I think Eternals are great, they provide a strong heal, an Ultimate Ability, and impactful set bonuses, making each one feel distinct. (i love the audio quality for each set btw)
However, I also think Eternal Sets are currently missing a big potential.
Each Eternal locks you into one specific Playstyle, thats it.
A feature that could solve this would be giving every Eternal Set its own progressable Skill Tree / or a Runepage System (similar to League of Legends).
The e.g. “Skill Tree” could allow players to tailor that specific set to their preferred playstyle. For example, one player could specialize in survivability, while another could lean into mobility, support, melee or ranged playstyles / damage.
With each Eternal Set having their own unique Skill Tree with nuanced playstyles to choose from.
A Skill Tree for each Set would also give us more Progressable Content e.g.
→ Using a specific Eternal Set could grant EXP towards that specific Skill Tree, the more you play that Set, the more Skillpoints you unlock towards it to taper your playstyle.
→ More Content to progress towards, more replayability
Overall, I think Eternals are great but are not at their fullest potential. It could be much more.
Edit:
Or something similar to League of Legends “Runepage” System, which enables Players to have more agency over their very own Playstyle needs.
I would argue against customization personally. Right now if I see someone with a specific item, I know what that item does, I know their strengths and weaknesses, etc. However when you allow someone additional customization with a skill tree or rune page, it removes the ability to visually identify these things.
In Spire, it would make sense to display dedicated icons for the selected Runes, similar to how League shows a player’s Rune setup. This gives opponents a general idea of the playstyle they’re likely facing.
In Ascension, I’d argue it’s already similar to how itemization works. Most of the time, you don’t know exactly what someone is running until you actually fight them and get a feel for the items they’ve built by the abilites they use. The same principle would likely apply to runes or skill tree choices - you’d gradually figure them out during the fight, just as you do now.
The only exception is when someone has ascended, since at that point their set is already known.
But id also argue that the benefit of having more customisation and more, deeper gameplay systems for replayability is far superior of what it grants players and the game in the long run, than leaving the potential untapped and shallow.
There is a reason why customizable systems like “Runepages” or "Skill-Tree´s " are present in every major MOBA released and in most of Competetive Arena PvP Games in this Genre - it helps replayability of the game by giving the player the ability to play with the same game content, but giving him the option to re-experience the “same boring” content with fresh, unique, possibly endless playstyles.
Thanks for pointing that out, its an issue, but shouldnt be a hurdle.
The game tells you exactly what items any given player has the moment they enter your screen.
Wouldn’t adding in runes make that less evident, because then you would have no way of knowing what runes they’ve picked? Sure, I don’t know what items they have until they’re on my screen, but there’s no further guesswork needed the moment they enter my screen even before they use any abilities.
How would I know if they’ve built whatever Eternal they’re using one specific way versus another in Ascension? As it is now, I don’t have to wonder if they’re additionally specced for extra mobility or survivability or damage or anything, because what they’re “specced” for is determined exclusively by the items that I can see equipped on them.
I would love to go into a practice match with you where youll tell me what equipment / abilities i got on the moment i enter your screen + what Amulet (R) i wear before i use any abilities
Weapons are the easy thing here^^
Apart from that - You dont have that information in any other game as well (e.g. in league just 2 symbols that one rarely checks just for a sidenote) and it still just works fine in a world-wide competetive esports setting.
There are plenty of ways to make it visible but it really isnt too much of an issue.
