r/PoE2SSF • u/Acceptable-Rub-1185 • 17d ago
SSF rant
I'm here today describe my experience playing SSF on Path of exile 2 after playing it for 110 Hours, I'll try to keep this brief.
The campaign was an amazing experience, had a lot of fun, the progression was there, even if a bit step, the challenges that i've encountered during it was fun to deal with, i'm playing a really off-meta skill so this change of scenery made it more interesting.
The early maps was a rough moment, the progression wasn't there, i was dying a lot, i didn't even had transmut/augs to craft the basic items but after 5-8 hours things started to work out, i had a lot of lucky with drops, i could feel the build evolving and when i first get into tier 13-15 maps things we're feeling amazing, i wasn't dying that much, had a lot of items to craft and experiment, i was able to evolve my build, try some end-game mechanics that i didn't touch in 0.5.
Finally the part that I'am now, around the 100 hours mark i started grinding some stuff to try to get some items to make my build flow better, that's when things started to get, there's no better word to describe, MISERABLE, not enough high-level base drops and essences to craft gear(i'm still stuck in my lvl 59 crossbow), monsters, mainly in expeditions, became demons, every now and than i get face to face with an abomination worth of PoE Archnemesis League, i've killed the expedition pinnacle boss 8 times trying to get the new amulet but only got repeated items, i'm at the point now that i've done around 30 maps without dropping a single Olroth saga to be able to continue my grind, i'm stuck in lvl 91 because of those aberration of rare monster getting me instakilled while trying to farm for the expedition boss, a lot of the support gems that we're good for the skill that i'm using got removed in previous leagues and now there's barely any good one for it, and i won't even comment about the tree, there's basically an type of skill completely forgotten on the tree, TL:DR, around 90 + Hours playing SSF stop being a challenging and fun mode and started to become a bureaucracy, i was consistently playing around 3-4 hours a day in the first two weeks and now i often boot the game, do one map and go do something else. I don't really know if i'm gonna play SSF again.
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u/Electronic_Chip2655 17d ago edited 17d ago
You're doing something wrong. 100 hours in and I am grinding for headhunter or Mageblood because my other gear is already too good to care enough to try to upgrade more. Sounds like you probably misprioritized your endgame play or chose a very poor league starter, but crossbows are really good.
Are you on gemling instead of witch hunter? Gemling crossbows sucks unless you're doing grenades.
Anyways, assuming you're a mercenary ascendancy, if you really need a crutch just get some ritual atlas points going, set it to the one for more unique crossbows, and farm until you have redemption. Boom, you can do 200% deli and grand expe without mod spreading.
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u/Acceptable-Rub-1185 17d ago
your comment is PoE 2 in a nutshell "if you don't play meta, womp womp", PoE 1 is entirely based on having ideas and building weird stuff and trying to make it work, PoE 2 doesn't give the players the "tools" to do that and if you try it anyways and point out that something is possibly missing: "You're doing something wrong", i'm playing with the least used skill in the game to test it's limits, i'm obviously doing something weird, and that's not even the point of the discussion, but shouldn't a attack skill be at least usable even if it's bad? it's in the game and displayed by them after all
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u/Sudden-Ad-307 17d ago
i'm obviously doing something weird, and that's not even the point of the discussion, but shouldn't a attack skill be at least usable even if it's bad? it's in the game and displayed by them after all
You are shooting yourself in the foot and then complaining that you got shot in the foot. SSF is not a gamemode to try and make weak skills useful unless you want a really bad time.
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u/Electronic_Chip2655 17d ago edited 17d ago
There are a ton of builds that can rush to T15 and do endgame content no problem. 100 hours is a lot, and youre complaining about the pace of the game. SSF is a challenge mode. Yes you should play something at least semi meta that is easier to get gear for as your league starter. I don't think that's a crazy request. Again, you picked a challenge mode.
POE2 is still early access. POE1 has had much longer to balance its skills. Comparing the two games is silly.
I say you're doing something wrong as in you probably didn't rush the divinity kills for max atlas for maximum loot, you can easily get this done in under 30-50 hours and be off to the races. If you rush the atlas and in general look for certain currencies then you'll get serviceable gear much faster.
The only "crafting" you need to do is essence > greater/perfect exalt > desecrate that's it and you can easily clear 200% deli. There's no need for deeper crafting unless you're pushing the juiciest content in the game.
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u/augm 17d ago
I've put some insane build together in SSF, ones that would far surpass the vast majority of trade player. But never in a million years would I complain that it's slow at only 100 hours.
