THE META HAVOC 40 ZEALOT
 Zealot Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

PRAISE BE! THE META HAVOC 40 ZEALOT. According to me. Some personal choices were made but this is as good as it gets. An excellent blueprint for your own builds.

Tree and build:

• DUELING SWORD IS FINALLY GETTING NERFED! Here rises our new champion: The Relic Blade! Show our new arbitrator friends what melting through elites really looks like!
• Beacon of Purity is more effective than Benediction in most high havoc levels, and can especially keep your squad from becoming corrupted little gremlins on The Blight Spreads or pox levels. If there's another Zealot in your squad it's likely they're using Benediction, and coherency buffs don't stack! 
• Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude with coherency protection only rivaled by vet Voice of Command. Support abilities are key in high havoc. Especially useful as a cool-down period for your blade!
• Until Death is a tool for the "oh shit" moments until you can find healing. The small amount of health Holy Revenant gives isn't worth it since you should be able to avoid chip damage with a good team. Save a medstim for when this triggers!
• Blazing Piety with Duellist will give you massive damage with the relic blade and will be active nearly all the time.
• Dance of Death and the talents below are overrated! These points are better spent on heavy-hitters like Ecclesiarch's Call and Sustained Assault for maximum melee damage. It is worth prioritizing attack over defense here since this build assumes you and your squad mates are decent players. You can only survive if you kill faster than heretics spawn!

I definitely lean on the toughness side of the toughness/health curio debate, but the health boost from just one curio is noticeable. I also believe +5% health/toughness perks are worth it, every bit of health matters. Relic Blade doesn't benefit from stamina so much, and with some block efficiency perks it's not needed. It's not worth stacking more than two of most perks since the buffs multiply rather than add together. (ex. Adding a third Gunner damage resistance perk would only grant an additional ~10% resistance) 

Tips:

• For some reason I rarely see anyone do this but you can side-slide-dodge while booking to travel furthest!
• Spam book rather than saving it, Invocation of Death should keep it recharging fast enough for the next wave of enemies.
• Consider swapping in a quick draw weapon like the Bolt Pistol as a better alternative weapon when Relic Blade is cooling.
• You can save a talent point on Piety by opting for Stalwart. If you feel generous Infectious Zeal is a great choice with a good squad! You can also save a talent point by removing Until Death if you're insane.
• Consider swapping Ecclesiarch's Call for Faithful Frenzy or Anoint in Blood, which seems to work well with the flamer.
• Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.

Now that Dueling Sword is getting the nerf (sounds like Uncanny Strike is getting changed?) the "best" melee weapon isn't so clear. However, Relic Blade stands out in both its damage output and defensive capability. 

Flamer remains unrivaled in mixed horde clearing, however if you stick with Relic Blade, managing a slow, situation-specific weapon like the flamer will be a challenge. But with some smart Blades of Faith throws, using the blade while it's cooling won't be a problem. Interestingly damage is the dumpstat for flamer, it only affects the initial hit by a whole ~2 damage!

happy to take any feedback @randomspicy on discord

For the Emperor!