A lot of people are complaining about balance in this game. I completely agree with this complaint and it directly affects me (I have invested a lot in my stamina NB) - because of that I have given the concept of "balance" a lot of thought.

Let's rewind back to a recent MMO that I played, one of the biggest balance in that game was regarding the "bezerker" stats. The bezerker set was basically an all-out glass cannon build that completely maximized all types of damage while having absolutely no survivability. The strange thing is, this set was seen as a OP. The problem came down to being able to burn through enemies before they were able to use a single "special attack" on group - zerker was extremely defensive in its offensive nature.

Another example of something was complained about a lot in the game was the rouge archetype. The problem came down to, as always, being able to reliably abort a fight in RvR/AvA coupled with not requiring to have defensive stats (because you could simply permastealth). This meant that the rouge would never lose and would score a kill 75% of the time.

What about ESO and DKs? A lot of people are complaining that "DKs can solo VR packs while other classes can't." As for the 2nd-most OP class in the game "Sorcs can just bolt escape out of fights" (yes, I'm ignoring the recent nerf).

People complain a lot about balance. I'm really starting to question whether balance can realistically achieved, there are too many variables - shouldn't we instead be talking about "zero-sum risk/reward." Look at all those examples of "unbalanced stuff" in games - they all come down to the fact that taking low risks resulted in high rewards.

Look at the situation of DKs vs. NBs (both heavy armor). Imagine the situation where both run into the middle of an enemy blob in Cyrodiil - what's the outcome? The DK will probably die, the NB is guaranteed to die, the DK will get a few kills, the NB will get no kills. "That's not how you play NB, noob." Of course it's not - but truth be told, soloing a zerg should always have zero reward except for the top "permilletile" of the playerbase (currently DKs soloing zergs is an extremely common occurrence). What happens with sorcs? They can spam some <Impulse>, get a few tags (if not kills) and then <Bolt Escape> out. Templars just die no matter what they do.

So, then, how do you play a NB? Well, of course, "ganky-ganky stabby-stabby." Hang on, there, though. The rate of NBs who can succeed at this is marginal compared to the number of DKs who can easily counter it - the risk is fair for the NB in this scenario but the risk is completely unfair (in that there is little) for the DK. DKs (even levels and gear) will win this fight in 99% of the case over the average of the playerbase - there is no risk for them. Only a top percentage of the DK players should be able to counter the average NB player "on their turf." Roaming as a DK should be more of a risk than roaming as a NB.

TLDR; The problem isn't balance in this game, it's risk/reward that is fundamentally broken in every single conceivable way.

How does this apply to stamina? The majority of the stamina abilities (some can be seen as almost acceptable, e.g. <Venom Arrow>) have lower damage than their magicka counterparts (given a class that has soft-capped the respective stat). A lot of people indicate that they should do similar damage to magicka abilities - while this is "balanced" it still completely breaks risk/reward. Why?

Each time I cast <Venom Arrow> I am decreasing the chances of being able to block, stun break or roll dodge in the event that I need to. Every time I use a weapon ability I am actually increasing the risk of me dying. What happens when a magicka user uses <Impulse>? The do damage, a lot of it - end of story, they are still as well defended as before. In addition they build their offensive ability (ultimate) faster.

That statement is based on personal experience. I did recently acquire some light armor for my NB and started experimenting with magicka. Instead of only being able to use my ulti every ~5 minutes (I'm not exaggerating) I can use it every ~45 seconds while in my LA.

Do you see the problem there? As a stamina user I am taking immense risk every time I use an ability to get a result that has less reward (damage) than what a magicka user has - by a colossal margin. The end of result of this is that:

TLDR; stamina builds should actually be the highest sustained DPS builds in the game, using stamina for DPS should continue to put the user at substantial risk.

- or - The risk for stamina (instead of the reward) should be drastically adjusted, but this would be harder to get right.