Diablo III Forum Activity

Diablo community manager "Bashiok" discusses dismemberment, party bonuses, mana regeneration, and character levels in his latest responses on the official Diablo III forums.

On death animations and dismemberment:
We do have both havok based and hand-crafted animations, and which of these is used is generally dependent on which monster it is. We have a few in there, like the skeletal summoner and grotesque, that have hand-made death animations and those will play through every time. But most monster death is determined by how they died. Was it a critical, was it a critical from a type of elemental damage, was a specific ability used that maybe kills them in a specific way, etc. etc.

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Does decapitation count?

On party bonuses:
I'm not sure that's the right way to go about it, but the cooperative game definitely centers on keeping players together. Encouraging them to stay near each other, and helping them get back together should they be separated. There are many ways to do both, not all of them are the right answer.

On mana regeneration:
Obviously it's just too early to say the wizard does or does not have mana issues, that all comes down to balancing and fine tuning, and ideally of course the goal is that each class is very playable and not frustrating. Especially at early levels.

Mana orbs are actually the product of a passive skill in the wizard's arcane tree. Since we can't guarantee people will get that skill I don't think it can ever really become the deciding factor in mana regen. It is an early skill in that tree though, easy to pick up, and sure to be helpful.

On character levels in the demo:
It's kind of irrelevant what level they were as the trailers were essentially staged performances. Not that they weren't indicative of actual gameplay, but we weren't leveling up actual characters, picking up actual dropped gear, etc.

The BlizzCon playable demo, where people could wait in line then actually play the game, for that people started at I believe level 5.