The Profoundly Changing Face of Gear

In Warlords of Draenor, the way that gear works will be changing dramatically.

While we're losing a few secondary stats and gaining a new category called Tertiary stats, the biggest change is to Primary Stats.

Primary Stats

Strength, Agility, and Intellect will all change on your gear depending on your spec.

So if you're a Retribution Paladin and you've got a Holy off-spec, the moment you change specs, all of your gear will also switch over and become Intellect gear.

So say goodbye to your crappy off-set. If you've got a good set of Ret gear, you've also got a good set of Protection and Holy gear, with the exception of weapons, shields, and possibly accessories (necklaces, rings and trinkets.)

In fact, each class will have but one tier set, and its bonuses and sometimes its primary stats will change depending on your spec.

Secondary Stats

Secondary stats are also getting trimmed. Hit and Expertise are GONE (presumably we won't be able to miss or be dodged/parried by NPCs anymore, unless they want that as a specific mechanic.) This should make balancing one's gear a hell of a lot easier.

And it's a good thing that it will, because Reforging is GONE. Reforging was always one of those things that sounded cool, but was ultimately a pain in the ass, making you modify your gear in yet another way before you could really use it.

Tanks should also take note, because Dodge and Parry are GONE. That's right, every single secondary stat you used in Wrath of the Lich King is no more. You'll be using Haste, Crit and Mastery just like the rest of us (Basically DKs and Warriors will be joining their Paladin friends.)

BUT WAIT, there are still tank stats. On necklaces, rings, and trinkets, there will be some pieces with bonus armor. So yes, there will still be "tank gear," but it won't be a full set. Hell, we'll be sharing shields with Shamans and Holy Paladins, most likely (not sure what the fate of Spirit is.)

Tertiary Stats

A new category of stat is being added: tertiary stats. These stats will possibly be limited to single pieces, so that you can't stack them too much. Examples include:

Movement Speed (possibly boots-only.)
Avoidance (AoE damage reduction)
Cleave (increasing AoE damage done, or possibly giving your attacks a chance to do AoE damage)
Sturdiness (the item doesn't take durability damage.)

Professions:

In addition, we're going to see far fewer gem sockets, along with a removal of meta gems and socket bonuses. On the plus side, gems will be more powerful, and the existence of a socket will no longer count against the item's stat budget. It's pure bonus!

Enchanting will also affect fewer gear slots, but their hope is that there will be more choices for each enchantment.

Analyzing the Gears:

The biggest impact here, I think, is that those of us who carry around a second set of gear will probably be able to get rid of it. Sure, you might want to hang on to rings, trinkets, and necklaces such as in the case of tanks, but an Unholy or 2H Frost Death Knight will basically just be able to switch specs and perform well in the same set of gear.

I remember switching specs constantly when getting quest rewards in Pandaria to make sure that I was gearing up my tank set first. Now, I should be able to pretty much use the same set of gear when I go into dungeons as I do when I'm out in the field.

The weird thing is that from now on, the healer, the elemental shaman, the paladin tank, and the combat rogue are all going to be rolling on that same mace that drops. But I guess that's why 5-mans will (I believe) be using individual loot.

I am very curious about how things like Spirit will be handled (maybe just replaced with Haste, the way that Mages generate more mana based on their haste) and what other kind of secondary stats we'll see on necklaces and trinkets and such will be.

I had argued for the removal of reforging (now do item upgrades too! Hehe!) and I'm glad to see it. Without the need to balance hit and expertise, there's not a drastic penalty for it, and it also means that individual pieces of gear will matter more.

The very first article I posted here was about the need to do something about Intellect Plate. This, I'll admit, was not what I would have guessed.

(Oh my god! Does this mean that I can get Paladin-themed belts and boots for my tank and dps specs?! FINALLY!)

EDIT:

After looking through the announcements, I have these clarifications:

First off, it seems weapons and off-hand items (including shields) will probably still be specific to certain specs - locked with a particular primary stat. So no, that one-handed mace will not be viable for Combat Rogues, Discipline Priests and Protection Warriors at the same time. Along with accessories, weapons will, as far as I can tell, have fixed stats.

Additionally, it appears that Armor and Spirit, which should serve as the "tank" and "healer" specific stats, will only appear on necklaces, rings, and trinkets. Presumably spirit will be buffed to compensate for the smaller number of spirit-bearing items one is wearing. Basically, it seems that only helmets, shoulders, chest pieces, bracers, gloves, belts, pants, and boots will have this stat-shifting ability.

As of yet, there does not appear to be any DPS-specific stat, though the convention might arise that the absence of armor or spirit would designate an item as that.

(If I had to guess, I would imagine that spirit and armor will not appear on weapons, given that healer weapons would then be able to serve as caster-DPS weapons, and tank weapons would work as melee-DPS weapons, thus making the weapons more attractive to a large number of people. Mind you, though, this is just speculation.)

As of yet, I don't have a solid answer on cloaks, though given that they're basically visible accessories with no armor type, I could imagine these also being spec-specific.