Guild Wars 2

Currently there are only two differences between the Light, Medium, and Heavy, armor classes. The first is purely aesthetic and the second is the Defense stat.

Of course if all armor classes were usable by all professions logically everyone would use Heavy armor for the added Defense, so how do we balance gear to allow every profession to use all armor types?

The answer “Encumbrance(or something like that)”
Encumbrance would effect a characters endurance regeneration ether positively or negatively relative to their default armor class.

Light|Cloth
Wearing:Light= 0% | Default endurance regen rate
Wearing:Medium= -30% | -5% endurance regen per piece
Wearing:Heavy= -60% -| 10% endurance regen per piece

Meduim|Leather
Wearing:Light= +30% | +5% endurance regen per piece
Wearing:Medium= 0% | Default endurance regen rate
Wearing:Heavy= -30% | -5% endurance regen per piece

Heavy|Plate
Wearing:Light= +60% | +10% endurance regen per piece
Wearing:Medium= +30% | +5% endurance regen per pice
Wearing:Heavy= 0% | Default endurance regen rate

(These numbers are only used as an example, in practice armor such as gloves and chest pieces would have proportional percentages)

So, in your suggestion, Warriors and Guardians would get all the benefits, whereas scholar professions would get massive hindrance from wearing medium or heavy armor? Genius. A guardian wearing light armor would get 60% faster endurance regen than an elementalist wearing the same armor. Oh wait, no, it’s a terrible, unbalanced idea.

Did you read the post?
The scholar professions would get a substantial Defense increase,
inversely the soldier professions would be sacrificing Defense for increased mobility.
from the wiki:

“Armor is a value that is listed on the hero panel. It is equal to Defense plus Toughness attribute, and will determine how much incoming damage will be reduced.”

from websters:

bal·ance

Equipoise between contrasting, opposing, or interacting elements

I read it. For that defense increase, the elementalist would get a substantial hindrance, while a guardian in native armor would have no hindrance at all.

Well thats not a problem with the core idea its a problem with the existing factors they would need to be adjusted to balance out the system.