Questions about the balancing equation you use

[Agrippa Oculus.3726]

I've got a few questions about _how_ you guys currently balance and if there's also anything that's going to change in that sense now. Obviously, this is a very vague description, so let me make it more concrete by asking a few specific questions about the whole balancing system ANet is governing.

 

- First of all, you've already stated that you'll try to split changes between game modes, so you can also (within limits) balance differently per game mode, are these exclusively for PvP, WvW and PvE only, or might there be future plans to also make a distinction between say: Fractals/Raids/World bosses/Etc.?

- What is your number 1 _focus_ when trying to balance on a level. if you have to choose, do you normally start zooming onto the profession-level or specialization-level or maybe even directly onto skill-level? (_For the next questions I'm more or less zooming into the profession-level balancing, because I've got a feeling that that's a _very_ important focus for you as well_)

- Is the factor _time_ in the big balancing equation? In other words, do you take history of say a certain state of a profession into consideration?

- Is popularity or (overall profession specific) playtime in the balancing equation? Or prognoses of popularity changes? In other words, if we buff a certain profession in this area, we might expect to see this profession far too often in PvE for instance.

- Are there more intangible factors in the balancing equation, like the "look and feel" of a profession?

- Is the balancing process mostly iterated around quantitative or qualitative data/information/input? And when it's a combination, what would you say would be the key of division here? 50/50? Also I'm really curious on the history/future here, has anything changed there recently, or is going to change soon, or has this always been the same? ... knowing that the game exists for quite some time now, both of these sources are extensively growing as well!

- And then a final question, are there certain areas, where the 3 game-modes are all still in the same balancing equation (instead of split between each other, like mentioned in the first question), like for instance the result of popularity in playtime for a certain profession over _all_ game-modes?

 

Hope to hear from you!