🏹🛡️ How To Play Zealot – Tainted Grail: Conquest

Hello everyone, and today we’re going to continue our how-to-play series, and this time we’re going to learn about the Zealot. We’ll be going about the basics of this class, what deck and runes we will be using, and also giving you a basic understanding of how this class works. So lets go and show so that you can try to play as the Zealot by yourself!

The Zealot – Basics

The Zealot is a class that focuses on shooting a big finisher and dealing a good amount of damage when finally doing so. He has weak attributes, but you can buff him, and deal a good amount of damage by waiting for the right opportunity. His ultimate charges by discarding cards and uses their energy to create a powerful elemental arrow.

His ultimate will randomly draw one out of three elemental cards, and after using this card, it will be removed from your deck. As long as you do not use this ultimate card, if you use your ultimate again, that ultimate card cannot be chosen again. So you could go and get all of them and then use them in a single turn. Otherwise just summon a powerful arrow and use it instantly.

The Deck

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Cardwise a Zealot mostly plays like a Sentinel or Apostate. Your Ultimate can be charged faster the more 0 cost cards you have. If you use Quivers you are mostly blocking yourself on summoning your Ultimate Arrows. The following cards are pretty good:

• One Aimed Shot for 200% damage or an Upshot for 400% damage are great to have. But beware the Upshot negates an energy for the next turn.
• Shot of Hope for an additional card draw can be fine, if you have enough energy
• Lob Shot is so good! Always get this. 7 shots on random enemies. Grubs or Skeletons will be melted in seconds.
• Acid Shot for the Armor reduction is a must have
• As Utility a Tactical Mastery from the Man at Arms is always nice to have
• I cannot remember the Quiver that grants you Arrows for Armor Reduction, but that one is really good to have!

Additionally you get one of three Spirit Arrows on using your Ultimate. These are:

• Fire Shot – Deal 1 Hit and Reduce Armor by 25 for 1 turn
• Water Shot – Deal 1 Hit and reduce targets damage by 10% for 1 turn
• Air Shot – Flat 1 200% damage hit

These effects do scale with the amount of charges used. So the Fire Shot can reduce Armor for multiple turns if used with more charges. The Air Shot even gets way more powerful.

Passives

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Passives do rely a little bit on Luck, but if we can choose we would take the following:

High Priority:

• Quick Aim is a must have for the Zealot. You get 2% more damage on next Hit for each unused point of Barrier. So if your Feints grants you 300 Barrier. You get 150% more damage next hit. BAM!
• Great Arrows not only boosts your damage by 25% but it also changes Elemental Arrows to have Piercing. On higher difficulties this is really good to punch through 75 armor.
• Resurrection is a nice utility if you do something wrong. It grants you a new life if your barrier is broken and you are getting killed.

Totally fine:

• Ruthless Draws grants you +50% damage on next hit if you play a Maneuver or Quiver
• Hunter’s Dream gives +25% damage on the first Hit each turn
• Munitions Recycling grants +20% on next Hit for discarding Arrows or Spirit Arrows. Its fine.
• Padded Wyrd-Coif is nice early game to get +10 Armor. This just increases the amount of Barrier you can get.
• Pressure Points is good to have to deal 50% more damage on each 4th Hit
• Shoot to Forget allows you to deal +25% damage every second Hit
• Shoot to Remember grants +300% damage on every 8th hit
• Stairs of Bodies gives you +100% damage on next hit after killing an enemy. Nice against Grubs.
• Strong Grip boosts you by +2 damage
• Vital Point deals every 3rd Hit 100% more damage
• Withdrawal is only good if you have Quick Aim, otherwise its bad. It gives you 10 Barrier after discarding an Arrow
• Caltrops is nice to have to reducing the Armor of ALL enemies while discarding Arrows. Its only for 10 each and 3 turns, but still nice
• Calm Advantage reduces the cost of the next Maneuver by 1 if you already played 6.
• With Spiral your 4th Arrow deals 100% more damage
• Well-Earned Reward grants 3 Ultimate Charges on killing an enemy
• Vantage Point is good if you have Quick Aim. After killing an enemy the next Maneuver played is cost reduced by 2. That means more Barrier, so more Damage. Otherwise pretty bad.

Bad ones:

• Patience only gives you +100% damage on the next hit, if you deal no Hits this turn. So this goes Pathfinder Style…
• Relaxed Body gives +40 HP
• Delay only gives you +5% damage each turn. This is way to slow.
• Every 3rd Maneuver used in combat gives you 5 Barrier if you have Panic Attack.
• Unarmed Defense grants you 1 Armor for each discarded Arrow for 3 full turns
• Stunning Brilliance stuns a random enemy every 12th Stance card.
• Revel in Massacre heals you for 30 HP if you deal a hit over 300 damage. Kinda meh.
• Vampiric Arrows grants your 6th Hit 50% Lifesteal
• Concussion gives your 10th Hit a Stun.
• Loaded Weapon increases your Damage by +100% if you have full Ultimate Charges at the start of turn

At the time of writing some new Passives have been added to the game. I still need to unlock them, but as soon as done, I’m going to update the list.

