After getting a Skullbreaker to 26 (more like ‘Friendly Head-Patter’ with it’s pathetic melee damage and weapons) I swapped to Veteran and feel no less squishy than I did before. Sure I don’t have nearly 400 health with curios, but if I get hit I can just regen whatever toughness I’ve lost by sweeping an entire group of enemies with a power sword.
The biggest problem I hear from my friends and see on the forums with Zealot is the chip damage and their special being interrupted. An increase to toughness for Zealot to 200 would actually make getting to lower health thresholds more difficult I think, but I don’t play the class and couldn’t tell you how it feels actually playing at higher difficulties.