If you had free hands.
Lorewise, how would you go?
Would you add/remove the systems implemented in SL?
How would you build to grasp the players excitement through the whole expansion from day one to final endgame?
More classes, reworks, new zones, kill torghast? YOU decide.
I would like to leave to the people whos job it is. Or I would have yall at bootcamp. Making you do stuff you think you canât lol.
Alternate draenor yrel with her light army and scarlet crusade trying to invade azeroth so we venture there join orc(horde) and some draenai(alliance) rebels trying to overthrow her u fight ur way through citadels of light and end up fighting one of naaru as last boss on faralon which would be last zone
I would leave most of SL behind. I generally donât like abandoning systems, but I donât think there is much worth keeping from current expansion long term.
Keep in mind Iâm no game designer, and this is more a wish list, but yeah these are the guiding points I would steer the game development in.
Well, since you askedâŚ
Instead of fratboys who dwell on mediocrity from US i would like WoW to hire a fresh blood, may be a team of japanese writers or some other non local team.
Most of the SL and some of the BfA storylines ideally must be retconned.
Plot:
Back to Azeroth with a new network of islands (can tie this in with old well-loved zones, STV,) and a vast underwater city with some evil shadow/void nutters in there. good story progression and well written (one can hope) and a plot twist of some kind like a really respected character we have played alongside for ages to have connections with them. Void baddies escape at the end for continuation purposes , perhaps opening into WoW 2.0
Gameplay:
Just get classes back to their fun states. Get rid of the systems on systems. Players just want their class to feel smooth and good to play from a gameplay perspective at max level , then gear just makes them more powerful. Dont go overboard and chuck in crap loads of legendaries as its harder to balance. Iâm sure there would be ways to allow fun engaging unique modifies like tier-sets from different places that enhance certain specs.
Spec 1 - Big quest chain complimented by lore and cutscenes
spec 2 - Raid
Spec 3 - Dungeons
or something of the like
Use a mix of WoD / MoP for a PvP template and engage with the community about what they enjoyed the most , Cross-ref this with numbers and user engagements through expacs in PvP. % due to population declines.
Sort professions out , idk how as this was never my gig but a complaint Iâve seen a few times
Ban botting + limit the amount of boost adverts etc. Itâs trashy to read and promotes the wrong kind of behaviour and mindset within the community.
Sit down and think about what made the first 3 iterations of the game special. Now deduct the fact that it was ânewâ and work out if there is a secret sauce and try to apply it in future expacs
id go back to the roots of the rpgs, like replayed baldurs gate and icewind dale and then played through warcrafts to pull out all of the basics and build it around that.
no quick systems, no p2w stuff, made the content relevant for the future via different recipes, made professions side by side exploration. Dungeons that requires different classes not cause of dps but cause of pickpocketing and trap removals or lock ports or warrs jumping across ledges, shs saping all in all a lot of ccs involved, hard and soft.
Made raids like the extension of dungeons with attuning via professions and exploration.
Would ditch the exalted with this and that lockout. Exalted rep would reward only cosmetics, and toys and maybe some extra puzzle solvers in dungeons that would drop some cosmetics.
Would unlock specs, so mage is a mage and not fire mage for instance. Implement Fire mastery that gives him a boost to one school but it needs to utilize all of its skills and abilities.
Bottom line, id sit my crew down and made a game that id like playing and would be prepared that it would not suit all players but id thank them and said sorry but im not implementing half baked systems so i can appease all of the player base. This is my vision, if you like it awesome, if you dont like it im sorry im not making MOBA/hack n slash arcade out of it, its an rpg/adventure.
oh removed factions in some postapocaliptic whats left of reality when Jailer âturns a keyâ world, where Sylvanas is dead of course and you start to rebuild with few resources you have leftâŚye im worse than current writers 
cheers
An island / Continent to the east of Eastern Kingdoms. Varied landscapes open plains, forest, mountains, swamps.
Lots of quests (way more than one character can complete whilst leveling) so either you finish them at max level or alts have alternate leveling paths.
Opposing factions giving a meaningful choice as to which one to choose to assist, like Aldor / Scyers.
Use of older factions to assist here, Tillers help us set up farms for one faction. High Mountain Taurens helps us build a city in the mountains, Nat Pagle helps us set up a fishing village.
Simplify professions, remove ranks.
