Wondering why you auto-emailed me as i havent really done anything in this project for months (Did i ever do anything? Lol)
anyway, i like the idea of hero-like abilities rather than items, like theres 4 types of abilities and you can choose 1 ability from each type (e.g. "AoE, DoT, Chain, Single Target" would be a tier, "regeneration aura, interest bonus, movespeed bonus etc." would be a tier, and so on. Also, maybe like an ability that makes the next mob in that area elite, with 200% hp/mp/armor/images/etcetc)