Warhammer 40K Darktide: Zealot Preacher
Quick Links
The priests of the future love nothing more than to deliver swift justice using massive hammers and terrifying flamethrowers. Well, at least according to the Warhammer 40K universe. If you, too, want to take the battle to the heretics and purge them in holy fire in the name of the Emperor all you have to do is play a Zealot Preacher in Warhammer 40K: Darktide.
Related: Warhammer 40K Darktide Zealot Preacher: Tips & Tricks For Beginners
When you’re just starting out, the Preacher class feels a bit like a one-trick pony that doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from the Ogryn Skullbreaker in terms of its role on the team. However, once you begin acquiring some of those sweet Preacher-exclusive weapons you’ll find that this class is actually quite versatile. But just like with all the other classes in Warhammer 40K: Darktide, your playstyle will largely be dictated by your build.
Zealot Preacher Close/Mid-Ranged AoE Build
This first build focuses on the iconic Flamer and uses the Heavy Eviscerator as a backup weapon. The goal of the build is to optimize the Preacher’s short and mid-range capabilities, allowing you to deal with hordes of enemies faster and more efficiently. You won’t have any long-range options with this build but, then again, that’s not something the Preacher excels at anyway.
Feats
Level 5 | Enemies Within, Enemies Without | The Flamer has a pretty short range, especially when using the primary attack. But even when blasting on full auto with the secondary attack you’ll still need to be fairly close to enemies in order to torch them properly. In fact, a lot of the time you’ll find yourself having to use the Flamer at nearly point-blank range, which is exactly when this Feat comes in handy. Since you’ll be spending plenty of time surrounded by enemies anyway, you might as well get some Toughness out of it. |
Level 10 | Punishment | Similar to a lot of other stats and status effects in Warhammer 40K: Darktide, Impact isn’t really explained in-game. But essentially, Impact dictates how hard you can stagger enemies with your attacks. ‘Punishment’ increases that valuable by a significant amount while also preventing enemies from interrupting your attacks once you reach the maximum number of stacks. A lot of weapons benefit from this Feat, but it’s especially useful in the case of the Flamer. |
Level 15 | Benediction | ‘Benediction’ basically upgrades the Zealot’s Aura ability and allows you to grant more toughness damage reduction to nearby allies. All the Feats you unlock at level 15 revolve around Coherency, so it’s a good idea to pick the one that benefits your party the most. If you want to play it safe, go with ‘Benediction’ because it’s the most consistent of the bunch. |
Level 20 | Thy Wrath Be Swift | You’ll have a pretty difficult choice to make at level 20 since ‘Thy Wrath Be Swift’ and ‘Holy Revenant’ both work great with a lot of builds. ‘Holy Revenant’ is clearly better for melee-focused builds, but since you’ll be focusing more on ranged, you’ll want to go with ‘Thy Wrath Be Swift’ for that extra mobility. Being able to reposition yourself quickly is important when you’re using a bulky weapon like the Flamer. The Feat also prevents enemies from stunning you with melee attacks, which is very nice to have, too. |
Level 25 | Emperor’s Executioner | ‘Emperor’s Executioner’ is a no-brainer with a build like this. The Feat seems to have been designed specifically with Flamers in mind, though it could benefit other ranged weapons as well. While the Feat doesn’t specify how close you need to be to the target to receive the maximum benefits, it’s safe to say you’ll almost always see a noticeable increase in your damage output when using the Flamer. |
Level 30 | Purge The Wicked | The final row of Feats is all about improving the Zealot’s class ability, Chastise The Wicked. The ability isn’t amazing if you’re running a build mostly focused on ranged weapons, but it does have its uses since you’ll still need to fight enemies in melee from time to time. For this particular build, you’ll want to go with ‘Purge The Wicked’ and use that extra charge to gain even more mobility. You’d be surprised by how often you’ll need to reposition yourself in combat when using a Flamer. |
Weapons
Purgation Flamer: The Flamer has already been mentioned about a dozen times by now, so you already knew this was going to be your primary weapon. It is worth noting, however, that you’ll want to mostly stick to auto fire since the basic attack can barely kill a measly Poxwalker, let alone an entire horde of them.
Related: Warhammer 40K Darktide: Psyker Psykinetic Best Builds, Weapons, And Curios
Extra Damage to Unarmored Enemies is a very solid perk for this weapon and then for the second one, you’ll want either Increased Ranged Critical Strike Chance or Reload Speed. Alternatively, the Quickflame blessing is another good option for increasing the reload speed. Ideally, for the second blessing, you’ll want to go with Fan the Flames.
Heavy Eviscerator: The Heavy Eviscerator is a brutal weapon that can make short work of most types of enemies. It’s a great backup weapon to use when your Flamer is out of ammo as it can easily cleave through groups of weak enemies. It’s also a solid weapon to use when you need to take out Elites and bosses, especially when combined with Chastise The Wicked.
Increased Melee Critical Hit Chance is a great blessing for a weapon like this for obvious reasons. Same with Increased Attack Speed. For perks, you’ll want to go with Momentum and Savage Sweep, especially if you’re using the Heavy Eviscerator primarily against hordes. Otherwise, Rampage and Shred might be better choices.
