I just finished the campaign in solo mode for the first time. Or we could say for the second, because for my very first hero it was equivalent to solo mode.
Since the beginning, I leveled at least one hero in each mastery, and of course some more others. But I read that many people play on solo mode only, so now that I know the campaign far better I wanted to try it.
I understand why people love it. Any element you find (item, idol, shard, gold) is far more impactful than in normal mode, where you have a full stash and wallet. You have to consider carefully what you find, think of what you can do with. Finding a Unique is something potentially even more impactful.
But on another hand, I don’t think I will play solo very much. I like having a full stash. I like gathering items that give me an idea for another hero. I like playing with a Lich and finding a Primalist item that make me want to try a new Primalist build.
I’m very mitigated between the two modes. Solo is nice and really “rely on yourself”, normal is nice and totally “care for mates”. I wish we could have another mode, for example restricted to a class. One “Acolytes mode”, one “Primalists mode”, etc. It would result in a shared stash, but only between one only class (with all three masteries inside). And the real solo mode would still be playable, of course!
Are we really a community of mostly solo mode players? Or is it more mixed between solo and normal mode?
The “solo mode” in LE is very strict, since it’s literally only ONE char.
SSF in PoE is only without trade, but still with a shared stash between all other SSF chars, which does make exchanging items between your own chars possible.
I don’t know if adding a SSF mode to LE would be good or not, having 3 different modes would be probably too many to seperate the community.
I personally play Solo mostly for the early game experience. Finding gear/shards that are usefull for your planned build really does feel good. And you really need to think twice, on what items you want to use them for crafting.
However since the few major patches with the addition of very cool unique items i am playing alot normal again, because building around certain uniques gives me alot of “content”.
I playing so many different weird ass builds with some of the new unqiues.
I doubt most are Solo mode players for all of the reasons you gave. I could see it becoming a more popular mode when final release is announced so players can test which base class and specialization serves as the best starter character in the new online mode.
Solo mode is a lot of fun as it feels like a fresh start even on a well aged account. I have to admit that I had never played solo before becoming a community tester. On the test builds we often play solo chars if we wanna test a “new player experience”. From that on I learned to like that mode.
Just in case you did not know: You can transfer a solo char to normal mode. You will take everything in your inventory with you. It’s in the options/challenges menu.
So you could play solo for story and switch to normal for endgame - this I do often.
