Went through the top 200 spots and put together a couple of graphs to see class distribution, being manual process it's just a count of each class, it's also just the combined top 200 so for some of the graphs the sample size is 200 shared for 24 classes, but I recon it tells a decent enough story.
Interestingly in the top 200, there's 100 Order and 100 Destro, so seems like realm v realm is perfectly balanced as it should be.
However not every class is doing equally well..
When looking at the % of the ranked population from each class that made it in to Top 100/200, we can see some classes are doing better than others.
We are expecting to see 200 players /3 archetypes / 6 classes = 11.11 players per class for tanks and healers and 200/3/12 = 5.56 for DPS.
Since DoK is viable as both DPS and heal so have them at 16.67 (half dps, half heal), which makes the balance for DPS and heal on destro look better (below), but DoKs are almost as over-represented as Slayers.
And you could certainly argue that AMs, Shams, Zealots and RPs should then also be counted as both DPS and Heal, but as there's no DPS Zealot/RP and AM/Shams are already under-represented as a single archetype
For heals and tanks, a perfect balance would see 33% of each class by realm.
I've considered Order to have 6 DPS (sorry, but no DPS AM/RP/WP, if you played one of these classes close to exclusively as DPS in pre-season 2 and gotten to top 200, let me know and I'll consider updating it), meaning 16.6%.
For destro there's 7 DPS (sorry, but no DPS SHAM or Zealot), meaning 14.2%.
Let's see how we do when breaking down by realm and archetype..
*Top 200 is from 1-200.
Tanks:
While I would think most think IBs are the better/as good ST party tanks and so might have thought that translated into 6v6, it seems like the dominance of Chosen means without Knights to counter their auras, IB dmg and utility is not enough.
No surprise on SMs being low here (3), but with the ban on 2x SM/BO might see some gain.
BO about where you would expect, worst 2h tank and that's before the nerf, while they have decent dmg and tankiness, they have no way of getting off their (de)buffs and no punts and no WoDS.
Healers:
Better balance than other archetypes, but AMs are carried by a handful top tier ranked players and so is less represented in top 200 vs top 100. With ranked now attracting a larger crowd and AP drain nerf, I suspect AMs will get a lesser share.
Overall no surprises here and follows the general power balance consensus.
DPS:
First off.. no choppa, BW or WH in top 100.
BW barely making the 200 list with first appearance at 182.
And while neither realm does perfect in top 100, at least destro does far far better.
Both of the destro top performers (SH and DoK) have been nerfed and may start to fall in line with the rest of their DPS.
Magus is entirely carried by Restlin and I doubt they will see more share after the nerfs.
Choppa first appears at rank 121
Order side is very ugly and unsurprising.. Slayers are hugely over represented and my guess is Season 2 will get worse (will make a follow up when it ends).
Engi has been nerfed twice and while the 6v6 engi might remain mostly unscathed, they will likely suffer same as AMs from relying on less experienced rankers, also 3 of the 4 engis are known as the best on server so if they don't make an effort again, you might not see any at all.
WH and BW both only making the list once, WH relies on M4 to get kills and BW relies on not getting targeted, neither likely to improve without dev balance changes.
WL and SW both slightly under-represented but just 1-2 players away from expected.
What does this all mean?
Assuming top 200 population is linked to the classes with the most positive win-rates (more so than overall ranked population for the class), it means...
for destro that you can largely be happy with any dps, except magus unless they are top tier.
Destro dream team seems to be any DPS except Choppa and Magus, 1-4 DoKs, 1 Zealot and any mix of Chosen / BG.
For Order you can be happy with Slayer and preferably 2, every other Order DPS is under performing, but WLs and SW can be fine if they are top tier.
Order dream team is 2 slayers 2 WP and 2 Knights (Woah!! what a complete surprise to players that never played RoR before).
