Preface
So first and foremost, this post does have a TL;DR. That being said, I feel that you can’t have a good understanding of why some of the choices are being made unless you also have a very clear understanding of the class. That’s what all of this extra text is; a comprehensive breakdown of the current strengths and weaknesses of the class, the fantasy the class is meant to evoke through gameplay, and what aspects of the class either facilitate or impede the class in achieving this gameplay fantasy as context to the changes. If you feel like you don’t need the context, feel free to skip the suggestions or TL;DR, but keep in mind that if something doesn’t make sense to you, it might be because you’re lacking the context to justify the change. Finally, this is actually a Reformatted Version of my Breakdown of the Zealot Class using the structure of my Veteran Breakdown. I felt that the structure used in my second post allowed me to be far more clear than in my first, and I additionally felt I could make a more elegant explanation and suggestion to my original points.
Part 1: Defining the Problem
This post is math light and mechanics heavy because it’s easier to quantify gameplay into numbers on a sheet but harder to do so, vice versa, and this post is going to be long enough without trying to. The point of these suggested reworks is to help create more engaging incentives for certain style of play, and more rewarding synergies for mixing those styles of play together. That being said, if we’re suggesting a rework, we have to be able to substantiate that there’s currently something wrong with the class. And the first step to doing that is by breaking down the class into a generally defined structure. We also want to define a shared set of terminology to convey the fantasy each branch of the tree is meant to evoke. We can get a sense of what the Veteran has a focus on for all of those definitions from the artwork for each tree of the class, and reading all the nodes of the class tree, and even from the three Personalities for the class and interactions between other classes.
In order to figure out the general structure of the Class Tree, I try to look at the Blitz, Aura, Ability, and Keystone, and assign the nodes nearest to them as being a part of that branches specific gameplay fantasy. The point of this isn’t to be perfectly accurate but instead give us a general structure to work with when we eventually reorganize node placements. In addition, the weapons that a class has available also can tell us a lot about their intended role in the game. And from our reading we can identify a couple of things about what the Zealot Class has a focus on (aside from Melee):
- Critical, Weakspot, and Backstab Damage
- Stability and Power on “Resource” Loss
- Impact, Stagger, and Dodging
- A Melee Class Weapon that w/ a focus on Massive Single Target Damage
This isn’t a lot to go off, but there’s a reason for that. When compared to the other Classes, Zealot has the least amount of Total Node Options, and while they have the third most Operative Modifiers (the little Nodes that do things like “+1 Stamina”), due to lack of total nodes, this means that 1/5 or 20% of their total Class Options is taken up by what kind of amounts to insubstantial filler.
Table Courtesy of CopperBack1
Looking at the Class Melee weapon, the Thunder Hammer Specifically tells us is that part of the Zealots identity is that single target damage, but Fatshark has previously iterated a desire to reduce it’s focus on boss killing, in part to make it more capable against hordes. And that’s good, as since the Ogryn Rework, that class has gained a greater capability in Boss Killing where they had previously far less defined. But there’s still the single target damage to contend with. That, and “Purge the Unclean”, which happens to target Unyielding enemies (Bosses and Ogryn Elites) makes me suspect that Zealots are meant to be an Elite Hunting Class, similar to Veterans. If Veterans do it at range, Zealots do it in melee. And Class Abilities like “Loner” reinforce this idea of being able to leave the safety of the team in order to go and look for those fights.
Another thing we can do to try and understand the the Zealot better is to break it down into components, or categories. If I were to break down the Zealot as I understand it from both gameplay and nodes, I would argue that the three fantasies the Zealots Class Tree is meant to Evoke would be: The Martyr (which scans to the Fanatic Personality), The Preacher ( The Judge, who’s righteous conviction feels downright western), and The Flagellator (which seems like the exact way the Agitator would fight). The Zealot’s nodes seem to be broken up into nodes that effect their sources of damage and way to amplify it, nodes that contribute to player survivability or sustain, your zeal (class action) or otherwise the way gain extra burst of damage and/or survivability, and finally, the Mission, which serve to reinforce the role that the build has with utility and ways to hone in on the specific benefits the build receives. Realistically, similar to the Veteran, the you could divide this into 5 categories instead of 4 but again, Zealot doesn’t have enough nodes to justify it. If I were to divide the Class Tree up by each Fantasy as well as the Purpose each chunk of the Class Tree is meant to serve, it might look something like so:
Remember, this isn’t meant to be accurate to how the Class Tree is actually divided. It’s just a useful visual for us. Now that we’ve have our terminology, we can go about trying to Identify potential weakness in the class, which leads us straight into the next part.