Masteries

The Masteries for the Zealot are really weird. You would expect more Damage Upgrades like the Pathfinder. But NO, you only get new Arrows for your Ultimate Ability. I wish this would get changed. These Masteries should be Passives like with the Necromancer and his Lich form. But for completeness:

• Herald of Thunder gives you Thunder Shot – 3 Hits for 100% damage
• Herald of Nature gives you Psychic Shot – 1 Hit for 200% damage and reduce Armor by 25 and damage by 10 for 1 turn. So a combined Fire and Water Shot with more Damage.
• Herald of Heavens gives you Energy Shot – Deal 1 hit for 200% and gain 15 Barrier
• Harbinger of Light gives Light Shot – 1 hit 300% Damage
• Harbinger of Abyss the Void Shot – 1 Hit for 100% and Stun
• and Harbinger of Darkness the Dark Shot – 1 Hit for 150% as AOE

As with the basic Spirit Arrows these scale with more Charges. I would say the Psychic Shot and Dark Shot are pretty good to have.

Runestones

With our Runestones we have many options, but there are also some Runestones that are better than others. So lets have a look at those:

High Priority:

• Mythical Ger will grant us up to 25%/50%/75% extra damage for each weapon slot used
• Mythical Haegl will grant us up to 100%/200%/300% damage if fully charged
• Common Calc will help us to win normal battles on turn one through drawing 1/2/3 additional card which are cost reduced by 1.
• Mythical Ur will cost reduced every 5th/4th/3rd card played. Effectively this will grant us a free card each turn
• Mythical Yr lets our 5th/4th/3nd card being duplicated
• Common Ethel for increased Armor 10/17/30 are really important to get more Barrier. Even more important if you have Quick Aim. Aim for 75 Armor in total.

Totally fine:

• Common Tir which would grant us up 50%/75%/100% damage for 1/2/3 turn(s)
• Rare Feoh are fine for damage increase 100%/175%/300% or card draw 1/2/3 with cost reduction by 1
• A rare Ken is a worse copy of an Mythical Yr. Rather take the Yr. But if its not available its okish to duplicate on every 15th/8th/5th card played
• Mystical Beorc grant us an extra energy after every 3rd/2nd/1st turn. Since we mostly are not able to kill on turn 1, its fine.
• Rare Peorth can be switched for a Common Tir instead of having 50%/80%/150% more damage which is decreasing each turn by 5%. But still fine if the fight does not take long.
• Common Gar to get more base damage 2/4/6 are fine at the start but later they fall off
• Mystical Daeg grant or improves barrier can be usefull if you have Quick Aim

Bad ones:

• Common Stan for increased Health 10/17/30 or the Armor Reduction are not necessary
• An Common Eolh are only good on Level 3, but how on earth to get that far. On Level 1 they grant you every third turn maximum damage or minimum damage on enemies afterwards every 2nd or every turn on level 3. Since with Patch 1.2 these have been downgraded from Rare to Common its easier to reach lvl 3, but still hard
• Rare Gweorth with Armor reduction or gain are not necessary
• Rare Gyfu is an extra Hit or Barrier but only on not playing many cards
• Rare Lor with 10%/18%/30% Lifesteal is totally unnecessary
• Common Man are always bad
• In order to make use of a rare Nyd you would have to not use all your Energy. I would rather play any card from our thin deck
• Rare Os are a really bad healing stone for 1%/2%/3% after a battle
• Mystical Ear will grant is energy on having many cards or keeping unused energy.
• Mystical Ing will give us a chance for Healing Mixtures or Candles
• Mystical Lagu and Mystical Thorn can be useful for more Barrier effects, but mostly not
• A Wyn is bad, because we are not able to Stun that much.

Items

Lets have a look at good or bad items for this class to use. Everything that help us draw if necessary is good:

High Priority

• Talking Skull lets you draw 3/4/5 cards and after 1 upgrade also cost reduced by 1. Really good defensive option to draw a Stun card if none was drawn. As offensive option you can push out so much damage if you want through the extra cards.

• Tome of Knowledge also lets you just draw 1/2/3 more cards. Extra Draw = More Damage
• Wodden Flute with “A Stunning Song” is the best option in the game. 50% chance to Stun on each and every enemy. Can be used once per Battle and acquired from the Pied Piper. Getting this song might take a while.
• Gnawed Foot as an Escape Option is a lifesaver

Totally fine

• Acid Bomb reduce enemy Armor is great to kill on turn 1 if damage is lacking a bit
• Acid Flask same as the Bomb but single target
• Berserker Potion can be used to get more damage if you can Stun with a Shield Slam or are sure you can kill on this turn
• Consecrated Oil to get 100% extra damage is fine
• Healing Mixture of course is fine
• If you play a thin deck then Wayfarer Leaves are fine on the endless mode. You can trade Healing Mixtures against these to get free energy.

Bad Items

• Meat is a way worse way to heal than a Healing Mixture
• Oversaturated Runestone to fill your Ultimate sound ok, but I with all the mentioned Passives and Masteries we have enough charges.
• Sharpening Stone is mathematical good, but i a little bit to random for my taste
• Smoke Bomb to decrease damage is totally unnecessary, but still nice for endless runs
• Throwing Knives are not necessary to deal damage
• Warding Lore to get Barrier is not needed

Battle Rotation

You mostly play this class like a Sentinel and ignore its Ultimate. So just go for Damage on Turn 1 and try to kill as fast as you can. Quivers can help since your Ultimate is kinda bad.

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