#1 - Feb. 15, 2012, 12:43 a.m.
Current average balance thread.
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For those of you who don't want to experience the symptoms of blinding, nosebleeds, and your brain physically trying to escape from your skull, here's a summary.
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As you can see, this act actually does the opposite of helping the discussion, and such balance threads aren't the way this kind of thing is supposed to be discussed.
So How are we supposed to discuss balance?
1: Statistics and proof.
Statistics and proof are the cornerstones of all good discussion and argument, and are required for your balance thread to have any kind of meaning.
Resources such as Arenastats.com and wowhead.com are great for this, however personal experience (With proper proof, screenshots for instance) although are lower in value, are also useful. Theorycrafting should be taken with a pinch of salt, however math based solutions are useful in certain situations, espeically in explaining personal experience. In terms of ranking:
Arenastats > wowhead > personal experiance > Theorycrafting.
2: Understanding the statistics.
As the saying goes, there are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics. It is very easy to make mistakes in applying the information.
3: Stats are relational:
Lets take for instance Paladins and arena stats. Arena stats show that the most played class at a high level (Well 2200, it nose dives at 2400) is the Paladin. Does that make it overpowered? Not on its own. You see, while paladins make up a large section of the high level playerbase, they are also the most played class. That in itself doesn't make a class OP, certain classes are more popular for none power related reasons. Generally the number of a class doing well in arena should roughly match the number of players who use said class. Numbers in themselves don't mean anything, it's the entire picture + numbers that means things.
4: A single stat is only part of the picture.
Lets make another example.
In this imaginary scenario, both warlocks and Rogues are over represented in relation to their overall population by 50% and 70% respectively. Nerf both of them right? Well....
What if 80% of Warlock teams at a high level also contain a Rogue? Is this a power issue, or a synergy one? Is the power of only one of the class pushing up the capability of the other, meaning that nerfing only one of the classes would be a power drop for both? Are neither of the classes OP individually, but together their abilities synergise so well that it creates a problem? Who knows, that's why you have the discussion. However going into the discussion with a 'NERF NOW PLX' is bad, very bad. Going into a discussion with 'please don't nerf me L2P' is also bad.
5: Theorycraft is bad, very bad.
Although theorycraft is a good way to start a basic discussion, basing all your evidence on all but the most blatant errors is bad. Yes class X may theoretically be able to one shot people if they stack all 15 buffs, get the 0.0005% chance that it'll happen, whistle the themesong from Skyrim and voted for the Loony party in the last UK election (British politics, check them out, best political party ever :D), but balance discussions are designed to revolve around what actually happens, not what could happen. Real stats trump over theorycrafting any day of the week.
Edited out some unpleasant language and links ~ Nakatoir
