Honestly, will this game be playable without trading?

[Rudel]

For a standard player, not some HC SSF 4000 APM Pro, is it even realistic to play this game without buying gear from a website, where it takes you ages to find someone who is not a bot that just wants to fish for 1 Ex offers?

I completed cruel now and the only item I found that was better was a quiver I bought from a trader. My resistances are mostly negative because there is no loot. I always read stuff like "you breeze through cruel" but I assume that usually means you buy OP gear for 4-5 Ex as you do not find anything yourself?

[What does monke do?]

People do play solo self found, I think you just have to engage in crafting a lot more however. In PoE1 there were far more mechanics that helped with crafting which have not all been brought over yet.

[Medicles]

I play ssf and its certainly playable in endgame. The problem is you are looking for loot, but you should look at the vendors. And you should craft. Craft a lot. Then farm for crafting.

[Dentin]

Just a numbers game man.

Put in the time, matter of when not if the drops come you need for your build. But PoE time is not normal time, or even normal looter game time, it's a real casual pace right. What getting at though is this, what's your expected time frame to be there? Cos if want to get it done tonight, ya man buck up with RMT and hope don't catch ya cos pretty sure ain't allowed in the TOS even if they'll always struggle to 100% shut it down.

Now, if re adjust that time frame right, let's say few weeks, hell, EA gonna be around for at least 6 months, let's say two months. And stick with consistent amount of hours in every week, maybe use a discord to find some cool peeps to group up with to make the hours less boring (or a good podcast, w/e is your fancy), then bit by bit you get there. Called a season journey, it's the most basic way these games have any replayability when make you roll a new char for each one.

Cos, tell ya the truth my friend. From a life time playing these games, wanna know the saddest fact of all? There is no end game. It's a lie. It's a time sink that goes nowhere, a race to the bottom until the clock resets and you do it all over again. So don't burn yourself out worrying about a non-existent finish line, and find ways to enjoy the journey more instead.

[Cairn.L]

Of course you can, but you gotta be patient though as progression might be slower compared to those who trade.

The game is hard especially when you first step into the endgame. I remember mine, everything hurt like hell attack from the enemies.

Bit by bit I learn and I slowly improve my gear and build, now I'm proud to say I got to endgame with my level 91 Titan without buying a single piece of gear from the market.

[Rudel]

Is playing SSF having an "advantage" or is it only a rule you set up for yourself? I remember Last Epoche having something like better loot when you do not trade. Since I'm playing with a few friends and kids where we leave items that might be useful in the guild stash for everyone, SSF would be a problem.

[xXBulletJusticeXx]

Originally posted by Rudel:

For a standard player, not some HC SSF 4000 APM Pro, is it even realistic to play this game without buying gear from a website, where it takes you ages to find someone who is not a bot that just wants to fish for 1 Ex offers?

I completed cruel now and the only item I found that was better was a quiver I bought from a trader. My resistances are mostly negative because there is no loot. I always read stuff like "you breeze through cruel" but I assume that usually means you buy OP gear for 4-5 Ex as you do not find anything yourself?

POE 1 is the same, and thousands and thousands of characters played all the way to end-game without trading.... so yes, doable. Everyones milage will vary.

[LastTourniquet]

Originally posted by Rudel:

Is playing SSF having an "advantage" or is it only a rule you set up for yourself? I remember Last Epoche having something like better loot when you do not trade. Since I'm playing with a few friends and kids where we leave items that might be useful in the guild stash for everyone, SSF would be a problem.

There are no gameplay advantages to playing SSF.

[Rudel]

Originally posted by Dentin:

Just a numbers game man.

Put in the time, matter of when not if the drops come you need for your build. But PoE time is not normal time, or even normal looter game time, it's a real casual pace right. What getting at though is this, what's your expected time frame to be there? Cos if want to get it done tonight, ya man buck up with RMT and hope don't catch ya cos pretty sure ain't allowed in the TOS even if they'll always struggle to 100% shut it down.

Now, if re adjust that time frame right, let's say few weeks, hell, EA gonna be around for at least 6 months, let's say two months. And stick with consistent amount of hours in every week, maybe use a discord to find some cool peeps to group up with to make the hours less boring (or a good podcast, w/e is your fancy), then bit by bit you get there. Called a season journey, it's the most basic way these games have any replayability when make you roll a new char for each one.

Cos, tell ya the truth my friend. From a life time playing these games, wanna know the saddest fact of all? There is no end game. It's a lie. It's a time sink that goes nowhere, a race to the bottom until the clock resets and you do it all over again. So don't burn yourself out worrying about a non-existent finish line, and find ways to enjoy the journey more instead.

My main issue here is that it's a bit boring to get no loot in a loot game. I have like -40% resistances as I don't find any items and the gameplay experience gets way worse by that as you are constantly one shot by everyone.

I'm not rushing anything, I mean not playing maps now means that you are pretty casual anyway. I would just like to know for later if this game is playable without trading, as the current system (website + loot + luck based crafting) sucks a lot of the fun out off the game for me.

[LastTourniquet]

Assuming we get access to a crafting bench it will be a lot more do-able. In PoE1 a lot of the early-mid game gearing for SSF characters is done through well known vendor recipes (which have been removed in PoE2 for some reason) and cheap crafting. Rite now all we realistically have for SSF is constantly checking vendors and hoping they have good items and then just chucking currency at items and praying to RNGesus.

But we should be getting access to a crafting bench when the game actually releases so that will alleviate a lot of the gearing pressure.

[Ginebro]

Yes, im ssf, never had to stop to farm during campaign and map pogression was smooth to T16 but as always ssf is for people who are willing to farm a lot.

[Panthaz89]

The only item I ever gained from trading were the bones of Ullr which are arguably a downgrade because they have no movement speed compared to the 25% speed(and much better stats) before problem is that 20% more undead minions is pretty fun to it was worth.

[ClAyMoRe*]

nah, you can not really do it until endgame, you need ragals before you even get to exalts, and regals in my experience have worse droop rate then exalts.
So you have to trade anyway, or disenchant all your yellows to get some extra regals.
Not like I would advice anyone to do crafting them self anyway.
I only do it with good base gear that I get from droops , merchants to sell for exalts and I can do it only because I bought regals in trade.

[FREEZED]

it is playable without trading, that is why there is even solo self found option at start.

[ClAyMoRe*]

Originally posted by FREEZED:

it is playable without trading, that is why there is even solo self found option at start.

I mean there is hardcore too, it is playable, for some people who like such experience.

[FREEZED]

Originally posted by ClAyMoRe*:

Originally posted by FREEZED:

it is playable without trading, that is why there is even solo self found option at start.

I mean there is hardcore too, it is playable, for some people who like such experience.

it can be some work to find/craft items which are good to use, usually it is even cheaper to buy those than make, but i still prefer to do it myself at least now as it is early access anyways so seeing how hard it can be makes you understand better the game.