I’d like to take some personal conclusions after one year of paying attention to balance in Guild Wars 2.
What I’ve learned is that there is no way that you can predict any outcome of a balance patch through internal testing, no matter how long a balance build is tested.
So I have two kind of proposal:
- Make public balance test server, in which people willing to help with balance play the game with provvisory balance changes giving feedback, so developers can monitor what the meta will most likely be during the test phrase, while players can easily see the development and the balance process, effectively putting down the huge wall that was built between the playerbase and developers lately and has caused a lot of bitter in the community.
- Make small, weekly, balance tweaks, don’t wait to put them all in a single big patch hitting the meta like a truck. For instance, the SoR revert and the HS nerf could have been put in the last patch. Cut down the internal testing and just see how the meta evolves after a small change. If you’re not happy with the change, just revert it with an hotfix. Fast up the development pace and avoid those giant balance patches that will eventually cause more harm than benefits.
Those are my two cents about the balance in this game. Hopefully someone agrees with me and perhaps gets the developer’s attention.
