Guild Wars 2

What is in your opinion the best class for commanders?

The difference will be slight because its essencially the tag and the person that really makes the difference. But some professions are weaker or have less utility for a commander role.

I am a thief myself. But I get the feeling that my zerglings are afraid to follow a thiefs tag in an enemy zerg.

Short answer: warrior/guardian

Long answer: Still warrior/guardian
Why?
Simple, unless you are in an organized group, most of the time, people stand behind a commander. If the commander cant lead by example, cant resist fire, cant hold its ground, then usually the fights that ensue (or dont at all) are very messy.

Guardian and warrior both have the capability of going very tanky while still being very useful in a zerg.

Reference : im a WvW commander.

Disclaimer: Any class can be commander, but when it comes to best nobody beats heavy classes in soldier/valkyrie gear.

I’d honestly say Guardian is the best, because of how well they can time their frontline. Stability via Stand Your Ground and Empower are both skills that are often used to dictate your group’s tempo. That is, if your stability is coordinated you always know when you can hard push through a lot of hard CC. If your Empowers are coordinated, you know when best to force a clunge and/or regroup.

Over the past year Maguuma has had several successful thief, ranger, elementalist (staff and d/d), warrior, mesmer, and guardian commanders. It’s not entirely impossible, but I’d definitely say that Guardian is MOST suited to organized play, whereas the others can lend themselves more to pubmanding.

Coming with someone with a warrior and a guardian with tags, I’d say guardian.

Simply because it has the most useful utilities for open field fights and can set the tempo however they like. That is if the driver has a brain.

It is awkward when you have a lot more survibility than your team, and you find yourself alone because your group wiped.

It’s really up to how skilled is a player on a class. If you are not good enough on that class, don’t even think that you will do better just because of that cdr tag.

Then also is the question that what kind of squad you will lead?

Usual random “PUG’s” mostly expect that a commander won’t die easily, doesn’t move quicker than them (waiting for them to catch up during fight too and moves in a predictable pattern) — so a very tanky, survival focused build & class is best for that (squishy ones not so much, including warriors, and don’t forget active defenses, as gear is the less important part of the equation).

For an offensive commander, or a fast striking squad, with followers accustomed to the commanders usual reactions, any class will do – IF the commander masters that class. Nothing is more inspiring than having a very skilled fighting player upfront, who just goes deep into the clash and leads by example. There are many examples of exceptional commanders on thief, dagger/dagger ele, and so on. Every class have strengths, and those who master it, are no longer limited to stereotypes.

If you are not good enough on a class, then class doesn’t matter, you will be a bad commander, at least as the fighting part goes. Leadership and understanding are still needed, so your followers may forgive your unskilled fighting, and revive you — or not, who knows…

Best commanders are spiky thieves. You hit them and they stealth and run away from the fight. Very inspiring for me, much morale.

styx.7294:

Best commanders are spiky thieves. You hit them and they stealth and run away from the fight. Very inspiring for me, much morale.

spiky thief grouped with 4 mesmers so they can veil/mass invis the entire zerg forever

Guardian hands down with warrior as a close 2nd. Guardian is my class of choice for playing while impaired.

You can command successfully with any class, but it’s a whole lot easier when you have a pile of survival tools AND utility.

All class can command, but not all can do as easily.

Wars and gard leaders pretty much all have the same kind of base leading pattern (jump in enemies, get out, heal, redo).
So people who are not always following the same commander still have the same kind of movement.

Problem with distant is not that they can’t lead, it’s that people don’t know how to follow them… because most distant leads are not going in melee – obviously – they direct melee to hit here or there, without necessarily going there or here.
Some will adapt their build accordingly to be able to go melee. But some overdo it.
You have to hold better than your troops, but not by so much that you forget them.

