New World of Warcraft expansion gets release date, is it time to get hooked again?

What's New?
Warlords of Draenor will bring some major changes in character building mechanics. Blizzard has decided to trim down a lot of class skills that add unnecessary complexity. For example, Hunters currently have two separate skills for healing or reviving their pet – this has been replaced with one that does both. The aim of this cull is to reduce the number of keyboard shortcuts required to play a character effectively and make every spell have a clear purpose. While some players are expressing concerns that this will make the game too easy, I think that the ability cull is necessary. It should remove a decent chunk of the learning curve and allow new players to understand their classes without having to turn to external sources.

Many character attributes are getting cut down to make stats easier to understand: Dodge, Parry, Hit and Expertise are all being removed. Bonus Armor is a new secondary stat for tank classes that will help them take the hits that the new bosses will throw at them, and replaces Dodge and Parry. Multistrike and Versatility are completely new secondary stats to World of Warcraft; Multistrike will provide a chance for most abilities to hit their target an additional time, and Versatility will increase characters' outgoing damage, healing and absorbs.

Blizzard is also adding minor attributes, or tertiary "fun stats"; rare bonuses that will occasionally appear on gear. These are Avoidance, Indestructible, Leech and Speed. Respectively, these reduce some area of effect damage, make gear immune to durability damage, add some lifesteal, and increase movement speed. Minor attributes are not intended to be a necessity, but a bonus, enabling players to focus on attributes they like rather than just equipping the “best” piece of gear.

Gear itself is changing for the better too. In Warlords of Draenor, gear stats will now change dynamically depending on your character’s specialisation, making hybrid classes a lot more accessible. At the least, it will save classes such as the Druid (which can require both intellect and agility) hunting down two different sets of gear.