>For what it's worth, I could see the level 35 guy being more
>threatening depending on the class matchup. For instance if
>the mage were an anti-paladin. Even without unholy blessing,
>dude is going to have pretty high damage output with bloodlust
>and iceball. What makes that balanced is that usually his
>defense sucks. Give him easy a/b/s and his defense no longer
>sucks.

And if you give 51 AP full abs his defense no longer sucks too (assuming no big unholy here). But we allow their existance yet we deny 35 AP abs existance. Could you come with comprehensive logic behing it?

And overall 35 level ap is not more threating because of many other problems. His spells/skills probably aren't mastered, he can be bashed (even with abs) by many level sitting 40s warriors, he can be gaunted by 40s conjurers, he can be dirt/disarmed, etc.

Even if you come with extreme examples of abs mages like midranked necro with a sick army, charged 36 AP, badass 38 invoker, etc. Still, they aren't dominating the game/range as 51 badass scions invokers, 51 charged APs, or 51 liches.
And what about poor a midlevel defensive shifter, for example? We don't let him use wand because 30s abs necro may be dangerous?