Zealot and armored carapace elites

[sheap]

I am complete noob with zealot (around lv9, also I only played Ogrym and Psyker until now, around lv 28) and I struggle to kill elite carapaced ennemies in Malice compare to my psyker or Ogrym.

So I was wondering what are your different ways of dealing damage on carapced elites on Malice ?

[Medicles]

Use the Zarona Revolver... thats about it, no need for anything else on Malice.

[Xarko]

Well zealots also have thunder hammers, not sure what level you need to unlock those though.

[Tunnfisk]

Originally posted by sheap:

I am complete noob with zealot (around lv9, also I only played Ogrym and Psyker until now, around lv 28) and I struggle to kill elite carapaced ennemies in Malice compare to my psyker or Ogrym.

So I was wondering what are your different ways of dealing damage on carapced elites on Malice ?

You can try weapons in Psykhanium against Crushers to see what works. Also, if you didn't know, in your inventory, you can click a weapon, press V, then press E. That will show you how effective the weapon is against various types of enemy armor.

For my Zealot, I just run a regular ol' Antax MK5 Combat Axe. It works against every type of enemy in the game. Heavy attacks for Crushers, Reapers and Bulwarks. Light attacks against everything else. For ranged, I used flamer for the longest of times. Now I use Columnus MK5 IAG.

[TheAratek.]

i would say, as someone who mostly plays zealot, let your team take care of them if you lack the weapons for it.
the "charge ability" gives you the ability to ignore the armor of enemies for some seconds even if you shoot at them.
i play mostly a crusher/agripina braced autogun build with chorus, so im the guy that staggers/keeps the enemies away from my team, the crusher works decently well against carapiece with the charged hit staggers like everything except bosses and even your normal light and heavy attacks send maulers flying

[PrometheusGER]

Ironhelm Mk IV Thunder Hammer works great for me across all difficulties, pairing it with the Accatran MG Mk II Heavy Laspistol will reduce the downsites of being less mobile and your also still being able to quickly take care of disablers and shooters.

[Sciophyte]

I'm getting very consistent results with a Boltgun (great single-shot dmg for some limited sniping but also good for mowing down specials or groups of tough enemies in a pinch—just factor in that it can be slow to ready) and a Heavy Eviscerator (the special attack slices into flak and carapace armor quite nicely). Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude works on pretty much everything except those big slugs if you need some breathing room (while your mates ideally butcher all those staggered enemies).

[sheap]

Originally posted by Tunnfisk:

Originally posted by sheap:

I am complete noob with zealot (around lv9, also I only played Ogrym and Psyker until now, around lv 28) and I struggle to kill elite carapaced ennemies in Malice compare to my psyker or Ogrym.

So I was wondering what are your different ways of dealing damage on carapced elites on Malice ?

You can try weapons in Psykhanium against Crushers to see what works. Also, if you didn't know, in your inventory, you can click a weapon, press V, then press E. That will show you how effective the weapon is against various types of enemy armor.

For my Zealot, I just run a regular ol' Antax MK5 Combat Axe. It works against every type of enemy in the game. Heavy attacks for Crushers, Reapers and Bulwarks. Light attacks against everything else. For ranged, I used flamer for the longest of times. Now I use Columnus MK5 IAG.

I ve tried a few weapon, no one so far that worked efficienbtly on carapace, my guess is the start of this class just really struggle with carapace ennemies, I just unlocked the zarona I am gonna give it a try (no other options from what you all said atm)

(The antax MKV doesn't pack a lot with me, but that might be build specific)

EDIT : Zarona seems like the only "ok" solution so far, but I must do something wrong, because I read that Zealot is very accessible class but I feel I am lacking way to handle elite as quickly as with the grenade glove or the special move of the shovel, even the shotgun feel like it pack more punch against armored elites, (same same with psyker) what am I missing that make the zealot so op ? Just some level ?

[Badgersbeard]

As a newbie myself, and very low level with Zealot, I've had success using either the chainsword special attack, the revolver or just mag-dump a shotgun.

My Ogryn does it quicker/ safer, but it's certainly doable assuming your team-mates don't just delete them straight away. At low levels there really aren't that many carapace enemies about, and they tend to get focused hard when they do pop up..... I'll definitely go for them on my Ogryn when I see them, before they jump on one of my squishies if at all possible.

[ナルゴ]

Special attack on power or chain weapons. Heavy attacks with knife. Axes in general.

[Wang]

If you do the special attack with a chain weapon, you can zealot charge while its shredding to apply a massive crit buff to each instance of the attack

[xDaunt]

Zealots have a harder time against carapace armor than any other class simply because they have fewer options for dealing with it. When you are building your zealot, you have to keep those limitations in mind make sure that you have something that can handle carapace when you run into it. Zealot should always be built around the melee weapon. If you take a melee weapon that is good against carapace (hammers, chainaxes, axes, eviscerators, knives), then you don't need to worry about whether your ranged weapon can deal with carapace. If you take a lighter melee weapon (ie catachan or heavy swords), then you are going to need to bring a bolter or revolver along as your ranged weapon. You can use something like fury of the faithful to give you some situational burst damage against carapace with other ranged weapons, but it's not a very sustainable way of playing on the highest difficulties.

