How do you not die as Zealot?

[Forblaze]

I have a level 23 psyker, level 13 veteran, and level 8 zealot. Of all of them, the one I've had the hardest time with is the zealot. I can get through level 3 difficulty pretty easily on the veteran and psyker and level 2 difficulty pretty easily as the zealot, but I get absolutely melted on level 3 difficulty as the zealot. I feel like I just have no health at all and die as soon as I make a mistake. I can duel an elite in a vacuum, but when things get busy I'll eventually take a stray hit and just lose all of my health immediately. Melee weapons also feel *significantly* weaker than ranged weapons. It takes me 10s of high risk seconds to take down an ogryn or rager when I could practically delete them from a comfy distance with the veteran or psyker. Ranged enemies aren't too much of an issue once I'm closed to them, but I also struggle to engage them from a distance. I can clear melee trash enemies pretty well, but not *that* well.

So am I missing something here? What am I meant to be focusing on and how do I do it without imploding?

[Warlander]

Flamethrower

[Pickle Bath]

Some will come in with the "use the dagger and bleed DR build" but that's kinda niche, unfun to play imho, and will eventually get tweaked/nerfed by Fatshark.

The lack of levels aren't helping you much. What weapons do you use? I prefer axe or eviscerator (which you don't have unlocked yet at that level) and combat shotgun (for quick snap kills of specials at almost any range).

So are you losing health mostly in melee? In that case, it's just a skill issue of getting used to dodge dancing around and when to push block. You should be able to solo clear a diff 3 horde without taking damage. If from ranged enemies, you likely need to slide more, wiggle side to side when approaching (instead of a straight line), and keep cover between you and your target whenever possible, and use your ult as both a toughness restorer, gap closer, and a way to force big groups of ranged enemies to swap to melee.

[pi73r]

1. Don't take stray hits.
2. Your passives and actives literally let you stay on full toughness all the time.
3. It's time to learn how to melee properly. Fighting an ogryn or rager shouldn't be risky at all.

[rcsmoke1]

You are a lvl 8 zealot that is the main issue. Most of the stuff that makes you tank doesn't come until later. idk Like most characters early on I just play range with the group then go in for cc and objective stuff when needed.

[pi73r]

Originally posted by rcsmoke1:

You are a lvl 8 zealot that is the main issue. Most of the stuff that makes you tank doesn't come until later. idk Like most characters early on I just play range with the group then go in for cc and objective stuff when needed.

His lvl 5 and active are enough to go for heresy though. It's just a skill issue. You shouldn't really take melee hits at all outside of ocassional mistake hit on 100% toughness.

[rcsmoke1]

Originally posted by pi73r:

Originally posted by rcsmoke1:

You are a lvl 8 zealot that is the main issue. Most of the stuff that makes you tank doesn't come until later. idk Like most characters early on I just play range with the group then go in for cc and objective stuff when needed.

His lvl 5 and active are enough to go for heresy though. It's just a skill issue. You shouldn't really take melee hits at all outside of ocassional mistake hit on 100% toughness.

I agree during beta I found I liked the Zealot most and I didn't buy a single weapon until I was lvl 9 or something the auto pistol was a lot of fun and you can mid range snipe with it or atleast pin down mobs long enough to close. 1h Chain sword or the chainaxe also made a difference. Only suggestion I can make is bind your dodge to shift key and practice dodging against trash mobs makes a world of difference.

[Dou B Jin]

Zealot isn't that strong and surviving early on but they have some absurd build down the line that makes them nearly unkillable.

I know the crit knife bleeding build is very good because you're sitting at 90% toughness damage reduction and gain toughness back from melee kill and if you're at 1 health you can also gain it back with holy revenant. Combined with invocation of death you also get a free crit + 50% toughness button.

It's very strong I'd get droped to one hp only to go back to 80 something HP and full toughness again after 5 second.

Also not sure if you know about this but toughness isn't a shield in melee. It's a mitigation bar. At 50% toughness you take 50% of the damage to your HP bar in melee (or roughly that much I never did check the specific numbers). You do not want to take any hits in melee with low toughness if possible. You have to really rely on your dodge and block knock back to control the crowd and the angle of your cleave with your sword for weakspots on elites.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Honk:

The lack of levels aren't helping you much. What weapons do you use? I prefer axe or eviscerator (which you don't have unlocked yet at that level) and combat shotgun (for quick snap kills of specials at almost any range).

I have a heavy sword right now but don't really like it.

