Tried the game again in SSF... NOPE! I'll try again in 0.5 to make sure it still sucks!

Who's Jamanra? This is how unimpressed with campaign difficulty I was while leveling blind. Try that instead of "following a build guide" :D.

Tbh, It is the build in this case, there are many DPS checks, always check the merchants between campaign areas, gamble, and use all of the orbs your getting + the abyss items as the ones you get in campaign are only good for low item level

Try respeccing passives, for maximum damage while remembering Jamanra is lightning, so as long as you have lightning resist or armour applies to lightning/elemental your good, and it strictly comes down to timing

His 2nd phase consists of his big sword slam, always starts with it. then moves on to a swipe with his spear if your within close-medium range

You need to bait out the swing stand back, then go in, his sword slam has a good 3-5 secs of animation giving you plenty of time to realize hes about to slam and you dodge right before he hits, then he swipes, and repeat, while watching out for tornados + the portals he spawns, bait out close range swipe, then go in and do all the DPS you can, Or if your ranged you just need to play back and look for his sword slam

Campaign is frustrating but its designed in a way to get you accustomed to the game and combat etc even though endgame kinda falls apart with all the one hit builds and zooming so its kinda dumb

Im SSF Merc, have made it endgame, ya with struggle, but you need to take advantage of everything legit pick up every item for your class/build, save whites, use orbs, rinse and repeat, essences are best friend

The boss fights simply require patience, people get super scared and thats what leads to death, just because your low on life doesn't mean you need to suddenly panic and get thrown off guard, take your time, pay attention to bosses, you will die, and this is how you learn their phases, just don't start out doing any endgame maps without atleast 3 revives untill you get good gear + survivability

I full cleared in SSF day 3 on one run and day 4 on another without any issue. It's in really great shape, from an SSF perspective, and I prefer it over PoE1 SSF even. As the only mode I play I would be critical if needed, but I just don't have any SSF related issues. Drops have been good, crafting is in a good place overall, and progression into endgame is very smooth.

If you are struggling with the mode I would try to look at some guides and see if you can get a batter understanding of the game. SSF isnt for for everyone. Try trade maybe too, as it can ease some of the tension from not having the knowledge base to complete a run on your own. Most people never finish all content, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Having to get help is something most people will have to do in PoE at some point.

Luckily the game is in good shape and they have good plans for 0.5 it seems, so you checking it out should be worth your while. Good luck in 0.5!

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rrogan17#2926 a écrit :

Drops have been good, crafting is in a good place overall, and progression into endgame is very smooth.

You say that by assuming going through the campaign is the goal of SSF. It's not. Reach high 90ties with your build and enjoy the impossibility to adapt to the difficulty by not getting the drops that you need for advanced crafting. Crafting is in an utterly terrible state, since Mark and Jonathan removed the Omen of Homogenization to go full casino crafting again to pump the play time metrics while pushing SSF to a dead end.

Claiming the game would be in a good shape while ignoring the terrible state of crafting ESPECIALLY when speaking about SSF is something, noone who had ever had a high 90teis build in SFF can agree with.

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AngryGekko#0233 a écrit :

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rrogan17#2926 a écrit :

Drops have been good, crafting is in a good place overall, and progression into endgame is very smooth.

You say that by assuming going through the campaign is the goal of SSF. It's not. Reach high 90ties with your build and enjoy the impossibility to adapt to the difficulty by not getting the drops that you need for advanced crafting. Crafting is in an utterly terrible state, since Mark and Jonathan removed the Omen of Homogenization to go full casino crafting again to pump the play time metrics while pushing SSF to a dead end.

Claiming the game would be in a good shape while ignoring the terrible state of crafting ESPECIALLY when speaking about SSF is something, noone who had ever had a high 90teis build in SFF can agree with.

+1

The decision to remove those omens are baffling along with the 2 op helmets think the deepest tower and the other one that reduces number of enemies required for surrounded

They launched season 3 by removing deepest tower, BUT INTRODUCED A UNIQUE THATS ALMOST MORE OP

Yes lowlife and execute shit like that, it is broken, but the fact they added an equally as broken helmet....

I play SSF, theres so many runes I need, no way to gurantee like wtffff

We need ways to target farm runes and soul cores say an atlas tree or something

The decisions they have made since the 0.3 launch are absolutley baffling and lead to an overall negative casino experience

Of all the problems the game has, be they real or imaginary, I think Jamanra is a non-issue. If you spend 10-15 minutes to beat him, it is either a build problem or a problem in understanding how itemization works and what you should look out for.
Playing SSF and trying to follow an online guide don't really go hand in hand, as you will not have innate access to a lot of the items the guide probably assumes you have.
Either improvise or face the reality of 10-20 minutes boss fights.

