Health Globes (AKA Orbs) are red, floating globes of life energy that "[[drop]]" from slain monsters or spawn in certain locations (including in the [[Arena]]). Health globes are "used" when a character passes through or near one, and grant the same full bonus of healing (hit points) to all friendly characters and minions in the immediate vicinity. Each orb refills a character's health globe for a set percentage of their maximum hit points, with the same bonus granted whether a character uses the orb themselves or shares the benefit from a friendly player activating it.

Health gain varies with the type of health globe, but it is always some percentage (25%, 33%, 40%, etc) of a character's maximum hit points. The hit points are not added instantly, but fill up gradually, over a few seconds. Health globes are thus not an instant cure for death, so an embattled, near-dead character should drink a potion for the instant life boost, since they could still die to an attack taken right after using a health orb.

The healing effect of a health orb is shared by all friendly players and pets in the immediate area (a radius of perhaps 10 yards; characters who are at the far corners of the screen may not be close enough to benefit). Health orbs are community drops, unlike item drops in Diablo III; all players in the game see all health orbs when they appear, and they can be used by anyone.

Each health orb is consumed completely when used, vanishing from the world. Health orbs cannot be moved; rather, they simply float where they spawned. If no player uses one, however, they will remain floating there for some time, and can be returned to for a later health boost.

Health orbs come in various quality levels. The ones dropped by normal monsters are lower quality and will refill just 25% of a character's hit points. Other orbs will refill more; the ones that spawned in the [[Arena]] demo at Blizzcon 2010 were worth 40% of a character or minion's hit points, and Blizzard has hinted that there may even be 100% health orbs out there, dropped only by the most powerful monsters.[http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/health.xml]

<blue>More powerful health globes, capable of completely restoring your health even at death's door, might exist somewhere in the world of Sanctuary. Of course, that's probably wishful thinking.</blue>

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==Gameplay and Challenge==

Health orbs are a major part of Diablo III's gameplay design. The [[D3 Team]] has worked to remove the easy ways of healing and escaping from trouble that were so common in Diablo II: no more can characters count life leech equipment, or belts full of potions that can be used instantly and repeatedly, or [[Town Portals]] for quick town returns. These changes allow the developers to make the game more consistently challenging unlike Diablo II, where the only way things were hard was if a monster could kill a character in an instant, and that wasn't hard, it was cheesy.

In Diablo III the goal is for a more consistently challenging play experience, and for players to have to stick it out in battles to earn a health globe, rather than just popping back to town. Jay Wilson spoke about this design philosophy in an interview from Blizzcon 2009. [http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1017305p2.html]

<blue>We changed the health model, so that players don't rely on potions. Instead they can pick up health power-ups from enemies. It doesn't change the basic way the game plays, but it gives it a little bit more depth. You don't have one answer to healing in combat – "I'm in trouble, I hit a potion." Instead, "I'm in trouble, there's a health globe over there, and there's a 20-foot demon standing between me and it." That's a really interesting situation for the player, but it works with the same complexity of interface and gameplay that we had.

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...We did put health potions back in, but they play a very different role. You can't spam them like you used to, you can only use them about once a map. The purpose of those is to take the edge off the loss of health. "I don't have health, or I've got half health, do I want to use a health potion, or do I want to risk it? Ooh, I've got 10% health, it's not even a decision." That's a really interesting decision, and it makes potion use a fun part of the game.</blue>

==Boss Battles==

Boss monsters drop health orbs during the battle, generally at set percentages of their hit points. For instance, once you knocked a monster down to 75% of its maximum life, it would drop a globe or globes. [[Jay Wilson]] commented on this in 2009, [http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/101/1017305p2.html] "[bosses] would drop health globes at percentages of their health. Rares in particular are almost guaranteed to drop about every 25%."

They’re on timers right now, which actually makes for interesting gameplay. If they were random you’d probably hover there. With set timers you can go off and game people a little more knowing that they won’t spawn again for X time. --Diablo</blue>

If the developers have sketched out some lore for health orbs, they have not made it public. An in-game explanation for health orbs isn't essential, but after all, there were no such things in Diablo I or Diablo II.

==Development History==

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 floating red "blob", but has since received a graphics update (as of [[BlizzCon 2008]]) with a little golden crown on the top and bottom.

This changed further in early 2010, when the Wizard's new resource, [[Instability]] was revealed. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/monk-resource-system-complete/] This resource, later changed to [[Arcane Power]], was not affected by health globes. The Witch Doctor, on the other hand, continued to gain mana from health globes.

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Image:Health Orbs1.jpg|Two health orbs in early artwork.

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