While this was intended to be oriented to warriors and is a little old now, I think it has some key insights to how the developers are thinking and what they intended in build development and game mechanics.
Guild Wars 2 Developer Livestream with Isaiah Cartwright, Part One
http://youtu.be/ZkCW2B9tMjg
Guild Wars 2 Developer Livestream with Isaiah Cartwright, Part Two
http://youtu.be/qdl9YAdxHug
Some takeaways I got from this is how he specified a balance in stats may be more favorable.
Choosing stats on weapons based on the attacks on that weapon versus to align with your chosen stat spread and heavy stacking one or two stats. Condition damage on weapons that have more condition applications on them. Healing with weapons with more heals on them, etc.
Food and stat modifiers via trait synergies with primary stats, such as getting precision from toughness or vitality to help supplement gaps in the builds.
He also went into more detail on how the developers see the stats and helps confirm what we as the player base see as stat synergies.
Offensive
Power/Crit/CritDmg
and
Defensive
HealingPower/Toughness/Vitality
He also indicated that all power will leave you missing some damage, as well as all crit/crit damage will leave you lacking.
Crits do 50% of power at base. So you want power over crit damage to some degree.
Somewhere around 2k power and 50% crit damage, precision starts to become the better stat to stack.
All of this is a balancing act and specific to each person’s build and stats of course.
Everything has been discussed to many ends here on the forums, but it is interesting hearing it from a developer point of view to help reaffirm our thinking and maybe encourage new ideas. I feel we have become stagnant in our builds and innovation as of late.