I’ve been lead in fight by some great thiefs, rangers, ele, mesmers (never saw an engie lead though )
(love mesmers lead and their use of portals – some melee try using portals, but it’s not so great, since it takes time for a mesmer in the bus to react and put it down – often makes it so precious seconds are lost – but i diverge)

Lately, I see lots of guards and necros lead…
Difference is, if I lead with my ranger, I have to totally change my build, while these almost have nothing to change and can lead with their bus build…

Guardians, Warriors, and D/D Eles in that order. I tend to prefer Guardians or Warriors though as they don’t jump around as much in order to survive.

If the plan is lead large groups the Guardian by a mile. Warriors are decent second but still pretty far back.

The front line has to be able to soak up massive amounts of damage and stay on their feet. Other classes simply cannot soak up spike damage as easily as heavies. Once a commander gets a name from wins, enemy groups frequently target those commanders making it even more difficult.

Hands down commanding is best when done on a guardian.

My top pick is necromancer, only cause I have this power well build that kicks kitten in wvw. Second best: warrior for the survivability, third best: guardian.

The above posts are true. If you aren’t able to lead the charge noone will follow you in. It’s that simple. Noone reads your chat, no one gets on your teamspeak. All they see is you zerg surfing and they’ll want to join in.

Yo people! I’m a commander engi, it’s hard but not impossible… I’ve won a few fights..

The heavies are by far the class best suited for commanders in WvW, it’s not even close.

I’ve commanded a lot, and on only warrior and guardian. I have so far found Warrior to be better. This is because of movement speed and self survivability. When tying to save a structure and hold the circle on Guardian, I have to ask someone in my zerg to try to run in front of me to try to save it. On warrior, I don’t have to rely on a teammate for that which is good since I may not have a teammate that is fast enough or with good enough reaction time and awareness. The self survivability of warrior is also very important because you don’t want to be taking a death as a commander because then you are now useless and it’s up to your zerg to know what to do or someone else to take over for you. In zerg vs zerg when I’m commanding on warrior, I like to lead the way for my team and then draw all of the aggro to me while I pop my 10’ish seconds of invulnerability (berserker stance, balanced stance, endure pain, shield skill, traited endure pain). You are more likely to get focused when you have your commander tag up which is why I like warrior for its tankiness. Guardian is probably better for smaller groups where your team support becomes more important than just your self survivability.

Tanked Up Support Staff Elementalist

Tanked up, I’m a good middle ground…So I know when its too tough for the zerg…Tankier classes will still be yelling ppl forward when the majority of the zerg won’t survive.

You can stand in the fight dropping AOE right on yourself.

You can range with the best to AOE ACs Mortars or that Strategic static to cut the enemy zerg in half.

I can drop most fields and blast them myself if needed.

Spells such as Meteor Shower, Static, and Walls allow you to shape the battlefield.

Mistform, Burning Retreat, or Teleport to get you out of tough Spots while still being visible.

Attunement bonuses dropping to everyone around you every-time you change. Yer like a boon machine, the right attunement for the right situation.

And on-top of all that….Everyone is amazed your an ele:)

Gurdian, Warrior, Elementalist/bunker in that order. Because these professions have the most access to stability, and sustainability. As a commander your job isn’t to do damage its basically to stay alive and these 3 professions stay alive the best when they bunker.

imo, best commander class is the one you have most experience with and feel comforable playing it

only warrior can provide maximum damage and all the stability alone ( war banner ,when equipped + Balanced Stance + sure-footed gives much more time stability than 1 guardian stability ) and swiftness that needs a party and he can be easy the last man standing .

all other classes are to support warriors with protection boons and damage

There are three types of commanders I have sworn to never follow.
1. Thieves they stealth and teleport to much to have a good feeling of what their group is going through
2. Mesmers for the same reason.
3. Rangers wielding a long bow. Often if the ranger is double bow you won’t get movement as it should happen in a group fight. Rangers are fine other than that.

