Are you supposed to run low HP? I’ve seen a few people do it.
Damage goes through Toughness though, so it doesn’t make sense.
Have I been no sound noob trapped?
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I just let my health drop to around where holy revenant maxes out and go from there.
You should be able to stay safe from bleed through long enough to get you comfortably between until death procs, assuming you proc it at all
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So you don’t really need to stack wounds (not every curio)?
oh I stack wounds so I get as much mileage out of martyrdom as I can but I just accept I’ll be hovering around 25% health as a safety buffer, I’m sure a numbers monkey knows the most optimal way to do it but the way I have it set up works for me just fine in pretty much all content
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Bleed for the Emperor and Restoring Faith can make Martyrdom downright tanky. At the cost of some tax nodes.
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Two ways:
Purposely drop to low wounds to take advantage of the buffs, then just block/evade/stagger to avoid damage. Abuse Until Death+Unholy Revenant to stay alive.
Play like normal and let damage accumulate.
Martyrdom gives 8% damage per missing wound (up to 48% damage) so you need to have at least 3-4+ missing wounds and take the attack speed subnode to match Inexorable Judgement. More if count the mandatory 5% melee damage node and Sustained Assault talent when pathing to IJ.
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Yes. Martyrdom is easily Zealot’s worst keystone (and probably the worst in the entire game) and don’t trust anyone who says it’s good, because they’re stupid.
The issue with Martyrdom is that you’re at maximum power when you’re in one shot territory. You can basically only afford to take one hit every 120 seconds lest you go down and have to start over. Vermintide 2’s Zealot does not have this problem, because temporary health exists. Toughness is a worse form of THP when it comes to melee combat, so naturally Martyrdom is weaker.
If you want more damage and attack speed, try Inexorable Judgement instead. The nodes above it are better anyways - CDR on backstab, for example. You’ll also get to practice your dodging, because of Inebriate’s Poise.
Sure, you can play Martyrdom as more of a backup plan and try to stay at high health anyways, but then you’re essentially playing with a gimped version of a keystone, or no keystone at all, and that’s weird and lame.
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Get really good at not taking damage, keep your toughness topped off with ability (fury of the faithful) and a decent toughness regen like 2nd wind and / or blood redemption.
Your damage goes way high but you risk everything… especially if noob.
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This is me lol.
I ran it for a long time because:
- You get stronger as you take more damage – the IAS in particular is huge especially on big weapons and will help you survive longer
- If you die you get up on almost full HP
- I like the vibe (big Saltzpyre VT2 fangirl)
However I find that the CDR you get from the other paths is too good to pass up. Spamming your ability is simply better than the benefits you get from wound stacking.
It’s unfortunate since I really like Martyrdom, but it’s definitely not the best unless you find yourself going down a lot. People are gonna say “well don’t die” but that’s a little out of touch imo.
That said, I’ll happily answer your original question since Martyrdom is still fun and viable!
How do you play high Wounds Zealot?
Basically, as a tanky melee-focused heavy weapons user. I don’t artificially take damage just for the stats, because imo the great appeal of the build is your resilience. You can take a lot of damage and get downed repeatedly and spring back up without issue – 2 wounds can be scary if you haven’t mastered the art of staying alive!
I’m partial to a heavy weapons to make the most out of the increased attack speed (IAS) from wound loss (make sure to max out your wounds via curios and the +2 perk). In my mind the IAS is the most important stat because it will not only increase your DPS but also your survivability through increased stagger and weapon responsiveness (again, heavy weapon bias).
Here’s a sample talent tree as a rough guide. Particularly the top third of the tree, since you can go down any branch you want – I have Bleed for the Emperor here because it’s a good option for tanking large hits like Crusher/Mauler overheads, Poxbursters, etc if you are copping those. Thy Wrath Be Swift on the right feels great on heavy weapons. For aura you can consider Beacon of Purity via Shield of Contempt instead – Holy Revenant has great synergy but I don’t consider it essential. It’s great though.
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Just take Scourge+IoD and force stacks by using Fury. Even on the TH it gives noticable additional cooldown.
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Don’t take damage. Also until death helps, but it is still not noob friendly build, but it is very strong, zealot already makes any melee weapon better, than it is on other classes(mostly veteran), so imagine what 30%+ damage and speed do to these weapons, like for example:
chain sword, swings so fast, that animation barely able to play
eviscerator mk 15, gets rid of it’s biggest problem, which is swing speed
relic blade just becomes faster and more damaging and list can go on.
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Thx all. I’ll try with AS stuff. I was playing Relic Blade and even did a Double Barrel - Emperor’s Bullet build for the meme (did insane damage, but a bit too short a duration and specialises your build too much).
I’ll try something with more AS, but yeah, it looks like the other choices are better.
I’m used to face tanking as Vermintide Zealot to increase CDR, but you can’t do it here. 
- Not enough high density melee situations (things just get deleted)
- You take damage through Toughness
- A random Gunner or Infantry with a gun out can F you
The CDR on damage talent only procs on HP damage. So it’s even worse than you think. It does have some niche uses, namely in high havocs where you’re all but garunteed to take damage.
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Yeah, I wasn’t using it because of downtime anyway, but was more referencing VT2 Zealot playstyle, where you want to take as much damage as possible during 90% of situations. In Darktide that just bursts you down due to HP damage.
there is not a single weapon in the game that needs punishment more than duelist
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this is for slower weapons IE thammer heavysword etc
this is for faster weapons ie rashad knife taxe ds4 etc
find the relevant breakpoints for your weapon generally i find most things get going at ~4 or more wounds play organically or hurt yourself if you are brave.
if you have holy rev up dont heal if you dont have holy rev up and have less than 2 wounds heal OR if you have more than 4 wounds of corruption also heal
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Skillissue dayo 
Worst Keystone? I wouldnt’t recommend it on Havoc, but in Auric/Maelstrom it is completly fine. You are very tanky, have an insane attack speed and do a lot of dmg, don’t know if we play the same game tbh
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Uhhh? What? Martydom is actually pretty good. I’ve gotten through 40s using martydom on Thammer doing very high single target damage against bosses. Gold toughness from a vet or another zealot can easily negate the downside of martydom along with just playing more carefully. It’s really just “don’t get hit”, which if you’re playing with a decent team whom can actually control space- martydom can be really powerful and just mog judgement.
The actual worse keystone is either between EP or marksman.
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Set it to low hp and play the rest as usual,havoc or auric, it’s no different.
Thanks to I Shall Not Fall, the toughness is so hard that even low helth is as sturdy as other keystones.
Easier to defeat enemies and ensure safety.
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oh i am in this video
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