Tank Zealot
 Zealot Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

WORK IN PROGRESS

Build Intro:

So this is a build i have been playing around with for a bit in Havoc 40.

Normally i would focus almost exclusively on damage boosting talents or talents that would get me into the frontlines as fast as possible when i make my builds, but it got to a point where the damage chase became a detriment and the lack of damage reduction talents basically made it so that i was just getting chewed up in the frontline.

Eventually i came to the obvious conclusion that it does not matter how much damage you can potentially dish out if you don't have the tools to survive efficiently enough to actually stay in the frontline and came up with this. This build will make you very tanky, but you will be a bit lacking in damage.

Build Description:

For this build we are going to take the fatmangus trifecta of Bleed for the Emperor, Restoring Faith, Faiths Fortitude and combine them with the DR we get from leaning into the bleed/crit part of the left side of the talent tree with talents like Scourge,Enduring Faith and Stalwart.

We also get a bit more staying power from the passive toughness regeneration we get from Enemy Within, Enemy Without and Stalwart.

Ability:

I used to run chorus on this build, but i have been running it with Fury of the Faithful for the last month or so, and it is much more enjoyable, both in terms of damage and general mobility. 

If you want to run Chorus it is still a great support ability to help your team stay up, as well as being a good get out of trouble button if you overextend or need to lock down some gunners. It also frees up a talent point as Chorus only needs 1 talent point to be efficient.

Aura: 
I normally run Benediction for the extra toughness DR, and because i normally don't find Beacon to be especially impactful in most scenarios, but with how the rework affected Aura placements in the talent tree its is quite simple to just swap to Beacon without moving any other points if you would rather have that.

Blitz:
I am going with Throwing Knives here, the other Zealot nades are... workable, but i rarely grab nade pickups these days due to how much work an Arbiter or Hive Scum can do if they have free reign over the nade pickups. They also synergize well with the ranged option i set this build up with, but more on that in the equipment section.

Equipment:

Dueling Sword MK V:

For my melee weapon i have opted to go for a Dueling Sword with Shred and Uncanny Strikes as my melee choice, Uncanny Strikes is an obvious lock in, and i like taking Shred for faster bleed application and better Enduring Faith uptime. 
I currently have it set up with Carapace damage to deal with Crushers, Maulers and Plasma gunner, and i also have Unyielding damage for better boss dps.

The pure power of the Dueling Sword also makes up for the fact that we dont have some of the damage talents that are available.

Most people tend to run the MK IV mark of the dueling sword, but i prefer the MK V, it has a couple of basic but fun combos to play around with, heavy into double lights is my favorite, with Fury of the Faithful active the two lights come out super quick and the second light does a surprising amount of damage, the weapon also feels slightly more mobile due to having a defence stat instead of a cleave stat.
 

Flamethrower:

For my ranged weapon i am using a Flamethrower as the weapon really shines when you are using the Everlasting Flame blessing combined with a crit build, good for horde clear, melts anything that's not carapace given a bit of time and space.
Took Blaze Away as my second blessing as i consider it to be the best damage increase blessing for this weapon.
For the perks i got it set up with Flak damage due to the fact that most enemies have flak armor where it matters for the Flamethrower, and i got extra critical chance as well to synergize with Piety and Everlasting Flames. Could quite easily swap out the crit chance for unyielding damage to deal with Bulwarks and Reapers more efficiently.
I also took Throwing Knives to cover some of the weaknesses that comes from having a ranged weapon with such limited range, but it's also good for skipping the flamers equip animation.

Curios:

We are going to be using three curios with the primary perk being 20-21% health, this is to synergize with the fatmangus trifecta. 

For our first secondary curio perk we are going to take 5% toughness perks, you could take 5% health instead, but i feel like toughness over health is the play here so you have a bit of a buffer before the ranged enemies damage starts eating into your health.

For our second secondary curio perk we will take 20% gunner resist, i personally like to dive gun lines, and having this perk allows me to do it a bit safer, and helps with chip damage from gunners sitting in the back.

For our last secondary perk i went for revive speed, this perk has helped me out so much, it does not only affect your revive speed, it also affects the speed you free people from nets, it affects the speed you pull up ledged people, and has been very helpful when i have had to do solo clutches.  

Alternatives:

Combat Blade:

The old reliable knife is another good option for this build, i run it with Uncanny Strikes and Lacerate to get the crit percentage up at a faster rate for better uptime on Enduring Faith. Also helps with getting into melee faster due to its movement tech.

Tactical Axe: 

Great weapon for both damage and mobility, i normally run Shred and Headtaker, suffers a bit vs normal carapace when running this build, and i tend to use something else when i have to deal with Rotten Armor.

Bolter:

Both version of the gun is a good ranged option with a lot of power that also benefits from the Throwing Knife animation skip. I normally take Cavalcade/Pinning Fire or Surgical/Pinning Fire no matter which mark of the gun im using, if the team has good range options i prefer using Cavalcade for a more mag dump centric playstyle, but if i have to pick up some slack in the range department i will go with Surgical and tap enemies while ADSed.
 

Misc Notes:

Keep in mind that Blinded by Blood seems to only activate on your own bleed applications, and as far as i am aware, if a target already has an bleed effect you are unable to apply your own bleed dot to the target, so if you are running with something like an ogryn that has the bleed talent, then swapping out Blinded by Blood could be considered.

You can potentially swap out Prime Target for Against the Odds i have tested it and generally find it to be more beneficial in Havoc due to the density, consider it if you feel like you dont need the extra toughness regen from Prime Target.