So far, endgame consists of Achievement hunting, Raiding, Instancing, Bgs, RBGs, Arena, Reputation "grinds", Mount/Pet collecting, Events and in MoP Battle Pets, Scenarios and Challenge mode dungeons. Now, lets think of some new types and variations of endgame content. Also, please add if you want to include something which used to belong into end game, but does not anymore.
So, I will start this off with some of my own/previously heard ideas:
Long instanced complexes similar to Vanilla dungeons: I bet majority of you have been into BRD, and most of them will agree that the place is awesome.
Highly concentrated lore, lots of hidden bosses, quests (Some of them are gone nowadays, or simplified), loot extraordinaire( cosmetic and useable) and other stuff. Blackrock Depths is by far the biggest 5-man dungeon and is just filled with stuff to explore and do. It is actually bigger than some raid instances, althought it originally was meant to be a 10-man instance, but due to the level requirement was set to 5-man.
This is something, I personally hope to see in the future, possibly without a LFD option, since hey, its a long run and you will be most likely stuck with the same guys for a long period of time.
Rewarded World PvP:
This may actually be on its way in MoP, but it is something that in my honest opinion should be separated for example battlegrounds. And it needs some tweaking into its reward system, something to be not exploited on (Halaa for example CAN be exploited) and it should have more variety to its rewards.
It should not be encouraged so much with united daily areas, or PvP objectives, but in my opinion ( I clearly want to point out that these are actually opinions, not facts) it should be encouraged through the reward system. Though, I do not have any great ideas for this.
Addition: I found a thread talking about exactly this: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...3#post17520763 Credits for Blueline.
In short: It is a toggleable bounty hunting system, where you accept certain rules, pick of certain rewards for killing certain players whose bounty is determined by several factors. You are given hints via NPCs about the location of these people, and at the same time you build up your own bounty. You kill a player and loot off his head to be returned for a prize. What do you think of this?
Mounted Warfare and Customized mounts:
Dont read just the title, please. What I mean with these, that we would get a designated mount "warfare" or jousting area, and the rewards would be for example customiseable armor, flags, effects and etc. Just minor stuff and keep them always within one category so different mounts actually still stay different.
1-player training grounds/ Class training grounds / Class quests:
Designated instanced areas, where you complete quests and the purpose for this is to get some really beginner rewards (For example, a crappy, easily acquirable weapon once you reach max level, etc.) The zones could be different for different classes and specs, and focus on teaching some key aspects of your class, giving you guidance throughout the place. You know, stuff what new people quite often fall for: Using a key ability wrong, not understanding how different mechanics, abilities work in conjunction with. A thing similar to this was supposed to come in MoP, does anyone have any info about it being scrapped or?
Long max level questlines deeply involving the lore:
Some epic questlines which introduce us to the raid bosses and raid instances and our own heroes. Could easily work with possible daily areas. I am talking about similar stuff like what we see before Molten Front. They could have some attractive rewards to encourage people to do them who dont enjoy the lore( Gold, reputation, honor, justice/valor points) Also, they should be a challenge, not like the quests you do while leveling.
Warcamps: This idea was ripped off from Zylathas`s thread and credits for this idea go to him.
I will just quote his idea here and add my own thoughts :
Honestly, I disagree with the reward system, what I would like rather is that you get tokens for completing dailies, and world PvP kills in this designated zone, with all the items buyable with this currency. Okay, so adding updates from Zylathas`s thread:The so-called Warcamps this are moveable daily quest places that take place in various zones. Each faction will have their own war camp in a zone each week attacking the opposites factions cities there, involving new dailies & phased content.
How would it work?
There will be at start 12 zones randomely chosen, 6 for the alliance, 6 for the horde. When a warcamp arrives in a zone it stays for a week and you can do quests for it, the opposite faction will get new quests in the city that is being attacked. Each 3 zones will share the same faction, thus there will be 4 new factions in total awarding warcamp transmogable gear & warcamp enchants, this are new enchants you can use on your gear which will work like weapon enchants, but for every gear slot and avaiable for both pve & pvp, with the restriction that you can have a maximum of three enchants slotted.
Keep in mind that there would be 2 of 12 warcamps avaiable each week, one alliance & one horde warcamp. The others would still be visible in the world but have no npc's in it.
The most popular zones for the locations of the camps seem to be: Swamp of Sorrows, Gilneas/Silverpine, Ashenvale, Stonetalon, Stranglethorn, Hillsbrad and Stonetalon. There has been discussion about gaining a buff in power/reward gain by completing objectives (A temporary one which will be removed when you leave the zone) Pve and PvP objectives, siege vehicle dailies and temporary changes in scenery. This combined with the bounty hunting system sounds very interesting.
Please read this before posting and have fun discussing!