Commando

Choose an Archetype
Berserker	Bio Engineer	Champion	Commando	Defender

Class Statistics

HIT POINTS		The amount of life you have.
MELEE		Physical Attack Power
BALLISTICS		Ranged and Explosive Attack Power
ARMOR		Reduces chances of being damaged.
SPECIALIZATION: Explosives Master, Spider Master

Class Bonuses:	Increased Ballistic Damage and Range
	Increased Grenade & Ammo Capacity
	Increased Rate of Fire & Reload Speed
	Spider Capacity Bonus
Class Statistics:	Final Melee Damage: -40%
	Final Ranged Damage: +40%
	Base Blunt Resistance: -15%
	Base Slash Resistance: -15%
	Base Pierce Resistance: -15%
	Base Ballistic Range (Pistols/Slug): 1436
	Base Ballistic Range (Pistols/Plasma): 1358
	Base Ballistic Range (Pistols/Laser): 1569
	Base Ballistic Range (Rifle/Slug): 2638
	Base Ballistic Range (Rifle/Plasma): 2493
	Base Ballistic Range (Rifle/Laser): 2760
	Base Ballistic Range (Cannon/Slug):
	Base Ballistic Range (Cannon/Plasma): 2994
	Base Ballistic Range (Cannon/Laser): 3317

Biography

Favoring technological gadgetry and stand-off methods of warfare, the Commando specializes in the use of mines, countermeasures, demolitions, and rifles. Able to support his allies through long-range harrying tactics, the Commando is truly a force to be reckoned with.

• Spirit: The Wolf
• Exclusive damage bonus with rifle/grenade launcher.
• Low Health
• High damage output with ballistics
• Low damage output and speed with melee
• Typical combo meter growth with special ranged growth.
• Capable of 1 air attack
• Main Co-op group benefit: Explosive radius

Please check out the skills section.

Commando Strategies

Pistols will be your best friend the rapid rate of fire and moderate damage will take down Goblins with little difficulty and the very high rate of fire for Slug pistols can be used to your advantage later on in the game.

• When you first find Rifles with decent stats grenades are your best friend. Liberal use of grenades early on in fights (especially when enemies are clumped together) makes everything much easier.
• Choosing alignment for a Commando greatly changes their style of play, Cybernetics gives you the big toys allowing you to deal heavy damage while Human aligned Commandos get some passive skills that improve their survivability.

• Cybernetic Players should focus on their capabilities with cannons so you can fire for longer and at larger distances than a Human Commando with Rifles and Pistols.
• Terminal Ballistics Analysis is very ideal for boosting your Warcry ability; Lightning Cascade gives those shots that penetrate multiple foes additional damage letting a Plasma or Slug Cannon break crowds.

• You'd think a Human Commando lacks the firepower of the Cybernetic as they are denied Cannons but the alignment skills become very useful;

• Calm Under Fire and A Need to Survive combined with Rain of Iron gives a very large increase in rate of fire and reload which can be boosted even higher thanks to all those Rune slots in your equipment.
• Smoothbore is powerful defensive skill with the knockback able to lift enemies of the ground if the rate of fire is high, but where it really shines is when you combine "Calm Under Fire and A Need to Survive combined with Rain of Iron" with Daring Shot, with a very high rate of fire knockback and the chance that shots will ricochet knocking additional foes down pistols can increase the potency further.
• The bane of the Commando is Assault Goblins, as firing while on the move becomes hard when dodging rockets, and shooting the rockets leaves you open to attack.
• The other bane of a Commando is the kind of Polarity enemies which absorb ballistic damage and become explosive upon death. Your options in this case are then limited to a damaging spider, a Ruiner, or a Fierce ranged attack.

Commando Skill Tree Advice

Excepted from Darth's Interest in Commandos page

So first off: Why be a Commando? For starters, this class is pretty radically different from all of the others. While they can all be molded to fill a ranged role, and the Champion with properly specced skills and armor can be a force of death with his pistols, nobody can come close to the Commando with ballistic weapons, period. If you are a fan of standoff combat, effects, and explosions, or you just want to take a break from the sword wielding savagery of your Berserker and try something different, then the Commando is what you are looking for. I think of the Commando as the “Wizard” class of Too Human. While difficult to play at first, he becomes an overpowered “God of Guns” by the time you reach level 50.

The first tier skill for the Commando is Wrecker of Mead Halls. This adds a 35% damage modifier to all secondary fire from rifles and cannons. If you use rifles, but rarely use the secondary fire mode, learn to love it with the Commando. Capped out, this skill is like a miniature ruiner and can wipe of mobs of goblins and elves in just one or two shots. All Commandos should max this skill out.

Middle Path - You Dropped a Bomb on Me

If you are a big fan of explosions and effects, then the middle path is the one for you. While perhaps not as damaging as the other paths, it is the most visually appealing, and still very effective. Rain of Iron, the first skill, works like Stopping Power in the Champion's skill tree, with a difference. Instead of increasing the damage of slug based weapons, it increases their rate of fire by up to 42%. So if you are equipped with a high damage slug weapon, this skill can help you out tremendously. For example, say your bullets do 500 damage a shot, and you can fire 100 rounds a minute for 50,000 damage points every sixty seconds. Wth this skill capped, you could fire 142 rounds a minute, for 71,000 points of damage. An increase of 21,000 points!

The Spider in this tree is Cluster Munitions. It is a deployable mine that explodes and also hits the enemy with the fire status effect. When capped, it has a radius increase of 70%! This can be used as a last line of defense if your health is low and the enemies are descending on you.

