I personally wish all the stuff in the adventure tech tree to be rethought. Everything in that tech tree in my opinion needs to be happening far more seemlessly and dynamically "behind the scenes" as the player plays the game. To me it is killing some of the magic of elemental knowing that so and so monsters are only spawned due to something I research, it is the same with quests, and heroes. If they really want the world of elemental to feel more alive they need quests, heros and monsters to be less clunky and more natural, something I don't think will be achieved while they exist in a tech tree.

I'd personally love for most of the adventure tech tree to be re-worked around the concept that high-level monsters (and low level monsters), generic loot (as well as powerful artifacts) and quests (both simple and epic) exist from the start. As in, all that stuff is out there, visible and available from the get go.

All the loot, monsters and quests could be scaled so that the more one travels inwards from the coast, the more exciting and dangerous things he/she is able to stumble upon. This would also give the game a sort of "unexplored wilds" feel, as players would be forced to stick to the coasts and nearby areas until sufficiently strong enough to travel inwards.

The actual adventure tech tree could be dynamic: once the player discovers an ancient relic for example, he / she must then research how to use it. Other techs could involve "lore research", where the location of important dungeons, monsters or loot is awarded to the player. Note: The location is given, the actual content was already there and could have been discovered manually if the player had wanted to risk wandering around in-land.