So you want to give away information that is supposed to be hidden, IE your purchases, what skills you have, etc. just for aesthetic appeal? No thank you.

What I do think could work are high favor cost items that allow you to unlock alternate costumes for the Demigods. That kind of stuff works for a lot of games; people who want aesthetic stuff can grind for it, and people who like the game don't have to bother with it.

Good idea would be nice to see that in this game.

Would also look cool if different armor was shown

 BTW you missed torch hes changes too based on frost or fire minor tho

I think not knowing what someone has adds a level of strategy to the game. It allows for more bluffing, such as when you are totally oom but at full health. Countering a person requires you to watch them closely to decide their equipment and skill choices. You look just as threatening as anyone else, and can thus keep going in your lane. That being said, it'd be interesting if at least Artifacts showed up on your character, but think about it. How would QoT hold one? And would hers be the same size as Rook's? Rook's All Father's Ring would be too large for other characters to use as a belt. The scaling (model) differences, questions in usage (how would you use 3 gloves?), and graphical strain are simply too much for this to go through, in my opinion.

That wouldn't improve the depth at all. It would be nice and certainly be a bit better, but thatd take so much time, money and effort that I'd rather see go to other things. And your not the first too have thought of this several posts like this popped up in beta.

Either I am a total n00b or that game is not popular enough to reference it simply as "TQ," because I have zero guess as to what that might be.

Oh wait. After googling for "TQ + GAME" I found something called Titan Quest. Is that what you are talking about?

EDIT: Practicing the art of being less of an internet dick.

*deleted*

Actually in DotA there are a lot of extra effects dependant on the specific hero and item combo. Not all items need to cause a change, (why would TB change his staff for a sword when getting Askandor..). Plus altering models and having addon items is actually relatively simple and light work (the hard part is the items usage and damage and they are already there). Also if you look to DotA as a comparison you could see the targets inventory when they were selected and also if they were OOM or not. I'm not saying you should see the skills chosen (though in DotA you could too), or even Mana, but Items that are suited to a character should give a visual change, probably more for the artifacts and favour items than any of the normal ones (except maybe godplate!).

You can't see an enemy's skills in DotA unless they use them, or it's a passive buff. There are simply few enough skills and builds that you can generally guess at what anyone has at any given time.

I remain of the opinion that it is best to keep mana and items hidden, and force people to make intelligent evaluations of an enemy's potential on their own.

Some of the passive buffs in the game already do have a visual effect. Some, no many.

Erebus' Vampiric Aura is an obvious one...

Sedna has a few. Divine Wind places some wisps around her, Inner Grace makes her look "pasty" and shaded out with white, and Magnificent Presence makes little white pulses come off of her.

I beleive Rook's hands and hammer begin to glow with a bloom/gold glow aura thingy when you start addding points into God Strength.

I think Oak's axe has a similar effect the more he's charged with Soul Power.

I don't believe Beasts' passives add anything, nor anyone else's that I know of.