The Battle Cry is Lightning Cascade. While there are ways to kill the enemy faster, this battle cry turns your shots into slightly delayed explosives, doing more damage than a standard shot. In game, it looks like a string of firecrackers going off everywhere it hits a bad guy. When capped, it increases the duration of the cry and damage by 70%. An added benefit is that the explosion often knocks the enemy into the air. Commandos have a harder time gaining combo meter than other classes. However, once this effect knocks them in the air, continue firing, as every hit scored on an air juggled enemy counts towards your combo meter, granting you a ruiner or the use of the battle cry.

The final skill in this path is Delayed Fragmentation Warheads. This skill grants a 14% chance that one of your shots will explode, greatly increasing damage done. 14% may not sound like a lot, but consider the amount of rounds you will put down range as a Commando. You will see this proc quite a bit.

Left Path - Quigley Down Under (see this great movie)

This is the sniper portion of the skill sets. It focuses on stand-off combat. The Commando, in my opinion, should never engage in melee combat. His rifle should do all of the talking. The first skill is pinning shot. When capped, you have a 14% chance to root any target struck in place, allowing you to focus on bigger, more mobile threats. As the Commando becomes more powerful, this skill will become less necessary, but certainly during the beginning of your campaign, this skill can help keep you alive.

Bullet Tree. Personally, I love this spider. As I always say, I like to use each character's unique skills as that make the game more interesting to me. This certainly is one. This deploys a spider that shoots a blue laser beam, not at the enemy, but at any incoming explosive projectiles. For anybody but a Defender, rocket goblins are often that which will most send you on a ride with a Valkyrie. This skill keeps the rockets off your back so to speak, allowing you to hit the enemy without the explosive distractions. Capped, it gains a 70% duration and damage, meaning it can kill incoming rockets quicker and move on to others faster for more interceptions. Runes can further increase the duration by 70%. Believe me, that is a long time to have a deployable anti-missile defense system.

The battle cry for this tree is called Smoothbore. This is useful at anytime, whether you are a level 50 veteran or mid teens NOOB. When activated, every enemy you strike will be knocked back, preventing them from reaching you. If you are surrounded, don’t aim. Just hold the right trigger and sweep back and forth. Everyone will get knocked down/back, giving you the chance to run to a safer location and make your stand. As a side benefit, many enemies will get knocked in the sky, resulting in combo building air kills for the Commando. The right path may do more damage, but I have used this combination to kill my combo meter to a level 4, unleashed a ruiner, and built it back up to level 4 in seconds. Just “rinse and repeat” and you can walk through anywhere with ease. The terminus of this path is Ballistic Telemetry Feedback.

It is identical to the skill in the cybernetic alignment. It grants a 14% increase to all ranged weapons, allowing you to hit the enemy from further away. When you rune your armor up with Ballistic Lock Distance, range runes, and this same skill if you chose the cybernetic alignment, you will be able to kill your enemy from across the screen before they can fully spawn, especially with a cannon.

Right Path - The Rifleman

This is what most players consider the most damage causing path available to the Commando, and with good reason. If you don’t care about effects or visuals and just want to slay your enemy as fast as humanly (or cybernetically) possible, then choose this path. Adept of the Burning Spear increases your damage done with plasma based weapons by 42% There are many debates over which is better, plasma or slug, and I won’t get into that here, as they both have their uses. I have Commandos for both alignments and one is slug and the other plasma. That is your choice. However, don’t feel locked in by this skill. It only takes 6 points to move down this tree, so you can easily max out Rain of Iron from the middle path, drop six points here, and then move down to take advantage of the rest of the non-ammunition specific skills.

The spider for this path is Tree of Shrieking Flame. It is a turret that deals concentrated plasma fire to the enemy, killing them directly and with the “hybrid” damage afforded by plasma. Capping it out grants a 70% increase in damage.

Cut to the Bone. This battle cry is the first of two skills that make the right path Commando so destructive. When activated, EVERY SINGLE SHOT fired by the Commando or his co-op partner does an additional 140% damage when capped. At 140%, even a Berserker or a Bio Engineer can become an effective marksman.

The last skill on this tree and the second part of the reason many Commando’s chose right path, is Gift of Gungnir. This skill increases the damage a Commando does with a rifle by 42%. Think about that. Say you have a slug rifle like the Shrikes Last Word that does 313 points of damage. Now you have capped off Cut to the Bone (140% ballistic damage), and Gift of Gungnir (42% rifle damage). You have also inserted red runes in your armor for rifle damage (30%), and slug damage (30%). Finally, you are a Human, and you capped your Need to Survive Skill as well as inserted runes, increasing your rate in conjunction with Rain of Iron of fire by additional 100%. That is a combined damage modifier 242%, for a final ballistic damage count on every bullet fired of 1383!!! This is the reason so many people in co-op “kick” you from the game when you are a Commando. You will kill everything before they can swing their weapon.

In closing, I would like to add that I enjoy all of the paths on the Commando’s skill tree. In my opinion, some may do more damage, but they are all impressive and functional in their own way, and you can’t really go wrong with any path. Perhaps more than any other character, the alignment you choose can benefit your chosen path greatly by either augmenting your existing skills, or providing you with ones you don’t have. It is very easy to make your Commando into an absolute powerhouse, as you can spend all of your armor slots maxing out nothing but every ballistic skill you use, and you will still have plenty left over.

As a final note, I never talk about this with any other character class, but whatever ammunition you choose for your Commando, for your charms, I would suggest you run with two Metalstorm Impellers. I assure you that you will not be disappointed with their effectiveness.