Cataclysm patch history
4.0.1 — 4.3.4
The old world was rebuilt in place. For emulation this is the hardest single migration in the whole timeline — every zone, quest chain, and flight path changed at once.
Patch timeline
First to last · summarized for operators- 4.0.112 Oct 2010
Systems patch
- Talent trees cut to a single specialization choice at level ten, with mastery added.
- Reforging arrives, letting players convert one secondary stat into another.
- Guild levelling and guild reputation replace the old flat guild structure.
What this means for a buildReforging changes item stats per-character at runtime — item stats stop being static rows. - 4.0.3a23 Nov 2010
The Shattering
- The old world is permanently rebuilt: new terrain, new quest chains, new flight paths.
- Two new races arrive, and old-world flying opens for the expansion launch on 7 December.
- Phasing is used at scale for the first time across levelling zones.
What this means for a buildThe single largest data change in the timeline. Old maps, vmaps, and DBC are worthless after this patch — everything is re-extracted. - 4.1.026 Apr 2011
Rise of the Zandalari
- Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub return as rebuilt heroic dungeons.
- Adds the guild challenge system and a round of dungeon rebalancing.
What this means for a buildRebuilt versions of old instances share names with their originals. Watch your map IDs. - 4.2.028 Jun 2011
Rage of the Firelands
- Firelands opens as a seven-boss raid tier with the Ragnaros rematch.
- The Molten Front daily hub advances through phased stages as players complete it.
- Legendary staff questline runs across the whole tier.
What this means for a buildThe Molten Front is per-character phased progression through a shared zone — the phasing model most likely to break in a port. - 4.3.029 Nov 2011
Hour of Twilight
- Dragon Soul closes the expansion's story across two staged encounters.
- Transmogrification and void storage arrive, both changing how gear appearance is stored.
- Raid Finder difficulty is introduced as a third raid tier.
- 4.3.4 in April 2012 is the final build of the expansion.
What this means for a buildTransmog adds an appearance record per equipped item. 4.3.4 is the standard build target for the branch.