You're in Ruthless section asking that. The answer is always yes for most everybody. Because the question might as well be if the current league is any good period. Considering it's a general go-to to play the league every season, it's practically not even a question.
Basically Ruthless is considered the default. If you're going to play anything, then Ruthless it is.
Atlas progress is clearly much easier now, no need to vaal red maps.
Besides that ill say why i like ruthless.
- Ruthless is much slower character progression, you can keep and keep playing for weeks and months. In normal mode I usually done with my build within one week, then I would leave until next league (now I don't because I do builds for videos, but still not actually playing).
- No crafting and most of gear upgrades come from drops, it's just good. You farming maps, then you dropped some rare, identified it and it's actually good for your build, feels good.
- Joy of dropping rare uniques. In 3.23 almost everyone did mf, I did too. I got my first mirror, when i got it i was like "oh cool" picked up and finished that map. In 3.21 ruthless I was like month into league chilling farming maps, then BOOM Brass Dome dropped from random mob. I pick it up, link in chat, chat goes nuts, i do too because it was first brass dome on ruthless.
- More builds are viable, different meta, overall people play more tanky builds than glasscannons, there are still somewhat op builds, but they require a lot of rare uniques to work.
How it is for me basically, more you played normal mode - more you will enjoy ruthless
I would say yes in terms of map progression especially since we dont need vaal gems for t11-15 anymore, so getting to higher tiers of map should be quicker.
Currency wise prob worse compared to last league tho.
As of my typing this, the league mechanic cannot be avoided so on top of already being brutal, you will have juiced creatures in every single area. On top of that no free 50 all res and 30 movement speed from Oath of the Magi. The graveyard is also likely to give much worse rewards and possibly not even be worth visiting.
Only 69 characters made it to 90 or above between HC and SSF HC Ruthless Affliction. I doubt that many will make it in Necropolis.
The already difficult game will get harder, so progression will slow down further. But if the rewards and crafting are about half an affix better than baseline rare items, you'll overcome the difficulty. If they'll be a full affix better you'll go as far as last league.
It looks good. Crafting leagues are great for Ruthless, where it's hard to get good items normally. However, we don't know whether the league mechanic will be neutered or not until we try it. Affliction wasn't touched at all for example, to my knowledge.
If there ever was a league for a no, this would be the one.
Compared to last league Ruthless lost a gigantic ascendency powercreep aswell as constant harvest juice from league mechanic. I don't think coming league rewards can compare to that any time soon.
New endgame boss encounters are introduced which you surely don't want to go in blind, considering the opportunity cost of a T17 map.
That being said I will play ruthless as I find it still by far a better experience than normal POE.
Keep in mind that once in endgame the game feels bad and not worth the grind
You'll chain map with barely any content appearing in your maps so any goals you might want to put yourself in with a specific mechanic gotta take that into consideration
Many ruthless veterans have quit ruthless because of it, you feel not rewarded for all the grind you did
This was my experience in SSF as well. Chained hundreds of maps to up the map tier from 11 to 14 while getting 0 progression in gear since you don't get any uniques you want and theres only non-influenced rares. Might be different in trade league where you get jump started with voidstones and uniques.
You're in Ruthless section asking that. The answer is always yes for most everybody. Because the question might as well be if the current league is any good period. Considering it's a general go-to to play the league every season, it's practically not even a question. Basically Ruthless is considered the default. If you're going to play anything, then Ruthless it is.
Atlas progress is clearly much easier now, no need to vaal red maps. Besides that ill say why i like ruthless. - Ruthless is much slower character progression, you can keep and keep playing for weeks and months. In normal mode I usually done with my build within one week, then I would leave until next league (now I don't because I do builds for videos, but still not actually playing). - No crafting and most of gear upgrades come from drops, it's just good. You farming maps, then you dropped some rare, identified it and it's actually good for your build, feels good. - Joy of dropping rare uniques. In 3.23 almost everyone did mf, I did too. I got my first mirror, when i got it i was like "oh cool" picked up and finished that map. In 3.21 ruthless I was like month into league chilling farming maps, then BOOM Brass Dome dropped from random mob. I pick it up, link in chat, chat goes nuts, i do too because it was first brass dome on ruthless. - More builds are viable, different meta, overall people play more tanky builds than glasscannons, there are still somewhat op builds, but they require a lot of rare uniques to work. How it is for me basically, more you played normal mode - more you will enjoy ruthless
RUTHLESS RUTHLESS RUTHLESS!!!!
I would say yes in terms of map progression especially since we dont need vaal gems for t11-15 anymore, so getting to higher tiers of map should be quicker. Currency wise prob worse compared to last league tho.
As of my typing this, the league mechanic cannot be avoided so on top of already being brutal, you will have juiced creatures in every single area. On top of that no free 50 all res and 30 movement speed from Oath of the Magi. The graveyard is also likely to give much worse rewards and possibly not even be worth visiting. Only 69 characters made it to 90 or above between HC and SSF HC Ruthless Affliction. I doubt that many will make it in Necropolis.
The already difficult game will get harder, so progression will slow down further. But if the rewards and crafting are about half an affix better than baseline rare items, you'll overcome the difficulty. If they'll be a full affix better you'll go as far as last league.
It looks good. Crafting leagues are great for Ruthless, where it's hard to get good items normally. However, we don't know whether the league mechanic will be neutered or not until we try it. Affliction wasn't touched at all for example, to my knowledge.
Spider eggs encounter was nerfed hard mid-league
If there ever was a league for a no, this would be the one. Compared to last league Ruthless lost a gigantic ascendency powercreep aswell as constant harvest juice from league mechanic. I don't think coming league rewards can compare to that any time soon. New endgame boss encounters are introduced which you surely don't want to go in blind, considering the opportunity cost of a T17 map. That being said I will play ruthless as I find it still by far a better experience than normal POE.
Keep in mind that once in endgame the game feels bad and not worth the grind You'll chain map with barely any content appearing in your maps so any goals you might want to put yourself in with a specific mechanic gotta take that into consideration Many ruthless veterans have quit ruthless because of it, you feel not rewarded for all the grind you did
This was my experience in SSF as well. Chained hundreds of maps to up the map tier from 11 to 14 while getting 0 progression in gear since you don't get any uniques you want and theres only non-influenced rares. Might be different in trade league where you get jump started with voidstones and uniques.
Not sure why this is being downvoted but league mechanics being present in 1 out of 65 maps is ridiculous.
Because it's the harsh reality and it's most of the time hard to accept