---------------------------------------------------- Grand Cross Crusader Guide v 1.0 by Criminally Vulgar ---------------------------------------------------- =============================================================== Table Of Contents I. FAQ Version History II. Introduction to the Grand Cross Crusader III. Pros and Cons of the Grand Cross Crusader IV. Grand Cross, the skill mechanics V. Stats VI. The other Skills - Heal vs. Sacrifice VII. Leveling VIII. Equipment IX. Tactics (PvP,MvP,WoE) X. Thanks XI. Acknowledgements =============================================================== I. Version History Version 1.0 12/22/04 - after seeing so many questions about this on the boards, I finally decided to make an FAQ Version 1.1 1/12/04 - after PvPing a bit against classes i haven't fought before, I decided to update it. Also with some info on Fireblend. I also added some info on auto-guard and it's uselessness... and a few sample builds in the stat section. =============================================================== II. Introduction This guide focuses on one of the most powerful(and some would say overpowered) character in RO, which is the Grand Cross Crusader. From the name it's pretty obvious that the main skill you will use will be Grand Cross. Henceforth I shall just call it by it's initials, GC. In contrast to the defensive skills of a crusader, GC is a very very powerful spell. In fact, it is the second most powerful attack in the game, only beaten out by the monk's guillotine fist. Before I start I would like to say that I am not an uber expert on crusaders. I have played just one, but I never felt the need to restart like other people since I feel I have got it right the first time. I do know several other Grand Cross crusaders and have had discussions with them about their builds, and I've beaten most of them in 1 on 1 pvp with mediocre equipment(as opposed to their +7 everything). Also, there is no leveling guide for an int swordsman here. The reason is I've gone to job 50 on my swordsman pre-Amatsu on geffen 2 whispers. That map is very different now. I'm accepting any suggestions though. =============================================================== III. Pros and Cons of the Grand Cross Crusader Pros: Very large damage potential Can get the MvP Quite powerful in PvP One of the fastest ways to level 99 Grand Cross looks nice ^_^ Cons: You'll die, a lot, especially when you get mobbed if you hate priests, don't make one I said powerful in pvp, but they're a bit inferior to Shield crusaders =============================================================== IV. Grand Cross, the skill mechanics From the official site(iro.ragnarokonline.com) Requires Faith lvl 10, Holy Cross lvl 6, and is mastered at lvl 10. Summons a grand cross around the caster for a 0.9 second skill duration, enemies within the cross are damaged 3 times by holy attack. Has a 3 second casting delay, during the casting duration, the armor defence decreases by 2/3. This skill cannot be interrupted. Causes Blind effect on undead and demon monsters. One thing the caster should know is that this skill damages not only enemies but the caster at the same time, the damage amount the caster takes is half the amount the enemy takes. Lvl ATK SP consumption 1 140% 37 2 180% 44 3 220% 51 4 260% 58 5 300% 65 6 340% 72 7 380% 79 8 420% 86 9 460% 93 10 500% 100 A lot of people say it's (matk+atk)*damage multiplier. I agree with this, a bit. The logical choice would be to get str and int up. However, you will suffer without your other stats, as you will see later. Str doesn't affect the damage very much, maybe it's just that it doesn't include the hidden str bonuses every 10 points, just the atk you see on your status window. I'm not sure, but more on your stats later. Notice too that this skill attacks enemies three times. That's 500% damage times 3. Ouch. However, if there are 2 enemies on a single square that grand cross attacks, those two will only get hit twice. If there are 3 or more enemies, they'll all get hit only once. Good positioning of mobs is crucial to maximize your GC damage. The last thing about the damage the caster takes, is done like this. First, you get a whopping 20% of your current HP removed, and then there's a kick back damage that depends on the damage you do(or potentially do). It is possible to suicide in towns with GC, it's a cool thing to do since you don't get any exp reduction, don't do it too much though ^_^. This kick back damage is reduced by mdef armors and Cranial Bucklers/Poopoo hats. Wearing an Angeling carded armor completely negates this kick back, however you'll still get the -20% HP cost of GC. The Blind status on undead and demon monsters is pretty handy too. It allows you to escape from something that survived your Grand Cross, since they won't be able to