I recently returned from a three year hiatus from the game. When I left LE had come out only a few months prior and I had all the expansions up to that point. Now I am playing on a Sloob account for the moment due to various reasons that prevent me from dropping the extra 10 bucks to get my old full expansion account out of moth balls.
Now I accept that Froob/Sloob based characters will have less power. You get what you pay for after all. I won't get all the fun AI gear my old characters had, I won't be running around with my mech or any other pretty LE toys. And in general my power level will be lower than an equal level character that has full access to the AI/LE/LoX expansions. Thats all good and well. But as it stands I can still explore the areas I have access too and be happy that I can contribute to teams and enjoy my experience.
However, what will the balancing do to this?
If the re-balance will totally scale everything on the assumption that everyone has full AI armor and all the best of the best items and they re-work mobs etc to fit to this template will that leave the froob/sloob community out in the cold for the content they do have access to? Will I, after the rebalance, find myself suddenly unable to contribute and enjoy the Shadowlands that I am paying to beable to access because they were rebalanced to fit to the new "standards" brought in with the latest expansion packs?
I agree that FC has to do something when it comes to balance. I am, in general, looking forward to it. However it suddenly occured to me that the possibility for those on the Sloob plan might suddenly find that the content they are paying for is far above their heads depending on exactly what the aim for the re-balance is.
So what is the general aim? Bring classes more in line for PvP? Balance them out so we don't have super advy's solo'ing missions that other full teams struggle with? Will it be tweaking the monsters and making them stronger, a general nerf to all the classes to make those with AI gear more in line with current Sloob characters and Sloob characters more in line with Froobs, and Froobs... well I'd hate to know what they would be like...
Just some thoughts of mine and wondering exactly what the aim of all this is and how far impacting it might be. Will it stretch the difference in power between the haves and the have nots even further?