Idea for SSF/Solo player

Hey Exiles,
This league I decided to go full SSF and I don't think I'll ever go back to trade. The absence of the FOMO caused by the economy made engaging with the game way more enjoyable.
The only issue that I found is that the game doesn't really have a way to balance solo and group play, and this is exaggerated in SSF where you obviously don't have access to the economy.
So here's an idea to mitigate this issue, a solo passive tree:

- A Solo Passive Tree that only functions if you are alone in your party.
- The moment you join a party, the bonuses deactivate.
- It wouldn’t replace the main tree — it would be a small, supplemental layer (like the atlas one).
- More tree are better than no tree

The point isn’t to make SSF stronger than trade or group play, but to give solo players some tools that make it feel better.

What do you think?

This will come with time, same as it did in poe1.
If you were to compare 0.4 to 0.1 in terms of SSF it's literally night and day already.

As more league mechanics are added, there will be more ways to target farm specific things.
Div cards have already been confirmed, which will make a lot of things attainable in SSF.

As far as them developing specifically for SSF - it's never happened in poe1 and probably never will here either, as having the vast majority of the player base on the trade economy treadmill guarantees repeat customers during every league launch.

The only thing that could be even remotely worth of considering imo is adding new passive skills into existing tree which will work only when playing solo. So in order to get those bonuses players will be forced to sacrifice some of their skill points.

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Sakanabi#6664 wrote:

The only thing that could be even remotely worth of considering imo is adding new passive skills into existing tree which will work only when playing solo. So in order to get those bonuses players will be forced to sacrifice some of their skill points.

Could see this being an atlas thing moreso than a skillpoint thing, gated behind a few atlas points.

Could be something that had impacts on certain playstyles too, such as if/when they introduce mercenaries - similar to what was in the poe1 league - and for players who use companions/minions. In a way that makes it so these characters likely would not want to take those points, just like someone involved in regular party-play would also not want to, but then players who are rolling solo/companionless can make sure they're not going to feel gimped for doing so, but they might not be able to use those points for other things - which should be a large enough number of points for it to be a meaningful and impactful decision.

No, the entire point of SSF is that it is a CHALLENGE MODE with NO bonuses . It was designed by PLAYERS for players that want more challenge. If you don't want the added challenge, don't play the challenge modes.

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1823776

At least this suggestion is one that sounds like it's intended to work in trade league as well as an SSF league, so it wouldn't be a bonus exclusive to SSF, which I'd be against. I think this one is overexaggerating the effect of party play though. The other thing is that if the tree is too good - maybe it works something like the new Breach tree in PoE1 - then playing solo could become strictly better than playing in a party. Then you run the experience for the casual co-op players. (Which, to be fair, visual clarity is already doing a pretty good job robbing that experience).

I still think the answer for SSF is things we know they plan to add to the core game anyways. Div Cards are confirmed to be coming in the future, and those offer target farming opportunities that are generally missing. Some vendor recipes do exist, such as reforging one of each attribute amulet to get an all attribute amulet back. Expanding on that system would help a lot, especially if most of the recipes were down or discoverable in game, with secret recipes being more special. Whatever endgame changes come, hopefully in 0.5, will likely include more meta progression that will generally help too. I'd prefer any solutions like that over any solution that changes the player experience in SSF from Trade.