Im basing this on what we "know" of 1.3 at the moment so i could be wrong, but...
- The LFG tool is needed, but for people that actively do ops, its only for alts - a couple of KP/EV runs will have you kitted out in gear much faster than grinding FPs. So if you're looking at this as a way to gear up, its not going to help. I cant see myself using my main on it at all, and maybe an alt every so often. If you love the FP content, then its great - but i genuinely cant see too many people hitting 50 just to muck about in FP's all day....
- Not being a bit pvp'er i cant say i have a strong feeling on ranked warzones, but making pvp cross server simply HAS to happen - my server is hideously imbalanced from a pvp perspective in favor of republic, simply because the bigger guilds on their side DONT RAID - you end up with a constant stream of pre-made groups going up against ill organised pugs. I'm not saying cross server warzones will change this, but it will hopefully level the playing field a bit. You'll also get less of the rather crass and stupid comments from people on their daily valor farm: "why do imps suck on this server...blah blah blah"
- The augment slot thing i look at as a double edged sword. It is annoying to have to grind up to BM just to get your hands on usable gloves and boots with an augment slot, so im glad thats going away. Relying on the gods of RNG for a crit on gear irks me a bit, but i accept it. The problem with it as i see it is the effect it will have on the GTN - augmented custom gear is really the only thing i ever buy (and maybe crafting mats) - the GTN just doesnt feel "alive" in the same way it does in WoW - the GTN is built on the community that sells on it - if make everyone capable of crafting the same stuff, that dies. At least keeping RNG involved in the crafting of top level gear creates demand, which is essential for a MMO economy which is realistically still in its formative stages.
- The legacy unlocks are good in some cases - field respec is definately something i could do with on my powertech dps main, but most of them arent going to revolutionize anything. Faster alt levelling? Do we really want that given the number of people that say they out level a lot of content anyway???
- The lack of any new content scares me. My guild recently cleared EC hard mode, and while its a stretch to say we have it on farm, its fair to say we're close. Whats left for us now? We're all waiting in hope for at least nightmare mode to appear with some more challenging encounters, but until then we're just farming a 4 boss op with a raid team that is slowly losing interest - if we have to go through another x weeks/months before any new content i can see some of the team dissappearing. Id imagine thats not an unfamiliar story.
The trouble right now with the game, as i see it, is t doesnt *quite* do either levelling or end-game as well as it should. Levelling is very linear apart from the story missions, as much as you can try and approach things differently (bonus series, pvp levelling etc) its pretty samey at its core. End game despite there being a good 3 hours per day of dailies to do (between space, black hole, ilum and belsavis) and ops and hardmode flashpoints, it still feels like there isnt enough. Story modes are a cakewalk, as are all the flashpoints apart from perhaps Lost island, and you can get a set of raid worthy gear in less than a day. The issues with lvl 50 pvp warzones are well known.
To say that 1.3 is going to have to save the game is probably jumping to conclusions but it needs to arrest the slide in subs numbers, and i have to confess i dont think there is enough there to do it.Im sure if you ask 20 players who are thinking of quitting they'll have 20 different reasons - BW need to be listening and making sure the most recurring complaints are being addressed, and as much as 1.3 seems like its an attempt to do that, i dont think its enough. I generally only login to raid nowadays, spending much of the rest of my game time playing D3, and without more content i cant see that changing. The game isnt dead but you need to take an objective look at whats wrong and a lot of posters may have jumped to conclusions a bit. Im not unsubscribing for now, as i still enjoy ops with my guild. But if that dies due to a lack of new content, i might have to.