Identifying the Weakpoints
One way to get a cursory glance of a class’s Health in Darktide is to see how much build variety depends on Node options versus weapon choice. If the class is healthy, the build will inform the choice in weapon instead of the choice in weapon determining variety of play style, and theoretically, the healthier the class, the more variety in build path you’ll see at higher levels of play. We could compare all of the Veterans options at (Tier 1) Sedition, but that wouldn’t give us very useful data points. What we want to do is look at higher level play and determine the value of different options there. For this, I’ll be using Auric (Previously Damnation) as our Standard. It’s not the highest level of challenge, but it’s high enough that some patterns begin to emerge. And for Zealot, that pattern is very obvious: these 10 Node:
I challenge anyone reading this to go on Games Lantern, look up recent Zealot builds rated for Damnation or Above, and pick out 5 random builds. I am willing to bet you that a minimum of 3/5 of those builds will use about 6 out of these 10 Nodes. And it’s not hard to understand why. These are Zealot’s strongest Sustainability and Damage Manipulation Nodes, and they’re all bunched up together.
Now, I would like to be clear that the other options being comparatively weak doesn’t make them bad options. They’re just options that have a deficit of value when compared to other choices, either due to balancing or even just placement. For the Zealot, this is a bit of both. No other path offers nearly as much grouped value as the rightmost, nor are any of the other individual nodes strong enough concentrated power to warrant giving up that grouped value for any concentrated value.
Normally, this is where I would suggest we work to try and understand what purpose each node serves, what fantasy they cater to, and then try and identify what is missing from the other options to make them more competitive, using the average number of nodes for each purpose and each core fantasy to guide us along. But this is where we quickly run into the bigger of the two issues w/ the class. Aside from the Blitz, Aura, Class Ability, and Keystone each Branch of the Zealots’s Class should have 5 Damage Nodes and 5 Sustain Nodes and maybe 5 “Mission” Nodes. But just fulfilling the totals for Damage and Sustain would mean that there are only 7 Nodes left. Trying to spread that evenly between the Branches might look something like this:
This is by no means the only or most correct way of dividing the nodes (in fact, I think it’s inherently flawed because of an issue soon to be pointed out), but it is a way specifically meant to try and build a level of internal synergy within each core fantasy. The problem is that with only 7 Nodes left, if you were to try and divide these somewhat evenly between the branches, there’s just not enough here to emphasize any kind of playstyle or internal branch synergy. For comparison, the Vet is another class suffering from Build Craft Viability issues. Each of their Branches gets 3 Weapon Handling Focused Nodes, 3 Sustain Nodes, and 9 Specialization Nodes. This means that each of the Veteran’s Class Tree Branches has a total of 15 Nodes. The most the Zealot can muster per Branch is maybe 12. And while 3 Missing Nodes might not seem like a lot, therein lies the other weakness. The Zealot’s Nodes just aren’t built equally. Restoring Faith tends to get wasted on chip instead of any big hits. Fortitude in Fellowship makes the weakest form of toughness regeneration 50% stronger. Meanwhile, Until Death and Holy Revenant blow every other option out of the water.
So in addition to an organizational issue with the placement of Nodes across the Zealot’s Class Tree, we’ve also identified both a Quantity Issue with the Nodes, and a Quality issue. Zealot doesn’t have enough nodes to distinguish themselves, and not all of their nodes have a power level high enough to justify taking them over other nodes, which is all exacerbated by the organizational issues. It’s like a Vicious Cycle of an problem to have, and it makes sense why the class hasn’t seen an update since the release of the Class Tree system. This is where the fantasy of each Branch should help us. In identify the weaknesses of the class, and trying to group the purpose and fantasy of the nodes up, we can better get a sense of what each Branch is missing. The Zealot’s Branches are, again, the Martyr, the Preacher, and the Flagellator.
When offering reworks, we don’t want to just group any nodes with synergies; we want to group synergistic nodes that are going to help reinforce or incentivize a specific style of play. For instance, Beacon of Faith is effective with Martyrdom because it stops corruption chip from piling up, which allows each wound of health to be more effective.
I would argue that the major nodes are distributed like so:
Preacher:
Immolation Grenade, Benediction, and “Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude”
Martyr:
Stunstorm Grenade, Beacon of Purity, and Furry of the Faithful.
