Star Wars: The Old Republic had world bosses. They'd sit there, out in the open, and if anybody, even at the max level, tried to solo it, they'd die in ten seconds or less.
I suppose given the way RPGWO works they'd have to be a bit weaker than that, since typically you won't have fifty people in one spot... Considering they can't all fit there!
Elite monsters sound fun, but I would prefer that elites are rare, whereas a more common 'Uncommon' monster would be only a little harder than usual, with just a slightly higher amount of gold (humanoids) or has a chance of dropping an uncommon version of their loot instead of the typical version. This would not be named after them, rather just be "Uncommon Wolf Pelt" or something, so it can stack with other uncommons. Uncommon loot could maybe be 25% or 50% more valuable than normal?
Something I didn't like about Round Robin, Random, and Damage King (or whatever they call it) is that sometimes I'm helping out lower level people and don't want the loot. You should have the option to opt out of the loot list for regular loot--maybe just be included when it comes to Uncommons, Rares, or Uniques.
Instead of dropping a pile, maybe bosses can drop a "Reward Chest"? Only the party that killed the boss has access to it, and, based on the loot system, players could take turns choosing the items they want, or apply "Tokens" to vote to get it.
On tokens: say you're a staff sporting wizard, and a boss drops a staff that is both good as a weapon, and as a magic booster. You would really want that staff, so you put in all your tokens for it to guarantee you get it.
Meanwhile, the group's Tank and DPS both put tokens towards two swords that dropped. Half of their tokens go to each sword, just incase somebody else put more than half to the other. Round Robin determines that the Tank got more of the recent drops than the DPS, so the DPS gets the "first" one, and the tank gets the second. First would probably be the bettter one.
Finally, there are a few potions dropped. The healer and a rounded warrior put tokens towards these. The healer has three tokens on each potion, whereas the warrior only has two on each. The first potion goes to the healer, but round robin determines the warrior gets the next one, then the healer, then the warrior.
If loot is determined based on random chance (Need & Greed does this), tokens wouldn't be all that useful--instead, passing up on items will increase your next roll, when you finally choose to get an item. This can be abused to save up your roll for a good item, so it should top off at a certain amount of passes.
Finally, on the subject of shared exp, there should be a tiny bit of shared exp when with a player-based party, but if you go about hiring NPCs, then the shared exp should be greater. For example, golems and tamed monsters should net you experience, as is done in V2.