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Kanai's Cube FAQ
Gvandale has put together an awesome in-depth Kanai's Cube FAQ over at Reddit, with not only common questions from players about the new feature, but also a few tips and tricks that even experienced players might not be aware of. Check a snippet of it below, or the complete FAQ here.
I see a lot of questions popping up about Kanai's Cube since its release, so I am hoping to be able to put together a list of common questions, along with helpful information regarding the cube.
What is Kanai's Cube? Kanai's Cube was introduced in Patch 2.3, and is the spiritual successor to Diablo 2's Horadric Cube.
What can the cube do? All sorts of stuff, from extracting legendary powers to upgrading rares into legendaries. I will get into the specifics of each recipe later, but for now just realize that the cube is a powerful tool.
Does the cube take up stash space? No, the cube is now part of the town center along with the other artisans (blacksmith, jeweler, etc.).
Where do I find the Cube? The cube is in a new area of Act 3. In order to obtain the item you must make your way through the first floor of the "Ruins of Sescheron", and finally get to the second zone called the "Elder Sanctum". In this second zone you will find the "Tomb of King Kanai", at which point a small scripted event takes place and you will have the cube and its artisan unlocked in town.
The cube is available to both Season and Non-Season players.
While it has not been confirmed how the transition will occur at the end of Season 4, it is reasonably safe to assume that the stored cube powers will be handled much in the same way that artisan levels/plans are - once the season ends it automatically rolls over to your non-season gear.
edit: It has been confirmed that the extracted powers will roll over to non-season as other artisans's are. source
When putting in a stack of items, the cube is smart enough to only use what it needs. If a recipe calls for (5) Death's Breath, and you place a stack of (50), you will have (45) back in your inventory when you complete the recipe.
Kanai's Cube is not available to PS3 and XBox360 console users.
Extracting Legendary Powers - an in-depth look.
So the first recipe everyone loves about the cube is the "Archive of Tal Rasha". This recipe allows you to extract a legendary power from an item, in turn destroying the item itself. In order to do this, you must have (1) of each of the new Legendary Crafting Mats (each act gives a new material in their bounty cache's, (1) Legendary item with a Legendary Affix you wish to remove, and (5) Death's Breath.
You are allowed to have an active Weapon Slot, Armor Slot, and Jewelry Slot. Weapons include all items that are equipped in your hands (weapons, off-hands, and shields). Armor includes all armor, so you can choose one item from Helmet, Shoulders, Gloves, Pants, Boots, Belt, Chest, and Bracers. Jewelry includes Amulets and Rings, so you must choose between a 3rd ring or 2nd amulet essentially.
Note that this only applies to legendaries, and you cannot extract a set item in lieu of equipping said item. Example: you cannot extract Zuni's Pants in the hopes that you would no longer have to equip them to get the set bonus. For further clarification, set items that have legendary affixes such as Krelm's Belt can have their legendary affix extracted...but you cannot gain the benefit of the set. So if you use the belt's power in the cube, and equip the bracers, you do not get the set bonus.
Now, lets say you want to extract the legendary power from The Furnace which is "Increases Damage Against Elites by 40-50%". The first thing to know is that no matter the value of the item you put in, the power extracted will always be at its max. So if your Furnace only rolled 40% elite damage, the ability will extract at 50%. Ok, so as stated above, place your Furnace, (1) each of the legendary act specific mats, and (5) deaths breaths in the cube and hit "Transmute". You will get a warning that you are about to destroy your item, that's ok - hit "OK".
Now that the Furnace's power has been extracted, you need to "equip" it. Within the cube GUI, click the icon marked with a sword (you can see it here). This opens up a book of all the available items you can extract, so rifle through the pages and select The Furnace. Once you have, the image of the sword you clicked on will now show the image of The Furnace. If you want to verify that a specific power is activated, you can open up the details screen in your inventory and scroll to the bottom - it will now show any active attributes coming from Kanai's Cube.
