Are the devs actually balancing or are they just throwing new stuff ? Ans: Throwing out new stuff and seeing what sticks.
"They" is subjective. A dev team is not a static entity, people come and go. They pulled talent from all around, notably CCP Oveur from EVE. You probably know him better as Nathan
Just because Nathan is amazing doesn't make the team amazing. Your team is as strong as your weakest player. 'They', as in the current bE team working on this game.
I honestly wouldn't consider melta weapons balanced if they didn't destroy vehicles pretty fast. I mean, they are the anti-vehicle weapon on 40k in many cases, for lore reasons. They're actually not easy to use against infantry.
Two people that were apparently born yesterday: I use cover all the time. I get lots of kills. Cover is incredibly useful. Original Dev Team of 2013/14 were the guys who make The Secret World, then they added in Eve and Defiance people. They totally have made MMOs and shooters.
My fire dragon is ready! Oh sweet tears! About melters in general: Defend your vehicles? And to the Devs: Would it be hard to add a bonus xp zone for players staying outside of vehicles, defending them? We got it already for capture points, so...
Melta gun is fine. If your team/squad can't protect tehir vehicles - it's their fault. You have to get very close with a melta and you're a cheap kill for everyone who's not using a melta or lascannon... Plasma is annoying due to it's AOE range and the damage it does and that cheap trick that you can charge/decharge a plasma gun while walking around and waiting for an enemy to get in your way. Melee has it flaws/bugs/imbalances and so on... but they are working on it...
Nobody protects vehicles because vehicles are useless in EC. There is no point in protecting vehicles. - You get XP for protecting a capture-point, but not for protecting a vehicle. - The maps are designed to keep vehicles away from the action. - Tanks have no kill-potential. They suck at fighting infantry, they suck at fighting other vehicles and buildings (including balcony-handrails made from paper-thin metal-sheets) are indestructible. - There are 1 or 2 spots on this and that map. If you position your tank exactly right and the opponent comes from the right direction, you can block his offense with suppression-fire. But outside of these special circumstances tanks are just cannon-fodder to buy the infantry some time.
