How is ruthless ssf going for u guys/girls? ^^

This is actually insanely good in ruthless when you have zero defenses.

Just arrived in Act VII

Brine King was surprisingly easy - but the reef before him. So many Frozen Orb hurling Striders. No joy.

Still no gear to speak of, but it works. Squishiness is my main issue.

"Melee sucks" "Melee is dead" i hear the cry, so i thought "surely melee isn't that bad, maybe it can work in Ruthless" So i rolled a melee build, a Raider. although i'm only in act 6 and level 51 i can safely say it sucks big time with a slow weapon playing wild strike...

...but when i threw an alc on a vendor bought white weapon i got this...


...and now my character feels much better, against rares and bosses my totems help too, in fact i feel too reliant on them during though encounters but that's a problem for GGG to solve, if the consider it one. Compared to spell builds and other range ones, melee feels somewhat clunky but it does provide me with different challenges when build a character. Although my build is in its early stages I would say melee isn't dead, but, rather a little awkward without the right things in place but it does have it's own visceral rewards in playstyle.

For anyone interested this my gear so far -

So I dropped another Divine. Now got:



Are these more frequent in Ruthless in comparison to Chaos etc?

If they would be as useful in Ruthless as in normal...

Just did my first guardian which drop this stupid weapon:


Is melee still good?( I can prob use it with minions too)


What to do...What to do...

Put 6 sockets (lucky, didnt take many Jewellers, but had a good reserve) into my bow and started to 5link it with Vorici. Second 20x Vorici attempt:

Now I need a plan as to how to use it. Originally I wanted Artillery Ballista in it but I am lacking accuracy and this would take 4 colors off green - if I can even color it.


Edit: Fixed: Its Vorici not Leo in Ruthless.

Couldnt get 3 greens onto the 5-link on the body despite spending maybe 300 chromes. So I am using self attack on 4link now. Bow was easy to chrome as I decided to go with 'added cold' over 'added lightning'. Gear looks like this now:
Frenzy upkeep is still not so good unfortunately. And getting lvl 21 Artillery Ballista may take some time. And not sure how far I can get with this build. Somehow Artillery Ballista has DPS issues if the target moves or if there are other mobs or I-dont-really-know. Have observed that in my Mayhem Deadeye build too. But its probably still my best option here.

So I sort of dropped a 'Lightning Warp' . Doesnt seem to be very useful due to mechanics though.

Also dropped this - would have been useful on my RIPed chars... Looks like its as good as a 6link roughly for some skills - if considering that its hard to get good stat stick weapon.

Level 86 now and some new gear. Atlas progression has slowed down a lot as maps just don't drop; less than half of the yellow maps are done.

Died at level 87. Underground River boss with Maven witness and I presumably missed the boss-clone made by Maven and ate the slam.

Our beloved Raider was buried with the following:



Now I need to figure out what to re-roll.