How a three-second cooldown for AOEs might change combat and builds

EramTheLiar · July 2020

So I get that the potential for a three second cooldown on AOE attacks is, um, kind of horrifying to imagine -- even if just for the PvP side of things -- but it made me wonder what would happen if this change became global, in terms of how combat tactics would change in PvP and PvE. So... for this thought experiment, assume:

All AOEs have a three second cooldown
All single target attacks are unaffected, except that
All single target attacks that have an AOE effect can only use that AOE effect every three seconds (So for example, the destruction staff Force Pulse and Destructive Clench morphs only do the AOE portions of their morph every three seconds).
Templars are practically retired as a class because developers don't feel like reworking all the skill trees, but there is that one guy who insists on posting YouTube videos showing how his Templar can still solo vet dungeons and trials. Nobody likes a showoff, Gary.

Let's assume for the purpose of this that it's a 3 second global cooldown, so once you use an AOE -- any AOE -- you have to wait three seconds before you can use an AOE again.

How would that change battle tactics/skill selection/item selection?

My preliminary hypothesis:

Overall, builds would start focusing on single target damage, at least for spammable attacks.
Because of that, generating aggro might be more effective because the DPS in the group can't peel everyone off the tank with a neverending stream of AOE damage
Healers will probably start drinking more. Sorry for all the liver damage. Also that double vision is going to make it even harder to select the one player who needs all the healing.
Because item sets with AOE effects would step all over any AOE skills/spells you intentionally wanted to use, those sets would mostly fall out of favor. Except...
...if you have a build that focuses on singe target damage, a set like ashen grip (with the fire cone effect at five pieces) might be considered more useful simply because you could throw in a free AOE while focusing on your single target damage skills.
In terms of what AOE skills you'd take, I think damage over time will be valued more since they would layer over your single target attacks. For a stamina sorcerer, for example, you'd still want Hurricane because it's up for fifteen seconds. Destruction staff users would probably be less thrilled with Impulse and its morphs than with Wall of Elements and its morphs.
PvE fights would take longer, because you'd have to focus on individual "trash mobs" to clear the room, and boy I don't want to be the control freak who tries to manage that party.
PvP fights would be... I have no idea. I mean the single target attacks wouldn't have this delay, so attacking a single target would be just as fast as it always was, I guess? But I get the feeling AOEs are considered more important and useful.

Overall, I think that gameplay wouldn't exactly slow down, from second to second -- the difference is that you'd be focusing on a lot of fast single target attacks with an AOE thrown in every three seconds, and the AOEs would be more likely chosen for any useful secondary effects they have. So a one-on-one fight would take roughly the same amount of time it always did. But group fights would definitely take longer to finish because you'd have to focus on all the individual targets basically one at a time. Also, fights in general will be a lot more fundamentally chaotic because it's going to be harder to coordinate a bunch of individual people attacking a bunch of other individual people than it will be to say "attack over... in that general area, there."

Ultimates wouldn't really change, since they usually take more than three seconds to build up. Though someone will figure out a way to maximize ultimate buildup so they can fire off an ultimate every five seconds, and the new FOTM will be someone who specs out health and heavy armor who can fire off an ultimate every five seconds.

Anyway, that is my fancy guess at how it would change things. I do not claim this guess is accurate. Most players who really think about this stuff are smarter than I am.