Individual Instances

For a change of pace, perhaps Blizzard could make a high level instance, where you'd need to be geared, that was designed to be soloed, in that it could only be soloed.  Each player class would have a different experience in the instance, but everyone would play alone. 
Perhaps it could be proving grounds, where an individual has to prove their worth to earn an armor set, or items.  There could be multiple wings to the instance, that could all be done separately.  The instance could be a portal to another planet, to the Emerald Dream, to another dimension, etc.  It would probably be run by a group, like how the Argent Crusade ran the Trial of the Crusader. 
Basically it would be interesting to push solo play at the high level and good gear range, so players can see what they can do by themselves.  The bosses could be elites, but with strategies designed for individuals, and the mobs could be nearly overwhelming. 
Perhaps the gear could be an optional, in between Tier level, or gear to fill out the gaps in a Tier set, or even a Tier set. 

A Lore Thought

I predict that players will have to fight powerful Avatars of the Old Gods that they've killed.  The Gods' power before was in corruption and influence, but they are free from their bodies and can now assume forms which are more powerful.  I'd bet that. 

I'd also say, though with less certainty, but more hope, that the Old Gods, or their Avatars, will be banished into a portal, or to a place away from Azeroth, rather than directly defeated. 

Rewards based Races

Instead of having a new race available to anyone, why not have races that high levels could reroll as, as with Death Knights as a Hero class, have a race with each faction that newbies can't be, but experienced players could earn the right to be.  Perhaps a player would have to do quests to convince the race to be a part of the faction, with quests like escorting low levels to Beginner areas, and making a certain NPC a strong leader, and building up a city for them. 

Horde

Stonemaul Ogre

Possible Racial Traits

Enrage – temporary buff that increases size and damage dealt for 10-15 seconds

Strong - +5% to Strength

Two Headed – increases Stealth Detection

Imposing – Cast Fear effects last 10% longer

Possible Classes

Warrior

Warlock

Mage

Shaman

Hunter

+Death Knight

Mount – Mesonychid – a massive hooved wolf-type animal

Alliance

Furbolg

Possible Racial Traits

Bear Bite – does a quick bite attack

Leatherworker - +10 to Leatherworking

Insulating Fur – Fire and Ice resistant, and lessens bleed effects

Possible Classes

Shaman

Warrior

Hunter

Priest

Rogue

+Death Knight

Mount – Cave Ursine – Large, bear-like creature.

Also, perhaps instead of a specific tribe of Ogre or Furbolg, perhaps different tribes could be converted, through quests that kill the hostile leaders, and win over the hearts of the that tribe race, and convince them to join. 

Army Battleground

Why not have a battleground where players have troops to control to fight each other with. Players start with 5 troop members under their control, as Sergeants. These battles would be 20 V 20, so 100 troops and 20 players fighting each other. Each play, each Sergeant would be given an objective, like Protect a place, or NPC, attack a place or NPC, capture an item, free prisoners, kill as many enemies as possible, etc. A player gets two sorts of points. Order points they get for successful completion of their goals, Victory points they get for winning battles. These points would add up to allow the player to advance in rank. They could advance to Lieutenant and then control 10 troops, and fight with and against other lieutenants. Then Captains, which control 25 troops; Colonels, which control 50 troops; and finally Generals, who control 100 troops. In addition to using points to gain rank, a player would try to earn general armor, which would make them able to withstand large group assaults. All troops (NPCs) would be the same, basic fighters. It should also be downplayable, so that someone who has earned the rank of general could play and fight in Sergeant battlegrounds, as a Sergeant, if that's what they enjoy.

In addition to fighting and earning your own Orders, perhaps there could be extra orders, like do it quickly, or help others after you've done yours, to earn another order point. 

This battle ground would be different than others, in that there would be no spirit healer.  Though, I suppose it could be worked out so that you could respawn, with troops.  That just seems too complicated.

The troops would follow the player around, and the player would have a couple commands he or she could give the troops. They could give individual orders, and whole group orders. Orders could be follow, stay, defend me, defend place, divide into groups, ignore attackers, and attack.

In addition, there could be multiple battlegrounds, or players could earn the right to different battle grounds, which could be just a little different, which different maps and goals, to very different. Very different could be to have different classes in troops units, as in Rogue Scouts, Battlemages, Archers, Healers, Tanks (as in mechanical tanks), flying troops, cavalry, and sappers (engineers). There could also be a battleground where the player could, through times and battles, earn NPC lieutenants, captains, and colonels to fight which them. And these NPCs could have different classes, Shaman, Paladin, Death Knight, Warlock, Druid, and the rest.

