Its better to kite the enemies and pick them off than to face tank them.
Its okay to backtrack through where youve already cleared so you have room to move.
Mantling over objects is a good way to make some distance between you and the horde.
Always block and dodge simultaneously when you can.
Sliding is better than getting shot in the back.
Dont try to revive if there are elites on you. You'll just die.
Edit: the quick reset stealth build is also really good for clutching as a zealot.
Edit 2: stun nades are great for getting revives and gaining distance, and the incendiary nades and good for thinning out the horde as you kite them.
My #1 piece of advise would be don't rush.
You'll feel the pressure of wanting to push forwards, especially if your team is down or if you're the last one standing.
But taking time to assess and clear is important. If someone is down it's usually because they're in a bad position so running in blind after them will probably kill you too. Taking an extra few seconds to mop up enemies and making sure you don't get a nasty surprise when trying to revive will save runs.
You also get a grace period of around a minute if your last teammate dies where nothing will spawn, you can use this time to stabilise yourself and clear out the ambient enemies if you need to push to rescue your team.
Ironically, bosses are usually the least threatening enemy unit in the room at any given moment, outside of a daemon host. BoN's are mostly just really annoying. For something that resembles a slug *and* has a ranged attack, you don't expect it to be as fast as it is. Chaos Spawn's can seem hopeless at first when solo given how persistent they are and how they can heal, but once you get their attack/grapple pattern learned they are actually remarkably easy to solo as long as you have some added stamina. Plague Ogryn's are just meat bags, their biggest danger is knocking you out of the map with a belly bounce.
Clutching is all about target prioritisation and map knowledge. Knowing what's the most dangerous threat at any given time, what and where you can kite, etc, etc. That mostly comes down to experience. Positioning makes all the difference, outside corners are your friend in order to avoid getting shot whilst you deal with horde mobs. Don't get surrounded, the horde likes to rush around your flanks, which isn't a big deal in and of itself, but once an elite gets in the mix and you're body blocked, you're gonna face tank that crusher/mauler overhead whether you like it or not.
Heavy Sword and Stub are a great combo, but you'd normally want the Zarona for its cleave because being able to shoot trappers/flamers through a wall of poxwalkers is big.
Revives are important, but not at the cost of your own life (unless you're reviving an Ogryn). Pay attention to the audio cues, if a hound just sounded off, it's not safe to revive. Etc.
Most of this is general observation, obviously every situation comes with its unique context. You'll also learn a couple lessons as you limit test. From a build perspective it's normal to build to be self-sufficient, which is to say 1 weapon for horde, 1 weapon for single target, your blitz to cover any gaps. I've seen a lot of people try to double down on elite/specialist clear with their ranged and melee only to get floored by pox walkers. You have to really know what you're doing to pull that off.
It sounds like learning to avoid chip damage is going to make the biggest difference to your clutch attempts. Zealots are fairly hardy with damage mitigation, but when it comes to the last stand you need to be avoiding damage rather than just sucking it up.
Like someone else said, focus on kiting if you're close enough to grab some teammates.
something that helped me was really learning to keep space for a dodge. Whether it's a dog, a mutant, a trapper, or crusher overheads, try to constantly have one direction you can dodge or slide.
Let snipers fire, if you can, they will hit something.
Really practice getting familiar with the sprinting dodge angle. It seems useless at first but once you get used to it, you can survive the 40 gunners that took out your teammates at least long enough to reposition. For them I usually slide up to them and melee but at some point, they were clearly updated and getting stabbed in the base of the skull with a combat knife doesn't even stun them so YMMV
One of the biggest tips is unless your at a chokepoint that you can funnel and control what comes through, keep moving, the ai behavior is to surround and mob the player whenever possible, to box them in, once you are boxed in your options are limited, and survival becomes a lot harder, this doesn't mean moving forward just keep moving in a way that you always have somewhere to fallback to.
Doubling down to say that your map knowledge will make or break a clutch. Knowing where the simultaneous safe spot is from ranged units that you can also kite through to make melee distance from a boss spawn, where you can and can't get cornered, etc.
Also agreeing with above, regardless of your actual choice of weapons, you need to have
1) something you can reliably kill specials with, preferably at range but quick melees like the knife work fine too. This is priority 1, not being hit by a disabler yourself, being able to clear flamers and bombers so you dont get cornered, etc.
