I've noticed that a lot of less experienced players don't know how to play Ruckus properly, or even know how to play him at all. This guide is to help people understand how Ruckus is meant to be played, and refine their play a bit

Notes for build section:
Level 5 card means a must-use, level 3 means commonly used, level 1 means occasionally used.
Level 3 items means is a great standard buy, level 2 means is a common situational buy, and level 1 means occasional situational buy

General Playstyle: Ruckus is a dive off-tank, meaning that he controls the side lanes, and excels at diving the enemy backline and getting out, creating pressure or getting a pick. In general, both missile launcher and emitter are used during dives, giving more burst and survivability (but it’s still fine to use them normally for extra damage and survivability whenever you need it)

Build: Fuel reserves 5 is manditory, every single build runs this. Proximity, metal march, crystal capacitor, refraction are commonly used (I personally think that proximity is pretty good).

Other occasionally used cards were opulence, air cooled, and extended magazines, dampener.

(note: generally speaking, opulence and crystal capacitor are used together when used)
As for talents, Aerial Assault is the only one used

Items: Common items include chronos, haven, veteran, master riding, wrecker if the enemies have a lot of shields, and resilience if the enemies have a lot of CC. (Side note, ruckus buys resilience more frequently than others, since his minigun fire rate will fully reset if a stun lasts too long) Of course, if the enemies have a lot if invisibility, buy illuminate, and if they have too many deployables, get bulldozer.

Miscellaneous Tips:

- Save at least 1 charge of advance at all times for retreating. If you have 2-3 charges, don’t be afraid to use 1 or two of them to push forwards to try and get a pick or even just add pressure

Remember that the Aerial Assault talent also makes you go up if you aren’t pressing a movement key, don’t be afraid to use it to get to high ground

- Going up can also be used as an evasive maneuver mid-fight to surprise enemies, but don’t overuse it otherwise they will start expecting it.

As said earlier in the guide, the rockets are generally used as burst for dives, but using it for some extra damage is also fine, especially if you have full charges of it.

- Another great use of rockets is using all of your charges when the enemies push forwards, since if they have invested a lot of resources to push forwards, you can force them back, and in some cases they may have invested their mobility to push forwards, so they don’t have it to retreat, getting you a kill.

It’s actually fine for a Ruckus to dive the enemy backline aggressively. Since you’re the off-tank, even just trading 1 for 1 is fine. If the enemies are running single support, and you dive the enemy support, killing them but dying in the process, that’s a massive advantage for your team.

- In general, diving is good if you are either confident that you can kill an enemy, or you’re confident you can survive.

- An aggressive 1 for 1 playstyle also works well with master riding, since dying becomes less of an issue, and you’ll be able to get back into the fight faster than the person you killed

When using Ruckus ult, make sure that only 1-3 enemies can see you. (and even 3 is stretching it) Any more and you'll die too fast to get much value. As well, if possible try to use the ult when some enemies aren't near cover and target those ones, so that they'll die before they can get to cover.
- If you're taking too much damage, don't be afraid to cancel your ultimate and back out of there. Even if you haven't gotten a kill, your ultimate has probably still done a bunch of damage and pressured enemies. Dying now means your team will probably be at a disadvantage.

Since Ruckus ult makes him CC immune, his ult can actually be used to avoid getting CCd as long as you activate it fast enough. (Seris and Inara ults are great examples of this)

Getting a shield to protect you when you are ulting can be extremely powerful, since the main downside of Ruckus ult is being unable to move making you an easy target, and a shield avoids that downside. (The main shields that come to mind are Barik and Terminus)