First of all, i'd like to say that this Class Mod has great potential, but has a few things i personally think could be done to improve it. So take these suggestions and my thoughts with a grain of salt, as it is just speculations and my opinions regarding the Zealot and all of her Abilities and Niches.

Before i get into Abilities, i would like to say that the way that i'd like to portray the Zealot is that she should be a tiny bit more like the Fanatic himself, secondly... that her Bloodsucker counter niche to become reinforced a bit, which i will say a few times in this review of mine, but if there's anything im missing that i should be familiar with, please enlighten me.

"Hateful Bash": Your general run-of-the-mill basic attack, there isn't much to talk about it besides being more effective against Humans with an occasional knockback. It is a fine Ability i'd say, but could use that it should also deal bonus damage against Bloodsuckers, reinforcing the niche and having an offensive oriented attack against them that can hit Rank 1 unlike "Ardent Hammer", considering the nature and look of the Ability, it seems like a low % chance Stun would be more appropriate than a Knockback, but that is just my opinion.

"Condemnation": As far as AoE Marks go, it is very potent when together with Heroes that can benefit from said mark, however... the low duration of the mark and negligiable damage makes "Burning Brand" more useful in most cases, as it also debuffs the targets ACC heavily. To keep in theme like the Fanatic himself, i'd suggest changing the Ability so it's only usable 1-2 times per Battle, but it also gives the Zealot a bit of a PROT Buff, much like Fanatic's own Ability version.

"Consecrate": An Ability that is designed to counter Unholy, more specifically Skeletons. It is all sorts of niche, but not a bad Ability. The Bonus Damage against Unholy seems massive, but in practice barely makes it scratch. As it only made the Ability hit for like 1-2 more Damage against the Unholy compared to a non-Unholy one. Just up the Bonus Damage a tad more i'd say.

"Ardent Hammer": A much necessary Ability for the Zealot to allow her to target Rank 3, it's Bleed helps the lower DMG Mod trade-off and it is generally good against most enemies, but is exceptional against Bloodsuckers in particular. No gripes about this one, it is perfectly fine.

"Burning Brand": A strong Mark Ability, while most focus on lowering their resistances, this one hampers their offense, thus making it a situationally more useful Mark against particular enemies. This is perfectly fine, but only concern is the ACC Debuff jump when Leveling the Ability higher, i feel it should be more linear, such as instead of going from -10 to -20 ACC from 1 to 2, it should be -10 to -15. Everything else is fine regarding the Ability however.

"Sentence the Guilty": This Ability is borderline amazing, but the amazing parts of the Ability is actually because of an unconventional thing regarding it. Such as using it to deny space and making Shambler fights much easier... But also because the Pyre is summoned at the very Front of the Ranks, thus synergizing well with backliners like Arbalest's since they can't hit Rank 1 with their "Sniper Shot" anyways. I only think however that the Bleed Damage the Pyre itself deals to enemies is abit too extreme, and should be toned down a bit.

"Seethe": The Ability i've had least experience with, it is quite conditional, but the DMG Buff increase is exponential! I feel the increase could be toned a bit, but the Self Heal upped a very small bit to compensate. The Stress applied is mostly trivial in the right party composition.

Now for Camping Skills, i will only mention the Zealot Specific ones as only they are relevant.

"Annointment": Borderline amazing, but a bit too strong, using this twice on the same Hero makes it a straight upgrade compared to Encourage that costs exactly the same. I'd either make it so the Ability (more preferably) can't be used more than 1 time on the same target, or lower the Stress Heal from 8 to 5, as to require it to target the same Hero 3 times to match the stress heal from "Encourage" Stress Heal.

"Make Penance": A powerful Camping Skill for recovering a massive amount of Stress and the conditional Mortality Debuff gained from Death's Door. I feel the Ability is mostly fine, but could use a bit more of a drawback to it as losing 15% of the Zealot's Health is fairly trivial.

"Inquisition": I absolutely adore this one, helping the entire party to become more effective against Humans makes it invaluable, unfortunately... I think it is a bit too strong, restricting the DMG Buff to only work against Human enemies would help restrict it's power down a peg.

