12 Best Open Field Commanders

In Today’s post I will talk in detail about 12 topic Legendary Commanders for open field fighting, plus 3 Epics.

- Strengths of that Commander

- Good Pairings

- How to get Value

The List is my opinion only, but that opinion has been formed by a lot of research and testing.

Also here is video that Dragothien did on this exact topic: Best Open Field Legendary Commanders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bs9MKBDG-s

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Alex: Infantry – Tank/DPS/Debuff

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Alex does it all. He has a shield that tanks. Big Direct Damage Factor in 2nd Skill. Attack stats. Defense Stats. March speed. Debuffs nearby enemies! And shields a side Army! Alex is the #1 Open field commander because he does it all (IMHO). When upgrading, max his first 2 skills and then unlock the last 2: 5511. He is very usable at 5533. But is also absolutely worth getting to Expertise. Can pair with ANY other Inf commander but the best options are Guan, Richard, Charles, Constantine, Sun Tzu, and YSG.

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Richard: Infantry - Tank

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Richard is the best healer in the game. He is often the last one targeted by the enemy in the open field which also gives him a lot of staying power. And all 4 of his skills are very useful in open field. Even for those who have not yet invested in Richard, he is STILL worth investing in. When upgrading I would max his first 2 skills and then open the other 2, to 5511. And 5533 ish Richard is VERY usable open field. Can be paired with ANY other Inf commander or even a dps. My favorite pairings are with someone who does some damage such as Alex, Guan Yu, or Sun Tzu.

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Guan Yu: Infantry - DPS

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Guan Yu is the most dangerous / damaging Infantry commander. His AOE attack and silence are great open field in a swarm of enemies and has several skills that do Direct Damage. When Upgrading, Just max first skill and then open up all the way to 5111. He is very usable at 5233 ish and can even be “finished” at 5244 if the skills land that way. He is GREAT to pair with a shielding commander (Charles or Alex) but can also be paired with Richard for tankiness, or Sun Tzu or YSG for synergy (Tons of AOE plus Skill Damage Bonus).(edited)

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Charles: Infantry - Tank

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Charles is one of the few/maybe ONLY commanders you can get through Gold Keys, who is also valuable enough to put Universal Sculptures into. His first skill Shield is amazing. He adds Infantry and Health. He also has Counter attack damage which really helps you do damage to ALL people who attack you. When upgrading, max the first 2 skills to 55 and then unlock to 5511 and hope to get skills on the 4th skill. He is very usable at 5533. Can be paired with ANY other Inf commander but the best 2 are Guan Yu and Alex. Some love a Charles/Richard combo, but for me it just doesn’t do enough damage when fighting open field.

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Constantine: Infantry - Tank

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Constantine is often thought of as Garrison Commander, which he is also. But he is VERY effective Open field. His first 2 skills are amazing and very tanky (reducing enemy attack, reducing your damage taken, and increasing your health) as well as giving damage reduction to friendly nearby marches. When upgrading, max the first 2 skills and then unlock the last 2 to 5511. Again, a 5533 Constantine is very usable open field. It’s best NOT to pair him with Richard because he reduces ongoing healing after he uses his big heal. Best to match him with a shielding commander like Alex or Charles.(edited)

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Saladin: Cavalry – Tank/DPS

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Saladin is an amazing commander and amazing value. His first skill does 1400 damage factor, plus reduces enemy healing effects and march speed. He has cavalry attack, defense and march speed, and his third skill Reduces incoming Skill Damage and Counterattack Damage. Max each of his first 3 skills and then you can leave him at 5551 where he is 90% as effective as an expertised Saladin, at a fraction of the cost. He can be paired with ANY other cavalry commander (Khan, Mina, Takeda, CC) or with YSG for an amazing tanky/aoe march.

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Takeda: Cavalry – Tank/Regular Damage

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Takeda is often paired with Atilla, but he is an amazing commander on his own. Debuffs enemy to take more damage, boosts your own Attack and Defense by 40% each, has healing and reduces enemy Skill Damage. I used Takeda as a 2nd commander to my MinaMoto for a long time at 5434 and he was MUCH better than an expertised Cao Cao. He can be paired with probably ANY cav commander to make tanky, but his best pairings are Atilla and Saladin. Just never use Takeda as primary commander as his talent trees are NOT good.

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Atilla: Cavalry –Regular Damage

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Atilla paired with Takeda is still the best rally pair in the game, but they are still very very good open field. He does an incredible amount of regular attack and increased damage. His best pairing by far is with Takeda (really that’s his only pairing so don’t do Atilla unless you already have Takeda) because Atilla will reduce the skill damage done by any other Cavalry commander you pair him with.(edited)

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Khan: Cavalry –DPS

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What makes Khan so great is his active skill goes off a ton due to reduced rage requirement and huge rage engine. Khan just does massive damage on the battlefield when expertised, but is even still quite good at 5522 or 5533. He often gets targeted quickly by enemy, so it can be helpful to pair him with a tanky cav commander like Saladin or Takeda if possible. Khan / Cao Cao is very popular pairing as well but be careful you do not get swarmed by enemy where he becomes very Squishy. The good news is that Khan/CC is very FAST so if you have good control of your marches, you can keep them safer.

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Aethel: Mixed - Debuff

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Aethel is a great commander, partly because she is essentially free. She has good talent trees with the Support Tree and is best when sent with mixed army of at least some Cav/Inf/Arch for 20% more damage dealt. Her best quality is she does AOE damage which also debuffs the enemy. For Ruins where you can only have 1 march, she probably isn’t your best option, but in KVK or ARK open field when you have multiple marches, it’s GREAT to have an Aethel as she will make the enemy weaker, and they often target her first which helps your DPS marches stay on the field longer. You can pair her with Barcca for a massive debuffing march. Pair with Joan for a debuff/Friendly buff march. Or pair with YSG for a fun, double AOE march.

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YSG: Archers (or as secondary commander to a cav or infantry march)

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YSG is very versatile and great in open field because of his AOE which is in a circle so it almost always hits 5 enemies. YSG is usable at 5511, but REALLY you want to expertise him because his AOE becomes that circle only when expertised. The biggest downside with YSG, is that archers are generally targeted VERY quickly openfield, and aren’t fast enough to get away. So you can get some UGLY reports getting swarmed by 20 cavalry. But, if you pair YSG behind someone else like Alex, or Saladin or even Richard who will “hide” him, he can be a very good maxed commander. Or Pair with Ramses Open field for a bit more of a tanky archer march.

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Ramses: Archers – Tank/DPS

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Ramses is by far the “tankiest” of the open field Archer commanders. He has both 40% defense and 30% skill damage taken reduction. And he heals. Meanwhile he adds 40% archer attack and does a nice damage factor. Overall a very good Archer commander (although being archer he is still often targeted very quickly by many enemy cavalry marches). Ramses first 2 skills should be maxxed and then opened up to 5511. A 5533 Ramses is very good, although his expertise skill is one of the best in the game by not allowing an enemy to heal.

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Epics:  Honorable mention

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There are 3 epics who maybe deserve mentioning. Sun Tzu is still the best epic in the game and can be paired with any other infantry commander for a nice AOE and rage engine. Palagius is probably the best epic cavalry commander who has attack/defense/DPS/Rage regen and Healing. And Joan is a GREAT commander to use because she gives extra stats to nearby armies.