Lord Commander

Lord Commander

Lord Commander is a passive that improves several summon and mobility skills at once: it shortens the cooldowns of Steed Charge and Bombardment and raises the damage of Phalanx. That makes it tailor-made for builds built around those skills.

In a Phalanx-centered damage build the damage bonus to the summoned avatars is a direct, multiplicative gain, while the reduced cooldowns hand you Steed Charge for mobility and Bombardment for extra area damage more often. Especially when all three skills sit on your bar together, this passive realizes its full value and quickly becomes a mandatory pick. If you run none of these skills, however, the slot is entirely wasted. So plan Lord Commander deliberately for summon or Phalanx setups, where it noticeably upgrades several pieces of your build at once.

What the three bonuses actually change

• Steed Charge: the cooldown drops by 25%, a full quarter, so you ride through packs noticeably more often.
• Bombardment: a 35% shorter cooldown, the largest of the three bonuses.
• Phalanx: 20% more damage for the summoned avatars.

The passive unlocks at level 35. Since each bonus is tied to a specific skill, it is worth counting before you pick it: two of the three skills on your bar is a good rule of thumb, while one alone rarely justifies the slot.

Common companions

Steed Charge appears directly in the partner list, where the reduction applies with no detour. Akarat's Champion sits beside it almost every time and opens the damage window in which Phalanx and Bombardment land. Iron Skin and Laws of Hope handle defense, while Finery supplies Strength through socketed gems.

Heavenly Strength lets you wield a two-handed weapon together with a shield. The pairing shows that Lord Commander rarely decides your damage on its own; rather, it keeps several skills of a cooldown-driven crusader in rhythm.

by eRnstl