Flagellator:
Blades of Faith, Loner, and Shroudfield
You’re sure to have notice that I didn’t mention any of the Keystones, and that’s because I actually believe that the way that these Keystones implemented means that they don’t effectively serve the synergies of any Branches Playstyle. The problem w/ this is that the Zealot’s weapon synergies and each branches Playstyle is, from a mechanical level, at odds with the value you get from the Keystones. The Martyr Zealot’s slower, heavier melee weapons would benefit from Impact to help mitigate the risk of being swarmed, and have blessing that would give them extra cleave on crits. Meanwhile the Preacher and Flagellator want flat damage increases to make up for the comparatively lower base damage of Firearms and Fast Finnese focused weapons. That is, with one notable exception. The Thunder Hammer. The Thunder Hammer is still a fantastic boss killer but regardless of mark, the weapon benefits the most from flat damage increase instead of criticals. Martyrdom’s Flat bonus is way more impactful for the Weapons and Nodes the Flagellator and Preacher Zealot would want to take over those that the Martyr Zealot would. Martyr thrives off of Critical Chance and Impact, with weapons like the Eviscerator and Heavy Sword, while the Flagellator really wants damage improvement Bonus damage for Weapons like the Combat Knife and Tactical Axe. And the Preacher doesn’t have to worry about ammo conservation as much if their ammo is dealigng more damage. Weapons like the Thunder Hammer, Relic Blade, and Duelist Sword are great mixed Branch weapons, getting different benefits depending on how you run them. To be clear, it’s not as though the Eviscerator doesn’t want bonus damage, but it has natural synergies with Critical Chance and Bleed, and Impact can help keep users of the weapon safe while making comparatively slower attacks.
The problem is that the Keystones (especially Martyrdom) seem to have been balanced around trying to make the Thunder Hammer specifically usable regardless of branch the player builds into. This does make some sense; it’s the Class’s Melee weapon after all. But this makes every weapon synergy for the class weaker. Every other slower weapon has Blessings, Special Actions, Stats, or some combination thereof that benefit from critical chance. The same is true of the lighter, more finesse oriented weapons in regards to Flat % damage increases. And “Inexorable Judgment” is the worse offender. Judgment is arguably the Zealots weakest Keystone. I struggle to find any builds suggesting its use over something like Martyrdom, because the benefit you get from the latter is larger (an almost 50% Bonus compared to a 15% one), and more consistent (you lose all momentum stacks on hit and have to build them up again). “Inexorable Judgment” just doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from Martyrdom with a bonus that is just worse.
So, combined with a shared set of terminology and an understanding of what each of the the different branches are missing from their core options, we can finally move on to actually proposing how to better balance the class.
Proposing Solutions
So first of all, with any kind of solution that we propose, we want to make sure that we retain the structure of the class tree. The actual shape of the class tree is very important and helps reinforce the fantasy of the class. Take the Veteran for instance. Their tree can largely be divided into four segments where you make small, modular choices regarding your weapon handling and sustain before investing into deeper, more specialized areas of training. You know; like an actually Military Veteran. For the Zealot, their class tree emphasizes general broad put powerful choices that commit 1/5 of their points to way to amplify or alter their damage, sustain, or utility options. Are you a Death Cultist striking from the shadows and , A Crazed Preacher somehow not being hit by shots while belting a sermon and brandishing a gun with thrice blessed bullets, or a Martyr fighting unto and beyond death for the Emperor’s holy cause? I also don’t want to make excessive changes to how the majority of nodes work, or add or remove too many. This is supposed to be a rework, not a remake, and the less work Fatshark has to do to implement changes, the sooner we can enjoy them. Finally. when putting together a solution for a rework, we want to modify the existing options to either gain value in a different way, depending on if it needs to be nerfed or buffed, while also making sure that any reorganization of nodes or structure of the class tree facilitates and adequately encourages branching away from the specific class fantasy. So with all that preamble aside, what are my actual suggestions?
Well first, there’s the “easy” fix; reorganization of the nodes. Right now, too much of the Zealots power and survivability is consolidated in one path, and I believe that this shuffling of nodes would help improve the balance of the class:
Looking at this image, you may have noticed that there’s some additional pathing and blank nodes. Regarding the additional pathing, we have added some cross over, but only from the center to the outside, or vice versa. This should help give the class a little bit more variety without compromising the commitment and “Black and White, Zealous Belief” fantasy that the structure of the Class Tree feeds.
