Tank Commander Underpowered

The Tank Commander needs  different play style from the other Foot Soldiers.

Because of the single shot he's best used from mid-to-long range during play modes with objective based play, like Gnome Bomb, Turf Takeover and Suburbination.

Because of the Big Damage but Slow Rate of Fire you'll experience less frustration if you adopt a supporting/bombardment role and concentrate on Assists and tactical location denial instead of charging in for front line and close range combat. He's not a character where you'll get the Vanquish Master Boast. Most characters get a damage upgrade round Elite rank 5 so that'll give you your 2 shot vanquish.

I just don't see the point of this character variant. It's no good as an aggressive, "get in there", frontline scrapper. So that leaves you with support tactics.There are other classes that provide support much better. This variant is merely redundant padding-out of the game.

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@realitysquared wrote:

The Tank Commander needs  different play style from the other Foot Soldiers.

Because of the single shot he's best used from mid-to-long range during play modes with objective based play, like Gnome Bomb, Turf Takeover and Suburbination.

Because of the Big Damage but Slow Rate of Fire you'll experience less frustration if you adopt a supporting/bombardment role and concentrate on Assists and tactical location denial instead of charging in for front line and close range combat. He's not a character where you'll get the Vanquish Master Boast. Most characters get a damage upgrade round Elite rank 5 so that'll give you your 2 shot vanquish.

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And the scuba solider can do the exact same thing and have the sonar effect to support more. The scuba takes 50 and two bullets and a sonar effect. Tank commander has bigger splash and thats it. Tank commander needs 150 lives because of his weak damage and "tank" in his name.

IMO he is the worst character in the game

I don't think he'e the worst character necessarily but he does require a player to pause and remember that charging straight into the action isn't the best way to use him. When you play a bunch of other Foot Soldiers who can get right in the thick of it switching gears like that can be hard and it's easy to want to solely blame the character.

But, Realty, he's a poor sniper as well. I'm curious who you think is the worst character. Because I think  he gets hands down. 

He completely changes after damage and reload upgrades, but yes, he could have 150hp, since "tank" in his name, at the moment is outclassed (slighly) by Scuba, so there's no really reason to play him.

Tank Commander isn't meant to be a sniper. He's a close range fighter which is why you have to use him in close combat for him to be effective. He's like the scientist.

@CmrToodles,

He's not really intended to be a sniper, the slower projectile speed almost rules that role out entirely. He's best played as Indirect Fire Support in the objective based game modes such as Turf Takeover and Suburbination, maybe even Gnome Bomb

With decent range, splash damage and good damage on a direct hit his role is best suited for standing off at mid-to-long range to bombard a target. He's definitely handy to soften up the defenses around a Garden or to help knock down a Plant trying to defuse a Gnome Bomb.

I don't think that there is a "worst character". What I know is that there are characters who I have not yet figured out how to play yet because they are best used in certain play modes, with certain play styles with certain types of combat or simply because they are a 'high skill' character and I simply haven't gotten good enough with them yet.

Had you asked me about a "worst character" immediately after I unlocked Captain Squawk I would have put him up there. Captain Squawk has been pushed deep into the role of sniper by the developers and they've made high skill with him a must with how incredibly slow his sights focus when you enter sniper mode. The first couple of hours with him were really frustrating until I figured out that he's best suited for long-to-extreme range sniping with a heavy dose of patient target selection- after that my goal became seeking high vanquish streaks and just ensuring that my K/D ratio was heavily in my favor.

Some characters can be decently effective doing almost anything but when you have a variant which is really pigeonholed into a certain niche or which requires a high level of skill then playing that character becomes a frustrating grind instead of an enjoyable experience. Both Tank Commander and Captain Squawk are like that.

With Tank Commander you're unlikely to be the one sitting on the "Most Vanquished" pedestal at the end of the game and if they's your standard of "good" or "bad" then you're viewing the character the wrong way. Having your Tank Commander up on the "Most Assists" pedestal should be your goal instead and you may find that you have more fun when you play towards that instead. 

Thanks for the well stated response, Realty. I still question why the zombies would need a splash damage guy like that. Between super brainz and all star, the zombies are pretty well equipped to deal with plants that make the mistake of congregating. Not to mention that the zmg does the same thing but much better. I still think tank commander is useless, and never see anyone else using him, so....