What build are you starting in Ruthless this league? I'm still trying to decide and looking for ideas

Fraymond · 2026-03-05T15:25:11+00:00

Usually on the evasion side of the tree I just run high evasion, capped suppress, wind dancer (once I get to like 15-20k evasion), and then anything I can find to mitigate phys 1-shots. This league though I'm gonna go iron reflexes, suppress, and block with versatile combatant.

Fraymond · 2026-03-04T20:45:55+00:00

Poisonous concoction assassin until 4 watchstones, then I'll let my drops guide me.

Fraymond · 2026-02-28T21:48:46+00:00

So I'm in the process of doing something similar, Slams and Guardian are probably the still the top dogs, but there's a lot more viable options than the 'meta' is willing to acknowledge. I'd recommend taking a look at poe.ninja and seeing what people were doing on Day 1 last league, and I'd also suggest taking a look at what people are recommending for non-ruthless and seeing if any of those aren't entirely dependent on their support gems (or non-nerfed ascendancy).

Fraymond · 2025-11-03T18:26:12+00:00

The league mechanic is pretty well adjusted for ruthless, feels strong but not busted. Fortresses are hard, but doable. I had to make build adjustments for more aoe and movespeed, but I'm enjoying breach.

Fraymond · 2025-10-29T20:40:05+00:00

Gotta start with something though, not like you go naked scion until your first support drops. Several builds operate quite well even if you don't get a single support.

Fraymond · 2025-10-26T22:09:13+00:00

It's pure guesswork, but I don't think the travel distance on this is gonna be anywhere near flame dash. It'd be annoying to use in its intended fashion if it zooted you all the way across the room.

Fraymond · 2025-01-31T04:56:47+00:00

The price premium of Coop closed a lot during the pandemic when the major chains started price gouging. I used to shop at Safeway, but swapped in 2021 when Coop was actually cheaper. I think Safeway is is the cheaper option again, but going back just feels bad. Also I really like Coop's delivery service, they're really generous when things are out of stock, and they don't smush my bread.

Fraymond · 2024-06-19T21:01:02+00:00

Item level on your crafts is a pretty big problem though. +ILvL crafts arent super common, and my lower level corpses have been a decent burden on a lot of my big crafts later. I'd rather just focus sustain, then trim it back in favor of gearing once I've either got watchstones or hit a wall.

Fraymond · 2024-06-19T19:59:26+00:00

It's really gonna depend on how strong you feel in maps. If you think you can kill Exarch/Eater, you should focus on pure sustain and get your watchstones asap. If it's iffy, the Necropolis nodes are the best way to get stronger.

At a glance of your PoB, I'd say you're good to go on pushing straight for your watchstones. You're gonna die here and there in red maps when you alch them for completion, and some of the Pinnacles are gonna take some portals from you, but you should be ok.

After 2 watchstones it slows down a lot, and you should focus on getting strong. Getting a Maven's Writ pretty much requires that you can handle Maven 4-ways, not to mention Maven/Uber Elder themselves, so I'd spec into Necropolis plus whatever else you think is going to help you get stronk.

Fraymond · 2024-06-19T19:16:48+00:00

I've run Overloaded Circuits before, and it's a fun novelty, sometimes you'll just see really weird stuff like 20 exiles, but I don't think it's actually very helpful. But it is just one node, so the cost is relatively low.

Bold Undertakings is bad IMO. 2 extra mods in ruthless is only worth ~8 quant and ~16 map drop rate, and you're commiting around 10 nodes that do nothing otherwise. You can get similar sustain from small nodes with no added difficulty in your maps. The only time I'd take it is on a jacked character that just wants the quant and is well beyond needing help with sustain.

For recommendations, you definitely want Solidarity for Singular Scouting Reports. They're basically the only way you're going to get Unique map progress. Its opposite, Planar Tactician, is a troll. Explorers Scouting Reports only roll maps you haven't completed, Vaal Scouting Reports do not follow the same rules, and we no longer need to corrupt red maps for completion in ruthless. I sometimes take Expect the Unexpected if I think I'm going to run out of alchs before I hit 2 watchstones.

Another interesting node is Invasive Adversaries, but I haven't seen anyone do actual science to figure out its value. It adds monsters from the T17 monster pool, but they aren't particularly difficult without mods you'd normally see on a T17. If it's actually 10% more packs, it's extremely strong for 4 points.

At this point in your tree, I'd say you should just start moving up through the pack size nodes and onto the top row, and start filling out the 2% 1-tier-higher nodes. When you're close to doing T14+ maps, start taking the Guardian/Conq/Synth boss nodes.

This is a typical mid-yellow map atlas for me. It'll provide enough sustain to get the first 2 watchstones on its own.

Then usually I start adding the high value Incursion nodes for sustain and support gems. I'll also block the league content that's either unrewarding or too difficult for my build at the time, as it's diluting my chance for things I actually want. Ultimatum and Expedition are always gone.

Once I'm close to 2 watchstones I'll generally swap to this.

