DrSinisster said: additionally I have always been interested in seeing more agressive use of shields as combat abilities
Check out the Cleric's Iconic Ability. http://www.pantheonmmo.com/classes/cleric/
Dual 1 handed repeater cross bows for an idea. Most importantly though I would like to see magic users actually use their weapons to cast. It's pretty stupid to watch a game like WOW using a staff for a caster that sits on his back all day. Animation wise some spells should use the weapon and some should not. If someone uses a tome pull that book out flip through it and have the model reciting something from a passage to cast some spells.
Spears that can be used as melee or ranged weapons
Most melee weapons should be throwable, but I particularly want to have a functional spear weapon available
Side arms, like boot knives or throwing knives on your belt that you can use to get to your thrown weapon or in the event you are otherwise disarmed
...and yes, other polearms... which should have power on par with weapons their size, not gimped as in most implementations
Don't know how useful or even viable any of this would be in the type of fighting we've seen on the video previews, or if it would resonably fit in the control scheme, but the limitations of what a player can do with a weapon or the amount of weapons they might have easy access to (within reason) generally imposed on us by most games seem unrealistic
If I were an actual adventurer heading into a cave system crawling with monsters, I would carry a sword on my belt, a spear and torch in my hands, and when engaged by bad guys, I'd drop the torch, grab the shield off my back and fight defensively with my spear until my party was able to be fully engaged, then pin or impale one of the mobs with my spear and draw my sword and go full melee offense, possibly even abandoning my shield for an offhand weapon
The ability to train and then chain weapon sets like polearm/sword or torch/shield/offhand weapon, etc, combined with the ability to throw your weapon and have it automatically be replaced with the next weapon in the chain would offer a much more realistic and robust system for fighting
