I thinks ships that follow a route that can be seen on a map with cause a lot of lag. Look at the amount of ships sailing at any given time. The amounts of maps would have to be massive, and getting them to follow "routes" would take POTCO years to make, provided they work at the same speed. Not to mention that many ships have the same name. There may be 20 EITC Warlords, and you wouldn't know which one was which. I don't think every ship sail in circles. The flag colossus at outcast spawns at outcast, but then sails to tormanta.
The thing about assassins is that 1. At the current rate, the player would easily kill any "assassins". If not, you know how pirates are. You would get 200 players rushing over to kill the "assassins" in a matter of seconds
I do agree about the loot tho, kinds wierd that enemies would drop a beautiful weapon, but then use a crude one themselves. But if enemies use what they drop, you would see players telling "dude I call that thrall over there with the silver freeze!"