Basically what the title says is that i think AoE spells aren't good anymore because everyone stays spread out now. This would at least make them worth their huge cast time, recast time and expensive energy cost since it would enable hitting multiple targets.
Also a thought about different modes of casting. Some spells could have a minimum cast time but then not automatically go off at the end of this casting period. Instead they wait for a certain amount of time in which the caster can trigger it to actually go off with spacebar or something. This would be helpful in timing AoE's so they hit more targets.
AoE ground targetable.
Draken
Scaphism
We have those already. They're called traps.