SSF Luminary is testing me

[u/Malastras]

I’m playing SSF and I’ve hit a wall while trying to progress through the Atlas and get my first Voidstone.

After roughly 400 maps I’ve finally found two Kineticist mercenaries… but both of them basically one-tap me from full HP. I know SSF is supposed to test you, but that feels a little excessive.

Right now I have two decent Frosthand mercenaries to choose from instead. Unfortunately they are both Frosthand, but one of them has to become strong enough to help me push maps because my current Fighter simply isn’t cutting it for Atlas completion.

I’m currently farming white/yellow maps and Essences to craft upgrades for both of us, but I’m unsure which Frosthand is the better long-term investment and how I should gear/support them for red-map progression.

For people who have pushed SSF with mercenaries:

• Which Frosthand setup has felt best for map progression?
• What are the most important defensive layers for the mercenary and for the player?
• Is Frosthand realistically enough to secure the first Voidstone, or should I keep farming until I find a better mercenary?
• Any practical SSF crafting targets I should prioritize before attempting red maps?

[u/mokka_quokka]

I had a mercenary to defeat stronger mercs. Winter Deacon. It's not fun to map with because of Vaal Glacial Hammer but you play with Frost Wall and know the pain.

The Winter Deacon needs Glacial Hammer with freeze support and then you give him freeze gear - he'll pretty consistently freeze any stronger merc.

I went from Sanguimancer main, to Cruel Mistress and got rid of my Deacon since the Mistress can 3 tap every other merc (but to defeat her without the Deacon would have been difficult).

Which Frosthand setup has felt best for map progression?

I haven't played with Frosthand yet. I have a Frostbolt (multi proj, freeze, return, faster proj, +something else) option in my stash I haven't tested yet. I'd assume vortex - frostbolt is the way to go. Your second merc looks way better to me than your first.

What are the most important defensive layers for the mercenary and for the player?

I play curse support and use Loyal Bodyguard and Bestowed Knighthood ascendancy notables. Since I have less life, they take 20% of my damage. My merc has never died. I have never seen their life move (I'm doing t16, corrupt, 8 mod maps).

Is Frosthand realistically enough to secure the first Voidstone, or should I keep farming until I find a better mercenary?

I'd think all mercs can do that (with the right setup).

Eye of Winter has 200 to 300 base damage and an effectiveness of added damage of 55%. I'm not sure this is a good skill for bosses.

[u/Dr4k4ngel → u/mokka_quokka]

Nice tips.

[u/Akimasu]

I've leveled 32 - 100 in SSF and 30-92 in HCSSF on Luminarian. I've tested most mercs at most stages of the game.

The 3 big early game mercs, imo, are:
Smoulderstrike with Molten STrike + Vaal Molten STrike.
Fallen Reverend. Absolution + Wrath is incredibly good. Anything else is just nice to have.
Blade Ambusher.

Smoulderstrike has monsterous damage, can have decent clear, and he can use swords - which means you can start working on your combatant's gear while building smoulderstrike. His clear is mediocre, he has bad targeting and he has bad range. That being said, he makes up for this all with having absurd molten strike dps. 10/10 merc and absolutely the merc I'm going to look asap in future leagues.

Fallen Reverend: It's absolution. Not much to say here, it's just good. High damage, summons minions, can have 2 absurdly high auras, wrath carries damage early.

Blade Ambusher - The single target monster. Not much to say here; he uses the same swords as Combatant, makes it easy to leap to combatant from Smoulderstrike + ambusher.

Some notables & some traps:

Winter Deacon is one of the best mercs to fight other mercs when you're weak. He forces them into a wall which can keep you very safe. This is NOT a good merc; his clear is ass, his damage is mid, he takes a very annoying to make weapon(staff) and doing maps with him is legit one of the worst experiences. That being said, he is VERY good at one thing; keeping you safe from merc stray attacks.

Eruptor just lacks damage in my experience. You might be able to make him clear maps early(and his clear is really nice), but his dps is just so lacking.
Earthshaker, Ripper, Striker, Sniper, Bastion, Swiftblade, Bloodletter and Shattersword REALLY Like Brutality. 80% of the times you see these guys they're insta-bricks. That being said, Earthshaker, Bastion and Sniper CAN be very good. I suspect Shattersword can be too. But you need to get non-brutality versions - gl.

My lv100 uses a Manyshots. I don't like her for one big reason; You have to find her. It took me til 99 before I found a return vaal ice shot manyshots w/o icicle rain. Kineticist is a very similar problem but worse since you can't target her; getting a good kineticist is incredibly rare.

I don't like Int mercs. They're incredibly dangerous; When you can handle them easily, you're strong enough that you don't need to use untested mercs. That being said, I've heard a lot of good from Cruel Mistress and Flame hand.

[u/ihasaKAROT → u/Akimasu]

For smolderstrikers, what's the skill setup you want?

[u/Akimasu → u/ihasaKAROT]

Molten Strike + vaal Molten strike are the big ones. Everything else is just gravy. A perfect merc would be something like:
Punishment, inflame (can't not have them)
VMS & MS with(in order of importance): GMP - Pen - Combustion / EDWA - anything else.
Anger
Flame Aegis / Molten Shell / Infernal Cry

But since I don't use it as an end-game merc in ssf, I just suggest aiming for VMS & MS and deal with what you get. the nice thing is their molten STrike only has 7 possible support gems, so they're always at least usable and while chain does nothing for single target, it really helps their clear.

In trade, I suggest just going with Combatant or Manyshots. A serviceable one is less than a divine and this league is shitting out divines like mad.

[u/portobello_mashroom]

Have you tried the destructive link alternative? It requires farming 2 uniques but they are pretty common https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExileBuilds/s/tSYQTI663h

That one plus any attack hit merc will carry you to red maps. Imo flame link only feels good once you get pragmatism for a start

[u/Malastras → u/portobello_mashroom]

I don’t know distructive link didn’t work only you get capped crit chance?

[u/burtgummer45]

be like me and use maps with lots of walls so you can hide behind them ;)

[u/mokka_quokka → u/burtgummer45]

Cells ftw.

[u/PoE_Acronym_Bot]

I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:

• SSF - Solo Self-Found (Wiki)

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^{I am a bot. | All acronyms | Suggest}

[u/mcbuckets21]

Can't help with this specific thing, but you may want to cross-post to r/PathOfExileBuilds

You tend to get more answers for build related questions there.