I originally started this thread because I wanted to try and understand why some people were so adamant that sisters a battle would never make it to Darktide, and fairly early on it was established that a Sororitas related class could fit in the game with a few caveats on their power. The bigger issue it seems is that a lot of people don’t see how they would be particularly different from Zealots, and we’re largely and satisfied with the attempts of others to try and conceptualize what a Sororitas related class might actually look like. So, as someone who works in ttrpg game design, I want to throw my own hat in the ring and try to illustrate what I believe a Sororitas or Sororitas related Class (such as a Novitiate Superior) could bring to the table. (I specify Novitiate Superior because despite not being full blown sisters, they still possess power armor and the training to use a lot of what a Sororitas could. Moving forward though, for brevity, I will just refer to this theoretical class as a Sororitas instead of also specifying Novitiate.)
Two of the most important details when conceptualizing a new class is bonus and movement. What bonuses a class has access to in their skill tree and how a character moves through the game says a lot about their purpose, and movement in particular constitutes more than just a character’s Movement Speed: it’s also A measure of their mobility and evasion. I would define mobility as a character’s ability to move unimpeded and the evasion to be a character’s ability to avoid (not negate) damage. Ogryn has low Movement Speed and Evasion, but the fact that they can dodge through and knock down lesser enemies gives them high mobility. Psykers auto dodge ranged attacks on crits, which can give them high evasion.
As a Zealot main, I see zealot as a high-speed, middling mobility, low evasive class. Zealots have the best movement speed in the game with a few abilities that let them keep their speed up By ignoring stun and slowdown effects, but they don’t have any inherent evasion, and all of it comes from their ability to keep moving. And this makes sense when you consider that the Zealot has a lot of single target damage abilities and bonuses (especially surrounding backstabs/flanking shots), bonuses to impact and cleave when hitting multiple enemies, and tons of tools to recuperate health and toughness. They only have two real CC abilities, and very few bonuses to firearms. Zealot, as a class, has high speed and middling mobility to make up for limited range capabilities by getting into fights quickly, where they can hack away at chaff or duel elites.
When distinguishing between Zealots and what Sororitas could be, this is what I’m comparing Sororitas to. And from lore and tabletop I know that Sororitas are a melee and shooting army. I know that they are highly mobile. And despite being an elite unit army, they are comparatively fragile and rely on numbers and, of course, Miracles, to achieve victory. Their holy trinity of firearms is bolter’s, flavors, and melters, and their access to power armor means that they can make use of heavy variants of those weapons. All of that feels very different from zealot to me, and while I don’t want to speculate too much, that’s what I imagine FS would focus on when developing such a class. If you don’t see the vision though, I can give you my own personal speculations. In the context of Darktide all of tha sounds like a middling speed, high mobility, low evasion movement character to me. A Sororitas wants to Run and Gun/Hit and Run. Unlike a zealot, they can’t hold a position as easily. I would imagine that the gameplay of such a class could be focused on constantly moving, charging in and out of the horde to harass key targets or secure objectives before returning to the safety of cohesion.
Now, this is already running long to me and I don’t want to actually try and fill out everything here, but I do want to point out that there is a lot of inspiration you could take from various “careers” associated with Sororitas. I imagine a class like this would effectively act like a shock trooper for players. A great amount of CC with cleave and impact to clear chaff and stumble heavier targets. But to ensure the class has a weakness, they could have very limited health with middling toughness. Effectively a glass cannon that has to either kill a lot to keep their toughness topped off or ensure they’re in the safety of cohesion. Unlike how the Zealot has nodes that give extra toughness on kills, I’m imagining that Sororitas get bonus toughness Regen in cohesion and maybe even as they spend stamina running to encourage players to keep moving. If you give them something similar to how Ogryns can knock over chaff enemies, perhaps the ability to run and dodge through them but without the knock down, they can keep running even in horde encounters. Maybe a keystone inspired by Repentias could work similar to Kruber’s Grail Knight career from Vermintide 2, where you have to complete some duty, your repentance, and when you do, you gain a team wide buff. You could have a Blitz inspired by Zephyrim that gives them a jetpack assisted pounce, similar to Bardin’s Slayer Career. It could potentially even give them the ability to back track in rough engagements at higher levels. You could have an aura inspired by Hospitallers that enhance stims and medi-crates. Or a node inspired by seraphim that make it so that when they’re using pistol weapons, they do so akimbo. And to tie in Miracles, I could see them having access to an ability that lets them pick themselves up (ala Iron Will from Deep Rock Galactic) or leave a trail of wells of light similar to Zealot’s pulse when they kill certain enemies. Maybe you could even tie some particularly strong abilities to “Miracle” charges that they only get when you reach certain mission milestones or when they assist their allies, though I think that would be hard to balance. The point is, there are a lot of options at FS disposal to differentiate them.
In short, I don’t see Sororitas as being “alt zealots” but instead trading the survivability and single target damage of zealots for more CC and direct team support. While Sororitas are powerful, they are also specifically known for rallying groups of people together, and I really fancy the idea of a class that rushes forward not to kill like the Zealot but to carve their allies a path forward through horde and armor. This would be a support oriented class, but instead of being a “Healer” it’s active support that provides information and utility for the team while disrupting the enemy. Almost like a Red Mage. That is exactly what a shock trooper is in my mind. They aren’t there to kill everything. They are there to kill the right thing to keep the team moving. A Sororitas isn’t going to hold the line like Arbites or break the enemy’s line like a Zealot but push the teams line forward. Anyway, this was a long reply and all I really had left to say on the topic. I appreciate the discussion and being able to read the communities thoughts and concerns. I leave you all w/ this and to your own continued conversation. And as always, gg, and may your missions always end in glory, pilgrims.
