SSF vs HC trade

I noticed some Path of Exile keywords in this post:

• HC - Hardcore League (Wiki)
• SSF - Solo Self-Found (Wiki)

^(I am a bot.) ^| ^(All acronyms) ^| ^(Suggest)

Personally a big fan of HC Trade. I like trading and HC trading is very different from SC. The natural exit of items on death means way less inflation.

I would say the "help to learn game more deeply" is a bit iffy question here.

On one side SSF theoretically can teach self-sufficiency and basic crafting, but on the other You will find Yourself short on all kind of currency You could just buy dirt cheap from Currency Exchange, so crafting capabilities are fairly limited. But can be fun for casual play to just not use "Market Cheatcode".

Meanwhile HC makes some attacks/environments extremely lethal (Like Molten Vault lava being an instakill) and probably will give You the most thrilling (and stressful) experience, but personally I would never recommend playing it in current PoE2's state. It could take You several tries to reach Act 4 and most of the fails probably wouldn't even be Your fault given the game's gimmicks.
And don't play HC as melee. You've been warned.

I got bored from this league after I had the tremendous luck to come to riches after sekhemas (22k div). I built a bm coea/coc comet character which allowed me to reach and win against everything the game has to offer. it was fun. but then... it became boring. like: super-boring.

I then decided to try the very same bm in SSF. And the entire game changed. Upto now, I reached T15 yesterday, the entire leveling process was tedious and ugly and difficult. Because I had to use what I found or was able to craft. But SSF forced me to find my ways through the passive skill tree and the games in another way. You have, what you have and adapt to your stuff. POE2 showed me again, why I love this game so stupidly much. You can adapt to every situation.

I am far, far, far away from a convenient, functioning BM. Right now, I don't even think about switching onto the crit-path. But my coea came up and is running now (snap).

What I want to say is: every day there is at least one post from a guy who spent stupidly much currency on a monster build he does not understand. SSF helps you to understand what's going on much better. You just can't skip.

There are "budget builds" that work really good in leveling. I liked my galvanic shards mercenery.

Yeah, leaning towards SSF. I do find myself dying not infrequently especially as I progressed. With my current wold I don’t think I died until act 4 but that would’ve been tough as I don’t have a ton of playtime and starting over might be a slog. Maybe I’ll go ssf and track deaths. Just something to mix it up. As starting from scratch any build recs to start with?

I’ve been throwing characters at HCssf. Just lost my last character yesterday in a T15, also being my first character to live through the campaign.

Kinda makes the game feel like a super immersive roguelike.

I’ve done d4 hc. Also (much harder than d4) grim dawn hc. I have dabbled a n poe but nothing significant

I love playing SSF and “earning” my power. It would just be nice if something appeared more before grinding maps for hundreds of hours. I need desecration. Materials and essences desperately to craft my level 80 maji talisman bases. Still sitting on the level 59 fury talisman.

I wish a ruthless mode were implemented in poe2. dont like one button (or 0 button builds), but if you dont play meta, your currency income is much worse than the avg player.

dont know much (although trying to learn) crafting to do ssf and HC scares me since I follow and watch many good players that lose character after character after non telegraphed one shots or corpse explosions.

never played ruthless in poe1, but from what I read it could be a good middle ground.

SSF does teach you gow to play the game because you either learn how to farm efficiently or you are simply starved of power, there is no crutch with how leftover gear from crafters operates on trade. You realize very quickly that farming efficiency is about going all-in on a strategy, plus you get to experience some mechanics you'd otherwise bypass on trade.

That farming mentality translates to Trade. 

HC is entirely different in that you're going to be adding safety to any decision you make, be it build choice to farming strategies. You'll either love it or hate it.

However, any of those leagues will limit your build options, and that is enough to put people off them