Zealots need fixes+durability

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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The priest/zealot is in a bad place. They are too fragile and can be instakilled/downed far too easily in 3* and higher difficulties. Their toughness and HP are getting torn to shreds by gunners and snipers without much recourse from the player. I just spent hours today just trying to get a 3* missions done (it isnt helping that all 3* missions and above have Endless trait today), only for our entire team to get wiped out.
(Not blaming other players entirely for it because sometimes bad RNG would happen with enemy hordes or I would make a mistake, and while I consider myself a decent player, I wont deny that I am getting downed instantly by snipers or 2-4 scab gunners spawning and instantly gunning me down).

Currently the Zealots charge is broken in that it can be interrupted by gunfire from gunners/shotgunners/snipers, explosives/aoe fire damage (like from green flames and fire from grenades/explosives) while in the middle of charging. This is untenable. Having an “ultimate” ability that you get knocked out of all the time and so easily by nearly any enemy feels terrible and makes the zealot worthless for closing onto targets in melee. Hell, I have tried charging a Mauler only to be tackled by a plague hound mid charge and then got killed by said mauler I tried charging to take down with my Eviscerator.

Second issue, Due to gunners being so good at shredding zealots, zealots need either some kind of passive damage reduction to gunners (as long as they are moving towards an enemy or while in melee combat) and zealots need to be immune to slows/stuns while moving towards enemies. When trying to close in on gunners, its incredibly easy to get “stun locked” by their fire making it nearly impossible to melee them. You effectively need to wait for the gunner AI to register that you are in melee range for them to decide to stop firing on you and switch to melee so that you stop getting shot up enough to finally swing your weapon. Veterans and Ogryn have significantly more Toughness than the zealot, but dont suffer the same drawbacks that the zealot has while in melee. Ogryn get shields and Veterans get Power Swords (which are the best melee in the game currently) and can cleave and tear through hordes, meanwhile a zealot just needs to be sneezed on and they are downed in melee.
and yes, when maxed out zealots can do some tricks to completely recover HP, but that doesnt stop the fact that zealots are extremely fragile in the first place. and having to wait until you are max level to get feats to mitigate fragility doesnt make the class fun to play up to that point.

Third, thunderhammers outright suck. their charge is used up on a single hit (while power swords get 3 charges). their charge animation takes WAY too log for just a marginal increase in damage, and takes multiple hits to kill basic enemies in 3* and above missions. and are worse than eviscerators against elites because the “sawing” of elites with its special actually stuns them while charged thunderhammer strikes do pretty much nothing to stun/stagger elites. Charging the thunder hammer should last for 5-7 seconds, and should be specialized at killing elites, but instead it just tickles them. and the fact that regular mobs can take multiple light hits from a thunderhammer is beyond laughable. the hammer should be able to 1-shot any normal mob. and 2 shot veterans/armored enemies. the fact that it can take 3+ hits to kill an enemy with flak armor is beyond stupid. even a coked up warp junky shouldnt be able to survive a 15+ lb hammer slamming into your head 3 times. the force alone should have broken their neck on the first hit.

and while this last part isn’t zealot specific, but Sniper damage SERIOUSLY NEED TO BE NERFED. trying to do 3*+ missions when more than 1 sniper gets spawned, and instantly dropped our entire team. if a player is below 200 HP when they get shot by a sniper, it will take ALL of their toughness and drop their HP to 1 if not outright killing them. I had more than one team fail a mission from 2 scab snipers instakilling our entire team. I have gone from full Toughness and Full HP to instantly using martyrdom from a single sniper shot way too often in 3*+ missions.

inb4 “getgud scrub”. I again am not saying I am a great or bad player, just decent. But when I can go run a 2* mission without getting downed/killed once as a zealot, to needing to be rezzed multiple times in a 3* mission because I am getting instantly dropped by snipers or getting stunned/knocked out of my charge when trying to get at some gunners (and its not just me, seeing this happen to many other zealots too). I am willing to bet its more of the game being inbalanced or zealots just being too weak, especially since Ogryn and Veterans seem to be faring significantly better even at the roles Zealots are supposed to excel at. Why play a zealot when a veteran has more toughness, more ammo, and better melee weapons than the class thats supposed to excel at melee?

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There are kernels of truth here, but your solutions go too far

Ill respond to your complaints point by point

  1. I agree zealot shouldnt be interrupted mid chsrge. Idk if he should be flat out invincible during charge as i have seen suggested before, but i do think you should be uniterruptable.

  2. I dont agree zealots should be immune to ranged stagger. If the ult gets changed so its uninterruptable, that is all that would need to be changed on this front. Adding ranged damage reduction and stagger immunity on top of that change would be overkill. It would be nice but like i said, if they make the ult uninterruptable alot of zealot’s problems with initiation go away.

