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Health System:
It is know that the healthsystem will change in Diablo 3, and it will not be like in Diablo 3, where its all about who could carry/drink most pots.
What effect does monster level have in regards to the type of health orb dropped?
Wilson: Health orbs heal a percentage of life, so the more health the character has, the stronger the effect of the orb. We’ve implemented a system in order to accomplish this. At the moment, we intend healing orbs to heal 15% of health. So if you have 1,000 health, the orb regenerates 150 health, and if you have 100 health, the orb regenerates 15. On the other hand, we can have it so certain monsters, like bosses, drop several orbs, or drop orbs as its own health dwindles. So for example, there can be a chance for an orb to drop every time his health drops by 5%, or force orb drops at certain points in the fight. There are also opportunities for orbs to influence objects or skills. Orbs don’t fill life instantly, they regenerate life.
Health orbs seem primarily useful for co-op play.
Wilson: Yes, co-op play is an important reason we developed the orb system. In Diablo 2, we had a design problem with player challenge. In higher levels, there were monsters with several immunities to attacks, making them almost impossible to kill. The reason why developers elected to use such extremes was because the player was basically almighty and by that point had nearly infinite access to health. He was able to get through every situation by either town portaling or running away. The only thing you can do is have a player that deals tremendous damage, and even that isn’t challenging if you have unlimited healing possibilities. All that remains is the player simply has to charge in and kill. In Diablo 3, we’re trying to create a system where the player actually has to make challenging attempts. If the player, for example, meets up with a horde of enemies blocking him from getting at a health orb, he must say to himself “I’ll use my Teleport to get to the other side.” Or “I’ll use my ability to paralyze the monsters, then run over and get my health back.” The system is rooted in what we’re trying to do with everything in the game, and is important because we really wanted to change how we design monsters. We want them to be able to form a true barrier around players. These monsters will be very difficult to get around, don’t do much damage, but the fact that it requires thinking to overcome will provide a challenge.
