League Starting SSF Ruthless! (& Ruthless Atlas Tree Guide)

Early Game Atlas https://poeplanner.com/atlas-tree/BAALADkAH8pM9YsuLJLxVG2IuP-n4iFgIim1Zsn9OIiN6qi8Kru92h19fZE4nQ5K3v6fO03XntjQLY45U1-ne8Sms8fhEHOZThvPieJzE32RiWwIYMgYi8GvC3GP5ctyM8bYm82WwnapQ-M_5Py1Y2YfTPKH1NAoFAAfiwgAAAAAAAADAwAAAAAAAAAAAA== Late Game Atlas RITUAL VERSION https://poeplanner.com/atlas-tree/BAALAIMATo0vydxc4qGy-tRJ77qQFyx3hrQskrePeQBdoCH4LdahjfFUNmttiLj_yman4jxZIinMD_sKcMaMQYzkpDQQgF6dtaqKgs5aQ3XJ_ZpVH-lrMbCSqLwqu8ODvdqyv5tp5Pd9kQp7DkqfO4g02hQEkrGdTdcdjyJIrKQqXtSPh50rcdDGqc7DedAtgqfrHxFzjjnYVYJRU1-ne8KvxKbPR_CAs8f7sdwQVHZe39Ft6SjgDF9KKyDLF8-J4nOyug32z3wO-WwILEj9tVBwYRXBr0q45ez9bWtlcQtbHo_ly3JdNiAz2JvNlsJ25Py1Yz8Iw7tx4vXATPKyaBmjkGSg1lylI9_QKBQAH4sIAAAAAAAAAwMAAAAAAAAAAAA= Late Game Atlas BLIGHT VERSION https://poeplanner.com/atlas-tree/BAALAIMATo267x8DL8liA7L61Envut6ikBcsdx39hrQskrePeQBdoCH48VRtiLj_yman4jxZvgrNUyIpzA8TQvsKcMaNFIxBjOSkNF6dtaqKgs5aQ3XJ_R_pazGYhrCSqLwqu8ODvdrk932RwBUOSt7-nzuINNoUS_FN1x2PIkispP5_Kl7Uj4edK3HQxqnO0C2Cp-sf3H-OOdwJ6YeCUVNfp3vEps9H8ICzx_ux3BDqrlR2Xt_pKOAMX0rLF8-J4nOyug32z3yu7w75bAgsSP21GIvBrwtx5ez9bdVia2VxC1sej-XLcmaHIDPYm82WwnbMWeT8tWM_CPXATPKyaJBkoNZcpa0LI9_QKBQAH4sIAAAAAAAAAwMAAAAAAAAAAAA= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jNbJD66j84 Credit to Fizecs for the initial blueprint of this build. https://www.youtube.com/@fizecs 3.23 changes - Quality changes to Reap and Exsang are HUGE. +5% more dmg per blood charge = 180% (9*20) more damage at max charges instead of 135% (9*15). HUGE. - +1.5s to Exsang base duration is also HUGE. - Every GCP you find is now HUGE. If lab can give quality to gems in ruthless that will also be HUGE. - However getting 20% qual vaal reap is going to be rough. Vaal Reap is higher prio than 20% qual so get that first. - Ascendant untouched, we are good to go. - Splitting Steel no longer gives Call of Steel, but split projectiles don't do less damage. Should still work for clear in a1? - Mostly likely going for Wildwood Primalist, the Blood Magic stuff doesn't help our DoT and means we can't run all our auras. Don't know what charms will look like for ruthless yet. General leveling notes: - For act 1 use Splitting Steel for clear and Spectral Throw + Decoy Totem for single target. If Splitting Steel doesn't feel good from the 3.23 change you can mule any other decent clearing skill, or just take Molten Strike. - If you don't want to play the boomerang bonanza positioning minigame mule Puncture from a duelist/ranger for single target instead. You could also mule Molten Shell with a marauder and use Heavy Strike if you really like the sound it makes. - 2h axe/sword is best. Jade Chopper before Brutus is huge. If you drop a transmute try to buy one from vendor with it. - If you cannot find any good weapon all you need to do is get to Wrath WP and just use Exsang from there. - When you get Exsang your Spectral Throw may still outpace its damage if you have good weapon, though Exsang should immediately outpace Splitting Steel and any other skills for clear. - You don't need a mana flask. Hooray! - Decoy Totem implicitly improves your dps vs bosses. Keep it up as much as possible. - Only Act 2 Weaver was rough when I tested levelling, you may have to throw yourself at it a bunch to get through all the spider spawns. The spiders will block Exsang and take down Decoy very fast. - As we don't take small int nodes it can be tricky to upgrade wand. Getting an early +1 phys gem wand on a low int base is a huge plus as you will not need to upgrade this for the entire campaign (check a1 vendors constantly with any mules). - Stone Golem is nice for extra regen while leveling but too clunky to keep in the final build. - First Siosa gem should be Blood Rage for easy frenzies. 2nd should be Storm Brand or Void Sphere (ensures frenzy charge uptime via Raider ascendancy vs bosses), 3rd should be Righteous Fire (RF), don't worry about trying to use it yet though. - If you took Void Sphere from Breaking the Seal reward you can take something else for 2nd Siosa gem, like Punishment or Ambush. - Once you have the skill effect duration wheel and mastery you should be able to alternate between Reap and Exsang for single target for optimal damage as their dots will overlap. - If you want to be a Pro Gamer try to kill boss adds with Exsang and avoid killing them with Reap where possible as you will lose blood charges. - Make sure to allocate passives on the Ascendant tree so that you are getting Raider from cruel lab and Slayer from Merc lab. If you leave Slayer for Uber lab you will be in for a rougher time. - Reap has a small area that it doesn't hit, it's kinda pacman shaped if that makes sense. Position your casts accordingly, you'll get used to it. - This build has multiple stages that give it chunks of extra damage and sustain, from finding a +1 wand to getting Vaal Reap, getting RF online, getting leech, getting quality on Exsang/Reap, etc. Gem progression: /Quest Rewards/ - Splitting Steel after Hillock - Decoy Totem after Mud Flats - Vitality after Brutus - Exsang after Merveil WP - Corrupting Fever after Intruders in