No borrowed powers.
Fewer currencies.
No major cosmic mega fel doom big bad. So local warlord or something simple that we sort out like the A Team.
Back to basics.
I could drastically improve this game by doing nothing but removing systems or very obvious minor tweaks to existing systems that should have been done years ago.
e.g. Iâd remove Conduits, Soul binds, WoW token, LFR, Tyrannical.
And Iâd tweak the weekly box (and most RNG sources) so it does not offer you a duplicate item.
Lore wise Iâd focus back on Sarg and the Void Lords. I think thatâs the only interesting plot left.
No new classes. Iâd rework Survival to be a ranged / melee hybrid depending on their weapon.
Iâd add a new physical ranged spec to DH. Like a glaive & javelin throwing combat spec.
Zones Iâd go for horizontal structure with biomes (think WoD zones) opposed to vertical structured like Revendreth, High Mountain, etc.
Light vs Void. It was already foreshadowed in Legion, and at the end of BfA we already dealt with the Void (old god), so it would make sense to go against the void lords before they manage to create more old gods and try to corrupt Azeroth again.
I wouldnât add anything as it is now, but i would keep some things. I would add each specâs BiS legendary effect as a baseline passive ability because they overall improve the gameplay. I would also add each classâs covenant abilities as a new talent row.
I tried to be fair to Blizzard, so i only said things that they would be able to do as well with more effort.
i think that blizzard has fallen into the trap of triyng to over engineer the systems in shadowlands, all of then would be perfectly fine with one or two minor changes.
take conduits for example, its a perfectly good system that was implemented to give tuning nobs to the classes, if they removed conduit energy is would be a good system overall that can give different playstyles within the same specs in some cases, one of the other major issues is that they only seem to use the tuning nobs on major patches, meaning that there are months at a time where something could be either competely useless or opressively powerful.
covenants as much as people hate them are not a bad system, if the abilities were decoupled from them it would itself be a perfectly good system, if you could just pick the covenant you want based on the aestietics that you want while still being able to use the âcovenant abilityâ you want to as a talent row, and maybe some more balancing done to even out some of the soulbinds then it would also be a perfectly good system.
legenadries are also another good example of this, the entire thing is fine overall, but there are one or two minor issues that could be addressed, being able to reapply missives when you upgrade to change the stats rather than needing to completely remake the legendary, being able to put all legendaries on the same slot like ring so that you dont have to fill your bags with crap, that kinda thing.
I would make Group and solo options for every thing.
No more gear or progression locked behind mythic raiding or Top rating in arena.
If people want something, they should be able to get it, wether or not they do it in group or not.
Not saying the solo option should be âEasyâ
But there should be solo ways to progress in the game.
Or if âSoloâ is not a thing that can happen.
Then just make raid mechanics much easier.
I want a relaxing game where i can turn my brain off.
MC, BWL & AQ were fun in classic because you did not have to think much, could just enjoy the game without being afraid to wipe the raid if some small mistake happent.
lorewise, id bring us back to war between horde and alliance. Destroying citys, deplorable assassins killing everyone, jaina getting murdered and dismembered and spread to the universe when its discovered shes a terrible character with an horrendous storyline and for the good of the universe she must be ultimately destroyed and completely prevented from ever appearing in the game again, diplomacy failing utterly and that mad guy coming back and destroying a few citys on his own ⌠the guy from karazhan, er whatever his name was. Thrall becoming a shaman again and going insane, making trees grow from the boy kings nose etc, gnomes building massive bombs to drop on thunderbluff, the tauren romping through gilneas, the worgen actually being a main part of the alliance rather than just someone to say âdown boy, the adults are talkingâ to whenever theyre included in a cutscene, definitely have a poison specialist as new class (kinda like a mad scientist, or a frankenstains monster that shoots electircity from its neck bolts and it can tank/dps/heal with limbs that detach), rework unholy dk as someone that can take possession of mobs and use them (actually sit inside the mob, mentally, and control it as your main char sits idle), a complete separation of pvp and pve so that you cant grind one to get gear for the other, id like a pvp aerial combat ⌠i still wouldnt pvp but itd shut them up, definitely close toghast ⌠its such a melee licking thing, no more mushy wushy huggy wuggy storylines about redemption blah blah ⌠give me baddies to massacre not tears to wipe ⌠whoevers writing these scripts needs to be disposed of as soon as possible, quite like the idea of having castles for your guild and the boards would be you sending your army out and being a part of the combat ⌠not just individuals being sent out to do missions, you go with them and a couple hundred in your army ⌠obviously would have to be gated but hey ho, more reliance on cc in 5mans, a complete destruction of multiscum and botting and LFG spammer ⌠i assume the removal of /follow would achieve that ⌠dunno, removal of tokens, options to join with the baddies or stay with the goodies ⌠then you could have raids split between which side youre with ⌠thatd be sweeeeeeeet ⌠no need for other abilities just different bosses, servers where addons are disabled completely where there is cosmetics that everyone wants but you have to disable addons to go get em ⌠lets see how skilled you lot actually are, oh and if i didnt mention it before ⌠a complete and irreversible destruction of jaina, the worst character this game has ever seen.