Victory Points, along with Order Points would rank players up.  Say 50 Victory and 100 Order points earned would advance a player from Sergeant to Lieutenant.  100 Victory and 200 Order points to Captain, 200 Victory and 400 order points to Colonel, and 400 Victory and 800 Order points to General.  Perhaps to get additional units, a player would have to be a general, and then every 200 Victory points they could try a new 5 man troop type.  It's a thought. 

New Underground races

Horde

Teuthid Faceless

This faction is made up of Faceless which have gained free will, from the deaths of their Old God masters/creators/parts. They have formed a protective city because other faceless and minions of Old Gods attack them and wish to add them as their servants and slaves. The Forsaken would advocate for them. They could also be made up of a cast of smaller faceless that were the slaves and servants of the larger faceless.

Possible Racial Traits

Touch of Shadow – All attacks have 1% chance of doing an additional 2% Shadow damage

Left Handedness – Melee attacks are 15% less likely to be dodged, parried, or blocked

Sticky Skin – Lessens chance of disarms, and disarm effects don't last as long

Free Mind – Resistant to mind controls, or other mind effecting spells and effects

Streamlined – Faster swimming speed

Possible Classes

Warlock

Mage

Rogue

Warrior

*Mentalist

Mounts – Centipar – Large centipede-like animal

Deeppool Centerpool, or something. The main city would have underwater throughways, with some NPCs in pools. The guards could be warlocks instead of warriors, and they could have stealthed Rogues patrolling the exterior of the city. New city could have an instance in it for low levels to fight agents of an Old God.

Alliance
Aqir
The Insect people that were the beginnings for the Nerubians and Qiraji, but these are uncorrupted and underground.

Possible Racial Traits
Flit - Flaps wings a couple times to get character out of reach for several seconds
Winged Flight - At level 60 they learn to fly.
Carapace - They receive +5% to armor rating
Spider Climb - Can move up vertical surfaces for 10 secs. 
Sting - does X nature damage, based on level.

Possible Classes
Warrior
Hunter
Priest
Shaman
Mage
Rogue
*Mentalist
*Spiritualist

Main City - Azj'Aqir, Hivelike

Mount - Spider

In the event that Blizzard might go with a species not in lore already. 

Alliance

Agaricon

This is a race of fungus people, like the sporelings but bigger and more to them.

Possible Racial Traits

Spore – Blinds energy for 3 seconds, has cooldown

Natural Growth – Healing effects and natural healing increased by 1% when in contact with water

Unarmed Combat +5

Eat Herbs – Can eat picked Herbs directly to gain health, and some effects

Possible Classes

Shaman

Hunter

Priest

Warrior

*Spiritualist

Main City – Fungal Dome – Maybe have shamans as guards around city. A large dome, with lots of plants and glowing fungus. Lower level instance over city with corrupted plant elementals and other enemies.

Mount – Fungasaur – a fungus beast they grow and ride.

New Mage Talent Abilities

Blink Other – Arcane – Can blink target player away from mage
Heat Metal - Fire - Either a spell that heats targets armor and weapon, degrading them and causing them to have a stackable fire damage debuff, or an added affect to fire spells

Dueling League

This is a One on One PVP arena style match. You face another player, Horde or Alliance doesn't matter, that's the same level as you, exactly. Except inside the instance of the dueling league, the player wears dueling clothes, automatically put on when a duel starts. The dueling gear is the same for one class, at each level. Cloth robes for Mages, Priests, and Warlocks, with no stats increases. No trinkets, no health pots, just player versus player, and gear doesn't matter. Rogues and druids would get leather, mail for shamans and hunters, plate for Paladins, Warriors, and Death Knights. Plate would give 4X the armor protection of cloth at the same level, but no more than the basic difference between cloth and plate armor. You'd get to choose a basic weapon for each class, which would be the same on each level, mages could choose a staff, dagger, wand, etc, but it would be the same. Hunters get choices of Crossbow, Bow, Gun, and get automatic bullets/arrows, but all do the same damage. Buffs from other players get removed, along with effects from potions, food, etc, upon entering a duel.
Certain class combinations are pretty unfair, like a Rogue vs. a Paladin.  No matter how well the Rogue starts, the Paladin could just bubble and heal, or use Lay On Hands.  Perhaps these could be disabled for these player combination duels, if it proves to be a problem.

Basically these duels would be about the skill of the player, not at all the gear of the player. Though some class combinations are unfair, so perhaps there could be trinkets or special health pots for dueling that a player could use to make one on ones fair between certain classes. This could be rated, and have elimination tournaments, so the best duelers end up facing each other. They could grant out of duel rewards so people want to do it more. Good off hand or trinkets for people of high rank, or high win percentage.

