Was looking over my ept's and noticed Ruthless chilling out, forgotten.

Has the forum in general forgotten about it due to the high volume of stuff just released and spoiled?

Is expose+Experimental Interface just better? Is it because the attack must hit before you can assign the damage? (I don't have the Vader card, does he proc off of it? Do flechette torpedoes proc off of it?). If you shoot at range one, could you target yourself for damage?

Also, just realised, if up against a phantom and a support shuttle (or some other low agility ship), ram phantom, shoot shuttle, and proc to the phantom again! Unrealistic to happen, but would be very funny.

Anyways, why have I not seen ruthlessness in list lately? Like, at all?

Maybe because Wave 5 just came out. Some things need time to make their way into builds.

"Training Day"

Vader w/expose and ei.

3 Black squadron w/ruthless

1 Academy

Played against it today. What a headache it was! Nothing really game changing, and to be honest I didn't even factor it into my strategy.

Cool! Good to know. Does it boost the firepower of the decimator, or is expose+el better for that?

I never see anyone fly swarms anymore, so it's like people don't bother to counter swarms. People spread their ships out alot more now. ESPECIALLY with wave 5, so many people wanna fly 2x decimator, or Outrider Falcon.

Screw countering swarms. It is there to counter Biggs.

Ah, good to know. I still like to fly 3-4 ship formations. Recently I have been trying to get a dual x1 with kinkirk+el+isard+fleet officer, but the double stress off of triggering fleet officer off of issards evade action is killing me. I need to run a standerd BST+wingman, but then I break the theme of a patrol with everyone having a hyper drive and the decimator as the home base.

Screw it! I'm going to house rule that the x1 has a free wingman with the basic pilot. Then buy 2 x1's. Their, problem solved, everybody is happy (except my wallet).

Not a lot of pilots named Ruth is all. Hence they're all ruthless.

Sorry, I had to.

Not a lot of pilots named Ruth is all. Hence they're all ruthless.

Sorry, I had to.

I know.

And I LOVE it.

Puns, what can't you do without 'em? (Besides having the whole world be a better place )

first of all Ruthlessness isnt like Vader. You need to HIT with your attack. This precludes its usefulness on certain ships. COUGH Black SQuadron Cough.

Second, you need to have another enemy ship within range 1 and NOT an ally ship. This chance is only decent at best. Lets give it an approximate chance of happening 1-2 times in a game, esp if your opponent is trying to avoid it.

Third you lose your EPT for increasing damage. EPT generally increase your possibility to do damage. (as compared to astromechs for instance, which do not.) So you're talking about the opportunity cost of not having Predator or PTL. This reduces your likelihood of hits and decreaes your general damage output a little... say 1-2 hits over a game. So... its about even?

Its like jumping over a low fence that takes you about 10 seconds to climb versus going around, which takes you about 10-15 second anyway?

So, that said, I'd pair it with Gunner. Or other ships that can reliably hit easily. The ships also need an EPT.

Being Imp only, this precludes all Rebel ships, which we know to have CERTAIN damage expected.

So... no shuttle obviously. Even though that can have gunner.

Defender like Vessery is a viable candidate, with TL F.

Interceptors are out, PTL is better. Saber or Royal with Focus: in. 24 or 25 points. I'd take that!

tie fighter, only kinda. if you have howl, i could see it being possible.

tie adv, tie bomber, out. Except Vader, but that gets expensive. Prockets + 3, Engine? + 4 , +3 Ruthlessness = 39 points.

Firespray? Definitely! Also seems good because itll probably face off against some swarms.

How do you compensate for not losing to high HP Falcons and slippery PS 9 Whisper and maybe super dash and decimator?

---

I dont think this is good, but it looks fun. Lots of board control.

