Crusader

Crusaders are the unpopular branch of the cleric class. They have no EP heal, have weaker heals when they use hammers instead of stalves, and are dismally weaker compared to gunners, mages, shadows, gladiators in terms of damage, and end game armors are better suited for priests than crusaders. This class is neither as reliable as priests for a support class nor as strong as a warrior class. It is somewhere in between and hence they do not appear to be ideal partymates for BR. The only clear advantage crusaders have over priests is that crusaders do well in solo levelling against mobs. Play this class at your own peril as players tend to switch to priest class eventually.

Crusaders Staff vs Hammer
The main reason why crusaders should use hammers is because Second Class Skills require an equipped hammer for defense (scapegoat) and offense (grand cross). Crusaders that use stalves deal twice better heals but they cannot use Second Class skills.

Crusader Stats
As in other classes, AGI is an important stat in order to avoid most physical attacks. The second stat varies among support types and damager types. Damager types invest in STR which improve hammer attack skill damage. I cannot confirm if Grand Cross damage improves with INT or STR but fully upgrading it to level 5 makes it twice stronger as it does 4 simultaneous hits instead of 2 hits for level 1. Support types invest in INT or VIT or MND which improves, EP Pool, Hitpoints, and pDef / mDef. Full support crusaders have no hammer attack skills and function like a priest but with no EP heal and deals weaker heals.

Aside from these stats, Cooldown Time (ctc) gear is advised as it hastens cooldowns for buffs, defensive skills and offensive skills.

Crusader Defense
Scapegoat allows the player to become untouchable from physical, magical attacks, poison attacks and still move and cast skills. However, scapegoat has a short duration, requires 4-5 blessing to maximize it's capacity to nullify damage, and about 5 strong attacks can break the skill. Ideally, blessing 5 should be reached when the skill breaks so it can be recast at maximum strength. Should scapegoat fail to protect, Reincarnation skill allows the crusader to revive itself within 3-4 minutes after casting. Scapegoat requires and consumes blessings which is why crusaders need to religiously cast hermit's blessing and this requires a reliable EP pool. Scapegoat also breaks from one cerberus attack which hits serveral times in one breath, breaks from multiple physical mob attacks that cannot be ignored by current AGI (example foreman, chick boss et al,