Solo vs. Party Approaches to the Test of Cunning Barya
When deciding between solo and party approaches to the Test of Cunning Barya in Path of Exile 2, there are distinct differences in gameplay experience, difficulty scaling, and rewards that players should consider:
Solo Approach
Experience and Scaling:Playing solo generally offers higher experience gain per kill compared to party play. Enemies and bosses scale to your level, making encounters more balanced and often faster to clear.
Control and Decision-Making:You have full control over all choices in the trial, including room selection, relics, and boons, allowing you to tailor the run precisely to your build and strategy.
Difficulty:While enemies scale to your level, solo play can feel more straightforward as you only need to manage your own positioning and survival. However, you bear the full burden of damage and mechanics without support.
Trial Mechanics:Honour (the trial’s health resource) management is solely your responsibility. Failure means restarting the trial, but you can retry indefinitely using Balbala’s Barya.
Party Approach
Scaling and Difficulty:Enemies and bosses scale with the party’s composition and levels, but this scaling can be inconsistent. Lower-level party members can cause bosses and mobs to have disproportionately high health pools, leading to longer fights and increased difficulty.
Shared Honour and Mechanics:Honour is shared among party members, meaning damage taken by any member reduces the collective Honour pool. This requires coordinated play to avoid rapid Honour depletion.
Decision-Making:The party leader controls trial choices like room paths, relics, and boons, which may limit individual preferences. Coordination is essential to optimize these decisions for the whole team.
Challenges:Some trials, like the Escape Trial, can be more difficult in parties due to targeting issues where mission-critical objectives are deprioritized in favor of mobs, complicating progress.
Benefits:Party play allows for role specialization (tank, damage dealer, support), potentially making some encounters easier if well-coordinated. It also enables shared loot and experience, though individual gains may be lower.
Solo play offers more consistent scaling, faster experience, and complete control, making it ideal for players who prefer self-reliance and tailored strategies.
Party play introduces scaling challenges and requires teamwork and communication but can be rewarding for coordinated groups with complementary builds.
Players should weigh these factors based on their playstyle, group availability, and desired challenge level when approaching the Test of Cunning Barya.