SSF is more viable, sure, but none of us have time to play the game as much as a professional to get it to that point.
Ok, so you want SSF to not be viable but you want it to be on parity with trade league. If SSF is on parity with trade, then trade is pretty worthless.
I gave examples already to answer your first paragraph in my previous post, but I'll try a different one. Legion Emblems during 3.7. HH priced emblems such that it was more lucrative to sell them than run them without a HH.
HH did not "price emblems". The market "priced emblems". They priced it based on maximum returns from an HH sure. But was the problem HH here? Or perhaps, was the problem Cyclone and it's ridiculous uncapped range potential? Even though HH made it uncapped, cyclone with a prismatic edge with white sockets, and the gull giving you a chicken shrine was also enough range to cover the arena. They might not kill as fast, but two characters with this setup, and one person to do spawning can have the same results as a HH in the end given the capped loot potential and the fact that HH spends a lot of time waiting for respawns because there's a cooldown on respawning.
Delve farmers are an issue. Much less so, their niche is relatively isolated and nerfs to fossil farming have diminished their ability to affect the market. Also, I hate "crafting" in this game, so it doesn't personally affect me much. But on principle, delve farmers are related. Lab runners are the same. I never plan a build around an Uber lab helm enchant. So, again, effect is relatively isolated as GGG has removed most "required" helm enchants.
Ok, but again you seem to be bringing up these issues because (somehow?) they affect your way of playing the game. You say it yourself "I never plan a guild around an Uber Lab helm enchant". Ok, good for you. You play the game the way you want to play it, I'll play it the way I want to.
Boss killers is a bunk argument. They've never been profitable until this league. I'm honestly surprised they still are this long into the league. That said, I don't think it's been profitable long enough to accurately comment.
This is completely false, boss killers have been very profitable in every league. The issue is that boss killers become less profitable the longer a league goes on, and
this league its staying mostly profitable because of the player retention this league is considerably higher than normal. Just like....... everything else in the league.
Here is a good example of early returns being extremely profitable:
poe.ninja
Edit: Also, let's not consider the fact of 50c per siris kill, or uber elder carry, or any other carry that a boss killer can do all day long.
How is the player NOT heavily taxed? If I want to just possess a HH, it costs me 90 exalts.
Do you not see the irony? Your friend doesn't have the time to play through the endgame content, so you're funneling him money. What if the content your friend wanted to experience was a Transcendence aura stacker with last league prices?
No, the HH costs you either 90 ex, or your time to farm your cards. Or, you can do what I did and farm BC for doctors, and take whatever other currency and items you get during that to buy doctors as early as possible. I earned 2 doctors in the time I got enough ex to buy 6 other doctors. 3 of those 6 doctors I got for less than 8 ex (iirc one was 7ex, and two were like 7.5ex). 2 of them were 10ex, and 1 was 10.5 ex. My HH cost me time, and about 53ex.
I'm not funneling my friend money. He's looting my maps with me and we're splitting proceeds
. But nonetheless, even if the game was "viable" via SSF in the way you want it to be, people like my friend would never experience the end game anyway. The guy plays like 5 hours a week at the most. He's not going to ever experience PoE end game without my help. We've been friends for 30 years, so I'm gonna hook him up. The Headhunter also doesn't make that possible for him. I just as easily could continue to farm BCs on my normal every day BF/BB character. Instead of 1 map in 2-3 minutes, it would be 1 map in about double the time. So instead of 3 weeks to get 90ex, it would take 6.
You also missed the point that me, and Kyth, and others do. We farmed our HHs. We earned it, through grinding and working the markets in such a way where teh HH cost as little as possible. We did nothing you couldn't do yourself to get money, but instead of spending it on an HH, you could just sell the doctors when they are worth more. But it sounds like you want to play the game you want to, while at the same time jumping on people for playing it differently.
I disagree about being locked out of content. Think of it this way, should the "Mathil Effect" prevent anyone from playing a build? In what is essentially a single player game, why should temporary(or rest of league, fuck you Astral Projector staying multiple exalts last league after Mathil played it) popularity price people out of builds? Even if you can afford it, it feels bad to pay popularity tax.
They're making improvements to SSF. I can't really tell if it's purposeful yet. Like, the Atlas passives for example. But, that aside, using Ziz as example of SSF viability is the opposite of what you want to do.
You yourself said you dont play builds that require helm enchants. Why should anyone play a build that Mathil likes? Your position as I'm understanding it is that everyone should be able to play every build with laser like precision and get identical returns no matter your gear level, and that top tier gear should be easily available for all.
This exists in every game where there are tradeable items. Popular things are going to be more expensive than non-popular things. That's especially true in a game like path of exile where everything is tradeable.
Ziz had his SSF gear in the first week of the league. At what point does something become viable? If SSF Hardcore players are able to kill the end game boss of brand new content in the first fucking day of the league, I don't know what other viable ways it can be done. It sounds like you're just arguing a very simple argument: "I want everyone else to play the game in a way I want them to so long as they don't affect the prices of the things I want to play". It's a very self-centered argument.