"Grudge of The Blood": More situational and expensive compared to "Inquisition", but the ACC and SPD Buff is nothing to sneeze at. I feel the ACC Buff should be toned down to 25 or 22 to match "Inquistion" and making the Respite Cost considerably cheaper from 5 to 3 as it only affects the Zealot herself, as the Ability feels too pricey and hard-focused against Bloodsuckers.

And with that, my review of completed. I hope you found my thoughts about the Class insightful and useful in your strife for balance. Happy to keep playing the Zealot regardless of your choices!

Thank very much for your insights.

Originally posted by Sifr Ivangellis:

"Hateful Bash": Your general run-of-the-mill basic attack, there isn't much to talk about it besides being more effective against Humans with an occasional knockback. It is a fine Ability i'd say, but could use that it should also deal bonus damage against Bloodsuckers, reinforcing the niche and having an offensive oriented attack against them that can hit Rank 1 unlike "Ardent Hammer", considering the nature and look of the Ability, it seems like a low % chance Stun would be more appropriate than a Knockback, but that is just my opinion.

The thing with the Bash is that, the push is actually meant to be a minor detriment to prevent you from using it on the same enemy, especially if that enemy is on the 2nd row. But yeah I can see your point regarding the stun as the source of the ability is a wide AOE stun. Regarding the blood sucker damage bonus, I guess I could lower the human damage bonus to balance it out?

Originally posted by Sifr Ivangellis:

"Consecrate": An Ability that is designed to counter Unholy, more specifically Skeletons. It is all sorts of niche, but not a bad Ability. The Bonus Damage against Unholy seems massive, but in practice barely makes it scratch. As it only made the Ability hit for like 1-2 more Damage against the Unholy compared to a non-Unholy one. Just up the Bonus Damage a tad more i'd say.

I know someone is going to comment on this eventually. Apparently, the racial bonus damage does not subtract/or add to the skill's damage percentage mod but multiplies based on what the resulting damage would be, so if the attack dealt an initial damage of 1, even at 200% damage, you'll only be doing 2 points of damage.

I kind of torn with this one. Do you think I should lower the damage mod of the skill or should I up the racial damage mod? I want the ability to feel like as if a harmless splash of water on other enemies but feel like acid on undead, but then again those gigantic racial modifiers, I myself feel kind of ridiculous to look at. But hey, that's a minor nitpick of mine.

Originally posted by Sifr Ivangellis:

"Sentence the Guilty": This Ability is borderline amazing, but the amazing parts of the Ability is actually because of an unconventional thing regarding it. Such as using it to deny space and making Shambler fights much easier.

So glad you mentioned this. This class is actually my second to use a summoning mechanic, with the first being my unreleased alchemist class that summons homunculi which I used as some sort of prototype to study how summoning would work and it was quite a delight that summoning monsters came with the unintended strategic value of denying summons, pushing enemies back and most of all, giving you time to stall for heals and stress heals at your own leisure.


Anyway thank you again for your suggestions and I'll see what I can do to further balance this class.

I suppose that would be fair to reduce the Human Bonus Damage on "Hateful Bash" a little bit to accomendate the addition of Bloodsucker bonus. Maybe reduce it by 10%, making it for example +30% against Humans and +30% against Bloodsuckers at Skill Level 3.

Isn't the buff from Condemnation supposed to read "Buff Self" instead of "Buff Target"? Seems like a slight oversight, or is it something within the system that prevents it being written this way?

You're right, it does look pretty silly with that huge Bonus Damage against Unholy for Consecrate, but it is one way of doing it besides just improving the DMG Mod itself, but it's a minor nitpick as said from me as well.

I'll be letting you know if there's anything else worth discussing about should it arise.

Originally posted by Sifr Ivangellis:

Isn't the buff from Condemnation supposed to read "Buff Self" instead of "Buff Target"? Seems like a slight oversight, or is it something within the system that prevents it being written this way?

I know. I just found out way late because I'm probably tired or something so I kinda panicked when the buff happened on the monster instead.

I wanna thank you for this amazing mod and would like to propose something for the pyre ability

This ability was originally supposed to function like the Fanatic's, but it was too powerful as the game's capture mechanic will render a target immobilized until an ally will break him free and seeing as enemies have no way of attacking the pyre, any 'captured' enemies were as good as dead.

I realy like this concept so what if the pyre could capture an enemy like before but would bleed (or blight) itself to death in 1 or 2 turns ? To balance it you could add stress to all the other heroes when summoning it (This would make sense to be feared of a psychopath who enjoys burning her ennemies on a pyre).