I like the idea for a solo option for everything, be ableto scalefrom 1-5. Some servers are just awefull when it comes to population.
I would love to have a more coherent story linie.
I would remove all tmog limits
I like the idea of expanding the garnison to player housing and Guildhalls
I would make it an option to make all currency and reputation accountwide. Option only so ppl can grind if they want
I would make an option so if you wanted you could hide ppls tmog, emotes, names- both personal and guildnames. I personally would not use such an option but I think it should be there.
I love the sprout channel in ff14 or the all zones general chat option in Everquest 2. We need more community. The channel would need moderators which is are online all the time .
It works in other games and I feel it could help the wow community
Removal of faction limits. Let me grp/raid with my hordie friends. Asign colors to a team in pvp like purple vd. Orange so we could have cross faction pvp . Should offcourse br servers who did not have this like pvp servers
And prop more but I stop here 
I would have 10.0 dedicated to faction merge and rebuilding Azeroth. Letâs have new phase for all zones that brings them up to date.
If killing boars on Azeroth is supposed to be below our âstationâ as we are gods now, then have the Jailer cripple our powers for the expansion until Azeroth is rebuild and we manage to restore our power level.
As for the faction merge:
Improving systems we have.
Making all content matter, not just last patch.
Giving classes abilities back, with specs improving them and well, specializing.
And well, adresinng the bot and rmt crap.
Timewalking has so much potential. Maybe a returning back to old times disguised as a orc from the first orcish horde , a horde of bloodthirsty warriors conquering stormwind , just how they did that raid of orgrimmar in mop.
Narratively: we stop the Jockler with his Sigols at the last possible moment. He doesnât OMGREMAKEREALITY but messes with it enough to break large swathes of Azeroth and possibly other planets. We rescue Anduin but heâs in a coma or something. Sylvanas goes to choke on a brick and dies or whatever.
We go back to Azeroth to find that a lot of stuff is now different, basically thereâs been a second Cataclysm caused by the Jocklerâs voodoo. It also affected other planets and other cosmic forces. The Light is eapecially pissed about it and blames the Maw Walkers from Azeroth. Alternate Draenor is destroyed and the Lightbound, led by Yrel, invade Azeroth to turn it into a Light planet that would serve as an anchor to the crumbling reality. Unfortunately, that would destroy the Titan World Soul and everyone currently on the planet. There is drama and civil war among the Lightforged of the Army of the Light. Some of them join Yrel, including Turalyon, which tears a rift between him and Alleria. The rebels steal the Vindicaar and turn it against the Azerothians, nuking a major city from orbit and using it to kickstart the âlightaformingâ process. Horde and Alliance, both essentially leaderless and in disarray, meet to form The Pact, a temporary ceasefire government that includes all Azeroth races and aims to oppose the Lightâs plans. There you go, nice easy to follow plot, high stakes, some character drama, villains you know and you can relate to their motivations, stuff set in a place we know and feel connected to⌠You know, Warcraft stuff.
Gameplay and systems-wise:
Basically, just take a breather and instead of thinking up dumb cosmic plots and dumb convoluted systems, take the time to go back to basics: making gear interesting and letting people tinker with their items and customize their gear, while fostering a player-driven, crafting-based progression system where people have to make stuff and trade stuff in-game to get what they want/need. Trading sh!t, whether person-to-person or using the AH, is server-locked so who knows, we might even (gasp) get some of that server personality back again.
