WoW: Cataclysm Bringing Massive Stat Changes

In a post to the World of WarCraft forums (spotted by Shacker das_runt), Blizzard's Eyonix detailed massive stat and system changes coming to World of WarCraft, saying that the company will "roll out these changes and modify all existing gear shortly before Cataclysm launches, though it' still too early to say exactly when."

The goal of these changes?

Our ultimate goal is make gear a more interesting (and less confusing) choice by making each stat valuable to more players. While the reasoning behind some of the following changes may be clear, we understand that you may have questions about some of the less obvious alterations, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have here on the forums.

Since I barely understand any of the notes, I turned to the Shacknews community for their response.

• ChibiJosh: "I whole-heartedly support this. The current WoW stat system is way too convoluted."
• multisync: "wow - the reforging is sweet as is defense/weaponskill/spell ranks. this is pretty awesome"
• electroly: "Most of it sounds pretty good. The healer changes look terrible, but I mostly just dislike change. I'm not sure we really need intellect to be EVEN MORE important than it already is. And increasing our reliance on mana regen sounds awful. Every single patch since Wrath came out has increased our reliance on mana regen, and I've hated every single one."

The full list of what's being addressed can be found at the WoW forums, but it's pretty heavy with game-specific language. Enter at your own risk!