Balance > Elemental ?!

We don't think Balance dps is far above Elemental at 80, if in fact it's high at all. Posting numbers from a theorycrafting spreadsheet does not provide solid proof. The only way to detect a trend at all is to generate very large datasets of both specs in a raid setting. Nobody actually has access to those data yet. Until then, pretty much everything is speculation and informed guesses (even on our part).

We do think that there may be a problem where Elemental's dps will eventually drop down because they don't have as many scaling talents as Balance. But this won't occur with gear currently available in the game -- it's more of an eventual risk and we have plenty of time to address it. It's also possible that Balance scales too well. That's why we haven't taken any steps to adjust either spec so far.

If I had to guess, we will redirect some of Elemental's deep talents more towards raw damage than just utility, but that's just a guess at his point and not an official announcement.

Q u o t e:
Wait, you don't think that Balance's DPS is far above Elemental's, but then you go on to say "Nobody actually has access to those data yet. Until then, pretty much everything is speculation and informed guesses (even on our part).". Maybe I'm taking things out of context here, but this makes it sound like our speculation isn't valid, but that yours is, even though yours is just as arbitrary.

Our ability to predict future trends is probably more robust than that of the community because of the tools and manpower at our disposal. But that is still not the same as actual real data. If our ability to accurately predict where classes would be months from now was near 100%, then these forums would be a lot more empty.

My point was more that you can't paste a single simulation / theorcraft analysis or even a single raid parse and state that there is or isn't a problem.