Tau Commander Wargear

Interested in more information on the upcoming Last Stand Hero which will soon be available as DLC? Clint "TASK3R" Tasker provides more detail on the Tau Commander's wargear and abilities.

The Tau Commander is an offensively potent hero but can only fire at range and is vulnerable in melee. If an enemy attacks the Commander in melee he will fight back, but deal zero damage. To compensate for this large weakness the Commander begins with an initial jump ability called ‘Jet.’ In addition all of the Commander’s armor pieces grant the ‘Unshakable’ trait.

The Tau Commander’s armor pieces have lower than normal armor values which can be compensated for by adding a shield. After unlocking one of the Commander’s achievements players may twinlink their weapons in place of a shield. This makes the Commander more offensively potent but limits his survivability.

Level 1

• Command Issue Plasma Rifle
  This plasma rifle deals good damage to single targets and has armor penetration.
• Flamer
  This flamer ignores cover and does AOE damage.
• Shield Generator
  The shield generator, like all shields, increases the armor and health of the Tau Commander. It also grants the ability ‘energy shield,’ which acts the same as an Iron Halo. Shields are equipped in addition to ranged weapons.
• XV8 ‘Light’ Crisis Battlesuit
  This light battlesuit has moderate armor and a small health increase. It grants the trait ‘low weight composites,’ which increases the speed of the commander by 1.
• XV8 ‘Armored’ Crisis Battlesuit
  The armored crisis suit has more armor and health than the others. It grants the trait ‘heavy,’ which lowers the range of the commander’s ‘jet’ ability, but increases the damage on land as well as stunning enemies.
• Photon Grenades
  Photon grenades confuse enemy infantry making them fire on themselves.
• Snare Mines
  Snare mines are a throwback to Dawn of War Dark Crusade.  They can be placed on the ground and when enemy infantry trip them they slow all enemies in an area.

Level 2

• Energy Core
  The energy core increases the commander’s energy pool by 25.

Level 3

• Fusion Blaster
  The fusion blaster operates a lot like a melta gun. It does a lot of damage and has high armor penetration, but a short range.

Level 4

• Stimulant Injector
  The stimulant injector is a passive ability. When the commander’s health goes below 20 he instantly receives 100 health. This can only trigger once every 30 seconds.

Level 5

• Shield Drone Controller
  The shield drone is the first commander accessory. When summoned it creates a radius around itself that reduces incoming range damage by 50% for all allied heroes.

Level 6

• Ion Battery
  The Tau Commander can place the ion battery on the ground. It then increases the energy regeneration of all allied commanders around it.

Level 7

• Repulser Shield
  This shield increases the health and armor of the commander. It grants the ability ‘kinetic pulse’ that will knockback and deal damage to anything near the commander.

Level 8

• Fragmentation Missile Pod
  Fires 12 missiles in dramatic fashion dealing AOE damage which is especially good against weak infantry.

Level 9

• Airbursting Fragmentation Projector
  The AFP operates a lot like a grenade launcher. It ignores cover bonuses, line of sight and deals damage in an AOE. It is great at clearing chaff at range.

Level 10

• Coolant Injectors
  Lowers the cooldown of abilities by 5 seconds and the energy they use by 5.

Level 11

• Iridium Plated Shield
  The iridium shield increases the armor and health of the commander more than the other shields. Also grants the trait ‘heavy,’ which is the same as the armored crisis suit.

Level 12

• Anti-Armor Missile Pod
  This missile pod fires three missiles that are specially designed to deal great single target damage. Good against enemies like Nobs, Warriors, Dreadnoughts, etc.

Level 13

• XV8 ‘Agile’ Crisis Battlesuit
  This suit has about the same armor and health as the Light Suit but grants the trait ‘superior stabilizers,’ which doubles the range and lowers the cooldown of the commander’s ‘jet’ ability.

Level 14

• Targeting Cluster
  Increases the accuracy of the commander’s weapons by 25%.

Level 15

• Heavy Gun Drone Controller
  Summons a heavy gun drone to the field. Gun drones have twinlinked burst cannons and automatically fire on the enemy.

Level 16

• Burst Cannon
  The burst cannon is a long range weapon that deals moderate damage and suppresses enemy infantry.

Level 17

• XV8 ‘Command’ Crisis Battlesuit
  The command suit has moderate armor but no health increase. It grants fearless to allies nearby the Commander and also increases their ranged damage.

Level 18

• Markerlight
  The markerlight grants two abilities. The first is ‘mark target’ which for a small energy cost will mark an enemy squad. Marked targets take additional ranged damage. The second ability is ‘sky ray barrage,” which will target any and all enemies marked by a markerlight and fire a seeker missile at them.

Level 19

• Nano Technology
  Increase the regeneration rate of the commander and allied heroes nearby by 1.

Level 20

• Marker Drone controller
  The marker drone marks targets automatically the same way the mark target ability does. These targets take additional range damage and will be targeted by the ‘sky ray barrage’ ability.

Achievement Wargear

• Networked Weapon Interface (Unlocked through the Dynamic Entry achievement)
  The NWI takes the shield slot of the commander’s suit. Instead of increasing his durability it duplicates whichever weapon is equipped in his other slot. When using the NWI the commander’s damage on each weapon is slightly reduced.

• Advanced Drone Controller (Unlocked through the Tau Efficiency achievement)
  The advanced drone controller adds an additional ability to the commander depending on the drone he has equipped.
  • EMP Field (Shield Drone)
  • EMP field locks down all shield drones and anything under their radii. Anything locked down in this way cannot attack, move, take damage, or use abilities.
  • Overdrive (Heavy Gun Drone)
    Overdrive temporarily increases the damage and reduces the cooldown of guns drones to zero.
  • Self Destruct (Marker Drone)
    Forces all marker drones to self destruct causing a powerful explosion.