Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

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How to Momentum Zealot
By Trauma
Momentum Zealot Guide

This guide will cover the build, equipment and strategy to effectively play a Momentum Dagger Zealot. This class, its builds and play-ability are arguably the most contested topic in Darktide and there are millions of different ways to play it. This guide is entirely from my own anecdotal experience on what works with over 2900 hours played in the game.
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Have questions?
Feel free to reach out in game FSID: 9151411822 or __Trauma on Discord (thats two underscores)

I also stream @ https://www.twitch.tv/traumaaaa
Disclaimer
By running this build its almost a certainty you will get comments about being selfish or speed running. Do all of us other knife zealots a favor and don't be that guy who runs to the airlock while looting... Look I know its fun to go fast and with this build if played correctly you're almost invincible but use that to support your team. Don't be this guy...
Melee Weapon ( Catachan MKIII or MKVI Combat Blade)
Both the Catachan MKIII and MKVI Combat Blade are viable in this build.

Base Stats, Blessings & Perks


Stat Priority
First Target
Damage
Mobility
Finesse
Penetration (throw away stat)

Perks
25% Carapace Damage 25% Flak Damage
These will make up for any lost Penetration.

Blessings

Uncanny Strike
Riposte
Due to the bulk of the Momentum tree buffs and protections being gained through Dodges and the increased dodge from Swift Certainty the 20% crit increase from Riposte will be up essentially the entire fight. Some people prefer precognition but I find that it works better when you have a high cirt output to begin with like a Blazing Piety build.


Uncanny Strike
I find Uncanny Strike is more versatile as opposed to Backstab since in some fights it is not an option to get behind a target. Also, Uncanny Strikes having a buff time of 3.5 seconds it allows you to load up on stacks by hitting lesser enemies and transition to a larger target. Uncanny Strikes also translate to your Blades of Faith making them extremely powerful against enemies that would otherwise give you a blue hit indicator without it.


Dagger Differences


Key difference is the MKVI and MKIII is found in the attack breakdown. The MKVI has the ability to power attack and perform Vanguard Strikes which will hit more than one target while the MK3 only can do Strikedown which hit only one target unless the initial target is killed and you swing through them to the next.



Ranged Weapon ( Blades of Faith )
Zarona Mk IIa Quickdraw Stub Revolver

NOTE: Point Blank appears to be broken in that it no longer triggers on a melee weapon kill only when the melee killing blow is made by the 6 dmg pistol whip. Suggest using Surgical in its place.
Thank you to Emy for making me aware of this I greatly appreciate it!

What you run as your ranged weapon with this build is really up to you. I prefer to run a revolver because I have trust issues with other players killing ranged special and with the ability to shoot through multiple enemies its perfect for shooting through a pack to kill a disabler.

Base Stats
Crit Bonus
Damage
Penetration
Reload
Mobility

The whole idea behind the revolver is a quick way to dispatch a disabler in a pack or a sniper at range. While reloading you can still maintain some mobility unlike a bolter and the option to reload a single round is substantially quicker than a bolter and can be done in a pinch. More importantly you can utilize Shoudfield with it in the event you need to make shot uninterrupted.






Blades of Faith

Your Blitz ability is you real ranged weapon which you recover through ammo pick ups and from making kills with your melee weapon. These are capable of one-shotting unarmored Ragers, gunners and shotgunners. Counter to what the tooltip says because we are running Uncanny Strike on the dagger Blades of Faith become exceedingly powerful against Maulers, Crushers, Reapers and armored Ragers after loading up on Uncanny Strike stacks.

Keep in mind these knives do penetrate so it is possible to throw at a special behind another mob and still hit them.

Curios

Primary Stat: Stamina Stamina Stamina

For this build I run 3x +3 Stamina because its quite literally one of the best stats. You can sprint longer, jump more, parry more attacks while reviving and avoid every zealots doom the no stamina 3 step stagger when you run out.

Secondary Stats

Toughness Regeneration
Toughness regeneration on a Zealot occurs 3 seconds after your last damage taken. Toughness Regeneration reduces this duration while increasing the amount of toughness regenerated while in coherency. Since we are running Loner we are always considered in coherency and benefit from this.

Stamina Regeneration
Stamina is life, life is Stamina

Corruption Resistance (Optional)
With the addition of martyr zealots being able to cleanse corruption this could be traded out. I like it for pox bombers.

Momentum Build
Take Note
This build buffs through damage avoidance. By dodging incoming attacks and movement in general you gain buffs and damage reduction. This works in harmony with the Riposte on your dagger as well.
Yes no Holy Revenant. Since the health returned was reduced to 25% I find that you very rarely can recoop that amount without putting yourself in more danger of going down. When your Until Death pops it should be a wake up call that what you tried to do was not a good idea and to be more cautious,
Sussie
I can already hear the groans. Yes Loner is an important piece to this build. Loner allows you while being off solo to count as being in coherency and benefit from the Toughness Regeneration on your Curios.
Movement Guide
As the name implies this build is only as good as you can move around in a fight.

Game Physics

Both the Slide and Strafe Dodge inherit whatever your current movement speed is. So if you are not sprinting and crouch you will notice your character doesn't slide as far or as fast The Combat Blade when winding up a power attack will greatly increase your speed for a short moment.

By triggering your Slide or your Dodge at the peak of the power attack speed boost will allow you to maintain that speed into your Slide or Dodge. Repeating this pattern will allow you to move about the fight at incredible speeds.

The same principal applies to other movement speed buffs you gain from Thy Wrath be Swift, Shroudfield and Swift Certainty

Closing the Gap on Gunners

Using the same power attack movement slide pattern described before you can reach gunners actively firing on you and take minimal damage.


Practice Makes Perfect

This build arguably has a very steep learning curve and it is a very intensive play style that might not suit everyone but after you have the movement mechanic figured out you can do some awesome things and its incredibly satisfying.

2 Comments
Keith, Buddy Of Ellis 2 Mar @ 5:20pm 
I was messing around with the zealot builds after getting bored of my regular one and found out i LOVED this play style. This gave me the extra tips I needed to fine tune my abilities and curio choices. Great guide king, thanks for making it
ouroborus 21 Feb @ 11:37pm 
best zealot guide NA