Last updated by Gravecat at 9:52 am. Comments (91)
Eldar Farseer — Ork Mekboy — Space Marine Captain — Tyranid Hive Tyrant — Chaos Sorcerer — Lord General — Tau Commander
The following is a complete list of wargear available for the Tau Shas’O Commander in Dawn of War II: Retribution’s Last Stand game mode. I’ve personally confirmed everything up to level 18, other details are courtesy of friends and commenters. Thanks to Pika, Juno, and Forge for additional information and assistance. If you have any corrections or updates, please leave a comment below and I’ll update the list when I can.
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Plasma Rifle
Default weapon. Can only be replaced, not removed.
One-handed ranged weapon, 10.0 dps.
Shield Hardpoint
Default shield. Can only be replaced, not removed.
The Tau Commander may equip shields to this hardpoint on his battlesuit.
XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
Default armor. Can only be replaced, not removed.
Armor Rating: 50. Grants Ability: Jet (10
: Jumps the Crisis suit from its current location to the targeted location, knocking back enemies on impact.) Grants Trait: Unshakable (Makes the wearer immune to knockback.)
Command Issue Plasma Rifle
Starting equipment.
One-handed ranged weapon, 23.3 dps. Grants Trait: Armor Piercing (Attacks from this weapon ignore 100 armor rating.)
Flamer
Starting equipment.
One-handed ranged weapon, 7.0 dps. Grants Traits: Area of Effect (This weapon deals damage in a radius), Ignore Cover (Enemies attacked by this weapon do not receive a defensive bonus from being in cover.)
Shield Generator
Starting equipment.
Shield. +50 Armor Rating, +25 Health. Grants Ability: Energy Shield (Activates a powered shield that absorbs incoming damage in the form of energy.)
XV8 ‘Light’ Crisis Battlesuit
Starting equipment.
Armor Rating: 90, +25 Health. Grants Ability: Jet (10: Jumps the Crisis suit from its current location to the targeted location, knocking back enemies on impact.) Grants traits: Unshakable (Makes the wearer immune to knockback), Low Weight Composites (Increases the speed of the battlesuit by 1.)
XV8 ‘Armored’ Crisis Battlesuit
Starting equipment.
Armor Rating: 120, +50 Health. Grants Ability: Heavy Jet (10: Jumps the Crisis suit from its current location to the targeted location, knocking back and stunning enemies on impact.) Grants traits: Unshakable (Makes the wearer immune to knockback), Heavy (Lowers the distance of Jet, but increases the damage of impact as well as stuns enemies.)
Photon Grenades
Starting equipment.
Accessory. Grants Ability: Photon Grenade (25: Project a photon grenade at the targeted location. Photon grenades temporarily disorient and confuse enemies, causing them to attack random targets or walk around aimlessly.)
Snare Mines
Starting equipment.
Accessory. Grants Ability: Snare Mine (10: Places a Tau snare mine at the targeted location. When an enemy moves near it the mine detonates, slowing the target and other enemies nearby.)
Energy Core
Unlocks at level 2.
Accessory. +25 Energy.
Fusion Blaster
Unlocks at level 3.
One-handed ranged weapon, 30.0 dps. Grants Traits: Armor Piercing (Attacks from this weapon ignore 150 armor rating.)
Stimulant Injector
Unlocks at level 4.
Accessory. Grants Trait: Resuscitation (When the Commander’s health slips below 20 he automatically revives 100 health. Resuscitation can only trigger once every 30 seconds. If an attack is powerful enough to lower the Commander’s health to 0 from above 20 it will bypass the injectors and be fatal.)
Shield Drone Controller
Unlocks at level 5.
Commander Item. Grants Ability: Shield Drone (35: Summon a Tau shield drone to the battlefield. Shield drones emit a protective field that reduces incoming ranged damage by 50% to allies within range.)
Ion Battery
Unlocks at level 6.
Accessory. Grants Ability: Ion Battery (Places an ion battery at the targeted location. The ion battery quickly resupplies the energy of nearby allies.)
Repulser Shield
Unlocks at level 7.
Shield. +50 Armor Rating, +25 Health. Grants Ability: Kinetic Pulse (15: Discharges stored kinetic energy, knocking back and dealing damage to nearby enemies.)
Fragmentation Missile Pod
Unlocks at level 8.
Accessory. Grants Ability: Fragmentation Missile Barrage (30: Fires a large salvo of fragmentation missiles at the targeted location, dealing damage and knocking back enemies.)
Airbursting Fragmentation Projector
Unlocks at level 9.
One-handed ranged weapon, 6.0 dps. Grants Traits: Area of Effect (This weapon deals damage in a radius), Ignore Cover (Enemies attacked by this weapon do not receive a defensive bonus from being in cover.)
Coolant Injectors
Unlocks at level 10.