Additional Hunter Talents for Beast Mastery

1. Give more stable slots
2. Give an ability to temporarily tame any beast, say 3 minutes
3. Reduce cooldown on pet switch ability
4. Give ability to summon 2 additional pets from stable for 1-2 minutes

New Class: Spiritualist

The spiritualist feels the emotions and condition of the land around them. They can draw out the spirit of the land, nature, life, and death. This is a healing class, that can do dps. They have a mana bar.

Since there is no lore for a class like this, have it come from another world, dimension, or underground, with another race or a separate branch of an existing race.

The magic of a Spiritualist falls into three schools. Peaceful, Unrestive, and Astral. Peaceful magic deals with the spirits and essences of the land with are restorative, helpful, happy, and protective. Unrestive magic deals with the spirits that are unhappy, and land that is angry. The spiritualist uses this school to help the land vent it's anger, and for life to lash out. Astral magic deals with the connection between the land and life.

There are three types a spirit a spiritualist can cast. An essence is an instant cast spirit with 1% of the caster's hp. A minor spirit has 10% of the spiritualist's health, and takes 1.5 seconds to cast. A greater spirit gains 25% of the caster's health, and takes 3 seconds to cast. The longer it takes to cast the more damage/healing a spirit does. A caster channels his or her health into a spirit, so the creation of a spirit takes health from the caster. Only one spirit can be out at a time.

Abilities School Description

Restive Spirit Peaceful Heals the target by X

Guardian Spirit Peaceful Gets in between caster and target and prevents damage to caster until targeted and destroyed

Wrathful Spirit Unrestive Shoots a bolt of nature's wrath at target, doing X damage

Angry Spirit Unrestive Attacks target with melee, does X physical damage
Confused Spirit Unrestive Dazes target, slowing movement, melee, and casting speed for 2 seconds, hits every 3 seconds

Malefic Spirit Unrestive Attacks target with shadow, giving target a DOT that deals X damage over 3 seconds

Curative Spirit Peaceful Cures target of 1 poison, curse, and disease per 2 seconds

Vengeful Spirit Unrestive Attacks target physically, and gives target a bleed effect

Spirit of Life Peaceful Brings target back to life, can be cast before death to bring back caster

Weakening Spirit Unrestive Damages attributes of target, draining all attributes by X every hit

Strengthening Spirit Peaceful Increases attributes of target as long as spirit alive

Astral Affinity Astral Target takes 30% more damage or healing from spirits (buff/debuff)

Ethereal Nature Astral Buff on caster than reduces mana cost of spirits and increases spell haste

Infusion Astral Spirit combines with Caster, caster can cast spell of spirit

Phantom Form Astral Reduces damage to caster, and reduces threat generated

Arcane Spirit Unrestive Blasts Arcane damage in AOE for X

Tranquil Spirit Peaceful AOE heal

Ethereal Armor Astral Gives caster X armor and damage has a chance to replenish mana

Astral Armor Astral Gives caster X stamina and gives caster a chance to absorb damage as health

Attentive Spirit Peaceful Prevents the caster from being surprised
Combine Astral Merges two same type spirit into one that does twice healing, damage, etc

Spirit Walk Astral Disappear for 10 seconds, invulnerable, able to move at 2X movement rate

Expend Astral Release damage or heals inside a spirit, doing X damage or healing

Spirit Mark Astral Mark a spot on the ground to appearance

Spirit Door Astral Creates a door that teleports caster to place where spirit mark is
Spirit State Astral Caster channels and makes target a spirit, invulnerable, but still able to attack with melee or some spells

Talent Granted Abilities

Peaceful

Spiritual Ground Activates the ground around the caster, Restive Spirits will heal any party member in the space

Saving Spirit Spirit rushes to target heals and gets in way of attacker

Helpful Spirit Increases heals done by target

Unrestive

Fiery Spirit Spirit does fire damage, and burns target

Icy Spirit Spirit does ice damage, which slows target

Slumbering Spirit Spirit puts target to sleep

Furious Land Activates the anger in the earth, spirits of anger come out and attack all enemies around caster

Additional Anger Turns one Unrestive spirit into three which attack target

Corrosive Spirit Spirit that attacks with a stacking nature damage acid attack

Astral

Astral Entity Creates a spy that caster can move into areas and see areas without being subject to attack in

Etherealness Spirits cost half mana, and all damage gives back a little mana

Astral Affliction Makes damage from spirits unhealable on target, and increases haste of spirits attacking target

Astral Haze Creates fog in large area around caster which enemies cannot see through, but allies can

New Hero Class: Time Defender

It's been hinted that Nozdormu is or will be the leader of the Infinite Dragonflight, and that they will continue to try and change the time line.  That being the case, there will have to be heroes to protect the timeline.  Instead of recruiting from other classes, perhaps the Bronzes, or Nozdormu directly, could give some mortals powers over time.  They already have a couple other dragonsworn, but considering the Bronzes are being corrupted to the infinite, and that many might perish, forever, they will need a class that can fight them, and keep protecting the timeline when there are so few Bronze dragons.