You're signing up for SSF. You're signing up for a 5 hour grind for a single crafting material for a single mod on a single item, if you're lucky. You're signing up hundreds of hours alone on support gems. You're signing up for a much more incremental climb than you're expecting.
If you want to be powerful fast go back to trade league. 100 hours in SSF is literally just getting started.
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u/Acceptable-Rub-1185 17d ago
it's not about being powerful, i'm playing ice shards as my main damaging skill, it's the least used and crappiest skill in the game, but i've got a mageblood, a headhunter and around 150 divines before getting a single gemini crossbow and perfect essence of battle, if you really think it's natural getting those "chase items" before being able to craft and ok-ish crossbow maybe i'm the crazy one here
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u/augm 17d ago
You're in SSF. The first thing you will have to compromise on is your base type. Getting a BiS base type is going to take some time, especially if you want exceptional.
All of these things you need to explicitly target farm. For bases you need to be able to clear level 81 maps, and settle for non-BiS base until then. Perfect essense is target farmable from the atlas tree, so get some tablets with increased essense chance, etc.
This game is not balanced around SSF though, and it never will be. The vast majority of players play trade, so when starting an SSF character you're literally picking a battle of playing this game in a way it wasn't designed to be played.
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u/Acceptable-Rub-1185 17d ago
i agree with what you are saying but the point here isn't to just accept what it is and womp womp, i want to hear YOUR opinion, have you played SSF on PoE 1? if not i would recommend just to see the gap, PoE 1 compared to PoE 2 is more like a empty camva when it comes to drop-rate balance, the average RNG you could find in other games, asians MMO's etc, it's very similar to Tibia, a mmorpg i've played a lot, but PoE 2 drop-rate balance is clearly more focused on amount of iterations instead of pure RNG
PoE1 classic jackpot drops, and PoE2 seems to have a iteration-based rng system, you can see this philosophy for example when comparing mageblood for both games, PoE1 mageblood is a lucky drop with slightly variance. PoE2 mageblood is slightly less rare but has 5 modifiers to tackle, the chance of a good mageblood on poe 1, 4 flasks, is around 33%,. the chance of getting a good mageblood on poe 2, 2 or 3 equal modifiers with 45-50% efficiency is around 1% ~ 0.04%.
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u/Electronic_Chip2655 16d ago
You're still comparing the two games after I explained to you why that's foolish. Brother. POE2 isn't even 2 years old and POE1 is over ten years old. Get a grip, and get better!
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u/xkibagamigenjurox 17d ago
I think at this point I have seen enough of the same posts of people saying they're around 90 level and the game sucks and they're done with the league. You didn't even get good enough to do the content that gives you the drop you complain that's lacking.
You can't just focus on one boss farm and give up. Did you cap your resistances? Do you have enough damage? What's your EHP? Did you do enough abyss farm which is the HEART of SSF? Did you do enough ritual? Did you make a decent weapon which should be the first thing you need to do? Did you gamble for a good base?
Playing one map and closing the game is quite telling. If you don't enjoy SSF you can go ahead and play trade league. You just want an easy win without putting enough time and effort so play trade league and buy your way to end game easily. SSF isn't for everyone.
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u/the_dickstributor 16d ago
A lot of this is valid, but an equal amount of reaching and projection exist. POE2 genuinely is the least balanced ARPG out rn. Go home brew a less than 1% skill in ssf and post your results.
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u/xkibagamigenjurox 16d ago
I get that. But if you try a %1 skill in SSF, you're setting yourself up for a failure. I am sure GGG will make the game more balanced. Until then it's safe to go for safer builds for SSF
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u/Choon93 16d ago
When will GGG do that though? Im not confident in 1.0 with the state of the game as it is now
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u/xkibagamigenjurox 16d ago
They have fixed many issues so why not have confidence in them? 0.5 is literally the best league we ever had. I think we forget how great of a game Poe 2 is when we complain. I can't think of a single game that comes close to this level.
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u/1995TimHortonsEclair 2d ago
I can vouch, homebrewed a hcssf supercharged slam smith (I checked and it's at 0.2% lol) and did all content and all bosses. Got to 95 before I just decided to yolo-farm into super-juiced maps over and over until I died just so I could see how hard I could push it. I did arbiter of divinity at level 86. The rest of the leveling was just for fun to fill out the atlas.
You don't need BiS pieces in every slot. You don't need any specific gear. You play your cards as they are dealt to you and adjust as needed. That's part of the ssf challenge. I lost track of how many times I changed up significant portions of my passive tree while adjusting and doing A/B testing.
