My take and opinion on how I would like to see future WOW development continue:
Caveats:
• You do not have to agree or disagree, but if you do; please explain what you agree/disagree with and how you would modify the point,
• I speak from the perspective that no matter how you feel about the current state of WoW, all should believe that it could be better,
• My perspective is towards features and systems, which should be the backbone upon which your WoW experience should be based, the framework upon which classes should be built upon.
Guilds:
• The game should be guild centric, they are the social structure the systems are applied to,
• There should be more guild wide achievements with rewards,
o 250 dungeons in a guild group: all guild members get a mount/title,
o Any raid that is 100% guild members should cause no durability loss within the raid,
o Any raid that consists of 80% guild members should amount to more gold dropped by the bosses, and the guild should receive in game gold for any raid member not in the guild upon completion of the run (more people get picked up for PUGs because it benefits the guild to fill their raid, which means more people get experience and potential facetime for recruitment),
o Mentorship achievements/goals: if you pug into a guild M+ group, you should be able to provide in game feedback to how they performed, and a small reward should be given (think satchels for all the guild group if they get 5 stars, about 1k gold and flasks/pots/runes), potions/flasks are needed for raids/m+, why not reward time spent helping others in game instead of rewarding running around farming herbs or buying them from the ah?,
o Increase not the need for guilds, but the desire for guilds. Extra gold, extra experience, extra resources from completing in game goals with a guild group. Can scale to the size of group, but you can cap certain rewards at 5 players etc.
Reward structure:
• Remove WF/TF (hear me out please),
o The treadmill is broken because you can literally wait it out, and obtain serious gear progression from merely WQ’s, there is no desire to go further for many,
o The different modes or raiding/dungeoning are fine enough progression without WF/TF,
o Without WF/TF players progression is more deterministic, they choose where they wish to spend their time, their enjoyment,
o With the accessibility we have now as players, nearly anyone can choose to elevate themselves to the next level of play, they just choose not to because RNG may already diminish the rewards vs the effort of the next level, it is self-defeating,
o The desire to step up to the next level of play can be motivated/manipulated in other less invasive/destructive ways, see the guild rewards above for potential methods,
Mythic Plus:
• The current reward structure is fine in my opinion, the only difference I would implement is capping the end of dungeon completion chest at Heroic level. The weekly chest can still go up to Mythic level, I see nothing wrong with obtaining a Mythic level set of gear over 14+ weeks (if you have the best of luck),
• This gives a drawn-out progression to work towards, retains the competitive style of Mythic Plus,
• Mythic Plus should be handled no differently than a PvP season, the top players should get a title/mount specific to that season; lesser titles/mounts can be given for certain lesser achievements,
• Completion of all Mythic Plus dungeons at the appropriate level (set by Blizzard, for the season, so currently let’s say 15?) provides the ability to purchase that season’s weapon or armor from a vendor (transmog only, not equippable). This harkens back to Challenge Modes, many players would play multiple characters per season to acquire their favorites,
• Allow the key to increase by one level, even if you do not finish on time. If players wish to spend 4 hours clearing a +15 key with 4 tanks and 1 healer…. Let them. They are obviously enjoying their time, or think the reward is worth it. Eventually they will hit their own preset breaking point; once the group leader leaves the instance, the instance is over with. Others can still level a key more efficiently via completing on time, effort becomes rewarded, not time,
Basic patch content:
• Every raid should have an attunement, that is completable within the patch prior to the raid launching, this creates content for individuals, groups and guilds,
o Many didn’t like having to keep attuning back in TBC, but the community was different back then, we didn’t have the matchmaking we have in game now, it wouldn’t be a huge roadblock,
o Attunements did create content and kept some content evergreen, provided short-long term goals to work towards on your own and in a group,
o Attunements were also great story arcs, that spanned instances, zones, continents even,
• Resist gear (I am not stuck on this point):
o Not the most interesting of gear, but for some it was interesting, can be used here and there sparingly to increase progression by lowering incoming damage and extending the fight for those who had lower dps thresholds,
o Doesn’t have to be so wide spread, can be reduced to tanks, but crafted only through guild crafters from drops within the prior raid, goals that can easily be reached by guilds doing guild raids,
• All patch content doesn’t have to be a new zone, or a simple quest line:
o With long term goals to occupy players with (rewarded properly), every patch doesn’t have to contain vast amounts of empty content, some patches should be strictly class passes,
o Don’t over incentivize content for the purpose of desirable metrics, players will choose content based upon what they want to play, and you can more easily ascertain what people want to do, spend your resources there,
o Island expeditions can be fun, when they aren’t over incentivized with decent Azurite power, the rewards are already there for those who enjoy them: mounts, toys, transmogs etc., could have also had a non-contested Island expedition where you can relax and solve riddles/quests etc. on the island without having to race to the finish for those who like relaxed events, could have incentive them slightly less,
