As always, TL;DR provided at the end. I believe that while there is excitement regarding the coming update and new class, there is equally a lot of anxiety mixed together with it, and for my part I know that my anxiety stems from the current state of my main class, Zealot. Veteran and Psyker have already been promised further reworks but Zealot has not, and post their first ever Rework, despite having a far more flexible tree, the Class is the weakest it’s been in the games history.
IMO, there’s really three core issues contributing to this. For one, Firearms, which have never been the Zealot’s forte, somehow seem even weaker. The nodes “Anoint in Blood”, “Out of Pocket”, “Dance of Death”, and the firearm specific bonuses from “Inexorable Judgment” just don’t provide enough value. And in a game where guns and melee are supposed to be important, most firearms barely register as a tool worth using on the class, aside from their most meta options. This is particularly bad when every class is capable of achieving melee feats on par if not better than the Zealot. Next, a greater emphasis has been put on Blocking and General Damage Reduction and while that could make for interesting build utility, these nodes don’t contribute enough to be particularly valuable. The nodes of “Impassable” and “Retaliatory Defense” are notable for being new Blocking Nodes that no one takes. Meanwhile, nodes like “Shield of Contempt” and “The Master’s Retribution” have incredibly inconsistent and/or undefinable value. And finally, a large portion of the rightmost side of Zealot’s class tree feels ineffectual. Changes to ability uptime and the seeming removal of the “Double Stab” glitch for “Shroudfield” means that the agro dump on your team generates more problems for you allies than the ability enables you to solve. Backstab and Flanking Shot Nodes are too inconsistent to be valuable, especially if you aren’t using “Shroudfield”. And “Inexorable Judgment” provides a bonus that is both less impactful and less consistent than the bonuses obtainable from the other Keystones. The rightmost side of the tree feels like it’s letting you cosplaying as an assassin more than it feels like it’s enabling you to actually be one.
And all of this is on top of the pre-existing weaknesses of the class, such as limited Crowd Control to keep enemies engaged w/ them (they really only “Punishment”, “Grievous Wounds”, “Stunstorm”, and, arguably, “Chorus”) and a lack of truly transformative node options. The class is held up entirely by Quality/Generalist node options, but that quality just can’t compare or keep up w/ the more Direct Power and Utility that other classes bring to the table. I’m not going to try and guess what FS has planned, but truthfully, I want these options to actually be good.
I’ve heard suggestions to give the class a node that would let them replace their ranged weapon w/ a second Melee weapon, but I would honestly just rather firearms actually be worthwhile, even if they are never are strong enough to be my primary weapon. Similarly, I’ve heard suggestions to give the class a node similar to Arbites’ “Concussive” node, to make Weakspot hits count as Backstabs/Flanking Shots, but that would create a situation where the 5-6 Backstab nodes need one specific node to be worthwhile, which feels cheap.
I can say that what I personally would like is for “Shield of Contempt” to be an active ability. Something like “While Blocking, 60% Damage Reduction is divided between you and allies in coherency…”
When you are in Coherency with you entire team it would only be a total of 15% Damage Reduction, missing one player and it jumps to 20% for every player, so on, so forth. An effect like this would still probably need a cooldown, but this would actually give you control of the ability in a transformative and trackable way, and it even maintains/improves its value as you lose team member on in build where you’re typically outside of coherency w/ you allies.
Similarly, “Impassable” gives you the equivalent benefit of two curios, which isn’t great, and further limits it to only on dodge, which kinda makes it a nothing ability. Blocking is the most reactive thing you can do in the game (compared to moving and dodging away from danger), and (especially at higher difficulties) the price for failing that reaction is that you’ll probably go down. Tying big benefits to Perfect Blocks makes sense but unless you make imperfect blocking more valuable then the Cost/Risk analysis of going for Perfect Blocks will always be skewed towards forgoing it to have the assured safety of a dodge.