The tree is built specifically been structured to put Zealots more general options that are more generalist and useful for multiple playstyles near the top of the Class’s Different Branches, while nodes that are only really relevant to two playstyles are further down. As example, for the second set of Node clusters, the Zealot’s sustain group, “Bleed for the Emperor”, “The Voice of Terra”, and “Enemies Within, Enemies Without” all can be useful to any playstyle, but “Enduring Faith” and “Fortitude in Fellowship” are pushed a bit further down, with connected transition points, as those two nodes will be far more useful to the Martyr and the Preacher, who have to be play a lot closer to the team than the Flagellator. But again , there are a lot of Blank Nodes here (12 to be exact), and this is in regards to the “Hard” Fix: Node Balancing Quality and Quantity.
There’s no getting around this but the Zealot needs a combination of more nodes and for some of their existing nodes to be buffed. No amount of shuffling talents is going to make this better. In this restructuring, I’ve tried to put nodes associated with Impact and Recovery along the Martyrs branch, as those are the things that would be most relevant to that fantasy, while nodes that have to deal w/ guns are places along the Preacher’s branch, and finally nodes having to do with Weakspot, Backstab, and flat damage Boost are Along the Flagellator’s, as those nodes would be most relevant to branch fighting enemies by itself. And in doing so, you can immediately notice that a lot of the missing nodes are on the Flagellator’s side.
The Martyr and the Preacher might initially seem like they’re in a better place, as far much more of their Class Tree is filled out, but their problem is even with a lot of relevant features, there’s surprisingly little internal branch synergy, and aside from Until Death and Holy Revenant, there’s nothing between those two branches of the class that would really incentivize me to go down them. Impact is nice, but it’s not damage, and the Zealot lacks anything to actually turn that impact into damage (the exact thing the Thunder Hammer want and would greatly benefit from so that it doesn’t have to single handedly disrupt the Zealot’s weapon sandbox balancing). Likewise, while there are a lot of nodes related to firearms and dodging (what I suspect to be the Preacher’s main style of survivability), very few of these nodes actually make relying on your firearm a worthwhile prospect, especially at higher tier play. *“The Emperor’s Bullet” doesn’t even do anything for your actual gun, and “Ambuscade” is too situational to be a reliable source of damage. Without more powerful options to act as generalist and/or branch empowering nodes, the branches don’t generate enough of an incentive to justify internal or cross branch build.
Meanwhile, *“Duelist” and “Purge the Unclean” are the only damage modifying nodes that revolve around Weakspots. “Enemies Within…”, “Vicious Offering”, and “Blood Redemption” are the only sustain nodes that would be particularly useful to the Flagellator (as a class branch that, on paper, is meant to spend time fighting enemies asway from allies while using, especially assuming that they are using weapons like the Dueling Sword, Knife, and Tactical Axe). And “Pious Cut-Throat” is the only node that reinforces the Flagellators playstyle of an assassin, fishing for Backstabs. Without the addition of new node, the Flagellator’s Branch does not have enough mechanical variety to actual support the playstyle’s fantasy of attacking from the shadows (invis).
With that said, I don’t necessarily feel comfortable coming up w/ a bunch of “Fan Passives” in a serious suggestion. My modus operandi is to breakdown what’s there, find mechanical aspects relevant to a playstyle, and then reorganize/rebalance things to emphasize and incentivize a certain style of play. So much the organization of the tree would be dependent on what exactly any of the additional nodes did that trying to come up with a way to fill every missing link would be more like coming up w/ a new branch all together. Still, under the assumption that part of the wait in getting a Class Rework is mechanical in nature, I do want to offer up some insight while pointing out where there are certain gaps in the Zealots arsenal.
As stated before, in part to makeup for the Martyr’s general lack of real damage, and in part for the branch to actually cater to the Thunder Hammer they need something to tie all of that impact into killing potential. A real easy fix for this could be something like **" +X Strength (Damage, Impact, and Cleave) on Stunned and Staggered enemies. This would give the Zealot similar power to what “Drive Them Back” does for the Arbites. In fact, this is a synergy the class used to have 2 Years ago, when instead of Talents, we had Feats:
While the Class Tree system offers up significantly more variety on paper for the class, the weirdly missing synergies actually stops the class from being able to efficiently use all their options, which means those options aren’t as viable in higher play, assuming they’re viable at all. Truthfully, I think the class could also benefit from something that allowed their damage to scale w/ their Impact instead of just enemy state dependent bonus damage, to help really make the Thunder Hammer consistently powerful between bosses, but that’s arguably the job of the weapon’s Blessings.
