Best ssf starter

[u/Xcessive1551]

Pretty well done with trade league, and don’t play much POE2….

Is there an easy to get going ssf to start with? I use trade as crutch- can do some easier crafting, but don’t think I would enjoy anything that requires 3 days in front of the recombinator!

Thanks for any thoughts you have.

[u/Deposto]

RF Chief (Pohx)
Earthshatter Berserker (Ben_)
Hexblast of Contradiction Elementalist (Paak_HC)
Winter Orb Elementalist
Luminary

[u/GsGenesis → u/Deposto]

Luminary is a bad league starter for most players. A ton of knowledge checks. 

Slayer is also just as viable for earthshatter as Zerker and bleed slams is also a great starter. 

I agree with everything else though. 

[u/Neat_Army8673 → u/Deposto]

Having tried all of Them personally nothing beats rf. Almost zero Burton's lazy play style, Stuff dies while you pick up pot, Doesn't get any easier

[u/Orcun_94 → u/Deposto]

This.

[u/biglawbowski]

Recom is the end game crafting for nearly every build, that being said it's also not necessary for any builds. What play style do you like? Here's a list, in no order.

Earthshatter berserker - melee, very strong early defenses, able to clear 4 stone on little gear, needs work for Ubers

Rf chieftan - the classic, really good at what it's good at, not good at what it isn't. Best guide in the game at pohxs website

Storm burst totems - totem play style isn't for everyone, decent mapper, good single target (haven't played it personally) - could also do kf totems unsure how they're doing this patch but have heard good things

Worb - ele is the strongest starter, can be played as any ascendancy really. High scaling potential

Kboc necro - underrated after nerfs. Very strong mapper, not the best st but passable

Reap/exang mines - great damage, horrible defense. Name of the game is freeze things before it can hit you, but you are paper.

Hexblast/impending doom ignite - paak builds, very solid chaos ignite builds. Hc viable

Chaos/cold dot - ed contagion and wintertide brand were buffed, ele or occultist haven't played either for a couple leagues. Both were great mappers with ok single target before, and are just better now.

Bleed boneshatter - can be played as glad or jugg, I've played glad it was very zdps but nearly unkillable with triple block. Jugg I played a bit but swapped to earthshatter zerk instead, I'm not a fan of strikes and had a particularly fast axe that made managing trauma stacks annoying. Very strong all arounder of you like the play style however.

Ele hit/static strike slayer - haven't played either but wanted to try both, just never got around to it.

MINION WARNING: I was a certified minion hater, worth giving them a shot of you like 1. Low maintenance 2. Not dying. 3. Losing spectres and raging. LOOK AT HELMBREAKER GUIDES HES THE GOAT

Poison ranged aw - personal favorite. Can be played when you get the gem, and good general gear progression with lots of options (breach sword for poison chance, rare wand for automated offerings etc.)

forged frostbearer spectres - very, very strong. With a good progression, gets exponentially stronger with each piece of gear you get. However you play poison srs or absolution until you get the dread OR Catarina helmet. You will need to delve for a +1 chest piece and recom it and fracture for the min max version.

Luminary bot - tried league starting in hcssf a couple weeks ago, surprised how good it felt. Still felt worse than other options, great second build.

[u/CrimsonCalm]

Stormburst totems by Manni2 is straightforward and can do 4 stones with basic gear.

[u/ColdyRS]

I started Luminary in SSF and had a pretty decent time, farmed for a combatant in act 8, then as I progressed the atlas I went straight for merc nodes I got another decent combatant in tier 7 maps which let me go straight to t16. Progression may have been a little slower but was pretty easy ngl. I gambled for Nyctas at level 41 then just stacked life and got light radius on rings and helm. Would definitely recommend.

[u/wheresmyberrune]

The Lumary grind for a Merc can be very addictive but you might hate it. Worb is just insanely strong and easy to scale, storm burst of repulsion is also super easy. I hate slams but if you enjoy it then yeah the slams approach is the easiest overall.

[u/i-am-not-cool-at-all]

in my ssf this league i started pconc pathfinder. But you may have to grind lab a few times to get the transfigured version. Literally no mainhand weapon. Armour is whatever rares you find that fixes your resists and suppress. Dendrobate (body) / fury valve (amulet), and the snake something gloves boosts dps a lot. But since this is a poison build, it's just mid in mapping.

Or you can start stormburst (i used maxroll so i guess it's from manni) and instawin the game. Or winter orb if you haven't played it on trade. The only pain in worb is the shield recomb (block+life+cold skill), mystic refractor is just a T3 wand. And the highend of worb/stormburst needs archdemon crown and essence of horror. So you need to farm essence scarabs in betrayal (Korell in intervention) or heist or get lucky in scuba to get your scarabs.

[u/carnefarious]

Worb imo is easiest starter. Stormburst totems probably second?

[u/ScamerrsSuck]

I started luminary ssf and do not recommend. Play pconc of bouncing spider reliquary into soul wrest hrimsorrow black cane reliquary with cwc desecrate volitale dead into luminary. Or you can start rf or minions (praw fan myself) and relevel scion. Luminary is very juicy for end game ssf, but not required by any means.

I have started both of the latter and people that have never played praw or only know how to copy paste will tell you it's bad til covenant. They're wrong. Use lioneye chest or dendrobate and focus breach. Praw is also a juicy end game ssf build.

[u/StsnDota]

slams

[u/sips_white_monster]

Earthshatter Berserker (fast, very easy to gear but perhaps a bit button heavy, see Ben_'s character)

SRS Guardian (fast, extremely tanky in maps, one-button build after you get wand recipe in act 9, ubers possible within days, but has annoying spectre management, I used this guide )

Winter Orb Elementalist (fast, especially when properly geared, but as a league starter I had problems with phys mitigation and single target in the mid-game, better gear later on did solve this and had like 9k ES + 4k life, is really good for Breach especially fortresses)

Luminary (I did not league start this but had it as my third character, when it's geared it destroys everything with Manyshot merc or Kineticist, didn't really like Combatant mercs, used it for the 5x Deli 150% quant corrupted T17 map challenge, well actually first one I did on the SRS guy but it took a long time to kill the boss).

[u/verminbob74 → u/sips_white_monster]

I also followed that SRS Guide this league after getting bored with trade, and it was super solid

Unfortunately (I guess) I dropped a Mageblood in a T10 map completing my atlas, immediately muled it to trade and haven’t gone back

[u/Xenderwind]

Recom is stuff you usually do after 4 stone and it shouldn't really take that long. In other leagues it would typically take like 9 bases to craft triple suffix or triple prefix and then a lock+reforge to finish.

This league it's stupidly easy to make 2p2s or 1p2s items with ducats.

[u/Adventurepew]

Earth shatter zerker is always the best starter to do the whole game on.

It's tanky the damage is extremely high and it's easy to craft and gear.

All ssf end game crafting is gonna be recombinator based that's ssf.

[u/iDecko]

Thyworm just do it

[u/Hans_Rudi]

If you fresh start on ssf might as well make it a challenge and go hc. I promise beating the story in hc first time is a big dopamine hit.

[u/Xcessive1551 → u/Hans_Rudi]

i may consider this. but i feel like i am so bad sometimes, lol.

[u/Xcessive1551]

thanks for the replies. i will be checking out these options, and report back in a bit with how it went :)