Originally posted by Honk:

So are you losing health mostly in melee? In that case, it's just a skill issue of getting used to dodge dancing around and when to push block. You should be able to solo clear a diff 3 horde without taking damage. If from ranged enemies, you likely need to slide more, wiggle side to side when approaching (instead of a straight line), and keep cover between you and your target whenever possible, and use your ult as both a toughness restorer, gap closer, and a way to force big groups of ranged enemies to swap to melee.

I wasn't sliding at all so I'll try that out. I feel like I die either very suddenly or just get overwhelmed because I can't kill things very quickly. It's not really losing duels that's an issue, it's being tied up for so long that other things happen around me.

Originally posted by rcsmoke1:

You are a lvl 8 zealot that is the main issue. Most of the stuff that makes you tank doesn't come until later. idk Like most characters early on I just play range with the group then go in for cc and objective stuff when needed.

Level 2 difficulty is boring though

[Shadar]

Heavy sword is terrible. At low levels the Mk 1 Devil claw is nice, just heavy into a horde at head level.

Don't be afraid to use your F just as a toughness heal.

This guy sums up how to melee pretty well during the first part of his video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veLS7wNsjw0

Edit: with a little practice you don't need any feats/levels/gear to solo a diff 3 horde with little to no damage taken. Literally every class can do this.

[CH13F]

how we dont die? lotta dodging. till your hands get seizures.

[Angry Obnoxious Goose]

Originally posted by pi73r:

1. Don't take stray hits.
2. Your passives and actives literally let you stay on full toughness all the time.
3. It's time to learn how to melee properly. Fighting an ogryn or rager shouldn't be risky at all.

Chain Weapon on Big Brutes work wonders with the stagger effect and how it's not a 'one hit' weapon but a repeat chainsawing effect.

[Angry Obnoxious Goose]

Originally posted by CH13F:

how we dont die? lotta dodging. till your hands get seizures.

It's how I stop my Veteran from getting mauled cuz stupid 'from behind enemies' are a pain in the literal ass and really is annoying. and getting a horde from the front means you need to dodge well.

[Hex]

Step 1, get an eviscerator.

Step 2, learn to dodge, block and pushblock. I'm not saying that as a slight, but genuinely learn to move and take advantage of your dash. If you get overwhelmed, do a quick 180 and dash away. At 30 you can get a 2nd dash, which has saved me countless times.

I just came out of a malice scripture hunting run and took a total of 20 hp damage. It's not hard, practice.

[Angry Obnoxious Goose]

Originally posted by ArtificialCutie69:

As a Zealot you need weapons that allow you to be versatile. For ranged, this means Braced Autoguns until you gain access to the Flamethrower or Bolter.

For melee, its a bit more complicated. You want something with some cleave so can deal with hordes, but you also want Armor Pen to get through armor.

At low level, I found the Antax Mk V Combat Axe offered a decent mix of cleave and armor pen. The push attack gives you access to a very fast cleave. Its Light attacks have low cleave but deal enough damage to 1 shot grunts, and you can weave its cleaving push attack into your combos very easily. When something big appears, spam its relatively fast Heavy Attacks for decent anti-armor.

Once you get to a higher level the chainswords and chainaxes will offer much stronger options for both horde clear and anti-armor that are still versatile. Or you can start building towards the crit knife bleeding build.

Also, if you go with a chainweapon, have a fast-shooting horde-mulcher weapon (like a flamethrower, actually).
I've learnt the hard with with a veteran character of all classes, that going bolter and chainaxe/chainsword is an invitation for horde-mob death cuz you're specialized to target elites.

[Hex]

Originally posted by ArtificialCutie69:

As a Zealot you need weapons that allow you to be versatile. For ranged, this means Braced Autoguns until you gain access to the Flamethrower or Bolter.

For melee, its a bit more complicated. You want something with some cleave so can deal with hordes, but you also want Armor Pen to get through armor.

At low level, I found the Antax Mk V Combat Axe offered a decent mix of cleave and armor pen. The push attack gives you access to a very fast cleave. Its Light attacks have low cleave but deal enough damage to 1 shot grunts, and you can weave its cleaving push attack into your combos very easily. When something big appears, spam its relatively fast Heavy Attacks for decent anti-armor.

Once you get to a higher level the chainswords and chainaxes will offer much stronger options for both horde clear and anti-armor that are still versatile. Or you can start building towards the crit knife bleeding build.

You do realize eviscerator is a crit bleed weapon as well? The knife is completely overrated garbage. I've ran with many that use it and they are useless and need babysitting constantly.