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[3.10] Molten Strike Juggernaut | League Starter | All Content | SSF Step By Step Leveling Guide

On gear pieces you want to look for
-Elemental Damage with Attacks
-Physical Damage
-x added fire damage to attacks

When leveling you want to make sure you get scepters or maces that have higher physical damage on top. This will help out with leveling but only try to change them every 10 levels. The only exception is if you find a unique 1H weapon like a dagger then you can temporarily put it in place but you should stick to scepters/maces because this guide will be built off of them.

You will want to make sure you are resistance capped at 75% for Fire, Cold, and Lightning. We will focus on Chaos Resistance when we hit end game. At Act 6 you will drop 30% elemental resistances when defeating that acts final boss and then in Act 10 you will drop an additional 30% when defeating the final boss in the Acts. So it's a total of -60% resistance but you focus slowly by first just trying to hit 75% until Act 6 which is a very very long way to go. Once you beat that boss you will just need to make up for the 30% lost and so forth.



You will be focusing on wearing pieces of gear like Topaz, or Two-Stone ring that can help you out with this.



One way of doing this that has always been helpful is to make sure you always talk to all the NPC's and then headback to your hideout when you have the chance and use the crafting bench to help level out your resistances. You have to just play around and learn about prefixes and Suffixes etc. Magic, Rare have different amounts.

For Act 1

Molten Strike - This is going to be your main skill gem that you will be using throughout the entire game.

Onslaught-

Added Fire Damage -

Combustion -

Ancestral Protector -

https://pastebin.com/RkuyMe3d


For level 1-10 follow this tree


For level 11-20 follow this tree


For level 21-30

Act 1

Twilight Strand – Pick up Heavy Strike and socket it into weapon slot then walk down the coast line and pick up Ruthless Support and socket it into weapon slot. (Red-Red) Kill boss and take first talent point before entering into town. Pick up everything boss dropped. Talk to NPC’s to pick up quests and take Molten Strike Reward from Tarkleigh and replace Heavy Strike with it. If you happen to find another 1H mace go ahead and put it into your offhand because we are going to be dual wielding the entire way into maps. Eventually we are going to want to switch out to scepters because they have elemental damage. Try to stay with Mace/Scepter

While you are leveling you are going to want to make sure to look out for a 3 linked body armor or weapon that has colors R-R-G. If you can’t find it on the ground you can try talking to Tarkleigh to see if he sells one if not you can simply stay with the R-R for now until you find one. All pieces will be continually replaced so it’s not a big deal unless the guide says so.

If you happen to find any rings, or boots, or gear that you can use feel free to put it on but try to save your scrolls of wisdom for now unless the piece of gear is needed and you have nothing on the character slot yet. What I do is just vendor any blue pieces I find that I do not need without identifying them but for any yellow or rare piece I go ahead and identify it and then vendor the piece.

So what I am going to be doing while writing this guide is leveling up my character as I type this out. I will be doing partial to full clears in areas for this league (Metamorph) to at least kill the monsters that will spawn the encounter. When leveling you want to focus on mostly the blue packs of monsters because they give you the most experience with quickest kill time, or on large pack sizes to get your exp worth. Our level should be above the monsters but never more than 3 or less than 3 levels or we will encounter an experience penalty so remember to stay within that level range. If you want you can do full clears if you are a new player and pick up currency and learn the mechanics of the game. Just try to stay a level or two above current zone level so you don’t easily die if you are new to game.

The Coast – (Each new league will have a new mechanic in place where some sort of monsters need to be killed. I’m currently writing this for Metamorph league but will change it when new league info comes out.) Kill select green monsters on map to spawn Tane Octavius quest and proceed to kill monsters until you can summon metamorph encounter with all needed organs. Then turn in metamorph quest and proceed to find the way point then head into Tidal Island. Don’t forget to keep leveling up your gems along the way.

If you are heavy on inventory feel free to use way point and port back to town to sell what you need then continue on.

Tidal Island - I am currently level 3 before entering this zone. Go into the zone and find NPC boss and kill him for medicine chest. Once you take it port back to town by either logging out and back into game or using a portal scroll or walking back to last way point. If you do log off and back on during any place in game you can get immediately back into town but will lose your current location.

