SSF has made me love this game more than I ever have.

I always burn out on the game two weeks into the league. I never make an abundant amount of currency, but I make enough to fund my builds that average 20-30 exalts. Once I hit that power spike by an item I buy that makes me one shot everything and kill guardians in seconds, I get bored within a few hours and I put the game down. Getting to that point is fun, but once I get there, it takes the fun away that I don’t have to do the mechanics, I just kill them before they do anything.

After my 11th character in sc delirium, I decided to make a ssf character lacerate gladiator. I read up on vendor recipes and crafted my weapons throughout the game. Once I hit maps, I had a decent weapon, but nothing special. I slowly built my character up and made a 300 pdps axe and shit started dying faster. I worked my way up to red maps and had a blast doing so.

I then decided to craft another axe and then I hit a 400 pdps siege axe in 15 alts (I know, lucky) and I felt such an accomplishment. I wasn’t saving my currency for the axe, I made that shit myself. I didn’t know how the atlas worked until I started reading shit and trying to figure it out. Then, I unlocked sirus and I was stoked. I never did the fight or watched a video on it. I attempted sirus a5 and I died 6 times on the last phase due to not knowing what to do. I wasn’t upset or made, I felt accomplished.

I knew I needed more defense since I had the damage, so I started crafting more gear. I found 2 ilvl 84 steel rings so I decided to craft them and I hit t1 phys/ life on both and crafted attack speed. Then I crafted a shield with t1 life and life gain on block. I started mapping again to have another go on sirus and when I killed al-hezmin on my atlas, he dropped an ilvl 85 influenced astral plate. I chaos spammed it and got t1 life and 12% to max life. I hit six sockets and then I six linked it in 300 fusings.

I was ready to try sirus again and I fucking murdered him on a5. I’ve never felt so accomplished in any video game before. It was a journey to get to this point and I loved every second of it.

Doing ssf revitalized my love for this game and the knowledge it takes to get to this point. I never want to spend currency to try crafting gear on trade league because I’m saving it to pay for my next item. I’ve learned more in ssf this league then I have the entirety of playing PoE (2300 hours).

Guardians take like 30-40 seconds, but I have to do the mechanics of the fights and don’t just one shot. I’ve delved to 200 hundred and I want to go much farther, I want to kill sirus on a8 and I want to do Uber elder, and the delirium boss (I’ve only made it to wave 17). Ssf adds a dynamic to the game that you can’t get on trade league.

Now I know why the people who do it have so much fun. I just want to tell GGG thanks for making such a fantastic video game and the love they have poured into their idea. It’s unlike any game I’ve ever played and I can’t see myself stopping until I’ve completed all of my league goals I set.