I would like to make the case for Block-Based Talents on the Zealot Class. If the Zealots whole thing is supposed to be Melee Superiority, then they should get the most value out of every mechanic surrounding melee. Dodging, Backstabs, and yes, blocking. One of the units of the Ecclesiarchy that I believe Zealots to be inspired by is the Drill Abbot (who are the primary instructors of the Schola Progenium (while I don’t think we’re at that level, the class has several Backgrounds that tie us to the Progenium or higher martial training in general).
Blocking is an example of Mechanical Expression, and it’s tied directly two Shoving and Push Attacks, since you need to block in order to do either of the other two. And those skills are valuable on the Class. Nodes like “Retaliatory Defense” and “Punish Impiety” give great value for doing those actions.
This goes right back to Blocking to me. The Relic Blade, Eviscerator, Chain Axe, Crusher, Heavy Sword, and even Thunder Hammer all have great Shove Attacks that are great to loop into any combo. I’m sure when you complain about the Class not having strong bonuses 2-Handed Weapons you’re thinking of specific bonuses for those weapons. Except, Fatshark tried that, and we got “Unfaltering”, a skill that gives a prescriptive bonus that isn’t reflective of how any skilled player actually uses Heavy Weapons on the class. If anything, it only made light weapons even better. Bonuses to blocking though are descriptive, because you are going to block. If for no other reason than the fact that those heavy weapons have great shove attacks. So making blocking better isn’t a matter of taking away Zealot’s capacity to aggress. It’s facilitating it.
Think about what Bonuses you get from the Blocking nodes. “Impassable” gives you back your dodges, which so many of the class’s bonuses are tied to, and “Retaliatory Defense” gives you back a ton of stamina, which is perfect for Shove Attacks. One of the biggest weaknesses of those 2-Handed Heavy Weapons on the class is that they have significantly worse Dodge Efficacy. From my testing, all of those Block Related Talents also trigger on Parries. On a Perfect Parry, “Impassable” will give you three dodges back. Attack Speed is fantastic for slower weapons, and “Punish Impiety” specifically gives you that bonus on Push Follow-up Attacks. So there are already a lot of things that will lead you to blocking anyway. The desire for blocking isn’t to make the act of hunkering down better. As you rightfully pointed out, that’s Arbites and Ogryn’s job. But there is a difference in Mechanical Expression and Mechanics. The Mechanical Expression is the active action you are taking, the Input you are doing to trigger the Mechanics. The Mechanics are the Bonuses you get for engaging w/ the input. For Zealot, we have nodes that are tied to the input of blocking, but that give bonuses to aggression and dodging. The problem w/ Zealots Block-Based Nodes is that they don’t give enough value to just the act of blocking itself, and put too much value in Perfect Blocks and Parries. And that’s a problem because the class doesn’t care about perfect blocks so much as it cares about bashing out block to get a thrust attack. But if Blocking was better at base, if the bonuses that FS has tied to the input of blocking were better, then Heavy Weapons gain the most.