While in town talk to Nessa and take QuickSilver Flask and Ancestral Call Support. At this point talk to Nessa again and buy Onslaught Gem. You want to connect Molten Strike – Ancestral Call Support – Onsalught Support for now.

The Mud Flats - Talk to Bestel and Tarkleigh for quests and continue the journey by porting back to The Coast then entering The Mud Flats. While you are in here you will want to collect 3 Rhoa Nests Glyphs which are under yellow ! points. You will begin to see how powerful Molten Strike is already if you were able to link all three gems mentioned above. Don’t worry about over leveling your zone just try to never be under leveled if you are a new player. You also don’t always have to complete each metamorph encounter you find but by doing so you will be given lots of extra gear that will help down the road. This changes each league as I said above. Once you collect the three Rhoa Nest Glyphs you will want to head over to the Strange Glyph Wall which is marked with a yellow !. Click on it and enter Submerged Passage and find way point. I am level 5 at this point. I usually port to town at this point and sell any stuff I may have or just keep it in the bank to identify for later if it’s yellow and I don’t immediately need it.

Port back to town and take Ancestral Protector reward from Tarkleigh and quest. We will use this on metamorph or boss fights. You gain lots of attack speed and the totem also attacks for you. You can also just place it and run away if you are just moving through mobs. Now you want to go to Nessa and buy Blood and Sand gem and make sure you are always in Blood Stance for more damage. These 2 gems do not need to be linked just placed in same socket color.

*You can skip this next Fetid Pool part if you'd like you basically just get 2 Respec Points but it's up to you.

Then port back to Submerged Passage and exit back into The Mud Flats. We are going to be looking for a side zone called the Fetid Pool. Find it and go inside. All you need to do in this zone is just kill all the monsters in here then port back to town and talk to Tarkleigh for reward of 2 passive respec points.

The Submerged Passage - I'm level 6 at this point. We are going to want to look for a side zone within this zone called the Flooded Depths before we move onto Prisoner's Gate zone. Once you find Flooded Depths simply go in there and kill Dweller of the Deep and then go back out into Submerged Passage and continue until you find The Ledge door and go in that zone.

The Ledge - Once you enter the Ledge just keep going down all the way until you hit the way point in the middle. Port back to town and talk to Tarkleigh for your reward. He will give you One Passive Skill Point. Sell whatever you don't need and then port back to the Ledge and continue going until you see the door to The Climb then enter.

Start saving up some currency at this point and buy yourself 2 Sapphire Rings from Nessa when possible. These are simply going to be put on and then taken off when we fight the final boss in Act 1. They cost 3 scrolls of wisdom each and you might have to come back to Nessa a 2nd time later to get another ring once you level if she doesn't currently sell two.

The Climb - Keep moving forward until you find the next way point then keep going until you kill the Faun boss here to unlock Navi in your hideout. Keep moving forward until you hit the door to The Lower Prison zone.

The Lower Prison - When you enter this zone make sure to get the waypoint then port into town and talk to Navi and then Tarkleigh for quest and then Nessa for reward. Take added fire damage from Nessa and remove Onslaught Support from weapon and link Molten Strike - Ancestral Call Support - Added Fire Damage Support you can also feel free to replace Added Fire Damage with Combustion Support if you happen to have RRB socket instead of RRR on your gear. If you have 4 sockets RRRB all linked then place those four together for a super powerful build. But I don't believe you will be able to have 4 socketed items until Act 3 or 4. Sorry don't remember at this point.

I'm almost level 10 and I've gotten this far using the same 2 weapons that dropped on the starter zone for me. Both of them are white not even magic or rare. Molten Strike is a very powerful build.

At this point you want to port back into The Prison. You will want to walk around until you find your 1st Trial of Ascendancy. Go ahead and clear this out to then use the portal to port back into main area and continue walking until you find the Upper Prison Door. Enter and continue walking until you find The Warden's Quarters and then enter and keep going until you hit The Warden's Chambers then go in and kill Brutus. Exit out of The Prison and go into Prison's Gate. Take waypoint and port to town. Take leap slam from Tarkleigh

Just a side note I've gotten up to this point with 0 movement speed on my shoes and still using 2 white weapons and was able to kill Brutus. Any upgrades will auto help you kill him faster. I'm also still using RRG and have not used the RRR or RRB setup yet because I don't have a blue or extra red socket on gear. So it is ok if you were not able to find it above.

