As is well known by now, ZOS is aiming to standardize abilities in order to make balance decisions easier and more objective. To my mind, this can be fine. I'm not in principle opposed to this aim, and at any rate it's ZOS' decision.

What concerns me is that the standardization efforts seem to be piecemeal. For a very long time, classes have had unique unique weaknesses that were justified precisely by the fact that they exceeded certain standards -- it was fine for them to be rule-breakingly strong in possessing a particular strength other classes didn't have because they were rule-breakingly weak in lacking a particular tool other classes didn't have. Unfortunately, it seems that the standardization effort has removed some classes' rule-breaking strengths without addressing their rule-breaking weaknesses.

A prime example of what I'm talking about is the case of the Dragonknight, particularly magDK. MagDK has for a very long time relied on having unusually strong DOTs, as a way of compensating for the fact that they lacked certain other important tools (mobility and and execute, for example) that other classes have. ZOS has (rightly, to my mind) determined that DOTs are currently too strong, and has standardized all DOTs to approximately the same level across classes. By my calculations (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), Burning Embers will about 1k per tick weaker than the Destructive Reach DOT, for example -- throw in the free Burning status from Embers and you get in-class DOT damage that is roughly equal to out-of-class DOT damage, which comparably strong utility (healing vs. CC). Again, to my mind this is not necessarily a bad thing -- except that the class as a whole hasn't been standardized along with its DOTs. Again -- in the past, DK's stronger DOTs made sense because it lacked other tools (execute etc.). Now, it no longer has stronger DOTs but it still lacks those tools.

ZOS, I can't tell you whether standardization is or is not the direction to go for combat balance. But if you're going to pursue standardization, player morale and class balance depend on doing it consistently. It makes little sense to remove strengths which have for years existed to compensate for particular weaknesses while leaving those weaknesses intact.