Icewell Keep and the Great Divide, with IK being more like High Keep and GD being more like Oasis in terms of mob level range, achieved just by filling half of the zone with young shardwurms, snow griffawns, and drakkal wolf pups. This would have meant making Thurgadin an alternative starting city for Dwarves. And while the ring war would have caused more zone disruption, it also would have shown newbies another aspect of content to strive towards.
Icewell could have been the dungeon for newbies to explore while waiting for the war outside to end, only to discover later that the war was lost, piecing it all together from the aftermath--finding corpses in the streets and giants blocking the way in or out. Being trapped in your own city and needing to either log/tradeskill in the meantime or get a Monk friend to train the giants away? Not classic, but it would have felt classic.
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