balance issues between classes have come up a lot. IMO if all the classes were equally difficult to do well on, then the game would be a bit boring. having classes unbalanced allows for more diversity of gameplay, and allows for cool things like "holy cow, how did that wizard get a 150 chain?!"

When it comes to game design, the more variety you introduce, the more difficult (and improbable) it is to balance. I'm okay with some imbalance, but I don't want any class/talent build to be complete crap. If it's used by 0% of players then I did something wrong (this is something I can measure once server accounts are live). It would be fun to see some kind of unofficial power ranking by players.

I actually doing well with the health leech and it's actually scaling quite well with my bard. The only problem with health (and mana) leech are the fact they are equipment dependable and thus you are limited to the equipment you're wearing... But it's definitely doable specially when combining with thorns, and health per tick.. I do think that some classes suffer from balance issues, but the wide variety of equipment and stats buff you can get make up for it in some way. You just have to know what you're char's looking for and stick to it.. A dual wielding health leeching troll warrior has some nifty health regen

I haven't noticed the cost of spells increasing as you level. Wouldn't that make resource regen retain its value for sustaining no matter the level?

Regarding Bards: Their healing is off the charts. Their song, Dissention, heals you per enemy hit giving you an on-demand complete heal if you're fighting many opponents. It's a great class for swarming. With the charmed pet taking hits, I pull 4 additional mobs and let the AoE damage song whittle them down while I'm invincible through my healing. It's a fun high risk/high reward approach.

Regarding Rogues: I think it's a great design for rogues to give them no hp regen. They have a ton of control to stun-lock mobs and mirage strike to absorb the occasional hit that gets through. If I actually get hit as a rogue it's because I messed up. It would be counter to their design to let them go toe-to-toe with opponents through hp regen/leech.

Regarding Enchanters: They receive a Rune spell to absorb the occasional hit.

Regarding Paladins: I think their sustain is in a good place. They have a lot of stuns that let them prevent mobs from hitting them. Their Greater Heal is costly and cannot be used much. I think the high cost of it is good design as it lets the paladin keep trucking along if they miss the stun but doesn't let them rely on it as a sustainable strategy. Overall I feel the Paladin is an excellently designed class.

I play the Paladin by focusing on a rotation to keep the mobs permanently stun-locked.

Rebuke to counter attack with Repudiate
Vengeance to interrupt the next attack
Smite for 3.5s stun
Rebuke when stun wears off to counter attack
Holy Might for 4.5s stun
Cycle from the top.

I weave the other abilities in as needed to that rotation. I find the timing requirement of the attacks to be fun and a uniquely different style of combat from the other classes. My biggest complaint would be the low damage the class deals. It certainly has no trouble sustaining though.

Root adds to prevent them from attacking while keeping the stun-lock focus on the boss. Rebuke works on spells too, just have to time it later compared to melee to give the spell time to travel to you so you can bat it back. Vengeance however can't be used to stop spellcasting so you do have that hole in the rotation. I agree though, they run into serious trouble when fighting more than one spellcaster.

I lol'd hard. I will say, yes, Root can be a real bad idea on a caster. On the bright side it does make them super predictable for setups like Frost Nova > Silence with Wizard.