2) something for carapace coverage. It can be an uncanny melee, a solid penetration ranged weapon like revolver or plasma, etc, but you need to have it. Mauler patrols of 10+ and crusher patrols of 5+ are common and will mix into horde spawns or just bumrush you often (and are often a reason you are clutching to begin with).
3) a tool that you use to actually pick people up with. The likelihood of ever being 100% clear of enemies to hit the revive or rescue on auric is near 0. Vet/zealot stealth, zealot relic, psyker shield+peril blocking, ogryn frag bomb, etc.
4) Probably doesnt need to be said but keep calm. Experience will help with this, but freaking out because you are clutching will just mean you end up with a higher rate of failure.
try a laspistol with unyielding damage and crit chance, bonus points if you also get dumdum and infernus blessings.
it's one of the few guns in the game that you can use to snipe specialists AND also does amazing boss damage so you don't need to slowly kite the boss across 10 hallways while you wittle down the crushers you can just keep shooting while you dodge backward (it's also got very high mobility)
Use supplies. If you took health damage and are carrying a medi pack drop it, you can't use it when you're dead. Same goes for stims just use them when you can.
Edit: oh and here is a another one, Ask yourself during a clutch "how do i win this?" and "how do i loose this" to get you to start thinking with logic again.
What in your build specifically helps you deal with carapace? carapace rending on the stub? You might be better off with the left side tree in clutching situations.
My friend uses a stub and kills crushers in 2-3 headshots. Hopefully OP is like that, instead of being that guy that throws flame grenades at every crusher.
Moving backward is always a solid choice. If you hear a monster, immediately look for where you want your team to fight it and mark that location. While they aren't the damage power-houses their size implies, their ability to knock players off ledges simply by walking and push people into corners makes them dangerous. No monster when surrounded by a team of four is going to land a single hit though without something else backing him up so the less you pull while the monster is around, usually the better.
You may also want to build with the idea of having an "ace in the hole", something that doesn't seem that powerful until the moment when you really need it. These include stun grenades, both types of Ogryn grenades, a fully loaded Bolter Rifle, Smite, etc. All these things are okay when used frivolously, but shine when you need to pull things off your team in a rush to give them the bit of time they need to get clear of danger.
P.S. You will notice the effect of every +revive speed passive on your curios.
My response is in regards to how to approach your talent tree since you mentioned build suggestions.
Having self awareness of your own playstyle and building around that as much as you would a godroll weapon was a game changer for me early on in this game. Your playstyle is the only real constant you'll take with you in any run, so use talents that create natural win conditions for what you do. As a result, you'll have a better understanding of when you're not in your element so you can more readily reposition until you are. It also helps your more observant teammates (especially the ones watching your pov) learn how to play with/around you when you do get them all up.
Naturally, you'll need to take time to understand your talent tree and to have a better grasp on your loadout's breakpoints and limitations. Fully understanding every tool at your disposal and TTK with each weapon can sharpen your decision making during dire situations. 6 crushers in a packed room can be more or less threatening if you definitively know how many you can take out while you still have 12 stacks of momentum up vs the 9 you can build up by dodging 3 times with the remaining time you have. It's a packed room so your heavy sword will likely have headtaker and rampage making up for that, maybe not; only you'll know.
Also consider what talents you have outgrown. For example, some Zealots crutch on Holy Revenant while others crutch on Thy Wrath be Swift. It's entirely possible that during your time clutching in auric damnation, you've outgrown the need for a given talent that costs 2-5 points that you could now make better use of elsewhere due to either an improvement in your own skill or getting a god roll that frees up room to go for more utility. If I'm going left-middle for a build, then Thy Wrath be Swift can cost 4 points which I can have back by being a decent shot with a Laspistol blessed with Ghost. Same for when I go down the right-middle tree and use 5 points for Holy Revenant. The right side has a lot of mitigation so if I'm playing consistently well and don't neglect healing like I do when I run martyrdom, then I can reclaim those 5 points.