Favorite types of commanders
1. Wariors are in the damage and provide great utility with healing shouts and stuns
2. Guardians same as warrior.
3. Necro you don’t see a lot of necromancers but the ones I have seen are pretty amazing.(as long as they don’t use flesh golem while commanding)

D best.3547:

There are three types of commanders I have sworn to never follow.
1. Thieves they stealth and teleport to much to have a good feeling of what their group is going through
2. Mesmers for the same reason.

I followed thiefs commanders – but none that were specialized in stealth… Most are venom share or just build for tankiness…
Same with mesmers… they usually know they have to make sure their bus can follow them – so few are specialised in escapes…

+ I would have that it is not good that a commander is too tanky compared to it’s bus… it needs to be able to survive, yes, but one that gets too much of self-preservation often is surprised to see itr’s bus dead… while the other would have asked for more stability, more heal, or more anything that the bus will need to survive…

Jocksy.3415:

D best.3547:

There are three types of commanders I have sworn to never follow.
1. Thieves they stealth and teleport to much to have a good feeling of what their group is going through
2. Mesmers for the same reason.

I followed thiefs commanders – but none that were specialized in stealth… Most are venom share or just build for tankiness…
Same with mesmers… they usually know they have to make sure their bus can follow them – so few are specialised in escapes…

+ I would have that it is not good that a commander is too tanky compared to it’s bus… it needs to be able to survive, yes, but one that gets too much of self-preservation often is surprised to see itr’s bus dead… while the other would have asked for more stability, more heal, or more anything that the bus will need to survive…

I find this very true.

I also think that commanding tactics have been narrowed down to follow and do exactely as the commander. The tag sepperates the commander from other players, and effectively coordinating a zerg can result in very interesting tactics that shape the battlefield in a strange way.

Example:
I ran with a zerg once when we saw a camp being captured by a huge zerg. I stopped and told my zerglings to stack and stay. As I stealthed the group I shadowstepped to the zerg. (Some of the invisible zerglings will always follow you, but luckily they were all invisible)
I opened Pistol Whip + Steal on the surprised zerg. They all started hitting my evades untill PW ended. And I teleported back to my incoming zerglings now appearing.
Most of the zergs precious skills were used to stop me from escaping, and they were split into a group still at the camp and a wide spreaded group chasing me down.

I also like the Shadows Refuge on demand without having to shout “veil!”

Ranger and necro definitely due to various reasons. However, they have to be skilled.

Guardian or warrior for less skilled players.

Rezz.8019:

Ranger and necro definitely due to various reasons. However, they have to be skilled.

Guardian or warrior for less skilled players.

However much i love rangers, skill with the profession has nothing to do with commanding.
A good commander knows when to back off and avoid a battle or make preparations. A good commander knows how to navigate a battlefield to avoid the worst of the enemy’s DPS.

As a commander, what you want/need to bring is simply;
A very tanky build (PVT/Cavaliers+Valkyrie mix/Clerics in a very few cases) will work.
AOE Swiftness
Protection (big + if it is AOE buff)
Stability (self is a must, AOE is a major +)
AOE Condition Cleanse
A weapon with a blast finisher on.

Guardians; (#1 choice)
AOE Stability
AOE Protection
AOE Healing
AOE Might
AOE Cleansing
AOE Swiftness
Light Field
Ok DPS
Very tanky

Warrior; (#2 choice)
AOE Healing (only if using shouts)
AOE Cleansing
AOE Fury
AOE Might
AOE Vigor (very useful if you want as many allies as possible make it past the frontline)
AOE Swiftness
Very Tanky
Good DPS, however choice of weapon can make you move “too fast” for your allies to keep up during combat.

Ranger; (#3 choice)
AOE Swiftness
AOE Fury
AOE Protection (With spirits. Not very effective on frontline without full traitline)
AOE Vigor
AOE Cleansing (Pet/Shouts W/Solider’s Runes)
AOE Might (only 1 pathetic stack, 5 stacks from a pet that uses 1 week to charge the skill, let alone if it even activates at all)
Self Stability
Waterfield
Firefield
Poison Field
Frost Field
Etheral Field (Chaos Armor)
Very tanky
Can be excessively evasive
Can take down problematic siege from walls/AOE cripple if carrying backup LB
Bit higher DPS then guardian.