Accessory. Grants Trait: Cooled Systems (Decreases the cool down of abilities by 5 seconds and the cost by 5 energy.)
Iridium Plated Shield
Unlocks at level 11.
Shield. +75 Armor Rating, +50 Health. Grants Trait: Heavy (Lowers the distance of Jet, but increases the damage of impact as well as stuns enemies.)
Anti-Armor Missile Pod
Unlocks at level 12.
Accessory. Grants Ability: Anti-armor Missile (15: Fires a salvo of anti-armor missiles at the target. These missiles deal high damage to single targets with high armor.)
XV8 ‘Agile’ Crisis Battlesuit
Unlocks at level 13.
Armor Rating: 90, +25 Health. Grants Ability: Stabilized Jet (10: Jumps the Crisis suit from its current location to the targeted location, knocking back enemies on impact.) Grants Traits: Unshakable (Makes the wearer immune to knockback), Superior Stabilizers (Increases the range and lowers the cool down of Jet.)
Targeting Cluster
Unlocks at level 14.
Accessory. +25% Accuracy.
Heavy Gun Drone Controller
Unlocks at level 15.
Commander Item. Grants Ability: Heavy Gun Drone (25: Summon a Tau heavy gun drone to the battlefield. Gun drones are equipped with twin-linked burst cannons and fire on the enemy.)
Burst Cannon
Unlocks at level 16.
One-handed ranged weapon, 15.0 dps. Grants Trait: Suppressive (This weapon suppresses infantry, slowing their movement speed and ranged attack speed.)
XV8 ‘Command’ Crisis Battlesuit
Unlocks at level 17.
Armor Rating: 110. Grants Ability: Jet (10: Jumps the Crisis suit from its current location to the targeted location, knocking back enemies on impact.) Grants Traits: Unshakable (Makes the wearer immune to knockback), Fearless (Makes the wearer of this suit and allies around him immune to suppression), Improved Targeting (Increases the wearer’s and nearby allies’ ranged damage by 15%.)
Markerlight
Unlocks at level 18.
Accessory. Grants Ability: Mark Target (5: Mark a target using the markerlight. Marked targets receive additional ranged damage and will be the target of Skyray Seeker Missiles when the Sky Ray Barrage is activated), Sky Ray Barrage (40: Drops a seeker missile on any targets marked by the markerlight or a marker drone.)
Nano Technology
Unlocks at level 19.
Accessory. Grants Trait: Nano Machines (Increases the health regeneration rate of the Commander and nearby allies by 1.0.)
Marker Drone controller
Unlocks at level 20.
Commander Item. Grants Ability: Marker Drone (15: Summon a Tau marker drone to the battlefield. Marker drones automatically mark targets. Marked targets receive increased ranged damage and are the targets of Sky Ray barrages.)
Networked Weapon Interface
Unlocked by achievement “Dynamic Entry” (Kill 100 enemies by jumping on them.)
Controller (equipped in shield slot). Grants Trait: Twin-Linked (Duplicates the currently equipped weapon, utilizing the shield hardpoint. Twin-linking weapons slightly reduces the damage output of each individual weapon. The duplicated weapon receives the same bonuses as the primary weapon.)
Advanced Drone Controller
Unlocked by achievement “Tau Efficiency” (Kill all three doppelgangers within 5 seconds of each other on wave 16, by yourself.)
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.
DrunkDave — February 23rd, 2012 @ 9:46 pm
My Suppression/Nuke build: Level 20
Burst Cannon
Repulser Shield
“Armored” Crisis Battlesuit
Markerlight
Anti Armor Missile
Coolant Injectors
Marker Drone
You won’t be doing tons of damage with a single burst cannon, but you can suppress multiple squads at once by switching targets. Focus on marking as many different targets as you can. The drone marks one target every 5 seconds or so, and you can do more than that yourself. The coolant injectors make using the markerlight free of energy cost, and the cooldown is two or three seconds. Jump around, suppress and mark everything you can, hit big targets (anything bigger than a big choppa nob) with AA rockets, and once you’ve got most of the enemies marked, call down the skyray barrage to murder everything on the board. Rinse, repeat. This works well with an ally who can tank and another ally who can help take out the bigger targets.
Dacider — February 23rd, 2012 @ 11:22 pm
Nice build DrunkDave :)
DrunkDave — February 24th, 2012 @ 12:48 am
I’ve got another build for you guys: This one can be done at level 17, but it can be modified to work at 14 if you don’t mind giving up the command suit.
Command Issue Plasma Rifle
Networked Weapon Interface
“Command” battlesuit /Agile (if you don’t have command)
Coolant injectors
Targeting Cluster
Fragmentation Missile Pod/Anti Armor Missile pod (i prefer frag, but if you want to be an anti-boss sniper, AA missiles are a solid choice.
