The Shattering has arrived

The Shattering, aka patch 4.0.3a, has arrived on the US servers.

Sadly I can't play until I get home later today, but in the meantime if you're stuck at work like me or in Europe waiting for maintenance to end, I can help you out with some information.

You can read the patch notes here on the official site.

There aren't any major game-breaking changes for Druids at first glance, although it was nice of them to add the [Glyph of the Treant]. Our talents are being reset due to a couple of talents in the Resto tree being changed, so expect to have to respec when you log in. I've now updated my Resto and Balance cheat sheets to include the 4.0.1 changes, but for more information about the changes to playstyles I recommend checking out the guides I listed on my patch 4.0.1 post.

One other interesting thing I did notice is that they have nerfed ALL the damage and healing numbers in levels 1-79 to make it slightly more difficult during leveling.  To be honest this was a needed nerf - my little priest has been totally kicking arse while leveling and as much as I was enjoying it, it did seem slightly over the top.

If your addons were up to date for patches 4.0.1 and 4.0.3, they should be fine for this patch. It's always worth checking before you log in though, and remember to tick the "Load out-of-date addons" box before logging in.

And if you've read all that and are still looking for more, my Azeroth Photo Tour posts might make you a bit nostalgic for what has now been lost.

Bring on 5 o'clock.