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

My Lightning Arrow Build just got a new bow

After ripping two Hierophants in act IX, my Raider actually got into maps. I almost died to merciless Izaro (I was kiting him too far away and didn't see his leap). Here's the gear I used on the first map:



Desperately needing better helm, gloves and boots.

Raider is 76 now - also Artillery Ballista... Completed Story. Havent quite figured out everything. Like what to use as self attack. Right now its Toxic Rain but I have issues getting Frenzies with it. Also not sure if I want any of the totem passives - dont have any so far. Build is working well nonetheless. And easy to play too. The permanent Quartz and easily achievable full ele ailment immunity are quite advantageous in Ruthless. And go well with Artillery Ballista which otherwise would be very clunky/slow to play in bad layouts. Gear - with DETERMINATION:

Movement speed could be better though - was not able to come up with a suitable passive tree for Frenzy version of Raider which would have better Movement. Thinking about using this if I can 5-link it eventually:
Also got these - maybe they can be used for culling/onslaught/frenzies/innervate:

As it happens I justed dropped these (which I had before and RIPped them):

If I play Elementalist again then SRS etc are looking much better now.
And got these too:

i got bored at level 83

its too slow
too many detrimental progress blocking things
too unrewarding
too unfun

its for people who have too much free time and no one else

im glad a tired it but im done with it now and doubt ill spend much if any time with it anymore

I found a new helm:

Somehow I dont have good enough DPS with my Artillery Ballista Raider. So I was testing 'Overcharge' setup in Ossuary:

First idea was to use Overcharge with Ensnaring Arrow - total failure. Then I tried Lightning Arrow. Works better but probably wont scale well enough. Meaning Ensnaring Arrow without Overcharge will likely be better for single target which is my issue.

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 -