10 Best SSF Builds in Path of Exile 3.24

Are you bored of the trade league in Path of Exile and are looking to try SSF in the 3.24 Necropolis League? If so, you have come to the right place!

In this guide, we will give you our top picks for builds that you can run comfortably in a Solo Self-Found environment.

What is SSF?

Before anything, what is SSF? In Path of Exile, "SSF" stands for Solo Self-Found. This is a separate league that you can participate in when you create a new character.

Having said that, what is the major difference between SSF and the trade league? Well, as you can tell, playing in an SSF environment means that you cannot initiate trades with other players, hence the "Solo Self-Found" moniker.

This is ideal for those who want to be challenged, particularly when looking for gear. If you are still new to PoE, we recommend that you try the game on trade league first to get yourself acquainted with the overall feel of Grinding Gear Games" entry into the ARPG space.

What Makes a Build Ideal for SSF?

If this is your first foray into ARPGs, "builds" refer to a combination of items, passive skills, and skill gems. In Path of Exile, you can also choose ascendancy classes that have notable passives that can complement a build.

For example, the Deadeye is great for projectile-based skill gems primarily because this ascendancy class gives you access to additional projectiles and increased effect of Mark skills.

Aside from that, the Juggernaut is an ascendancy class that is great for more defensive builds but can be adjusted to have a bit more offense as well.

That said, for a build to be viable for SSF, it has to work without all of the complicated and very rare items in the game. Items such as the Headhunter and Mageblood may take any build in Path of Exile to the next level, but they are mostly out of reach for the vast majority of players. This is why such builds are not great for the Solo Self-Found League.

In addition, good SSF builds are those that can work with the pieces of gear that you collect along the way. Besides that, if they require some crafted equipment, you can easily do that by using some Essences and Fossils.

Because you are going to rely on yourself to farm gear, Solo Self-Found builds should be able to clear maps relatively well. It also helps if they can do so with a minimal investment since resources are scarce in this specific environment.

While not particularly mandatory, SSF builds need to be a bit tanky, especially since you are going to take on some endgame bosses to unlock the Atlas Keystones all by yourself.

In Patch 3.23, Grinding Gear Games introduced a new class of gems called Transfigured Gems. These can be obtained by completing a level 75 labyrinth and putting a gem inside the Divine Font at the end.

Since you are not playing in the trade league, it is imperative that you use a build that can finish the labyrinth without dying. This is even more so when you are going to use any of the new Transfigured Gems in Path of Exile.

Basics

Now that you know what constitutes a good SSF build in Path of Exile, it is important to lay down some ground rules before we give you our top picks.

The builds that are going to be highlighted in this guide are arranged in no particular order. We at RPGStash feel that all of these are competent enough to be played in a Solo Self-Found environment. It all really boils down to your playstyle and what skill gems you want to use.

Even though some builds are fast mappers or much tankier than others, their inclusion on this list tells you that they are a cut above the rest.

So, without further ado, here are the 10 best SSF builds in Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction League:

Best SSF Builds in 3.23

Righteous Fire Inquisitor

A staple in SSF leagues in Path of Exile, the Righteous Fire Inquisitor is a great build if you want something that is comfortable to run and has enough survivability to take on even the most challenging content in the game.

This build utilizes the newly buffed Righteous Fire spell skill gem. GGG has made substantial changes in Patch 3.23 where 70% of your HP and energy shield now affect the damage of RF. This is the reason why the Inquisitor is the preferred ascendancy class for this spell skill gem rather than the Juggernaut.

Despite the choice of ascendancy class, the Inquisitor is pretty tanky thanks, in large part, to Sanctuary and Pious Path. Pious Path, in particular, is a node that makes this build work.

You see, Righteous Fire, when activated, drains your HP and energy shield. You mitigate that by capping your fire resistance and making sure that you have enough life and ES regeneration. What makes Pious Path great for the build is that you recover both life and energy shield while standing on the Consecrated Ground created by Sanctuary.

Since Righteous Fire deals elemental damage, you improve that by taking Augury of Penitence. This ensures that you deal 16% increased elemental damage against nearby enemies. Conversely, monsters around you deal 8% less elemental damage to you, which makes it appealing from a survivability standpoint.

In SSF, you might have a hard time sorting out your attributes. This is even more pronounced on this build since you will wear mostly armor/energy shield-based equipment. Do not worry, Righteous Providence gives you a hefty 50-point boost to your STR and INT stats simply by allocating points to get this node!

For the gear, Legacy of Fury is one of the best that you can get your hands on. This does require you to beat The Maven, but this build is tanky enough to survive most of her attacks. You do have to get acquainted with the different phases of the boss fight, but you should be able to get a hang of it after several tries or so.

