World of Warcraft: What's new for Casual Players in patches 3.2 and 3.3?
There have been two major content pushes in roughly the past year, I'll cover them separately. I also won't bother going into the various mechanics changes or new raid content introduced, as you don't sound interested in those. I will note however that the quality of gear obtainable via badges has increased significantly with the introduction of new content.
Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade
This patch added one new 5 man instance, the Trial of the Champion, with both normal and Heroic modes. Both modes drop epic items, with Normal mode dropping Epics on par with those found in Naxxramas-10 and other Heroic 5-mans (including some extremely desirable trinkets), and Heroic dropping gear on par with Ulduar-10.
In addition, 3.2 saw the expansion of the Argent Tournament, the daily-quest hub in northeastern Icecrown, with a new daily quests, new rewards, and a new quest chain.
Finally, 3.2 saw the introduction of a new Battleground in Isle of Conquest, which brings siege-engine and vehicle gameplay to a 40v40 map ala Alterac Valley.
Patch 3.3, Fall of the Lich King
The primary content introduction in patch 3.3 was the new 5 man instances at Icecrown Citadel, The Frozen Halls. There are three of them, which are designed to be completed roughly in order (in fact, the portal at the end of each leads into the next instance in the series, and to enter any but the first directly, you must be 'attuned' by completing all three. These instances drop Ulduar-10 quality gear on Normal mode, and on Heroic, drop gear on par with ToC-10 (A new raid released while you were away) - the best items available in any 5 man, outside of gear bought with badges.
The other major change in 3.3 however, is the introduction of the Dungeon Finder. Replacing the old LFG tool, the Dungeon Finder allows you to select the instance you'd like to run (or you can select to run a random one for additional rewards!), and the roles you're able to fill (tank, healing, or DPS), and within minutes, will pair you off with like minded players for a quick run through any 5 man. You can queue as a partial group as well, so you and your wife can queue together, and the game will automatically find 3 other players to finish out your group for any dungeon you'd like to run. Especially if one of you is capable of tanking, you'll find the queues to be phenomenally fast and convenient - no more spamming trade trying to find one more to run an instance!
Just my personal opinion, I wouldn't recommend going back to WoW at this exact moment in time. The new 5 mans may entertain you for a couple days, but it is just impossible to get around to the 5k gearscore area which is pretty much the minimum for doing the new raids like ICC unless you commit to joining a raiding guild and raiding on a regular schedule. Either that, or you run heroics over and over and over again until you get decent badge gear.
Taking heed to what's happened in the last two expansions, playing after the expansion is finished is not nearly as rewarding as playing when a new one is released. The gear gap from fresh level 80's to people who have actually been playing is just flat out massive. People tend to be impatient and elitist, expecting to down everything on the first try with no difficulty, as everyone is already burned out on the content.
As the other answers mentioned, the Dungeon Finder was a big addition. It's very convenient but in my opinion has taken away the social aspect from the game. You're playing with people not on your realm so most people don't bother to take accountability for their actions and their words. They also don't want to bother talking because there's no point developing an in-game friendship with someone from another realm who you will never play with again. Not to mention if you queue as a DPS the wait time can be up to 20-30 mins depending on which server/battlegroup you play on.
My advice is to wait until Cataclysm is out. Blizzard has made efforts to fix everything that was wrong with this expansion. Much of the playerbase is currently burned out and the social aspect that made the old WoW's fun has diminished.
3 new five man instances at IceCrown Citadel (ICC):
- FoS - Forge of Souls
- PoS - Pit of Saron
- HoR - Halls of Reflection
These are harder than normal instances. That said, most people are geared to the point that instances take 10-20 mins on heroic difficulty (HC).
Other major change is the Looking for Group (LFG) interface. Signup for a random or specific dungeon and you'll get matched with a group and teleported into the instance. Can't guarantee group quality tho - most people want to get through as fast as possible. Note you can form a group with the two of you and then queue in LFG to fill the remaining slots.