Looking for a good Zealot guide

[Disc0nnected1]

Did some browsing of the forums and seen many Zealot vs. X post but no straight forward Zealot guide. Would one of you be so kind as to point me to one.

Thanks.

Disc0nnected1

[katroulitsa]

There isn't just one optimal spec for zealots, like there is for doks for example. It all comes down to your own playstyle and your grp set up, since each tree offers a different "specialization". You cant spec the 3rd tree and run solo for example.

[Disc0nnected1]

I was just looking for tips and tricks (best practices) not an optimal build. I leveled in ORVR where I though I was doing pretty good. Now i'm doing mostly SC's and getting schooled hard. Yea, I'm experimenting a lot in different situations. I just don't like tanking an SC for 11 other people because I've think i've got some new clever idea I want to try out.

[Sulorie]

Don't worry, others do it all the time. It's quite difficult to be responsible for a lost sc nowadays.

[Vigfuss]

Make sure you don't ignore your defensive stats and tactics.

[Sulorie]

When you have the willpower tactic slotted, then you do it wrong.

[katroulitsa]

Lel there is no right or wrong way. Its plain stupid imo to not use the willp tactic before lvl31, simply cuz there are no other worth using tactics. As i said, it all comes down to ur own playstyle.

@OP: Definitely dont ignore your defensive stats cuz zealots are squishy and easy targets, especially for WLs and WHs. Practise your kiting (this is the most important part for me), stay in the back, dont forget to kite, detaunt, dont forget to kite and buy lots of ap pots
Overall, its a rly fun class but ugly as hell :/

[Sulorie]

Lel there is no right or wrong way. Its plain stupid imo to not use the willp tactic before lvl31, simply cuz there are no other worth using tactics.

I really want to know what tactics you consider worth using.

[Omegus]

Disclaimer: advice applies to tier 3 in RoR.

Core tactics to consider:

1. Blessing of Chaos (Rank 31). Crit direct heals bless the target for 10s, increasing the power of any heals on them by 25%. Always have this slotted.
2. Discipline (Rank 19). Improves your willpower. Useful at lower levels but other tactics easily take its place when unlocked.
3. Endless Gifts (Rank 16). Removes the cooldown on your cleanse but increases the AP cost. If you're pugging it this tactic is a life-saver and one of the things that kept me alive when healing or DPSing (and by DPSing I mean tagging kills for the RR). Laugh as you wipe out the BW's rotation that he just put on you. FYI it can also remove AM puddle snares... the snare gets reapplied eventually but you can just remove it again. At higher levels the DoK is usually the cleanse character.
4. Restorative Burst (Rank 29). When you crit with a direct heal you recover 40 AP over 3 seconds, or 20 AP per global cooldown. Zealots run out of AP very quickly so this tactic is usually a must.
5. Warping the Spirit (Rank 27). Your standard HoT has a chance of applying a huge armour buff for 10 seconds and reduce armour penetration. It's nice for medium and heavy armoured classes but the Zealot itself doesn't get too much benefit as most of its armour can still be bypassed. I haven't tried it with an armour stacked Zealot so it might be legit that way.

Mastery tactics to consider:

1. Chaotic Force (3 points in Alchemy). Increases the critical heal chance of Flash of Chaos which in turn can trigger some of the other effects on the tactics. Also, crits are nice. Very useful if you're solo healing as you'll likely be spamming this a lot. Also good if you're going to be kiting in a group and your gear doesn't have much heal crit stuff on it.
2. Tzeentch's Grip (11 points in Dark Rites). Direct heals have a 25% chance of putting a damage shield on the target. Preventing damage is good. Even if they're at max health trying to trigger this is worth it as it gives you a little bit extra time before their health starts to drop.

Personally I'm currently running Blessing of Chaos, Restorative Burst and Tzeentch's Grip at R31 RR40 and haven't really found any issues with it. I'm tempted to try Warping the Spirit instead of Tzeentch's Grip but in RvR most things seem to be dying to non-physical damage, i.e. Bright Wizards and Engineer AoEs.

Gear/stats/etc:

Renown: This might be out-dated with the crit-chance-reduction renown abilities being in the game, but go for Deft Defender first and then wounds.

Items: Stats in order are Wounds to stay alive, heal crit (or magic crit - it's all the same for a Zealot) to proc tactics, then willpower (or intelligence). Wounds first though - you're the squishiest healer with the crappiest defensive tools. Heal crit is hard to find in T3.

Talismans: Wounds, willpower (or int) or armour. Don't stack 100% willpower.

[Sulorie]

At higher levels the DoK is usually the cleanse character.

Not really, only against aoe debuffs flying around. DOK alone can't remove covered debuffs (usually on focus targets), while ZEAL could do it. You can heal as much as you want, removing the healdebuff or BW dots might end with better results.