Replica Soul Tether is another piece of gear that can elevate the damage output of this build. This unique Cloth Belt provides a bit of increase to your maximum energy shield. However, its main selling point is that it grants you the effect of the Corrupted Soul keystone passive, which makes half of the non-chaos damage you take bypass energy shield. Because of the good amount of life and ES on the Righteous Fire Inquisitor, this belt covers both offensive and defensive aspects of the build.

In terms of the body armor, you can use the Saintly Chainmail as the crafting base to give you a considerable amount of armor and energy shield. Craft it with some Dense Fossils until you get triple energy shield mods and some elemental/chaos resistance.

The endgame helmet for the Righteous Fire Inquisitor can easily be crafted by getting an Elder-influenced helmet and using the Harvest Reforge Fire option from the Horticrafting Station. Do this until you get "Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level # Burning Damage" and "Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level # Concentrated Effect".

After doing mapping runs, you might loot the Utula's Hunger unique body armor. This gives you a considerable boost to your HP and is definitely a chase item for this build. Fortunately, Majestic Plate is not that hard to find; you just have to be diligent enough to run a hundred maps with this build.

Now, Righteous Fire is a pretty good mapping skill. However, it does suffer from poor single-target damage. Hence, you will use the Fire Trap skill gem as well. Use this as many times as needed to take down the tougher enemies.

All in all, the Righteous Fire Inquisitor is one of the best SSF builds in Path of Exile. It is comfortable to run, can take on even the most challenging content in the game, and is beginner-friendly as well.

Boneshatter Juggernaut

If you like to do deep Delves in Path of Exile, we highly recommend the Boneshatter Juggernaut. When you use this character and equip it with the right pieces of gear, you can comfortably do deep delving runs without an issue. You can go as high as 2,000 depth with self-found gear, though you'd have to make the necessary upgrades along the way to make that happen.

Although you can go for the Slayer ascendancy class when using Boneshatter, we recommend the Juggernaut if you are going to play in the SSF league. The reason is that this ascendancy class performs better with self-found gear as opposed to the Slayer. On top of that, the notable passive skills available to the Juggernaut just scale better in the endgame.

Undeniable is a node that not only grants a huge boost to your accuracy rating, but also increases your attack speed based on the total amount of accuracy that you have on your character. With this node, stacking as much STR as you can increases your accuracy rating significantly, so you are really hitting two birds with one stone here.

Unbreakable is an amazing node to take. This notable passive skill doubles the value of your equipped body armor. You can craft your own body armor to fully take advantage of this effect. Furthermore, a small portion of your armor is used to mitigate the elemental damage you take from enemy hits. The increased armor provided by Unbreakable is a godsend for the Boneshatter Juggernaut, mainly because of the skill's self-damaging component.

Speaking of which, Boneshatter is an attack skill gem in Path of Exile that grants increased attack speed every time you hit an enemy with it. You deal increasingly devastating attacks the more Trauma stacks you have. Unfortunately, Boneshatter has an ugly downside in that you also receive physical damage with every use, which gets more damaging as you accrue more stacks of Trauma. The good news is that there are steps to address the self-damaging mechanic of this skill gem.

For one, you put as many physical damage reduction mods on your gear. This mod naturally rolls on armor-based equipment, such as the Titan Gauntlets, Glorious Plate, and Titan Greaves.

Additionally, you can roll the mod "% Damage Taken Recouped as Life" on some of your items so that you get a portion of your life back every time you hit an enemy with Boneshatter.

The Boneshatter Juggernaut can work with items that you can find on your adventures in Wraeclast. But, there are some unique items that provide tremendous value just by wearing them as well.

The Tanu Ahi grants you the ability to gain the Adrenaline and Onslaught buffs when the life leech effect is removed by filling your HP to the maximum. It also takes a small portion of your physical attack damage and uses that to calculate how much HP you can leech off of your enemies.

If you are going to go deep delving with this build, you can defeat Aul, the Crystal King for a chance to get Aul's Uprising. This amulet allows you to activate one aura for free, enabling you to add another permanent aura to the mix. You can encounter Aul in the Primeval Ruins biome in the Azurite Mine.

For the weapon, you can opt for a two-handed axe, preferably the Despot Axe as a crafting base. This is because this particular axe has the highest physical damage and attack speed among the other bases. Use Shrieking/Deafening Essence of Contempt until you get three physical damage mods, accuracy, and some attack speed. You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide to learn how to craft the endgame axe for this build.

There are some relatively common unique belts that can help improve the damage of this build as well. The Magnate gives you a small chance of dealing triple damage when attacking with Boneshater. This is pretty insane considering that this build naturally has high attack speed!

Ryslatha's Coil is another great option. This unique belt essentially increases the damage range of your attacks. Moreover, it provides an increase to your physical damage, as well as some life to increase your survivability.

The Boneshatter Juggernaut is one of the only builds that we recommend in an SSF environment. This build is tanky, deals significant damage, and can beat whatever content you put it through!

