Seal of the Crusader

"A Crusader's judgement means death to his foes and strength unto his allies."

Seal of the Crusader
Seal of the Crusader Mana global cooldown Instant cast Fills the Paladin with the spirit of a crusader for 30 sec, granting X melee attack power. The Paladin also attacks 40% faster, but deals less damage with each attack. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy for 20 sec, increasing Holy damage taken by up to Y. Your melee strikes will refresh the spell's duration. Only one Judgement per Paladin can be active at any one time.
Usable by
Class	Paladin
Properties
Type	Offensive
School	Holy
Cooldown	Global
Improvements	[Improved Seal of the Crusader]
Related buff
Magic Seal of the Crusader Melee attack power increased by X. Melee attacks are 40% faster, but deal less damage. Duration: 30 seconds.
Related debuff
Magic Judgement of the Crusader Increases Holy damage taken by up to X. Duration: 20 seconds

Seal of the Crusader grants the Paladin a buff that increases his Attack Power and attack speed, but reduces damage done per swing.

Rank	Level	Mana Cost	+AP	Judge +dmg	Cost
1	6	25	36	23	1
2	12	40	59	35	10
3	22	65	108	58	36
4	32	90	167	92	1 8
5	42	125	254	127	1 89
6	52	160	352	161	3 6
7	61	210	474	219	4 50

Judgement

As with other Seals, Seal of the Crusader can be judged on a target, afflicting them with Judgement of the Crusader, a debuff that increases the holy damage done to that target.

Talent Improvements

[Improved Seal of the Crusader] (3 ranks) increases the critical strike chance of all attacks against a target afflicted by Judgment of the Crusader by 1% per rank. [Sanctified Seals] also increases the critical strike chance of all melee and spell attacks by 1% and decreases the chance for seals to be dispelled by 33% per point.

Tips and Tactics

• Using [Seal of Command] or [Seal of Righteousness] after applying Judgement of the Crusader to your target will yield consistently higher damage. Judging these two Seals will not remove the Judgement of the Crusader.

• Seal of the Crusader is NOT a good seal for DPS or tanking paladins. Although it increases your attack speed, it makes each hit deals less damage. So its real benefit in damage output is the additional attack power it provided. Obviously, this means this seal doesn't scale with your gear, unlike [Seal of Command], [Seal of Blood] or [Seal of Righteousness]. Seal of the Crusader is only good if you have extremely low attack power. This is the reason why no experienced paladins with reasonable gear use Seal of the Crusader.

• While Seal of the Crusader is mostly useful for its judgement, the seal itself can be helpful when levelling weapon skill, espescially on slow two-handed weapon types.

• Using Seal of the Crusader after applying [Judgement of Light] or [Judgement of Wisdom] boosts the rate of health or mana generation of the judgements.

Improvements to Judgement of the Crusader

Certain pieces of gear can increase the power of this judgement, effectively allowing one paladin to use gear specialised in delivering the judgement and another to judge something else, but allowing both paladins (and even priests, with [Smite], [Holy Nova] and [Holy Fire]) to receive the benefit from the improvements to Judgement of the Crusader. These bonuses also receive bonuses from the talent [Improved Seal of the Crusader].

Gloves

Alliance	Horde	Holy damage bonus	Specialisation	Quality	Level
[Knight-Lieutenant's Lamellar Gauntlets]	[Blood Guard's Lamellar Gauntlets]	+20	Unspecialised	Superior	60
[Marshal's Lamellar Gloves]	[General's Lamellar Gloves]	+20	Unspecialised	Epic	60
[Grand Marshal's Lamellar Gauntlets]	[High Warlord's Lamellar Gauntlets]	+20	Spellpower	Superior	70
[Grand Marshal's Scaled Gauntlets]	[High Warlord's Scaled Gauntlets]	+20	Melee	Superior	70
[Grand Marshal's Ornamented Gloves]	[High Warlord's Ornamented Gloves]	+20	Healing	Superior	70
[Gladiator's Scaled Gauntlets]		+20	Melee	Epic	70
[Merciless Gladiator's Scaled Gauntlets]		+20	Melee	Epic	70

Librams

Libram	Holy damage bonus	Quality	Level
Libram of Fervor	+33	Superior	60
Libram of Zeal	+47	Superior	62

See also

• Seal of the Crusader TCG Card

Patch changes

• Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Removed.
  
• Patch 1.7.0 (2005-09-22): Fixed a bug that displayed the incorrect amount of attack power increased by ranks 2, 3 and 5 of the spell.
  
• Patch 1.2.2 (2005-2-15): Fixed a bug where damage per swing was increasing instead of decreasing when Seal of the Crusader was active.
  
• Patch 1.1.0 (2004-11-07): Added.