Ranged DPS, choose a weakness that would justify a buff

[Shurrikhan]

I don't necessarily agree the constraint has to be the removal of using mobility. If anything, the use of the mobility should be encouraged.

Think of it this way.

A Caster is -rewarded- for doing better. In terms of being a Caster, this generally boils down to minimizing movement during the best uptime phases, and abusing what they can during very long movement phases. That's their unique goal.

Ranged are currently not. If we consider the idea that they are currently lacking their ability to push farther due to a lack of real constraints, then our aim shouldn't be to uplift them and then shackle them, it should be to uplift them by them taking advantage of having no shackles.

We create a unique goal for them that utilizes their kit advantages, that by its nature extends their skillcap in each encounter.

Perfect mobility removes a skill-gap component, one which interacts well with fight designs. We can call it "restricting" mobility all we want, but without it there is no "optimizing mobility" unless fights are designed to require the most possible use of that perfect mobility, which would depend on either a far less mobile counterpart whose duties can somehow be absorbed atop one's own (would require very different designs) or optional but useful duties which only a hypermobile person could perform without significant uptime loss (again, requiring very different designs).

What, though, do we do with fights that don't have these newly obligatory mechanics/designs? Where does that gap in skill, and thereby perhaps deservedly performance, go?

Ultimately, why not have a much lighter form of mobility costs that casters face, such as was provided by Feint vs. Heavy Shot during the Bow Mage days? Then we can have greater parity regardless of the fight. Where the fight does not make use of hypermobility, Ranged aren't punished for having it. Where it does, Ranged reach parity in a more unique way.