Black - Vulnerability after Tolman - Reap after Gravicius (big dps spike) - Stone Golem OR Void Sphere after Breaking the Seal /Mule options/ - Molten Shell from a Marauder (Mud Flats) - Puncture from a Duelist/Ranger (Mud Flats) if you hate Spectral Throw with a passion - Siphoning Trap from a Shadow (Brutus) if your name is ShakCentral - Frost Bomb from a Witch (Mud Flats) if Oak invades your dreams at night /Support gems/ - Reap and Exsang can share dps supports, can adding Corrupting Fever initially as well if you have a 4 link (i.e. 3 main skills + Brutality/Efficacy/Cruelty/etc.) - Efficacy is really good for keeping your two big DoTs overlapped. Swift Affliction meanwhile does the opposite, I would only use it when you have Efficacy to counteract its downside. - Unleash + Chain turns Exsang into a much more powerful clearing skill. - Don't need Lifetap gems or Arrogance until you are reserving all of your mana (i.e. you have Determination). - Hex Bloom is a good tech for spreading Vuln curse while you have a free socket for it. Very good for delve. /Auras/ - War Banner and Pride tend to be cheaper to trade for earlier on, worth holding onto a few alchs for these. - Malevolence may be more expensive because people still think Cold DoT is a top 3 starter, worth saving up for this next. - As soon as you feel you can comfortably farm high yellows and above and you have the other auras try to save up as much as you can for Determination. Gear progression: - General note, with (mostly) full armour gear you can free up a passive point from Iron Reflexes. Get as much inc rarity as you can afford to fit into your gear. /Weapon/ - +1 phys wand is baseline, getting one with extra inc spell dmg is a good upgrade. Inc phys damage on wand does not improve our damage, it is a local mod. - Cerberus Limb is a stopgap solution for leech (see below), a bit less damage than a +1 wand with extra spell dmg but well worth looking out for. - Cold Iron Point is your GG weapon. Livesearch for this once you hit endgame and you have a stockpile of alchs. Good luck getting one. /Shield/ - Any decent armour or ev based shield with life + res is the starting point - Can get inc max fire res here to enable RF earlier. - A 30% chance to block evasion shield with decent mods would be very strong when paired with Cerberus Limb and Iron Reflexes - Dawnbreaker is probably the best endgame option given the value of dmg taken conversed to fire. /Helmet/ - Nothing special here, Armour or EV base with life and res - You want the mana reservation efficiency eater mod and cast speed exarch mod (Vuln effect is also fine) - Voll's Vision is a possible GG option given the massive regen but to fit all auras you will need to anoint Charisma (very pricey) or use a mana reservation small cluster. Might be optimal to use 2 and drop Sovereignity, saves on passive points. /Body/ - No life mods unless you want to be wasting a point to get the 10% more life mastery. - Armour or EV base with res - Be on the lookout for corrupted 5/6 links with correct colours and no life mods - Corrupted chest however locks you out of valuable eldritch mods, can get extra max fire res here /Gloves/ - Before finding good gloves to get leech mod on you could maybe grab Replica Kalisa's Grace for a 5 link Exsang. No res on them though, but the int is welcome. - Otherwise Armour or EV, life and res. - Phys leeched as life is the GG eater mod. - Phys dmg over time multi exarch mod. /Boots/ - Armour or EV, life res and movement speed - Can get max fire res and inc life regen from eldritch mods here. /Rings/ - Amethyst rings for chaos res - Kikazaru is a powerful unique option (t4 ring so not too rare for a unique either) /Amulet/ - +1 all phys gems is the big money here - Whatever else you can get on top of the above - Anoint res if you really need it, otherwise get damage. - Influence is a strong endgame option though it requires a golden oil. /Belt/ - Leather belt with life and res to start - Immortal Flesh is a strong option but you need to cover the -res downside. - Cyclopean coil is another option that can give you valuable Freeze and Ignite immunity if you get more dex than int. No regen bonus but no ele res downside. Drops from elder, so you can farm for it in the endgame. Regen and RF: - Vitality and regen on tree will naturally help cover the life cost of your skills. You will not be able to turn on RF for a while, you need a lot of regen and some extra max fire res. - RF will do little damage, it is there for the huge buff to spell damage it provides. This comes at the cost of survivability, similar to how Low Life builds work. - Immortal Flesh and Kikazaru both help a tonne with increasing your overall regen. 