Rezoner: DO IT. PLZ.
It's goin to be a lot better this way, more dynamic and more competitive!

If they have to be, then other issues in the gameplay should be solved first.
I already see the scene: two people up the stairs spamming the hell out of the game to prevent anyone from going up, and a magician/archer on top that kills just about anyone on sight.

MMMMH... I see a problem:
I think projectiles should be able to deal damage when under the cliff, at least if the enemy is facing the border, otherwise who's on top has way tooooooooo much advantage.
It risks to become a camping station.

I'd add, the lack of variety in the diagonal lines more than anything else.

the lack of diagonal lines makes it seems a little too much pokemon, and old rpg in general.
But it looks fun, so I have no complaint!

I believe the axe is "underpowered" to push users to buy other weapons. Maybe.
I agree with you that, given everything in account, the axe is inferior compared to other weapons. But I wouldn't change the situation, as that is the weapon everyone starts with. Maybe it would be better to add another axe with different attacks and specials.

:(

Well, even if he randomized the flags they would still be pretty recognizable... don't you think?

It's actually a wonderful idea to have shield abilities, I think!
The normal shield is just a shield.
Captain's america shield might work like a boomerang (without damage but with stun capabilities). You can launch it and it comes back.

Other ideas for shield abilities?
Maybe X-shield an "explosion" ability. Whatever arrives to the shield is deflected to another direction. A hit or an arrow, or a blade.

Or...Y-shield might be a flying shield: to traverse a long pit section or just to go faster from a place to another, one could use the shield to "fly" in the opposite direction (of course with a limit, unlimited shield flight is not cool). The player jumps on top of it and arrives to the desired destination with temporary invincibility (maybe only special attacks can break through, thus making the player fall). When the flight animation finishes, the shield disappears, kinda like when you throw your weapon.

I think that it's a good idea, but at the same time it doesn't work 100% for the way it is applied right now.

The ranking system before was based on the sheer number of kills, which is fine. But not all kills are the same: are you a moderately good player that chases down newbies, or a damn good player that chases down newbies? You can see that this way kills raise up considerably but the merit might be relative.

With the bone system the "quality" of your kills have a lot more weight. If someone has a ton of bones, it means that that player is a good-very good player. If you are able to kill him, it probably means that you've been as good as him, or that you outsmarted your opponent.
But at the same time... is it always the case?
So yeah, the bone system is also flawed but to my concern it's better than the kills one.
It should just be refined a bit.

For example, accidental deaths shouldn't give bones to other players, because in that case is just lack of luck or an idiot move, and nobody has a merit over that.