Curios
With Curios, you’ll want to go with a little bit of everything. Extra health is particularly useful if you want to take full advantage of Martyrdom, but you should also consider getting some extra toughness and damage resistance against enemies that specialize in long-range attacks.
- First Curio blessing: +1 Wound. Perks: Damage Resistance (Snipers), Damage Resistance (Gunners), Corruption Resistance
- Second Curio blessing: Toughness. Perks: Stamina Regeneration, Toughness Regeneration Speed, Toughness Damage Reduction
- Third Curio blessing: Max Health. Health X 3
Zealot Preacher Single-Target Melee-Focused Build
This second build focuses on attack speed and another iconic Zealot-exclusive weapon, the Thunder Hammer. Although the Thunder Hammer does have decent AoE potential, it’s even better against individual targets. The Thunder Hammer works differently than other melee weapons in that its light attack is good for single-target while its heavy attack is good for AoE, instead of the other way around. Your aim with this build is to focus on big enemies while letting the rest of your party take care of the hordes.
Feats
Level 5 | Faith Restored | You’re going to go up against a lot of strong opponents with this build, so it’s hard to say no to the toughness damage reduction provided by ‘Faith Restored’. The Feat also has good synergy with your class ability, which acts as a perfect tool when imitating fights against Elites, monstrosities, and bosses. Another reason why you’ll want to grab ‘Faith Restored’ as your first Feat is because this build focuses heavily on Martyrdom, thus making toughness even more important. |
Level 10 | Retribution | You’ll often find yourself running around at 50% health or lower in Warhammer 40K: Darktide, especially as a Zealot Preacher. You already gain increased damage at low health thanks to Martyrdom so might as well get some extra attack speed to go along with it. It’s probably best to avoid falling below 20% health if you can help even if ‘Retribution’ does encourage it. But if you do find yourself in that situation, at least now you’ll gain a benefit from it. |
Level 15 | Holy Fervor | Power is another one of those enigmatic stats that’s not really explained properly in-game, however, this one is sort of what you’d expect. Power increases damage output and damage reduction and always appears as a temporary buff. In this case, a 20% buff that lasts 5 seconds whenever you gain a stack of Martyrdom. With this build, you’re going to get two times as many stacks of Martyrdom as usual so expect ‘Holy Fervor’ to proc fairly often. |
Level 20 | Holy Revenant | Until Death is already an invaluable ability for a class that spends half its time-fighting at low health, but you can make it even better with ‘Holy Revenant’. This Feat allows you to heal yourself during that 5-second window that also makes you invulnerable whenever Until Death procs. The healing is based on the amount of damage you manage to inflict during that window, which can be quite significant thanks to other Feats like ‘Retribution’ and ‘Honour The Martyr’. Even more importantly, the healing effect gets doubled in the case of melee damage. |
Level 25 | Honour The Martyr | ‘Honour The Martyr’ is a simple but powerful Feat that boosts your damage by up to 30% when you’re at low health. Although low health is a somewhat subjective term when talking about the Zealot Preacher. Zealots start with 200 base health and you only need to lose 90 points of it to gain the maximum benefits of ‘Hounour The Martyr’. Martyrdom doesn’t scale with your health, so you can potentially add a bunch more of it via Curios and still have plenty to spare even after getting all the extra stacks. |
Level 30 | Fury Of The Faithful | Between ‘Retribution’ and Swift Exorcism, you shouldn’t have any issues swinging your Thunder Hammer at a reasonable rate thanks to the additional attack speed. But why not take things even further? With ‘Fury Of The Faithful’ you’ll get an extra 20% attack speed for 5 seconds whenever you use your class ability. Just in case you’re wondering, the increased attack speed you get from various sources does stack. |
Weapons
Thunder Hammer: The Thunder Hammer is your go-to weapon with this build so don’t hesitate to use it often. Don’t forget to charge it using the special action button when going up against particularly nasty enemies, and use it in conjunction with the Preacher’s class ability for maximum devastation.
Related: Warhammer 40K Darktide Veteran Sharpshooter: 9 Tips & Tricks For Beginners
Extra Melee Critical Hit Chance and Increased Attack Speed and very solid perks if you want to get a bit more damage out of this weapon. Meanwhile, for blessings, you should try to get Hammerblow and Trauma, both of which will help you stagger enemies for longer.
Combat Shotgun: The Combat Shotgun is the perfect backup weapon for Preachers who decide to focus on big single-target damage. While you will spend most of your time in melee, it doesn’t hurt to have a powerful ranged weapon when fighting enemies that are particularly problematic at close range.
Increased Ranged Critical Strike Chance is a given for a weapon like this and Reload Speed is another good perk to have since shotguns take quite a while to reload. As far as the two perks are concerned, Flechette and No Respite are very good options, with Full Bore also being worth considering.
Curios
You’ll want to keep things simple when it comes to Curios. A bunch of defensive perks wouldn’t hurt considering you’ll be spending most of your time on the frontline while some extra cooldown reduction will allow you to get more use out of your class ability.
- First Curio blessing: Max Health. Perks: Health X 3
- Second Curios blessing: Toughness. Perks: Toughness X 3
- Third Curio blessing: +1 Wound. Perks: Cooldown Reduction X 3
Next: Warhammer 40K Darktide: Everything You Need To Know About Grimoires And Scriptures
