Stealth Nerf or I Overlooked Something.

My Warrior hit level 78 this weekend.  Went back to level it some because, well, warriors are fun.  They fit my style of play.  They are constant movement machines.  Down time is a bad thing for a warrior.

Once I hit level 78 I logged out and went on to my Blacksmith to make myself some sweet Cataclysm gear which would, in turn, make my leveling even faster with the Cataclysm insane stat boost.  It didn't work as planned.

Maybe I do not remember things correctly but I could swear that when I leveled my blacksmithing that the starting armor I was making to level was level 78 to equip.  Now they are all level 80.  No big deal.  I can live with that.  78-80 is easy enough as is anyway.  I was just wondering if I had lost my mind or was it changed to 80 from 78.

I asked a few guild mates and they all said the same thing.  All Cataclysm patterns are 78 to start.  Then they looked and they said, okay, it says 80.  Maybe I was wrong.  Are we all wrong?  Is this a stealth nerf?

Someone in my guild hit the nail on the head without even thinking about it.  He said, that would have been awesome.  You could twink out at 79 and own in PvP.

Tada, that is why they changed it.  I bet that is exactly what people where doing and they did not want them to do that.  He nailed it without even noticing it.  That is why there are no more craftable items for 78 usage.

My Warrior is now 81.  Like I said, leveling is easy and when he entered Cataclysm content I noticed that my drops where level 78 equip.  Seems like they never adjusted those.

Now, we can use this to our advantage.  78 equip items can no longer be crafted but they can be dropped.

Pro Tip:
Use this to your advantage.  Sell 78 BoE items, even greens.  People will buy them for insane numbers.  More then the enchanting materials you will get from them.  You never know, Blizzard might change those as well as they changed the crafted ones but take advantage of it now.