Prisoner's Gate - Port back here and simply follow the road until you enter The Ship's Graveyard.

The Ship Graveyard - Find waypoint and port back to town then talk to Nessa for quest. Port back to GY and walk around until you find Fairgraves and take his quest. Keep walking around area and look for Ship Graveyard CAve door and enter it. Go ahead and walk all the way to end and click on Slave Girl to gather the Allflame then exit and go back to Fairgraves and kill him. Then find the entrance to Cavern of Wrath take the waypoint and port back to town. Talk to Bestel for 1 free skillpoint and talk to Nessa and take whatever gem you like, we don't need any of them.

Cavern of Wrath - Port back to Merveil's Caverns and continue walking until you find the next door to The Cavern of Anger go ahead and enter and continue walking until you find Merveil's Layer. Once you go in you will fight her and once she's dead Act 1 is over. I am currently level 14 as I am going in to fight her. Don't forget to place your ancestral protector down while fighting bosses and resummoning it and keeping it up always on bosses. It helps you melt them.

CONGRATULATIONS!!
Find exit to Act 2 The Southern Forest.

Act 2

The Southern Forest - Just simply keep walking north until you hit the main town of The Forest Encampment. Talk to all the NPC's in town and then enter The Old Fields.

The Old Fields - Walk around until you find The Den and then enter into it and find and kill the Great White Beast. During this time you will also get a quest from Einhar, Beastmaster just take it and make sure you kill all of the beasts on map to unlock him and be able to do beast kill in the Menagerie. Einhar might pop up on any location just make sure you capture all the beasts each time. Once Great White Beast is killed exist and continue your path towards the Crossroads.

You will want to keep an eye out for scepters now because they add Elemental Damage to build which is huge buff and also look out for any rare rings with resistances. Two-Tone rings or Topaz etc. Always keep your resistances up.

The Crossroads - once you enter follow the road until you find the waypoint. Port to town and sell what you need to sell. Talk to Yeena and take whatever item you feel will help you at this point. Then port back. We are going to continue moving towards the Broken Bridge or the north east part of the map. Find the waypoint and follow the road all the way to the end where the bridge is and kill the Bandit Kraityn and take her amulet and then port back into town. Talk to Greust and take quest then port back to The Crossroads. Take a left and enter The Chamber of Sins Levlel 1.

The Chamber of Sins Levlel 1 - Walk around find waypoint then find Chamber of Sins Level 2 and enter. In level 2 you need to solve the 2nd Trial of Ascendancy here and then also kill all the blackguards and Fidelitus. Click on the strange device pick up Baleful Gem then talk to Helena and port back into town to meet her.

In Town talk to Greust and take Herald of Ash gem. Then talk to Yeena and Helena and Silk for quests. Just make sure you socket and then activate the new gem. It will be a massive damage increase. Also make sure your flasks of Life and Mana are always being updated. At this point we are going to port back to The Crossroads and this time head east and enter The Fellshrine Ruins.

The Fellshrines Ruins - Keep walking down the path and you will see a path between two pillars with a book symbol to your east and you will want to head that way to enter into the Crypt Level 1.

The Crypt Level 1 - You want to take the waypoint when you enter then solve your 3rd trials of ascendancy in this area. It will be found on the level 1 area not level 2. There will always be a book next to the Trial so you can know where it's located at on map. Take small portal that spawns to head back to main area then continue your way into Crypt Level 2. Once you enter keep going until you find the object The Golden Hand. Boss Archbishop Geofri will be guarding it but with our build it's a joke. Just melt him. Once acquired port back to town and talk to Yeena and take whichever jewel you'd like. We currently wouldn't have space to use it in our build anyway so it doesn't really matter. You also get 2 free respec points.

Now we are heading west to the Riverways zone.

