Skill balance

Skill balance is a core concept of Guild Wars as well as an on-going procedure that ArenaNet performs to keep the game of Guild Wars about player skill.

Skill balance means that no skill (or combination of skills) is overpowered in the game in a way that makes that skill or set of skills unstoppable. Every skill will offer the player advantages, but will also suffer from disadvantages that prevent it from defeating other players by itself. Instead, the player will always have to think of ways to make the skill (or set of skills) work. In contrast, others faced with this combination of skills, can always find a way to counter it if they spend enough time studying the combo.

Skill balancing is done by ArenaNet on a regular basis during Game updates. During skill balancing, skills that are deemed too powerful are toned down (or nerfed as players commonly call it), while skills that are deemed not powerful enough are given a boost.

It is believed that ArenaNet observes high-level GvG and HoH games to determine whether or not a skill or build is too powerful. They may also be collecting data from their servers about which skills players equip most and least frequently, and what correlations exist between particular skills and consistent victory.