Guild Wars 2 profession balancing: ArenaNet waiting for stability, adopting considered approach
It's the endless MMO debate about which class/profession is best.
Don't expect Guild Wars 2 professions to be tweaked and balanced with the same voracity that ArenaNet ironed out kinks post-launch.
Game designer Jon Peters described a more considered approach.
"I see threads inside every single profession sub-forum talking about how that profession is either overpowered, underpowered, or both. In the past we made balance updates fairly frequently. While we will continue to be responsive to serious issues, we also want to make sure that we let the basic meta-game stabilise before making too many changes," wrote Peters on the Guild Wars 2 website.
"If you see something that is really strong please try and find counters to it before assuming it is overpowered. We have put a lot of hours into the game already and there are still many things we are learning about the depth of the combat and the balance. There are also finally enough players consistently playing that we can actually gather metrics on skills and make some more informed decisions about what is too weak/strong."
He asked that you still point out profession builds "that look like they could use some balance work", because ArenaNet wants Guild Wars 2 gameplay to be as balanced as possible.
"Remember that when we want to make a change it takes time for us to decide what to do, how to do it and then to test it and make sure that it isn't going to create any unwanted results. Our hope is that our turnaround can be quick, but [we] implore you to be patient as well thought-out changes will be better for the health of the game than knee-jerk reactions."
Despite niggling growing pains, Guild Wars 2 enjoyed a successful launch. ArenaNet announced yesterday that Guild Wars 2 had passed two million sales which, considering the temporary suspension of first-party sales and stock replenishment, is very impressive indeed.
Our Oli Welsh is beavering away on our Guild Wars 2 review. You shouldn't have to wait too much longer to see what he has to say.