Commander

This article is about the leader of squads. For the player character, see Pact Commander.

Commanders are players that have unlocked the commander mechanic—a tool for organizing large groups of players in PvE and WvW.

Being a commander allows the player to

• Broadcast their location to the map and minimap via the visible tag icon
• Create and manage an upgraded, 50 slot squad with extra functionalities
• Appoint lieutenants within their squad who will have most of the commander's abilities

A similar feature, the Mentoring Badge also broadcasts the player's location on the world map but does not provide additional squad features and is available for PvE only.

Acquisition

Players may become a commander by purchasing a Commander's Compendium. There are two types of these compendiums:

• Commander's Compendium, purchased from a Commander Trainer for 300  + 250 ; unlocks the default commander icons.
• Catmander's Compendium, purchased from the well-hidden blue or yellow Catmanders for 300  + 250 ; unlocks cat-themed commander icons.
• After unlocking either compendium, the other may be purchased for a reduced price of 150  + 250 .

Creating a squad without either compendium (Commander's Compendium or Catmander's Compendium) will result in a normal squad.

Mechanics

Squads

Primary article: Squad

Commander squads inherit the same basic mechanics and tools as normal squads, and have in addition:

• 50 player limit
• Raid mode squad (10 player limit, required to enter raids)
• Subgroups
• Ready check

Administrative kick

Commanders can kick any member from their squad at will, but must be out of combat to kick players. This arrangement differs from basic squads, which work on a vote kick system.

The rest of the mechanics on this page are exclusive to Commander squads.

Commander icon

Active commanders broadcast their location to all players on the same map via a commander icon (also known as a tag). Players in World versus World can only see tags belonging to commanders on their own team. The commander icon is displayed on the world map, the compass, and above the commander's character. Commanders can choose between one of nine colors for their icon, as shown above: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, magenta, and white. Hovering the cursor over a commander tag on the map will display the commander's name, and clicking this tag will provide the option to Join Squad if that squad is accepting join requests.

If desired, a commander can hide their icon from all but those inside of their squad by enabling the "Private Squad" setting in the squad UI. Conversely, any player can disable seeing commander tags outside of their squad via the general options menu.

Lieutenants

Promoting a squad member to a lieutenant gives them access to many of the commander's leadership tools. A lieutenant can only access leadership tools while in the same map as the commander. If the commander leaves the squad, lieutenants are instantly demoted.

Lieutenants can

• place location and target markers
• move non-lieutenants into different subgroups
• broadcast messages in the squad channel
• kick non-lieutenants
• assign shared participation

Lieutenants can not

• Lock subgroups or move players to or from locked subgroups
• change squad settings
• kick other lieutenants
• place rally/attack/defend markers on the world map
• do a ready check

Lieutenants are marked by a special icon beside their name in the party UI.

Shared participation

See also: WvW Reward Track

In World versus World maps, a commander or their lieutenants can assign shared participation to a few members, rewarding participation credit for captures even when not in the award zone. An example usage is to assign participation to scouts so that they benefit from the main group's escapades.

• 1 shared participation slot is provided for every 5 players in the squad. (Max: 10 slots)
• Players do not receive double participation for both having shared participation and standing in the reward zone.
• Players must be inside World versus World to receive any benefits.
• Players may receive benefits from within any of the WvW Borderlands; they do not need to be in the same borderland as the commander.

Players receiving shared participation are marked by a special icon next to their name.

Commander tools

Squad message

Commanders can set a persistent squad message to describe the goals, guidelines, or status of their squad. This message is automatically displayed to newly joining members and can be previewed by mousing over the commander's icon on the map. Changing the message sends it to all members again.

To set a squad message, click the "Edit Squad Message" button in the Squad panel. The squad message is limited to 250 characters. Chat links appear as code when editing, but are sent as an interactive link to squad members.

Broadcast message

Commanders can send broadcast messages to their squad. These messages display as large text at the top-middle of the game window. To send a broadcast message, use the broadcast input area at the bottom of the party window. Shift+Enter can be used to quickly focus the broadcast input area.

Broadcast messages can be targeted to a specific subgroup, if desired. Type /squad (or /d) to target the whole squad, /subgroup (or /sg) for the commander's own subgroup, and /# (# = 1-15) for a specific subgroup in the broadcast input. Lieutenants, who can also send broadcast messages, may find this useful for limiting broadcasts to their own party.

