I disagree on part of your opinions, chrono and Mr. N, I feel that grapple ropes, while they take away some strategy, they add other strategy as well. You can leap off a platform then swing back up behind your target, but there's always the risk that you'll do it wrong and will fall too far to get back up.
Unless, of course, your server is full of idiots, in which case they'll just hang annoyingly in midair and nobody will win because the time runs out.