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Originally Posted by obloquy
Since Sauron gets his own ranking, we might as well make a separate ranking for each individual Umaia, since all Maiar (and thus all Balrogs) were not created equal.
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The idea of ranking wasn't so much intended to be a formal division of the Umaiar, but rather a way of marking off exactly what sort of Umaiar I was thinking of in terms of power when I refered to them as Boldogs. I wanted to make it clear that I was talking about the Umaiar on the bottom of the ladders, ones that were NOT Balrogs or Saurons in terms of their power. It was a mistake on my part to subdivide the Balrogs and Sauron perhaps, but it seemed at the time to be permissible, since in my mind Sauron is about as much greater than the average Balrog as the average Balrog is over the average Boldog.
The only formal categories, I agree, that need be are Melkor/Morgoth and the Umaiar. The Vala gone bad, and the Maiar gone bad.
However, you have to admit that there are differences in power between the various Maiar. Sauron is (or was, rather) obviously a Maia of rather incredible power. I should have said that he was in a rather select category, one inhabited by Eonwe, Ilmare, Osse, Uinen, and maybe Melian as well. These are the Ainur who were very powerful and influential, obviously above their peers in terms of influence and might, but none of whom is a Vala.
If I were to go hunting for "good" equivalents of the Balrog class, I should put the Istari here. True, it is said that Gandalf and Saruman were Sauron's peers, but to be peers is not necessarily to be equals. Admittedly, there is some variation within the class, as always. Saruman (and Gandalf reborn) was probably at the top of scale, the 'good' opposite (in his earlier life) of Gothmog. You could also put Melian in this category (as I would) if you feel that she doesn't really merit the "Great Maiar" category.
There aren't really any named equivalents of the Boldogs, but I'm sure that they exist. Most of the "hosts" of Valinor would likely be less powerful rather than more. These would be the spirits that have nothing better to do than sing in halls of Manwe or dance on the lawns of Vana.
CORRECTION: I just thought of some good equivalents of the Boldogs: the Eagles and Huan, assuming that you agree with the assumption/theory that they were Maiar.
Anyway, I suppose that I'm just entrenching my association with this "categorising" all the more deeply, but the intent of this post was originally to clarify my original intent. The rest of it just grew out of related thoughts I had on the subject.