Let me ask you this, what do you want out of a mmorpg?
I want some of the mechanics of EQ(rare loot attached to rare spawns, twinking, longer travel times so that the world feels like a "world" and not a bunch of "sections", non-randomized loot), but with combat "speed" and "interactivity" somewhere between EQ and WoW, and with all the quality of life features the genre has come out with since. Instancing for important things(keys, progress, etc.), LFG, money not weighing you down, etc.
In-game lore doesn't matter that much. I just end up on wikipedia reading it all every month or so anyhow. Half of the time, the writers aren't nearly as intelligent as they think they are. I wouldn't mind having an overall "quest narrative", sort of like what FFXIV is doing, but the constant "task" system that games are offereing lately, is no different than sitting my ass in a dungeon and waiting for respawns. It's just disguised as "busy work". All it serves to do is keep me interacting with the game, rather than chatting and being "social".
Classes bringing unique things to the table again would be nice, I'm tired of all the homogenization of late. "Bring the player, not the class!". Fuck that! Does it alienate people at times? Of course it does, but as long as every class has
somethingunique to bring to the table in a group situation, it tends to work out just fine.
Honestly, I don't want a drastic departure from what we're used to. A lot of my ideas or things I'd like to see
aresomewhat archaic. I'm just tired of EQ, Vanguard, etc. being held up as some sort of Golden Child. They both spawned some neat ideas and gameplay features that I'd like to see added, repeated, or expanded upon, but they aren't all-encompassing, and they
certainlyaren't without a massive amount of flaws.