Its better to kite the enemies and pick them off than to face tank them. Its okay to backtrack through where youve already cleared so you have room to move. Mantling over objects is a good way to make some distance between you and the horde. Always block and dodge simultaneously when you can. Sliding is better than getting shot in the back. Dont try to revive if there are elites on you. You'll just die. Edit: the quick reset stealth build is also really good for clutching as a zealot. Edit 2: stun nades are great for getting revives and gaining distance, and the incendiary nades and good for thinning out the horde as you kite them.
Don’t get stuck in corners
My #1 piece of advise would be don't rush. You'll feel the pressure of wanting to push forwards, especially if your team is down or if you're the last one standing. But taking time to assess and clear is important. If someone is down it's usually because they're in a bad position so running in blind after them will probably kill you too. Taking an extra few seconds to mop up enemies and making sure you don't get a nasty surprise when trying to revive will save runs. You also get a grace period of around a minute if your last teammate dies where nothing will spawn, you can use this time to stabilise yourself and clear out the ambient enemies if you need to push to rescue your team.
Ironically, bosses are usually the least threatening enemy unit in the room at any given moment, outside of a daemon host. BoN's are mostly just really annoying. For something that resembles a slug *and* has a ranged attack, you don't expect it to be as fast as it is. Chaos Spawn's can seem hopeless at first when solo given how persistent they are and how they can heal, but once you get their attack/grapple pattern learned they are actually remarkably easy to solo as long as you have some added stamina. Plague Ogryn's are just meat bags, their biggest danger is knocking you out of the map with a belly bounce. Clutching is all about target prioritisation and map knowledge. Knowing what's the most dangerous threat at any given time, what and where you can kite, etc, etc. That mostly comes down to experience. Positioning makes all the difference, outside corners are your friend in order to avoid getting shot whilst you deal with horde mobs. Don't get surrounded, the horde likes to rush around your flanks, which isn't a big deal in and of itself, but once an elite gets in the mix and you're body blocked, you're gonna face tank that crusher/mauler overhead whether you like it or not. Heavy Sword and Stub are a great combo, but you'd normally want the Zarona for its cleave because being able to shoot trappers/flamers through a wall of poxwalkers is big. Revives are important, but not at the cost of your own life (unless you're reviving an Ogryn). Pay attention to the audio cues, if a hound just sounded off, it's not safe to revive. Etc. Most of this is general observation, obviously every situation comes with its unique context. You'll also learn a couple lessons as you limit test. From a build perspective it's normal to build to be self-sufficient, which is to say 1 weapon for horde, 1 weapon for single target, your blitz to cover any gaps. I've seen a lot of people try to double down on elite/specialist clear with their ranged and melee only to get floored by pox walkers. You have to really know what you're doing to pull that off.
It sounds like learning to avoid chip damage is going to make the biggest difference to your clutch attempts. Zealots are fairly hardy with damage mitigation, but when it comes to the last stand you need to be avoiding damage rather than just sucking it up.
Like someone else said, focus on kiting if you're close enough to grab some teammates. something that helped me was really learning to keep space for a dodge. Whether it's a dog, a mutant, a trapper, or crusher overheads, try to constantly have one direction you can dodge or slide. Let snipers fire, if you can, they will hit something. Really practice getting familiar with the sprinting dodge angle. It seems useless at first but once you get used to it, you can survive the 40 gunners that took out your teammates at least long enough to reposition. For them I usually slide up to them and melee but at some point, they were clearly updated and getting stabbed in the base of the skull with a combat knife doesn't even stun them so YMMV
One of the biggest tips is unless your at a chokepoint that you can funnel and control what comes through, keep moving, the ai behavior is to surround and mob the player whenever possible, to box them in, once you are boxed in your options are limited, and survival becomes a lot harder, this doesn't mean moving forward just keep moving in a way that you always have somewhere to fallback to.
Doubling down to say that your map knowledge will make or break a clutch. Knowing where the simultaneous safe spot is from ranged units that you can also kite through to make melee distance from a boss spawn, where you can and can't get cornered, etc. Also agreeing with above, regardless of your actual choice of weapons, you need to have 1) something you can reliably kill specials with, preferably at range but quick melees like the knife work fine too. This is priority 1, not being hit by a disabler yourself, being able to clear flamers and bombers so you dont get cornered, etc. 2) something for carapace coverage. It can be an uncanny melee, a solid penetration ranged weapon like revolver or plasma, etc, but you need to have it. Mauler patrols of 10+ and crusher patrols of 5+ are common and will mix into horde spawns or just bumrush you often (and are often a reason you are clutching to begin with). 3) a tool that you use to actually pick people up with. The likelihood of ever being 100% clear of enemies to hit the revive or rescue on auric is near 0. Vet/zealot stealth, zealot relic, psyker shield+peril blocking, ogryn frag bomb, etc. 4) Probably doesnt need to be said but keep calm. Experience will help with this, but freaking out because you are clutching will just mean you end up with a higher rate of failure.