Meh. Anyone that does not exclusively play meta and that isn't lying to themself knows that OP has a valid point. Lots of builds are perfectly fine to play with and down the bosses with during the campaign within a reasonable amount of time, providing your weapon/main hand is at a minimum decent enough to do the job. But, as is typical for POE, the loot during the campaign is even worse than it is in end-game, and so it is indeed possible to get stuck on campaign bosses because you happened to be lucky enough to drop 3 exalts and some of the worst garbage out there.
Happened to at least one of my builds too until i snuck to trade and acquired a weapon that was actually suitable for my level. Sure, the build matters, but it's far from the only thing that counts.
And so when it comes to SSF, it's not hard for me at all to understand how this can be quite frustrating for you. I'd never play SSF in POE since GGG will never balance loot around self-sustainment. If they'd be open to that, it would have happened over a decade ago. And since the company is now no longer in the hands of an avid gamer and ARPG lover, but instead run by people convinced their theoretical knowledge suffices to create a fun product, they've walked too fine a line so far on multiple things, including difficulty and balance. As a result, and it's a cruel joke, but i fear the reality is that SSF in Path of Exile 2 currently is and probably will remain a mode, slapped on for the sake of completism. I wouldn't expect an extended hand from them in regards to the SSF experience anytime soon, or ever

OP played meta and is complaining about it being too difficult

Doesn't really matter what he played. The argument still stands. You can have issues defeating a boss due to awful gear, which is surely possible in SSF.
The meta remark was only used to specify a group of people that, in my humble opinion, would not attempt to claim otherwise.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

I'm NOT gonna trade... I like to PLAY the game and not go buy stuff...

Trading is part of the game and using trade is playing the game; a different part of the game than the maps or temple or whatnot, but regardless.

PoE1 and 2 have been deliberately designed and balanced in part with trading in mind.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

I had decent loot for SSF thanks to the Vaal Temple... so I was confident I would do decently well... after what felt like 20 minutes of pointlessly hitting Jamanra in Act 2 I quit and uninstalled the game... I was doing NEGATIVE damage to him... and no, my build was not the problem... I was clearing mobs just fine with the poison pathfinder... then you get to the boss and is sooooo tedious... it takes forever... and it's not "challenging"... it's ANNOYING!!!

Sorry for the bluntness but okay, objectively, your build or playing skill were the problem if you got stuck in Act 2.

I know because I've played without trade during the campaign on two league starts, including this one.

And I know because every time a league launches, the first HCSSF players clear the campaign on a fresh start on the same day. And the rest follows a couple of days after.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

One where your build is what matters and not buying the absolute best min-max gear even for leveling in the campaign to avoid these 20 minute slog-fests???

If you know what to look for and your build is good and you understand what items to try and craft and what to skip on, if you check the vendors and the gear drops and pivot to a new build if it happens that you drop or vendor great gear for that build, .. then no, no boss fight is a 20 minute slog-fest.

Sometimes you get unlucky and just don't get half-decent stuff for a specific build. But on your first week after a league start, you'll almost always drop enough stuff to kit out another kind of a build.

You also don't need min-maxed stuff to fly through the campaign on the trade leagues. A couple of common and cheap uniques and a decent weapon gets you far. Some of those uniques are so common I had dropped most of them by my own play within a week from start.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

PoE1 is the MUCH harder game... PoE2 is not hard, it's very very streamlined but it's just sloooow and tedious, and time-wasting and annoying... HOW is it challenging to keep hitting a boss for 20 minutes??? WHY is this challenging??? The boss is not hard... HIS HP BAR IS ENDLESS!!! And this is the freakin campaign!!! It's not even endgame... in endgame it's more bearable really cause you will eventually find good gear even in SSF, but leveling is TORTURE!!!

I played both PoE1 and PoE2 through blind (as in, without guides, youtube videos, and with minimal spoilers) on HC the first time and I can say with very high confidence that PoE2 is the much, much harder game, with overperforming builds harder to create, boss fights much more demanding in regards of awareness and reaction times, and so on.

PoE1 took me maybe 40 hours and a couple of deaths, PoE2 took more like 120 hours and a dozen deaths.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

I'm sorry, but do I have to have a perfect 20% quality rare weapon FOR LEVELING???

You don't.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

the passive tree is a joke anyway, 15 nodes on the passive tree combined give less stats than one piece of gear...

Let's see.. 15 nodes on a monk start might be:

+21% skill speed
+71% attack damage
+5 dex, int
+10 str
+12% ES/EV

A two-handed mace's +%phys caps at 64% on that level.

So no, you are wrong.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

even if I did one or two nodes wrong (which I didn't do) it wouldn't matter... what matters is that this game is a slog fest...

As long as you have specific particularly strong nodes, yeah, passive tree isn't super important. On many builds, dropping the passive tree reduces your DPS by about half and survivability by 1/3 (if not counting str), while removing your gear drops your DPS to like 10% if not even less, and survivability to well under half.

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Blade_Dancer_90#3602 a écrit :

I don't care what you nerf or buff... NERF THE BOSS HP BARS IN THE CAMPAIGN!!! 15-20 minutes of clicking and begging for the fight to end out of boredom is NOT acceptable...

Even now players who know how to maximize their damage kill all bosses so fast that the invulnerability phases when they are doing their speeches and stage shift animations take longer than the actual fight; and even on a fresh start, most builds deal with the bosses in max 5 mins per fight.

If your build and playstyle allowed you to take bosses in 5 mins, that would mean that experienced players would kill the bosses in a single click, and the intermediate players in 1-2 minutes.