Since this class is concerned with time, and the powers thereof, I propose that they have three small mana bars, instead of one big one.  A Past, Present, and Future mana bar, which would also be the delineation of their abilities.


Abilities                               Tree                 Description
Reverse Event                     Past                  Undoes damage, or effect on caster in last 3 seconds
Time Stop                          Present              AOE 3 second stun
Destiny                              Future                Marks the destiny of target; possible destinies are Old Age, Injury, Illness, Undeath
Manifest Destiny                Future                Brings about destiny, which reduces stats, or changes target to undead, depending on mark
Time Phase                       Present               Phases out caster, cannot be affected by outside forces for 10 secs
Accelerate                        Future                 Speeds up spell casting, melee speed, curses and disease on caster, etc by 30%
Temporal Decay               Future                 Decays armor and weapons, degrading targets armor permanently, can do several times and remove all armor and weapons
Youthful replacement        Past                    Debuff that makes target "lose" a level, PVP loses abilities and gains from last level, PVE loses attributes, health, and possibly abilities, last 1 minute
Future Self                       Future                 Buff on caster that makes him "gain" a level.  If not max level gains abilities of next level, attributes buff, and health, etc up, like one level higher, lasts 2 minutes
Simultaneous blows          Present               Does 3X melee damage to target
Time Shift                        Past                    Moves caster, or target  back to previous location, 5 seconds prior
Time Loop                      Future                 Target can only preform last ability for the next 30 seconds
Borrow Time                  Future                  Caster doubles hp for 30 seconds
Converge                       Present                 Drains all three mana bars to do physical damage
Change of Fate               Past                     Diverts damage from one target to another
Untimely demise             Future                  Debuff that causes healing on target under 10% health to do that amount of damage
Sins of the Past              Past                     Debuff that gives random stun, fear, sleep, hold, or drunkeness effect
Time Trap                     Past                     Traps target in time for 5 seconds, can't move, cast spells, but also invulnerable
Time Charge                 Past                     Charge through time to rush target and deal 1.5 weapon damage
Convalesce                  Future                   Makes caster invulnerable and heals 4X normal hp
Time Warp                  Past                      Slows targets casting and melee speed by 40%
Prior Knowledge         Future                   Buff on caster than improves dodge and parry by 100% for first attack, 90% for second, 80% for third, etc

Talent Abilities
Past                          
Blast from the Past               Deals damage equal to some recent, past event
Past Help                            Calls a shadow of your former self to come and add you in battle
Time Bomb                         An AOE that takes several seconds to go off. 
Time Strike                         Instant cast damage spell

Present
Come to the Present           Temporarily combines the three mana bars into one, can only cast present spells
Arcane Time                       Blasts target with arcane damage
Rain of Time                       Channeled AOE, does Arcane Damage
Time Barrier                       Shields the caster from damage for 30 seconds, still able to cast spells

Future
Future Weapon                 Creates a temporary weapon that deals more damage than any in game weapon
Delay                                Target's next spell doesn't deal damage for 15 seconds
Switch Fates                      Damage done to caster redirected to target
Possibilities                        An attack that does one of five things, with an equal chance (20%) of any: Ravages of Time - DOT; Sand Blast - Direct damage attack; Bronze form - change into a dragon for 1 minute; Incoming Reserves; massive Heal over time that completely replenishes health; nothing.

Other talents could lengthen abilities, have them do more damage, etc. 

I think that this class could start in an instanced area of the Caverns of Time, at level 65.  When they get out they could be level 69, and so start Northrend Quests, skipping the BC. Also they could probably be a mail wearing class that does plenty of melee damage.

If this class doesn't do enough damage, perhaps they could also learn some dragonic abilities, like breath weapons, turn into dragon-like warriors, etc. 

Other possible names for the class Time Templar, Temporal Guardian, Bronze Dragonsworn.

Legendary Hunter's Pet

Along with Legendary weapons, there could be one or more Legendary Beasts, which would have long, hard quest chains for hunters to tame.  These pets would be better than normal.  It could have multiple pet specific abilities, and a unique talent tree.  Perhaps a Hydra, or difficult to find dinosaur type, or a thunderbird type animal.  A good idea might be to have the animal in the Emerald Dream, and have to find or summon it there.  The quests and the like to get this beast tamed would rival that to get Atiesh, the Greatstaff, or any other Legendary weapon. 

