Exploding Penguin
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So I don't know how many views my tier list got, but it was received quite nicely in my opinion despite its lack of clarity on a lot of things. Since it only gave brief explanations, I figured I would make this post to go more in-depth about what exactly makes a class strong.
If you haven't already seen the tier list: http://forums2.battleon.com/f/tm.asp?m=21847901
There are quite a few factors in what makes a class strong:
Good energy control
Ever since passives got reworked and energy flow-oriented moves were added to every class, having energy control in a battle is essential to winning. With the removal of passives, it is no longer the case that some classes don't need energy to get work done (focus BM in late delta is a perfect example of a class that performed ridiculously well even without energy). Every class NEEDS energy. And, hence, energy control is a very influential factor in what makes a class strong. Some important things to consider are that energy flow is based off of how much energy a class can drain, how much it can recover, and how much it spends. A class that needs to spend a lot of energy but lacks good energy recovery skills is severely lacking, even if it has very strong energy draining potential. A class like TM can function well because while it doesn't have a very strong drain, it needs a lot of energy for many of its builds and it has the right skill tree to get all this energy.
This is also why CH is surprisingly very strong. It has a reliable energy gain that isn't bad at all, and it has the strongest drain in the game, capable of emptying almost 100% of the enemy's max energy pool in a single turn, which can cripple tons of energy-reliant builds. BM is also amazing right now due to the fact that the class has low energy costs and that energy parasite has high cumulative values, as well as being %-based. This makes it so that you drain/gain tons of energy when you most need it (when your opponent has a lot of energy), but don't need to use it when it would be weak anyways (when you and your opponent are both at low energy, you probably don't need it given a lot of your skills have very low base costs).
Skill Cap
"There's always going to be someone better than you."
Classes with higher skill caps open up more options for outplaying. CH and BM are both prime examples of this, where both you and your opponent can have similar builds, but the smarter and more strategic player will typically win. Some classes where all you do is strike like strength BH have literally no skill cap, meaning that when you fight against another one of similar level and nearly identical build, it's up to luck to determine the winner. Skill cap, however, opens up opportunities to outplay your opponent and best them in battle, hence "there's always going to be someone better than you." 15 seconds per turn is not a lot of time at all to consider every single possible outcome in the future, so I'm almost certain no one has reached the top of the skill cap of the more versatile classes.
Basically, a larger skill cap opens up more room for outplay. If you're better than most other players you'll be winning more against identical BM/CH builds rather than against identical BH builds. It's not a particularly large factor in deciding which class is better, but based off of the player, it can help quite a bit.
Weaknesses
Every build has weaknesses. We all know that. It's just that some are very noticeable and flagrant, while others are harder to exploit. Classes that have built-in safety measures to help them with their hard counters are going to be on the top. A good example is BM. BM focus and bulky strength builds function very effectively against other similar builds as well as the common raw strength builds, but a major flaw of any bulky damage or focus build is that they can easily get bursted down by caster TMs in particular or extremely damage-intensive builds such as max massacre hunters. However, energy parasite is a huge, built-in counter to this main weakness because it's %-based and cripples enemies with large energy pools. It also handles consistent-damage strength builds such as blood commander mercs very nicely with intimidate, another built-in skill which is a god in the current meta and helps patch another big weakness in commonly used BM builds.
Counters the current meta
The current metagame is full of a specific type of builds, or a narrow selection of different build types. Currently, it's mostly focus builds and bulky strength bruiser builds. The current metagame also has a large emphasis on having good energy control and being reliant on energy for most forms of heals and damage output, what with passives being removed and such. Therefore, a class like CH is the perfect example of a high-tiered class that counters the current meta. This class is probably the best tank/stall build killer currently. Your opponent never has a chance of using their energy past their first 1-2 spellcasts thanks to EMP being a nuke drain with a short cooldown in comparison to other energy flow-oriented moves. Also, static charge recovers a moderate amount of energy as well as dealing damage, thus granting rage. CH also has fairly low energy costs on its essential skills, making enemies who counter-drain your energy pool at a disadvantage in most cases. With this, CHs destroy caster-based builds, stall builds that it outsustains, and energy-reliant builds. The only ones that it absolutely cannot deal with are ones that don't need too much energy past their first spellcast and that deal consistent damage while recovering a decent amount via lifesteal. Blood commander mercs are pretty much the only thing that fits this description right, since CHs can't shield against it and will probably get wrecked unless they have a block or two.
Overall, a class like CH that counters most of the builds and the general mechanic of the current metagame (energy dependency is taken advantage of by CH's kit) will do better than most other classes.
I hope this post clarifies some things. Feel free to comment with thoughts or opinions.
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