Character Balancing

Attrition league might have a lot of balance issues as some classes will do better in the early game thus possibly causing character superiority in attrition league. This could affect cut-throat league too so Grinding Gear Games is going to have to closely monitor these real competitive leagues in order to ensure heterozygocity in the leagues. Think of Diablo II Hardcore where druids or paladins excelled in Hardcore. Obviously its part of the competitive to find out the stragedy in the beginning of the league but eventually it turns dull as everyone copies stragedies off forums. Ideas to fix this besides balancing? Maybe different leagues have different balances and tweaks? o.O

I dont think there should be different balancing for different modes. Something like you said with attrition mode would be part of your picking strategy when you start out. Do you want to get a good head start on the opposition? Perhaps you want to have it a bit harder early on to have better chances at higher levels? Maybe you want to pick a less common class which excells in training in a less populated area?

Hardcore perhaps is more of an issue since it's a long-term mode, but again I feel like it would distort the game if there were large changes in mechanics or items between modes and leagues like that.

Different balancing in different modes is what killed a lot of the competition in WoW.

Trying to balance a character for pve and then making it op in pvp or vise versa is commonly what happens.

I am of the tried and true belief that play the game. Balance in a game based on how powerful something is can be a good thing but in essence there is always another side to it.

Look at real life (yes i said it) there are armies that are far superior to others and people that are far stronger and more intelligent than others yet the little guys can still win it just takes a new look at tactics, possible skill selection and combos and sometimes luck.

Balance is video games is much harder than everyone thinks as the designers have to look at all aspects of each change not just the one you think is to powerful.

My 2 cents.

I agree that some of the characters will be stronger than others, especially in the early game. However, each character will have different strengths, and weaknesses. Enhancing the strengths and exploiting the opposition weaknesses will be part of the learning curve. Making all characters exactly equal will defeat the purpose of having pvp.

The player needs to pick a character and strategy that fits with their personality. The large amount of customization being offered should be able to suit all personalities.