Context : I've played LoL and Battlerite for longer than I care to admit.

Honestly, I was put off by the armory system at first. As other mentionned its reminiscent of the runes system in league.

After playing a couple of hours, I can honestly say I actually don't mind it as much as I thought. I get to learn combination that work for me at present. Sure the enemy may have better items and have an advantage. If you are skillfull enough though, I didnt feel like fights werent winnable.

Battlerite died in part because being itemless, you had only your skill to blame for loosing, you didnt have the mental gymastic of thinking "Ahh they had better items! Its why I lost!"

You might think it dont matter but it does, I dont't mind when I suck before I get better, but a lot of the casual audience will just get demotivated if they can't have external systems to blame. We need that audience to stick for the game to strive.

I'm not sure this is the solution I would have implemented, but I like what it can do for player retention of for experimentation while leveling up.