follow you. If only those damned Raydrics were undead/demon ^_^ After discussing what Grand Cross is, we now move on to... =============================================================== V. Stats Distributing the stats of a GC sader isn't that difficult, if you know what you're doing. It isn't like assassins or vit knights where you have to balance each stat almost perfectly. Let me give you a lowdown on the different stats and generally how useful they are. I will not say what they specifically do(like i won't say agi raises attack speed), just how useful they are for GC saders. --STRENGTH-- STR affects GC damage, but it's not much at lower levels. Even at mid levels (50+) it's also barely noticeable, i mean a 1 str 99 int sader who gets lucky and GCs at max mATK will outdamage a 50 str 99 int sader who GCs at medium mATK. At high str(80+) i have no idea how much extra damage it gives, however it is not advisable to raise it too much since your other, more important stats will suffer. There is a str bonus every 10 points, although that's not important since at low levels the bonus is really low. The main reason why you'd get some of this is for the extra weight to carry loot and pots. 20ish to 30+ is probably enough. After a patch in kRO pecos give +1000 weight, so str is again diminished in worth. However that may take a long time to come, and as you will see below, the best weapon for a crusader weighs a lot. --AGILITY-- Agility for GC saders is like Intelligence for assassins. Skip it. Get 1 agi at start. It's only useful in your Swordsman leveling days. --DEXTERITY-- Dexterity ups your hit(for bashing people in PvP), and lessens your cast delay(i.e.your cast time). This is the second most important stat for a GC sader, however it's also the hardest to balance. Grand Cross takes 3 seconds to cast. Every 10 dexterity lessens this casting time by .2 seconds. Deciding how much dex you want to have is a personal decision, and I encourage you to try and make your own build. Building a GC sader is really just juggling between this and vitality. --VITALITY-- Also another important stat. This ups your HP, and ups your status resistances.It also reduces damage from enemies, by 0.8 per point I believe. Upwards of 50 vit the damage reduction becomes a bit random, but not by much. You will want to get this for one thing. Status resistance. HP isn't all that important, as I said earlier GC chops off 20% of your current, making too much HP useless. This stat really shines in PvP, where having enough of it will make you immune to stun and such, effectively making you a priest who can kill if you decided to get heal. --INTELLIGENCE-- Your attack stat. This should be maxed, or close to maxed. Make sure the end number(including bonuses) is either divisible by 5 or 7. To be versatile you might just want to get this to 99, and just toy around with your equipment so it hits a multiple of 5 or 7. That's the easiest thing to do. However it might not be the best thing to do, in my case I maxed it, although I think a properly built crusader who tinkers with this stat might be far more effective since he can free up points to put in either dex or vit. just don't get any lower than around 115 with bless. --LUCK-- Get 9 at start, for 1 point in lucky dodge? And a bit extra of status resistance. After reading this, you should have an idea on how to build your crusader. If you're still clueless, here's my build. 20ish str 1 agi 50ish dex 70ish vit 99 int 9 luk You can switch dex and vit if you want, for a more fast casting crusader. I'd do that if I restarted my character. =============================================================== VI. The other Skills - Heal vs. Sacrifice In order to get Grand Cross, you have two prerequisites. Faith and Holy Cross. Faith is pretty much straightforward, max it, no need to discuss that. Holy Cross is like a faster and costlier Bash that deals holy damage. It is NOT affected by int, therefore if you have low STR, like me, do not get more than the prerequisite(level 6).If you have high STR however, then max it if you want, this thing deals insane damagefaster than a Knight's pierce at high levels(although it kinda defeats the purpose of having Grand Cross right?) Now you get two choices. Getting Heal(which has a ton of prerequisites), or getting Sacrifice/Devotion(a lot more prerequisites, but at least the prereqs are shield skills that are useful). Getting Sacrifice means you'll probably never level solo, since you'd be wasting so much pots and sitting down most of the time. However, Sacrifice is probably one of the best party skills in RO. After reading the paragraph above you probably are deciding on Sacrfice, but let me tell you this. It's incredibly annoying not being able to level solo. It's also incredibly annoying not being able to heal