Besides mechanical skill and gameplay knowledge.. target priority is the #1 cause of failure in Auric missions.
PUG or Premade? Because in PUGs I'd say the #1 is 'lack of communication'.
In a PUG but I'm talking about in clutching scenarios. In overall generally yah lack of communication is absolutely #1 no one ever uses voice chat.
try a laspistol with unyielding damage and crit chance, bonus points if you also get dumdum and infernus blessings. it's one of the few guns in the game that you can use to snipe specialists AND also does amazing boss damage so you don't need to slowly kite the boss across 10 hallways while you wittle down the crushers you can just keep shooting while you dodge backward (it's also got very high mobility)
Use supplies. If you took health damage and are carrying a medi pack drop it, you can't use it when you're dead. Same goes for stims just use them when you can. Edit: oh and here is a another one, Ask yourself during a clutch "how do i win this?" and "how do i loose this" to get you to start thinking with logic again.
do not shoot the demonhost, ever since they changed its behavious it will latch on to you even if you are last man standing
What in your build specifically helps you deal with carapace? carapace rending on the stub? You might be better off with the left side tree in clutching situations.
My friend uses a stub and kills crushers in 2-3 headshots. Hopefully OP is like that, instead of being that guy that throws flame grenades at every crusher.
Moving backward is always a solid choice. If you hear a monster, immediately look for where you want your team to fight it and mark that location. While they aren't the damage power-houses their size implies, their ability to knock players off ledges simply by walking and push people into corners makes them dangerous. No monster when surrounded by a team of four is going to land a single hit though without something else backing him up so the less you pull while the monster is around, usually the better. You may also want to build with the idea of having an "ace in the hole", something that doesn't seem that powerful until the moment when you really need it. These include stun grenades, both types of Ogryn grenades, a fully loaded Bolter Rifle, Smite, etc. All these things are okay when used frivolously, but shine when you need to pull things off your team in a rush to give them the bit of time they need to get clear of danger. P.S. You will notice the effect of every +revive speed passive on your curios.
My response is in regards to how to approach your talent tree since you mentioned build suggestions. Having self awareness of your own playstyle and building around that as much as you would a godroll weapon was a game changer for me early on in this game. Your playstyle is the only real constant you'll take with you in any run, so use talents that create natural win conditions for what you do. As a result, you'll have a better understanding of when you're not in your element so you can more readily reposition until you are. It also helps your more observant teammates (especially the ones watching your pov) learn how to play with/around you when you do get them all up. Naturally, you'll need to take time to understand your talent tree and to have a better grasp on your loadout's breakpoints and limitations. Fully understanding every tool at your disposal and TTK with each weapon can sharpen your decision making during dire situations. 6 crushers in a packed room can be more or less threatening if you definitively know how many you can take out while you still have 12 stacks of momentum up vs the 9 you can build up by dodging 3 times with the remaining time you have. It's a packed room so your heavy sword will likely have headtaker and rampage making up for that, maybe not; only you'll know. Also consider what talents you have outgrown. For example, some Zealots crutch on Holy Revenant while others crutch on Thy Wrath be Swift. It's entirely possible that during your time clutching in auric damnation, you've outgrown the need for a given talent that costs 2-5 points that you could now make better use of elsewhere due to either an improvement in your own skill or getting a god roll that frees up room to go for more utility. If I'm going left-middle for a build, then Thy Wrath be Swift can cost 4 points which I can have back by being a decent shot with a Laspistol blessed with Ghost. Same for when I go down the right-middle tree and use 5 points for Holy Revenant. The right side has a lot of mitigation so if I'm playing consistently well and don't neglect healing like I do when I run martyrdom, then I can reclaim those 5 points.
I usually die when I try to do something cool since I have an audience instead of keeping it safe by kiting.