Patch 4.0.1 lands this week!

For Winter Veil I want a pony, and a new cloak, and...

Update: Patch 4.0.1 hits live servers this week! MMO-Champ has just updated with a new post here confirming the Patch launching this week and includes a full blue post with patch notes, all of the class changes, glyphs, etc! It looks like it's being updated as well so you can likely expect more updates as well.  In all likelihood, Patch 4.0.1 will be dropping tomorrow! There is always the possibility it will be moved back a week (or more), but likely better to play on the safe side and plan as though it will land tomorrow! There is also an extended maintenance scheduled for tomorrow.

I thought I'd make a quick post with some pre-patch day advice, links, and some brief refresher notes for trees and ferals with the 4.0.1 patch.

Let's start with pre-patch day preparations!

• Glyphs! Stock up! All glyphs will now be learned permanently and kept in your glyph book. Today's post on MMO-Champion has a great list of all the glyphs for every class here. MMO's Cata talent calculator WoWTal.com has also been updated to include all of the glyphs and a cleaner interface.
• Gems! I suggest stocking up on these as well if you haven't already, especially as prices will likely go up after the patch drops. 
• Addons! Be ready to update your addons as needed. Also, don't forget to tick 'enable out of date addons' on the Character Selection screen before loading in if you want all your addons on (regardless of updates). If there's load-in lag, it's always a pain to suddenly realize that 'Yes! I've gotten in!' but 'No!! I forgot to turn my addons on!'
• Bank toon items! You may want to send items from your bank toon to your main or alts if you have any glyphs or other items stored to free up bag space. 
• Downloading the patch! You may want to open up the game launcher during the day before maintenance is completed. Previous patches have been available for download a bit before maintenance has finished, so you may be able to get a little bit of a headstart on getting it downloaded.
• Avoid Dalaran! Dalaran will likely be a bit of a mess, to say the least, on patch day. Not only will everyone be struggling to get in after downloading the patch and trying to sort out their new talent trees and get ready for raids, there will likely be a larger bunch of people than normal. You can probably expect most of the people who have been taking it easy the past few weeks (whether on break, bored, playing other games, whatever) to all be interested in coming on and seeing their new talent trees and abilities. This patch is a pretty massive changeover prepping for Cataclysm, so interest will be high. I suggest moving toons out of Dal and finding quiet places to log them out in this evening. I might even suggest logging out in Azeroth (as opposed to Northrend) to try to avoid Northrend 'World Server is Down' messages. You may also want to set hearths to different locations (mine are all currently in Frosthold in Storm Peaks) so you don't accidentally hearth into lag-city when trying to get back to Northrend.
• Class changes! Have a look over all the class changes! Especially during the already-extended maintenance time (which may well be extended even further if the patch does drop), there'll be plenty of time for doing a mini crash-course in the classes of all your alts. Every talent tree is getting some serious overhauls as well as some entire classes (holy power?! only blood DKs can tank now?!). 

It's definitely one of the most exciting patches of late! There's a ton of new stuff all around. WoW Insider has two updates with blue posts, Class Mechanic Changes and Glyph Changes. We will also be getting the new Streaming Launcher which will allow you to enter the game if you wish to before everything has finished downloading.

As for Tree and Kitty preparations for 4.0.1, I'll point you to the full posts from this past week on Druid Healing at Level 80 in 4.0.1 and Kitty DPS at Level 80 in 4.0.1. I'll be updating the Tree and Cat guides fully and begin organising them for Cataclysm and the new 85 level cap. I'll leave the old 3.3.5 guides up for a little bit longer (for both my own references in ensuring the new guides are fully informative and for those interested or looking for a bit more information), but I will be removing them completely soon (assuming the patch drops tomorrow, I'll be aiming to have the old guides taken down within a week or two).

Trees shouldn't see too many gem changes with the patch, as all our Spellpower gems will be converting to Intellect. These gems will also be remaining red, so you shouldn't lose any socket bonuses you may have taken. Kitties, on the other hand, will be seeing some big gem changes. All of our armour penetration gems will be converting to Crit gems (and turning yellow). Also, our hit gems will be turning blue. Agility is looking like the gem of choice to replace all your arpen/crit gems. If you have been relying on Dranei hit buffs to get you to hit cap, you may find you also need some more hit gems, as all +hit buffs will be disappearing with this patch.

Don't forget, Tree of Life will be turning into a cooldown with this patch, so grab any tree screenshots or videos you may want to keep now! For the moment, ToL does still look like the Wrath version of tree form, but I expect that may change in future patches (probably most likely sometime after Cataclysm launches) to a revamped tree form model.

Also, there is a successor to Tossk's DPS Gear Method called Mew. There's a nice write-up of the programme over at the Fluid Druid, which includes some screenshots as well as how it works. There's an online version of Mew here (requires java), a downloadable binary here, and a code developers can download here. Yawning of No Chicks Allowed developed it and also wrote up a very detailed guide to kitty dps which is up on the WoW forums here, definitely worth a look!

I'll leave it at that for now! I expect the patch notes will be released sometime tomorrow if the patch drops, and places like WoW Insider and MMO-Champion will I'm sure be updated with breaking news and coverage of all of the changes coming with the patch (as in, not limited to just druids).

Have fun!