I want that “25% Block Cost Reduction” it came with to always be active instead of only on dodges, and I think it be useful if you tied a similar Dodge Refresh mechanic to losing Stamina Bars while Blocking. Perhaps a percentage of stamina lost going to reducing your dodge cooldown refreshment.
Then you would actually have a node that rewarded relying on blocking and parrying (because this node does trigger on perfect parries).
Likewise, I’d like “The Master’s Retribution” to be buffed in a couple of way. Namely, so that it will trigger if it comes off cooldown and a dog is on you, and that it also Knocksback all enemies within a meter of you. Finally, I’d like it to also trigger when you perfect block an attack so that you have a way to open up enemies like Bulwarks. I think that if you made these changes to “The Master’s Retribution”, “Impassable”, and “Shield of Contempt” you wouldn’t even need to modify “Retaliatory Defense”. Right now, the node is weak because you aren’t getting Block Broken that often, in large part because most players aren’t blocking enough to consistently be Block Broken like that. The node would actually be great if you had more of a reason to hold your block.
Which leaves the issues w/ “Inexorable Judgment” and “Shroudfield”. Judgment has obvious problems with the consistency and power of its bonuses, but the problems with “Shroudfield” are harder to define. Both on paper and in practice, the bonuses that the player receives from “Shroudfield” are good. But the issue w/ the ability is that it’s the second single target ability, and unlike “Fury of the Faithful”, which can be used to stun enemies attacking you or allies and has great up time, “Shroudfield” dumps all your agro onto your team, has no capacity to CC enemies, and is down for a long enough time that you have to be extremely selective w/ how you use it.
[======================== Explanatory Tangent Relocated ========================]
If “Inexorable Judgment” doesn’t do enough to reinforce Build Identity, then “Shroudfield” does too much to enforce a build identity when really it should just be a tool that helps you turn the proverbial (Dark)tide of enemies. And worse, it exacerbates Zealot’s weakness regarding Crowd Control. But I do think there’s a way to address the problems surrounding “Inexorable Judgment” and “Shroudfield”, as well as addressing the lose thread of Zealot’s utter lack of impactful Firearm Enhancement Nodes, and it takes inspiration from the node “Behind the Lines”. “Behind the Lines” is a Zealot CC Node that, in honesty, is bad. Suppressing enemies in an 8m range is most useful against Dedicated Range enemies, of which there is only 5 of in the entire game: Basic Dreg Shooter, Basic Scab Shooter, Dreg Gunner, Scab Gunner, and Reapers. Every other enemy in the game will barely be affected by this because they are either melee centric or 8m is nearing the range where an enemy will switch from their firearms to melee.
“Behind the Lines” would be far more useful if it Stumbled or Staggered enemies instead of Suppressing them, even if this activated within a smaller AoE, and the effect would better reflect the fear tactics/sheer terror of facing a Death Cultist. If you’ve played Rogue Trader and made use of the character Kibellah, then you know that this fear angle is one of the many paths you can build her for. And this is the exact direction I’d like “Inexorable Judgment” to move towards. It could have a trigger somewhat similar to “Blazing Piety”. Perhaps something like “Whenever you or allies in Coherency make a Weakspot, Backstab, or Flanking Shot kill, gain a stack of ‘Judgment’. At X Stacks gain…”
When you reach the prerequisite number of Weakspot, Backstab, or Flanking Shot kills, you could become “Inexorable” for a limited amount of time, gaining 20% Movement Speed, Melee Attack Speed, Range Attack Speed, Backstab Damage, Flanking Shot Damage, Finesse, and Melee Rending in addition to enemies within X meters of you fleeing from you. Just like how “Blazing Piety” increasing you Crit Chance facilitates you to kill more enemies, which in turn facilitates keeping “Blazing Piety” active for longer, this specific addition of a CC effect would allow the Keystone to feed of itself, would make all 5 - 6 Backstab centric talent nodes far more consistent of a bonus for you to make use of, and give the Zealot transformative CC potential, as enemies running from you are also running away from you allies.
