Resurrection returns in Diablo 3 (it was a feature in Diablo 1), and it’s undergone some recent changes. Blizzard tweeted about it a few days ago:
[BLUE]Co-Op resurrection mechanic getting changed up. No more reagent.—Dec 3rd[/BLUE]
I thought this was a fairly minor change, since the “reagent,” at least as of last Blizzcon, was a Scroll of [WIKI]Resurrection[/WIKI]. Just like in Diablo 1. They dropped fairly often, and stacked up in your inventory just like the other types of scrolls. Knowing that, I took this tweet to mean that they’d made Resurrection an inherent ability, like [WIKI]Throw [/WIKI]or [WIKI]Unsummon [/WIKI]in Diablo 2. Their testers must have not wanted to waste the [WIKI]inventory[/WIKI] space on Res scrolls, or they were running out during long/tough boss fights, or had found some exploits possible from constant resurrection. (Removal of the scroll doesn’t mean Resurrection is now easier. It might be harder than in the past: cool down time, level requirements, etc.)
Today someone posted about resurrection in the B.net forums, though their question came from an odd angle that Bashiok largely ignored in his reply. The OP was focused on how long the process took, and how a lengthy resurrection process could be weird in team PvP. Bashiok replied, but quickly segued into another issue.
[BLUE]Yeah it’s always been instant, the reagent was removed for other… requirements. Which may change, so we’re going to keep that a secret for now.
One of the great things about transparency into the development process is that there’s a lot of info we can share. The drawback is that development and changes sometimes move at a pace where information becomes outdated, and unless you’re willing and able to stay on top of all info releases, it can be more confusing than helpful. You have a group of players following the game and each one has different knowledge depending on when they happened to read forum threads/twitter/facebook/fansites. [/BLUE]
Update: I created a [WIKI]Resurrection[/WIKI] page in the wiki, and in addition to this new info, I put in some facts about how resurrection worked in D1 and D2. Yes, there was resurrection in D2, but only during development. In its latest state it was going to be a Paladin skill in his Healing skill tree, but obviously changes were made. Check it out if you want more details.
You might also find the newly-added D2 Kick page interesting, for similar historical reasons.