(I’d like to note, I imagine these exclusions helped balance the class initially when compared to the other classes when the game shifted to talents, but now that Classes like the Ogryn have found their footing, the lack of these synergies really stings.)
The Flagellator, based Upon Aura’s like “Loner”, the “Shroudfield” Class Ability, and the “Blades of Faith” Blitz is a high damage, single target damage that really want to go and assassinate targets all on its lonesome. As a branch of the tree that is missing so many nodes to help reinforce this, there’s a lot I could suggest. Generally though, I think that this would be a good place for contingent power that rewards the player for more precise play. Bonuses like Rending on Weakspot and Backstab hits could help their damage against isolated targets. You could also have more nodes that give increased power or survivability on killing specific kinds of enemies. Right now, “Purge the Unclean” is the only nodes that really provides this benefit, and it’s against specifically infested enemies (Pox Walkers, Bursters, and Hounds) where the extra damage is kind of unnecessary, and Unyielding enemies (Monstrosities and Ogryns) which isn’t bad but very limited. As previously mentioned, Fatshark has already worked to deemphasize the Zealot’s potential as a boss killer, and I believe there’s a very big difference between a class being able to greatly contribute to boss damage versus it being their main gimmick. Ogryn’s fantasy is that they are the Reject’s Monstrosity, so giving the Zealot a focus on other Elites or Specialist targets can help maintain the healthy relationship between the classes while still providing the Zealot w/ unique challenges. Personally, I recommend Maniacs (Flamers, Ragers, Mutants, and Trappers), as all of them are closer range elite and specialist problems that you can reach in melee and therefore don’t need a Vet to snipe.
(I also think that with this in mind, you could have Maulers count as Unyielding, if you still wanted to retain that bonus from PtU. This would give the Zealot a wealth of close range and melee oriented enemies to engage with.)
Additionally, not everyone realizes that “Blades of Faith” in particular are actually kind of weird. They Inherit and trigger some of the Blessings of your currently equipped. That, combined with tech like the Shroudfield Double stab read as Ability Duration Manipulation. Stacks of Uncanny Strike about to expire and there’s no enemy in range? Throw a knife. Fatshark hasn’t removed stuff like this, which leads me to assume that, at best, they’re intended aspects of the kit. Some of the missing Nodes could easily lean into Ability and Bonus Duration and Manipulation. Imagine something like “Feretory Favour: Your Explosions/Blitz Inherit and Trigger the Blessings of your Unequipped Weapon once, for 3s.”
Something like this is would act as a great generalist node to tempt other branches to dip into the Flagellator, while also enhancing what the branch already does. And assuming that “Blades of Faith” was changed to read similarly (“Blades of Faith inherit and Trigger the Blessings of your Equipped Weapon once, for 3s.”) it would make the blitz far more consistent and easier to understand for all players. If you’re worried that something like Feretory could make Blades overpowered, keep in mind, every blitz would be able to benefit from it and , unlike every other Blitz, Blades are a skill shot. You can easily adjust how many blades you have at your disposal to emphasize that point. (Dropping the total count from 12 to 10, or cutting the amount of knives received from Ammo Packs from 2 and 4 to 1 and 2.)
(Additionally, a Feretory is effectively a portable reliquary box. The idea of inhereting Blessings from a blessed box felt fitting, especially considering that might be the argument for why the “consecrated knife” of BoF inherit blessings.)
For the Preacher, being in the middle of the other two Playstyle Branches means that it has the highest capacity to leach off the other sources of Power, which might help explain why it has so few impactful nodes. Impact and extra Strength on staggered/stunned enemies when paired with a high capacity weapon would be great for spraying and praying (literally), while Rending on Weakspots would greatly improve their capabilities with low capacity, high accuracy weapons. In fact, the benefits are interchangeable. A Braced Autogun with even a little bit of rending could shred through clusters of armored elites (like Flak Ragers), and giving something like the Vigilant Autogun the capacity to shoot through hordes and knock down bigger enemies might make it not the worst weapon in the game. The branch is still lacking, in my opinion, nodes to help further emphasize and incentivize using your firearm to a greater extent. In the current balance of the game, ammo is especially valuable, so without a way a good way to either recover ammo or otherwise spend the ammo they have more efficently, the class struggles to ever rely on their firearms. Close Damage instead of Ranged Damage could also help make the Preacher’s nodes more impactful, as the damage would effect range and melee, giving the player more of a reason to switch back and forth so that you aren’t totally reliant on your gun. This could help with ammo conservation and range power of the class. Utility in the form of something like “Repentant Reload: Your Movement Speed is not reduced while reloading or activating secondary effects” could also work as a generalist node option and further enhance blessings like run and gun on the class, allowing the Zealot to stay aggressive even when they’re transitioning between engagements.
