I've been longing to suggest some gameplay improvement regarding dbz chars (mostly). about energy attacks. Epic would be to make them more interactive. Now i gathered at least few things could be done.
First, easy thing would be to make waves controlable to a degree. In anime they can be bent around stuff or towards moving target. In DON one way to do it would be spawning and selecting a dummy unit, facing target point. the energy wave would head towards direction which our dummy unit is facing. Player would be able to order dummy unit to go towards some direction multiple times, thus, making energy wave to turn multiple times too, as long as wave havent exploded yet. Dummy would have slow variable rotation speed, depending on some factors like energy wave type, skill level, etc. Dummy unit could either instantly move to target location, once it is facing it, or travel along with the energy wave. This method with dummy is preferable, as it also would help with the possible second suggestion.
Otherwise, it could be done without dummy unit or temporarily losing selection of a hero. As long as wave is still alive, hero would be not paused, but just its movement disabled to 0 speed. Player orders would only make hero to face some direction in attempt to move there, while the energy wave would head to the direction in which hero is looking. This solution, however, produces some tricky problems. Most significantly, additional coding would be needed to somehow control the turning speed of a wave, Would also have to disable all skills for hero during casting.
The second suggestion for the energy waves is physical interaction (like broly meteor).
Depending on various factors (once again, damage, skill level, etc.) energy wave could clash with another energywave, as well as heroes under cerain conditions (like while hero is with ESC mana/life regen aura - this hero can grab the wave in attempt to push it away) If you ever seen HalfLife DBZ mod Earths Special Forces, this physical interaction is nicely done there. Could mimic the best of it and improve the rest. For example, when two heroes fire an energywave and waves happen to meet, they clash and head to a direction which is influenced by both waves, depending on their power. In ESF after the clash the connected players cannot control the direction of a vector any more. So, only if both players aimed directly at each other, only then the energy wave could travel to target and not some awkward angle away. In DON with the control of our dummy units the waves could be directed all the time, always heading to a point of players preference. Other players can fire at this too and interact with the already clashed waves to influence the outcome. If player choses to deselect the dummy unit, he loses control of a wave and can run away while the other player(s) at some rate would gradually gain all the control of accumulated energy and could direct it normally.
The amount of influence over the wave player has could change depending on variable things like his remaining mana or life. If the clash lasts for too long and mana is drained, only mana regeneration speed would determine stuff. But what if player backs off for a second, drinks mana potion and catches wave again? What if hero is beaten to a face with a stick and his life is being drained? Surely that hurts and you cant exptect him to have that much control. But what if hes a saiyan? More you beat me - stronger I am! Many things could be made to determine the outcome of a energy wave clash, so not only the most powerful hero or skill wins the clash all the time, like in ESF.
All this interaction doesnt have to last and slow down the fast paced gameplay. It can be barely few seconds long. Player can chose to make it longer by holding wave, feeding it his energy, but if not, player can release, cut the feed, which logicly would transform the wave into an energy ball, since the feed IS the wave shape that we see in anime. Distances arent long and waves are fast, but player can do enough in those couple seconds to make a difference.
Indeed this mostly oriented towards DBZ chars, but if needed i can make a list of other heroes that could join in with this physical interaction thing and how. I bet all the heroes can be made to benefit from this.