yourself. Also, SHIELD saders with Sacrifice will pwn your 99 int GC/Sacrifice sader anytime of the day. In the end, Heal perfectly compliments GC, while Sacrifice is just annoying ^_^ The last 4 points after maxing Heal and GC can be used to get a peco and lvl 3 auto-guard. Pecos are cool, you move fast in them, and did I mention they were cool? Auto-guard is less cool, you'll get saved from a few hits in tanking. It's useless once you're GCing since it blocks the hits from your GC. However with no place to put points in, i guess it's an ok skill when a monk is about to asura your face and you have nowhere to go. =================================================== VII. Leveling OK I'll tell you now. Leveling an int swordie is a pain in the rear with no STR, however it's very doable, you just need patience. But like I said earlier, I have no idea where to level a swordsman post-Amatsu. Generally just level where melee classes go, do not however go to Byalan(Bibilan), that's a sucky place for low STR people. As for Crusader leveling, it simply goes like this. 55? -> 70+ = zenorcs 70+ -> 99 = Chivalry, Castle, Niffleheim. Get good armor. Well that was easy. As for the stats, I'd recommend to start with 9 int 9 luk 5 vit 5 dex. Get a few points in str if you want, otherwsie just raise vit to around 40 and int to 99 and getting dex as needed(i.e. if you miss too much). generally get to 99 int(or whatever your max is) at around lvl 80. =================================================== VIII. Equipment GC crusaders are quite a cheap class to maintain, not as cheap as wizards but the great thing about them is they DO NOT need carded weapons. Of course for PvP you￾fd need very expensive equipment, and this is what we￾fll mostly dicuss here. A. Headgears The best headgear for PvP is ￾cdrumroll￾c PooPoo hat! It looks and feels literally like crap though. The second best would be a Helm, overupgraded to +7. If you can get your hands on a slotted +7 helm then socket an Elder Willow Card in it for a nice int bonus. Otherwise just go with what looks good. Or be a def whore and equip the fin helm and iron cain. An adurate sunglasses isn￾ft too bad, however some RO versions have very few sunglasses[1] around, so you might never touch one. B. Armor Remember what I said earlier about HP being a waste? Well, that￾fll help you in deciding what armor to get. For PvM, the reasonable choice is between the s. chain mail slotted with a peco peco card or the legion plate armor which is not slotted but has 3 more def than the chain mail and weighs twice as much. Go with what you like. The legion plate armor is much cheaper and provides more def and is generally more useful. The peco peco carded chain mail isn￾ft bad though, it gives a lot of extra hp at high levels coupled with high vit. While this might be useless when using grand cross, it￾fs still nice looking. The unreasonable choice would be a +7 full plate with peco peco card. It￾fs really expensive, but if you can get your hands on one, it￾fs probably the best all around armor. In PvP though, carry an unfrozen silk robe. Equip it everytime you see a wizard. You￾fd be pretty much unstoppable against one if you have it. In WoE, swordfish and dokebi carded silk robes are staple. Just switch between them as needed. C. Weapon Like I said, a GC sader does not need carded weapons. What he(or she) needs are attack increasing stuff. 2 weapons shine at being GC sader weapons, that is, the poll axe and the haedonggum. The poll axe is a 1 handed spear(thanks Penguin Dragoon!) that has a base attack of 160, however it has 380 weight. It￾fs gives +2 INT, +1 STR, and +1 DEX and has a single slot. It￾fs dropped by Bloody Knight, Lord of Death and Turtle General. The haedonggum is a 1 handed sword with base attack 90 that has 90 weight. It has two slots. It￾fs dropped by Drake but most of the time people get it from OBBs. The only card to socket in a GC sader weapon is an Andre card. It gives +20 raw attack, which is what you need in GC damage. It￾fs up to you what weapon to choose. If I were you I￾fd buy both and use the poll axe for PvM/MvP and the haedonggum for PvP/WoE. The reason for this is you will want to have a lot of pots in WoE/PvP, and maybe in MvPing. So bringing along a light weapon and light equipment(like don￾ft bring your +7 legion plate to PvP/WoE) will make room for more pots and stuff like status weapons. For PvP, you will want to buy quite a few weapons. First is either a quad ancient something, or a very strong something. The something can be anything that a crusader can equip, and saders can equip a lot. You￾fll use this weapon just to stun bash people, so even if it deals only 5 damage(like a very strong knife), someone who gets hit by it will get stunned. Generally in PvP, if you￾fre stunned by a GC sader, you￾fre practically