Commanders specialize in a wide range of disciplines such as Defense and Gathering. However, Commander pairings are mostly concerned with the offensive part of the game such as in the open field with the Best Archer, Infantry, Cavalry, and Leadership Commanders. Here we take a look at the Best Epic Commander Pairings in Rise of Kingdoms. Make sure to also check out our list of the Best Legendary Pairings.
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What Makes a Good Commander Pairing
A good Commander pairing must ideally cover their weaknesses. For example, if one Commander has all their skills centered around the offense, bring in a pairing that has a shield, a heal, or offers damage reductions or defense buffs.
Ideally, these Commanders will also empower the same type of unit, so Cavalry Commanders go together, Infantry, Archers, and so on. However, there are some exceptions to this rule in this list of the Best Epic Commander Pairings in Rise of Kingdoms.
It is also worth remembering that ONLY the Primary Commander in a pairing needs to be upgraded Indeed, it is only their gear and talents that count towards empowering your army. The only thing your Secondary Commander adds to the fight is their passive and active abilities. Learn more about improving your Commanders in our Rise of Kingdoms Commander Guide.
Following this logic, you should also pair up Commanders that benefit from each other’s active skills. If one Commander deals immense damage with their skill why not bring in someone who buffs active skill damage? Another great option is to combine two Commanders with great AoE to wreak havoc in big KvK fights etc.
Best Epic Commander Pairings in Rise of Kingdoms
Now you know what makes a good pairing, let’s get straight onto the list of the Best Epic Commander Pairings in Rise of Kingdoms. If you can get your hands on any of these Commanders you will be in a good place! Check out our detailed Rise of Kingdoms Commanders Guide for more details on how to improve each of these Commanders.
6. Bjorn Ironside (Primary) & Eulji Mundeok (Secondary)
Bjorn Ironside is easily recognized as not only one of the Best Epic Commanders in Rise of Kingdoms but also as one of the Best Epic Infantry Commanders in the game. He pairs great with Eulji Mundeok, another powerful Infantry Epic Commander.
Bjorn is extremely versatile and has the ability to seriously harm the enemy forces. He is very powerful in open-field fights, any rally type, and can do decent AoE damage with great buffs and debuffs. Eulji attacks a single target with his skill while also applying a defense debuff to the target. Both of these Commanders empower their Infantry Units’ attack and defense.
5. Eulji Mundeok (Primary) & Osman I (Secondary)
Another one of the Best Epic Commander Pairings in Rise of Kingdoms is Eulji Mundeok and Osman I. Although Osman I doesn’t actually have any troop specialization, he has another vital role in this pairing which is to increase troop capacity. He also has some nice skill damage which increases every time it activates. Additionally, one of his skills increases the damage when rallying a city, making this combo really effective at just that.
Eulji Mundeok is the primary Commander in this pairing due to his talents. He has a single-target skill that does damage and debuffs the defense of his opponents. Furthermore, he buffs the attack and defense of Infantry Troops, therefore, confirming this pairing as a pure Infantry march. This pairing is well suited for 1v1 scenarios or smaller fights and as such you should avoid larger KvK battles with it.
4. Kusunoki Masashige (Primary) & Boudica (Secondary)
Kusunoki is an Archer Commander who specializes in defending garrisons and open fields. His active talent, “Shichisei Hokoku,” removes all debuffs from his Troops, including slow-down, poison, and exhaustion, as well as doing AOE damage. Moreover, he adds 7% more damage to the garrison’s counterattack. His second passive ability boosts the attack and defense of Archer Troops.
On the other hand, Boudica has exceptional adaptability and damage skills that work well in both PVE and PVP. Her “Lament of the Insurget” ability deals significant damage, lowers the target’s Rage, and debuffs their attack all at once. Another passive talent with a healing component that Boudica possesses is “Celtic Blood,” which also offers a quick restoration of rage.
3. Diaochan (Primary) & Joan-of-Arc (Secondary)
Joan is a great support Epic Commander thanks to her versatility, and effectiveness in Gathering, Events, and PVP. She can command any troop type to victory. This all contributes to making her one of the Best Epic Commanders in the entire game. However, she, unfortunately, suffers from being pretty slow, much like Bjorn.
Another weakness that Joan of Arc suffers is the pure weakness of MOST Epic Commanders, in the sense that she is weaker than most Legendary Commanders. And since Joan’s sole strength is open field and events, she can quickly become obsolete as enemies roll out Legendaries into the open field.
Diochan on the other hand brings plenty of heals and damage increases, and since she doesn’t have any specialty, she buffs all her Troops regardless of their composition, so just bring whatever you have in your reserve! Joan and Diaochan are not great PVP candidates on their own, but together their buffs and heals combine to make them fairly difficult to kill. If anything you can always use Diaochan’s EXP boosts to farm Barbarians around the map.
2. Baibars (Primary) & Sun Tzu (Secondary)
Baibars is quite an underrated Cavalry Commander but despite this, he can still be considered one of the Best Epic Commanders in Rise of Kingdoms. Baibars can hit up to five targets for a significant amount of damage with his skill. While he will lose most 1v1 matches, he is still great for large-scale prolonged battles where he can easily strike five targets, such as KvK, AOO, and Sunset Canyon.
Sun Tzu is a great partner for Baibars since he increases damage from skills while also dealing AoE skill damage himself, combining into quite a large amount of AoE damage, perfect for big KvKs and Canyon content.
Sun Tzu’s army is also hard to kill and generates rage extremely fast. Since he can increase any units damage reduction, the only downside of this setup is that you cannot fully utilize Sun Tzu’s skills since one of them buffs Infantry, but you are not going to be bringing any because of Baibars Cavalry buffs which are more important.
1. Hermann (Primary) & Imhotep (Secondary)
Rise of Kingdoms doesn’t have that many Epic Archer Commanders, but putting two of the best ones together proves to be a lethal combo! Hermann has the ability to silence enemy Commanders for 2 seconds and lower their wrath by 100 points. He is amazing in PVE and PVP open-field combat. His sole downside is that he is a glass cannon, he hits hard but gets hit equally as hard.
Imhotep is another Archer Commander who was featured with the Egypt Civilization in Rise of Kingdoms. His skills emphasize the abilities of his Archer Troops, garrisoning, and support roles. He is a Commander who will not significantly increase the damage that his troops deal, but he will significantly reduce the damage of his opponents via debuffs.
Thus, this paring is a perfect mix of a glass cannon and someone to reduce the damage taken. Hermann and Imhotep prove to be troublesome even for some of the weaker Legendary Pairings.
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