Detonate Dead Elementalist

The Detonate Dead Elementalist is a fun and amazing mapper that is capable of eliminating enemies with fiery explosions! Although you need to press a few buttons in order to do the main rotation, it is still an incredibly fun build to play.

So, what are these buttons, you ask? Well, you need to press the button for Desecrate so that you have corpses to use for your main skill, Detonate Dead. When Vaal Detonate Dead is available for use, you cast Desecrate again before you activate this. That is basically it!

As to why the Elementalist is the preferred ascendancy class for this build, that is primarily because of Shaper of Flames, which causes all of your attacks to inflict Ignites on the enemy.

Monsters that are affected by Ignite take fire damage over time. So, the way you deal with enemies is by first causing them to take direct damage via the corpse explosions, then ultimately killing them off with Ignites.

The Detonate Dead spell skill gem itself got a couple of significant changes in Patch 3.23. Although gem quality no longer increases Detonate Dead's cast speed and area of effect, it now gives you a small chance of detonating an additional corpse every time you use it! Furthermore, the base radius of the spell itself is now set to 2.6 meters, making your explosions cover more ground as a result.

That being said, the Detonate Dead Elementalist is built slightly differently from the Trade League version in that you take ascendancy nodes that favor survivability over offense.

For instance, Bastion of Elements calls forth a Primal Aegis that protects you from elemental damage. This node also allows you to run maps with the "Reflect Elemental Damage" mod since you cannot take damage this way.

Mastermind of Discord and Heart of Destruction make your Detonate Dead explosions more damaging. The former further reduces the fire resistance of affected monsters every time you apply Fire Exposure to them. The latter, on the other hand, gives you 30% more elemental damage when you have the "Convergence" buff, and 60% increased AoE of your DD explosions if you don't have the said buff active.

Now, the reason why the Detonate Dead Elementalist is a competent mapper is that you can use Shield Charge to traverse the map quickly, and then use Desecrate and Detonate Dead to deal with the packs of monsters you come across.

As if that is not appealing enough, you can make this build work just by wearing rare self-crafted items. In fact, you can even wear evasion/energy shield-based gear so that you can roll the spell suppression mod on some of them, including the gloves, body armor, helmet, boots, and shield. Spell suppression, if you are unaware, is a defensive layer in PoE that effectively halves the spell damage you take. You want this to be at 100% so that you mitigate spell damage all of the time!

If there is one unique item that you can wear on this build to elevate its damage even further, you can go for the Replica Emberwake. This unique ring can be obtained by completing Grand Heists and interacting with the Curio Displays at the end of each run.

Despite the choice of ascendancy class, the Detonate Dead Elementalist is surprisingly tanky, as well as a competent mapper that enables you to get your pieces of gear quickly and efficiently!

Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor

The first build on this list that uses a Transfigured Gem is the Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor. Unlike the base version, the Penance Brand of Dissipation activates more frequently and deals increasingly more damage to the enemy the Brand is attached to. It also takes care of nearby monsters because the area of effect of each pulse gets bigger the more energy the Branded enemy accrues over time. To make great use of this Transfigured Gem, you put as many “Increased Cast Speed” mods on your gear wherever possible as this affects the activation frequency of the Brand itself.

Although the Penance Brand of Dissipation can be used on a number of different ascendancy classes, this version opts for the Inquisitor mainly because it is easier to cap critical strike chance without even trying! This is, of course, thanks to the ascendancy nodes available to this class.

Remember Righteous Providence? This particular notable passive skill not only gives you a huge boost to your STR and INT, but it also increases your critical strike chance by 1% for every point of these attributes you have, whichever is lower between the two. Even without other "Increased Critical Strike Chance" mods, your crit chance is already high enough just by allocating points to get this node!

It is important that you reach 100% crit chance on this build so that you can take full advantage of Inevitable Judgement. This notable ascendancy passive skill makes the Penance Brand of Dissipation critical hits ignore the monster's elemental resistances for maximum damage!

Sanctuary allows you to create a Consecrated Ground while you are stationary. Enemies that are on the Consecrated Ground that you have created take 15% increased damage from all sources.

You complement Sanctuary by taking the Pious Path node as well. With this notable passive, you can activate Righteous Fire to gain a considerable boost in spell damage, all without worrying about your HP.

So, how do you get your hands on the Penance Brand of Dissipation as quickly as possible? Well, you'd have to complete level 75 labyrinths in order to obtain one. Fortunately, you have a few chances on each run to convert a skill gem into a Transfigured Gem. So, getting the desired gem is not too difficult at all.

Another selling point for this build is that it can work with rare items only. You can craft a wand using the Prophecy Wand as a crafting base for its innately high critical strike chance. Use the Orb of Alteration method of crafting to get “+1 to Level of All Spell Skill Gems.” Couple that with a multimod so that you can add “50% Increased Spell Damage, Gain 4% Non-Chaos Damage as Extra Chaos Damage” and “19% Increased Cast Speed.” 

