Blizzard Insider: At which point (or points) during a class talent review do you step back and evaluate how the talent changes for this class will affect other classes that fill out similar roles, like priests and Restoration druids?

Tom Chilton: Evaluating how changes will affect other classes that fill similar roles is a constant part of the entire design process. We need to keep in mind that character classes don't exist in a sterile Petri dish, but instead interact with many other different classes either in groups or in PvP situations. If we go too long without taking a step back to evaluate the impact on the game as a whole, we run the risk of spending too much time on an idea that will have to be thrown out later down the line. That's why our balancing process goes through several phases. When we're first designing how each talent or spell will work, we decide on our philosophical approach to balancing it.