is there a reason to run zealot at low health like how you would run in vermintide. idk if I’m missing something, but only having 15% (30% with talent) doesn’t seem worth the risk, especially with chip damage
in vermintide you had 3 talents where that made your stacks stronger with dr speed and healing
however in darktide outside the base damage increase the only thing you can do is give it 3 more stacks, but in the same tree you have 20% damage with the 4% on hit so why would you sacrifice more for less damage
overall I think zealot is a fun class with a descent balance, however in comparison to vermintide it feels closer to elf than the actually namesake of the class
The only reason I can think of to willingly run a below 50% health zealot to get more attack speed is in conjunction with ‘Holy Revenant’ (When Until Death ends, you gain health based on the damage you dealt during Until Death. Melee damage dealt heals for twice the amount.)
I haven’t tried it ; I don’t especially want to rely on ‘Until Death’ on higher difficulties. Besides, corruption is still a thing with exploders and Poxwalkers.
When I play Zealot I don’t try and get myself to lower HP, but I also don’t rush to top off. I do clear corruption if that starts to build up though. It’s not worth the risk of running at super low HP with the potential for sudden chip damage, even if you can avoid most incoming hits. You never know what’s going to get through or break your stride causing you to lose your 75% damage reduction.
It’s more or less a leftover from Zealot being a straight copypasta from VT2, where bleedthrough wasn’t a thing. If you’re super good at not getting hit, you can rely on extra attack speed (which is even higher if you trigger death) and gain huge amounts of health. I think for most people it’s not the ideal way to Zealot though, but there’s certainly no need to rush to top off your health.
Yes and no. You could build for attack speed when low hp, temporary team buffs on losing health and health regen when your ulti triggers, sure. However, with no temp hp, low hp plays don’t seem to be as beneficial.