Elementalist; (#4 choice)
AOE Stability (very short)
AOE Protection
AOE Might
AOE healing
AOE Swiftness
Lightning Field
Fire Field
Frost Field
Water Field
Strong AOE damage
Can be Tanky, but light armor and low HP pool make them vulnerable. They rank above necromancers as they got better party buffs and more reliable stability, albeit not as durable.

Necromancers, while tanky, they do not bring that much to the group.
Apart from Well of Power and Spectral Wall, what the necromancer brings is rather lackluster. These two skills are also on long cooldowns, whereas the ele has shorter cooldowns and more effects

Prysin.8542:

Necromancers, while tanky, they do not bring that much to the group. Apart from Well of Power and Spectral Wall, what the necromancer brings is rather lackluster. These two skills are also on long cooldowns, whereas the ele has shorter cooldowns and more effects

I think almost every part of that paragraph is wrong. I’ll address why you’re wrong one sentence at a time.

Necros should typically be built glassier than other backliners because of access to two health bars and an elite that doubles base power, quadruples base toughness, and triples base vitality. It’s easy to hit 80%+ Crit Damage, 100% Crit Chance, 2k+ Power, and still retain 23k+ HP and 2500 Armor.

Well of Power is actually one of the lesser-used necro utilities. Typical skill choices are Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption + misc. The misc is typically Spectral wall or Well of Darkness. Within those skills you have pulsing boon strip, vuln stack + exceptional damage, pulsing blind (with chill if traited), and soft cc in the form of fear.

Suffering (28s), Corruption (32s), Darkness (40s), Spectral (45). Meteor Shower has a 30s CD untraited (why are you traited into fire?). Considering Suffering and Corruption are where most necro bomb strength is derived from, I would say that necro and ele are more-or-less on par.

I didn’t even address how necro is probably the most effective backline sniping class, and has strong poison + weakness uptime, amongst other denial conditions.

Here’s the most important thing in my entire post, so pay attention. Necros and eles fill different roles. Roles that overlap in some areas (soft cc and bombs mainly), but different roles nonetheless. Where an ele’s main role is frontline sustain and pressure on the enemy stack, a necro is expected to transition in and out of bombing the enemy stack and focusing down backliners.

This is about being a better COMMANDER option, not about general usefulness. If the necro excels at “Transiting in and out of bombing the enemy stack and focusing backliners” they will never work as a commander, as the commander needs to push into the stack.

PabbyGaul.9682:

Tanked Up Support Staff Elementalist

Tanked up, I’m a good middle ground…So I know when its too tough for the zerg…Tankier classes will still be yelling ppl forward when the majority of the zerg won’t survive.

You can stand in the fight dropping AOE right on yourself.

You can range with the best to AOE ACs Mortars or that Strategic static to cut the enemy zerg in half.

Spells such as Meteor Shower, Static, and Walls allow you to shape the battlefield.

Mistform, Burning Retreat, or Teleport to get you out of tough Spots while still being visible.

Attunement bonuses dropping to everyone around you every-time you change. Yer like a boon machine, the right attunement for the right situation.

And on-top of all that….Everyone is amazed your an ele:)

I totally agree.

I’m a commander. I’m an ele. I’m sure i’m not one of the best commanders here but…
- when i tag up, all hail and came immediately
- they know i don’t run the zerg in ambushes or too hard fights
- they know i spam water fields all around so they prefer to stay tight (my guys are smart )
- they know that in the end they collect more bags than they leave.

Really, every profession is good: it depends which commander you are (in the last fight, we were outnumbered 3:1, but the other commander – a charr warrior – decided to run in first line. Not smart: we were able to ambush them between two keeps: they died as flies).

