Other games are becoming more and more stereotyped/Braindead to play. Like World of warcraft is not even a "craft" game, its more a get what every one else gets by linear play, and then the items get removed by new expansion. No uniqueness. Some other games removes level, items, stats etc. Thats what happens when you try to balance a game to make the basement winners happy.. Ao is a mess? I disagree, AO is huge yes. Turning the game back to 2007 would make it very boring. What is unbalanced and flawed by design could be fixed easily without removing any content. I find pvp allot better now than it was in 2007, i also see allot of people enjoying it. There are still some very broken mechanics that i have put light on, but its so obvious that it can be ignored.
What content does, is to give new stats/items, that 1: makes it eaiser to twink (not a bad thing), 2. Increase AR and deF. Gives pvp a peek to reach and a goal (makes sense). PVM is still great with new content, tough some is easier than before.
Overall the newconetnet is not a leap inn stats. they are pretty minor taking in to the count how little this things have changed over the years. 10 more Stamina or 10 more All of defence is not going to make any difference. (witch could the the difference from having Alpha symbs instead of Beta) personally i find Jobes more powerfull most of the time. It's the sum of things that counts, and that's where you need a brain comes in.