Diablo III: Different Energy Sources For Each Class

I did always hate having to have Mana as a Barbarian in Diablo II.  It never made any sense. Whirlwind (a physical skill) taking Mana to cast rather than say... stamina.  A lot of Diablo II doesn't make sense if you look too closely.  Good job it's a fun game.

Wasn't there something about Assassins being wizard hunters, as well?  Seemed strange that they would use the same magical resource as their enemies.  I could be totally wrong about that, but hey

 

The only magical resource is mana. Well in classic fantasy archetype. How you use it makes you different. 

 

Well, it keeps things simple for pen and paper games.  Fair enough there.

 

Thank god for that. I despise mana. It's the reason I never used the Sorcerer in Diablo 1. Ever.
And yeah, like Pink said, it just didn't make sense for certain characters to use it for certain skills in Diablo 2.

This is very good news.

 

Diablo III is gonna be so great

 

MONKS WILL USE CHAKRA

 

AWESOME! lol

 

Well this is good to know tbh. To keep the mana thing the same, does seem boring now knowing that they're taking it to the next step in gaming evolution

I just finished D2LOD again for the first time in ages, and enjoyed it a lot (nostalgia!). I played the Paladin, and also not even half way through Act 1 I realized that mana potions just take up inventory space as I never use them, and forgot about mana for the rest of the game... So knowing now that D3 will have class specific energy sources is good news indeed

 

Well in your particular case it doesn't change things jack ****. You'd just end up with another type of potion... And since there won't be any potions at all your post is completely irrelevant.

 

Actually I think it is relevant...

Because when having a uniform spell system for classes that are very much melee based it makes the mana pointless for them.

If each class has a unique system in place, devs will more likely make it more mandatory to use whatever energy source the class needs (eg Fury for the barbarian), which in turn would mean that it is good news, as rather than wasting a slot for a pointless potion, that slot will now be able to hold either skills, or some other cool potions which were apparently in some builds of D3 (eg. timed potions that boosted stats, etc).

 

True. Still, using skills with mana could be made just as mandatory as with whatever the unique source would be (just that Blizzard maybe failed to do that in D2). After all, it's just a name. What difference does it make if it's called something else and has a different color? Of course, you wouldn't be able to make the Barbarians "mana" to increase during battle as it does with the fury, but looking at it from a perspective, it's almost the same system as with the mana. (Exept for the fact that fury starts of at zero.) Of course they might add some very different systems for the other classes, but it still doesn't change the fact that using skills with mana could be as utilized as any other source. Maybe not as fun, but still.

Anyway, I welcome this change for reasons such as lore and making each class more unique and fun to play. Also, Blizzard has to keep up with the gaming evolution just as Cleric said

 

This leads to the question of how they will introduce the energy stats onto items.  Obviously, there will no longer be items that affect all characters' energy (as mana/%/max/recov items did).

 

Great point, Bethryn! I hadn't even considered that.  Perhaps they will have to find a collective term for all the different energies, or maybe they will just tailor it so that class specific items only appear with their respective energy+ attribute.

Very interesting.

 

I think that there will be a lot more class specific items. Blizzard said that while they don't want to limit the character creation to much, there will definitely be rewards for classes using the weapons and armours more suited to them. So each item will probably have bonuses for a certain class. You'll still be able to use it on another class, just without the perks.

I also doubt there's going to be much stat boosting bonuses at all on items now, considering stats are no longer an issue (thank f**k for that). Maybe now we'll get some really cool weapon specific perks, ones that you don't get as skills, such as Crushing Blow and Open Wounds from Diablo 2.

 

I quite like class focused items, but I'm not so sure about class exclusive ones.  I felt they had it really where it needed to be with the 1-2 items per class that only they could use.  Even though, for example, Guild Wars demonstrates you can have customisability with class exclusive items, the mixing from previous roguelikes has generally worked well.

As for stat boosting, maybe, maybe.  I think that if it remains, it'll be valued for its stat effect rather than gear enabling; i.e. you pick up strength gear because it's actually good for your damage, rather than to wear that piece of armour.

 

Well, thats not really that suprising, WoW classes anyone? they don't all use mana.

 

That's just lame. Are you going to find a way to compare it to WoW in every possible way?

I thought that arguement died a long time ago with the Colour War. Guess a few people are refusing to move on.

 

Ugh, this reeks of bad. And yes, it does kill flexibility.

What if I want a wizard that becomes more powerful the more damage he deals and recieves? What if I want a barb that can unleash all his power at the beginning of a fight for a massive burst, but then has to recharge? It's all good and well, but the best gaming experiences I've ever had have been from emergent style gameplay. You know, when someone thought "How damn good would it be if I got that item that turned my sorc into a bear?" 

I'm all for different styles of energy, but please, don't try to bottleneck players into certain ways of playing. It was bad enough getting rid of manual stat placement and by getting rid of potions, please don't make this game WoW!

 

You either play a class who can do those things, or go find an RPG without classes.

Complaining about this is silly.  If you're that concerned with being bottle-necked, then this isn't the game for you.  Simple.  

Classes mean restrictions and limitations.  Deal.

 

isn't it a better idea for blizzard to STOP releasing this info that diablo3 will re-hash some tired idea from WOW, and actually talks about something fresh, exciting and diablo-like.

i played WOW for 3 years (1 year pure awesome + 2 years of nightmare-ish addiction slump) and if i ever have to play wow or a wow-clone again it'll be a few lifetimes too soon.