Grineer Commanders are incredibly unfun, unfair and frustrating.

[LascarCapable]

I always found grineers unfun to fight against due to hitscan weaponry, random procs ands armor scaling, but this one takes the arsenic soaked cake.

If like me you like to do some runs on medium level missions such as Telesto (Saturn) as a way to pass the first levels of your warframe, you probably fought against those kind of enemies. They are basically an upgraded version of Grineer lancers, but they can switch teleport you without any warning and from an downright insane range. The worst is that just after being switch teleported, your Warframe will be stuck in some kind of silly animation for two or three seconds.

Grineer commanders usually spawn in the middle of a grineer squad, are fairly hard to spot and tend to teleport you as soon as they see you. This means that unless you manage to see them and kill them within the next two seconds they spotted you, you will be teleported at the center of the enemy crowd, from a seemingly unlimited range and without any way to defend yourself or any way to dodge the switch teleport. Fortunately, Grineers from Telesto barely reach level 25. But against a crowd of level 60+ enemies, this pretty much mean instant, unavoidable death, and this is incredibly unfair. And it has been a big issue in the game since several years. It's just widly ignored by the community because Grineer Commanders are a fairly unusual enemy type. Heck, I bet most players doesn't know what a Grineer Commander is, or they will just answer "it's Vor or Sargas Ruk or something".

Anyway, Grineer Commanders desperately need some kind of rework, like the one Ballistas recieved several month ago. Their switch teleport should be telegraphied and dodgeable. If an grineer commander is about to switch teleport you, you should be able to see some kind of energy particles around your warframe. At this point, you have two seconds do a roll or a dodge in order to escape the teleportation, pretty much like how deal with latchers. This should make Grineer Commanders way less unfair to deal against.

[Genitive]

I think their teleport ability should be removed. Instead, they could provide buffs to nearby Grineer units. At least this is what I would expect from commanders. Then give them more health and a scary gun, and there you go.

[Ferah_Frithu]

I agree with OP, though I don't think their teleport ability should go, it's the "being locked in place, having our Warframe act like a toddler for 3 seconds"-thing that has to go.

This ordeal gets especially frustrating when dealing with more than one at the same time. I've had this mostly on Ceres, but other planets as well, that I would be teleported alll the way through several tiles by several Grineer Commanders, and I am prone to getting killed when switch-teleported into a mob of Eximi units, because I am unable to control my Warframe.

In some way, I find the Commanders fun and engaging, though I can't stand the fact that we're unable to immediately act after the teleport to prevent almost certain death.

[Urlan]

Its a common enough observation of Grineer Commanders being annoying gits, but their loki-esque ability tends to be overlooked compared to the super common nullifier and other dedicated anti-warframe tech.

[CraziestOfRabbits]

It's even worse now in PoE in my opinion. Was doing a high level bounty to kill a commander, and now in plains when you do this a lot of enemies can converge on you especially if you solo it, anyway this guy kept teleporting me in crowds of high lvl grineer and because of the animation after the teleport it was hell to even survive! Definitely needs some work!

[Duckz4Win]

The should be like that xD

[o.0-]

Commanders should have some buff for their Grineer Allies.

The teleport ability is far better reserved for Manics, IMHO.

[BlackCoMerc]

It takes a lot to be the worst designed enemy in Warframe, but yeah, Commanders are it. Absolutely terrible. 

The teleport has no counter play. No opportunity for avoidance. It needs to go. Not just the intelligence insulting stun lock; the entire teleport. 

[(XBOX)YoungGunn82]

As if the teleport and dumb animation at the end isn't enough, gonna need to flash bang you right after.....because that's entirely necessary. 

(My reaction every time)

Edited October 15, 2017 by (XB1)RDeschain82

[Fractalisomega]

They aren't always very bright in their timing.... Sure.... teleport the Inaros with full armor, HP, and Energy into a group of your soldiers.....

https://youtu.be/jHgZh4GV9G0?t=50s

Cry some more....

[LascarCapable]

8 hours ago, BlackCoMerc said:

It takes a lot to be the worst designed enemy in Warframe, but yeah, Commanders are it. Absolutely terrible. 

The teleport has no counter play. No opportunity for avoidance. It needs to go. Not just the intelligence insulting stun lock; the entire teleport. 

It had no counter play at the moment, indeed. But creating some counterplay ideas would be fairly easy, like the one I suggedted in the OP. Implementing them would be a bit trickier ofc since it means implementing new mecanics, but far from being impossible.

9 hours ago, Urlan said:

Its a common enough observation of Grineer Commanders being annoying gits, but their loki-esque ability tends to be overlooked compared to the super common nullifier and other dedicated anti-warframe tech.

Yes ! And you know what's actually crazy ? People complain about something that actually has more counterplay than Grineer Commanders. Unlike Commanders, Nullifiers actually have a ton of counter possibilities. Just having a fast firing gun is one of them, but now you can also fire that one target on the bubble if you happen to not have any fast firing guns. Alternatively some warframe powers can allow you to work around it, like Volt's Electric Shield (nullifier or not, they won't break through it). And Hyrdoid's Tempest Barrange can also completely shred it after a few seconds.

But Commanders ? It's simple : they will always get you, they will always "stun" you, and you WILL die from it (if the level is high enough). Nullifiers might be annoying, they are hardly unfair. Commanders however are the most unfair enemy in the game as of today.