Since the Penance Brand of Dissipation itself already converts 50% of your physical damage to lightning damage, you can craft a pair of gloves to convert the other half. You need to have 100% full conversion to enjoy what this build is capable of.

While this build is an average mapper, it excels at defeating bosses in PoE. Whenever the boss does its entrance animation, you can preemptively put as many Brands before the fight commences so that they take huge amounts of damage right off the bat.

If you are looking for a very good bosser in SSF, the Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor will not disappoint!

Splitting Steel Champion

Splitting Steel has gotten a lot better thanks to the changes Grinding Gear Games has made to this attack skill gem. The biggest change is that you no longer need Call of Steel to use it. Instead, you just spam Splitting Steel pretty much the same way as you would any other projectile-based skills in PoE!

That said, this build utilizes the Champion thanks to the notable passive skills available to this ascendancy class. Since Splitting Steel takes advantage of the Impales you inflict upon the enemy, you capitalize on that by taking Master of Metal. This node allows you to inflict one more Impale on the enemy. Master of Metal makes those Impales even more damaging as well.

Inspirational is a godsend, especially for SSF builds such as the Splitting Steel Champion. That is because it gives the power to activate any Banner Skill you wish for free. For this particular build, you are going to use the Dread Banner to increase your chances of inflicting Impales on the monsters hit with your projectiles. This Banner Skill also amplifies the effect of Impale by 19% at gem level 20.

To ensure that you can take even the most damaging hits from the enemy, you are going to take advantage of the one-two punch of Unstoppable Hero and Fortification. Fortification basically bolsters your defenses by reducing the damage you take from hits by 20%. Unstoppable Hero maximizes that by making you immune to stun, while giving you more armor and attack speed too!

During your first week into an SSF league, you can wear rare pieces of gear that are crafted using Essence of Greed (life), Essence of Envy (chaos resistance), or Essence of Anger/Hatred/Wrath (fire/cold/lightning resistance), whichever your character needs.

For the weapon, you can take a Vaal Rapier and use Essence of Contempt to get some physical damage mods and other useful modifiers, including crit chance, attack speed, and some attributes.

While you can go with these rare pieces of gear, you can take things a step further by target-farming some unique items. The biggest upgrade for the Splitting Steel Champion is the Paradoxica mainly because of its "Attacks With This Weapon Deal Double Damage" unique mod. This one-handed sword can be obtained by raiding level 78 "Intervention" safehouses or higher.

Another useful item for this build is one that is a bit more challenging to get but is definitely worth it. This ring is none other than the Nimis. Put this unique ring on your sights because it can increase your damage output by making your Splitting Steel projectiles return to you. With this effect, you effectively deal damage twice!

If you are wondering where you can acquire the Nimis, you have to defeat the Uber Eater of Worlds. This is, by no means, an easy feat. However, if you can successfully defeat the pinnacle boss and acquire the Nimis, we assure you that it is all worth it!

To round out the unique items that you can use to improve the build, you have the Perseverance and the Beltimber Blade. The good news is that both of these can be acquired anywhere, so you can probably get one just by completing maps diligently.

The Perseverance complements the Champion ascendancy class really well. Since you are permanently Fortified, you gain the Onslaught buff just by wearing this unique belt!

How about the Beltimber Blade? Since Splitting Steel is a skill gem that deals physical damage, you want to maximize that by giving it a boost, which this unique Eternal Sword provides. On top of that, the Beltimber Blade gives you other good mods that can benefit the build, such as increased attack speed, evasion, and two additional projectiles. The only thing you need to remember when using the Beltimber Blade is that you have to be constantly moving to avail yourself of its unique effects.

The Splitting Steel Champion is an amazing SSF build that can work with just rare pieces of gear. But, you can enhance its capabilities just by wearing several unique items!

Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder

Another great SSF build in the 3.23 Affliction League is the Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder. As its name implies, this build utilizes the Toxic Rain skill gem that is linked to Ballista Totem Support. This alters the playstyle in that instead of firing Toxic Rain yourself, you have the ballista totems to do that for you. This is intended since totems, in general, fire exponentially faster than you are.

With this build, all you have to do is traverse the map and lay down your ballista totems whenever you encounter the enemy. Then, just watch as Spore Pods populate the screen shortly after. Toxic Rain deals chaos damage over time, which is why you are going to put as many "damage over time multiplier" mods on your gear.

You can make the Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder work on self-found gear. Just use any Essence you need for your character, such as the aforementioned Essence of Greed, Essence of Envy, and the elemental resistance Essences, whichever of these you need.

For upgrades, you can equip the Lightning Coil so that half of the physical damage you take is converted to lightning damage. You complement this by using the Topaz Flask to further reduce lightning damage taken.

