Let's take a break from the life and times of Ribs the Shaman long enough to discuss some possible changes that could be made in an attempt to balance PVP gameplay for classes.
I am a firm believer in balance, but I also understand that not all classes should be able to kill every other class for the sake of balance.
Here's an overview of what I think of the classes in alphabetical order...Scroll further down to see my suggestions for class changes.
Druid - They plateau at 70 but are still one of the more overpowered classes, at least in the top 3 (in my opinion 3rd place). The reason for this is that after level 40 you really start excelling at every facet of the game. Not only can you tank better than a Warrior and heal better than a Priest/Paladin, but you can also DPS pretty decent as a boomkin and stealth in cat form.
Hunter - Hunters are amazing at lower levels but start to even out after 60 and end up getting a little drab when compared to the other DPS classes at end game.
Mage - One of the more balanced classes. Formidable DPS in PVE, a good number of PVP eligible crowd control spells to make you competitive in PVP situations.
Paladin - Best 5-man tank and the best off-tank for end game Raids, if geared properly best main tank as well - all of this is due to the amazing AOE threat. Best single target healer for end game. Terrible for DPS, terrible for general PVP - great as a PVP healer.
Priest - Holds it's own as heals in all facets of the game, not a great PVP healer but can manage. Through shadow priest route you become a formidable PVE DPS'er and an amazing offheal/offmana regen in PVE situations. Combined with a Shaman, your group or raid group shouldn't have any problems with mana consumption. Good for Kara CC.
Rogue - Way too many stuns and interupts by 60-70. Good for PVE DPS, good for 1v1 PVP, only suffers when fighting more than one target. Stealth allows them to make up for this.
Shaman - If built and played right can excel in PVE DPS as well as heals. Best feature being their ability to be either melee or ranged DPS in PVE, depending on what your guild needs. Problem is that you tend to fall short because unlike druid, you are a true jack of all trades, decent at everything, amazing at nothing. The first 30 levels are a pain, but you start getting better if you level as enhancement. Elemental has great damage but lacks the crowd control needed to be a truly effective PVP caster. Enhancement lacks the necessary melee line up of skills in order to compete with other melee DPS like Rogues and Warriors. Resto shaman healers suited best as off heals in raids, but can do just as well as any other class in 5-mans. Paladins are better at flash spam heals, shamans have to use chain heal to be viable.
Warlock - Even the Warlock players agree that they are over powered. Any problem other than Arena competition can be solved with Fear spam and the impressive DOT line-up. One of the best DPS classes for any PVE situation including end-game. Always near the top in BG's and only has problems in the Arena against people with anti-fear Trinkets and a Paladin healer.
Warrior - Great single target tank, best main tank for raids, especially against add-less bosses. Easy to gear for end-game tanking. Decent DPS (better than Paladin) but is better suited as a tank. Decent in PVP as a DPS build, making the honor grind much less painful than it is for a Paladin tank to get geared for Kara. Has a hard time in multiple target tanking due to the lack of AOE threat. Paladins excel in this field but even Druids do a better job.
A few ideas I had to help balance the game's class situations...
Druid - Gimp stealth, give it a long recast timer and make it less effective against other players. Opening moves should be very limited. Boost the level 70 offensive spells by a large margin to make Boomkin more effective in PVE. Druids don't need to be a rogue, a warrior, a caster DPS AND arguably the best all around healer in the game.
Hunter - Either boost the dmg on their primary DPS skills or give them some legitimate crowd control in order to make them more viable in PVE. Make the pet progression more even so it's not front end loaded. If I get owned by another 29 hunter twink I'm going to kill myself, then a month later the same hunter can't take me down more than 25 percent of my health before I kill him even when he's at 70 and I'm at 68.
Mage - Make the talent trees top-heavy, so more points have to be put into the tree to gain the real boons of that tree.
Paladin - Make gear progression easier by adding a tank set to the Gladiator PVP gear sets. Make the retribution tree front heavy so you get more DPS earlier, which will make Hybrid PVP builds more viable. If you're going to let mages blink with the flag and druids cat form with it, then let Paladins bubble with it. Paladin healers are getting love in the expansion, so just keep your pants on. Give Paladins a fear-resist aura.
Priest - Give them a HOT that's on par with the best Druid HOT. Make Shackle work on Demons as well as Undead.
Rogue - Get rid of one of their stuns, make their sap/mini-sap give the target stun immunity for 10 seconds.
Shaman - Shaman's need to be able to rely on their totems for a lot more than just a percentile boon here and there. Give them the totems that you give the NPC shamans, like the root totem that roots the enemy in place in waves. Or the fear totem that does AOE fear in short bursts. Give Enhance shamans a decent melee stun and Elemental shamans a good PVP viable CC. Give resto's a boost in single target heals and a opposite to their Wrath of Air totem, that does the same for heals as it does for Damage. Make all shields (lightning, water, earth) un-stealable like you did for the Locks and Mages last patch. It only makes sense. Ungimp the tremor totem, so that it actually works. You usually run away too fast for it's anti-fear wave to work even when you have increased totem range. Give them a elemental resist debuff for targets so they reduce the resists of nature/fire/frost/etc. Either make Totem of Wrath better or remove it and replace it with a viable 41 talent skill. </i>
Warlock - Reduce the amount of time their fears do, and increase the recast timer. OR - Make the fear time reduced when attacked, make fear a CC instead of a free kill. Everytime damage is done the fear's time is reduced by .5-1 second. OR - Give feared players "fear sickness" which makes them immune to fear effects for a period of time once they are feared (if they survive the first).
Warrior - Warriors should never be as effective at AOE threat as a Paladin, it's the one thing Paladins do better, but a little bit of an improvement to that would work wonders. Don't give them a better AOE, just give them a taunt that mimics the paladin 3-man taunt.
These are just my opinions and as most opinions go, a lot of people will hate them. This is to be expected, I welcome criticism in a intelligent form.