Bug:

Broadcasting a message containing a game link will cause the broadcast to be sent twice.

Styling

Squad messages support basic HTML/XML like tags that can be used to apply different styles to the text displayed.

User defined colors

Colors can be applied using the <c> tag. You can either use a predefined color or define one yourself by using a 6 character HEX color code.

• <c=#ff0000>Red</c>
• <c=#ffa500>Orange</c>
• <c=#fafe36>Yellow</c>
• <c=#79c314>Green</c>
• <c=#487de7>Blue</c>
• <c=#4b369d>Indigo</c>
• <c=#70369d>Violet</c>

Predefined colors

• <c=@Task>Task</c>
• <c=@AbilityType>Ability Type</c>
• <c=@Flavor>Flavor</c>
• <c=@Reminder>Reminder</c>
• <c=@Warning>Warning</c>

Underline

Text can be underlined by using the <a> tag which is typically reserved for links. By default it will have a light blue color but can be changed by adding the color attribute.

• <a>Blue underlined text</a>
• <a color=#ffffff>White underlined text</a>
• <a color=@Warning>Red (default warning color) underlined text</a>
• <a hoverColor=#ff0000>Blue underlined text, will change to red when you mouse over it</a>

Line breaks

The <brx> tag allows you to add a one and a half line break and are best suited for headers and paragraphs. The new line should be written directly after the tag, applying a regular line break between the tag and the new line will remove the tag.

• Header line<brx>Second line

Supply reports

Supply is a tactical resource featured in World versus World. Commanders can access supply reports with the following chat commands:

• /squadinfo displays
  • names of squad members
  • amount of supply each is carrying
  • total number of squad members
  • total supply carried by all squad members
• /supplyinfo displays
  • names of adjacent allies including non-squad-members
    • (adjacent range is approximately 200 units)
  • amount of supply each is carrying
  • total number of adjacent allies
  • total supply carried by all adjacent allies

Markers

Map directives

ALT+Mouse1 on the main map (not mini-map) — Opens a context menu for adding special "order" icons visible to squad members (but not others). The available icons are:

• Squad Attack Order
• Squad Defend Order
• Squad Rally Order
• Personal Waypoint

Hovering over a commander's orders icon will display its function. All may be simultaneously placed at different locations on the map; however, only one of each may be present at a time. They may be individually removed using Mouse1. Except for the personal waypoint, they are automatically removed when the squad is disbanded.

Location and object markers

Location markers can only be placed at locations within a distance from your character. (This distance is close or equal to the maximum range within which nodes appear on the mini-map.)

• Types
  • Location markers create a marker and a colored pillar of light at the selected location
  • Object markers create a marker that follows objects or characters
• Clear All removes all currently placed markers
  • Alt + 9 — clear all location markers
  • Alt + Shift + 9 — clear all object markers

Icon	Default keybind
	Location	Object
	Arrow	lime	Alt + 1	Alt + Shift + 1
	Circle	purple	Alt + 2	Alt + Shift + 2
	Heart	red	Alt + 3	Alt + Shift + 3
	Square	blue	Alt + 4	Alt + Shift + 4
	Star	green	Alt + 5	Alt + Shift + 5
	Spiral / Swirl	cyan	Alt + 6	Alt + Shift + 6
	Triangle	magenta	Alt + 7	Alt + Shift + 7
	X	yellow	Alt + 8	Alt + Shift + 8

Trivia

• The September 2014 Feature Pack made several changes to the commander tool:
  • The tag became Account Bound.
  • Three new tag colors: red, yellow, and purple, in addition to the original blue.
  • The price of the Commander's Compendium increased to 300  and 250 , a net increase of 200 .
  • The new features applied to existing commanders; those that had spent more than 300  were given rebates of at least 100 .
  • The Commander (effect) was removed.
• An Enhanced Squad UI was announced on September 29, 2015 and was implemented with the Spirit Vale patch on November 17, 2015.
• The green and orange Commander tags were added to already existing red, blue, yellow and purple tags in the August 23, 2016 patch.
• The magenta, white, and cyan Commander tags were added in the July 11, 2017 patch.
• The catmander tags were added with the August 8, 2017 patch.
• Isaiah Cartwright was the first to obtain the commander tag

External links

• Introducing Enhanced Squad UI
• Enhanced Squad UI Features on Guild Chat: A Summary