Playing zealot feels terrible right now

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
21

Well, i disagree.

For ranged you have flamer which is just as op as purgatus.

All melee builds are viable and you can true solo histgs with all melee builds. I’m not really sure why you say it’s not as strong as ogryn/arb. Because of no infinite cc?

Uptime of important buffs will be lower on average when using the uptime mod as proof without putting any thinking into it, but if you analyse gameplay recording you will see that all important stuff has very high uptime in an actual melee combat.

Are your allies making auric too easy for you? Play trios/duos or havoc.

22

It’s telling you don’t see the glaring issue with this statement.

23

Hold W harder, press FOTF button and you will have your targets. If you can’t outpace inferno Psyker as zealot… Skissue is right there.
Ranged spammer HS is valid complaint, but veteran can do the same, while deleting packs of Crushers/Bulwarks and Bosses with free Kraks.

24

It’s kinda funny.

Why do we have an RNG mission board? Because the game is balanced around quickplay.
Why do we have no control over which modifiers we run? Because the game is balanced around quickplay.
Why do event modifiers get removed again instead of just adding to the modifier pool? Because the game is balanced around quickplay.
Why, to an extent, do we not have preset characters anymore and dialogue suffered compared to VT2? Because the game is balanced around quickplay.
Why don’t we have an interesting lobby anymore? Because the game is balanced around quickplay.
Why aren’t bots good? Because the game is balanced around quickplay.
Why isn’t there a solo mode? Because the game is balanced around quickplay.
There’s more I’m sure. The whole game is based on quickplay.

But point out that your allies using OP/noninteractive/boring junk in quickplay ruins the game, and immediately the answer is “just dont play that then”

25

Actually inferno staff psyker in Havoc, especially with Shriek, can literally remove all the fun for you too. Stuff like inferno staff, Shriek, chem nades, Boom Bringer, Desperado are just pretty bad for balance of the game and the fun factor of those around you.

I brought Boom Bringer / chem nades to Auric (I have avoid Havoc this season, blight can go f..itself) recently, and I genuinely apologies to the people on the team. Likely those penances are fairly quick.

26

I think it’s just the nature of slower weapons in the game. If you have experienced players using fast and strong weapons like Knife, Shiv, DS, Deimos, etc. They’re going to carve through any non-havoc lobby. If you’re slower like playing Ogryn, using Power Sword, Thunder Hammer, Relic Blade, etc. it’ll be hard to keep up.

Basically I don’t think Zealot class balance is necessarily the issue, it’s more weapon and map balance.

27

This is the most based thing I’ve read on this forum

28

I mean, zealot will never be as fast as bullet. The game is being power crept every single patch and the only way to increase the challenge is to decrease our power.

If you think the only solution to ranged damage dps power creep is to power creep zealot then i don’t know what to say especially since you didn’t address other arguments at all.

29

This is exactly what I thought when I read the post. I play thunder hammer zealot mainly. Im whiffing at air a lot trying to get out my relatively slow attacks– special activation or not. In aurics I end up doing a lot of charged light attacks just to keep up. I get a surprising amount of crusher killing blows even with it’s meager damage for how fast the team can pour damage in to targets. Heavies are almost only for openers or when I’m horde managing.

30

We both agree power creep is the problem. Implementing artificial difficulty by limiting how you play is not a healthy solution.

31

Zealot is basically immortal now and has felt great since the tree rework imo.

32

Because the game is balanced around saving Fatshark AWS pennies.

33

No one ever said it was a healthy solution but it will remain the only solution forever. Back before Havoc, I got really good at true soloing monstrous maelstroms just because I was so sick of playing with psykers in hi shock.

34

I find the zealot is still pretty good at clutching, but I do hate having to think “my class is so good at everyone else being dead”. I don’t want to hijack this thread but I’ll share some ideas I’ve had on making the zealot a little better.

First thing I’d do is insert some synergy in to his talents that give them a bit more identity. I’d take all the talents that work around bleeding as a conditional and turn it to burning. Crits burn, hitting burning gives crit chance, damage vs burning targets, etcetera. That would give you a good reason to take flame grenade without buffing it. Plus I think it’s more thematic to set heretics on fire with your zealous faith than to bleed them. Meshes with his flame thrower better too.

Knife feels super generic even though it’s plenty strong. I’d add the ability to hold it down and make it on fire kind of like assail buffs the damage a bit. The blades are consecrated, but I always thought they should have at least some kind of subtle vfx to go with it.

I have a bunch more ideas but I don’t want to write a novel lol

35

Do people generally agree with this? I feel like purgatus is a lot stronger over the course of a full game than the flamer. Flamer needs a lot of ammo, purgatus doesn’t. I’ve seen a lot of people talking about purgatus being OP lately, but no one talking about flamer being OP. Maybe I’m just not in the loop.

I don’t think melee builds aren’t viable, but I think they’re getting overshadowed and less fun to play if they can’t project power in other ways. Basically they’re getting power-crept. And honestly yes, abundant CC is a pretty good example of something that Ogryn, Arbites, and Psyker have inherent access to that Zealot does not. It’s something else that they have to offer to a team. Another good example here is grenades - how impactful is the odd stunstorm or immolation grenade compared to regenerating Kraks or shock mines? Boom bringer or chem grenades? I don’t think stunstorms in particular are useless, but there is a real disparity in blitzes here, especially because grenades are a shared resource. I don’t want to be relegated to only throwing knives all the time.

Zealot does have a lot of TDR/DR in his talent tree that make him very survivable, so he feels strong in that sense. But it feels like he has less to do during games because he can’t project much power in other ways besides melee dps. Other classes are able to do that and more.

This overall situation is probably worse with slower weapons, which also happen to be my favorite zealot weapons to use.

I’ve never used the uptime mod. But I can really tell that I need to work harder to keep up my buffs playing as zealot compared to, say, arbites. Maybe his very short duration buffs, like good balance, need a little longer duration.

I never said this. When I play aurics I’m usually carrying pubs that aren’t ready for that difficulty. I’m simply pointing out a disparity in balance and versatility between classes.

I fully agree with you here, power creep is the main issue. In a perfect world, there would be sweeping nerfs to us and to enemies. But realistically, I don’t think this will happen. If there are nerfs, they will be minor at best. I don’t think you necessarily need to power-creep the zealot to make him feel better to play or to make him fit in better with a team, though.

36

Zealot is great fun. Charge in with big sword, hack and slash hordes. Bonk crushers. Feels great.

37

I suppose at this point I would argue that Hive Scum is now stepping on Zealot’s toes the most right now. Zealot’s best use in Havoc is taking FotF and either Bloodthirsty Evis 15 or Relic Blade in order to obliterate bosses and armor. Very relevant when rotten armor was constant. Rampage Scum does this but also gets infinite ammo needle pistol and some of the best grenades in the game.