Another noteworthy upgrade is a self-crafted Hunter-influenced Broadhead Arrow Quiver that has the damage over time multiplier and chaos damage over time multiplier mods on it. This can be achieved by spamming the quiver with Deafening Essence of Zeal for that guaranteed attack speed until the aforementioned DoT mods show up. Alternatively, you can go for the "Damage Over Time Multiplier" mod and then add the & "Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier" using a Hunter Exalted Orb.

The Pathfinder is the ascendancy class of choice for this build. Nature's Adrenaline gives you near-permanent uptime of your Flasks. Nature's Boon amplifies the effects of your magic utility flasks by 30%. With this node, you enhance the Topaz Flask for even more damage mitigation.

Master Surgeon improves your survivability by making the life recovery effect of your Life Flask linger even if your unreserved life is filled.

On the offense, you have Nature's Reprisal. This notable passive skill increases the effect of the Wither debuff by 50%, making your enemies take more damage from the Spore Pods created by Toxic Rain.

To ensure that enemies are affected by the Wither debuff, you can utilize a gem setup that includes Toxic Rain of Withering, Mirage Archer, Manaforged Arrows, and Withering Touch. This automatically gets cast when you have spent enough mana by putting down your ballista totems.

If you want to cause death and destruction without requiring expensive gear, then the Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder is a great choice!

Elemental SRS Guardian

The Guardian ascendancy class has gotten a lot of love recently, especially after GGG reworked it a few leagues ago. The Elemental SRS Guardian is, by all accounts, a minion build. You have read that right! Although you wouldn't look at the Guardian ascendancy as the right pick for a minion build, it is actually a pretty good one if you are going to use the Summon Raging Spirits spell skill gem.

You see, the raging spirits that you summon deal elemental damage and the Guardian ascendancy has a node that amplifies that: the Unwavering Crusade. This notable ascendancy passive gives you a small chance of summoning an Elemental Relic when you kill an enemy.

There are three Elemental Relics that you can potentially call forth with Unwavering Crusade: Anger (Fire), Hatred (Cold), and Wrath (Lightning). What makes them great for this build is that they can grant you a buff that is equivalent to a level 27 aura gem. Since the raging spirits deal fire damage, you can improve the damage output of the build when the Fire Elemental Relic is summoned. Imagine the damage buff a level 27 Anger aura can give!

As a minion build in SSF mode, your job is to stay alive while the minions do all the heavy work. Hence, you want to improve your survivability in whatever way possible. Fortunately, the Guardian ascendancy class has other nodes that can help you address this.

The Radiant Crusade allows you to summon a Sentinel of Radiance - a minion that mitigates the damage you receive by 20% when the monsters hit you. You complement that with Bastion of Hope. Every time you attack or cast a spell recently, you and your minions will get a considerable boost to attack block and spell block chance, respectively.

Then, you have Time of Need. Thanks to this notable passive skill, you not only regenerate 100% of your HP every four seconds but all curses and elemental ailments from you are removed as well! This is quite huge, especially considering that Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite are all dangerous, especially when you enter the endgame.

The raging spirits are not the only minions that you can add to the build. You can use the Carrion Golem, which provides your raging spirits with flat physical damage that can factor into its overall damage calculation.

Additionally, you have Animate Guardian, which lets you conjure a minion from the identified items that are dropped on the ground. Speaking of which, here are some of the ideal items you can use Animate Guardian on:

• Leer Cast

  • You and Nearby Allies Gain 50% Increased Damage

• Windscream

  • You Can Apply an Additional Curse

• Legacy of Fury

  • Scorches nearby enemies, reducing their elemental resistance by 30%, thus causing them to take more fire damage

• Gruthkul's Pelt

  • Improves the survivability of the Animate Guardian

The Raise Spectre skill gem rose to prominence in the 3.23 Affliction League, particularly because of the new NPC called the Breaker of Oaths. This NPC can be found in the Viridian Wildwood and what he offers are corpses that you can use the Raise Spectre skill gem on. That said, here are some of the most useful Spectres you can purchase from the Breaker of Oaths:

• Perfect Naval Officer

  • Nearby Allies Have +10 Fortification
  • Precision

• Perfect Forest Warrior

  • Nearby Allies Have Onslaught

• Perfect Primal Thunderbird

  • Screech of Splendor Inflicts Lighting Exposure
  • Grace

• Perfect Warlord

  • Shares Endurance Charges with Allies
  • Vitality

• Perfect Hulking Miscreation

  • Nearby Allies Gain 20% of Physical Damage as Extra Lightning Damage

• Perfect Meatsack

  • Releases Caustic Ground When Hit (deals chaos damage over time)
  • Owner's Minions Have 40% Increased Maximum Life

• Perfect Forest Tiger

  • 5% Chance to Grant a Frenzy Charge to Nearby Allies on Hit
  • Haste

• Perfect Guardian Turtle

  • Owner Gains 5% Physical Damage Reduction
  • Determination

How about the items? You can make the Elemental SRS Guardian work by just crafting your own end game gear. For the weapon, get a Convening Wand with +1 to minion gems, minion attack speed, and minion damage.

