Is it possible to enjoy this game without trading?

[CaleoGaming]

Given how stupidly gear dependant the classes are in order to get builds working, is there any chance to ever get any fun out of this game when levelling solo?
I've made it to crude difficulty on witch and then i attempted monk and melee was literally just banging your head against a wall, even when I had decent loot dropped it would only be a matter of time before I hit another brick wall.
Which made me reroll once again now as a sorceress. And it is day and night compared to melee. Having a good time clearing through mobs like it was nothing, but I know that Path of Exile being the game it is, it's only a matter of time before the fun ends.

All I ever see from build makers is that you need to trade currency to get gear, what's the point in playing then? I don't judge people for doing it, I just don't understand it. Are items really that insanely rare to get just from playing? Is it like Diablo 2 where you hit hell and then your character is at a standstill for another year unless you buy gear with RWT?

Not to mention that in order to farm said currency, you need a build that can clear the content to farm for it, which you can't unless you have gear for it. LOL

I *really* want to like Path of Exile 2 because i didn't bother playing the first one due to the skill system. But the game is making it very hard for me to like it ngl

[Lumifel]

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

Originally posted by Lumifel:

No it's the exact same as far as I know

So.... why is SSF a thing? Like I'm just asking, why not just play normally but never trade anyway? Just confused

A split global chat is probably better. The tonality of the trade league global chat is completely different.

There's a different ladder too. The people on the top ladder of ssf are much more impressive than the top trade league ladder imo

[CaleoGaming]

Originally posted by craneology:

It's a thing so you can flex with evidence that you are truly playing solo self found.

Ahh I see. I can see why people wouldn't believe you if you got drops on a non-SSF i guess. It's the same kind of people who claim people buy their gear on runescape accounts when they are more often than not earned legitimately

[serotoninpack]

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

Originally posted by Lumifel:

No it's the exact same as far as I know

So.... why is SSF a thing? Like I'm just asking, why not just play normally but never trade anyway? Just confused

In a ssf league the loot isn't shared between your characters. Each new character has to grind from the start.

[CaleoGaming]

Originally posted by Lumifel:

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

So.... why is SSF a thing? Like I'm just asking, why not just play normally but never trade anyway? Just confused

A split global chat is probably better. The tonality of the trade league global chat is completely different.

There's a different ladder too

I usually disable chat altogether

[pablito15]

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

Given how stupidly gear dependant the classes are in order to get builds working, is there any chance to ever get any fun out of this game when levelling solo?
I've made it to crude difficulty on witch and then i attempted monk and melee was literally just banging your head against a wall, even when I had decent loot dropped it would only be a matter of time before I hit another brick wall.
Which made me reroll once again now as a sorceress. And it is day and night compared to melee. Having a good time clearing through mobs like it was nothing, but I know that Path of Exile being the game it is, it's only a matter of time before the fun ends.

All I ever see from build makers is that you need to trade currency to get gear, what's the point in playing then? I don't judge people for doing it, I just don't understand it. Are items really that insanely rare to get just from playing? Is it like Diablo 2 where you hit hell and then your character is at a standstill for another year unless you buy gear with RWT?

Not to mention that in order to farm said currency, you need a build that can clear the content to farm for it, which you can't unless you have gear for it. LOL

I *really* want to like Path of Exile 2 because i didn't bother playing the first one due to the skill system. But the game is making it very hard for me to like it ngl

I'm stuck on the Molten boss because my DPS is just way too low. I'm way over-levelled but my gear is just too average. So yeah, it's either a LOT of boring grinding of the same areas or trading.

[Lumifel]

Originally posted by serotoninpack:

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

So.... why is SSF a thing? Like I'm just asking, why not just play normally but never trade anyway? Just confused

In a ssf league the loot isn't shared between your characters. Each new character has to grind from the start.

That's not true, you share the stash and relic stash

[humanevil]

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

Originally posted by humanevil:

if you have good rng then you dont need to trade if not then you will need to trade.

This is what my point is. And I don't want to trade at all, never have , never will.

well then you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥, your only option is to carry on grinding or just give up. its bs, rng should not be the way the game handles difficulty. i got to lvl 28 and still had no bow drops that were even close to what i needed so i had to hit the trading site as the best bow i found was not for my build and was lvl 11.

[serotoninpack]

Originally posted by Lumifel:

Originally posted by serotoninpack:

In a ssf league the loot isn't shared between your characters. Each new character has to grind from the start.

That's not true, you share the stash

Really? I never played SSF only because I thought that. I don't use the market anyways.

[This PC]

Originally posted by humanevil:

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

This is what my point is. And I don't want to trade at all, never have , never will.

well then you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥, your only option is to carry on grinding or just give up. its bs, rng should not be the way the game handles difficulty. i got to lvl 28 and still had no bow drops that were even close to what i needed so i had to hit the trading site as the best bow i found was not for my build and was lvl 11.