Have a necro/guardian/warrior commander, i think it depends on your playstyle, if youre a highly offensive/melee train type commander, guardian is better since you have control on your boons(especially stability) and you can time boons right for your team and you need to be able to hold your ground without dieing since youre the target of where the team should drop their damage. One thing about being a commander, the single most important thing you MUST have is stability, and access to alot more than just 3 seconds of it, unless you have a highly reliable guardian party

Rangers are actually somewhat good commanders. Spamming GS#1 in a huge Zerg (which is all you can do anyway) mitigates SOO much dmg

Well on my Server there are many more who are Guardian/Warrior commanders these days, when in the past we’ve had Engineer, Elementalist, Mesmer and Thief commanders like me.

What’s more important than the Class itself is communication, tactical knowledge and staying calm under pressure. When I say Tactical knowledge I mean things such as usage of Choke points, positioning, knowing how to utilize your zerg and movement.

Having a solid composition of Classes alongside you is also vital towards your survival especially when Commanding against Zergs; you’ll really need some Eles, Guardians and Warriors.

It’s just that it takes a bit more time to become skilled at a class that isn’t a Heavy armoured Class and the time it takes to Theory Craft the right build – most end up rolling a Heavy class so they can command on that.

Rezz.8019:

Ranger and necro definitely due to various reasons. However, they have to be skilled.

Guardian or warrior for less skilled players.

???!! I will pretend that I haven’t read anything.

Anyway, Guardian is by far the best commanding class, after that comes warrior. The job for ranged class is to spread around and annihilate enemy groups with wells/fields etc. No matter how skilled you are on your ranged, you won’t win a fight against a group led by a skilled melee. And Ranger commander..hmm..well..never mind.

Ranger, thief, necro, engineer. Any class can command as long as you can stay alive and direct your zerg to drop damage where you want it which is most of the time on top of you. Guardians are the best commanders not cause they are less skilled, its cause they can give boons/healing to their team which is a big advantage in the front line, being able to support your own party of 5 alone makes a difference. Tell me what a ranger can do that a guardian cant.

Not only that guardian/warrior are going to be more tanky since they have very strong passive/traited healing/heavy armor, and thats highly required in running melee trains especially, if youre going to be constantly dodging all over the map and running around with a thief or ranger, you will confuse your own people =/

Going to point out that a defensive commander requires different play, I honestly really liked being an ele comm on defense. Being fast is key, being able to stay alive, and throwing a staff on to take down siege on walls and being able to put down your own static and fire fields is nice. Guardian is too slow to be ideal for defensive commanding, though I think they’re head and shoulders above other classes for offensive commanding.

Prysin.8542:

This is about being a better COMMANDER option, not about general usefulness. If the necro excels at “Transiting in and out of bombing the enemy stack and focusing backliners” they will never work as a commander, as the commander needs to push into the stack.

Actually, that’s just one approach. In fact, sometimes the enemy’s tactic is something other than stacking.

When I’m commanding I prefer Warrior over Guardian… the simple reason being: I’ve been playing my warrior pretty much exclusively since release day… (and I still enjoy it) … I’ve only started playing my Guardian about 2 weeks back… It is fully geared and everything but when it counts I will always command on the Warrior because I am more used to the class, I know every little detail of how to play it and how to lead on it. It’s not 100% the same as the Guardian.

In general usefulness to the group you are leading I’d say the Guardian is a tiny bit stronger than the (shout-heal Warrior) … But for me personally I simply prefer my Warrior.

I’d say Guardian – has great group support and protective skills.