Gun Drone/Shield drone. I generally use the gun drone for that extra dps, but if I find that I’m dying a lot, I’ll switch to shield drone.
Unlike my other build, you will be doing gallons of damage with this build. The dual plasma rifles with the targeting cluster will kill 2 mobs at a time in a low-mid health squad with 96% accuracy. The fragmentation missile pod will slaughter several high-model squads in one shot, and with the coolant injectors, it’s pretty cost effective. If you chose to use the AA missiles instead, they’re nearly spammable. The command suit is nice, since it eliminates the problem of suppression (especially useful on TBC), and that 15% extra damage is really handy. The agile suit can be helpful if you don’t have the command suit, since the jumps are cheaper and farther. This build requires pretty solid micro, since you don’t have much health, and you have no “oh crap” button like a repulser shield. Stay mobile, jump around a lot, and don’t get in melee. The one problem I’ve had with this build is that I have no way of taking out lots of banshees on my own (except a frag missile barrage, but you need to land that before they jump towards you). This build synergizes well with a heavy melee character, and another decent ranged character. A little teamwork will keep the banshees and stormboyz off your back, and you can jet around raining death. I’ve found it especially helpful if I have an allied tau who uses an ion battery. If you have access to a battery, you can spam frag barrages as fast as the cooldown allows.
grendel_kamisori — February 25th, 2012 @ 10:12 am
Does the gun drone also suppress, since it carries a burst cannon?
johnnkaykay — February 25th, 2012 @ 1:59 pm
No gun drone does not suppress.
Immanio — February 25th, 2012 @ 4:25 pm
Personally I’m fond of the burst cannon, repulser shield, ‘Armored’ suit, ion battery, coolant injectors and anti-armor missile pod. And either the shield drone or the marker drone, depending on whether anyone else has a shield drone.
DrunkDave — February 26th, 2012 @ 2:09 am
I’ve never tried it, but can you call skyray barrages if you have a marker drone but no markerlight yourself?
johnnkaykay — March 5th, 2012 @ 2:40 am
No, marker drone marks only, you need markerlight to call skybarrage.
A quick though about build, do you have any low level build (with DLC and Achievement stuff) that is good for wave 16+?
For example with the space marine with claws and jetpak lvl 8 you are strong enough, with the chaos sorcerer you can use vestment of power undivided / touched helm / oracle staff and you can beat wave 16+, etc…
The point is triple elite, i was playing with my sorcerer and there was no big difference in my level 20 and level 4 build.
hallo — March 15th, 2012 @ 5:56 am
Harassment/Hit & Run @ lvl19, I’ve used this build since lvl12
Flamer
Network Weapon Interface
Armored Battlesuit
AntiArmor Missile Pod
Coolant Injectors
Stimulant Injector/Nano Tech
Heavy Gun Controller
This build involves kiting, lots of it. I choose the armored suit for the extra hp & stimulants to keep hp up. Reduced cooldown time on the jumpjet makes it really agile. There’s a lot of displacement involved & also breaking columns of enemies.
With a decent amount of hp, flamer & AA, this build can take down enemies at close range & heavily armored units from far. Jump in, set enemies on fire, then retreat before they can recover. Rinse, repeat. I’m usually the last one alive, reviving everyone.
Taldeer12 — April 29th, 2012 @ 1:10 pm
My ‘blow up everything in sight’ build:
Plasma Rifle
Networked Weapon Interface
‘Command’ Crisis Battlesuit
Coolant Injectors
Markerlight
Stimulant Injector
Gun or Marker drone
The main idea is to plasma the living daylights out of heavy and elite enemies, while spamming your free markerlight. Keep evading and once your ready, hit the Skybarrage key and enjoy the show. Works best if there’s at least 1 tanking player on the team.
FunnehRabbitMan — May 18th, 2012 @ 1:33 am
Thought I’d come by and drop this off:
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Flamer
Networked Weapon Interface
XV8 ‘Armored’ Crisis Battlesuit
Coolant Injectors
Ion Battery
Advanced Drone Controller
Marker Drone Controller
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Tau shocktroop build and really the only Tau build I use. Jump into the fray, burn them all alive, then jump out. Heavy armor? Jump in, drop your drone, and detonate it. Low on energy? Keep yourself (and your allies!) topped up with the Ion Battery to minimize downtime and maximize efficiency. Ally fond of long-range fighting? Leave your drone out to mark everything, then redeploy it at crucial junctures as a detonation device. Fun, hell on everything, and fuels the big nukes (or heals, or jumps, or whatever) you know your allies are packing. However, it does take some practice to get the timing on the self destruct down, and you have to rely on good judgment and guerilla tactics to stay alive since you’re not packing Hive Tyrant-level armor.
So, to reiterate, my favorite Tau build: fast, fun, effective.