o Warfronts seem empty content, I think if you must push the “faction war” on the players, it better be fleshed out properly. These could/should have been your open world battlegrounds, where players went looking for a fight, no balancing, just fighting to control the area for farming rares, resources and rewards. If you need to facilitate control swapping, then buff the side you need to reward more recently after a week or two of static control,
Crafting:
• This is where you can have unbalanced fun within the game via choice,
o Inscription: allow glyphs to be crafted that alter your mounts abilities, water striding for a mount of your choice, leaping allowing your mount to leap 20 yards forward when you jump, slow falling allowing your mount to slow fall off a high cliff, Cloud of dust allowing your mount to leave behind it a cloud of dust making mobs less likely to hit you as you pass by…. None of these are necessarily game breaking, and balance isn’t a huge issue in open world PVE content, it’s just not,
o Blacksmithing: should be allowed to fix any party members gear for a small bit of income, say 2% of the total cost, it all adds up but its more of an RPG element overall,
o Leatherworking: why not allow these crafters to create buff drums (not just lust), beat the drum and motivate your comrades, also create riding crops allowing your mount to burst forth in a fit of speed for 10 secs (20% increase) but will place a debuff on your mount for the next minute,
o Engineering: “where did you get such wonderful toys” – The Joker, why not drop a bot that allows your party members to grab rocket boots from?, rocket boots apply directly to your feet allowing a 30% movement speed for 5 seconds- 2 uses, would be a nice movement upgrade for those in your group during an upcoming fight, no different than say stampeding roar, stealth generator applying aoe invisibility for 8 seconds, you get the point,
o Etc, etc, etc…. If the developers do not have a small portion of the game where they can really explore unabated creativity, then how will the players ever get to experience it? It doesn’t always have to be balanced, but where it could potentially break the game, it needs to be reigned in to acceptable levels, open world outside of PvP absolutely does NOT have to be balanced,
PvP:
• In my opinion, taking away the structure of the original PvP system and basically giving it to Rated Battlegrounds was a mistake,
o Rated Battlegrounds should have been supported through their own system, old titles should not have been repurposed for a newer system where carries can be sold, titles earned in a different manner,
o They should have retained the old system for random battlegrounds, as a way to distinguish yourself over time, yes it was a grind, but it was meant to be, change the system a bit to show dedication to grinding random battlegrounds, and find new titles/rewards for Rated Battlegrounds such as the war harnesses,
• Warmode from my perspective has been a failure in most instances:
o It creates unhealthy player behavior by rewarding war bands, and not individual/small group combat,
o The only literal goal is to disrupt other players, not seeking out combat for thrills,
o Rewards are too dependent on dynamics outside of the players control, the least represented faction gets rewarded more, but not necessarily for pvp, they group up in warbands and farm a particular WQ, the other faction counters this by avoiding that WQ in lieu of other options, it doesn’t inspire world pvp, it rewards avoiding pvp while still being flagged,
o Warmode should have been focused on flagging yourself, accepting a quest/goal and then going to carry it out, the other faction’s goal is of course to stop you, focused around tactical goals such as major cities, hubs or the chosen warfront,
o You simply cannot create dynamic spontaneous events such as world pvp, you can reward them mildly, but you cannot create something that is as spontaneous and dynamic as pre-bg world pvp, it was a choice made by both participants, and they happened to come across each other in the world doing OTHER THINGS, they may have chosen a spot to attack others, but it wasn’t a prescribed location,
Community:
• Looking at the history of WOW, and my experiences with it, I have always seen potential for mentorship, it would be nice to find a way to incentivize it within the game,
o Top guilds will always produce carries for rewards, generally within the lowest gain for the buyer/highest gain for the guild paradigm, that’s fine, it will not change,
o But that doesn’t mean we can’t provide a service to others in a lesser rewarding fashion, many players simply do not make enough gold to pay for the highest services, but that doesn’t mean they can’t garner some mentorship in other ways,
o Why not have a weekly Karma cache? One that doesn’t provide gear, but can provide gold, consumables, and crafting mats? Some prefer to run instances over farming in the open world, why not put that to use,
o Say a person/group wants to spam some M+’s over a few evenings, and they want to take a random person along with them, when the run is over that random person can rate each team mate, at the end of the week the totals can be tallied creating an average score, and their cache can contain rewards commensurate to that score,
o Immediately we have another system that fits some players strengths and other players weaknesses, it could be expanded to raids but would need some tweaking, but it also opens desirable social interactions, because one might bite their tongue if they are doing it for the rewards that comes with providing an enjoyable run,

Just a few thoughts, certainly not comprehensive in nature. But I do believe that some of the above points could make a positive change in WoW, without being too drastic by changing entire scope of the game.
I am most interested in hearing your feedback, but please keep it civil. If you do not agree, that is perfectly fine, just please tell me why you think a point is a bad idea, and how you would change it for the better.
Cheers!