That being said, I was following a very capable thief commander just the other day and honestly they were one of the better one I have seen. So im sure you could make a viable build if you love playing your thief

Whatever you choose to command with it’s going to be a frontline class/build. I say this as I learn how fights actually play out in GvG and it is not too different for leading a zerg or pug raid or even a guild on a normal wvw map. You have 2 class types:

Frontline,
Periphery

The frontline consists almost purely of guardians and warriors. The periphery consists of mesmers, eles, necros, and thieves with occasional rangers and engies. The periphery operates best at 600 units from the frontline. The frontline needs to stick to their driver (the commander). Therefore you’re best suited as a warrior or guardian for frontline class. It is possible to build other classes to be frontline. The frontline needs to be directed to compress it’s dps on the targets the commander wants to hit with a goal of separating chunks of players off the enemy flow to kill.

So yes. Best Frontlines are Guardian, Warrior, and maybe Necro or Mesmer. I’ve commanded from every class except engineer and I’d say that so far a commander should be one of the 4 classes I listed with Guardian and Warrior preferred simply because you’re leadin the frontline.

In large fights when the commander goes down, usually the rest will follow. A commander (at least in large scale fights) needs to be the tankiest SoB on the battlefield leading from the front. Players rally around that tag and when it is gone the sheep scatter and the fight is usually over.

Only two classes can sustain that kind of survivability in the middle of an enemy horde and they both wear heavy armor. Not saying other classes cannot be effective commanders but in a tough fight, heavies have a decided edge. When using words like “best”, none offer more advantages than heavies.

I wanted to reply to this post a while ago and say that guard is your best option.

I leveled a guard just for commanding and at first I found the survability just amazing. Guards are awesome for jumping into the frontline and still be able to walk out from there alive.

Well, after few runs commanding our zerg, I won’t recommend a guard/warr. Why? If you play a thief, you’d probably find other classes boring. I can play my guard for maybe an hour and then I have to switch back to my thief. Maybe that’s just the troll in me though :P

If you like your current class and can decently survive in a zerg, just stick with it. You’ll die more than a heavy but there is no point playing a class you don’t enjoy, imo.

It’s true people don’t like following thief commanders. I heard so much kitten about thieves the first time I was commanding on ts, though I understand why. We die fast (and then the average zergling is lost and doesn’t know what to do), and we move unpredictably and most people find this annoying.

If you are on a server lower than T1 – T2, you could try tagging up on borderlands, it’s a lot easier to stay alive in a small zerg, the EB one can get massive (yeah even on Vabbi).

If you want to PuG command, you need something that will survive the front line. If you playing a ranged class keep in mind most people are going to hang back behind you. This makes guardians, warriors a natural choice, but if you can make a decent mid ranger/close range fairly tanky/supporty dps hydrid, go for it.

For running with a guild, it dose not really matter what class as long as your build fits the type of play your guild is doing.

For constructed WvW zerg breaking type stuff. same as above, just fit your build to what your doing.

Warrior all the way, racked up 1600 hours and 90k+ kills commanding on mine And yes i have a 80 Necro, Guardian and Ele aswell.

If Warrior excelled at being able to tag as many enemies for lootbags, whilst maintaining it’s mobility, as well as Guardian and Necro i would never command on another class again.

You can see the difference in NA and EU meta, and the reasons each side gives. NA is slower paced, more numbers of different classes are present and maybe you need different strategies. In the EU it’s simple, form a train and smash everything to pieces.

All the people saying you need to be providing party members boons etc are wrong, that’s what your group members are for. If your group / all groups are providing the boons that means everyone is moving forward, not just your hero group of 5 spartans charging in. You need to rely on group members so it gives you a decent representation of how your zerg is doing overall, and use single stabilitys for oh **** moments to keep yourself alive. The amount of times i crease up watching other guardian commanders that are shouting all forward, he has 10 guys on him and there’s 35 people behind him bouncing off spectral walls and lines of stupid.

So, ignoring what each class brings to the table, why is Warrior superior to every other class for commanding? Mobility combined with it’s Survivability. Funnily enough i can stay alive alot longer on my necro at all times, but it lacks mobility. Guardian i find to have nice mobility, but abit of skill lag and you’re gonna hit the floor faster than a Warrior or Necro up against an enemy train.