First of all ruthlessness is Imperial Only so you can count on not seeing it in any Rebel Builds. Also it is an EPT which has allot of competition from things like PTL to Veteran Instincts to Swarm Tactics to Expose and so on. The most EPT a pilot can have is one with the exception of A-wing test pilot which is rebels and thus won't take ruthlessness. So there is allot of competition for EPTs when deciding what to take for an upgrade that causes collateral damage. Maybe Major Rhymer with Assault missiles for formation breaking is one that comes to mind but other than that not much.

Ruthlessness is best paired with a ship that operates at some distance from the rest of its squadmates. For a point less, you could have Lone Wolf instead. The upside to Lone Wolf is that it can't do friendly fire.

At the same time, a strategy that uses Ruthlessness demands that you not use blockers. That's... Not something I'm willing to spend 3 points doing.

Played a Ruthless Kenkirk paired with a Jaded Echo tonight while experimenting with the new stuff. Triggered Ruthless 6 times in one game? Two double kills? Not much he could really do to stop it? Seemed preeetttyy gooood. Ya. Just wish it wasn't Wimpire only.

If you look at the upcoming Scum and Villainy you'll find some ships that work at range 1 in support. Xizor, Bodyguard or Serissu should not be too happy to see a Ruthlessness on the opposing side.

Played this at a tournament:

Captain Oicunn (42)
Ruthlessness (3)
Weapons Engineer (3)
Ysanne Isard (4)

Colonel Vessery (35)
Lone Wolf (2)
Heavy Laser Cannon (7)
Engine Upgrade (4)

Total: 100

View in Yet Another Squad Builder

Having two ships increases the effectiveness of Ruthlessness, since you're less likely to do friendly fire. It weakens opponents (especially TIE Fighters, Interceptors with Stealth, Phantoms!), softens them up for a folowing attack. In one game, I got Luke down to 2HP just with Ruthlessness. It should also be quite good for cleanup, to get that 1HP ship that got away.

It's hard to see the impact of ruthlessness in a wave that emphasizes giant ships with absurd hull + shield values

Here's one for you:

|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|-0-|

Black Squadron Pilot

+ Ruthlessness

.-=^{17}=-.

Black Squadron Pilot

+ Ruthlessness

.-=^{17}=-.

Black Squadron Pilot

+ Ruthlessness

.-=^{17}=-.

Black Squadron Pilot

+ Ruthlessness

.-=^{17}=-.

Omicron Group Pilot

+ Fire-Control System

+ Gunner

+ Engine Upgrade

.-=^{32}=-.

It's worst match-up is the high-ps Phantom lists. FCS + Gunner will definitely punch through the cloak with no issue. It's the decloak that's the issue.
Use the mini-swarm to attempt to block the phantom's arc-dodging. You'll likely fail, but this and good asteroid placement is your only hope.

That and for Ruthlessness to proc 4 times at the phantom player's first mis-step

It's hard to see the impact of ruthlessness in a wave that emphasizes giant ships with absurd hull + shield values

I think this is the biggest reason you don't see it. The current Rebel meta is primarily about at least one of the big ships. It greatly reduces the number of Rebel ships you see in "serious tournament play". Does that mean it won't work at the local game shop? Sure it will, but you won't see all the people that only deal with the super high end of game play using it.

This might change with Scum and Villanay, though. I hope so.

So... no shuttle obviously. Even though that can have gunner.

Defender like Vessery is a viable candidate, with TL F.

Interceptors are out, PTL is better. Saber or Royal with Focus: in. 24 or 25 points. I'd take that!

tie fighter, only kinda. if you have howl, i could see it being possible.

tie adv, tie bomber, out. Except Vader, but that gets expensive. Prockets + 3, Engine? + 4 , +3 Ruthlessness = 39 points.

Firespray? Definitely! Also seems good because itll probably face off against some swarms.

Don't rule out the Tie Bomber so fast! So...when you make an attack that hits, you get the extra damage. What about Cluster Missiles? They let you make 2 attacks. So, if you manage to hit with both of them....you get to deal double damage! OK, so what are the limitations of Cluster Missiles? Range 1-2 is bad. You need to have a high enough PS to get the TL. You need to have an EPT.

