Finalized Character Resources
With the Beta tantalizingly close, Blizzard continues adding to their new Diablo 3 Community Site. This afternoon we got a glimpse of each classes' Resource System, complete with animated globes! Though this information is generally already known, by Blizzard posting an official page on the topic it seems the function of each system is finalized. Each system specifically supports the classes' generic role in combat, though doesn't completely prevent the possibility of creative, wild builds.
Barbarians use Fury, which is generated by both landing and taking hits. Some skills generate more fury than others, such as Leap Attack and Ground Stomp. While other skills are Fury heavy, such as Whirl Wind and Threatening Shout. The Barbarian will begin to lose Fury if he or she is out of combat for too long. The Fury System urges the Barbarian to be aggressive by generating Fury from both damage given, and received. Yet punishes the player for staying out of combat for too long.
The Demon Hunter has a split system, using both Hatred and Discipline. Hatred regenerates quickly, and is diminished by using offensive skills such as Bola Shot. On the other hand Discipline regenerates slowly, and is used for more defensive skills such as Smoke Screen, and traps. The Hatred/Discipline resources grant the Demon Hunter the ability to inflict damage from a far, or lure enemies into deadly traps.
A Monk relies on Spirit, which is gained from landing swift attacks such as Fists of Thunder, along with other special Spirit generating abilities. Other powerful attacks only deplete the resource, such as Seven Sided Strike. Spirit does not diminish when the Monk is out of battle, as the Barbarian's Fury does. Spirit guides the Monk to dish out as much damage as possible, while receiving as little as possible. Many of the Monk's skills aid in not getting surrounded.
Mana fuels the Witch Doctor, like in Diablo 2 Mana is gathered slowly, yet has a deep pool. The Witch Doctor may also take advantage of Mana generating skills such as Mana Steal, along with Passive Traits to help quicken the process. Most other attacks aside from Mana generating skills only diminish the resource. With the slow regeneration of Mana, the Witch Doctor is best off keeping an eye on his or her reserve. Fall too low and you may find yourself hopelessly thirsting for Mana in the heat of battle.
Wizards will use Arcane Power, a fast regenerating resource to fuel their vast array of magical spells and abilities. Using skills will only drain your Arcane Power, so pacing yourself in battle will be key to maintaining a constant bombardment of pain. The fast regenerating, yet shallow pool of Arcane Power supports all of the Wizard's skill disciplines, yet limits the amount of spamming which can be done at one time.
Though each resource system has its general function for its specified class, this in no way limits your personal play style.
Official Blizzard Quote:
Maximizing the Devastation
While the fundamental rules of each resource are set in stone, how they’re strategically spent can be greatly customized through passive skills, which can drastically alter how quickly and efficiently your resources generate or regenerate. Through the use of specific skills, as well as the near unlimited combinations offered by skill runes, you can fine-tune your character’s power through resource management and control. Now the choice is yours. Pick your favored class and learn to maximize the benefits of the resources at your disposal, rendering you an incredibly powerful hero and deadly foe of the forces of darkness.
Special thanks to Verity for the lead, and Zhuge for helping extract those nice resource globes.
Oh yes, the Beta is coming.. Find out what to expect From the beta and DiabloFans!
Also be sure to vote in our latest poll, and listen to this week's DiabloCast here!
I think it would be cool for the orbs to all have active physics inside, but that might be a little much.
No, the other classes all sound like they have interesting mechanics for managing your resource, the mana mechanic just doesn't have that fresh feel that the others seem like they will. Barbarians will never find themselves hopelessly needing rage, taking damage and other skills they have will create rage, it will be a constantly changing resource. Wizards replenish quickly enough to always be able to do something, but slow enough to limit them to a reasonable amount of power. Spirit for the monk also sounds like it will never leave you feeling helpless.
On a side note, I've noticed this community has a real big issue with resorting to differing opinions. If you're relatively new to the forums(like myself) the members such as yourself, Doomscream, and there are others that act the same way, just get personally attacked for having an unpopular opinion. Its a shame because the content of this site is absolutely amazing, however some of the community members, do an excellent job of making people feel unwelcome here.
While the other classes have new resources, someone had to have mana.
While the WD could POTENTIALLY be SoL and mana-dry, he has means for restoring some amount of it (I think one skill might by default, and there's a regen passive, and maybe others could be runed to do so). I also think that he'll simply have MORE resource than anyone else. While a barbarian will always only have 100 fury (barring some passive) the WD will be gaining mana with each level, and items (i don't think items will increase other classes' caps, more likely their regen rate or ability costs, but we don't know for certain yet).
In other words, I think the WD will be able to go through say, 4 encounters worth of combat before he's out of mana, whereas every other class will empty their resource every fight. With a long-term resource like this, the WD has the potential to be extra powerful in bursts (i.e. boss fights) while pacing himself when that power isn't necessary (standard monsters) so that his regen can (completely) offset his ability costs when not in "boss mode" consumption.
I never said i can't handle it, i just stated an opinion that it didn't seem fun to me. I'd rather play a class that has regen mechanics built in. Running to town to buy mana pots doesn't count. Don't put words in my mouth.
As for comparing mana to arcane power, from what I've been able to scrape up, the Wizard has a lot less cooldowns. Most of their spells are based on amount of arcane power consumed. You wanna use a super powerful spell? Okay! It'll only cost you 60% of your power. Go for it! Maybe it has a really short cooldown or no cooldown! You just need to have the available resources to use it.
The DH also has a similar resource system to the WD and Wizard from what I can tell. The only difference could probably be that using skills from one side regenerates the other side a little faster. However, the DH can still be quite interesting to try different combinations with due to cooldowns and regeneration rates.
Hey look, an actual constructive post!
Time will tell how the WD mana management will play out i suppose. I guess I just like the idea of fury that you could be at a very low level(maybe ~10) leap into a pack of enemies generating some more, taking some damage, and just using appropriate skills to balance spending and regenerating the resource. With mana its a much more passive management in that you just have to not overuse it and you'll be ok. Definately will have to play all 5 classes and see how they work once the games out, but its fun to speculate sometimes.
There this looks less like semen now
very powerful and pregnancy shot type of semen