There are some items that cannot have their legendary power extracted such as The Corrupted Ashbringer, The Hellfire Amulet, and Ancestors Grace.
Also of note, you cannot utilize two of the same power. In the example of The Furnace, if you have one equipped on your character, and select The Furnace in your cube, you will not get 2x bonus.
Extracted powers work from any legendary item at any level. So if you find a Starmetal Kukri at level 45, it is no longer useless. Save it, and you can extract that very awesome power once you have the cube and the mats.
Extracting the Ring of Royal Grandeur is the same as wearing one (again you can't wear one and have one in the cube). This opens up great gearing options for the 2x ring slots you now have.
Extracted powers are only available to characters that could normally utilize the original item. A barbarian could not use a power from a monk daibo.
Lastly, once you have extracted a power it is now available to all characters you have. If your WD extracted The Furnace in the above example, your Monk could equip that passive as well.
Season 4 Firebird's Wizard
For those looking to try something different in Season 4 or who would like to remember old times, BlaSDX has put together an updated Season 4 Firebird's spec, complete with Kanai's Cube bonuses and a very mobile play style. Check it out!
Alkaizer Rend Barb Guide
Alkaizer made a video guide explaining his Barbarian Rend setup, with a mix of the Immortal King and Wrath of the Wastes sets. He has also uploaded footage of his clearing up to GR 69 with it - check them out.
very nice to see a rend build without ww
also highlights how weird waste set is...
For those who wonders, if You die in hardcore, all the extracted legendary powers will still be in the cube.
What is Kanai's Cube? Kanai's Cube was introduced in Patch 2.3, and is the spiritual successor to Diablo 2's Horadric Cube.
This is actually wrong, the game says that Kanai's Cube was the first cube and that the horadric cube was it's successor but was alot less powerfull.
so it's actually it's predecessor.
So in the diablo universe it's his predecessor, but for us, player it is successor. You don't get it or just wanna say "omg you'r wrong !" ?
Someone should ask them if they are planning to put indicator on items to see which legendary powers you have already extracted
I'm sorry for your lose
BUT, in the lore, says that the kanai cube was made before the d2 cube, so, he is the predecessor...
got it?
Anyone else not a fan of "video guides"? I want to glance over a guide, see what its build is, items, etc. Not spend 15-45 minutes listening, rewinding, etc.
There's usually insight from the author about skill, item and rune choices, as well as specific gameplay tips that may be better conveyed by live gameplay instead of words. Insight which (in some videos) is meant for less experienced players, but depending on the author and goal of the video, can be also targeted at more experienced players - to help them understand calculations and in-depth mechanics.
Also some of the top players really prefer spreading their ideas and thoughts through recorded footage (rather than writing what can sometimes be a huge essay :P). That's why video guides are more popular than written ones from them - and their credibility plays a big role in the specs' viability.
However I do understand the simplicity of just skimming over a build and being able to immediately understand what it's about, and quickly switch gears. I'll see what can be done about that in future news posts. Thanks for the feedback - I really appreciate it!
Yeah, I could have worded it better, I didnt mean that they suck and shouldnt be done. I just dont want to spend 15+ minutes listening to someone talk, or searching through the video for the build. I like when Both are posted, as everyone gets what they are looking for. =)
Plus, they really like making videos because it gets views on youtube, and that is $$. Lets not sugar coat it =P
That's curious and funny.. the feedback we often got in the past is that the video shown is not of a "high quality" player (either if a casual build or of non high rank G/Rift clears). It honestly took quite a while for people to even accept MHM's videos, which are perceived as less "hardcore", and since there's this general sense of elitism that makes everyone think content/info is trash unless it's "absolutely top tier".
Now I'm really interested to know - could you elaborate on your comment? Exactly what "less well known players" would you like to see featured more often? Twitch streamers? Youtube content producers? Random gameplay or specific guides? Could you let us know (maybe even link) who and what you would like to see featured more?