True balance would be boring, but it's also impossible unless every class can only do damage or heal. As soon as classes have CC, escapes, stealth and other such abilities it is simply impossible to truly balance the game, at which point the devs can either aim for a rock/paper/scissors approach or simply get them as close as they reasonably can.
If there is one thing I hate to see when it comes to class balance though it's homogenization of classes simply to make the devs job easier. It removes any variety in combat which ultimately makes things boring quickly.
The only class balance should be based on *enjoyment*. As long as a class is the favourite of a minimum percentage of the player base (c. 5%?) and less than some maximum percentage (40%?) then it's balanced.
If too many players (30-40%?) don't have any favourite classes then the classes suck.
Perfect class balance would be where most players (60%+?) had 3+ favourite classes and couldn't decide their number one.
Comments
True balance would be boring, but it's also impossible unless every class can only do damage or heal. As soon as classes have CC, escapes, stealth and other such abilities it is simply impossible to truly balance the game, at which point the devs can either aim for a rock/paper/scissors approach or simply get them as close as they reasonably can.
If there is one thing I hate to see when it comes to class balance though it's homogenization of classes simply to make the devs job easier. It removes any variety in combat which ultimately makes things boring quickly.
The only class balance should be based on *enjoyment*. As long as a class is the favourite of a minimum percentage of the player base (c. 5%?) and less than some maximum percentage (40%?) then it's balanced.
If too many players (30-40%?) don't have any favourite classes then the classes suck.
Perfect class balance would be where most players (60%+?) had 3+ favourite classes and couldn't decide their number one.