Originally posted by Yoann:

I wanna thank you for this amazing mod and would like to propose something for the pyre ability

This ability was originally supposed to function like the Fanatic's, but it was too powerful as the game's capture mechanic will render a target immobilized until an ally will break him free and seeing as enemies have no way of attacking the pyre, any 'captured' enemies were as good as dead.

I realy like this concept so what if the pyre could capture an enemy like before but would bleed (or blight) itself to death in 1 or 2 turns ? To balance it you could add stress to all the other heroes when summoning it (This would make sense to be feared of a psychopath who enjoys burning her ennemies on a pyre).

I would love to, however at the moment there is rather serious issue in the game where if a specific enemy dies to an effect caused by a fellow enemy it would result in crash and corrupt your save file in the process. So far the only known cause of this was the Squiffy Ghast, but who knows how many other enemies are just as bugged and I cant risk ruining other people's saves.

So at the moment, my alternative to this "capture" mechanic is to simply stun both of them like in ActionJack's Kraken mod.

However, I am planning to add another skill to the Pyre as I have heard it's no longer beneficial to waste a turn summoning it.

Hey again Poljanan! Hope that "Consecrate" issue will resolve soon-ish so i can begin using that Ability against Bloodsuckers! I've asked out "Exaelus" to help you out with the coding, which he has agreed to help with, so just talk with him and tell him i sent you!

Having finally getting a Zealot to maximum Resolve Level and taking her to a Level 5 Courtyard at which she should thrive, there is a few unconvential things i think could be adjusted with her, and it's mainly "Resistances" against effects and ailments.

The Zealot has the exact same Resistances like that of a Vestal, which i suppose makes sense given their classifications, but it doesn't particularly aid her that well against Bloodsuckers, i'd like to see her get some more "Disease Resist", as to aid her in avoiding getting the Crimson Curse a bit more easier, and some higher "Move Resist" to help her remain in the front where she excels.

"Sentence the Guilty" has gotten abit better now, but i think the new added "Mocking the Damned" should work alittle bit more like the Cove's "Thrall", that it uses that Ability when it is the only enemy left or at the end of it's lifespan, and then immediately kill itself along with it's use.

Also, here's another Wild idea, it isn't what i'd call balanced, but consider it perhaps.

What if you made it so that the Zealot gives the special item the Fanatic drops called; "The Cure" which is a item that's made to remove the Crimson Curse? Maybe it could be part of the effect from her Camping Skill "Grudge of The Blood"? The Respite Cost can be increased for this addition, but you don't have to do it at all, it was merely an idea i wanted to toss out!

Keep doing good stuff!

Thanks. By the way, you're not experiencing any crashes are you?

Nope, i've been fortunate to not experience any crashes so far. Considering the rumor of Sentence the Guilty causes crashes, i felt alittle reluctant at using it, but did so anyway to see if it would.

At which it did not, no crashes discovered and received. I'll report immediately if i find something.

Originally posted by Poljanan:

Thanks. By the way, you're not experiencing any crashes are you?

Nope, i've been fortunate to not experience any crashes so far. Considering the rumor of Sentence the Guilty causes crashes, i felt alittle reluctant at using it, but did so anyway to see if it would.

At which it did not, no crashes discovered and received. I'll report immediately if i find something.

First off i wanted to say that I think the mod and the class is very unique and fun to play, my only issue is that the "sentence the guilty" ability is a bit overpowered, the negative chance of virtuous seems to be trivial due to the fact that the mocking the damned ability heals so much stress it seems that you will never be in a position to have a virtue check...i think its a cool ability, don't get me wrong, i just think that it can be balanced so it doesn't completely negate the stress system.....like say instead of 15 stress per round i can be lowered to 5-8 as well as the virtue debuff lasting the entire quest and not just a few rounds......because as it stands you can heal the entire party for at least 30 stress for 2 rounds, not sure if the bleed effect will stay longer than that for a possible 45 stress over 3 pretty much makes the stress penalty meaningless.

I love the class but unfortunatelly the screams from sentence the guilty ability are so loud and overpowering that i cannot play it comfortably. Is there a way of changing this constant effect to like a 1-2 second clip on use?