[Tau] Tau Commander: Would you like some wine with that cheese?

[Uncle Benny]

So, beyond absolutely adoring the Tau Commander and his pretty electric blue effects, I'm feeling that it's just too sweet. I haven't played Last Stand before this month (I know, right?), but I have brought my LG up to lvl 19, Sorc lvl 15, and HT lvl 10. Mek lvl 5, I believe. Anyways, I'm noticing some major disparities between the old and the new.
My standard build is Commander Armor, which gives Fearless, Unbreakable, and aura w/+15% ranged dmg. Generally Fusion Blaster, and always shield with Kinetic Pulse. Accessories are Coolant, Mark Target & Ion Battery, and either Shield Drone (ranged teammates) or Heavy Gun Drone (tank teammates). Coolant drops cooldown, and drops cost by 5. Mark Target is now FREE and can be applied as often as desired. Shield drone makes Raveners, Rokkit Launchas, Plasmaspam Marines, etc mere nuisances, and the Ion Battery is a LOLIWIN for energy. Fusion Blaster is insane at close range, even with cooldown & 75% accuracy. Anyone getting near melee gets Kinetic Pulse'd, which is absolutely SICK.

Now, as much fun as dual Frag Launchers is, the cooldown and utter fail to hit moving targets kills it. Flamers are pretty lousy after about Wave 5, since anyone close enough to fry is close enough to melee. Burst Cannons were LOL after Wave 5, and Pulse Rifle felt about as effective as a pellet gun. I love the Anti-Armor Rockets, but the loss of sheer megadeath via the Frag Barrage seems too much to part with. I've seen a LOT of Tau with Stims/revive, but I've found it's basically a wasted slot. What use getting insta-revive if you then have to run like Forrest for 30 seconds, then rinse & repeat? The +25% accuracy is kind of a waste, even lower levels, thanks to rocket barrages.

The only time the above build has failed me is when my teammates either try to go solo, or pull some genius move like having their Sorc cloning Boyz instead of the Warboss, then standing in melee with Killa Kans. That was mildly amusing...
So, question is this:
As a Last Stand novice, am I just not getting it, or is the Tau Shas'O really that OP? Also, has anyone found a more viable build? I think mainly that the gear just doesn't seem ordered appropriately, like weaker accessories on higher levels, obviously not Mark Target + Marker Drone, but there you go.

Thoughts? Advice?

[SickSix]

My honest opinion is your build is weak. LOL

But it does greatly depend on your team. And which map.

The frag missles are ok. But anti armor is where its at. Kills elites in one shot and super fast with cooling jets.

For Colosseum: TL burst cannon, commander armor, cooling jets, Missle pod, ion battery, gun drone

It depends greatly on team. 3 tau with offensive setups gets crazy.

[Uncle Benny]

My main concern with TL setups is Stormboyz, Banshees, and other jump-into-melee enemies mob so quick, sometimes seems Kinetic Pulse is a must. As you said though, depends on your team.

[Maktaka]

No, no, that's when you stand still and chill out as I throw a triple demonic fireball on you to cleanse the area. And then you drop that ion battery that I love so very, very much to let me spam more fireballs.

[Lichking21st]

I'm only lvl 7ish right now but once I get to 20, I will start experimenting.

I already have a hard to kill sorc, LG, Marine and eldar.

Will be intresting to see Tau, so far no melee is a real blow for my standard tactics, I am tempted to keep snare mines forever lol.

Cloning boyz instead of warboss might not be as stupid as you think, my sorc build is disruptive, which means I don't tend to keep my doppels alive for long. The more units there are in the squad, the more disruptive the death throes will be, and therefore the better.

[Cuddles]

I currently run T/L Plasma Rifle, together you pretty much one shot any none commander/vehicle and its quite possibly to two shot the squishier heroes. Its greater range means melee units are all but dead by the time they reach you. Couple that with fragmentation missiles and there isn't a mob you can't deal with in short order, the extra energy thingy means I'm always mobile.

I'm really enjoying the Tau Commander, but it makes the other heroes look poor at best. They are full of redundant wargear that will never get used, they really could do with a going over I think.