I don't think the issue is "I'm not getting the bow I need" at lvl 28.

[CaleoGaming]

Originally posted by humanevil:

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

This is what my point is. And I don't want to trade at all, never have , never will.

well then you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥, your only option is to carry on grinding or just give up. its bs, rng should not be the way the game handles difficulty. i got to lvl 28 and still had no bow drops that were even close to what i needed so i had to hit the trading site as the best bow i found was not for my build and was lvl 11.

Honestly at that point it shouldnt be hard to get the gold needed to gamble for a better bow. Doing RWT at that point seems very pointless and a waste of money.

[Lumifel]

Originally posted by serotoninpack:

Originally posted by Lumifel:

That's not true, you share the stash

Really? I never played SSF only because I thought that. I don't use the market anyways.

Yeah, I recently made a new character,.a warrior and had access to everything.

It made the ascendency trial extremely easy, with honor res cap at level 22 even getting hit a lot barely reduced my honor

[serotoninpack]

Originally posted by Lumifel:

Originally posted by serotoninpack:

Really? I never played SSF only because I thought that. I don't use the market anyways.

Yeah, I recently made a new character,.a warrior and had access to everything.

It made the ascendency trial extremely easy, with honor res cap at level 22 even getting hit a lot barely reduced my honor

Well thanks, good to know. I was living with the wrong impression.

[Tikigod]

Originally posted by CaleoGaming:

Given how stupidly gear dependant the classes are in order to get builds working, is there any chance to ever get any fun out of this game when levelling solo?
I've made it to crude difficulty on witch and then i attempted monk and melee was literally just banging your head against a wall, even when I had decent loot dropped it would only be a matter of time before I hit another brick wall.
Which made me reroll once again now as a sorceress. And it is day and night compared to melee. Having a good time clearing through mobs like it was nothing, but I know that Path of Exile being the game it is, it's only a matter of time before the fun ends.

All I ever see from build makers is that you need to trade currency to get gear, what's the point in playing then? I don't judge people for doing it, I just don't understand it. Are items really that insanely rare to get just from playing? Is it like Diablo 2 where you hit hell and then your character is at a standstill for another year unless you buy gear with RWT?

Not to mention that in order to farm said currency, you need a build that can clear the content to farm for it, which you can't unless you have gear for it. LOL

I *really* want to like Path of Exile 2 because i didn't bother playing the first one due to the skill system. But the game is making it very hard for me to like it ngl

Been playing PoE 1 for almost a decade and PoE 2 for a couple of weeks now, and never once touched trading in either.

Some people will insist trading is mandatory if they're running very fringe case builds that are pretty unstable or even entirely non-viable without the exact combination of items and affixes to make it all work.

Others will insist trading is mandatory simply because getting the best items they can find lowers the difficulty bar and they typically struggle to play the game without making it as easy on themselves as possible.

But no. Trading isn't mandatory to come up with your own viable working builds and play the game, trading just makes it easier to run a build as optimally as possible.

And for some, if they can't run everything optimally for the lowest difficulty resistance possible, they just won't accept playing and will just constantly obsess over the fact that everything isn't exactly the way they want it.

It's a personal mentality thing.

Some people just can't accept compromise nor take it upon themselves to work up solutions to on the spot build requirements if they don't have the exact affixes they want on items. They need strict build guides to follow with their brain switched off and a way to get exactly the items they want the moment they want them so there can be no deviation or need to adapt.

Otherwise they're not getting what they want when the want it. And that's not something they find acceptable in a game.


It's YOUR build you're constructing after all. Regardless to if you're just blindly following a guide or not, what you have in-game is your own personally created build down to every last detail.

Which means at the end of the day, if a build stops being viable because you can't get the exact item drop you want.... that's YOUR build issue that it's down to you the player to solve to find out what can be done with the build to make it work with what you have.

It doesn't mean trading is mandatory, nor that the game is broken in some way. The whole thing starts and ends at the player.

So for those that don't want to accept that and just want things to work when they want it to work, they have the option to use trading as a workaround for their own unwillingness or inability to work out a compromise to make their own build work.

But nothing sourced from the game and its design makes trading mandatory.

Some people just feel it's mandatory because of who they are as a person and how their personality and brain have developed throughout their life.

[humanevil]

Originally posted by This PC:

Originally posted by humanevil:

well then you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥, your only option is to carry on grinding or just give up. its bs, rng should not be the way the game handles difficulty. i got to lvl 28 and still had no bow drops that were even close to what i needed so i had to hit the trading site as the best bow i found was not for my build and was lvl 11.

I don't think the issue is "I'm not getting the bow I need" at lvl 28.

my point is that rng used in this way is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥, but yes that was my issue , and bad rng made it impossible for me to play. once i hit 25 and i could use the trade site and got the bow i was able to play the game.

[[TGC] MadGod]

SSF is the way.