Additionally, something that enhanced the utility or potency of fire damage could work really well here as a generalist node. Making it so that you had greater Strength (Damage, Cleave, and Impact) on attacks against burning enemies would be a good grab for any branch, and for the Preacher in particular, it synergizes really well with their Class Ranged Weapon (The Flamer) and Laz Weapons (The Infernus Blessing). And additionally, the Branch would need nodes that help with weapon handling, to get their firearms up and ready to fire quickly, and their firearm stability to keep them on target.
I’d also like to specifically touch on Keystones, as I think the base idea of each of the class’s Keystones is fine, but their implementation makes them an absolute mess. Earlier in this post, I spoke about how the Flagellator has some weird interactions regarding Blessings and ability duration and manipulation. I think this is the missing link that can help shore up the messy implementation of the Zealot’s Keystones.
Firstly, it has to be understood that the Flagellator Branch’s Keystone is “Inexorable Judgment”, but at present, it’s anything but Inexorable. In fact, the keystone is very stop and go at present. But if the focus of the Keystone wasn’t on the Bonus Attack Speed or Damage, but instead something else, it would be able to shine a lot better when compared to the much higher bonus of current Martyrdom’s near 50%. And that specific bonus can be in ability manipulation and duration effects. Bonus Attack speed is great for keeping stacks of effects running, especially if you are primarily using heavy attacks, and The Flagellator as a Branch wants to be running around all over the place and picking fights, and with Shroudfield they’re especially well equipped to do so. I suggest treating Momentum less as an Attack Speed and Damage bonus and more like a Duration Suspension bonus. A Branch that is picking its fights would greatly benefit from something that would allow, for instance, stacks of Uncanny Strikes to persist between those engagements, that way they aren’t starting every fight fresh. The stacks be built up from Weakspot and Backstab attacks, to reinforce that playstyle, and they could tick down once per second if you were not moving and not making an interaction (using a Auspex Scanner or Revving a Player). Otherwise, they would only tick down when they were holding the duration of an ability or buff at 1s. In other words, so long as you’re getting Weakspot Hit/Kills, you can build yourself up a catch of “Bonus Time”. That cache will deplete when you’re inactive or if it’s suspending a duration, so you want to keep moving, but it allow you to effectively stay at peak fighting condition if you can balance your aggression well. Additionally, imagine how useful this would be in those moment where Holy Revenant triggers at the end of an encounter, when there aren’t any enemies to take advantage of, or for increasing the time you can remain invisible while doing a puzzle or revving a player. Shroudfield already has great utility but this would only further enhance that.
Next, switch the bonus of Martyrdom and Blazing Piety to make Martyrdom Crit Focused. Something like 2.5 Stacking up to 6 times would give you the same bonus that Blazing Piety has now (15%) and you would actually be able to benefit from the full affect unlike current Zealot and Martyrdom. I think you could go higher with the crit personally though, as you do have to play more efficiently to keep it up. That said, this would actually feed back into the benefit of Scourge and Enduring Faith, as the lower health you got, the more you would crit, the more likely you are to proc Enduring Faith. I don’t want to disregard that 7 stacks though, as you do benefit from it when Holy Revenant kicks in, and giving that final 7th Wound bonus something special, like significantly increased Impact and a Flat Damage Increase would make it more likely that you walk away with enough health to survive the next encounter.
Here’s a hot take; Connect Blazing Piety to Fire Damage. Word Play aside, if the keystone specifically gave benefits for targeting burning enemies, giving the significantly higher flat damage bonus a specific trigger means that it won’t automatically outshine the other two Keystone. You could even add Keystone Mods that allow you to give enemies Fire Stacks on Weakspot, Backstab, or Staggers. “Enemies in 1m of your target receive 2 Stacks of Fire on Stagger and 4 Stacks on Weakspot or Backstab Kills”.
This would make it act kind of Like Psyker’s Wildfire Passive.
Now you have three Keystones that have application outside of their specific Branches (because being able to burn enemies for free, get massive crit bonuses as you get lower health, or put your bonuses and abilities into suspended animation is useful regardless of build) while actually engaging providing their main Branch bonuses that are worthwhile to the class.
