An Actual Zealot Meta
 Zealot Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Been seeing the uh... unique "Zealot Meta (No Stealth)" build much too often which is disappointing considering it is giving new players incorrect ideas about how this vague game works. Any questions as to why I pick things or justify something, ping me in the Darktide Discord, user is leux_

Some things I will not explain in-depth such as how certain math works behind damage, weakspot, crit, toughness damage reduction, damage reduction and more. These are lengthy topics I won't bore you with. 

Key Terms 
TWBS - Thy Wrath Be Swift
DR - Damage Reduction
TDR - Toughness Damage Reduction
CDR - Cooldown Reduction

You can use any heavy sword you like with that blessing setup, I recommend using the 6 due to the moveset. I've also had success with any other finesse weapon with this build, except maybe a horrific double bleed knife. 

For the heavy swords, the blessings and maniac perk are a must. Look to get over 76% on cleave damage, damage and first target to hit some good breakpoints. (Such as 1 shotting dreg ragers)

For ranged any of the following are good choices as I use the kant shotty personally:
Infantry Autogun (Recommend Columnus) - Deathspitter/DumDum - Flak/Maniac
Zarona Revolver - Hand Cannon/Surgical - Flak/Maniac
Bolter - Shattering Impact/Pinning Fire/Cavalcade - Unyielding/Carapace/Flak/Maniac
Flamer - Blaze Away/Overpressure - Flak/Maniac

Each of the ranged weapons are viable and can fill different roles. The IAG's are beautiful generalist weapons, the Zarona is a point & delete tool due to the Surgical/Hand Cannon combo, Bolter can erase armor/bosses/ogryns, and the flamer is THE best ranged horde clear. Out of the list I would recommend an IAG/Zarona/Bolter/Kant Shotgun over the rest of the ranged arsenal.

With the talent tree there are a few things. You can swap to a different blitz and maintain most of the build. You could switch to stun grenades taking Vicious Offerings and not bleed for the emperor or could swap to knives taking the same stuff and using those extra points how you see fit. Swift Certainly and Pious Cut-Throat are flexible and you can swap that node as you like, I just prefer having CDR over something you can already do in the game. 

Certain nodes are a requirement to me simply due to how good they are which are: 
Thy Wrath Be Swift (TWBS) - Immunity to Melee and Ranged Stuns (I know the tooltip just says melee, Fatshark doesn't do stuff right.)
Second Wind - 15% Toughness for dodging... that's really good by anyone's standards.
Holy Revenant - You will never go down with this. Genuinely. It's a second life before going down. 
Duelist - Damage. Just more damage.
Fury of the Faithful - I think this is the best keystone that Zealot has and the best for high damage output weapons such as the Heavy Sword, Crusher, Devil's Claw, Rashad, etc.

Certain nodes I would not take on this build:
Bleed for the Emperor - Its good on a Martyrdom build, not Momentum or Piety.
Fortitude in Fellowship - Coherency regen is not really ever "On" for Zealots due to melee disabling coherency regen. (Its more in-depth than that, ask in #zealot-class in the Darktide discord.)
Retributor's Stance - The max toughness regen you get is 5% a second. That's nothing as you can just kill two poxwalkers to get 10% back in less time. Its an eh node.

Flexible nodes I'd take if you go with a throwing knife build:
Good Balance - Insane synergy with Second Wind, 25% DR is great.
Enemies Within, Enemies Without - 2.5% Toughness when in melee is lovely to have, its a nice way to regen toughness if you team isn't with you. 
Shield of Contempt - It is arguably the second best node that Zealot has for team support, after Chorus. 60% DR on an effectively 6 second cooldown is great! 

On the Curios choices, toughness has been estalished as king across every class... especially Zealot. The way toughness works is if you are 100/100, you take 0% melee damage. If you are 90/100 you will take 10% of whatever hit you in a simple explanation. Its a ratio that is used to lessen damage taken, not just prevent it. Thus, increasing toughness allows you to take less damage over a duration by reducing chip damage. 

My typical build has 212 toughness which allows me to take only 2-5 health damage from a mutant for instance or take 2-3 hits from poxwalkers without major health damage. You could swap a single toughness curios for a health one as both 2x Toughness 1x HP and 3x Toughness are viable curios choices for Piety/Momentum builds.

If I missed anything or if you have questions, please do ask in #zealot-class in the Darktide Discord. If I am not there as I usually am, ping me @leux_ or check ogryn-class/psyker-class. Other people I would recommend taking advice from are: Ancient, Lazorr, Mittins, Josho, Dough, Dawn_Priest, Vin, Exhillious, Zoe, Sterling, Arcotash, Epic_Cole and probably a few others I'm forgetting. All these players have extensive knowledge of Darktide and I highly recommend learning from them if you are interested in truly understanding Darktide's vague and weird mechanics.