A Resource Pool is part of a character's ability to use Skills. It's generally gathered in various ways and expended upon using as skill, where skills have different "costs", and use a different amount of resource from the pool. Mana is the prime example of a resource pool.
Contents
Diablo Games
In Diablo I and Diablo II all classes used Mana as their one main resource, but in Diablo III not all classes share the same resource. In all the Diablo Games so far, class' resource pool is located in the UI, on the bottom right hand side, usually in an orb or sphere.
Resource Pools
Mana
Mana is the most known resource pool, having been in many RPGs and is usually represented by a blue colour. So far the Witch Doctor and the Wizard are confirmed to use mana as their ability resource in Diablo III.
- Restored by:
- Picking up Health Globes (with a specific skill)
- Regeneration
- Killing enemies with specific skills
- Removed by:
- Some creatures leeching mana.
- Casting spells.
- Mana Related Skills:
- Witch Doctor's Soul Harvest: Killing Enemies with this AoE Spell will restore the Witch Doctor's Mana.
- Wizard's Mana Recovery: Increases the chance of a Mana Globe Dropping (this is currently outdated as there's no mana globes, we'll see if the skill does somethign else).
Fury
Fury is a new resource pool in the Diablo games that only the Barbarian uses. It is similar to the World of Warcraft Warrior class's "Rage" bar.
- Obtained by:
- Fighting
- Taking damage (presumed)
- Removed by:
- Fury Related Skills:
- Bad Temper: Increases/Decreases the rate of Fury Gain/Loss, respectively.
- Enrage: Increases Fury gained and Damage taken for a short time.
- Savage: Increases Fury gained after scoring a Critical hit.
Future Resource Pools
During an interview by IGN with Jay Wilson, he said the following:
- IGN: The barbarian obviously uses fury and the wizard uses mana, so what exactly do the witch doctor and the monk use to power their skills?
- Jay Wilson: Right now the monk and the wizard and the witch doctor all use mana. The witch doctor is actually going with mana, that's official. The monk and the wizard are going to have different systems, and we haven't finished them, I can't talk about them yet. They are definitely both going to be different, but the witch doctor is actually going to be on mana, we like that convention.
This means that the Wizard wont be using mana, Nor the Monk, this creates a lot of room for speculation, which can be discussed here.
Development
Barbarian
In the first publically shown build of Diablo III, shown at WWI 2008, the Barbarian used mana instead of Fury. The D3 Team never actually intended the Barbarian to use mana and the first build only used it as a placeholder. The second version at BlizzCon 2008 used a fury globe, much like the World of WarCraft rage, but this was changed shortly after the event to the system we see today. The BlizzCon 2009 build used the Fury Orb system, where fury builds up to "orbs" (where the mana container is for casters) and some skills require 1-3 orbs to use.
Wizard
From the first time she was show, the Wizard has used mana as resource pool. In the BlizzCon 2009 demo, she regained mana by investing skill points in Mana Recovery, making Mana Globes drop from monsters. She was the only one who could see and benefit from them. This changed in the BlizzCon 2009 demo, where she instead has a skill to get mana as well as life from Health Globes.