Each of the 5 classes in Diablo III has its own (theoretically) unique resource to manage. However, more could be done to distinguish them. I'd like to go through how the classes currently play, then propose some alternate resources. I'll be paying closest attention to providing each class with its own unique play experience.
What Blizzard Did
Barbarian
 |
| Fury |
The Barbarian generates Fury by attacking or being attacked. Fury can then be spent offensive skills like Hammer of the Ancients. Some skills with long cooldowns, such as Leap, generate Fury. Fury begins to decay after 10 seconds out of combat.
Monk
 | |
| Energy |
Monks use Energy. (EDIT: No they don't! They use Spirit!) Some moves add energy while others take it away - the distinction often seems arbitrary. Discounting certain items which grant Energy regeneration, the pool doesn't passively regenerate or decay. In practice Energy feels similar to Fury.
Demon Hunter
 |
| Hatred/Discipline |
Demon Hunters have a dual system of Hatred and Discipline. Quickly-regenerating Hatred is generated by attacks to be spent on offensive attacks, while slowly-regenerating Discipline is used for defensive moves like Caltrops or Vault.
Witch Doctor & Wizard
 |
| Mana |
 |
| Arcane Energy |
Witch Doctors use Mana while Wizards use Arcane Energy. Theoretically Arcane Energy has a smaller pool and faster regeneration but in practice these two resources are pretty much identical. Cast until empty, then run in circles until recharged.
What I Would Have Done
Barbarian
The Barbarian is pretty solid as-is, but could use a few tweaks.
Fury should begin to decay after 5 seconds rather than 10. As it exists now there's a pretty clear distinction between "combat" and "not combat" but the decay doesn't have any effect on battle. Throw in a little tension.
Many moves which generate Fury have no real reason for doing so. Initiations like Leap should be free of cost but unless I'm shouting mightily to start a battle I can't see why these moves can't just generate a typical basic-attack amount of Fury.
Monk
Energy feels unnecessary. The lack of visual connect between which moves will gain or spend Energy contributes a lot to this. But the main reason is that the Monk plays like a cooldown hero who can ignore his Energy reserves most of the time.
The Monk should feel like a martial arts master. He should flow smoothly from one move to the next. He should encourage a constant rotation of abilities rather than a repeated jab with the same attack.
Stances would be one way to accomplish this. Mouse clicks would be attacks like punch and kick while 1/2/3/4 are passive stances like "Snake Form" or "Ostrich Form". Activating a stance grants passive effect and a short-term active burst. "Monkey Form" might grant increased dodge chance and 2 seconds of increased move speed, while "Eagle Form" would grant increased critical strike damage and 2 seconds of guaranteed crits. For those who play League of Legends, this is basically Udyr.
Alternately, each stance could be its own resource. Imagine three pools, for simplicity Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Fire stance grants explosive fiery effects to each attack but uses up the fire pool, while Ice would grant slowing effects. The effect would be unique to each attack, so a fiery punch might deal additional damage to the target while a fiery kick would splash fire all around. A pool would regenerate much more quickly while not in that stance to encourage a steady rotation. The Monk would need a separate set of keys for stance-switching if this were implemented.
Another idea would be for the Monk to use a combo-like system similar to Diablo II's Assassin. Each attack would have two effects: an imediate one and something to buff the next attack. Kick would deal small damage and knockback and grant +20% damage to your next attack, while punch deals large damage and applies a stun to the next attack. Optimal play would flow one move into the next in a constant chain, but each player would choose the chain which fits them best. I might like to punch-punch-kick, while you might want to roll-punch-chop.
Demon Hunter
Hatred and Discipline should be combined into a single bar with a slider indicating how close you are to either extreme. Some skills push towards Hatred while others push towards Discipline. At full Hatred, for example, Hatred moves are unusable until the Demon Hunter has regained some Discipline. A constant force back towards the center serves as passive regeneration.
Currently Hatred applies to offense while Discipline applies to defence, but that would not work as well with this proposed change. Moves would need to be altered such that you're not annoyed that you need to spend some useless defensive moves just to get back into the fight.
This opens up several unique playstyles. Some might prefer to balance in the center while others ride close to full Hatred. Passive skills could enhance this by applying things like "gain 1% critical strike chance for each point of Hatred" or "15% increased move speed while within 10 points of the center". Other skills could use up massive amounts of one resource to allow for a waxing and waning style which oscillates quickly between the two extremes, or as double the Hatred double the fun.
I like that this system strongly ties the Demon Hunter's mechanics to her flavor. She must constantly maintain both extremes of emotion without letting either overpower the other.
Wizard
Wizards use mana. I thought we'd established this over 20 years of gaming. It's simple and it works. None of this Arcane bullshit.
Witch Doctor
Since we're giving mana to the Wiz, the Doc needs something unique.
One idea is Good Juju/Bad Juju. This would basically be the current incarnation of the Demon Hunter applied to the Witch Doctor instead. Defensive spells like Heal and tricky illusion spells spend Good JuJu, while offensive spells spend Bad Juju. This has the virtue of simplicity but still feels like Wizard 2.0.
The Witch Doctor should feel like what Necromancer from Diablo II should have been. He commands a horde of minions into battle while he himself sits back to toss in an opportune spell or two. His resource should encourage this.
This gave me the idea to use his minions as his resource. Proposed Doc is cursed to spawn a nearby zombie every 10 seconds, up to a cap of five zombies. Killing enemies causes zombies to spawn more quickly. Doc can empower zombies with his offensive spells. In the gameplay trailer the Doc could breath poison onto zombie dogs to empower them with poison attacks, or fire to give them fire attacks. I assume this was removed due to frustration; attacking enemies with a fire spell would reset all your poison zombies. This issue is fixable. Holding a certain key while attacking could make it to only hit minions. Or attacks while mousing over your zombie's portrait in the top right would instead target that zombie. Worst case the bonuses don't overwrite one another but have limited duration - this leads to micromanagement and is less fun since the correct answer is just to always use all the skills.
But not only can he empower zombies: he could also sacrifice them to harvest their souls. He might detonate a zombie to release a poison cloud at that location. He could sacrifice a zombie to heal himself, or to spend its soul to launch a magical fireball. Some spells might cost more; sacrificing three zombies might be the cost to charm a single enemy to fight for him. Sacrificing all zombies could empower the Doc himself with increased stats for a time, or they could be combined into a super-zombie.
Obviously the details are sketchy and you'd need clear minion commands to avoid frustration with poor AI. You'd also need to account for the situation where zombies just die quickly to the enemy and deprive the Doc of his resource. But overall this would make the Doc play less like a Wizard in a loincloth.
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