Patch 5.3 Herbalism and Mining changes

Herbalists and Miners will be able to gather herbs and ores with low skill in Pandaria. You will get fragments like [Ghost Iron Nugget] and [Torn Green Tea Leaf] when you gather herbs or ores. These are just a few examples, there is a fragment version for every herb and ore. (for trillium there is currently none) You can combine 10 of these fragments into a single ore or herb.

Here is the official quote:

Darkmoon Faire Profession Quests

There is an event called Darkmoon Faire that appears in the game once a month, starting at 00:01 on the Sunday before the 1st Monday of each month. During the event you can complete quests for each professions.

The profession quests can only be completed once during each Darkmoon Faire and will grant 5 skill points (means you can complete them again once at the next faire). 

The skillups will apply automatically to the most recent expansion profession progress that is not at its maximum. So, for example, if you want the +5 skill in Outland Engineering, but you have already learned other expansions profession skills, you have to max all of them out first, then you can get the +5 in Outland Engineering since that will be the only one that is not at its maximum.

Patch 4.0.3a - The Shattering

Patch 4.0.3a will be deployed on live servers this week and will change the world of Azeroth forever. This will affect my mining, herbalism and skinning guide. I was able to finish the mining guide and herbalism guide before they shut down the beta server, those two guides are already updated. I will do the skinning guide as soon as the servers come back online. I also browsed through my guides, but it seems most of the vendor bought recipes aren't changed at all. There won't be any change for the rest of the professions with patch 4.0.3a, at least I couldn't find anything.

How to get Realm First! Illustrious Miner?

I know that most of the players who will try to get the Realm First! Illustrious Miner achievement are beta players. For those of you who weren't lucky enough to get a beta key, I made a guide which can help you to get this achievement. The mining routes on the maps are also the best routes to farm the ores on the first day when Cataclysm launches. First, you need to have a mining skill of 450, that's pretty obvious for everyone I guess. It's also important to have the following enchant: [Formula: Enchant Gloves - Advanced Mining]. You need the enchant because you can leave Mount Hyal earlier this way at 470, and you will be able to mine Pyrite Deposit at 520 and Rich Elementium Vein at 495.