QCF Design Community

I just unlocked the Crusader (and JJ and the Pactmaker, so it has been quite an evening).

But I have mixed thougths about his Momentum ability (it raises his damage by 25% per killing blow in a row, capping at 100% bonus damage)
It is great if you're fighting enemies you can one shot, but it really isn't suited for fighting off higher-level enemies, since using a fireball or making a second hit resets the bonus, and damage prediction is dodgy because your damage is lowered by 25-100% (loss of the bonus) after the first hit.

I figure it might be useful for when you're clearing up popcorn (easily reaching the double damage bonus) since you can then target higher level popcorn (ei enemies normally you need more hits to finish off).

But this isn't about me, what are your thougths on this intresting ability? I would love to be enlightened by a new and intresting way to use this.

It's pretty bad in Hard and Vicious dungeons, since you (generally) can't use it to one-shot higher level monsters.

I'd say, with reasonable confidence, that Crusader is the worst class at the moment.

Basically the approach is to use it for the boss fight and go and smack-down four monsters between every attack. On normal-difficulty dungeons it's possible to keep a train going by fighting monsters like goats or gorgons, but in hard and vicious (ie, the dungeons where you need that attack bonus) that's just not practical. This is an ability that works better on paper than in reality. It's not bad, but if you were expecting to repeatedly chain +100% damage attacks you're in for a disappointment.

Remember that attack bonus multiplies your base attack, so this ability is amplified by anything that improves your base attack. Trisword, Orcs, the Fine Sword, all are superb for a Crusader. In fact, there's really no reason to play a Crusader as any race except Orc.

Don't overlook the Crusader's other two class features. Scarred is very powerful, particularly in dungeons that feature weakening. The catch is you need to suffer the debuff first, which is nasty at level 1. Carry a fortitude potion to cure it. On most dungeons, you'll want to seek out the nearest mana burn monster to gain that immunity. It's rare that you'll want poison or corrosion immunity. You cannot gain immunity to resist down.

Of course, the extra altar granted to the Crusader is a nice perk. With the extra altar prep he can have up to five altars, which is a whole lot of deities to work with. Your chances of finding a specific combo are actually very good with a crusader.


Overall, though, the Crusader only shines on the Ick Swamp scenario, where weakening is pretty much unavoidable and melee classes need to prep a really big sword. Outside of that level, there just isn't enough weakening present to leverage an advantage from his "scarred" class feature and the other two bonuses he has going for him aren't enough to carry the class.

Yeah, he's not great...

He even has trouble on most hard missions. That stinks.

On the other hand Scarred for mana burn gives a scumming-free Gaan Telet run for him, which is all sorts of kick ass, or at least it used to be. 5 altars is also kooky, as the long "endurance" run dungeons like Naga City and Gaan Telet are always sort of skewed towards the player once you learn to juggle gods.

Also the Momentum thingy should work rather nice in any level that allows a "freebie string", as your +25/100 % base means you get to squeeze in a bit/lot more damage when you need to.

For me, Momentum is sort of like a "stabber" variant. Most of the time you should be at least have a 25% bonus (just 5% less than stabber) but sometimes you can get more if you leave enough popcorn around.

I think one issue is that the Crusader's abilities doesn't exactly translate to killing higher level monsters the way a class like the Assassin does. You really want to leave A LOT of popcorn lying around so you can power yourself later but unless you blow a lot of consumables (harder now that Strength Potion has been nerfed) or have access to powerful early game items like Fine Swords, that's not quite easy to do.

The Fireball cancelling Momentum doesn't quite help either.

Yeah, they should change the fireball problem. But still, they really aren't set up to catapult in any way without killing their best resource, popcorn. Although I imagine you'd do well with a Yendor crusader.

Anyone try a Goblin crusader? Do you lose too much for not being an orc?

Probably, but I'm not sure.

I just did some number crunching for an Orc Crusader who can get 50% momentum versus a Goblin with 100%... not good for the goblin. The orc needs a 28% higher base attack bonus to beat the goblin. At level 10 (where the Orc's advantage should be minimum), that means the Orc needs 600 conversion points to be ahead. If the goblin pulls some trickery with a Trisword he might be able to still end up ahead (not that the orc cannot do the same), but if the Orc can hit 75% momentum on average then the goblin just cannot compete.

Edit - forgot to account for attack boosters... it's even more in Orc's favor than my original numbers...