Legendary Reputation and Instances

Instead of adding more groups to gain reputation with and grind the same dungeons and raids on, why not have high level players unlock more reputation with old factions, like the home cities. At a certain point, the highest level players could unlock exalted, pushing it to 3600 rep or something, and then have Legendary as the rep catagory beyond that. As a way to gain reputation, I think that each dungeon and raid in the game that is not aimed at end game users, so all the Classic, BC, and WOTLK dungeons when Cataclysm comes out, with the exceptions of Shadowfang Keep and the Deadmines, should have a Legendary setting for end users. It would be a heroic version set for top game difficulty, so for Cataclysm it would be for level 85 players, but it would be set higher for later expansions. you could get quests for doing battle in these dungeons in the major cities, like putting additional NPCs in the Hall of the Brave, Hall of Legends, or Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar. They would give a limited number of quests, say one for each run to a total of three quests per 5 man dungeon, to kill a certain number of trash mobs and the final boss, thus 'clearing' the dungeon. These quest turn ins would be the only way to improve reputation past exalted with the different factions, in this case the capital cities.

Each quest turn in would get that person reputation and an emblem or token to buy end game non-set gear and recipes from the home cities or other factions. I imagine that to keep it from being a grind, each 5 man would only have 3 quests or something, with older raids having a 3 10 man, and 3 25 man quest options; and nothing else would drop in the dungeon but trade goods and vendor trash, maybe, possibly recipes, but not epic gear. The epic gear would be from the tokens or emblems and only the quests would give reputation, not the kills. Players could also gain reputation with other end game content. I just think that it would make it easy to not have to grind reputation with 15 more factions for Cataclysm.

And each Legendary dungeon could earn a guild an item, or whatnot, that would give bonuses, or be helpful, like an extension of the guild leveling system. For example, guilds could earn guild trophies from the legendary runs of dungeons. For Ragefire Chasm, guilds could earn a trophy that is an off hand item that when held gives all guild members in a raid or party +5% to Demonslaying. The trophy from Hellfire Citadel: Magtheridon could be the same, and so stacked. The trophy from AQ40 could be a hold raid Nature Resistance. And so on, for all dungeons.

Emissary Quest Chain

I think it would be interesting to have quests to be an Ambassador to cities, your own faction cities, and the cities of the opposing faction. Do do it in opposing faction cities, you could get an Ambassador's banner, so the guards won't attack you, and so that you won't be PvP flagged on PvE servers.

You could do many things, from message delivery, to gaining the ability to do certain opposing faction quests, so that you could pick up Horde quests if you're Alliance, and vice versa.

For an example, an Alliance character might have to deliver a message to Thrall in Org, and when they do that, Garrosh Hellscream could could and make them prove themselves in the Ring of Valor, having both strength and honor. After that, high level Horde quest givers in certain places would now offer quests to that Alliance character. It's just a thought.

The quest chain could be long and hard, and the player could have to learn language skills, which would only work during quests. And they could do diplomatic missions to Neutral factions and races. Or even try a couple to hostile mob places, and turn them neutral. To do Diplomatic missions to the Horde, as an alliance character, they might have to start by going to small villages, and earning letters and other things which would eventually allow access to city missions, on quests.

New Idea: Devotions

Blizzard seems to be aiming to have higher levels of individual character customization, so characters can be more different from each other, like the new skills attached to the gathering professions.

I imagine these as something like professions, which you learn, but instead of gathering or making thing, they improve your characters stats or abilities in some way, kind of like glyphs. Unlike glyphs, you level your Devotion in combat, so fighting specific mobs would raise the Devotion level. I have a couple ideas for Devotion choices for examples.

Combat Tactician – with this Devotion the player would gain bonuses against different creature classes, like Beasts, Dragonkin, and Humanoids. In the process of fighting them they would gain levels and experience in the Devotion and the bonuses would increase. For example, it could be increased damage or critical strike chance, and/or reduced damage from or increased dodge chance from Undead, or Giant characters. It would be like the Troll racial passive Beast Slaying, or the Anatomy crit bonus you get with Skinning. There could be quests, say for the humanoid bonuses, to take a certain amount of damage and kill a certain number of different humanoids, like 10 ogres, 10 humans, 10 gnolls, 10 trolls, and ten dark iron dwarves if the character is around level 45.