Some smaller suggestions include buffing “Enemies within…” is a particularly weak survivability node that doesn’t really feels to general. I’ve suggested that the node falls under the Flagellator’s branch, but there’s really nothing enforcing that. My suggestion is giving that 2.5 toughness replenishment a bonus for every ally you aren’t in coherency with.
Bite the bullet and integrate some kind of bonus in regards to firearms to Fury of the Faithful. Something like Bullet Impact and Penetration (but not damage) would be great, letting you rush forward and shoot through Obstacles.
Loner is the Zealot’s weakest aura by a landslide and ends up only really being majorly useful in clutch situations, where all of your team is dead. The problem with it is that Coherency Toughness Regeneration is the worse kind of toughness regen in the game. I think it could be improved by allowing you to additionally gain partial benefits of you’re allies Aura’s, say 50%, even when you aren’t in coherency with them. As though you’re with them in spirit. This still makes the node great for clutching, but it also actually plays into how a Flagellator Zealot want to play.
And last but not least, I would argue that Sainted Gunslinger doesn’t really do much. A maximum bonus of 30% reload speed is…just kind of okay. Instead of a stacking 6% bonus, that could be bumped up to 8%. A 40% Increased Reload Speed will fill a lot more impactful, assuming that’s the only bonus Sainted Gunslinger is meant to have, and it fits in with a lot of the other weirdly Khorne-Esque stuff going on in the game (“Skulls for the Golden Throne”? Morrow’s former commander getting a little too open-minded about where the blood flowed from?)
The TL;DR of the Suggestion
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Reorganized placement of Class Tree nodes to enhance previously poorly defined synergies and facilitate more distinct Single Branch Fantasy and Multi-Branch Fantasy Play Styles. Re organized nodes are as follows:
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Suggested the increase of the Classes Total Nodes to 90, with 12 Operative Modifiers, 45 Passives, 12 Ability Mods, and 12 Keystone Mods.
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Suggested Framework Ideas to actually Define the Flagellator Branch of the Zealot’s Class Tree, a Branch that currently has practically no passives supporting its damage or sustain playstyles.
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Suggested Framework Ideas to help tie together the Martyr Branch, which has substantial survivability but lacks good damage options, especially when paired with weapons that should shine with the class.
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Suggested Framework Ideas to help the Preacher Branch actually benefit from its position as the centermost branch in the tree, with generalist options to incentivize cross branch buildcraft and options to further enhance the branches capacity to use firearms effectively.
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Suggested a complete Overhaul to the Keystones, giving Inexorable Judgment a more defined bonus so it doesn’t automatically lose out to Martyrdom, Gave Martyrdom’s Flat Damage bonus to Blazing Piety, with the addition of a specific contingent for activation, so that it isn’t always up, and gave Blazing Piety’s critical bonus to Martyrdom, with the suggestion of a slightly increased to the critcal chance to make up for the low health you have to be at to achieve it.
If the changes listed in this short summarization don’t convince you that these are compelling and worthwhile changes to make to the class, please read the full post and let me try to.
Closing Thoughts
So at this point, this is my second, technically third “Comprehensive Breakdown”. For anyone wonder where I find the time, I’m Post Op an intensive surgery, so I can’t exactly work, and Darktide is a great way to kill time and ignore pain. I actually work as a TTRPG Designer, and a lot of my knowledge on game design and balance is coming from there. While Darktide is a video game and not a Tabletop RPG, I do think that there’s a lot of consideration that translates between the mediums.
The Zealot is actually my main, so I have a lot of thoughts on the class. In my original suggestion, in trying to actually present a solution instead of a request, I had to make a lot more leaps in logic, which I didn’t care for, hence leading to this post. I have the tendency, especially when working on game mechanics and balancing, to feel like it’s better to bring forward a complete idea than a half measure. But ultimately, I don’t currently work for Fatshark, and a lot of the games balance and direction is going to be dependent on how they choose to address some of these things. The most I can do is offer as clear and concise a breakdown of what my professional perspective is telling me about the balance of the game. If the community can have that kind of clear understanding, the the feedback the community gives the Fatshark can be far more effective.
