ask anyone that plays or has played this game what they most fondly remember or what their favorite part was, nobody will say the story, and that is true for every era of this game
it's not because the writing is terrible, it's because an MMO is about your character and the experiences you have with other players, it's your story
sandbox the world
this ties into trashing the story as well
put content all around the world
make dungeons dungeons again
this game is not an esport, stop acting like it is, stop designing dungeons as MDI hallways and get back to designing an actual adventure
one difficulty for raids
raise the bar for getting into a raid, such that you it feels like an experience just walking through the portal
make loot cool/exciting again
without logging into the game, 99% of the players today would not be able to tell you the actual name of any of the gear they are currently wearing
the gear is no longer memorable
design the game, not the patch
stop resetting the game every 6 months, give permanence back to the community
a lot of this would alienate players that don't like MMOs, good