The Riverways - Follow the path all way until you hit the waypoint. To make it easier make sure you are Leap Slamming over the unpassable river areas. Once you hit the waypoint just simply head towards the northwest to until you find the entrance to the Wetlands. It will always be in the direction between the two pillars by the waypoint. Enter.

The Wetlands - You will do 2 things in here. Find the waypoint(make sure you walk towards yellow ! The Roots to get quest) towards the northwest and kill Oak when you find him. Once you kill him and take his amulet use the waypoint and port back to The Riverways and head west until you reach The Western Forest.

The Western Forest - once inside continue down the path until you find the waypoint. If you keep following the path you will eventually hit a road block with bandits and a boss. Kill the boss Captain Ateri and pick up the Thaumetic Emblem and continue west to unblock the passage with it. Called Theumatic seal. Now the tricky part is that you have to start wondering around the edges of this zone until you find NPC Alira and when you find her kill her and pick up Alira's Amulet. If you happen to find the entrance to the Weaver's Chambers do not enter it yet. Kill Alira first.

AT this point it would be best to port back to town before we continue on to turn in some quests and sell what we have etc. When you are in town talk to Eramir and he will reward you with 2 skill points and also give you The Apex. If you happen to come across an underground zone and pick up Vaal Righteous Fire go ahead and socket it into your gear and only use the Vaal part when on bosses for some good damage. This is not necessary by any means and will not be used in final build. Just for leveling.

The Weaver's Chambers - Port back to The Western Forest and enter the Weaver's Chamber. Walk around until you find the entrance to the Weaver's next then kill the WEaver take Maligaro's Spike and port back to town. Talk to Silk take Elemental Damage with Attacks Support gem. Talk to Helena for quest.

Ok so now we should have linked Molten Strike - Ancestral Call Support - Elemental Damage with Attacks or Combustion. When you get the ability to four link them go ahead and do so. You can also link Ancestral Protector with Faster Attacks gem or any other gem you would like that can help the totem.

*****I'm actually combing back and seeing that I had some difficulty with some bosses so it might actually be better to link
Molten Strike - Ancestral Call Support - Faster Attacks until you get a 4 link gear piece in either Act 3 or Act 4. I hope that will make it easier and you just need to keep other gems in your offhand so you can level them.

So when you do get your 4 Linked gear piece you will want it to have:
Molten Strike - Ancestral Call Support - Elemental Damage With Attacks - Combustion Support

Now we are going to port back to Act 1 town and talk to Bestel for free skill point.

Now port back to Act 2 The Wetlands and use the item on The Roots to open path to Vaal Ruins. Enter.

Vaal Ruins - Walk around until you encounter the ancient seal then go ahead and click on it so you can pass through. Continue walking until you find the entrance to the Northern Forest and go in.

The Northern Forest - When you enter it will be dark and just keep following the right edge of the screen until you find the waypoint then port back into town. Make sure you talk to all the NPCs until all the ! are gone. Port back to Northern Forest zone. You are going to stay on the right side of the edge and follow it all the way up north until you find the zone call The Caverns, there is a second area in this zone called The Dread Thicket that does not need to be entered at all. I'm not sure why this is here or if I'm missing something but nothing is gained by going into this area at all.


The Caverns - Keep following the path until you find the waypoint and then take the recipe next to it. Movement Speed Rank 1. At this point it's going to take quite a while to get to the last boss because we are going to be ascending a lot of different doors now to reach it. Get ready.

Find stairs to The Ancient Pyramid and enter. What I normally do at this point is simply stick to the left or right side and keep following the edge until you find the stairs to the next area. Once you find the stairs go ahead and ascend again. Keep repeating this action until you finally reach THE PYRAMID APEX. Go in and take crafting recipe Spell Damage rank 1 and then click on Dark Altar to begin the fight. Make sure you are moving around when the boss is going to do his ground slam.

I'm level 23 at this point.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Now to Act 3! Take City of Sarn exit.

Act 3


City of Sarn - Keep walking until you find Clarissa and kill the guard captain around her to free her and take quest. Find entrance to the town keep going ahead.

