Zealot Chorus/Stagger Builds Don't Feel Like They Support the Team (in quickplay)

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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My selfish zealot shroudfield knife build seems to be a better support than the actual support options. I use the build in quickplay, and it feels like I mostly get good teams, and I win most games without any issue. Other weapons are good too, I just mostly use the knife.

I honestly like support builds in games, so I try to go back to the crusher to stagger enemies and attempt to use Chorus to support my team, but suddenly I get into a match and my entire team is highly regarded and literally can’t kill anything.

Sure, Chorus is nice to help your team, but when you need to use it, during the time where everyone is invincible, nobody even attacks the enemies. So, Chorus ends and we’re in exactly the same situation again - except worse. Plus, when my team is pretty good, it feels unnecessary to use Chorus. I’ll be holding Chorus wondering if I should use it because I don’t want to waste it in case we need it. Except we never need it, and I just randomly use it throughout the match because the voice line is cool, and the funny relic goes brrrr.

It just seems having a higher DPS is more supporting to your team than staggering everything and giving everyone toughness with Chorus. If I could actually kill the enemies, then we wouldn’t be in this mess lmao. But yeah, I really don’t see the point in bringing a weapon meant to stagger enemies either, especially in maelstrom there are enemies that you simply cannot stagger, I guess I’ll just run away? I’d rather just shoot the green rager in the head with a revolver than use chorus or charge up my crusher and maybe stun it temporarily with all of the other enemies in the way.

Yes, I know the optimal combos to use with the crusher for single target and multiple enemies. It simply doesn’t kill things fast enough, and then I have to depend on my quickplay team, which may or may not be highly regarded. In general, relying on quickplay teammates is always going to be a mixed bag, but using a support build based around stagger and protecting your teammates just seems to make the game more frustrating than it needs to be.

I just wish there were ways to support my team as a zealot, that are more impactful and fun. Saltzpyre’s warrior priest forcefield for example, is really fun to use. You can save your teammate from taking a lot of damage if you pay attention and predict what’s about to happen. Plus, you can heal your teammates by killing everything with smite. I’m not saying any of these things need to be in Darktide, but in my opinion, Chorus is very boring compared to the other options and is less effective than killing everything with the other combat abilities.

Whenever I use Chorus, zealot literally feels Gimped. A lot of this comes from the talents I have to not take in order to get Chorus and still have points left over for a keystone. But not having Shroudfield or Fury to kill enemies makes it feel even worse.

So yeah, basically I think Chorus and stagger weapons are mostly ineffective in high difficulties (in quickplay), and it feels boring to just press F and stun everything. When you have a good team, you don’t need it. When your team is actually regarded and needs the support, Chorus still doesn’t help them, and they somehow die anyway. It shouldn’t be better to bring a flexible DPS build to support your team instead of a dedicated support build, but that’s how it is. I really just wish there a more fun and effective way to support my team as a zealot.

Also please don’t say that in a coordinated team, stagger builds and Chorus are actually really good, I know. That’s why I specified “in quickplay”. Sure, I could just leave the match when I have a bad team, but I don’t think someone should have to rejoin into a different lobby just to have a chance to support their teammates. If they’re bad, I should be able to support them.

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I think the issue is Chorus so much as doubling down too much on stagger by taking Chorus and a high stagger weapon like the crusher. The other take is that high stagger weapons in general are just BAD to begin with, regardless of what talent you take.

Chorus can be great for giving your team AND YOURSELF an opening to kill packs of tough enemies like ragers or crushers. Take a higher DPS set of weapons and try that with Chorus.

This all said, id personally take Fury or Shroud over Chorus most of time because I enjoy those more.

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I agree that doubling down on the stagger is what breaks everything. It really does just boil down to Chorus being boring, since I want to bring weapons to stagger enemies in between the minute that I can’t help my team at all besides killing enemies.

Zealot Chorus doesn’t feel like a supporting build, unlike all of the other classes which definitely have a talent tree you can take to help your team out. It would help if stagger was more effective in general.

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chorus can be useful also if brought to certain maps where there are certain spots where you can ledge bosses (not bon) down off a cliff, which feels satisfying and can change/save a game.

honestly crusher feels nice with dash ult anyway. chorus is just a different type of playstyle

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Chorus needs the cool down reduction from crits. With that it becomes spammy and nearl as obnoxious as smite plus golden toughness.
PS: you can use crit keystone with every weapon

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yes, it’s nice

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I do know about the crit and backstabs being able to recharge the combat ability. It can help if your team actually takes advantage of being invincible. I don’t like to have to rely on my team for my ability to have any effect, and all of the other classes have that option. Plus chorus is boring as hell.

