How do the devs determine what is considered 'fair' for buffing and nerfing in balance patches?

[Melech.4308]

@EmmetOtter.8542 said:

@"Melech.4308" said:Based on reading latest patch notes, I could not help but notice that it seems to be "feelings" based.The language is intended to hide the actual decision making process and shutdown debate. They use "feelings" because you can't argue with "feelings". You can try but it becomes a very short argument. No one can say "your feelings are wrong" because everyone knows that feelings are always wrong and right at the same time

and

subject to change, without notice.

If that is the case, then why haven't the developers always used "feelings" every time they released a new balance patch to shutdown everyone's debates? This recent balance patch, they used feelings; did that shutdown any debate? No! Every balance patch comes with new topics and debates in the forum, whether or not the "feelings" reasoning was used. I"ll give an example of another feelings based balance note (emphasis mine):

"Finally, we're slightly reducing the duration of the Mirage Cloak dodge in order to make it more like the normal dodge move. When we first built the mirage specialization, we felt that the dodge window had to be larger than a normal dodge in order to compensate for the fact that the player doesn't move with the dodge."

source:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2019-03-05

Did that shutdown debate? No.

Now if they said, "according to our metrics" (or philosophy or whatever thing of substance) the debate gets extended to the additional thing. And worse the next time a nerf or tweak of any kind is done in the future, the spectre of those previously mentioned metrics/philosophy/whatever will get reintroduced into the debate. And if Anet says that changed the metrics/philosophy/whatever then that reasoning gets debated too!

From the same source I quoted above, we also have non-feelings based explanations, like the one below (emphasis mine):

"In this update, we're bringing down the power of this trait to be more in line with other grandmaster traits and to give a little boost to its competition."

Did that shutdown debate either? No, BUT they explained WHY they were making the change.

The person who crafted those patch notes had language Kung Fu that is very good. Yours... you barely are a grasshopper.

I fail to see how equating me to a grasshopper and the person who crafted the patch notes having language Kung Fu makes any point with regards to the topic; it seems like this is an attempt to attack my person at best.

[Tinker.6924]

I feel that my description and wording is both accurate and not at all a personal attack. Further, I feel that not using such language in the past and using it now is an indication that they are only getting better at delivering news they know will upset some players.

[Yoci.2481]

Their language Kung Fu may be as good as their social media kittens, but their Balance Fu is weak.