Abyssal Jewels provide a ton of value because they can roll minion damage, minion life, and other useful modifiers. For this reason, you should get your hands on the Darkness Enthroned unique Stygian Vise because socketing your Abyssal Jewels here enhances their effects by up to 100%! Do not worry, this belt drops easily just by going to the Abyssal Depths and defeating either of the bosses (Amanamu and Ulaman).

The Lightning Coil makes a return here because this unique body armor is just amazing to use in solo self found. If you struggle to cap your lightning resistance due to the Lightning Coil, use a Topaz Flask.

The Elemental SRS Guardian is an amazing league starter and is perfect for the SSF mode as well.

Frost Blades Trickster

If you want a speedy character in Path of Exile that has enough power to destroy everything in its path, then the Frost Blades Trickster is one that is definitely worth considering.

This build makes use of the Frost Blades skill gem. Despite it being a projectile-based skill, Frost Blades is still considered a melee attack, likely because you are well within melee range when you use it.

Anyway, the Trickster is an amazing ascendancy class when it comes to taking care of offense and defense. Frenzy Charges can help the build immensely because you get increased damage and attack speed for every charge. That is why the Swift Killer is a good notable passive skill to take, especially when you raise your Maximum Frenzy Charges from other sources.

One Step Ahead is a node that ensures you won't get slowed down by Temporal Chains, Maim, or other movement-reducing debuffs. This also reduces the action speed of nearby monsters to at most 92% of their base value.

Polymath is a notable passive skill exclusive to the Trickster that gets better as you progress through the campaign. That is because you get more damage for each different type of Mastery you have allocated. The life and mana recovery is a welcome bonus.

For the last ascendancy passive, you can go with either Heartstopper or Escape Artist. The former makes you take less damage every 10 seconds, while the latter increases the evasion rating and maximum energy shield based on your equipped helmet and body armor, respectively.

The gear for the Frost Blades Trickster is relatively easy to assemble, though there are some upgrades that you can take to elevate its damage even further.

Yoke of Suffering is a relatively easy amulet to obtain that allows your damage to inflict Shock on the enemy. This is an elemental ailment that causes affected monsters to take increased damage from all sources.

The Taming can be acquired by using the vendor recipe, where you combine the three "Berek" rings, namely Berek's Grip, Berek's Pass, and Berek's Respite. The requisite rings can drop from anywhere, so you just have to run some maps until you get all three. When you have all of these, simply "sell" these items to a vendor so that it will result in The Taming ring.

This unique ring is just too hard to pass up. It gives you elemental resistance, elemental damage, chance to inflict freeze, shock, and ignite. Moreover, it increases your damage with hits and ailments per freeze, shock, and ignite on the enemy!

Although this next unique item has been nerfed in Patch 3.23, it is still one of the best, especially if you want to create the Frost Blades Trickster. The item in question is the Heatshiver unique Leather Hood.

This helmet has been nerfed in that it only gives you 30% of cold damage as extra fire damage against frozen enemies instead of the full 100%. Even though it saw a substantial dip in extra damage, the Heatshiver grants a damage boost without requiring items that are hard to find.

While not mandatory for the build to work, you can get a Lethal Pride Timeless Jewel too. This unique jewel drops from the Domain of Timeless Conflict, specifically from Queen Hyrri Ngamaku. You can enter this area by putting in the Orange Emblem on your Map Device.

The reason why you want to put a Lethal Pride on your passive tree is so that you get some STR attributes, as well as any of the following modifiers:

• 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
• 4% Increased Maximum Life
• 20% Increased Melee Damage
• 30% Increased Melee Critical Strike Chance
• +15% to Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• Gain 5% of Physical Damage as Extra Fire Damage

This build also greatly benefits from the Awakened Multistrike Support gem. That is because you deal more damage with subsequent strikes. On top of that, your gaming mouse will love you for this simply because a single tap of the Frost Blades skill initiates three strikes in quick succession. That said, this particular support gem drops from The Maven or Uber Sirus. If you are going for the latter approach, be sure to allocate "The Perfect Storm" on your Atlas Skill Tree.

We can wholeheartedly recommend the Frost Blades Trickster in solo self found largely because it provides you with a good mix of offense and defense; not to mention that it is a particularly fast mapper, allowing you to farm items with ease!

Caustic Arrow of Poison Pathfinder

The penultimate SSF build on this list utilizes the Warden of the Maji secondary ascendancy class and the new Transfigured Gem, Caustic Arrow of Poison, really well.