[vodan]

On lvl 7 on zealot you get power maul,(Indignatus Mk IVe Crusher) thats not the best damage,(but dont remember how this damage is on malice) but special heavy attack can stagger 10 crushers or open 10 shields, and on higher lvls you can be just immortall with this thing. And with right blessings crushers cant stand on legs after 4 light attacks, and shields can be opened without special attack.

[Arani]

Originally posted by sheap:

I am complete noob with zealot (around lv9, also I only played Ogrym and Psyker until now, around lv 28) and I struggle to kill elite carapaced ennemies in Malice compare to my psyker or Ogrym.

So I was wondering what are your different ways of dealing damage on carapced elites on Malice ?

Zellies have so many ways really. But like all classes, you must start by designing your build around being able to counter every threat. If not, then accept the outcome and depend on your team (which I don't recommend, but sometimes weird ultra-specialized builds can be fun too). In practice this means picking a melee, ranged, and talents that together let you deal with hordes, specials+, ranged, and crushers.

To name a few of your options specifically:

• Your FoF ult has a hidden property which gives massive armor penetration for 5s to everything you do, including DoT's like bleed & burn, melee, ranged, etc.
  
• You can burn 100 crushers with a flamer for 4-5s to build up the DoT, then tap FoF once and watch them all melt. Or just take any infantry rifle, BAG etc. and tap the ult while you focus a few of them down
  
• Hammers work great against carapace
  
• The Crusher maul isn't fast, but it's reasonably strong and reliable with its powered heavies doing CC to groups as you kill them
  
• The Thrust blessing in many melee weapons can increase your power by up to 60% per swing, turning for example Combat Axes into decent anti-crusher weapons
  
• Knives with the Uncanny Strike blessing can penetrate armor, making quick work of anything
  
• The Agripinaa shotgun's special rounds do massive precision dmg and have good armor penetration, I imagine on Malice they will kill crushers with ~2 headshots & 3 chest shots no matter what your stats or build
  
• A Zarona revolver with Surgical & Hand-Cannon should be able to 1-2 tap crushers easily, just aim for 1-2s to let that surgical build for the guaranteed crit

That should be enough to get you started. c:

[sheap]

Originally posted by Arani:

Originally posted by sheap:

I am complete noob with zealot (around lv9, also I only played Ogrym and Psyker until now, around lv 28) and I struggle to kill elite carapaced ennemies in Malice compare to my psyker or Ogrym.

So I was wondering what are your different ways of dealing damage on carapced elites on Malice ?

Zellies have so many ways really. But like all classes, you must start by designing your build around being able to counter every threat. If not, then accept the outcome and depend on your team (which I don't recommend, but sometimes weird ultra-specialized builds can be fun too). In practice this means picking a melee, ranged, and talents that together let you deal with hordes, specials+, ranged, and crushers.

To name a few of your options specifically:

• Your FoF ult has a hidden property which gives massive armor penetration for 5s to everything you do, including DoT's like bleed & burn, melee, ranged, etc.
  
• You can burn 100 crushers with a flamer for 4-5s to build up the DoT, then tap FoF once and watch them all melt. Or just take any infantry rifle, BAG etc. and tap the ult while you focus a few of them down
  
• Hammers work great against carapace
  
• The Crusher maul isn't fast, but it's reasonably strong and reliable with its powered heavies doing CC to groups as you kill them
  
• The Thrust blessing in many melee weapons can increase your power by up to 60% per swing, turning for example Combat Axes into decent anti-crusher weapons
  
• Knives with the Uncanny Strike blessing can penetrate armor, making quick work of anything
  
• The Agripinaa shotgun's special rounds do massive precision dmg and have good armor penetration, I imagine on Malice they will kill crushers with ~2 headshots & 3 chest shots no matter what your stats or build
  
• A Zarona revolver with Surgical & Hand-Cannon should be able to 1-2 tap crushers easily, just aim for 1-2s to let that surgical build for the guaranteed crit

That should be enough to get you started. c:

So many hidden simple mechanics, thanks to you, fatshark sucks so much at explaining basic stuffs while giving overly detailed numbers about weapon and their movement.

[Arani]

Originally posted by sheap:

Originally posted by Arani:

...

So many hidden simple mechanics, thanks to you, fatshark sucks so much at explaining basic stuffs while giving overly detailed numbers about weapon and their movement.

Can't argue with that. But on the other hand, that's also part of what makes Darktide special. I've spent a year with this game and still today I keep learning so many things I had no idea were there. It has a staggeringly deep system of both secrets and also obvious interactions that many have no idea are even there, because they never thought to ask (or test).

Virtually every single game instantly devolves into simple cookie cutter meta that's predictable, boring and entirely void of any sense of joy of discovery. But this game still keeps me interested. :>