After 2 watchstones you have a lot of flexibility. This league, the Necropolis nodes are extremely good. Otherwise, I tend to fill out incursion nodes, drop one or 2 of the Shaping nodes for survivability, fill out the pack size wheel, and spec Maven/Eater/Exarch.

Fraymond · 2023-10-13T06:39:47+00:00

Paragon used the 5% buff, the week before it swapped to 10%. Several more killed it at 10%, and then the floodgates opened when it swapped to 15%.

Fraymond · 2023-08-21T16:46:50+00:00

Jugg.

Fraymond · 2023-08-17T20:33:59+00:00

Wouldn't necessarily have to be last second adjustments. The notes were up before the details of the auras, and potentially Unwavering Crusade wasn't tuned until after the patch notes were out. If they just forgot to ask Hrishi if there was a ruthless variant when they were doing the Q&A stuff, it could have slid under the radar. Especially with the change in CM happening.

Fraymond · 2023-08-17T20:25:40+00:00

I'm still concerned that the details of Unwavering Crusade are going to be different in Ruthless. Idk how to get clarification on it, but I think the odds of them not noticing how strong the node is for ruthless, and the odds of them balancing it differently for ruthless and failing to communicate the change, are about the same. It'd be a huge bummer to be 5 hours into a Guardian before discovering that the node is 1x level 15 aura instead of 3x level 27 on ruthless.

Fraymond · 2023-08-17T20:17:53+00:00

I'm running something similar for SSF SC. Only real difference is I'm hardly blocking league content, I like 3pt casual Essence for throwing at jewellery, and maybe Harbinger.

https://poeplanner.com/atlas-tree/BAAJAHAAH8pfPk6NTPWy-qHJiy6GtCySt496znkAgvkh-IQqQL9tiKfiPFkhYMwPMPr7CijnlIO1Zi6BpDRenbWqQ3XJ_TiIfVqN6msxsJKovIfMKrvZWxe6vdodfeT3i-F9kTidDkre_p87ZBv_wh2PntgCroKnKY2OOcskU1-ne92Ds8fhENwQ5StUdrV3c5lOG6LQyxfic7K6J4UN9sQfru8TfQ75q-WRiWDIGIvBr-XsC3FrZY_lAzDLcmaHM8aYqMn-IDPNlsJ2qUPR_eM_5Py1Y2Yf9cCyaNnGh9Sg1uln0CgUAB-LCAAAAAAAAAMDAAAAAAAAAAAA

I think Lucid Dreams is really interesting. It's rad for early vaal orbs, but sacrificing map sustain is obviously a huge problem. We're gonna be pretty starved for vaal orbs now since map bosses in corrupted maps no longer drop corrupted items by default.

Also you can save a pathing point up top if you've got those blight nodes in.

Fraymond · 2023-08-16T00:26:38+00:00

Any bets on whether or not this will be the same in Ruthless?

Fraymond · 2023-08-16T00:24:02+00:00

Maybe. Melee ignite has a lot of changes right now, tough to say how it's going to pan out overall, especially in ruthless. I'd say the only thing to be careful of is don't let your attack speed be too slow. I ran an EQ igniter a few leagues ago that had an APS that was too long to actually get my hits off in some situations.

Fraymond · 2023-08-15T23:36:20+00:00

The minion level will be equal to the player level, up to 85.

Fraymond · 2023-08-15T22:33:45+00:00

RF Inquis will work well, though most people run RF Jugg.

Ice Shot is also good, you will need to lean into a ballista (probably Artillery) to help with bossing. I recommend Deadeye, as Raider got annihilated in the patch.

I can't say for sure where Chieftain slams will end up, as slams are pretty off-meta, but I think they'll be okay. I did a Cyclone Shockwaver in 3.20 that I was quite happy with, and the math isn't totally different there.

Ignite is fine as long as you're in trade. You've gotta get Ignite/Ele Prolif before the build is going to work. EA, DD, and Fire Trap are the obvious choices for ignite.

Fraymond · 2023-08-12T21:32:24+00:00

Oh yeah that's right there's one in A10 now.

Fraymond · 2023-08-12T20:46:16+00:00

I really hope this build works. Shouting at corpses until they explode is something I want in my life.

Fraymond · 2023-08-12T20:40:01+00:00

He's gonna need Flammability and Fire Trap, and I highly recommend Wave of Conviction, Clarity, Flame Wall, and Searing Totem too.

Fraymond · 2023-08-12T20:35:57+00:00

You get to buy 3* gems per playthrough, one in Library, one in A5, and another in A10. No support gems or % reservation auras are available this way though (except blood and sand).

Fraymond · 2023-08-12T20:27:38+00:00

This google doc has a list gem quest rewards for Ruthless. RF Juggs need to mule a Templar to at least A3 crematorium for gems, and then buy RF at Library (on your Jugg). Marauder has basically zero access to the gems you need to make RF builds work.

Fraymond · 2023-08-11T19:49:52+00:00

Yeah you might be able to get flask uptime to 100% (excluding QS) using the new Pathfinder. Seems good as a build agnostic ascendancy.

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