A fan asked for some updates on “core” game features, and got some replies from Bashiok:
Have there been any updates in regards to health, mana and it’s cousins…Ie. Fury
Bashiok: Fury is going through some further iteration. The orb system wasn’t really working out like we had hoped and was creating some roadblocks. The other resource systems, nothing really to share. The wizard instability is reworked as well. More about all those at BlizzCon.
Have there been any changes to health/mana orbs?
Bashiok: No mana globes. Health globes, they’ve changed appearance since last everyone saw, and we’ll probably get some info out about those before BlizzCon.
Any updates on health/mana potions?
Bashiok: No? They’re still around.
Also, have there been any changes to the player skills system? I.e. the way we learn new skills and shape our characters.
Bashiok: Yeah, I mean, there’s no real trees any more. Kind of. But this is something we’re not talking about until BlizzCon. You’ll see it then. It sort of streamlines the tree system, but there’s still a skill tree there technically if you wanted to map it out… and there’s… other stuff, I’ll stop there, it’s getting confusing.
Bashiok didn’t exactly spell it out, but Mana Globes have been out of the game since before last year’s BlizzCon. They were redundant and of limited utility, so they were removed and various other skills were tweaked to give the Wizard and Witch Doctor mana bonuses from Health Globes.
As for Fury, I’m not surprised to hear that it’s being tweaked after proving something of a roadblock. The system of gaining Fury from taking and dealing damage seems sound, but spending it only in 33/66/100% chunks felt limiting, with so wide a variety of skills to fuel.
Impressive…even is I already had seen the monk drawing, it stills amazes me. The level of detail and the effort put in the colors n` backgrounds are amazing. But my favorite here is Dungeon, it gaves a cold sensation of a prior slaughter, great uses of the blues and grays in there. I hope to see more pieces of you, guys.