Some folks argue that it destroys the loot hunt, others complain that it makes getting rare legendaries and ancient versions a little too easy, others argue that it’s a much welcome change to help fight the RNG.
Myself, I fall into that last camp. I posted the following in one thread where the original poster opined that the cube was not good/right for the game.
With the games design relying so heavily on items (and where your entire damage output scales off your weapon), there’s a point where when they do finally drop, the reaction ISN’T one that tickles the brain’s dopamine; the reaction is more like finally. And by that time, the game has moved on to some other flavor.For the example, I’ve been using hydra builds even during vanilla when many felt the damage level sucked. Didn’t matter to me since I enjoy playing the class that way. Fast forward to Reaper of Souls when a hydra based wand (Serpent’s Sparker) was introduced. That was a weapon that I was really looking forward to getting.Again, I remembered in the beginning how many felt that hydra was useless (and thus equally this wand). Well eventually through changes to the skill’s damage as well as fixing FB6, an SS became a highly desired weapon.This wand only dropped for me back in May (my first Wand of Woh also dropped just a few days before that but was something I didn’t care if I got since I don’t care for that playstyle) and was poorly rolled (just a little over 2k damage). It’s not like an SS is even Woh rare (just uncommon compared to other wands).The problem as usual is RNG; a metric ton of yellow wands drop but when stuff rolled at the legendary level, wands fell off a cliff for me (put it this way, I see more legendary swords than I do the most common of legendary wands like Starfire or Blackhand Key).Due to the introduction of the Ancient tier set, I was using an ancient Sever. Before that, my best weapon was an Ancient “The Ancient Bonesaber of Zumakalis” (and before that, a regular Thunderfury that took close to 3 months after the launch of RoS to drop). Neither of course have any useful legendary properties. Notice the trend; there was only a very short period near the start of RoS where I was using a class specific weapon. But that’s RNG for you.Regardless, losing nearly 1k weapon damage just to get another hydra head (where that damage of course scales off that weapon damage) was not even a starter.My point is that I couldn’t even play the dual hydra build when FB6 was one of the best games in town for the class. It gets to the point where the game is playing you the player instead of the other way around. When the item hunt turns into frustration rather than fun, that’s a big issue. If the games design was not so reliant on items themselves defining builds to the extent that they are, then I would not have a problem with the rarity level of those drops.And it’s not like I haven’t seen the other end of the spectrum. My S2 hardcore demon hunter was decked out in nearly full ancient M6 + ancient Kridershot and surpassed my main wizard in less than 80 hours of play (while there are many folks who main DH and have never gotten a Kridershot at all). At least now, those folks can use the cube (myself, I’m trying to get a Calamity and know that I have an alternative method by just playing the game).The cube is just another user interface fronting a part of this design when it comes to it’s rerolling functionality. Players still need to play the game in order to get the materials to put these systems to use. This is what should’ve existed from the start with RoS instead of the Kadala blood shard slot machine.The legendary extraction provides needed options since it gets around some of this RNG due to the character/item leveling design (and how one could get a rare item drop at a lower level) while the upgrade rare functions give players a bit more targeted control.Perfect example; I played around with just 10 rare wands and got a slightly better 2.2k damage Sparker (the old one will be consumed by the cube for its power while I save this one for later if an ancient one doesn’t materialize) with a socket as well as an Ancient Chantodo’s (the rest were as expected, Blackhand Keys and Starfires). In the past, I would have left those rares on the ground. Basically, every item (even the trash) becomes useful since we are going to need a lot of materials to feed the cube. Put it this way, I pickup far more stuff now (for materials) or specific item slots to throw in the cube and see what pops out.This is the first time in a long time that I am personally enjoying playing the game my way (not into the leaderboards and by extension, greater rifts). I was never in favor of the meta they ended up going with for adventure mode (I expressed this in an e-mail to them during closed beta) where it was an on-rails design (forcing players through bounties to get rift fragments -> rifts for more blood shards and when greater rifts were added, trial keys -> greater rifts for legendary gems). As a result, I barely did greater rifts and spent the last 3 months before the patch, not playing.Sure, we now have to do/complete act bounties to get these class specific materials. The biggest difference compared to before is I’m getting something useful that I can use towards helping mitigate the RNG inherent in the design. I have options outside of just rifts and more rifts. I can follow the on-rails bonus act set unto get the most materials. Or if I don’t have the time to, just do an act at my leisure (over time, the imbalance of those materials will become irrelevant once they start piling up). Since regular rift keys are no longer required, I can jump into a rift any time for a change of pace.tl;dr, the cube is right for the game for me at least.
Some may still counter that the loot hunt is destroyed because those items you are looking for aren’t dropping from killing monsters. That here is the point. The amount of RNG inherent in the design means that you could put in thousands of hours, and never get what you are looking for. Again, if the design of the game was not so heavily reliant on items defining the builds you want to play, I wouldn’t even be writing this.
The fact that I can only attain those powers by actually getting those items to drop is the crux of the matter. The item slot that most folks are constantly in search of is the weapon because that is where everything else scales off of. But if that weapon never drops…
And as I noted, the cube is just another interface into this RNG laden design. You could throw a lot of material at it and it may end up using it all up before you get exactly what you are looking for. Likewise, you could throw in some materials and get it right away. That’s how it works with drops (and as noted above and elsewhere in this blog, I’ve seen both ends of that spectrum). The fact that there is now at least a system where I can at least do some targeting with the materials and items that I farmed up offers an alternative beyond continued frustration playing the game and not getting anything useful in return. That is a surefire way to lose a players interest.
