Wow.com had the scoop on this one that Blizzard devs and community managers have finally released details on how our stats and items will change come Cataclysm. There’s a ton of data, a lot of it specific to certain specs and classes, so I would advise anyone seriously concerns about their class and their spec to head over to WoW.com and check out their series of articles describing how various class/spec combinations will change both in general gameplay and in high-end raiding.

That being said though, there are some major changes that are worth sharing for everyone, especially with regard to how some basic stats are being reworked and how other stats are going away altogether, that are worth covering. Highlights from the original WoW.com post:

A few of the more major points:

• Stamina — Non-plate wearers will have a lot more.
• Spirit — Only found on healing gear.
• Intellect — Grants spell power.
• MP5 — Gone completely.
• Spell power — Only on weapons, and just to make them clearly a caster item.
• Attack power — Gone on most items.
• Parrry — No longer provides 100% avoidance and no longer speeds up attack.
• Resilience — Only affects player damage and player crit damage, no impact on crit chance, mana drains, etc…
• Block Value — Gone, 30% passive block value now when wearing a shield.
• Weapon Skill — Gone completely.
• Gem Color — Few stats changing. Hit will likely become a blue gem (it’s yellow now).
• Defense — Gone, becomes dodge, parry, or block rating.
• Reforging — You’ll be able to reforge gear to customize your stats — 50% of stat X can become stat Y. Restrictions apply (no Stamina->Strength, for instance)

There are a ton more changes, including some descriptions of exactly what each stat will look like and the effects it will have on gameplay over at the original post. Head over and take a look!