One way to take the focus off area damage would be to do this:
- No more (or way less) items or features which let you permanently control units. Sludge Jar is probably too good; Sea Elementals are probably okay.
- Make energy a resource shared by the entire team. This way the one enthusiastic generator person isn't limited by their teammates being busy with other stuff or new to the game. You don't require everyone to use their spawn cores individually, so there's no reason to do it for energy.
- Make generators "easier to place" in general. This might include less rock tiles (it's really hard to place anything overlooking the enemy main base or Arthas), slightly faster construction times, a "mini-generator" item, etc.
- Introduce some new/revamped generator types to allow for more options and tactics.
Similarly, being able to defend generators becomes important, so those heroes who can command troops are suddenly bringing something unique and useful to the table. Maybe there need to be some heroes who can take out generators from a distance (long range earthquake which gains damage over time?) as a counterbalance.
It's important that heroes building for attack damage aren't the optimal choice for taking out generators, or attack damage becomes the new dominant stat. Adjust armour types so specific spells or summoned units are more efficient. I see this as Tactician or Infiltrator's job, not Swashbuckler's.
Everything I've mentioned is intended to keep in line with the goal of the game, which is ultimately to push, or get the artifact. I would get rid of the attack and spell generators, and add a shield generator (attacks from outside the bubble deal less damage) and a vision generator. As long as there are heroes like Inf who can take them out, this should be fine.
The amount of energy should be about that of 3 heroes currently (we don't need them spammed as the insane AIs do). The team should lose a little energy permanently for generators which are destroyed, but heroes levelling should result in a net gain of energy anyway assuming the team isn't being careless.
If you've been playing in games with me recently, you'll know I like siege generators. I would like have the generator mechanic expanded on in a way which benefits the game as a whole, and I think this might be a nice way to do it.
I am interested to hear people's thoughts.