Stop the Grind-to-the-Endgame madness!

[ShivenCasull]

That said, the next obvious connection becomes "what other purpose can AoE serve other than damage?", which then turns to the creation of more interesting mechanics, and upon seeing the large possibilities for more fun and tactical gameplay but also the work involved, SE may refuse to touch the subject at all.

I've always been a fan of AOE attacks having a secondary effect (frozen/burning ground) or even an area denial (firewall, stonewall, etc..)

[Shurrikhan]

I've always been a fan of AOE attacks having a secondary effect (frozen/burning ground) or even an area denial (firewall, stonewall, etc..)

Same. More advanced uses of different types of attacks (linear, conical, circular, self, etc) having different, though more or less obvious when you think about it as if the fight were more real, uses within threat mechanics would be cool too.

Heck, if you just add armor penetration similarly to block value (chance and amount), where things like a linear strike from the same placement and side would be more likely to hit the penetrated area (higher 'chance') since they have the same trajectory, that already makes for quite a few more options.

Take the secondary effects of elemental holding (your frozen/burning ground having an actual amount of Ice or Fire magic attached), and allow it to be transferred, you could end up with something like a Mor Dhona boss (very physically resistant and only vulnerable to de-elementized magic, or all types of elements at once) surrounded by 6 mobs each with a different vulnerability -- hit each with a different type, then linearly drive the element mass on those into the boss, dealing magic damage to which he's vulnerable. Granted, that's just a tailored example. I wouldn't want anything that gimmicky, personally.