over the stat bonuses on their armor and weapons. By visiting a special NPC, players can take 40% of one of an item's stat bonuses and turn it into something else of their choosing. This is sure to lead to a whole new level of crazy theorycrafting and min/maxing on the forums.

-A new raid lock system means that players can only defeat each boss of a raid once per week. Previously, players were allowed to tackle the bosses once a week in 10-man and once a week in 25-man mode. Now you have to choose one or the other, but you can switch back and forth for different encounters (i.e. you could choose to take down half of Icecrown's bosses with a 10-man group one night and get the other half with a 25-man group the next night).

-Emblems of Frost and Triumph previously earned from raids and dungeons have been converted to the new system of "Justice Points." Any emblems your characters had for lower tiers have been changed to gold, so enjoy that. Likewise, all the various PvP battleground marks have been turned into Honor Points.

-Class spells and talents have been completely overhauled. Of particular note for everyone, Blizzard has implemented a new system where you choose which talent tree you want to be your main spec at level 10, and then you're locked into that talent tree alone until later levels. Players will now gain less talent points and have access to less talents overall, though less useful skills have been cleaned up and removed.

-The glyph system has been totally overhauled, as there are now three types of glyphs instead of just two. Many of the talents that got taken out now exist in glyph form.

-Upgraded water visuals have been added to the game.

If you want to know how your character specifically was affected, check out the full patch notes for info on individual class changes. In the mean time, I'm headed home to check this out for myself. Word on the street is that mages are crazy overpowered right now. Finally!