2x Kikazaru is an option if you can find/get them, makes you functionally immune to curses. - Stacking extra max fire res will help get RF online sooner and improve your Net Recovery while it is up. There are Eldritch mods that help with this, and you can get the mod on shields. - It is best to get leech online before using RF so you still have solid recovery. You need to have good Total Net Recovery after RF degen to cover the cost of your skills. - You will want a dousing flask (remove burning) on a key separate from your flask piano so that you don't turn off RF randomly but can still disable it if needed (less recovery/no regen map mod for example) - You could put the 'Use when you take a savage hit' enchant on this flask via Einhar so that you get all of your regen back whenever a hit removes 15% or more of your max life, at the cost of losing the extra damage until you feel comfy turning RF on again. - Only use Blood Rage in situations where you can't hit rares often enough to keep frenzy charges up, as it adds an extra degen. It is more of a levelling tool anyway. Leech: - Leech nodes on tree are only for attacks, we need something else before Hematophagy wheel is worth anything. Pathing over there is hence a much lower priority early. - Main endgame source of non-attack phys damage leeched as life is the Eater glove mod, so prioritize getting decent gloves and throw any ichors you get onto them. - HOWEVER be advised that the conversion mods will be a significant dps downgrade, so best to only roll on gloves you're wearing when you have a few ichors accumilated to reduce the chance of being stuck with one. - This means you may struggle to get leech online until you are well into red maps, which will make it advisable to not use RF until then so you can use your leech as a proper recovery tool while pushing levels. This is fine. - One stopgap solution is Cerberus Limb which drops from the Vaal Architect boss in delve. You can find these in depth 50 or greater Vaal Outposts. Might sell for cheap because barely anyone uses them. Common drop from him so SSF friendly as well. - This however requires a 30%+ chance to block shield, so keep any decent ones lying around (preferably evasion base). Also works with Dawnbreaker. - Given that a lot of our dps is from DoT it's better to take the increased recovery per second small node leading to Hematophagy to help us reach cap immediately vs single target. Also saves a passive point. - Mastery is up to you, 10% instant leech might be nice for clear as Exsang can hit a lot of targets with Chain + Unleash. inc max total leech or inc armour/evasion is good otherwise. Suppression: - You can take Magebane and go through Reflexes to get suppression from Inveterate, Master of Blades will give similar damage to Vanquisher and Charisma will give you mana reservation efficiency instead of Sovereignity. - However this locks you out of getting all the life nodes and masteries in that right side area, and you will need a bit more reservation to fit all auras (greater eater mod on helm rather than just lesser). - Not taking suppression results in a roughly 33% increase in life total; you will be significantly stronger vs attacks and degens but a bit weaker to spell hits and ailments from them. - However for suppression you will also need to get some mods on gear for it to be worth which adds a lot more gear pressure, plus you will need to respec more. IMO it isn't worth it unless you are doing this as a 2nd character already geared. Respecs: - It is better to path as shown in the per-Act levelling trees so you get to the best nodes early, you can opt instead to go the 'long way' to save on respecs but this will lead to a tougher levelling experience. - Once you connect up the different paths you take you can respec a bunch of str travel nodes and spend them elsewhere as shown in the A8 tree. This costs 5 respecs and is worth it IMO, though you don't have to do this that early, it's up to you. - The three small 18% res nodes in the starter area are good for taking when you are struggling with res. 18% all res for 3 points basically, and you can respec out of them individually as you find better gear. - Same with Diamond Skin, take while levelling and lose it once your gear is better. - You only get so many free respecs so at some point even if you don't have auras it is advisable to start taking the aura wheels. - Take the Champion of the Cause wheel first; the reservation efficiency there applies to your Vitality as well and Pride + War Banner affect enemies and they are cheaper to trade for. Atlas strategy: - Should be comfortable with delve and heist, two of the best mechanics for atlas prog. Lacking mobility for heist from something like consecrated path may be a pain though. - Can do 7th gate comfortably enough due to reflect immunity and flexibility with turning off RF for more regen. Cannot regen maps will be borderline unplayable until you have leech however. - Eater/Exarch voidstones should be fine to get yourself as long as you are scaling your dps properly. Be advised that Exarch can reduce your max fire res if you stand on the tiles. - Delirium becomes a valuable option later on as this build can benefit greatly from clusters and has the extra points from Ascendant tree to fit them. Getting good clusters should be a priority for your endgame farming activities. - If you are using Immortal Flesh belt and Kikazaru ring(s) you should do Metamorph at some point to get a Fertile catalysts on them.