Balancing: What Mix of Qualitative & Quantitative Data? Open World vs Raids|Fractal vs PvP vs WvW?

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

What sort of mix of qualitative & quantitative data so you use when deciding what skills need to be rebalanced? Every time there's a balance pass, this gets a lot discussion by players, but it's all speculative.

 

* Do you use data from every game mode?

* Do you look at the frequency a skill is used? or the frequency it's included in a build?

* Does one game mode usually matter more than others? e.g. if a skill gets over-used in raids but is under-powered in open world, will it always get nerfed?

* Similarly, if a skill is over-powered for PvP, how do you decide whether it's split from PvE?

* Do you consider player-generated benchmarks? Player-determined meta builds (such as SC/DT websites or MetaBattle?)

* What sort of feedback on forums/Reddit is likely to help you make decisions? Are you looking at the degree of complaint? or are you mostly interested in specific examples of issues? Or are you looking to get a general idea of the mood of the audience?

 

I ask because there seem to be a lot of myths and misconceptions about the process and it would be great to get some clarity as to what matters, what sort of feedback helps.

 

Thanks much.

 

[Edelweiss.4261]

Glad to see this was already asked, but, more generally, what metrics are used when to gauge "balance".

 

Additionally, have you considered splits for skills between OW PvE, fractals, and raids? I've seen a small handful of times changes meant for raids that hamper fun builds in other contexts.

[Ceit.7619]

I asked a similar question down in the topic of Raid Balance, asking what metric they are using to balance things in raids. Meta, content clearability, usage, but nobody responded to it. In my mind that just means the answer is "None of your business." =/