  3. While i agree the thunder hammer isnt in a good place, alot of things you said are just untrue as some of your suggestions are too extreme. The charge doesnt take that long as you can cancel the charge animation before the hammer is raised into the air with an attack. The damage increase is also not “marginal” its is a HUGE increase, particularly on the heavy attack. I do agree that the thunder hammer is far worse against elites than the eviscerator, but its not lack of stagger or damage thats the problem. The thunder hammer special can knock a crusher on its ass and can 1 shot bulwarks. The problem is actually hitting the target your are aiming at because it only hits 1 target. Your suggestion that the lights should 2-3 shot armored elites is also very extreme and would instantly make the thunder hammer the best weapon in the game. I agree that damage on lights is low and they lack carapace ap, but what you are suggesting is too extreme. If you’ve had a look around at thunder hammer posts on the forum you would know i am a huge advocate of fixing the weapon’s issues, but your suggestions go too far in my opinion.

  4. I disagree.Snipers are some of the most balanced specials in the game. They have very distinct visual and audio cues to alert you of their presence and are quite easy to dodge. It makes sense for it to hurt when you get hit since the cues are so obvious.

In terms of things you missed that i want changed on zealot

-bring back crit duration on ult instead of a single crit.

-remove melee chip damage(doubt this one is going to happen though)

While i agree with some of your post, i cant fully endorse it because i think you go too far with your suggested buffs

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I think I should clarify some things with you.

  1. if charge was on a shorter cooldown or you could have multiple charges (which does become an option later, but I think its an option way too late, give a second charge at rank 10 and then at 30 give you the option to take a third charge) it wouldnt be nearly as bad of a situation. The fact that so many things can knock you out of your charge (especially when you are trying to use it at crucial moments) so easily makes you feel powerless and actively punished for using your kit.

  2. I think you misread what I I stated. Zealot shouldn’t be stunned/staggered while moving Towards a target or already in the middle of combat swinging his weapon, which is legitimately whats happening right now. You can get stagger/stun locked IN MELEE from gunners shooting THROUGH enemies to hit you. I am not saying they should be immune to damage, just stop the staggering/stunning happening in melee or trying to get into melee. You should still take damage, but with how fragile Zealots are, the fact that you can get buzzed down immediately by a sniper or a pair of gunners WHILE IN MELEE WITH OTHER UNITS that would have body blocked said shots makes the class unbearable.

If you are going to rush an ogryn reaper face tanking its double stubber, you deserve to die. But a pair of scab heavy gunners spawning up on a ledge or even just a squad of corrupted astra militarum and your in an open arena and theres no cover to dive behind, your only option is to rush them otherwise you get gunned down. there is no other option.

  1. It would be one thing if the thunderhammer was as strong as you said, but in my experience and playing (particularly at 3* missions) thunder hammers need 2-3 CHARGED heavy attacks to drop big enemies like Bulwarks, and this is with other teammates attacking said bulwark. I do more damaged to a Deamon of Nurgle with a special heavy on my eviscerator to it that I do to a charged heavy of the thunderhammer. But maybe its just because I got bad modifiers on the thunderhammer I am using and maybe you have the perfect modifiers.

I want thunderhammers to be balanced in that they are THE weapon for killing big and heavily armored units like Maulers and Daemons. And that the hammer should 1shot normal enemies. With the major drawback that it sucks at killing large groups and that its slow to hit. It shouldnt need to be charged to do good damage. Maybe make the charged attack do a stagger/stun ground attack that doesnt do damage but can stagger mobs. If you hit an regular mob in the face with a hammer, you should instantly kill it. but because of slow windup-swing times you cant deal with hordes. and right now, the thunderhammer cant do anything good. You smack a Mauler with the thunderhammer, and he will laugh at you and then bludgeon you to death. Thunderhammers dont really stagger or stun the target like they should. but I rev up my eviscerator and rearrange a Maulers insides, and they are stunlocked for a good 2-3 seconds.

  1. I am not opposed to snipers existing. They should be there to punish players sitting out in the open or not paying attention. The problem is when you get more than one spawning, and you are in the middle of dealing with hordes and suddenly 2-3 of your team are instantly killed by sniperfire because they can shoot through hordes and hit you. If Scab Snipers shots could be body blocked by hordes, I wouldnt be opposed to them as they currently are (as a serious threat). But because they can shoot through mobs to hit you, and if you are in a throng of hordes and cant just “dodge” because your surrounded (as you often are when in melee) and ARE body blocked by enemies. It might be easy for a psyker or veteran to dodge a sniper when you are away from the crowds. but when you are balls deep in poxwalkers you cant just prance yourself away from sniper fire.

As for your point to bring back Crit duration, I would agree with you compared to what we currently have. Having a guaranteed crit means nothing if you get knocked out of your charge and are away from your intended target, you just wasted your crit.