Magic Hardened – For this Devotion a character would get exposed to different magic groups, i.e. shadow, fire, ice, etc. Eventually the character would build a tolerance and take reduced damage from those magic schools and/or gaining permanent resistance points. In addition, magical effects, like the DoTs Warlock Corruption and Druid's Starfire would eventually have a reduced time of effect, along with other magical though non-damaging effects.

Endurance – For this one I imagine a character developing the ability to better endure diseases, poisons, curses, and bleed effects. These effects would have reduced durations, or do reduced damage. In addition the character might learn a passive ability called Tolerance, or something, which would remove a curse, bleed, disease, or poison effect that would be deadly to the character, on a cooldown of, say, 5 minutes.

Athleticism – for this, characters would gain levels by running, jumping, swimming, riding, etc. The payoff would be the ability to jump higher; run, ride, and swim faster. In addition it might raise spell and/or melee haste, for a good combat reward.

Stalwart – For this characters would expose themselves to Fears, Stuns, and other Incapacitating effects to develop a resistance to these effects. Instead of just reducing the effect time, instead have the Devotion give the character a higher chance to resistance and therefore be unaffected by Stuns, Fears, and other Incapacitating effects.

New Idea: Wardrobe

I think that another NPC should be added to each major city, near the banks or battlemasters called the Wardrobe or something similar. It would allow a player to store armor and clothing sets in a different place besides the bank, like Holiday clothing sets. Another facet of this idea is that people could store armor sets in a separate place than the bank, and perhaps put an added level of protection on the Wardrobe, with an additional in game password. Also, if you give people achievements for earning different armor sets, if someone hacks their account and steals gear, they can appeal to Blizzard and get it back.

On top of that, I think that Blizzard could pay homage to itself, and keep past content relevant, what's on my mind is the armor tiers 1-10. By getting the armor set and having it in your wardrobe you could switch to that skin. For example, a person with full tier 12 gear could switch skins to their tier 2 gear in the wardrobe. These could get people into doing the pre-BC, and the BC quests for tier sets again, and other clothing sets, like the AQ40 gear, along with achievements for getting the tiers. I was thinking that a good amount of development went into the looks of other armor sets, and some of them were pretty cool, and it would be cool to be able to wear those armor sets again at the highest level, so without losing the current armor bonuses.

On top of that, I was thinking that putting on the skin of another armor set could transfer some stats. For example the current Mage Tier 9 set bonus increases the spell abilities of Ice, Mage, and Molten Armor, and the critical strike chance of several spells, but putting on the skin of Tier 2 gear would change that to the Tier 2 equivalent, which was threat reduction of certain spells, increasing the radius of your AoEs, and 10% change of reducing the cast time of certain spells to instant cast. Or the tier 9 hunter set bonus could be replace by the tier 3 set bonus, along with the skin, but since the set bonuses are set to level 60 players, the set bonuses aren't good enough for an 80 level character, so they could be vamped up. This would allow for greater character flexibility when it comes to high level gear, so every high level raider doesn't have to look the same and have more or less has the same abilities.

Dungeon Experience: Old God Battle

This is a bit of a long and complicated idea.

I think that players should battle another Old God, since Deathwing was corrupted by one or several of the Old gods; players will fight the lieutenants, the Elemental Lords; and they will likely battle Queen Azshara, who was transformed into a Naga by an Old God.

My idea for raid instance is to battle the Old god of Enmity, or War, or Strife, etc. I think that the location of this Old God should be on the sea floor, or buried beneath, in proximity to the Maelstrom. For starters, there should be Horde and Alliance base entrances to the instance, and only Horde can enter their instance and vice versa. Anyway, I think that it should have a progression quest to unlock it that has a raid first go in the instance, with quests to kill God, but when they get to the end, they get to a door or something else that they cannot get through at the end, earning the achievement Disappointment, or something.

But, the players would discover that they must activate or unlock something in this part of the instance and someone must activate the other faction's side around the same time to enter and do battle with the Old God. this would mean returning to the base camp, in which a quest would be given to envoy to the opposing faction's base camp. A Emissary Standard, or some such item would be given to the player so they could get in the base without being attacked. But, at the entrance of the other base, they would be attack by agents of the Old God of Enmity, who would either take the standard, or change it to a battle standard. Now, when went entering the base the NPCs would attack the player, and party members, and the player would be PVP flagged on PVE servers. Also, Blizzard could make an achievement for killing enemy players in the base, to add an element of difficulty. Anyway, the player and party would have to make it to a part of the base, called the Ambassadors Hall, or or Emissary's Receiving Room, or something, and getting there they would be unattackable, and could then relay that they and the Alliance would have to activate or unlock something together to enter and kill the Old God.

