Guild Wars 2

In addition to balancing professions based on power, there is an even more critical issue.

Currently, there is not a relative balance of class participation in spvp and wvw.

In PvP, I bet the number of times the last class you have left in your achievement (kill one of each class) is the same 3 under-represented classes more often than not.
Likewise, in WvW, the population of guardians and warriors seems to be about 50% BUT there are 8 CLASSES.

The game is more enjoyable when you face all the different classes of the game.

Therefore, a key component to buffing and nerfing should be overall population of a class and its participation in the various modes of gameplay PvE, WvW, and PvP.

You can do things to promote class numeric balance that would be different than profession balance. For example, it might be easier to level up 2x xp a Mesmer and harder to level up a Warrior. You might provide greater WXP for the 3 classes that are underrepresented in that game mode and reduce WxP for the 2 classes that are over represented. You might increase glory for the 3 classes that are under-represented in PvP. Etc.

The number of people playing a particular class in a certain game mode should be a critical indicator of profession balance.

Hey Bombs,

While I agree with the thought of creating more class diversity in all aspects of the game, this approach does not target the actual problem, which is the core class differences making them specialized for different game modes, and balancing is quite lopsided.

That being said, if the game modes are truly split, and all the professions balanced, but the problem still persists, then this might be a solution. I don’t think this is likely however.

A better solution would be (at the point of balanced profession) to add/expand content so more roles are available. Who knows, maybe some classes will shine in capture the flag content where they suck in point possession. Or maybe there well be a gathering mini game and Rangers will have their niche =P