At this point I just found a Tabula Rasa which is a white 6 Linked body armor that is insanely rare for the start of new leagues. But I will not be using this because the average player does not have one of these when doing a fresh league start. But if you do happen to find one it can carry you all the way past Act 10 into the maps until you find the right Unique or gear you get. I'm just shocked I found one doing this guide in SSF.

The Sarn Encampment or Town - When you get in here just do the same as always talk to all the NPCs and take all the quests you can and start looking at vendors for 4 linked body armor now. Molten Strike Setup is still the same from above. Head out to the door on your right The Slums.


The Slums - Once in here you are going to walk around until you find the Crematorium which can be really fast or take a few minutes.

The Crematorium - Once inside take waypoint by door and look around for your 4th Trial of Ascendancy. Once finished keep walking around until you find Piety and temporarily fight her. Once she teleports away go ahead and take the Tolman's Bracelet and the crafting recipe nearby. You get Fire Damage Rank 1. At this point port back to town and talk to Clarissa to get the Sewer Keys. Talk to Marmoa and take Anger gem. You can swap out Herald of Ash if you would like but do know this gem will take up 50% of your mana so you might want to socket it on your offhand weapon to just keep leveling it. It's best to replace Herald with Anger when you get the Tree node Life and Mana Leech because then on each hit you will never run out of mana since it keeps regenerating but that's in the early 30s. Just make sure you talk to the rest of the NPCs before you go back to The Slums. Once back in The Slums make sure to find the sewer gate and then enter it.


The Sewers - In this zone you are going to look for the waypoint and also look for 3 Platinum Busts, find them before you enter next zone. Once you find all 3 enter next zone the market place.

The Market Place - walk around until you find the waypoint and also make sure before you enter side zone to find the Ornate Chest and pick up Decantor Spiritus. Once you keep to the right of the map you will find The Catacombs enter in there.

The Catacombs - Solve your 5th Trial of Ascendancy in here. Take crafting recipe Elemental Damage with Attacks RAnk 1. Port to town and talk to Hargan for skill point. After this port back to The Marketplace and then walk around and look for the passage to The Battlefront.

The Battlefront - head to the West West North and take waypoint then take the Blackguard Chest Ribon Spool. Keep walking to the north west until you reach the entrance to The Docks.

The Docks - Once inside go ahead and walk around the edges until you find the waypoint and find Captain Fairgraves. Port back to The BAttlefront and continue walking north east again until you find the entrance to Solaris Temple Level 1.

Solaris Temple Level 1 - Keep walking until you find the waypoint then continue to 2nd level.

Solaris TEmple Level 2 - Keep walking until you the find the waypoint here then right behind the waypoint just talk to Lady Dialia. You will probably want to take an intellect neck piece if you are struggling with int a this point, if not then take whatever you would like. You can ignore the Eternal Laboratory door, nothing really big in there. At this point you are going to want to port back to The Docks and find the Supply Container with Theumatic Sulphite then port back to Solaris Temple Level 2 and talk to Dialia and take Infernal Talc then port back to The Sewers and unlock the blocked passage. Take crafting recipe physical damage rank 1 then head into The Ebony Barracks.

The Ebony Barracks - walk straight to the waypoint and then continue walking northwest until you meet General Gravacius and kill him with his men. At this point just use a portal to go back to town. Talk to Marmoa and take whatever gem you like we don't need any of those. Talk to Grigor and take quest. Port back to Ebony Barracks and go northwest until you find Lunaris Temple.

Believe it or not doing this in SSF I'm still only using the 3 Link gem to get this far RRB because I can't find a 4 link yet RRRB but I am able to get all this content done in only 3 links currently level 29.

Lunaris Temple Level 1 - Keep walking until you find the waypoint. Then right next to it enter Lunaaris Temple Level 2. This will be a long walk until you enter a few gates and find the Portal on the floor. Enter into it and kill Piety and take The Tower Key and also don't forget to take Recipe at far back Lightning Damage Rank 1. Now port back into town. Talk to Grigor and take free skill point and talk to any NPC's that have yellow ! on them. Now we are porting back to Ebony Barracks and headed towards the north east to Imperial Gardens.