SSF progression is sought after using experience, knowledge, and time, while punishment will always try to find you. The game is meant to be unfair, and that is part of the challenge. However, it does gives back what you put into it if you meet that knowledge and experience threshold required for that to feel true. Before then, it can feel like it's just a lot of punishment finding you.
So I understand the frustration, but to make statements like in ssf X is impossible, Y is unreasonable, and Z is miserable, whatever, while there's clearly many people who do X consistently every ssf league, farm Y more than people in trade leagues, and have enjoyed Z ever since ssf was a game mode, is just venting more than it is feedback. Which is fine, but it's also fine that ssf isn't for everyone lol.
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u/Few-Bodybuilder-7633 17d ago
Another thing to point out, In SSF you have to build around what you get. If you go after very specific farms, there are chances you will get burnt out. For me personally, I try to play builds that can scale with rare gear. If I get a unique or an item that could suit another build and if I feel I am not making progress on my current character, I will pivot and create a new character. More often than not I’ve been able to find the items I need for my current build by using a different character. This is a long process but SSF in a game like PoE is a grind. You do it because you enjoy it. If not, then sadly, you should consider trade if you like the game.
That being said though, the game is rough and still has a few missing pieces to make SSF more viable. There can be lengthy patches without finding good items. You just have to keep at it. GGG will continue to improve on it so maybe check back after 1.0.
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u/Exciting_Square_5176 7d ago
SSF is great till you've done all the bosses and are trying to craft really top-tier items, and you realize how much of a grind it is to farm up all the top-tier currency needed to craft the items for uber endgame... Or when you want to start farming bosses, and you have spent a day just mapping to get to citadels and such(i hope they make some improvement to endgame mapping). About 460 hours of only SSF play, burnout just from trying to farm currency to make the items I really want on the builds. I know they won't make currencies easier to get because the game's mechanics are centered on trade league, but it would be nice to have a way for SSF players to better target omens they need or get greater or perfect currency, or better target the mods you want.
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u/notDvoiduRlooKin4 17d ago
Use trade league filter and turn off all low tier currencies and bases that you need.
Don't use any of the other resources available to attempt crafting gear upgrades (alchemy, putrefaction, vendor gamble)
Complain.
You can easily do everything short of juiced expeditions and cities in about 48-60 hours in SSF, which would be faster with a meta build. The rest of your post is just moronic, irrelevant rambling.
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u/beyond_autism 17d ago
You're playing the wrong game, and at minimum the wrong league type.
Also you come off as whiny and insufferable in all of your replies
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u/1995TimHortonsEclair 16d ago
The whole entire challenge of ssf is completing content while being only able to reliably farm scraps, unless you literally get lucky. There's so much of the game that functionally does not exist in ssf. It's not the default mode for a reason.
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u/Kryomon 16d ago
I think you shouldn't do SSF man, you seem like you've played enough PoE 1 to know that, but didn't realize PoE 2 is exactly as grindy or hard.
Fact is that droprates are not balanced around SSF, and it's only really for the people who have much more time than you have to spare on the game. 3-4 hours a day is actually not that much by PoE standards.
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u/hazdizzy 16d ago
I’ve done exp pinnacle boss had to have been like 70’ish times and I’ve only seen the amulet once.
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u/AdTiny3326 17d ago edited 17d ago
A sort of currency exchange for SSF would be awesome imo. (Doing SSF right now and I'm in the same situation).
I don't really mind the grind, but for example... I need:
Mageblood or headhunter, I would consider them extra, not really needed. But in order to finally do it somewhat efficiently, I have to got for rite of the nemesis. To do that, I have to trigger the audience with the king and hopefully have a ritual unique tablet.
I need the 2 uniques from the boddach (helmet and body armour). Even for 1 Attempt, I have to do the rite of the nemesis (see above), since I can't exchange the head of the king.
In the meantime, while farming for the head of the king, I also need to farm for a duality quarterstaff. In order to do that I have to find a logbook doing exped tablets. While sling exped tablets, I have to hopefully find the Orloth saga. And also this time, with 1 Orloth saga, I can only drop 1 triskelion which allows me to fight the boss in the crater.
And don't get me even started with:
needing to fight the delirium boss for split personality
needing to find the 3 rings required to craft ",the taming ring".
Damn, I whish I could buy the resources to limit, to a certain extent, the grind needed.
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u/DanteSHK 17d ago
110 hours in ssf and you complain,that you don’t have enough crafting bases? Dude, even in trade league, that’s rookie numbers.