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I don’t use chorus… but I don’t use also shroudfield.
I use fury the faithful in close to 90% of my builds. For me the zealot has to move fast to its next victim (target?).

But I think you’re condemning this ability a little too much.
You don’t have to wait that things turn bad to activate chorus. The cooldown is enough short and you should use it proactively.
The effect lasts not a lot of time, so sure, a lot of the enemies are not killed. However, you get a nice bonus at the end. Toughness and eventually damages. That’s even better than voc on this.

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i personally use chorus whenever someone is doing a minigame / carrying a power cell
that’s imo where chorus is meant to be used, along using when someone is downed. (even if people don’t res while you are using chorus, the fact it gives extra golden toughness it is massive because once you finish the chorus animation, you will have plenty toughness where you can revive the person. while without it, it is possible to struggle due to enemies breaking toughness and make you cancel the revive)

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I don’t agree that it’s better than voice of command. When you use voice of command, you can keep shooting and doing damage as enemies are knocked down and stunned for several seconds, meaning you can actually do something if your team is in a bad position and can’t realistically fight back.

With chorus, you are stuck with the relic in your hand, if you drop it, the enemies will attack you. If you keep holding it, you can’t do anything except be passive.

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Anyways, and that’s really boring… you should always go for critical on zealot… until Fatshark realizes that a second cdr node not on critical would be a good idea (martyr’s purpose should be changed).
But as a result, I rarely use the left and middle top part… and I get close to all my builds relying on critical hits just cause of the CDR nodes that change everything on zealot.

And no… pious pious cut throat is not great… except with tact axe and daggers.

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As cool and unique chorus is animation and vibe wise.
Its just as useless.
If you were able to fight normally during it, it would be an actual choice for ulti.
As it is now, it needs to go back to its original version where it perma pushed even bosses.
But in reality, if it should stay this way, it needs to stack brittleness.

Only thing why chorus is somewhat good is yellow toughness. But thats the problem of yellowtoughness not chorus

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what are daggers btw, you mean the combat blades? they are called like that

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yes sorry… combat blades…
They obviously look like daggers.

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Turning chorus into a dropable ability like the psyker dome would instantly make it more relevant. At that point you could even nix the yellow toughness and it would still be a decent ability. Alternatively, at the very least you should be able to resurrect/assist other players while channeling. Also stop making chorus require two points when literally every other ability in the game only requires spending one (with more being optional).

As it is, chorus can buy your team some time to dish out some dps, which does help on occasion, but isn’t really enough to justify bringing it - though admittedly part of the problem is also that FotF just provides too many bonuses and competing with all that is hard to begin with.

I also think we could talk about reducing the cooldown for chorus, because 60 seconds is just terrible for what it offers. But this is assuming that cooldown reduction talents receive a healthy nerf first.

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You can spam using it…

When I see someone using right, it is someone that use it proactively.
When it is badly used, it is when a player reserve it when things have gone bad… too late… someone is on the floor, you should have used your ult before that!

Not needed… except if you want to be able to walk from the beginning to the start with a relic in hand.

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what if you use it before when the player is alive, but then goes down anyway
then the res may be hard cause no chorus anymore which could come in handy if reserved.

ressing always good cause gives back all hp at least and another chance to support the team
rather than dying completely and hogtied

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Yea, I’ve been feeling the same about taking chorus with pubs ever since they added it. You either delaying the inevitable with bad players or do nothing with good ones, either way you’re taking yourself out of combat for 5 seconds and just standing there menacingly (except very few occasions when it can actually save the group). In contrast, if you take Fury, it’ll be useful every time.
Chorus needs a rework to either be place-and-forget ability or give enemies burn stacks with every tick, which kinda goes well thematically with zealot’s middle tree too

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Chorus is a really cool ability flavor-wise, but it has a lot of tax talents and I’m just not feeling the massive cooldown it has. Maybe they should just have it be one pulse that gives gold toughness by default, then you can talent into a damage boost or multiple pulses that both increase the cooldown.

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they should merge the suppression and stagger talent which is kinda a tax talent yea
the one in the middle after the ult itself.

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