For review's sake, Bashiok offered a quick recap of the basics of the Barbarian's Fury system:
Official Blizzard Quote:
The barbarian fury system works off of the idea that [highlight]as he gets more into the battle, doing and taking more damage, he builds up this power which lets him unleash more damage[/highlight]. That idea is ingrained in the way he plays and the way his skills look and work. And the visual style of the resource system itself, of the three fury orbs, is sort of a molten lava. Which again plays into his very physical earth-shattering flavored skills.
The Witch Doctor's energy system is fairly self-explanatory since we all know how it will function, but in case anyone had not seen official Blizzard words on it:
Official Blizzard Quote:
We've stated that [highlight]only the Witch Doctor is planned to use mana[/highlight] at this point in time [...]
As far as the other two announced classes and one unannounced class, scant information, if it can be called that, has been revealed. Anyone that is knowledgeable in the workings of Blizzard, however, should be familiar with these nebulous replies that often raise more questions than they answer:
Official Blizzard Quote:
I think when we unveil the resource system the Wizard uses it will actually make a lot of sense.
[...]
The other class' resource systems play very much into what each class is, their flavor and kit, and individual style in approaching combat.
The major motivation for offering different energy types for each character is, of course, to offer unique and different play styles for each character, as opposed to with Diablo II, where essentially all casters played the same way and all melee characters played the same way, thus, hopefully, offering some better degree of variation. Whether this proves to work will only be revealed as more of the game is released and we all get to see more of what the systems will offer.
To see more on this topic, you can see more of the discussion via our Blizz Tracker here.
I'm just surprised that the WD is using Mana and not the Wizard, but thats not bad. Can't wait to see what "energy source" the Wizard is using and how it works.
They definitively seem to like different energy sources since WoW, and proven again with WotLK. Mana, Energy, Rage and the latest DK's Rune Power. And in my experience, it did give considerably different gameplay.
If every character use different energy sources, balancing might be a huge issue, and might probably push D3's release right after my great, great grandson is born.
Anyways, theres already been some discussion on this, and general ideas were that the monk should use some form of "chi", and the WD should use souls or something like that. For some reason, mana just doesn't seem to fit the WD.
Yeah, that really puzzled me, honestly. I guess I won't have a real opinion on it until I see whatever they have for the Wizard, though. Dunno.
Chi for monk sounds cool though. But if they make it "chakra" I swear, I'll burn myself in a stake face-first.
I too think it would be nice to have the WD get his own type of magic. But then we all know someone will get upset that mana wouldn't be in the game at all. *Ahem* Dingler.
I think it was something like the Wizard was using Mana for the demos but they are working on a unique and fresh system for it (derived from the quote in the OP somewhat). Just because they hadn't finished the system yet for the Wizard would have been a poor excuse to keep demo players from playing it, I think. At least, if I went all the way to the BlizzCon, I would have been pissed if I was restricted from playing it because they didn't have its energy system ready yet. Its probably just a generic placeholder until they are ready to unveil its system.
This is strange thinking, because if anything happens from this method, is better and easier balancing. Do you think balancing the game around one energy source for all character is easier? Why?
Having a source different for everyone means that whatever you do to them, and to the items and stats that have anything to do with them, they will only impact the character you are aiming the change at.
While the new energy sources themselves create a bunch of additional work... I just see it as a big help for balancing, not the opposite.
They have no reason to pointlessly give the Wizard's resources a different name if the mechanics are not going to change. I think it would be pretty lame, anyway.
I doubt that. Blizzard certainly got the team to find more ways than you could imagine for energy systems. Of course, most probably wouldn't work so well, so its a length process. I think the thing to say here is, they have a lot of ideas, but won't throw them at us until they settle long enough with some more specific system.
They know very well by now, that throwing us information that can change in a month does not bring very good reactions.
However, I found myself in the past drawn to characters with the more unique ways of handling their abilities.
The Final Fantasy series was so successful because it was extremely creative with its different battle styles and different ways of learning and using abilities. The energy/rage/mana types in WoW were all very solid. When the DK came out, whether you liked the class or not, you agreed the runes were unique and fun.
But even if you're not a FF or WoW fan, you admit, variety is the spice of life... and games!
I think having different energy types for each character is genious because without them, each character is essentially the same core covered with different animations and skill names. Different energy types means each character will feel different and require a different mindset or approach.
Beautiful. If there are several of these types of differences between each class, each character will surely offer a unique play-through.