I don’t think Zealot is in need of any major rework, but looking at the trend I have a strong inkling that they’ll be getting one next. They have the fewest nodes now, least flexible tree, and a lot of zealot players are switching to Ogryn. We’re seeing complaints, and suggestion threads like this one, appearing on the forums.
As such, I think it might be prudent to discuss a few problems with the current tree and see how they can be addressed, before the opportunity passes.
Over-reliance on Until Death and Holy Revenant.
This has been an issue since launch and it’s clear no amount of nerfing is going to make the combination of these two talents any less popular. I say we do a split here.
1.) Make Until Death a Passive. Reduce cooldown slightly. Make this a core part of zealot’s identity.
2.) Move Holy Revenant to Martyrdom Keystone:
and increase the cooldown back to 120s.
3.) Add Until-Death based nodes to Blazing Piety and Inexorable Judgement. Some suggestions:
The Candle That Burns: 100% crit chance for the duration of UD. UD’s Cooldown is reduced.
One Foot On The Pedal: Triggering UD gives max momentum stacks and a speed boost. The Duration of UD is increased.
There’s also debate to be had about whether martyrdom should get HR since it naturally benefits from being reduced to 1 hit point. HR could be added to the least popular keystone instead. If that is preferable, then Marty would need its own UD keystone. Here’s an OP one I think that could be on par with HR:
Death’s Doorknocker: Triggering Until Death gives you an additional stack of Martyrdom. A short time after Until Death ends you heal all non-corrupted health and have your total wounds reduced by 1 for the remainder of the match. Does not proc if you have 1 wound remaining, or less than 1 wound’s worth of missing health.
This is very powerful I’d imagine. But I think the core conceit of continued survival at the cost of current/max marty stacks provides both a boon for the lesser skilled players and incentive to Not Die for higher-skilled players. If this remains too potent, consider increasing the total wounds loss to 2 per activation, or a percentile rounded up to the nearest wound (So folks with max wounds would lose more than folks with fewer wounds.)
Its power could also be diluted by increasing the cooldown of Until Death further. If that still remains too potent, consider having additional tax nodes added to Marty or the preceding sector.
Node Swapping:
A few issues here.
This sector, especially if you accept the previous UD solution, is now a freak of nature and needs to be put down:
We’d need new nodes to replace UD and HR. And that 5% mobility tax node? That should also be its own talent. I recommend moving Hammer of Faith to this sector to balance out Zealot’s access to mid-tree stagger. Here is a selection of possible new nodes we could add to zealot.
Charity Drive: 25% more ammo (Could be placed in Hammer of Faith’s current spot.)
Flagellant: % of damage received is subtracted from your current stamina pool instead. This would also have synergy with Desperation.
Crusade: Killing an Elite or Specialist with a melee weapon gives you a movement speed bonus, duration refreshes on kill. (Replaces movement speed tax node)
Cross Bars could be added to improve flexibility.
And while on the subject of flexibility. You should have all 3 of the trees before the Blitz reconvene at a tax node before connecting to the Blitz. This would put it on par with the other 3 operators.
Although do note, I expect the usage of stun grenades to go down as a result. They would likely need a boost to compensate. I recommend something like “Stunned enemies take more damage” or increasing the stun duration. And consider having them explode on impact.
Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude
I like Chorus, And unlike VoC I actually see a lot of zealots running all three CAs. But the biggest issue I see with it is that it can be a bit boring waiting for all your pulses to finish. There’s also something to be said about Gold Toughness being a bit overtuned but I’m not qualified to speculate on how to fix that. Also, why does it have a tax node? If it’s too powerful the power should be reduced and the tax node removed. Or at least give us a choice between two exclusionary tax nodes.
Solution 1: Consider making Chorus 3 good pulses, collapsing the power of the extended pulses and Banishing Light into them(max range/suppression on first pulse, bosses stagger on all 3 pulses, increased healing).
Solution 2: Consider making the relic a banner that gives its pulses in an AOE around it. Allowing zealots to attack freely at the cost of reduced mobility (requiring allies to “Rally Around” instead of moving the buff to them).
Alternate tax node for Banishing Light could be:
Enveloping Light: You and your allies affected by Chorus now glow, emitting considerable light around them. They no longer consume stamina and gain a slight movement speed increase for a set duration. Each pulse refreshes the duration.
The gist being you choose between hard CC or a better support buff for your allies. I imagine most would still chose the former, but having an actual choice here would still be a boon.
New Nodes and Nitpicks
I don’t think we really need too many new nodes. But if FS disagrees, here’s a few areas where new nodes could be added.
This always bothered me:
I imagine this is a likely spot for branches to go:
I myself would prefer fewer nodes:
But this would result in a spare point if you do a cross. So there’s consequences to consider.
You can have the same down here, but wtih fewer consequences:
And of course, more nodes in the keystones could be interesting, especially if they’re exclusionary choices.
Nitpicks:
These are more personal grievances than actual problems.
Fortitude in Fellowship should have the +50% increased coherency radius buff, and all the other +50% increased coherency radius nodes on other operators should have +50% increased coherency regen as well. This is a common solution I’ve seen to address these nodes being real Auric Storm Survivors if you catch my drift.
We need more nodes that work with Perfect Blocks. Consider adding this to some/all of the non-stacking “On Successful Dodge” nodes as an additional trigger parameter. I don’t think this would be enough to encourage folks to practice their Perfect Blocks, but it does allow folks who already go for Perfect Blocks to not be punished for it.
Talents that reward Perfect Block specifically could also be introduced, and placed on the left-ish side of the tree. Some possible examples:
Demoralizer: Performing a Perfect Block causes nearby enemies to be staggered, enemies staggered this way take more damage for a short amount of time. This ability has a short cooldown.
Fools Guard: Performing a Perfect Block increases the damage of your next melee attack, and the duration and speed of your next dodge.
Ignore and Abhor: Performing a Perfect Block increases weapon switch speed and boosts ranged damage for a short duration.
The Blood Must Flow: Performing a Perfect Block imparts bleed stacks on nearby enemies.
Lastly, consider swapping Dance of Death with Unremitting. This would further reinforce the “Identities” of the three sectors. Also consider making “Shield of Contempt” the tax talent and moving The Emperor’s Bullet above Sainted Gunslinger:
