Zealot Preacher, Martyrdom, Heal on Kill Change!

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

so i feel the Zealot Preacher is in abit of a rough Spot, it seems like your always out of health and near death, and on Level 4-5 missions thats always one enemy backstab away, which really hurts how you play, turning a fun low level experience into a liability on higher level missions.
.

=The Problem=
due to the Zealots Martyrdom Ability (+5% damage for each 15 missing health. Max stacks 3.) as to keep your stacks of Martyrdom up ideally you’ll always want to be at 50-55% health. as so you can keep your damage up with also maintaining the most health.

however your often stuck with much less health and you are afraid to heal as you will have to let your self take damage if you want your damage boon back. this leads to Zealot players not healing when perhaps they should and such becoming the weak link in a team on those level 4-5 missions. in a firefight momentum is everything, and having to revive a downed Zealot, or worse having to go find and save them can cost a game as your playing with a man down.
.

=The Solution=
change the Zealots Martyrdom Ability to give them Health on Kill based on Martyrdom level - Martyrdom Ability (+5% damage for each 15 missing health. Max stacks 3. Also when at Max Martyrdom Stacks, melee kills restore 2health per stack of Martyrdom) - this way a Zealot can stay in the fight longer and gain more benefit from Martyrdom.

before taking into consideration other skills a level 1 Zealot Preacher will take damage until they are at 55%ish health(+15% damage=3Martyrdom Stacks) and a single kill will restore 6 health bringing them up to roughly 60%ish health(+10% damage=2Martyrdom Stacks) and the heal on kill would turn off.

this would also synergize well with other allies in Coherency abilities,
Holy Fervour(+20% Power to allies in Coherency for 5 seconds. On gaining a stack of Martyrdom.) this may have to be reduced some for balance(or add a cooldown), but with it Zealots could keep this buff active to aid the team, as long as they are fighting in the same area(allies in Coherency).

also Honour The Martyr(Martyrdom has 6 max stacks.) with this a Zealot Preacher will take damage until they are at 10%ish health(+30% damage=6Martyrdom Stacks) and a single kill will restore 12 health bringing them up to roughly 20%ish health(assuming no Health Curios)(+25% damage=5Martyrdom Stacks) and the heal on kill would turn off. keeping them as a glass cannon but with extra bonuses to stay as such and not desolve if a Special looks at them funny.
.

i think this change could allow Zealots to play more loose with their Abilities and have more fun as they can keep their health up as long as they do Melee damage, but Ranged enemies would still be their Bane. as such i feel this would let them own the Melee Spot once again, when it comes to Game play.
(Veteran=Ranged)(Zealot=Melee)(Psyker=Mage)(Ogryn=Tank)

Thoughts Comments Concerns?
Thanks

2

Your suggestion would make Zealot super broken and braindead to play. It would last in “hold F on cd and spam lmb”.

There are already 2 healing-abilities you can make use from. There is no need for permaheal just because you want to have your passive pretty much permanently on max stacks without taking the risks to do so. It´s not like Zealots are useless without those stacks aswell, they´re strong and just get stronger.

It´s nothing but a player-made issue.

1 Like
3

Yeah no, Zealot doesn’t need an additional healing mechanic. The class is already extremely tanky, and we’ve been down this road of “playing low health zealot sucks cause chip damage” like a million times since launch. You don’t want to intentionally play them at low health, but its a nice buff to help you push through difficult situations.

2 Likes
4

ok first off its a suggestion basted on what i have seen at high level play level 4-5, and thats not to say it couldnt be tweaked, such as reducing the health gained to 1hp per kill,

about the keeping max stacks its an idea that is to lower the healing to once instance and not allow you to heal to full health, not just to keep stacks up. ive seen Zealot under proforming and i thought this would be a interesting way to buff his kit and not make him too strong, if you think just 1 health per kill would make him too strong im not sure what to tell you.

5

Zealot is already strong with his undying passive + the lifesteal while being under its effect.
Yes i´ve read that you should only heal back up to like 60% or something, but even 1hp per kill would break the games balance, especially on a class which is already highly forgivable.

Imo yes, the most poeple struggle with range enemies while playing zealot, but only because they don´t know how to deal with them or pretty much fear to lose a couple of health. Your suggestions would make all the decision-making pretty much pointless since the best way would be always to rush in and smash LMB as you did on Zealot in V2. (Which has been super braindead.)

Good players will be able to stay on 50% health and still survive to some point. I mean, there is even an achievement to do so. Others can rely on the self-health every 2 minutes. It´s really not a big deal, just a lack of skill / experience.
Zealot has always been strong and don´t need any further buffs.

6

I play zealot mainly and am now leveling a psyker and have a level 30SS.
Zealots actually better than SS because you can survive anything and can’t be slowed by shooters.
It’s insane how bad it feels to be ranged staggered after like 100 hours of been immune to it.
If you ever loose half/all your toughness you can just hit F and get half back.
I think people just underestimate how strong you are in melee when they are to used to playing at range.

7

The +Dmg on -HP is meant to push the Healing from melee dmg, when Holy Revenant procs.
That way you can heal up almost to 100% HP.

Wrong!

Veteran=

  • save range and good melee special clear
  • high dmg range and melee
  • tactical supply abilities [Nades/shooter position or toughness/dmg boost]
  • grows a grenade out of his but every 60 sec
    __
  • low survival if swarmed and toughness broken

Zealot=

  • strong melee special clear
  • high dmg mid range and melee
  • strong melee horde clear
  • most useful grenade of all classes to save mates under pressure, or control high danger enemy packs
  • Abilities are 100% for his own class
  • high survival if swarmed even with broken toughness
  • can heal up via dmg every 90 sec
  • special ability for getting closer to enemies or getting into cover and out of pressure situations
    __
  • weak against incoming concentrated range attacks without cover or enemies to attack in melee

Psyker=

depending on weapon choice:

  • unarmored horde clear low/long - range
  • armored/ special /elite - disable
  • lock on target kill on high priority/danger/mobile special [bomber/sniper]
  • no dependence on ammo pickups
  • can boost everyone’s dmg on targets +25% by direct or ‘‘Kinetic Flayer’’ triggered Brain Burst hit
  • can block incoming shots with the right blessing on force sword
  • can interrupt and push hard with force sword block mechanic to make melee fights a walk in the park for everyone of the squad
    __
  • can blow up if pushed to high on peril while under melee pressure and special ability on CD

Ogryn=

  • strong melee and range croud control
  • great overview on the battlefield because of his size
  • big HP pool
  • can boost the coherency range to squad members for toughness reg or brake suppression and boost movement speed of squad members in coherency
  • can boost up blood stacks for Zealot teammates on bleed crit build
  • can obliterate incoming unarmored enemy swarms with most of his range weapons in seconds
  • can save downed mates without being interrupted by enemy fire
  • can Bull Rush great distances to: aid squad members/interrupt priority targets from attacking/ making space for himself or others/ getting into cover
    __
  • can be overwhelmed by enemy fire when he runs out of targets to bonk for toughness reg when he is out of coherency
  • way to less melee dmg/kill potential since FS denies the Ogryn his lore wise body strength

This is not a mmorpg. There are no specific classes. NO TANK, No pure DD or Supp.
Every class is a damage dealer. The only difference is the grade and the tools they can use to do the job. Aggro is based on who gets the enemies attention first. The only exeption are Plague Ogryns and Beasts of Nurgle, who switch aggro to the player that deals the most dmg.

8

Highest toughness in the game, meanwhile sitting on the best melee waveclear weapon.
Add this to the rest you´ve written down and you know how busted the class is at some point.

Every class in weak against concentrated fire but Vet, because of high toughness perk, toughness back on weakspot-kills or he don´t even get targeted thx to the stealth-perk.

Nevertheless, Zealot is only bad on high range if he runs a flamer.

Same counts for the plasmagun, dunno if it´s worth to be told actually as a con. It´s just the tweak for no ammo usage. (Which should be a thing on plasma / flamer aswell.)

You haven´t played Ogryn much i guess? It´s so easy to get toughness back through different ressources. Yeah they lack damage compared to other classes, but it´s not a class-related thing in general, it´s because Vet and Zealot still sit on broken weapons and with the recent patch, Psyker and their forceswords got overbuffed.

That´s not entirely true.

  • Vet is clearly range-specialized, which is actually a bad thing since a lot of poeple never get used to melee combat and it makes “balancing range-weapons” drastically harder.

  • Zealot is a bruiser with all-in potential. High mobility, high melee damage, high surviveabilities.

  • Ogryn is a tanksupport, you just need to look at the basestats and feats. But yeah, the damage is still high.

  • Psyker is still an allrounder-class with pure damage and supportabilities meanwhile having an answer to everything.

Also Ogryn / Zealot CAN hold the aggro with the powermauls, there is a blessing for it. Also enemies can and will turn on enemies if they´re closer to them than the initial encounter is.
Bosses will also turn aggro to players that used stagger-abilities like grenades or the Ogryn-dash. It´s not always “who did the highest damage”. If poeple stop using stagger-abilities, someone can dodgedance an Ogryn even with low damage count, or kite a Beast while the rest can and will for sure do more damage in the weakspot.

TLDR: The classes are specialized and we can atleast say that we´ve a frontline, a backline and something in between.