Since Arenanet said they're going to be playing off the conquest mode for all their maps (at least initially); adding special mechanics and secondary objectives to make each map a unique experience, here's what I'd like to see.
There are two castles facing eachother with a some hilly open ground in-between. The no-mans land would have a few rocky outcroppings, sparse trees, and maybe a couple small thatch roof houses for cover and a shallow river (not deep enough to swim) cutting across the middle, separating the two castles.
Special Mechanic: Each castle contains a flag that can be captured by the other team for a significant amount of points. Your team's flag must be on the stand in order to capture an enemy flag.
Each castle has a main gate, which is by far the quickest route between the two bases. There would be a 2nd alternate entrance that would involve taking a much less direct route up a winding mountain pass, and entering the castle through an open postern door. Attackers using this alternate entrance would pass near the defender's respawn point, allowing respawning defenders to quickly intercept enemies trying to use this risky approach.
There would be two capture points, one located at the main gate of each castle. On this map holding capture locations would not reward points, instead they would be used to open or close the main gates. The point at the red gate would start under red control, and vice versa. As long as the red team controls their point, the gate remains shut, but if the blue team takes it the gate is opened and they have easy access to and from the red flag. Each team's spawn location would be positioned inside the keep in a way that would allow them to easily reach their own flag, and the postern door/mountain pass, but would be slightly removed from the main gate.
Basic Gameplay: The middle field is fairly open, so crossing the no-mans land between keeps undetected would be difficult (unless you're a thief). Teams could either focus on winning the middle team fight and opening the enemy gate to gain easy access to the flag, or they could run an offense/defense split and try to make use of the postern. If a team opened the enemy gate they would have to decide whether they send one person in to grab the flag, risking death if there are enemies defending the flag room, or go in as a group and risk having the other team come behind them and re-close the gate, forcing them to take the longer, more dangerous path out of the castle.
Flag Mechanics: The flag mechanics would definitely be subject to change, but this is my first thought: The flag would work similar to carrying a warrior banner most likely. The right side of the bar would be available but weapon skills would be replaced by unique flag abilities. However, using certain utility skills (like stealth and elites that replace your weapon skills) would cause you to drop the flag. Picking up or returning a flag on the ground would be instant for whichever team clicks the flag first. The flag would have three abilities: Stand and Fight, Throw, and Drop. Passing the flag to a new player would not reset cooldowns.
Stand and Fight would allow the player to use their weapons normally for 30 seconds without dropping the flag (it would be on their back for the duration), and would have a pretty significant cooldown (~2 min).
Throw would be a high risk, high reward skill with a short cooldown (~30 seconds). A ground targeting circle would allow the player to throw the flag to a desired position. Skilled players could throw the flag ahead of them and then use a blink/charge weapon skill to catch up to the flag and pick it up. Coordinated teams could use throw to relay the flag every 30 seconds, and dieing flag carriers could make desperation throws to nearby allies. A misplaced throw, or failed blink could easily lead to an easy enemy flag return however.
Drop would be similar to throw, except the flag would drop directly in front of the player without any ground targeting. No cooldown.
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