Health Globe

Health Globes are orbs of life energy that can drop from some slain monsters. Characters refill their hit points by walking over health globes. The benefit of health globes are shared to every player in the area. Health globes persist forever, and if not consumed after a battle will float in space indefinitely, allowing players to save them for later, if necessary.

In early builds of Diablo III there were also Mana Globes, but these were removed in mid-2009, and Health Globes now provide mana bonuses to characters using mana.

Why they Exist

Two health orbs after battle. Full picture.

While there isn't a given reason in the lore (yet) for these power-ups floating in mid air like an arcade game, the reason for their existence in the gameplay is to increase speed of gameplay without relying so heavily on potions. The development team wanted to keep Diablo III fast paced and filled with action, not waiting idle for health or mana to regenerate. Jay Wilson also said that the old potion-based combat, where potions basically were extra health and mana to your pools, they wanted it to be more interactive.

Game Mechanics

One health orb in the middle of a fray. Full picture.

These globes of health work as you would expect, when stepping on them, you will get an increase in health. The increase is over time, so not instant, and you only activate them if you are lacking health. The interesting thing about multiplayer and orbs is that they heal all party members in the vicinity, enabling any player to be a makeshift healer. Even if the person picking the orb up is at full health, it will heal others.

The drop rate is quite low, but with the amount of monsters coming at players, there should rarely be a lack of orbs, and when they are far between, there is always potions. Additional tweaks have also been promised.

Source

We're also playing around with some alternate functionality for when/how they're picked up while you're at full health, as well as some visual tweaks. Regardless we're going to make sure it's as fun and balanced as possible.

Health orbs heal on a % basis; if they fill say, 25% of a character's hit points, then a Barbarian would get more actual health from one than a Witch Doctor, even though both would see their health globe fill the same amount.

Drop Rates

Jay Wilson said they were on about 25-35%.

Boss Battles

During Boss battles, or battles with rares and champions, Jay Wilson said "they would drop health globes at percentages of their health. Rares in particular are almost guaranteed to drop about every 25%."[1]

Appearance

A new globe as seen in the Wizard gameplay trailer.

In the BlizzCon 2008 build, the globes had changed slightly, getting some sort of ornamental graphic on the top and bottom, like a small golden crown.

Health Globes and Mana

In the GamesCom 2009 demo, Mana Globes have been removed. At the end of one video, the Wizard regains a large amount of mana by picking up a Health Globe. This is because they now get Mana as well as Health from Health Globes if they invested in Stability Control.

Witch Doctors also receive mana benefits from health globes, if they have invested into various of their mana+ skills.

Controversy

There has been some small level of controversy about these Health Orbs as some players do not like the idea of "power-ups" in a RPG game. It is nowhere near the levels of the art controversy, but some people are genuinely upset.

In either way, it is highly unlikely that Blizzard will change Health Orbs significantly at this point.

Development

The first Health Globe was shown at WWI 2008 with the announcement of Diablo III and the Barbarian/Witch Doctor. It was originally just a read "blob" floating, but had received a graphics update by BlizzCon later in the year with a little golden crown on the top and end.

By BlizzCon 2009, the mechanics of the globe had been changed slightly as well with the disappearance of Mana Globes, now giving mana to Wizards using the Stability Control skill.

By January 2010[2], the Wizard got a confirmed new resource pool known only as instability, but the Witch Doctor might still be able to benefit from Health Globes when recuperating mana.

References