While overly verbose I think I know what you're asking....
The devs balance powers around dmg, end, rech, and activation time. That's in reference to PvE. In PvP the game does it like this...it does dmg based on activation time, end and recharge factor in just like they do in PvE.
They have a formula though it's exact composition isn't really known afaik. Some people have reverse engineered some data they've mined from somewhere and come up with their own ideas...if you search the boards you may come across a few threads that discuss the very topic....my search fu fails me atm.
Hope this was helpful..perhaps somebody eles can clean it up for me...
As a general rule, secondary effects of powers aren't taken into account when their damage is formulated. In PvE the amount of damage a power does is balanced around its endurance cost and recharge time, though there are some powers that break this mold. Activation time is not factored in in PvE, which is one reason some powers are simply better than others (Blaze is way better than Shout in PvE, for example, because Blaze animates a lot faster for the damage it deals).
It's different in PvP though - powers are balanced around their activation and recharge times instead of endurance and recharge. This is to ensure that longer-animating powers are worth the time to use them, but it hoses sets that rely on fast-activating powers, such as Ice.
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"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
This approach could easily be leveraged to settle disparity within a given attack paradigm(ranged ice verses ranged fire) but it does not seem to address the problems between AT paradigms. While these problematic paradigms are extant in all gaming at the moment(the wizard who is frail, deals great damage, but has the utility spells to insure his frailness cannot be leveraged against him etc etc). Some kind of evaluation of of these paradigms within the cost basis of these powers seems like a key to balancing them.
I recall a long time ago a video surfaced of game play from another game, which shall not be named. In the game a character of class/AT X was running around with a minimally weak weapon and no other armor or gear and slaughtering everything insight. This was because paradigm his character was based around was hyper-functional(a rogue if I recall). It could move around unnoticed, it could stun or disable its target, it could deal burst damage at a significant level, and it despite its frailty it had a number of escape abilities.
I've often joked that COH could liberate itself PvP wise if they just put all of the powers into a big pot and let you pick what you wanted. Even as a test scenario this would yield interesting results, I am sure, but who wants to play a character with 5 sets of Flares and 5 sets of Buildup(rimshot).
They did allow players to pick powers like that many years ago in beta...and what happened was people picked characters that were non functional and unplayable. So they will not allow that again.
The hard part about "balancing" these powers means that the devs will have to prioritize what they believe are the important factors in PvP and how important they are...and given their previous displays of pure ignorance in the realm of PvP I'd rather they left it as it is...People have adjusted yet again to a new style of play and while some things are universally hated, we've settled.
It appears to me that a way of balancing powers is to break down the evaluation of those powers into attributes and then assign values. You can then compare the powers based on the combined values.
Bolt of Logic
------------------
A. 10 units of damage
B. 10 units of range*
C. Damage Type Z
D. Secondary Effect*
etc...
Such that if each of these attributes where worth A B C and D the value of the power would be X = A + B + C + D and could then be compared to other powers.
I think its in this evaluation that its the easiest to fall down. The attributes I have asterisked are by my approximation the most difficult values to quantify, and there are certain synergies that arise from combination of these attributes which can cause disparity of significant magnitude. For example, a ranged power that limits mobility.
It appears in playing COX that there is currently a dramatic disparity in ranged attacks at the moment. I was curious if the developers have a system similar to the one briefly detailed above and if there is ongoing evaluation of that system?