Then they would get a quest to kill the Old God, and the instance would be on a timer, like Wintergrasp, happening every so often. And so the Horde and Alliance would enter the instance again, with different bosses and trash mobs than before or something. One of the facets of the raid would be that it was timed, so that if they didn't get to the end in time to unlock the gate (or whatever) at the same time as the opposing faction, it would cause a wipe of both raid groups, Horde and Alliance. In addition the raid would start with debuffs, one that disabled chat, so that raid members could not communicate that way during the raid. The other debuff would set everyone as PVA, or attackable by everyone, so that their own raid members, if not careful, could target and damage them, and hurt them with AOEs and that kind of thing. There should be optional bosses or towers, or something, that could removed these debuffs, but for Hard Mode, the raid would leave them up.

If both groups reached the end in time to activate the gate together to enter the fight with Old God, then both groups would enter together, given a time where the two raid groups could eat, drink, and most importantly, buff each other up. They would not be able to communicate, but they could stack buffs, for example an Alliance Warrior could have two Blessings of Strength, one from an Alliance raid member, and the other from a Horde Paladin; or a Horde Mage could have two Arcane Brillance buffs, one theirs and the other from an Alliance Mage. But, both groups, even if they had deactivated the tower or boss for PVA, they could still damage the opposing faction members. The thing is, both raids are needed to kill the Old God. Then the fight could be started, together, even though the sides could not communicate with each other, and in Hard Mode, no one could communicate with anyone.

In the battle there would be phases, and adds, which would be difficult, since you could target the opposite faction, and in Hard Mode target your own raid members. Also, a player death should increase the difficulty, making it so that if a couple players die, say more than 3, then it's a wipe.

The most interesting part of the of the encounter should be at the death of the Old God, because then the two sides have to fight to see who gets to loot the corpse. The winner gets the parts they need for the quest, and the losers have to rez at the beginning of the instance and run back through to get "Discarded Remnants of the Old God" or something like that, and basically turn that it as a failure, and have to repeat the raid to turn in the quest. As an added fun part, on the Heroic setting all players of both sides should get a buff called something like "Overflow of Enmity" and be instantly healed with full mana when the Old God dies. Also they would increase in size and get a 200% bonus to damage, and say a 500% increase to Stamina and their one other main attribute, like Intellect for Mages, and Strength for Warriors, Agility for Rogues, etc, making the end battle for the loot pretty epic.

New Battleground: Mounted Battles

Basically for a new Battleground experience, have a battle ground where players can fight and cast spells while mounted.  This could be learned through riding experience, or just a Cavalry mechanic in the instance of the battlefield.

New Class: Mentalist

This class comes from underground, or another planet, since it is not in lore.  This class uses Willpower, rather than Mana, and has the appropriate bar for it.  The difference is, when a Mentalist uses an ability, Willpower doesn't regenerate, since every ability is constant.  A Mentalist must turn off an ability to regain Willpower.  This limits how many abilities a Mentalist can use.  This class would have the option of being DPS, mitigating damage to other players, as a support class, and possibly being a tank that avoids damage rather than takes it.

Like every class, the Mentalist's abilities fall into three schools: Illusion, Connection, and Telekinesis.  Illusions create not real circumstances to prevent, redirect, or avoid damage to the Mentalist.  Illusions are like buffs, with visual effects and in game effects.  Connection affects damage, and directly affects PCs or NPCs, rather than attackers only, like Illusion.  Telekinesis has some cool effects, and deals physical damage.

Trainable Abilities              School                 Effect
Mirror Image                     Illusion                 Creates an exact replica of the Mentalist that seems to take damage and have effects, but doesn't.
Enlarge                              Illusion                 Enlarges Mentalist, and increases Threat.
Reduce                             Illusion                  Miniaturizes Mentalist, and decreases Threat.
Camouflage                       Illusion                 Makes the Mentalist blend in with the background, difficult to see.
Blur Edges                        Illusion                 Blurs edges of Mentalist and makes it more difficult to hit.
Disguise                            Illusion                 Makes Mentalist look like creature in PVE, so not attacked by mobs, and looks like friend in PVP.
Cut                                   Connection          Takes 10% of Mentalist's health and does 4X damage to target.
Blind                                 Connection          Blinds Target.
Mute                                 Connection          Prevents target spellcasting.
Fight Haze                         Connection          Target can't tell difference between friend and foe, and can damage both.
Enslave Mind                    Connection           Takes control of humanoid target.  They are like a pet, but it stops working if effect turned off to gain willpower, they can't heal, death is permanent.  Like a engineering pet.
Shift Blame                       Connection           Shifts Threat from Mentalist to another party member.
Anticipate                         Connection           Gains 100% chance to dodge next attack from target.
Know Weakness              Connection           Gains 100% chance to crit attacks against target.
Feedback                         Connection           Damage to Mentalist hurts attacker.
Push                                 Telekinesis           Pushes target to outside of range and keeps them there.
Pull                                   Telekinesis          Pulls target to melee range.
Lift                                    Telekinesis          Lifts target into the air several feet.
Force Wall                        Telekinesis          Puts mental barrier in front of Mentalist that prevents damage from that direction.  Attacks drain willpower?
Crush                               Telekinesis           Crushes target for X damage every 1.5 seconds
Turn                                 Telekinesis           Target faces opposite direction of caster.
Mental Armor                  Telekinesis            Buff that raises armor to mail range.
Take Spirit                       Connection           Debuffs target, reduces Spirit by X.  Buffs caster with X spirit.
Take Strength                  Connection           Reduces target Strength by X, buffs caster with X Strength.
Take Agility                     Connection           Reduces target Agility by X, buffs caster with X Agility.
Take Intellect                   Connection           Reduces target Intellect by X, buffs caster with X Intellect.
Take Stamina                   Connection           Reduces target Stamina by X, buffs caster with X Stamina.
Noise Blast                      Illusion                 AOE damage around caster, every 2 seconds.
Displace                          Illusion                  Caster looks to be 2 feet forward, left, right, or back of actual location.

