I would like to know what you are planning for the ethereal effects problem? I'm talking about the fact that items from last summer are still requiered to be competitive against all those that own one. So what are we looking at ? Status quo? Nerf? New way to get them? I think the best way to fix the problem is to make them craftable on war runes with a slightly less powerfull effect then adjust last tier encounters health to compensate for the dps increase. A lot of people are concerned by this , i think we deserve an answer. Thank!
Of all the ways to "fix" this "problem", the one you listed is pretty terrible from the perspectives of general game balance, power inflation, and dev time required to implement. Please consider going back to your mental drawing board and massively re-imagining a solution.
Game balance is already broken from those ethereal effects. Thing would be much more easier to balance if every player stands at the same place than having two classes of player like we have right now. (Ethereal owner and non-ethereal owner). Just removing those effects from the game would be a good thing too and easy for devs but the reaction from people who farmed them or paid 800k plat for them would be bad to say the least.
Not to mention that the ethereal effects giving a wildly varying advantage to different classes.. The healer reset is hugely useful to shaman, mildly useful to clerics and totally useless to druids and channelers..
