+12-24% Rending on Enemy Weak Spot Hit for 3.5s. Stacks 5 times.
+12.5-20% Critical Chance for 6s on successful Dodge.
+5-8% Strength for every 10% of magazine spent during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
Direct hits apply 1-4 Stacks of 1%% Brittleness for 5s. Stacks 20 times
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Reliable Havoc team comp right now seems to be one wildcard (Smyker usually), one Survivalist Aura Shout Vet, and two Zealots - one with Chorus and the other with Stealth or FotF. One Zealot takes Benediction Aura, the other takes Beacon of Purity Aura, depending on their talents.
This build is for Fury of the Faithful and Beacon of Purity, you can also swap to Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude without changing other talents.
If another Zealot already has the Beacon of Purity Aura, use this alternate setup:
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DESELECT The Emperor's Bullet
--- Option 1: Flamer Damage ---
SELECT Righteous Warrior or Restoring Faith
--- Option 2: Toughness Regen ---
If you want to use Shroudfield, use the same talents in my Stealth guide but swap Purge the Unclean with Holy Revenant .
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Blazing Piety is Zealot's best keystone, not because of raw damage, but because of the economic value choosing it over Inexorable Judgement provides. This remains the case in Havoc. In addition to allowing us to afford more defensive talents in the upper portion of the tree, we get access to Invocation of Death which is supremely valuable in Havoc, as you will be needing your ability as often as possible. Additionally, Blazing Piety helps with uptime on Enduring Faith, a key defensive talent in Havoc, considering how important it is to not let yourself drop below zero Toughness. (Shooters will execute you the nanosecond this happens). Last of note, Benediction and Beacon of Purity are both fantastic auras, but priority goes to Beacon of Purity. Corruption is extremely prevalent in Havoc, being able to cleanse it is huge.
Shield of Contempt and Good Balance help avoid incidents where you suddenly take massive amounts of damage in a split second from a brief miscalculation or moment of unawareness. In Havoc they are generally more valuable than the offensive bonuses from talents like Anoint in Blood and Purge the Unclean, but Duellist is still a must-pick. You are also absolutely senile if you think you can play this game mode without Thy Wrath be Swift or Until Death .
Holy Revenant is more important in Havoc than it is in Maelstrom, you need to have a buffer of Health when Until Death is on cooldown because as previously mentioned, shooters can drop your Toughness and hit your health at literally any second without warning. You need that 25% Health to escape bad situations without getting gunned down on the way out.
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Duelling Sword or Combat Blade are obviously the strongest picks, both for damage and mobility. Speed is particularly important too, both of these weapons can heavy attack speed boost. Chainsword and Relic Blade are also decent picks as Zealot's best runner-up weapons, but the lower mobility on the Relic Blade can become a serious problem when too many enemies are pressuring you alone. FotF Zealot is highly vulnerable to ranged attacks in Havoc as a frontliner with no de-aggro or Toughness overshield button. When your Toughness is depleted and your ability is on cooldown, it is critical that you are able to quickly escape large packs of enemies and reposition before the random shooters shred your Health to nothing. Trying to just restore it with melee kills and Second Wind alone often cannot outpace the absurd damage coming in from down range. It is always better to just reposition if you do not have cover or coherency.
Flamer is probably the strongest ranged option for Zealot in Havoc, burn damage ignores enemy DR, and the flames suppress the OP shooters, allowing you to shut down their deadly firing lines. Normally Blaze Away + Everlasting Flame is the ideal sustained DPS combo for Piety Zealot, but ammo conservation is very important in Havoc, magdumping should only be done against large packs of elites. Due to this, it makes more sense to take Penetrating Flame, as you can expect that enemies are likely still going to be alive when your magazine is empty.
The brittleness debuff (maxes out at 20% after 2 seconds) lasts for 5 seconds after direct fire ends, allowing it to contribute towards your melee damage. It also allows you to significantly wear down packs of Crushers mixed in with whatever else you are flaming, which tremendously helps take the pressure off you and your team when trying to finish them off in melee. If you are particularly worried about them curb stomping you in a desperate moment, you can even just keep your distance and blow through 2 magazines (or 1 if you are patient and keep the burn stacks up) to completely get rid of a whole pack of them. Overpressure is another option, it offers slightly higher direct damage when combined with Blaze Away, but it basically necessitates you magdump to get its full benefit, so ammo efficiency comes back into question. It also doesn't help with the Crushers, obviously.
I don't know how to spawn Havoc enemies in the meat grinder for testing so I can't really say what the right choice is against greenies, but against normal enemies, there isn't much of a practical difference in time to kill between the two blessings, so Penetrating Flame has more value in Havoc due to the extra utility and its contribution towards ammo conservation. Also, its worth nothing that Inspiring Barrage is a viable replacement for Blaze Away in Havoc, the amount of chip damage it prevents over the course of the match can potentially bring you far more value than just extra damage.
FYI..
Bolter with Puncture and Shattering Impact is also a good choice for shooter suppression and getting past the crazy DR, but very ammo hungry.
Don't bother with the Zarona or Autoguns, they hit like nerf guns against Havoc enemies and there isn't enough ammo to compensate.
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I have always advocated for +Max Health on Zealot (and Vet) up until this point, in Havoc, I think investing in Toughness makes more sense.
I won't repeat what I've already typed like 5 times, I'll just sum it up like this:
Normal Darktide: good zealots only take damage when the director abuses them, any time this happens Toughness is almost guaranteed to be zero'd no matter how much you stacked it, Health keeps the bad director from touching you inappropriately
Havoc Darktide: good zealots are constantly bombarded with unavoidable shooter spam that deals 2x the damage it does in normal darktide, most incidents of Health damage in havoc occur when this obnoxious spam succeeds in fully depleting your Toughness (which can happen in literally like half a second) The best defense against that occurring is to keep your Toughness above zero as often as possible.
Toughness is effectively % Bullshit Resistance in Havoc.