Talents granted abilities
Illusion                          Effect
Mirror Army                Several copies of Mentalist around caster.
Split Image                  Image of Mentalist Splits off and runs opposite direction.
Nauseous Smell           AOE Every 5 seconds those in area retch for 2 seconds

Connection
Forget                        Causes target to forget ability.
Telepathy                    AOE version of anticipation.
Know all weakness     AOE of Know Weakness.
Save Strength             Can save Strength in mental space to release later as temporary buff.
Save Spirit                 " Spirit
Save Agility               " Agility
Save Intellect             " Intellect
Save Stamina             " Stamina

Telekinesis                
Weigh Down              Slow movement speed, stop altogether if Strength below X.
Push Wall                   AOE of Push
Turn Wall                   AOE of Turn
Internal Damage         Does X damage, 2.5 times Crush damage
Mental Spikes            Does Y damage to target and decreases casting speed of target

Has enough Willpower to have 3 or 4 abilities going at once.  Talents reduce willpower cost, increase damage or avoidance of damage.

World Events

Instead of just having world events that relate to an expansion, or patch, have weekly or biweekly world events.  They could be attacks on central cities, or attacks on small towns in places, by NPCs.  For example; Centaur could try to invade Thunderbluff; Demons could pour out of Ragefire chasm into Ogrimmar; pirates, murlocks, or naga could attack the Darkspear Islands; the Scourge, or Scarlet Crusade could attack Undercity; trolls could march on Silvermoon City; Leper gnomes and Troggs could attck New Tinkertown; thugs, gnolls, or fire elementals could pour out of the Stormwind Stockades; black dragons, satyrs, nightmare green dragons could attack Darnassus; there could be a Dark Iron clan revolt in Iron Forge; and the Burning Crusade could attempt to corrupt and take the populate of Exodar.  And these events could be done in such a way that you could only damage and aggro mobs and the bosses around your character's level.  A level 0 wouldn't be able to get raped by the ?? boss of the raid.  And it wouldn't just have to start at the city.  The raid could march on the city, going across several zones.  And there wouldn't have to be a huge announcement, it could just happen.
There could also be natural disasters, and the relief that goes with.  Fires, floods, earthquakes, storms, rockslides, etc, could happen in zones, to towns.  This could have stuff like during holiday events, like putting out fires, moving rocks, bandaging hurt people, bring/creating food, etc. 
These kinds of things could make all the zones and places more fun to go to, and that gives everyone more stuff to do instead of grind. 

Next Expansion: Underground Zones

The two major enemies of Azeroth are the Burning Legion and the Old Gods.  It's reasonable to assume that the next expansion will have either, or both of these two, as the main villains.  As such, to have more zones for high level play, Blizzard is going to have to find a new place.  I think several underground zones would be idle for the Old God part of the next expansion.  This would be a perfect place to introduce races not already in lore, classes not seen before, and have more lower level content to go with the higher level content.

Day 1

I've done it.  I have become such a nerd that I made a blog about World of Warcraft.  I made this blog to express my new gameplay ideas, in the vain hope someone at Blizzard will read them, like them, and want them. 

This is just a simple post, and not really an idea.  Two nights ago I dreamed that in patch 4.2 during his attack on the World Tree, Ragnaros will consume part of Archimonde and imbibe some of his attributes.  Whether that will happen, has happened, or could happen remains to be seen.