dead. The last two weapons are quad plankton and quad magnolia blades. I￾fll explain more about using them later in PvP tactics. Just make sure you have one of these when you go to PvP so you can actually kill somebody instead of them running away from your grand cross. Update: There is also the level 4 weapon fireblend, which gives level 3 Firebolt. Very handy in killing hunters, and just general messing around. Fireblend is from Eddga. I also know of Ice falchions, supposed to give you level 3 cold bolt... but I'm not sure if they're any good, I haven't tried one since I never find one nowadays. The poll axe is also a really rare weapon, and if you play in a server with rebirth classes it's also a really sought after weapon, so I think you'd have problems getting one. Stick to the Haedonggum. D. Shield Pretty simple here. An overupgraded Cranial Shield for PvM/MvP, and an overupgraded Cranial Mirror Shield for PvP/WoE. Don￾ft bother with other shield cards, they aren￾ft worth it. Cranials reduce your kick back damage from GC, and in MvPing makes sure you take more damage from the MvP if they aren￾ft demi-human, and of course in PvP reduces damage from other people. E. Cloak Again another simple matter. Overupgraded immune manteau for all around killing things, and an overupgraded ragamuffin manteau for most PvP situations. You might want to invest in a Hood of Warmth(dustiness) for killing Baphomet or in WoE. F. Footgear Overupgraded boots with Sohee card. Or Eggrya card if you like. Don￾ft bother with verit or matyr cards, like I said, too much HP is a waste. Besides, you will want all the SP you can possibly have since Grand Cross has a 100 sp cost at level 10. G. Accessories Earrings are the best all around in PvM/MvP. For PvP/WoE, you might want to exchange one of those for a safety ring(if you￾fre rich) or a slotted rosary (your choice of card, probably zerom is best), or even a plain rosary. Make sure your final intelligence stat with the pluses is a multiple of 5 or 7 however. ================================================ IX. Tactics A. MvPing The great thing about GC saders is that, with a good priest, you can beat hunters almost everytime on undead/shadow MvPs. The shadow MvPs are Baphomet, Doppleganger, Lord of Death, Pharaoh, Samurai Specter and Dracula. The undead MvPs are Dark Lord, Drake and Osiris. I have tried only 3 of these so far, so any suggestions are welcome. From my experience, you and your priest definitely need the element reducing cards for your MvP. Baphomet casts a killer LoV, and Dark Lord casts an equally deadly Meteor Storm. You need a dustiness hood and a Jakk hood respectively, to stand a chance against these monsters. Always get your priest to cast suffragium on you, it helps a lot in beating out competition. The third MvP I know of is Osiris. He is pretty easy, and dies quite fast. However the competition is incredibly tough, and if you didn￾ft find it first, good luck getting the MvP. This goes without saying, but carry white pots and honey while MvPing obviously. B. PvPing I￾fve PvPed extensively with my crusader, and let me give you my first piece of advice. People who hang out in PvP rooms are mostly jerks, but they￾fre also a bit stupid. They also tend to hang out in large parties and kill people who are alone. The idea here is 1 on 1 duels. Parties are a different thing, for one thing priests are almost impossible to kill, and generally in parties the larger or stronger one wins and there isn￾ft any strategy involved. But I guess you can use these tips too for that. Anyway here￾fs a few strategies against specific classes. I￾fll enumerate them one by one. --Knights-- The king of PvP before Crusaders came along. Vit Knights aren￾ft that hard actually, if they don￾ft wear insomniac headgear(most of them just rely on their overupgraded helms). Just bash them with a quad sleep blade, if it doesn￾ft work(like the rare nightmare carded helm), get a quad magnolia blade and bash them with it. Afterwards, once they￾fre asleep/cursed, fry them with GC. It takes around 2 to 3 to take them down, sometimes they spam pots between being asleep/cursed, then it takes a little more time. Agi Knights are a joke in PvP, just bash them with a quad ancient or a very strong weapon, then GC for an instant kill. --Crusaders-- There are two types. GC(like you) or shield. Both are pretty hard to kill, since like you, they only take 50% damage from Holy attacks. Shield saders will tend to just bash you and spam pots, which is futile if you have blue pots of your own. So just walk away from them. If you want you can try to put them to sleep. GC saders can￾ft be put to sleep, so don￾ft try it. Most of your battles with your own kind will end in stalemates. --Assassins-- Piece of cake. Bash with ancient or very strong until stunned, then GC. The next