I finally got to play some WoW for the first real time since the expansion, so here is my first impressions...
Hellfire Peninsular is "easier" than the 50-60 areas were. Hopefully this will change in the higher zones, I was hoping for at least an equal challenge to Silithus. Judging by the speed people have been levelling (28 hours being the quickest!) I do think the whole expansion is too easy, but I will reserve judgement on that until I have experienced the full trip to 70
The skill changes, first time I've really played since they were introduced too, certainly help my Druid lots. I can solo much easier as Feral than I coudl before, and feral wasn't too shabby to start with! If I am farming mobs at my level or a level lower I don't need to swap out of cat to heal. I could also comfortably solo 3 mobs of my level in bear form, and manage 4 when I got careless and got adds. I guess this is one reason Hellfire feels easy, not the only reason though
Shattath City is interesting, haven't worked out which faction I'm going to work with yet though as it seems access to some NPCs may be blocked depending on which faction you side with
. It's nice having the portals to the other 3 Cities of the realm, pity there isn't a portal the other way though.
Some nice touches with the quests, like the bombing runs, but nothing earth shatteringly different for most of them.
The biggest change, not decided whether I fall on the good or bad side of this one, is the equipment levels. I spent a fair while in a raiding guild, running 4-6 raids per week, rushing home to be on time for the start etc. The time was split around 3 characters, but most of my gear was T1, a little T2 a couple of AQ40 drops and the rest made up of epic drops / quest rewards. I have only got to level 61 and I have seen green equipment better than a lot of my kit, and seeing what others have spammed in guild chat it won't be long before all of my kit can be improved by dropped greens.
It's good in the fact that everyone is again starting almost from the same level, those of us with good level 60 gear get a bonus while levelling, but once we get to 70 everyone will be starting with pretty much the same gear. The bad side is that I feel a lot of the time I spent raiding has been wasted, although that could be good in the fact that it will be an disincentive for me to raid again
Overall it's nice to have more areas to explore, but nothing really new to attract anyone who didn't like the original game for whatever reason