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Crusader Strike

Crusader Strike

10% of base mana	Melee Range

Instant	4.5 sec cooldown

Requires Paladin
Requires level 1

Requires Melee Weapon
An instant strike that causes 100% Physical damage.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

10% of base mana

Range

5 yards (Combat)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect #1

Normalized Weapon Damage

Effect #2

Weapon Damage - %
Value: 100

Effect #3

Give Power (Holy Power)
Value: 1

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted

Guides

Overview of
Tanking and
All Tank Specs

Protection Paladin Guide

Retribution Paladin Guide

Warlords of Draenor
Paladin Changes

Comments

Comment by DrFear

Has anyone else notice how the icon for this looks alot like Twinblade of the Pheonix?

Comment by dittowow

In the next expansion, Cataclysm, This spell is meant to be used by Paladins at level 1.
Down from level 50.

Comment by Dagamed

I'm a little sad that Blizzard waited till this late in the game to give paladins an tool with which to level easier, but I can't complain because now tankadins will be able to put out more single target threat! This and the universalization (i dunno what the actual word would be XD) of holy shock will definitely help single target threat and make pally tanking a little more interesting.

Comment by Dimonslayer

Yeah, I wish Blizz would've put this new system into effect awhile ago, would've made my pally lvling experience (and I'm sure the same goes to many others) much better because having to press 3 buttons and then waiting for them to die started to get on my nerves...Ah well might as well roll a pally (again) when Cata comes out.

Comment by Klocker

Looks like Blizz is going to make this a basic spell that can be used at a very early level. This will be nice even for protection paladins while they are leveling ;)

Comment by GinjaNinja

This is going to be a very useful spell as a prot pally. With the current build talents you gain 90% more damage dealt with this and about 10-20% crit depending on how you glyph/spec, seems like this is going to be a fantastic single target attack.

Comment by Sithari

After some testing on live I can confirm the following:

Holy Power charges persist once combat is over, and disappear at a rate of 10 seconds per charge. If you kill an opponent with 3 charges left, you got a 10 sec window to use a 3 charge ability (or re-enter combat), and a 30 second window to use any ability that requires at least 1 Holy Power charge.

The Holy Power charge generation of Crusader Strike is 100%.

This means it is solely dependent on you casting the ability, rather than whether the ability lands or not.

Lay man's terms:

Under normal circumstances (ignoring haste effects and assuming you are casting Crusader Strike on every cool-down) you generate 1 Holy Power charge per 4,5 seconds, whether it hits, crits, misses or is dodged, blocked and parried by your target.

Regarding the people referring to it as a "Rogue's Sinister Strike rip-off". Don't be so quick to jump the wagon. Though there are some similarities, they are fundamentally different in one key aspect:

Combat applications. While a Rogue (at least on Combat spec) is using Sinister Strike to build up dmg on a target, a Paladin has the luxury of carrying that dmg to the next target at no apparent penalty. Rogues have the Redirect ability on a 1min cd, allowing them to "move" their combo points to another target. A Paladin however, can finish off an opponent without losing the "combo points" generated and immediately casting Templar's Verdict on his next opponent.

Pun Intended: Paladins can now open with a finisher :D

Comment by gmagnus

It's a 3 second cd on my Prot pally. Didn't notice any talents or anything to indicate why it's shorter. It just IS for Prot.

Comment by cethis

With the buff coming to CS in 4.0.6, prot paladins are going to be looking at a very strong attack when combined with Crusade, Wrath of the Lightbringer and T11 2pc bonus.

Warning: math may be fuzzy.

WotL: 135 * 100% = 270, gain of +135%
Crusade: 135 * 1.30% = 175.5, gain of +40.5%
T11: 135 * 1.10% = 148.5, gain of 13.5%

Taking the gains additively, 135+135+40.5+13.5 = 324% weapon damage.

Now consider buffs. While raid buffs will contribute to it a small amount, the real power behind this attack with be Vengeance while tanking a raid boss. With of paladin of 160k hp, this means a potential 16,000 AP will be factored into the weapon damage calculation. This, on top of 324% after talents.

Who's excited?

Comment by elronddur234

Currently in 4.0.6, this skill has a 3 second cooldown in Protection spec, but has a base 4.5 second cooldown in Ret specs. This is not mentioned in the summary tab of the in game talent tree viewer. Is there a reason it isn't mentioned? Now of course Retribution does have a talent that enables Crusader Strike's cooldown to be affected by Haste, but how much haste does it take to get it down to a 3sec cooldown?

Comment by Smokinncheb

Read the above posts.

Comment by Badunkadunk

Ever since last patch, Crusader Strike now has some sort of /startattack to it . Causing it to target an enemy nearby, if pressed and then Judgement pressed there after, you could aggro a mob that your group is not intentionally attacking in an instance, and causing a wipe. I used to used /startattack for Crusader Strike, and removed it for that fact. Im hating this change, i know other class abilities are doing the same "target next/start attack" kind of thing. Does anyone know of a macro fix perhaps?

Comment by Ronark

The new tooltip for Mists of Panadaria:

Crusader Strike
An instant strike that causes 0% weapon damage plus 0 and grants a charge of Holy Power.

The "plus 0" is the Ret Paladin mastery effect.

Comment by xXxDSMer

Does anyone know how much haste it takes to get this down to ~3 seconds for ret?

and this seems to be an old version of crusader strike at the time of typing this. far as i know it currently doesn't have a boost to weapon damage and always makes a charge of holy power (unless you miss with it), and it's not dependent on anything other than hitting the target to make a charge of holy power.

the only current boost to crusader's damage is from talents in either prot tree (+100% dmg) or ret tree (crusade for +30% dmg and rule of law for +15% crit chance)

"Crusader Strike
10% of base mana Melee Range
Instant 4.5 sec cooldown
Requires Melee Weapon
An instant strike that causes 135% weapon damage."

Comment by noobking87

For some odd reason, this seems to use the One-Handed Special animation on my new young Dwarf Paladin rather than the Two-Handed Special animation since he's wielding a two-handed weapon. Not really complaining, makes him look more like a badass, but it's still a graphical bug.

Comment by Ottius

They seem to forget to put the "Grants a charge of Holy Power" into the tooltip.

Comment by theKOB

I am a level 3 Paladin and in the game it writes to me: 125% weapon damage plus 25.
I don't know something or is it outdated?

Comment by Maelchav

Is the Weakened Blows effect being removed in WoD? Or is it just not in the tooltip anymore? I don't see it on Hammer of the Righteous either.

Comment by TheDancingTree

As Holy, this ability's... well, ability, to grant you a charge of holy power should not be underestimated. One charge from Holy Shock every few seconds is great, but if you can manage to get into melee for a moment or two and Crusader Strike, you'll be getting two charges of Holy Power every 5-6 seconds or so. That's just one off of a Light of Dawn, or Word of Glory!

While melee isn't exactly the best place for us as healers to be, remember this ability. If you're needing some holy power, and fast, a Crusader Strike could be the difference between healing that dying tank with a three-charge Word of Glory, or not healing enough without enough holy power and wiping.

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