Diablo III Forum Activity

In his most recent responses on the official Diablo III forums, community manager “Bashiok” discusses shrine buffs, how character stats can be customized, their desire to remove mana from the game, and more.

On paying to restore hardcore characters:

Paying to bring back a fallen hardcore character was something I read someone here post once, and I simply repeated it to say I thought it was an interesting idea. I’m not a designer. Things I find interesting doesn’t mean they’re being implemented. I have though heard Jay (who is lead designer) say that paying to bring back hardcore is pretty much a horrible idea.

On statistic customization:

Not really, they’re referred to by the masses as “auto-stats”. Meaning every level your base stats automatically grow. There will still obviously be ways to customize your stats through various systems though. Itemization being one of them. And some other stuff. So yes you will be able to customize your stats, but it won’t be by gaining a number to distribute every level and pumping them into the base stats directly.

On shrines and orbs:

Shrine buffs apply to the entire party as long as they’re in range.

As far as “power-up orbs” it’s something I thought of as well, which usually means the designers thought of it a year+ ago. Not as a shrine replacement though, but as a replacement for buff scrolls/elixirs. I just either forget to use them or let them sit afraid of wasting them. So they just take up bag space. I face the same dilemma in WoW and usually just end up throwing them on the AH because I realize I’ll never use them. Obviously some people are better than me, and able to remember to use them, as they usually sell.

On wizards, witch doctors, and mana:

We still don’t feel mana fits the feel of the wizard class, and making the wizard use mana to match some definition a magic wielder from some other game from some other decade would be shoehorning mechanics for the sake of nostalgia.

We’re using the instability system for the wizard because it makes sense to the style of the class; thematically as well as mechanically. If mana filled those requirements we’d use it, but it doesn’t.

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I don’t want to sound like we’re being dismissive. As everyone should be aware we work iteratively and the main reason why we haven’t revealed a lot about instability is that it still hasn’t been proven. If it turns out it doesn’t work we’ll try something else. It may be that mana just works the best and we end up going with that, but right now we’re trying something.

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In D&D the magic-user/wizard cast spells through use of reagents, hand gestures, and recitation. No mention of mana, and you could certainly assume that D&D is the basis for much of what the original Diablo was founded on. Like most fantasy RPGs.