[Uncle Benny]

One big thing to mention, for those who are just starting on Tau. The Mark Target ability, which increases the ranged damage that unit takes, is cheap anyway (free with Coolant), and also applies for all allies. What I mean by that is, the Sky Ray Barrage ability (part of Mark Target), costs 40 nrg (35 with coolant), and nails any unit marked by Marked Target. ANY unit. Meaning, if you have Tau allies, and everybody is Marking, if any one of the Tau calls in Sky Ray Barrage, it hits every Marked unit, even those by other players. Downside is, Sky Ray Barrage seems to cause damage to allies, so have to watch that.

Speaking of damaging allies, the Frag Missile Barrage seems to damage allies & their minions as well, so might want to watch that also.

[Hello_Moto]

contrary to your suggestion that the targeting cluster (+25% accuracy) isn't very useful, I find that the effectiveness of twin-linked plas or fusion blasters is massively boosted by its inclusion in the build. Certainly makes killing heavily armored targets a lot easier in the later waves. Having said that, I'll concede that the loss of kinetic pulse means that you'll have to watch the TC carefully to prevent getting bogged down in melee.

Advanced drone controller + marker drone + coolant injectors is a more recent tactic of mine. Jump into blob, spawn a marker drone (@ reduced cost of 10 energy per use), Jump out and remote detonate the drone in the blob mass (@ reduced cost of 5 energy per use). The damage caused by the explosion is seemingly on par with the Mekboy's BoomTime. Has a startup delay of 2-3secs though. Just make sure you and your allies are not caught in the blast radius because it does cause friendly fire.

[Uncle Benny]

contrary to your suggestion that the targeting cluster (+25% accuracy) isn't very useful, I find that the effectiveness of twin-linked plas or fusion blasters is massively boosted by its inclusion in the build. Certainly makes killing heavily armored targets a lot easier in the later waves. Having said that, I'll concede that the loss of kinetic pulse means that you'll have to watch the TC carefully to prevent getting bogged down in melee.

Yes, it totally makes the PlasRifle or Fusion Blaster spot-on accurate, but the loss of a melee counter, outside of jumping out, kinda nixed it for me. It basically takes a mobile weapon platform and turns it into a sniper with a slow rate of fire. To each their own, I've run with TL fusion blasters + targeting, and totally demolished Wraithlords, Killa Kans, et al. Problem I had was blobs of infantry, even with frag barrage, still had to run around like a scared hamster.

[Lichking21st]

The new DLCs and wargear sort of balances out most heroes, the LG Rocket Run setup is about the same strength as tau. I use a Stim pack, Jets and the 75 health boost for my marine with Claw, shield and the Reactive armor, which I think is a really stable build. Tau is squishier than other races if not for the superior damaging skills.

[BigSteve]

Tau commander hardly needs a melee counter because of his jump jets. IMO the must have item is the anti armor missiles, and if you want to roll with frag missiles the ion battery is also a must.

[Luthor]

I tend to use the following build:

Command Issue Plasma Rifle x2 (Networked Weapon Interface)

XV8 ‘Armored’ Crisis Battlesuit

Ion Battery
Fragmentation Missile Pod
Coolant Injectors

Heavy Gun Drone Controller

I seem to get teamed up a lot with Tau commanders using Burst Cannons and Anti-Armor Missile Pods, so they take care of suppressing infantry and killing the really big stuff. Burst cannons tend to ping off of the larger units a bit but I find the plasma rifles armour penetration helps out there. The armoured battlesuit lets me stun on landing (if I need to jump away and there's enemies everywhere) and the +50 health improves survivability a lot. The frag missiles make mincemeat of infantry and the ion battery helps to keep everyone using their abilities.

I tried using the XV8 ‘Command’ Crisis Battlesuit (fearless and ranged damage boost), but 15% more damage at a cost of 50% health doesn't really cut it for me.
The flamer seems almost entirely useless, and the Airbursting Fragmentation Projector never seems to hit anything on the move.

All in all, I'm loving the Tau commander.

[BigSteve]

The Airbust Frag will fire mid jump, it can be devastating combined with frag missiles. (if you jump over the blob/target you want to hit, even if its moving, the distance the missiles need to travel is almost nill so they wont miss)

[dokfm]

The flamer seems almost entirely useless

Curious you feel that way. I've found TL flamers to be pretty good at anti-infantry, although perhaps not as good as the burst cannon. Admittedly you won't get Kinetic Pulse or the Heavy shield... But it's pretty darn effective, from what I've seen.