When commanding a massive K-train (or Pain Train as we call it on Deso where we just smash enemy blobs into the ground till they rage quit, then we go cap their stuff) the first engagement is usually the decisive point, i run common commands that everyone on the server knows, i can say 2 words and everyone will use the skills needed at that precise point to land a massive co-ordinated burst. Warrior is brill for this because i can easily leap using 1h sword to get in position, switch to hammer and earthshaker the designated point that i want bursted. All within the space of 2 seconds i have repositioned and landed the burst marker.

Likewise if you get caught out of position or have to suddenly reverse, you can turn and within a second you are on the tail of your pug zerg and that now becomes the head of the train giving you time to decide what course of action to take in the few seconds it takes the zerg to reposition on yourself.

Any noob can command on a Warrior or Guardian, Necro needs abit better placement. But honestly, in my personnal opinion, Warrior can do what any of the others can do, and do it better. Warriors has so many more viable builds for commanding and can easily switch weapons to accomadate any play style.

For hammer training, guardian (AH or cleric healway) or warrior are the obvious choice, and there’s not much room for debate.

For a commander that has to wear many hats, from leading pug zergs, to defending, to smaller roaming groups, and possibly even a melee train, a mesmer is probably the best choice. Why you might ask?

Well, first, traveler runes take care of the movement issue, so mesmers are no longer hopelessly slow, or forced to constantly swap out a focus offhand. A 20/20/30 PU build using sword / torch + staff is very defensive with stealth, high prot uptime, phase retreat, invulnerability from blurred frenzy and distortion, reflection if using mirror, up to 15 straight seconds of chaos armor, and of course clones to slow down ranged trying to commander focus.

It is also a much better contributor to small group fights than a heavy built for zergway, and way more survivable against chance encounters with roamers than love to commander gank. You have veil and portal on tap to put on your bar situationally, which is huge since fewer and fewer (competent and on voice) players bring mesmers to zergs since they can’t spam AoE for bags.

Ins.7139:

All the people saying you need to be providing party members boons etc are wrong, that’s what your group members are for. If your group / all groups are providing the boons that means everyone is moving forward, not just your hero group of 5 spartans charging in. You need to rely on group members so it gives you a decent representation of how your zerg is doing overall, and use single stabilitys for oh **** moments to keep yourself alive. The amount of times i crease up watching other guardian commanders that are shouting all forward, he has 10 guys on him and there’s 35 people behind him bouncing off spectral walls and lines of stupid.

This!
This is the exact reason why I don’t command pugs on war or guard, and I don’t have a too tanky build (more tanky commanding build than zerging, but not all the way into survivability).
I knew one War commander that commanded in zerk gear for the exact same reason – to keep in mind the pulse of the bus…

Imho, any profession can command, some better suited than others. If you’re going to command, you want to be the last person standing at all times. Always dying and having to WP your zerg isn’t going to get you anywhere. You want to be one of the vital few still alive if you encounter a situation your group can’t handle. So which ever profession you choose, gear them to survive not to kill. Given the proper instructions, your zerg will do the damage for you, all you have to worry about is what your next move is going to be.

As for “best” I would personally say any of the following;
Warrior
Guardian
Necromancer
Engineer

As we all know, Warrior’s are a powerful profession. Great for commanding. Guardians have lots of support and if built to take a beating can be very difficult to take down. Necromancer’s have a high base vitality and 2 abilities that can basically replicate it (eg. Say you have 25k vitality. Entering Death Shroud = another 25k. Entering Plague should be about 35k. That’s getting close to 100k vitality not including any toughness you might have). Engineer’s, also if built to survive and not to kill, can be one of the most difficult to defeat. Elixir’s potency can be greatly inflated with the right traits/foods/buffs. So although I would still say any profession can command if handled properly, these are imho some of the one’s that are better suited for commanding thanks to the capabilities at their disposal.