The Imperial Gardens - You will want to find the waypoint in here and then solve the 6th Trial of Ascendancy in here and then find Chitu's Plum before you enter the side zone of the Library. There will always be a book called Bronze Monograph before you do any trial of ascendancy. When inside the Trial take Recipe all attributes rank 1. If you happen to find scepter of God door do not enter it just yet we are doing Library first. Once you find all 3 items to the Library we go.

The Library - (This is one of my favorite places because once unlocked you are able to by any skill gem from the 1st 3 Acts in here.) Keep walking until you see the waypoint then talk to Siosa and keep walking around towards the area not yet discovered until you find a handle sicking out of the wall, it's a lever "Loose Candle". It's going to be found in a square room not in the pathway. Pay careful attention to it. Then open the door and enter The Archives. All you have to do here is simply walk around and collect all the 4 Golden Pages then return them to Siosa. Make sure you take Fortify Gem from him as rward and link Fortify with Leap Slam. He will then unlock the storage he has of all gems you can buy from him but make sure you have the needed currency in inventory so you can buy them. Then take waypoint back to The Docks and talk to Fairgraves to get free ring. Now we are going back to the Imperial Gardens and entering the Scepter of God.


Get used to Leap Slamming!

Leap Slam - Fortify Support - Faster Attacks


Scepter of God - This is going to seem very familiar here. You are going to want to hug the left side of the wall and keep going until you find the stairs. It's going to take a good while before you ascend all the stairs and halfway you will find a waypoint. Keep it and keep ascending until you hit The Upper Specter of God which should be on the same level as the waypoint. Enter and you have a few more stair ways to go until you reach The Tower Rooftop. I suggest you be level 33 before you enter so you can take the node Life and mana Leech. When you hit this node this is when you begin to be more of a facetank type of player but not just yet.

Once you beat boss talk to Dialia and take exit.

If you are having trouble fighting him make sure your gem links are all correct and try to have the 4 Link if possible. I'm currently level 33 and still only have the 3 link and died once on this fight. It makes a huge diffrence depending on your gem links and other gear you are wearing. Weapons etc. The talent tree will soon begin to boost the damage by a lot. HANG IN THERE, DON'T GIVE UP.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Now exit towards Act 4.

Act 4


We are going to hold of on doing the Labrynth for our ascension until we are at least level 35/36 to make it easier.

The Aqueduct - Take waypoint back to town in Act 3 and sell what you don't need and then port back and continue until you reach the new town of Highgate of Act 4.

Highgate or town - Talk to every single NPC in town with !. Next to Niko make sure you click on the door with Seal so you can take a quest for it. Enter Dried Lake.


The Dried Lake - walk towards bottom until you find Vol Boss then kill him and pick up Deshret's Banner and take recipe attack and cast speed rank 1. You can now port back to town and open Deshret's seal. Talk to all the NPC's to take quest and take whatever gem you'd like from Oyun since minions are not in our build.

The Mines Level 1 - Enter the mines and make sure you take all 3 nodes for Niko of Voltaxic Sulphite, this is really important because delving is the fastest way for us to level up our character as long as we have enough sulphite available. Once you collect all 3 continue to Mines Level 2. In level 2 make sure to free Deshret's Spirit that is in there. Enter next zone Crystal veins.

Crystal Veins - Keep walking down path until you find waypoint then take the recipe Elemental Resistances Rank 2 next to waypoint and talk to Dialia for quest. After this port to town and sell what you need and talk to Kira and Tasuni who gives you a skill point and 2 respec points. Port back to Crystal Veins.

At this point it doesn't matter which side you enter in first so we are just going with the right side first.

Daresso's Dream - Keep walking until you reach the grand arena.

The Grand Arena - Enter and take waypoint straight ahead. You need to keep walking around in this area until you hit The Ring of Blades kill boss and take The Eye of Desire. Port to town then port back to Crystal Vein and talk to Dialia then enter left side.

Kaom's Dream - Continue until you enter the second door and then take waypoint inside. Keep going until you reach Caldera of the King and go in kill boss and pick up Eye of Purity. Port back to town then port back to Crystal Veins and talk to Dialia and enter Belly.

Belly of the Beast Level 1 -

Act 5

Act 6

Act 7

Act 8

Act 9

Act 10