Target Cap and Skillful Play

Hello everyone,

I've been thinking about the current state of PvP, and I came to the idea of reducing target caps for some abilities. There is a huge AoE meta right now, and while AoE has a place, if everything hits 3+ targets, then everything is AoE. Classes that excel at AoE are huge in the meta - Firebrand, Necromancer, Condi Revenant... they all output a huge amount of AoE pressure.

I mean look at this. Why should this nuke be a 3-target ability, when it could be 1-target and reward focused play, rather than just "AoE the stack".

Guardian Symbols are currently 5-target abilities (except the Axe which is 3 target, and rightfully so) with a HUGE field. While the 3-target limits the amount of damage it can deal, it has such a large field that it is always hitting the cap in a team fight. There is no "positioning" to try and fit everyone into the AoE. It is so large that it will hit them on the opposite end of the capture point, and the Axe symbol can be even used as a sort of ranged ability to catch runners. I think the main issue is the guardian symbol trait that increases the radius of the symbols. Without this radius increase, symbols would have to be skillfully placed. The duration increase is also concerning as well, because the symbols take up so much space and then ALSO last like 7 seconds. Rotating through symbols, you can keep an area zoned for large amounts of time, killing anything that walks into it, even as Mender.

Things like Bleeding Edge could be 1-target instead of 3-target, because it is a CC ability. Removing stability or pulling three targets regularly is very strong, and just sets up opponents to be AoE'd down.

Again, this is not specific requests, these are just examples of abilities that are powerful abilities that also cleave. I think a good rule to follow would be:

1. allow autos to continue to "cleave" in the traditional sense
2. reduce target cap of CC abilities such as Bleeding Edge
3. reduce target cap of "true" aoe abilities (such as guardian symbols, staff marks)
4. reduce duration of "true" aoe abilities (such as guardian symbols)
5. reduce target cap of hard-hitting nukes to 1 (such as Maul)