3.28 SSF Unique Map Farming

In 3.28 many of the means for obtaining unique maps in SSF were removed with no equally productive or useful new system to replace them such that endgame crafting and gear progression were severely hampered and dependent on RNG'ing unique maps

The top means for farming unique maps in 3.27 and 3.28 (in decreasingly, subjectively perceived likelihood to result in unique maps):
- Kirac missions with "Singular Scouting Report" farming (removed in 3.28)
- Beastcraft, Farric Taurus
- Betrayal, Rin in fortification
- Div cards ("The Encroaching Darkness" or specific maps like "The Professor" for "Putrid Cloister")
- Generic high rarity/quantity mapping
- Kingsmarch (mappers and shipments)
- Kirac shop reroll with gold (added in 3.28)

In my opinion, the removal of Kirac missions as a means for obtaining unique maps otherwise not RNG'ed as random drops (in other gameplay such as map progression or bossing) was a huge quality of life decrease for SSF that *may not have been intended or anticipated by GGG*

In the 3.28 Mirage SSF league, I dedicated over 20 hours of endgame play (after completing atlas and most uber bosses in ~40 hours of gameplay) to farming juiced nightmare maps (T17) and 8 mod T16 (T16.5) maps with atlas spec'ed into Beasts and Betrayal with related scarabs in hopes to obtain a "The Coward's Trial", but I did not obtain "The Coward's Trial" and quit the league. I usually have time to spend ~100 hours per league (excepting 3.25 lol) and spending ~40 hours to get my first character to uber bossing is typical for me, but this league was by far my slowest time to uber bossing due to my inability to complete crafts due to missing meta crafting tools only obtained through unique maps. Subsequently my gear progression, and consequently my character progression, plateaued despite having SSF best in slot tier gear (ideal prefixes) that I could not finish crafting. In my ~100 hours of playtime per league, I often bring many characters to uber bossing tier builds, but this league I didn't "finish juicing" my first build and quit the league with ~75m DPS and 150k EHP (POB Warrior lol) on low life GCoF; shout out Smokie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juvl3aa_udg&t=1922s

I personally consider "The Coward's Trial" to be one of the most important unique maps due to the endgame meta craft "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed". Endgame crafting, crafting with meta crafting among other currencies and crafting methods, in SSF is my favorite part of the game and my 3.28 league experience was kind of ruined due to my "bad luck" or "bad RNG" of not obtaining the unique maps for endgame crafting

In my opinion, the 3.28 mirage league removing the most, subjectively, effective SSF unique mapping tool (Kirac mission farming with "Singular Scouting Report") was a serious quality of life decrease and endgame progression limiting change that "feels" like a mistake to me

To preempt the "skill issue" responses from other players, here's my (admittedly unoptimized) estimated effort in 3.28 mirage ssf to target farm "The Coward's Trial" in ~20 hours of dedicated endgame playtime:
- 20+ nightmare maps (with another ~10 failed nightmare maps lol)
- 30+ T16 maps
- 10+ T16.5 maps
- ~15 Farric Taurus beastcrafts
- 2 or 3 Rin safehouses (not a betrayal enjoyer) and many Rin interactions/kills in Fortification in maps
- 3-5 million gold Kirac shop reroll (prioritizing mirage Golden Volatiles)
- 5+ shipments and nearly continuous T16 corrupted mappers (target farming runegrafts in shipments)

My point is not that I perfectly optimized my ~20 hours endgame playtime but that the perceived effort to (not even) obtain unique maps in the endgame