Quote Originally Posted by Satarn View Post
Is it really though? This line keeps being said for years now, but are the people saying it talking based on legitimate comparisons or are they merely repeating a common sentiment they have heard from other players?

It would be literally impossible to play "every" other MMO in depth enough to speak of their balance with authority, especially since it is something that keeps changing (in this game alone, looking at just tank dps balance for example, the difference between HW and SHB would be huge). Even setting a bit more reasonable expectation, it would still be pretty damn hard to keep actively playing enough games to at least have a general idea of how balance looks within the genre as a whole.

I honestly wouldn't be at all surprised if the "every other MMO" in most of these statements, was "actually just WoW" and people just assumed that since things were worse there, then they must be the same everywhere.

Now don't get me wrong - I am not saying that the statement is for sure wrong, I neither have evidence to disprove it nor have I played enough MMOs at length and in depth enough to feel comfortable making comparisons.
I am questioning whether or not others actually have said evidence/experience to back the statement up though. If not, then perhaps it would be best we stop repeating such claims without a thought, as I suspect many do.
The issue with WoW is also, that the game is objectively harder to balance due to it actually having the ability to customize you class you're playind and its playstyle through various system, the most important ones which will stay being specs, t-set bonuses and talent trees, with the added customization of more gear with different stats on each itemlevel and the existence of trinkets and sometimes weapons with unique effects which scale differently well with each class. Not to forget how differently many of the classes play, with there being pet focussed classes, dot focussed one, ones that actually load their entire dps in 2 minute burst cds and many more. This alone makes it more difficult to balance, plus the higher levels of variation in Blizzards encounter design, where performance differences in not only single target but also cleave and aoe actually matter and especially in m+ also the higher value of support skills individual classes bring, like Rogues ability to shroud party members or Warlock being capable of skipping trash packs through portals. With all these factors, praising SE for its great job balance is like praising somebody for beating a game smoothly on easy mode in comparison to someone playing on nightmare dificulty. Yeah, the company who allows no job customization and playstyle expression outside of which of the two high itemlevel itemsets to use and how to perform your opener will naturally be better at balancing its job than the one which allows high levels of variance in customization and class design.