so im getting pretty board with flying enemies and wish for them to actually fly higher than a hover. i understand that enemies cannot simply fly because that would create too much open space where enemies should be on the ground

then a thought occurred to me about a "birds eye view" and shadows....stay with me.

so say that all enemies that hover so close to the ground can fly (not very high) as well as a new aerial dive AOE based attack that closes the gap between them and the player. now, imagine the outlined shadow directly below the flying MOB upon the ground as a MOB itself with its own aggro and detection mechanics. this shadow may also be targeted, and projectiles will just angle upward toward the airborne mob despite how high; ability range limits determines how far the player is from the enemies shadow, not the airborne target.

when this shadow detects a player or if the player gets to close, the mob above it will target the same enemy and execute the AOE attack mentioned earlier, closing the gap and grounding (hover position) themselves.

basically, flying mobs would have the same point of veiw in the air as they do now on the ground. the mobs shadow will act as a means of detection and for players to know where the mob is specifically looking.

it would also be nice to include different combat animations for abilities like dragoon jump attacks, specifically the attacks transporting the player directly to the mob casting the shadow.

no i understand this may make melee based attacks practically useless, but hey, maybe that's a good thing. once you think about it, there is really no difference between a flying enemy and a grounded one. maybe flying enemies should cause players to improvise opening attacks.