Take the best from all the expansions, and other now basically defunct MMOs, and build a new game based on the Classic vanilla world with some tweeks.
Here is a game I would play…
Redo the classes kinda the way Cataclysm treated classes. Examples – Droods get cat form at level 8-10, priests get shadow from before level 20, etc.
Make all classes viable. Booms and Pallies are not gimped.
Add public quests and world bosses as per the old WAR Warhammer and RIFT MMOs.
Introduce raids at level 40 instead of 60.
Expand PvP gear starting from level 18 and up (full WSG sets. Full AB sets.) Also arenas and ALL pvp venues from level 11. Yes, Alterec Valley at level 18!!! Also make PvP world zones.
Allow the new crafts like JC and Inscription from day one. Also put sockets in gear starting from day one.
Change armor so Warriors and Pallies wear plate from day 1. Hunters and shams wear chain from day 1.
Add the xpac TBC and WOTLK incrementally after a full year each.
After the 3 year cycle release again but throw in changes to world bosses, instances, public quests to make it interesting.
Lvl 40 raids will be obsolete once you reach 60, that’s not how gearing works you can’t forward low level raids and still make them relevant at end game.
Everything else sounds more like a colossal failure of mmo already seen many times before.
No s$#%^& Sherlock!!! The idea is to get raidtards raids earlier on.
The main idea is to make the journey more fun than just a means to “end game” because to me the term “end game” means exactly what it says – the end of the game.
Your “colossal failure” comment is completely without merit or back up.
The WoW brand is strong even after 18 years of Blizz trying to kill it.
The point of the journey is to grow in all aspects, including how large your friend circle is. There is a natural progression leading to raid at max level and raids at lower level would be too much of a requirement that can’t be met in the form of requiring too many players to do for people who have yet to settle into guilds or groups of players.
Making the journey “fun” is irrelevant if the content is obsolete at the end, nobody plays the game for the “middle game”. We all know that the real WoW game starts when level cap.
People will just skip those raids for the same reason you said, “raidtards” and another big reason, why so much effort in raiding an obsolete raid if I can powerlevel all the way to max cap and do the real ones? and not waste time doing a middle level one? Just run dungeons, they are way more faster and easier.
Also, for “colossal failure” I mean that everything you borrow from other mmos didn’t work to make the games alive long time so applying it to wow it won’t make it any good too.
Dungeons and Dragons Online had raids starting at level 10 all the way up to max level. It can totally be done and builds a more knowledgeable player pool for max level.
What I’d really like to see is a classic ruleset world (talent trees but with improved QoLs like Herb glitter, transmorg, stacks of 200, quick gather like WoTLK onwards, shared mounts on classic accounts…
But with every race that was added and all lands (including Pandaria). WoW has this huge world now and I find it a waste not to use it. IMHO. Heck I’d throw in flying in that world too (at level 60), but that’s just me… I know ppl absolutely hate flying heh.
One of the easiest things for them to do would be to re-release vanilla and TBC raids with changes to make them challenging for level 80s as an intermediate measure.
Benediction with modified healing, Hand of Ragnaros, Thunderfury, Ateish, Glaives could all be overhauled with different stats to be upgrades and worth running raids. Easier to make groups with 10/25 modes too.
This would be awesome but I don’t think it would ever happen. This would require them to invest REAL development resources into Classic and they have proven time and time again that’s not something they’re willing to do. Retail is where they pour their main resources and Classic is where they crunch for a time to restore the old game and then leave it mostly in maintainence mode.