Some of the ideas from my first post that I really liked but didn’t feel like I could share as a part of a suggestion that largely boils down to “add more stuff” is the following:
Even after this restructuring, there are just some nodes that I don’t have a lot of confidence in. The [Preacher’s] Branch is a prime example. While Attack Speed and Strength are both great, there’s not any kind of ammo efficiency to make relying on your firearm a worthwhile prospect. It only gets worse when you take into consideration how it might fare against armor. In how Havoc is currently balanced, you would be wasting your ammo. Without a way to Miraculously Recover your Magazine, there’s no real reason to build for your firearm…The Sustain Options are their most viable nodes, since everyone should eventually dodge. To be viable, [Preacher’s] Damage Nodes would need to find a way to give the Zealot Strength (Impact, Damage, and Penetration) , Ammo Efficiency, Weapon Stability, and Weapon Handling in addition to Attack Speed. Kind of a tall order but not impossible .
The Arbites class is getting the Rapid Movement Passive, and that makes me think of all the Zealot gameplay skills you could legitimate. A Passive Similar to Rapid Movement, maybe something that regenerates Stamina and Increase Strength, could legitimate the Zealot “Crackhead Run”. Run while using the charge heavy and then slide at the end to go insanely fast, but now when you do it your recharging stamina to keep running and doing it into an enemy gives you a new way to aggress, weather that be with the Knife, Dueling Sword, Tactical Axe, or eve Guns. Running at an Enemy w/ Run and Gun before sliding into them and blasting them away sounds exactly like a Zealot.
You could legitimize the Zealot’s Stealth Double Stab. Right now, Shroudfield makes you pick between theoretical safety/utility or damage but this choice doesn’t really matter when you’ll uncloak your first attack regardless. Switch around Shroudfield’s base form to have it’s Original Movement Speed Bonus, but Perfectionist’s +50% Finesse and Backstab damage, the 5 Seconds from Master Crafted, and the Toughness Regeneration and Damage Reduction from Invigorating Revelation. You can cut the cooldown of Shroudfield to 20 seconds. Now, you make it so Perfectionist gives you the +100% Finesse/Backstab Damage and Critical Chance with a 100% cooldown increase (40 Seconds in total). Meanwhile Master-Crafted Shroudfield lets you make +1 Additional Attacks from Stealth. I recognize that some people wouldn’t be happy with what used to be as tech input becoming a base mechanic, but there in lies the best part. If you don’t change how Shroudfield actually functions, skilled players could still Double Stab, meaning that for skilled players, Master-Crafted Shroudfield is actually a Triple Stab. And Invigorating Revelation? +1 Attacks without breaking stealth, to give Perfectionist Players a taste of the Double Stab and skilled Master-Crafted Player the insanity of Quadruple Stab.
I don’t especially care if any of my suggestions are brought into the game, so long as the actual changes made result in a better product for me to enjoy. I want to see not only Zealot but every class shine in this game, and the first step in that is getting the community to se what could be. I think that Darktide has fantastic mechanical “architecture” that really facilitates future content. I want to do what I can as community member to assist Fatshark in making that content worthwhile to explore. I can easily see how, now that we are no longer bound by the title of rejects with the addition of the Arbites, the game could introduce other classes like a Tech Priest, the logical Long Range Counter to Arbites Close Range Control, or a Sister, who could act as the Close Range Counter to Psyker’s Hoard Clear, or a Sactioned Xenos, the Ogryn’s Long Range Counter to Boss Busting. Yes, it’s all conjecture, but imagining what we might have the opportunity to explore is part of the fun, and conjecture is based on incomplete information, not a complete lack of it. I think there’s plenty in the game already that supports some of these ideas.
The next class I’m probably going to breakdown is the Arbites. Not only because it’s new, or because it currently is absolutely broken (in the sense of being so overpowered that it breaks the balance of the game) but because the specific aspects I want to talk about in regards to the Ogryn and Psyker are…a lot harder to discuss. My fear is that pointing out certain weakness and strengths in the classes might lead to changes that make them worse, so I want to be very precise about the language I use when I talk about them.
[If you are a high skilled player, especially if you main this specific class, and you think that I’ve overlooked something, or otherwise failed to consider a balancing concern either within this specific class, or in regards to this class’s relationship with the other classes, please let me know in a comment. I do not consider myself infallible; the only way to improve upon weaker arguments is to iterate upon them, and I want to hear what other people think. And if you think that the ideas presented in this forum post are worthwhile, please like this post, and share it with your peers. The easiest way for the community to get the changes they’re interested in seeing in the game is to direct the Dev’s attention to those ideas. Thank you.]
You can read my other Breakdowns, regarding the Veteran, Arbites, and Ogryn + Psyker at the associated hyperlinks.