Playing True SSF (no buy, no rewards)

True SSF is not playing the game with your hands. Use your nose. Peck, peck. Suffer. Have no fun. Feel our agony.

I love SSF. I do a trade character from time to time but its not as much for me when I can simply buy what I need.

I am still playing my SSF league start. Totem build. Got to level 91, Tier 13 maps on 3 totems. Finally found a Shaper shield to craft +1 totems (then found 2 more right after). Now I am lvl 92 and 4 maps away from completing 118 maps. Still no Rain of Splinters or Soulmantle. It is a fun challenge for meto simply to see how far I can go and hoefully get those two uniques out of spite! Oh, and to feel the power level upgrade.

Here is an idea for SSF players, make a community SSF loot filter; if it appears on the ground, it can picked up, used and/or sold for crafting material. This idea alone leads to many filter ideas for various SSF challenges.

I am looking forward to Hard Mode. I see it more as a survival mode and a challenge to see how far I can get. With trade enabled and the scarcity of drops plus limited vendor access (?) this might be the mode I have been looking for. SSF scratches the itch but it is still missing something (for me).

Sorry for the bump but i didnt want to make a new thread for it.

finally ruthless mode is here and i was exited to try it so i quickly ran to farm the ledge for a while but soon realized that this was going to be extremeley tedious.

i then watched some videos on youtube of how people progressed and after seeing that people make it to maps still on a nolink i realized that this was not for me.

i aprechiate the work and thought that went into it but its just wayyyy to grindy for me.
i can get behind some changes like having bosses heal up which actually hinders players in a meaningful way but no movement skills etc is just too much think.


Heres some points for why i find that my "true ssf" mode is more fun than ruthless:

-having to find ALL gems by yourself:
makes it so much more fun to have it more like a gambling box and not knowing where the game takes you.
i dislike that youre still being mouthfed skillgems in ruthless because that causes people to plan ahead instead of improvising and that removes soooo much of the experience imo.
when i see so many going for cold dot builds and even making mule chars to get gems for other chars.. nonono thats just cheating, DONT plan! thats the beauty of it! rewards are evil.

-crafting incentive:
i find orbs and i carry them around and use them up as i go, in normal poe i used to just stash everything away and often not use it because i was doing fine and my player power was good enough.
in ruthless you have to save currency up even more, crafting has been made a luxury instead of recieving a buff in terms of fun.

-no motivating checkpoints:
in true ssf i have many points in the game where i can "grind" stuff and know that i will find some gems or maybe uniques.
first stop is the ledge for 1 or 2 gems to take me off the starting gem (twilight strand).
delve and heist are both great for getting gear, hated these in normal poe, love them in true ssf for the boost.
vaal side areas always exciting for the guaranteed gem.
all gone in ruthless, except maybe delve? but i bet you dont even find enough sulfite to have a meaningful delve trip to try and find skillgem nodes.

-player power, movement and drops like normal, not feeling nerfed.

-the motivation for creativity:
i have to make my "build" work, i need to make the gems that i find work with the character class that i chose, even if its unconventional and crazy.
i get all this adapt and overcome challenge without the drawbacks of ruthless and then in the future i even get to respec my char if i suddenly find a great unique.
in ruthless none is ever going to respec their char.
comitting to a build by chosing a skill or a unique is already one of the most difficult things in true ssf, i find myself playing like 5 different skills until i decide what route to go.
i cannot imagine how hard it must be in ruthless, im mean you get the skills for free but if you can get a 4-link at least then it seems you can wait forever or play a nolink in maps?