Major Rhymer is PS 7 and stretches the range to 3. You can load him with 2 Cluster Missiles. So, you can can dish out potential 2 extra damage to other ships in range. You still need to have other ships in range and you only get 3 attack dice.

I would say that the best target would be the Z-95's that fly along with the Falcon. Aim for the Z-95's and throw the extra hits on the Falcon. Or on another Z-95 and strip it's shields.

Kath Scarlet can also use Cluster Missiles, too. She's a good choice for it. It's too bad (again) that Krassis can't take it as he would be perfect for it.

@Punning Pundit: The shooter doesn't have to be alone. It's the target that can't have your friendlies flying around. It's not good if you plan on using a bunch of Interceptors and/or Tie Swarms.

I've only played one game against a decimator with ruthlessness. Didn't play that big a factor in the game until near the end.

I had my whisper with 1 hull left in range 1 of a academy he attacked and hit, that was the end of whisper. Can't remember if I misjudged the distance from my academy, or if I was just confident that he wouldn't hit the academy.

I've discovered that splash-damage scales terrifyingly.

A single Proton Bomb is an inconvenience. 4 is a board-wipe.

A single Assault Missile tickles. 5 vaporize.

A single Ruthlessness....

It's hard to see the impact of ruthlessness in a wave that emphasizes giant ships with absurd hull + shield values

I think this is the biggest reason you don't see it. The current Rebel meta is primarily about at least one of the big ships. It greatly reduces the number of Rebel ships you see in "serious tournament play". Does that mean it won't work at the local game shop? Sure it will, but you won't see all the people that only deal with the super high end of game play using it.

This might change with Scum and Villanay, though. I hope so.

So... no shuttle obviously. Even though that can have gunner.

Defender like Vessery is a viable candidate, with TL F.

Interceptors are out, PTL is better. Saber or Royal with Focus: in. 24 or 25 points. I'd take that!

tie fighter, only kinda. if you have howl, i could see it being possible.

tie adv, tie bomber, out. Except Vader, but that gets expensive. Prockets + 3, Engine? + 4 , +3 Ruthlessness = 39 points.

Firespray? Definitely! Also seems good because itll probably face off against some swarms.

Don't rule out the Tie Bomber so fast! So...when you make an attack that hits, you get the extra damage. What about Cluster Missiles? They let you make 2 attacks. So, if you manage to hit with both of them....you get to deal double damage! OK, so what are the limitations of Cluster Missiles? Range 1-2 is bad. You need to have a high enough PS to get the TL. You need to have an EPT.

Major Rhymer is PS 7 and stretches the range to 3. You can load him with 2 Cluster Missiles. So, you can can dish out potential 2 extra damage to other ships in range. You still need to have other ships in range and you only get 3 attack dice.

I would say that the best target would be the Z-95's that fly along with the Falcon. Aim for the Z-95's and throw the extra hits on the Falcon. Or on another Z-95 and strip it's shields.

Kath Scarlet can also use Cluster Missiles, too. She's a good choice for it. It's too bad (again) that Krassis can't take it as he would be perfect for it.

@Punning Pundit: The shooter doesn't have to be alone. It's the target that can't have your friendlies flying around. It's not good if you plan on using a bunch of Interceptors and/or Tie Swarms.

Problem with this is cluster missiles require you to spend lock, making both of your two shots highly unreliable because they BOTH need modification, but you can't modify either. To make Rhyme work, you need Jonus next to him. Why not try Ruthlessness on Vessery? Still requires a little support, but you also get two free target locks, which will help your double ruthlessness trigger.

I had a game where I was using Soontir PTL + Turr Ruthlessness, and Soontir was a little bit too enthusiastic in chasing down this one specific target that I got him into range 1 of it. Turr had to fire and take out that same target before it killed my 3rd ship, and took a shot at Soontir as well from behind while he was at it.

Kinda thematic, but it was purely unintentional.