Me and my party just got spanked in the Legion of Almire danger mission (sniff). About 75% of the problem was those blasted Almirian crusaders.
I have no intention of criticizing the difficulty of the danger missions as being too high, but I just need advice: HOW do you safely kill a Almirian crusader? (And, on a side note, are there any new monsters/bosses in the chamber 42 prestige mission?)
Putting aside one shotting them immediately after they're waking up or anything similar, the best way I've found is to shield and rub up on their face until they start doing their charge attack. Swing once (if using a heavy blade) or twice while they're charging then wait for them to activate their charge attack. Side step around them, swing once, immediately shield in case they do their regular attack. Repeat. I've found it best to not take hits from their charge attack as it does too much (shield) damage and usually knocks you back and puts you out of a position to counter well. Plus it's super easy to dodge once you're used to it. If there's more than one of them up at a time you just want to run far away before closing in to try to sync their charge attacks together, it's still not too bad to dodge multiple charge attacks if you position them right (and there's not too much other stuff going on, lol that last room).
There are a few new enemies in Compound 42 but none of them are that bad. The only thing really worth noting are the new poison oilers (whatever they're called) that leave poison puddles all over the place. The trick to them is to also not rely too heavily on shielding, since the poison puddles that can poison you but otherwise do no damage will eat through your shield. Learning to constantly be on the move and dodge while positioning monsters for attacks is pretty much the key.
Edit: Also of note regarding the Almirian Crusaders: if you remain shielded during the entire time they are charging and execute their charge attack, you can still sidestep around their charge attack while shielding and moving slow. That is how easy it is to dodge. The trick to them is to not run away if you're already that close, which I think most people do.
In a full party you can defeat the Almirian Crusaders with a single Blitz Needle charge if you have a very high gun damage bonus.
If the Crusaders are not awake, just charge up your Blitz and take them out.
If they are already awake, you can use a sword like Doreal described, or you can use Shivermist Buster to freeze them in place and then Blitz them from behind.
all good above.
Alternatively, when in battle, a charged brandish as they run towards you preparing to attack will almost always press them back out of range. Rinse, repeat (not sure if you can rinse repeat w/out vh ctr :)
Also, fight them with a plan. There should be an unspoken agreement "when we encounter these guys at rest, Player A will activate them with a given attack, then player B will follow up with a given attack.
Such as brandishes, even without vh ctr, it could very easily be designated:
When they charge, I will hit them with my fully loaded brandishes knocking them back. Meanwhile, you will be charging your brandish to full, when he moves back in, it is your turn to blast him out of range. In this manner, you are taking turns in an organized pattern.
Also, always kill the skeletons around them before you activate them. Even better if you are sympatico in what direction or pattern you are going when things get chaotic.
Strategies for a few rooms:
In the room with 2 switches on the left, and two in the right (all four corners) that block off the blow up guys. Each choose a side, and it is your job to keep the switches closed first and foremost, killing monsters is secondary. if its a four person party, 2 peaple per side. Be ready to cover for each other in case people go down. The only exception is kill dem howlitzers ASAP. Try not to activate the crusaders until you get down to 1 skeleton. then Kill them all 1 at a time as much as possible. Do this before spawning the big spawns. Always keepign them gates locked down :)
Give the Lumbers and kats priority, since they are not respawned by totem, and the giant skeletons.
In the final room of LoA, when the totems spawn, ignore them at first. #1 priority is to get the bombhead guys to chase you outside of the totems and blow up. Life is soooo much easier if you can get them all away, blow them up, have them disappear. If you go straight after the totems those guys close in, explode, come back to life, FAST. Its a natural reaction, but a bad one. Get them all out of respawn, blow up, take the totems to the corner.
From there, focus down the mobs (not the almirian crusaders). Again, howlitzers always take priority. Its a pretty easy affair to outrun the Almirian Crusader's attacks and take out the other monsters. Then take them out in a clean arena. Final spawn, take down the regular mobs, kill a few silkwing healers and almirian crusaders (even tho they respawn, you need to clean up some clutter and additional damage dealers/healers before going after the slags). Once things are clean and meaningful, target down them slags.
Hope that helps.
Treat them like Arkus, or a little like Trojans. Keep your distance, circle them while they charge, sidestep them when they release their attack, then go around and hit them in the back. I've done it.
They only pop out either on passing a scripted line, or when you hit them. So, one way to take care of the majority of them is surprising the ones that don't activate until hit with stuff like charged blitz needle shots to their face or 2x brandish charges.
Secondly, for whatever reason, they act like mechaknights when stunned.