Patch and Honor System

This is a paste from the community site - Dec 5 is the official date

The next World of Warcraft content update, “Before the Storm,” will include the new PvP Honor System, as well as other new features that will prepare us for The Burning Crusade expansion. We are currently planning to release this content update next Tuesday, December 5. Please note that the patch date is still subject to change, and we will keep you informed of any changes to the plan as they happen.

If the patch goes live as planned, this will be the last week that new PvP ranks under the old Honor System can be earned, as the patch will immediately introduce the new Honor System. We will run one final honor calculation on December 5 and update everyone’s ranking accordingly on that date so that players who achieve a new rank for that week have the opportunity to display that title on their character. Please note, however, that no new PvP rewards will be unlocked for purchase with this final “old Honor System” calculation, regardless of any increase in rank.

For those who have been seeking high-rank PvP armor and weapons, note that the new Honor System will still include these item rewards, and it will actually be easier to earn these items under the new Honor System than under the old Honor System. Those who wish to see how their PvP abilities measure up against other players will still be able to do so under the new Arena System.

To add a little onto what WYD posted above, I found this on the WoW Website:

So there is an Arena System planned?

Yes, one of our major features for the expansion that we're just now talking about is the Arena System. It's essentially a system of gladiatorial combat where players are going to be able to go into arenas in teams of two on two or three on three or five on five (at least that's what we're planning to start with) and duke it out on a ladder-based system to get some pretty cool rewards.

So will that be mostly within one faction, or will that also be two teams coming from different factions against each other?

In this case, you can actually have Alliance teams fighting against Alliance teams and Horde teams fighting against other Horde teams. It really makes sense in the context of an arena of gladiatorial battles. It doesn't really make as much sense in the context of a battleground, where it's very much Alliance versus Horde.

That's cool, so that goes kind of in the direction of a shift from quantity of PvP to quality of PvP?

Yes, exactly. I think that what we're doing with the PvP system in the expansion is very holistic. We're changing the way the Honor System works to be more of a non-competitive grind so that it's something that you can work toward over time. You'll still be able to get honor points in battlegrounds and from outdoor world-PvP objectives, and from outdoor world PvP in general. You'll be able to get honor points which you then spend to get rewards, but once the expansion comes out, it's not going to be a ladder. There won't be any decay involved – it will be a lot more like an experience system. At the same time, we want an arena, we want a forum to be able to do competitive PvP, and we want to make sure that competitive PvP isn't just a time-grind. We want to make sure that it's skill-oriented, so that's where we're going to focus with the Arena System. We're going to try to make sure that the Arena System will require some kind of time investment, but very light compared to grinding away to the top honor ranks in the old Honor System. With the Arena System I think we can expect to see more of a chess-like rating system involved, and we'll see plenty of players that spend some of their time, maybe 10 to 15 arena battles per week, in order to climb to the top.

That's interesting. Speaking of a chess rating system, does that mean that there will also be some sort of automatic matchmaking to make for balanced and even teams?

That's definitely one of the key features for our new PvP improvements. In the Arena System, we'll be matching players up based on their rating, matching teams up based on their rating more specifically. I think it's a very important part of the arena concept that you actually form your team ahead of time, a lot like you create a guild. You'll form a team, you'll maintain your roster, and based on who you have on your team, you're going to be able to go into the battles. Let's say for example you create a five-on-five team. You can actually have more than five people on your team, so you‘ll have benchwarmers!
At that point you'll be able to go into arena battles, and the rating is for your team as a whole. Based on the success of your team you're going to get arena points that you can then spend to get rewards. This is different from the Honor System in that the Honor System is still very individual. We're also going to be doing some matchmaking in the battlegrounds. We're going to be taking the approach of trying to match players up in a battleground in more of a fun format. Players that are really well-geared will fight against other players that are well-geared, while players that are disorganized and not as well geared are going to fight against other pick-up groups. As much as possible we're going to try to refine that matchmaking system, and this is made possible by our cross-server battlegrounds, which is a new feature that's going to be coming out soon in our next patch.

Here is some note i wish to display here for all who is interested.

Professions
All of the profession-made items that have been created up to now have been given proper stats based on the current expansion item level progression table.
Most of the items made by Tailoring/Leatherworking/Blacksmithing have had their creation time reduced. Now the cap on time required to make an item in those professions is based on quality and level.
New Max times required.
Level 31+ Green Items at least 8 sec
Level 31+ Blue Items at least 15 sec
Level 31+ Purple Items at least 25 sec
Skill level now determines what items you can disenchant.
Skill 1= Level 1-20
Skill 25= Level 20-25
Skill 50= Level 25-30
Skill 75= Level 30-35
Skill 100= Level 35-40
Skill 125= Level 40-45
Skill 150= Level 45-50
Skill 175= Level 50-55
Skill 200= Level 55-60
Skill 225= Level 60-65
Players will no longer lose an item when attempting to disenchant on a boat when the loading screen appears.

General
All players will have talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 41-point talents. Several new abilities have also been added for all classes.
All pets now receive a percentage of their master's armor, spell damage, spell resistances, attack power, and stamina.
Low-level spells cast by high-level players will receive smaller bonuses from +healing and +spell damage. See here for more information on this change
HoTs, DoTs, and channeled spells have been re balanced to receive a more appropriate (higher) percentage of +spell damage and +healing.
HoTs from different sources will now stack (i.e. multiple druids can cast the Rejuvenation spell on 1 target).
New item property "Resilience" has been introduced. Resilience reduces your chance to be the victim of a critical strike, and reduces the amount of damage critical strikes do to you.
Weapon Skill now does the following:
Weapon skill will no longer reduce the percentage damage lost due to glancing.
The player will gain 0.1% to their critical strike rating per weapon skill against monsters above their level.
When casting a buff on a low level target, the appropriate rank of the buff will be automatically applied.
Crowd Control effects in PvP will last no longer than 12 seconds instead of the full duration, with a chance of a heartbeat resist.
Players will no longer lose faction when under the influence of "Mind Control" or the Gnomish Mind Control Cap.

User Interface
Meeting Stone gossip options have been removed from Innkeepers in preparation for the new LFG system.
LFG/LFM UI Tips have been added to Loading Screen tips and new player tips Meeting Stones now function similar to a Warlock Summon spell. A player can select a party member to be summoned and right click the stone. A second party member then clicks the portal to summon.
Enchanting UI has been vastly improved.
Raid UI now supports frame for Main Tank.
Spell Alert (Enemy Cast bar)
Defaults to off
Enabled through Interface Options
Displays targeted enemy's cast bar when they are casting.
May also be displayed with "V" key functionality.
Auto-loot may be enabled with just one click in the Interface Options.
Character sheet UI now displays more precise melee, ranged, and spell stats.
Players can now cast item targetable spells on items that are in your action bar. For instance you can cast feed pet and have the food you want the pet to be fed in one of your action bars.
Semi-charged items can no longer be placed in the Auction House.
A knowledge base has been added to the in-game UI.
Searchable database of FAQ's and common support issues.
Keyrings have been expanded to hold more key-type items and will now size dynamically for the number of keys in possession.
The Hunter ability "Mend Pet" will now turn red when a pet is out of range.
Players will now be able to disable ability messages in the floating combat text.
Players will now be able to scroll down their ignore list if it extends beyond one page.
The tooltips for the Show Dispellable Debuffs and Show Castable Buffs options will now specify they only apply to raid pullout groups.

refer from http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_2.0.1_Release_Notes