I think alot of what you say is valid. I think preps as a whole are a huge barrier to new players being competitive and should be either limited more than they are / toned down in duration or potency.

I mean, take a shapeshifter for example. They have stoneskin and shield to make them competitive with say a warrior. But it kinda defeats the purpose when said warrior has stoneskin/aura/shield and who knows what else preps while fighting them.

It also makes the player who uses them reliant upon them and they become very timid in general in my experience without their preps. Preps in general should be much more obscure than they currently are.

Support classes would be more valuable in this case as well. I dunno, I just hate the prep grind and removing that or starkly limiting it seems like a better idea. Though it does open a can of worms about how an unpreped warrior can compete against a rbw in some instances..