by Hotstreak - 9 years ago     show comments

Patch 2.3.0 is shaping up to be a very nice update for Diablo 3 as it is adding the new and improved version of the Horadric Cube, Kanai’s Cube. This is probably one of the most unexpected features to be added to the game since Blizzard had never really hinted at the possibility of adding something like this, so it left a lot of people pleasantly surprised.

Now for those of you who may not know what the Kanai’s Cube is, it’s sort of like D3’s version of the famous Horadric Cube from Diablo 2. You can do all kinds of stuff with it like extract affixes from legendaries and use them as passives, reforge legendaries which re rolls them completely, turn rares into legendaries, and open up the vault with the puzzle ring. But with all of that cool stuff I can’t help but have some concerns about the system.

With the ability to extract legendary powers as passives, there are for sure going to be some powers that you will take with no questions asked which is going to take a lot of the fun away from the system. Since the extracted powers will always be at max value, one of the worst offenders is going to be The Furnace. With a passive of 50% damage to elites, it’s going to be extremely hard to not use in your Cube’s weapon slot.

Currently on the Public Test Realm, The Furnace is best in Cube for Barbarians and Wizards. Crusaders are in a bit of a different situation as they either have The Furnace or Johanna’s Argument in the Cube (new Crusader flail that increases attack speed of Blessed Hammer by a max of 100%) depending on which one has a better roll. So it’s pretty much best in Cube for 3 out of the 5 classes that can use it, which is a problem. Kanai’s Cube really shows how unbalanced and uninteresting this item actually is so I feel like it really needs to be looked at for the sake of the game’s meta, since I’m really just not a fan of items that have no game play to them and act as a stat stick.

But I have seen a few suggestions thrown around that could potentially help this problem.

• Slam it with the nerf hammer and reduce it’s stat range to 20-30% damage to elites
• Rework it and give it a new affix that is more interesting and fun
• Remove it from the game entirely

They could nerf it’s stat range to 20-30% but I don’t think that would be enough of a change to make a real difference since bonus damage to elites is such a strong stat, and if they lowered the range even further then it would just become useless. They could also remove it from the game entirely but I feel like completely removing items from the game is never a good option for the overall health of the game, as it would have the same effect as just nerfing it too much. But the very best option that I feel would be a win-win for everyone is to just give it an interesting and fun new affix that has nothing to do with elite damage. Since more fun and interesting items makes for more satisfying game play.

This would highly benefit Kanai’s Cube and could pave the way for the same action to be taken on similar uninteresting items, thus benefiting the game’s health and fun factor. Because that’s what the Cube is intended to be used for, fun and interesting new ways to improve your build and to add more freedom of customization. I really like the idea of Kanai’s Cube and I think that it could do very good things for the game, but if The Furnace remains as it is, it will hurt the freedom and potential customization that the Cube can offer.