Yesterday, the routinely scheduled server maintenance was not so routine for World of Warcraft. All players are going to receive an earth-shattering patch that will change what you know of Azeroth forever.

The 4.0.3a patch went live yesterday, and is being called “The Shattering”. Since the patch, the areas that we’ve all come to know and love have been  changed forever.

Here is a supplemental list of what changes will occur:

•New Gnome and Troll starting experiences
•New race/class combinations
•All of the terrain altering changes to existing zones in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, including splitting zones like The Barrens into two separate zones
•Thousands of new quests from levels 1-55
•New Cataclysm login screen, cinematic, and loading screens
•New music
•New class trainers in Dalaran where the city portals used to be
•New tabards for gaining rep with cities such as Stormwind, Orgrimmar, etc.
•New tamable pets for hunters including a monkey, a fox, a dog, and a beetle
•Druids, paladins, priests, and shaman will have their talent trees reset
•The experience needed to get from levels 71-80 will now be 20% less
•A new auctioneer in Dalaran is available for all players, not just engineers
•Dozens of class changes
So why so big of a patch and why all of the changes this early? Tom Chilton from Blizzard explained the reason for this in the most conclusive way: The patch includes changes to the race/class combinations available to new characters, such as Dwarven mages. Blizzard wanted to provide players with the opportunity to create and begin leveling their new characters in advance of the expansion, letting them reach the upper levels of the game and play with friends in the Cataclysm-exclusive content.

Some other changes affect the mounts available:
•The Swift Zulian Tiger from Zul’Gurub will no longer be obtainable.
•The Swift Razzashi Raptor from Zul’Gurub will no longer be obtainable.
•The Crusader’s White/Black Warhorse and Swift Alliance  Steed/Swift Horde Wolf from Trial of the Crusader will no longer be obtainable.
              I am pretty certain that this new patch will blow you away. It seems like Blizzard is making it easier on beginning players, as well as old players who want to create new toons to play. I am certainly excited for the patch, and for Cataclysm. Are you?