map idea/system. opinions?

i have an idea for a hero arena, and i would like some opinions before i release it. its missing some stuff, and despite the fact that it is ready for release technically, i would still like some comments on what i have so far.

features

this map has no experience at all. it sounds wierd, but i think it can work. now how do the heroes learn abilities? increase stats? by the sphere system.

see, spheres are divided into classes. mana, support, command, boost, and element. spheres are items that the game revolves around. they work with your inventory slots, so you can influence your stats and abilities.

slots
[1][2]
[3][4]
[5][6]

a shere will bond to other spheres placed adjacent to it. these bonds dont actually fuse the items, but define the roles of spheres and how they help each other.if a mana shere is placed in 3, slots 1 and 4 will attempt to bond. only 3 spheres ata time will bond, the priority is the number of the slots. so if i place spheres on 1,4, and 5, and put a sphere in the middle of them to try and bond, only 1,3, and 4 will bond.

mana spheres- these spheres are used to give your character cutsom spells. these are useless on thier own, but by bonding, they can give your hero more options.

command spheres- these spheres are used t access your heroes main spells, that only it has. for example, in this map, a mountain king would need to use a command sphere to get stormbolt.

boost spheres-these spheres simply boost stats

the other spheres are more specific and confusing, but some examplss might help. look at this. the parenthesis tell you what class the sphere is

slot1=lightening sphere(element)
slot2=nothing
slot3=blast sphere(mana)
slot4=nothing
slot5=nothing
slot6=nothing

now the spheres are adjacent, just click on the mana sphere, and your hero gets a spell! the spell is lightening bolt. ill tell you that the mana sphere determines the type of spell, while the lightening orb defined it more specifically. but what happen if we do some more orb fiddling?

slot1=lightening sphere(element)
slot2=nothing
slot3=blast sphere(mana)
slot4=echo(support)
slot5=nothing
slot6=nothing


now click on the mana orb again. it will now take both of the other orbsit becomes.
blast-lightening-echo

the echo effect makes an effect happen after the spell is completed. in this case, it would be a mini version of blast-lightening, but again it can be expanded.

slot1=lightening sphere(element)
slot2=nothing
slot3=blast sphere(mana)
slot4=echo(support)
slot5=nothing
slot6=voodoo(element)

so this means that the spell, lightening bolt, will echo a blast-unholy combo spell.

if you understood at all how the system works, there are a few formulas, this isnt all random. here is also the list of spheres.

mana spheres
-blast
-repel
-summon
-effect
-slam

element spheres
-lightening
-fire
-water
-unholy
-holy

support spheres
-echo
-turbo
-extra effect

boost spheres
-agility
-strength
-intelligence

command spheres

these spheres work differently. they are kinda like mana spheres, but instead of creating a spell by what it bonds with, they are used to meet the requirement s of a heroes unique spells. for example, to give your mountain king stormbolt, stormbolts requirement is
blast(command)-added effect(support).

orbs are the only items accessable in the game, but they have so far been pretty interesting. there are a total of 25 basic spells that can be made from mana spheres, and 15 different addition that can be made with support spheres. this modest number of basic effects becomes 375 possible combinations. the sphere system allows people to create thier own spells custom, learn the core spells of thier hero, and boost their stats. this makes leveling up obselete.

the second feature is a good ai, that will not only use these spheres effectively, but will make simple tactical decisions. sounds easy, but its been pretty hard.

so any thoughts? do these systems stand a chance of making the game unique, or is my hero arena doomed to be the stereotype :(. any thoughts would be good. if the sphere sytem sucks, how could i improve it?

I think you have too many of them, too many items yielding too many combinations. You get a bunch of spells that are probably too similar. Out of mana and element combos alone you get 4x6=24 spells. This may not sound like a lot, but for spells that are all accesible by a single hero, it is. In warcraft, where each hero is limited to 4 spells, there's a lot of repeating, obviously most heroes need to have a damage spell of some sort, and that's ok, but here, having a choice between 10 different damage spells is just not neccesary.
Then there's the question about how big an effect the additional spheres add: if it's too small, then they're irrelevant, no sense in having them, but if it's strong then that means they do matter, which means you get 24x3 combinations that matter, and now you're really getting into the too-many-spells-zone.