Crusader

---

What is expected of a Swordman

It is recommended for a Swordman, or any first class character for that matter, to change jobs at job level 50 in order to take advantage of the amount of skill points available, despite the fact that it is possible for a person to change jobs at job level 40. It is up to the player because training to get the extra 10 job levels would be hard and tedious, but 9 out of 10 people who changed at job level 50 remarked that they do not regret training to job level 50.

Recommended skills as a Job 50 Swordman

10 One-Handed Sword Mastery
10 HP Recovery
10 Bash
9/10 Endure
9/10 Provoke

Some may recommend 9 Provoke with 10 Endure, or vice versa. It is mainly preference.

Becoming a Crusader

There are two methods of becoming a Crusader. The first is to take the Crusader test. The second is to use the Job Change Girl NPC in Prontera at job level 50 for 100,000 zeny.

The Crusader Test

The Job Change Girl NPC

Crusader Builds

---

There are several different builds of crusaders: Grand Cross (GC), Shield, <to be added>

2.1 - Grand Cross Crusader

GC Crusaders are known for their skill called the "Grand Cross" which deals a lot of Holy property damage, and is a force to be reckoned with in the PvP world (such as War of Emperium).
Stats
Here is the stat build of an active level 95 crusader by the name of supakool2.


If you have an Angelring armor, you will not need as much Vit to survive leveling, up to level 99. In that case, Vit may be lowered to a total of 30 or 40.
The primary focus of this build is the 99 int along with the high amount of dex, because the equation for the damage a Grand Cross deals is: (Atk+MATK)*Skill Level, and having a high amount of Int directly correlates to high MATK.

An ideal amount of INT would be where you get the MATK bonuses. Every 5 INT gives bonus to maximum MATK, while every 7 INT gives bonus to minimum MATK. For example: 105 INT is a multiple of 7 and 5, which means it's a good number to have.

Grand Cross
As the name of this kind of Crusader suggests, your main skill would be Grand Cross. Grand Cross is considered to be a Holy Element Magical Attack that can do from 1 to 3 hits. It has a uninterruptible cast time of 2 seconds, which can be reduced by the amount of DEX. Each 3 DEX will reduce the cast time by 2%, therefore 150 DEX will reduce the cast time completely (but almost impossible to attain). The number of hits is determined by the number of monsters/players that is in 1 tile of the Grand Cross effect radius. If only 1 monster/player is on a tile, the Grand Cross does the maximum hit of 3 hits. However, if 2 monsters/players are on 1 tile, the number of hits is reduced to 2 hits. If 3 or monsters/players are in 1 tile, each monsters/players take only 1 hit. Grand Cross also damages the user by half of the base damage and then also halved by the skill Faith at level 10. The number of hits also apply to yourself.
The formula for Grand Cross base damage is:


MDEF and Reduction Cards will reduce the damage taken from Grand Cross, while Holy Property armour and Golden Thiefbug Card will completely nullify the damage. AR/holy prop reduces the HC self damage to 0, while GTB will allows you to cast a GC that never hits.

Skill Build
A typical skill build of a Grand Cross Crusader consists of the skills Grand Cross(obviously) and Heal. Since Grand Cross also damages yourself, it would be much more convenient to use Heal than potions (and more money-saving).
Required:
Level 10 Faith
Level 6 Holy Cross
Level 10 Grand Cross
Level 1 Cure
Level 3 Divine Protection
Level 5 Demon Bane
Level 10 Heal

Now you should have 4 skill points left over. These points are usually then put into the skill Peco Peco Ride, which allows you to ride a large bird-like creature that allows you to walk faster while hindering your ASPD. The skill Cavalier Mastery can then raise back some of the lost ASPD. However, the maximum level of Cavalier Mastery is 5, while you would only have 3 skill points left over. So you would not regain all your ASPD. Many people prefer to rather not get Cavalier Mastery at all, as the skill Grand Cross is used to attack (which doesn't rely on ASPD for speed). Instead, 3 skill points can be used to put in the skill Guard. When active, Guard automatically blocks a percentage of attacks. At level 3, Guard blocks 14% of attacks that calculate damage involving cards. However, a downside to Guard is the delay of 0.3 seconds during which you cannot move or attack everytime it is activated.

Optional:
Level 1 Peco Peco Ride + Level 3 Cavalier Mastery
Level 1 Peco Peco Ride + Level 3 Guard
Level 4 Guard
4 more skill points into Holy Cross, resulting in Level 10 Holy Cross

It is highly recommended to have 1 point in Peco Peco Ride, not only does it increase your walking speed, it also adds an additional 1000 to your carrying capacity.

Where/How to Level
As a GC Crusader, you can expect to be able to deal huge amounts of damage, but not yet. You should grab a Fireblend if you already did not use one to train as a Swordsman, and Firebolt Soils (known as "Mi Gao"s on other servers) until you have Heal level 10. Head to GHC (Glast Heim Churchyard) and "Heal Bomb" (see Acolytes) until you have Grand Cross level 7+. If you feel that heal bombing undead monsters to gain job levels to acquire Grand Cross is too costly on SP, then continue to level off Soils, south of Louyang. Afterwards, you can kill mobs in GHC/GHP until you reach base level 80.

An alternative which will be faster but more resource costly, is to immediately max out GC as soon as possible, and go to Geffen Tower level 2/3, and GC mobs while using potions to stay alive. A Crusader build with 105 INT will be able to kill Nightmares with level 7 GC. In this case, you may start leveling heal fairly soon.

At this point, there are a couple options for leveling to 99. West of Niflheim town or Geffen Guild Dungeon are most favored. Glast Heim 2F (gl_cas02) is also an ideal place, however Raydrics will deal a large amount of damage to you quickly if you don't have decent defense and reduction cards.

Shield Crusader

Equipment Recommendations

---

Grand Cross Crusaders

With good equips, and therefore good def, you are an unstoppable tank, because not only do you take very little damage, but because you can heal that damage as soon as it is inflicted upon yourself. Some find crusaders to be the most efficient class in the game, because they have no need to use potions or Honey, except during Guild Wars, or WoE. (Somebody edit this with some equipment recommendations).
Also, you may want to obtain a set of MDef equips for fighting Wizards and other magic based classes.

Shield Crusaders

See Also

---

Swordsman

Extra Links

---

Crusader Skill Guide∞
Crusader Forum Thread∞