Thing is, you would need an absolute metric sh!tload of different stats, effects and stuff to make for this to work, otherwise people will default to the one thing that sims the best in all situations. You need loads of different items with loads of different situational effects so that everyone can have tge ability to craft something thatâs useful to someone, otherwise the trading/market balance wonât work. So say Iâm a Holy Paladin thatâs a blacksmith and I did a long quest chain to specialize as Grandmaster Axesmith. I get a rare pattern for Shadow Reaver, a 2h Str axe that requires a load of rare materials to craft, that I canât use for anything⌠But itâs super sought after for Blood DKs because it has tons of leech and a special effect to lower the Runic Power cost of Deathstrike. So I will craft it even though itâs useless to me and then sell it on the AH or barter it in Trade chat, because somewhere on the server is a DK thatâs a Grandmaster Flask Alchemist that needs this axe and has a rare recipe for Flask of Lightâs Justice, a super special Paladin-only flask that increases Holy Power generation that I need to stock up on for raid night - I can hit him up directly or list the axe on the AH and then use the gold to buy the flasks he has listed.
Why not? Iâll bite, but we have to bear in mind that the next expansion is already set and is being built as we speak.
Lorewise I would conclude the Shadowlands with the Jailer being defeated, Sylvanas becoming Arbiter (and thus her story being concluded) and Arthas (after being reconstituted from Kingsmourne) finding his âspecial place in hellâ as the new Jailer, for someone must always watch the Maw. These characters are now off the table, their story concluded.
So how does this lead into the new expansion?
The Jailerâs attempt to rewrite reality (which fails) brings alternate Draenor fully into our universe and allows the Army of the Light that was based there to begin a campaign to liberate the universe from such terrors as being threatened by demons, being threatened by undead, being threatened by an unhealthy amount of free will and being threatened by the possibility of making the wrong choice which could have the unfortunate consequence of making Yrel sad and Exarch Garrosh angry, which would not be a good thing.
The Army of the Light identifies that the biggest risk to the universe remains Azeroth, not only due to the threat of a Void Titan emerging but because of the instability of the Alliance and Horde rampaging across it. They thus make contact with Azeroth in the name of the Light.
The Horde rejects the Army of the Lightâs overtures. Whilst there is a Horde Council, in Thrall and Baineâs absence the de facto leader of the Horde has become Regent Lord LorâThemar Theron. His people have had the most experience with the Naaru and the light of all the Horde races, and the Magâhar Orcs have ample testimony to confirm their suspicions. This is not the light as a friend and saviour, this is the light as an uncompromising master.
The Alliance has a different reaction. The Army of the Light appeals to the faith of many of the common races of the Alliance, the Humans, the Dwarves, the Draenei, the Worgen. It promises a simple world where good is rewarded and bad is punished. Even races that do not nominally serve the light, such as the Night Elves and the Gnomes, have members who are swayed by the words of the Army of the Light because the Army clearly insinuates the bad guys as the Horde and many members of the Alliance still feel the Horde has not sufficiently paid for the crimes committed in Sylvanasâs tenure as warchief.
The Alliance leadership, bereft of Jaina, Tyrande and Anduin, splits down the middle with Velen, Malfurion and Gelbin Mekkatorque (backed up by Mathias Shaw) saying the Army represents the tyranny of the light whilst Turalyon (who has been growing increasingly dictatorial during Anduinâs absence, still thinking he is leading an army rather than a coalition of nations) and the Council of the Three Hammers argues that the Army can help stabilise a brutalised world and help them in the inevitable war to come against the void. Velen and Malfurion are undermined when they realise most of their respective people are actually in favour of supporting the Army.
When the heroes of Azeroth return from the Shadowlands, they find that the Army of Light has arrived and set up camp in Stormwind and Elwynn Forest. Silvermoon is under siege, with the Army seeking to take possession of the holy font of light energy the Horde controls. Velen and Malufrion are hunted traitors. Even were Anduin Wrynn in any condition to lead (he isnât), the new Alliance leadership wouldnât listen to him.
High Exarch Yrel wishes to secure Azeroth permanently, to ensure a Void Titan can never take root. And she is willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that. And her Naaru masters are right behind her.