thing they know they￾fll be kissing the floor. Unless the assassin has more than 50 vit, then it will end in a stalemate unless you get lucky. Don￾ft worry. Return to the PvP room and bring an envenom clip(poison spore card), and envenom them with your quad sleep blade. Then fry. --Rogue-- IMO, the hardest opponent. The trick is catching it, since he dies in a single GC like an assassin. You obviously need a sight clip here, but good rogues know how to avoid sight Keep sight on at all times. If a rogue strips your stunning weapon, you￾fre quite done for. He￾fd probably target your shield next then backstab you to death. It￾fs all down to luck. Equip your envenom clip with this one, and when he strips your weapon equip your quad sleep blade and hope he gets owned by it. --Blacksmiths-- Same as Knights, except they have hammerfall, if you don￾ft have enough vit, you￾fre gonna get stunned. They generally die in a single GC though, pretty easy if you ask me. Except more of them wear insomniac headgear than the average knight. Apply what I said about killing vit knights. --Alchemists-- I￾fve personally never fought one in a 1 on 1 situation. I￾fll leave this to you. From my understanding, don￾ft walk in their firebombs, otherwise treat this as you wouldblacksmiths. They also heal themselves for a lot, so this might take longer than you￾fd think. Update: I've fought one, and they're HARD. They can heal for crazy HP and they break your weapon T_T If your status weapon(probably sleep) gets broken it's hard to defeat them, especially the vit type. However they can't defeat you either, so it'll probably end up a stalemate. I've said above, don't walk in their firebombs. --Wizards-- In a 1 on 1, they￾fre pretty easy. They￾fre easily stunned, and have really crappy HP. Equip your unfrozen silk robe, a dustiness hood perhaps and some miscellaneous mdef gears if you want(like rosaries, gemmed sallets), If they ping pong you with JT, don￾ft worry, it does crap damage with mdef armors and 99 int. You￾fll easily outheal his damage. Once he runs out of sp, he has nowhere to go but down. --Sage-- Again, I have no experience since the only sage I￾fve fought had a stupid angeling card(which obviously made the battle a stalemate) and didn￾ft bother spell breaking my Grand Cross(I don￾ft even know if that￾fs possible). So, I￾fll leave this blank, for now. Update: Spell breaking Grand cross is very much possible. However sages can be stunned, so it's immaterial. As long as they don't have godly cards(orc hero or angeling), do what you do with wizards. Although most PvP sages prefer stone curse to frost diver, it doesn't matter. Once you get close they're dead. --Hunters-- Easy. In a 1 on 1 situation they￾fll run out of sp to arrow repel you with, at which point you bash them and GC. That￾fs basically it. You￾fll outheal their damage with arrow repel if you have good enough armor. Update: Some PvP hunters(smart ones) have lotsa luck and quite a few points in vit. You won't have enough time with stun, so envenom them with sleep. They also tend to use curse a lot, so carry a ton of holy water. But still, they aren't hard. --Bards and Dancers-- Never fought one outside a party, and I don￾ft think you will too. Otherwise just go with the hunter strategy. --Monks-- Same strategy as assassins, or in the case of vit monks, knights. Sphere monks who throw spheres can really damage you though, but nothing you can￾ft heal. Asura monks will kill you, but there￾fs nothing you can do about that except hit them while they￾fre still summoning their spheres. --Priests-- Ignore them. End of story That￾fs basically it for the PvP section, if you have strategies of your own feel free to contribute. C. WoE This is a short section, since GC/Heal saders are sadly, not that useful in WoE.GC￾fs damage gets cut by half, so you can￾ft kill people in a single GC. Generally your role is to spam GC where there are a lot of people(like in the emperium room) or act as a tank like a vit knight except with high mdef. I find I bash a lot more than GC in WoE, but anyway the strategy for WoE is up to you and your guild and your needs. =============================================================== VIII. Contact Info You can email me at lockex21@gmail.com for any of your questions. Otherwise catch me at the boards. I really don￾ft want anyone PMing my char, so I won￾ft give it away. =============================================================== IX. Thanks Thanks to CjayC for gamefaqs. Thanks to the people on the Gamefaqs message boards who answered my questions. Thank you! For reading this. =============================================================== X. Copyright Copyright 2004 Reinier Abdon Ask me for permission first before posting it on your site. The only official version of this guide can be found on gamefaqs.com