Which leaves at last my suggestion for “Shroudfield”, which also happens to be my suggestion on how to make Firearms matter on the Zealot Class w/out making them too consistent of a force. You may have noticed that half of the bonuses in my suggested change for “Inexorable Judgment” actually come from*“Shroudfield”*; namely, the Movement Speed, Backstab Damage, Flanking Shot Damage, Finesse, and Melee Rending bonuses (because despite not explicitly saying so, “Shroudfield” does apply the Backstab Damage Bonus to ranged attacks as well). And you may have also noticed that I didn’t include the flat damage bonus in my suggested change to “Inexorable Judgment”. What I’d personally like to suggest is replacing “Shroudfield” as an ability with something like "Every Bullet a Prayer: Automatically Equip your Ranged Weapon and gain 5 Stacks of Momentum. Lose 1 Stack of Momentum every second. While you have Momentum you gain 50% Ranged Strength, Rending, and Critical Chance and you automaticall block and knock back enemies in a 1m Radius on melee hit, losing 1 Stack of Momentum."
I honestly think you could have an additional node that gave the ability some CC utility, like "Censor Not the Sermon: For every 10% of ammo spent while having at least 1 stack of Momentum, gain a Stack of Censor. Once all stacks of Momentum are cleared, enemies within 6m of you will attack only you for 15s."
This would allow the ability to act almost like a mini, weaker Ogryn Taunt if you spec into it, which in turn provides the Zealot w/ a greater capacity to CC and support their allies. This replacement ability overall increases the effectiveness of Firearms without making them overbearing and too consistent of a threat for the class that is supposed to have a melee focus. It even makes the node “Out of Pocket” significantly more useful (as currently it serves very little function). Remember, Weapon Strength constitutes Impact, Cleave, and Damage, so a 50% Ranged Strength Bonus is really a 50% Strength Bonus to Range Impact, Cleave, and Damage. And if this ability is used well, you have that bonus for a minimum of 5 seconds, though sloppy use will cause you to get very little impact from the ability at all.
Again, I’m not going to pretend to know what Fatshark is planning to do with the Zealot Class, but right now the class overall has the low power and utility, and most of both are concentrated in ways that are antithetical or anti-synergetic to how the class wants to play and/or the rest of your team. I don’t assume my suggestions to be perfect, but I believe the suggested changes to “The Master’s Retribution”, “Impassable”, and “Shield of Contempt” would better incentive and focus the use of Blocking as a playstyle archetype for the zealot class, while also elevating the use of “Retaliatory Defense”. Meanwhile, the changes to “Behind the Lines” and “Inexorable Judgment”, as well as the replacement of “Shroudfield” w/ a firearm focused Ability would raise “Inexorable Judgment” to the level of the other two keystones, focus the rightmost side of the tree around fear tactics, increase the consistency and effectiveness of the nodes *“Backstabber”, “Out of Pocket”, “Unseen Blade”, “Pious Cut-Throat”, “Time to Kill”, and “Behind the Lines”, and actually make firearms useful tools for the class without putting too much focus on them. There are other things that could be changed in addition or in the stead of these suggested changes, but this really is just meant to be my perspective. Thank you for reading, and as always, may your missions always end in glory, pilgrims.
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Explanatory Tangent ==========================]
We don’t necessarily know what the internal design outlines of Class Trees are for Fatshark, but as designer looking from the outside in, I can share my own general sense of how Blitz, Auras, Abilites, and Keystones are designed:
- Blitz are representative of a spike in a specific form of power that the class typically lacks.
Example: The Zealot class has limited tools for Crowd Control, Crowd Clear, and Precession Range Execution. “Stunstorm” gives powerful Crowd Control w/out having to rely on the book. “Immolation Grenades” give the Zealot greater Crowd Clear capacity, without having to rely on weapons like the Relic Blade or Eviscerator, and “Blades of Faith” give the class a Precision Ranged tool without having to use the Stub Revolver or Bolt Pistol.