The Caustic Arrow of Poison Pathfinder is a build that utilizes chaos damage over time and poisons to great effect. Thanks to the Poisonberry Tincture, all of your damage (regardless of type) can inflict poisons on the enemy. Hence, you will use a tri-element bow to enhance your killing potential. You can read our ultimate crafting guide to learn how to craft this bow yourself.

This build utilizes another Transfigured Gem as well: the Scourge Arrow of Menace. Unlike the original Scourge Arrow, this transfigured version is not a channeling skill. This is quite huge because it enables you to link it with the Ballista Totem Support so that you can rain a ton of Spore Pods on the screen for even more chaos damage!

With the potent combination of Scourge Arrow of Menace and Caustic Arrow of Poison, you can deal tremendous damage to anything that comes your way. Because of the potential damage of this build, you have the option of going for the Magic Find variant so that you will have an easier time gearing up your character!

In terms of your end game gear, you simply farm a ton of Essences and craft them yourself. Modifiers to put on your gear include life, accuracy rating, attack speed, damage over time multiplier, flat elemental damage, elemental resistance, and chaos resistance.

The Pathfinder ascendancy class is one of the only classes in Path of Exile that excels in dealing poison damage. Master Toxicist allows you to inflict more damage with poison so long as you are under the effect of any flask. You boost your damage with Nature's Reprisal. This enhances the effect of the Wither debuff by 50%, which is why its addition to this build is a no-brainer.

Nature's Adrenaline and Master Surgeon are the two last notable passive skills you should take. Master Surgeon is especially useful because you want to take advantage of Master Toxicist at all times. Since this node does not remove the recovery effect of your Life Flask, the"more damage" bonus provided by Master Toxicist is always active.

Despite the many mechanics at play here, the Caustic Arrow of Poison Pathfinder is easy to use. You simply roam around the map using the said skill to slay monsters. When you encounter tough enemies, you drop your ballista totems so that you can melt through them with tremendous chaos damage.

The only thing that you need to take note of is that you cannot transition to the Wildwood Primalist. That is because the Poisonberry Tincture is a vital part of the build and you can only use it when you take the Warden of the Maji as your secondary ascendancy class.

Still, the Caustic Arrow of Poison Pathfinder is an easy build to recommend, whether you are playing in the trade league or in SSF mode.

Lightning Arrow Deadeye

You probably have an idea about the last SSF build on this list. But if you haven't, then the curtain has now been unveiled. The Lightning Arrow Deadeye may require expensive upgrades to truly take it to the top, but this is arguably the best damage dealer that you can enjoy even when you are still putting it up.

The first thing that you need to do once you finish the campaign is to create a tri-element bow using Shrieking/Deafening Essence of Wrath. After that, craft a quiver using the Broadhead Arrow Quiver as a base. Spam it with Shrieking/Deafening Essence of Torment (lightning damage) until you get the additional arrow mod, attack speed, and critical strike multiplier. With the potent combination of bow and quiver, getting the other pieces will be a cinch!

There are a lot of reasons to love the Lightning Arrow Deadeye. First and foremost, there are plenty of possible upgrade paths you can choose from. For instance, to increase your damage against single targets, you can use a Ballista Totem setup with Lightning Arrow or even Tornado Shot linked to it. If you want a fast mapper, you can opt for a Manaforged Arrows setup consisting of other bow skills like Ice Shot, Frenzy, and Burning Arrow.

In terms of the build itself, you can opt to wear any item that can increase your damage or go for the Magic Find route with Ventor's Gamble, Goldwyrm, and Sadima's Touch. If you are bored with Lightning Arrow and you want to change things up, you can easily replace it with Tornado Shot for even more damage. The possibilities are endless!

The Deadeye is just great when it comes to utilizing bow-based projectile skills in Path of Exile. Endless Munitions grants two additional projectiles just by taking the node itself.

Far Shot increases the damage of your projectiles the farther they travel from you. Because of the interaction between Returning Projectiles Support and Lightning Arrow, your projectiles will always travel their maximum distance, thus allowing you to take full advantage of the Far Shot node.

Gathering Winds and Focal Point are complementary nodes that boost your action speed and the effect of your Sniper's Mark, respectively.

The only downside of this build is that it lacks survivability compared to the other SSF builds mentioned above. Despite its shortcomings, however, the Lightning Arrow Deadeye is a great choice, especially if you want a build that has many potential upgrade paths you can take in the future!

SSF Tips

Because of the nature of SSF mode, you do not have the luxury of trading items with other players. That is why you should only opt into this mode if you are sure that you do not rely on others to get any items that you lack.

Aside from that, here are some tips to help make your SSF journey a lot easier:

Get More Stash Tabs

Although anything in the Path of Exile shop is optional, we highly recommend that you purchase additional stash tabs. Why? Since you do not have the luxury of interacting with other players like in the trade league, you should have the mindset of picking up all the good items that you can find. And, you can only do that if you have enough storage space!