So, we return from Shadowlands to yet another war? Not quite, the Army of the Light is so overwhelming and theyâve co-opted the majority of the Alliance. This is an invasion that has worked, because unlike the Legion or the Iron Horde they came in the guise of friends. The Horde canât hope to win, but the Army is consolidating the Eastern Kingdoms before planning a move on the Broken Isles, Zandalar and Kalimdor.
Horde players will play through a campaign of shoring up their beleagured, demoralised faction and finally putting the ghost of Sylvanas and Garrosh behind them. They will also be dealing with lightbound Orcs. Alliance players will secretly be working for a resistance led by Velen and Malfurion in the shadows, but will appear to pledge allegiance to the Army of the Light so they can return to Alliance territory during the occupation.
The new area for exploration will be the Dragon Isles, five islands each of which is themed after one of the Dragonflights. These islands were the original homes of the Dragonflights before they expanded across Azeroth. Yrel and the Naaru are invading here before the territories of the Horde as they wish to secure something of supreme value (a portal to the Emerald Dream, where the blueprint of Azeroth before the arrival of sentient life was stored by the Titans. The ultimate plan is to reoriginate Azeroth directly given the weapon to do so has already been destroyed,to remove all potential vectors for void corruption. The Army will evacuate before that happens and the deaths of the Alliance will be a sad necessity to ensure the survival of the universe). The new capital will be a draconic city at the heart of the Isles, this is where the Alliance resistance will be based and where players will encounter Velen trying to heal Anduinâs mind. This is also where the Void Elves have moved, they can only move around Alliance territory with heavy enchantments that make everyone think they are one of the few remaining high elves.
Four raid tiers, culminating with a final battle against High Exarch Yrel within the Emerald Dreamâs version of Azeroth, leading into 11.0 and an Emerald Dream expansion as we explore the Shadowlandâs opposite number realm. High Exarch Yrel, Turalyon and Exarch Garrosh will get substantial development in this expansion so players understand their motives and their beliefs and can understand why they do what they do.
In terms of the gameâŚ
Horde and Alliance players will be allowed to group for PVE purposes in dungeons and raids so long as warmode is off. This represents their collaboration against the occupation of the Army of the Light. Horde and Alliance players will not be able to group in the outdoor world with warmode on, as Alliance players must remain in good graces with their leadership.
I would bring back justice points as a catch up currency, earned through a variety of activities in the outdoor world. This would purchase targetable gear
I would create scaled versions of every dungeon in the game that would go into a daily timewalking queue that would reward justice points and gold. These scaled dungeons would replace normal and heroic dungeons as well as timewalking dungeons.
I would create scaled versions of every raid in the game based on the LFR segments used previously, place them in a random timewalking raid queue for all raids before the current expansion and ask players to complete two or three of them a week for JP AND VP.
The above system is designed to eliminate timewalking weekends but use timewalking to make all older content evergreen and relevant. LFR segments will be placed into the timewaking raid queue when their expansion ends and a new one begins. Same for the dungeons of a given expansion.
I would remove all borrowed power. No azerite armor, artifact weapons, azerite powers, corruptions, shards of domination OR covenants. Power comes from gear and gear alone. Gear comes from mythic+, PVP and raids. The only barrier to you playing an alt is gearing that alt once it hits max level. And yes, account wide reputation.
Master looter returns.
A new dungeon with every patch.
A new battleground with the expansion.
Alterac Valley revamp and graphical upgrade.
Customisations being something worked on constantly, for all races, but being deployed when they are ready and not waiting for something to be ready for everyone.
A TRUE Rogue lite MMO experience, not tied to player power but which rewards cosmetics, mounts and transmogs and which allows us to create some insanely broken builds that are just super fun to play. It exists not for the endgame, but because it would be fun.
Player housing, with old raids itemised to drop unique items of furniture or recipies for crafters to make that furniture. Decorate your house with old tier sets, nik naks OR trophies of past victories.
A permanent Darkmoon Faire with a greatly expanded selection of mini games.
The return of tier sets with set bonuses. Enough searching for a solution when you had the right answer years ago.
And thatâs what I would. In a nutshell, overhaul timewalking to make all content permanently evergreen, remove overcomplicated systems in favour of blessed simplicity, ensure everyone has something new on a regular basis and go with a plot grounded in someone of flesh and blood who is movitated by their own convictions and zealotry rather than yet another bland thanos knock off.
Iâm not sure how many more expansions WoW deserves to have. How bad does it have to become before they pull the plug?