- Auras are bonuses that help refine builds on a class while also providing passive bonuses to the rest of the team that helps them keep up with the utility of your chosen build.
Example: The Ogryn class, based on its Keystones, has a focus in Melee Attacking, Damage Mitigation and Tanking, and Ranged Bombardment. “Bonebreakers Aura” improves the Ogryns melee potential directly while increasing it for teammates as well. “Stay Close” enhances survivability for everyone, which makes the Ogryn more effective at tanking overall. And “Coward Culling” directly increases suppression dealt, which is an effect primarily generated from shooting your gun, as well as increasing damage to suppressed enemies, which would benefit anyone shooting.
- Abilities are representative of a specific focus that is your primary means of shifting an encounter in the favor of your team.
Example: The Psyker has access to the “Venting Shriek” ability, which gives the class the ability to instantly make space and clear peril, and can even be made into a tool of aggression. “Telekine Shield” lets the player block off paths of ranged aggression, and it can be spec’ed to also physical block off paths or increase it’s area of defense to 360 degrees of coverage. And “Scrier’s Gaze” turns a lot of Critical Chance abilities into effective guarentees.
- Keystones are refinements of a builds playstyle. They representative of your moment to moment gameplay and how your build will approach solving problems as a whole, providing incentives to encourage (not force) the player to take up specific roles in the team.
Example: Arbites Keystones give the class a specific role of focus and bonuses to acting within those roles. “Execution Order” incentives focusing the players attention on specialist, elites, and monstrosities. “Terminus Warrant” is the classes weakest option, but still incentivizes mixed weapon usageand smooth transitions between taking the frontline or pulling back and clearing enemies with a hail of fire. And “Forceful” gives the Arbites immense survivability and crowd control, encouraging the class to act as the vanguard of the team and hold the line during heavy horde encounters or large groups of Elites.
I don’t think these description is perfect, but I bet that if you look at the weakest options in each class, those options would probably fail to meet the expectations laid out by these descriptions (Zealot IJ Keystone, Veteran Low Profile Ability, Psyker Kinetic Presence Aura, Ogryn Frag Bomb, etc…). Inexorable Judgment is a weak Keystone because it does not refine or incentivize any specific style of play, and the bonus it gives isn’t even consistent enough to effect your moment to moment gameplay. In fact, two of its three additional modifying nodes only exist to make the ability more consistent in power and up time.
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Explanatory Tangent ==========================]
[============================= TL;DR Section =============================]
Make “Shield of Contempt” an active ability instead of a passive one and tie it directly to the act of blocking. Additionally, buff “The Master’s Retribution” and “Impassable” and allow both to trigger off of Blocks to better improve the viability of blocking as a whole. As a natural side effect of Blocking being more viable, the utility of “Retaliatory Defense” will also increase w/out needing to change anything. Furthermore, reduce and relocate the the Movement Speed, Backstab Damage, Flanking Shot Damage, Finesse, and Melee Rending bonuses of “Shroudfield” to “Inexorable Judgment” while removing the Keystone’s current flat damage bonus. This would orient the keystone around a playstyle that incentivizes Backstabs and Flanking Shots, and the addition of a CC Fear effect would actually improve the consistency of players ability to target those areas. A trigger a Empowered State similar to “Blazing Piety” will make the Keystone far more consistent and powerful. Replace “Shroudfield” with a firearm focused Ability. Relocate and Increase the Flat Damage Bonus from “Inexorable Judgment” to this new Firearm Focused Ability. Hold over and slightly reduce the Rending and Critical Bonuses from “Shroudfield” but orient them around Ranged Attacks. This new Firearm Focused Ability would improve the efficacy of Firearms without directly improving their power in a consistent way, ensuring that the class maintains a focus on melee combat. This replacement ability could have it’s own CC node option to give the Zealot class greater overall support utility for their team.
(Edits: No Changes in Arguments, just in Formating)
. Both backstab nodes for captain/Boss nukes and you make a solid point for the stamina/block skills.