You can buy the regular stash tabs since you are not going to trade anyway. If you have more money to spend, we recommend that you purchase the other stash tabs in this order:

• Currency Stash
• Map Stash
• Fragments Stash
• Essence Stash
• Uniques Stash
• Delirium Stash
• Blight Stash

Use Good Loot Filters

Although they are not readily available in the game, you should use a loot filter to help you weed out all of the bad items. You can utilize FilterBlade's "Strict" loot filter and then transition to a better one later down the line. The “better” one, in this instance, refers to a much stricter loot filter that only displays potential upgrades that your build can use.

Be Comfortable with Crafting

Whether you like it or not, crafting is an essential part of Path of Exile. This is one of the only ways you can create items that are fit for your end game gear. If you need some help, you can always refer to our ultimate crafting guide, which is a helpful resource for all things crafting in PoE.

Always Use the Horticrafting Station

The Horticrafting Station (aka the Harvest Bench) is an important thing that you need to interact with regularly. This object can be placed anywhere in your hideout. Anyway, the Harvest Bench can do a lot of things. You can use the Harvest Bench to add certain modifiers to your gear. You can utilize it to convert Essences to another type of Essence. And, it even gives you a chance to multiply your Divination Cards so that you can get your hands on a Headhunter or Mageblood a lot sooner than normal means. If you need to convert anything, you might want to pay the Horticrafting Station a visit.

Finish Some Blighted Maps

Blighted Maps are a great way to get your starter pieces of equipment. They also give you some oils that you can use for anointing your amulet with notable passive skills that can benefit your build. The good news is that you can use any build to finish Blighted Maps. You just have to set the right towers in order to defeat the waves of enemies that will come your way.

Complete the Immortal Syndicate

Doing Betrayal Runs is mandatory in the SSF league primarily because defeating the syndicate leaders allows you to unlock high-end mods in the Crafting Bench. For example, killing Gravicius and unveiling any of the items he drops can unlock the physical damage taken as elemental mod. Do not worry, the Immortal Syndicate is very easy to do, especially if you are using any of the builds mentioned in this guide.

Do Some Grand Heists

Since you do not have other players to trade with, you should complete some Grand Heists as well. Doing so gives you a chance to acquire some pretty neat stuff, such as the Tailoring Orb, Expedition’s End, and Replica Farrul’s Fur, among many others.

Stick to a Farming Strategy

The beauty of Path of Exile is that you can choose whatever path you want depending on your preference. Take a close look at the Atlas Skill Tree and allocate points to improve the currency farming strategy you want to use.

Some of the most lucrative farming strategies in PoE include Delirium, Strongbox, Essence farming, and Legion encounters. If you have completed the corrupted red maps, you have enough points to enjoy at least two different currency-farming strategies.

It is best that you stick to one and then only replace it when you do not get the results that you want.

Choose the Right Secondary Ascendancy Class

Assuming that Grinding Gear Games makes the Wildwood Ascendancies permanent, your choice of secondary ascendancy class can make your SSF journey a lot easier. For most of the builds, the best one is the Wildwood Primalist mainly because this ascendancy class gives you access to three Charm sockets. The Charms are powerful items that grant you some amazing nodes that can benefit your build.

Early on, however, the Warden of the Maji is the ideal choice. The tinctures you can use allow you to complete white and yellow maps with relative ease. Furthermore, you can use the Barkskin skill to improve your survivability – useful whenever you are still starting out.

The Warlock of the Mists is only great for niche builds, so if you want something out of the ordinary, perhaps you can try this one for yourself.

Try the Trade League First

The last tip we can give you is to try Path of Exile's trade league first. This is to give you a rough idea of how the game is played. Familiarize the mechanics, dabble into some crafting, and even take note of how bosses function so that you’ll have a much easier time defeating them if you are all alone.

Remember, Solo Self-Found is meant for those who have a knack for challenging endeavors. This is not to say that you should not try it, but this is us saying that you should only do this if you are confident in farming items yourself.

Final Thoughts

The Solo Self-Found League in Path of Exile is not for the faint of heart, especially because you do not have other players to trade with. That is why it is always a good idea to use builds that can help you farm efficiently. Fortunately for you, we have provided you with the 10 best builds that you can try.

If you want builds that can take damage without dying on the battlefield, go for the Elemental SRS Guardian, Righteous Fire Inquisitor, and Boneshatter Juggernaut.

If you need a fast mapper that can finish maps well below three minutes, then you have the Caustic Arrow of Poison Pathfinder, Lightning Arrow Deadeye, and the Frost Blades Trickster.

The remaining builds provide a more balanced experience, such as the Splitting Steel Champion, Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor, Detonate Dead Elementalist, and the Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder.

Although we acknowledge that SSF mode can be hard, we hope that you find our guide helpful. Be sure to bookmark this for future reference.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!