Saladin Commander Guide: Skills, Talent Builds, Pairs 2020
Saladin was the first Muslim sultan of Egypt, Syria, Yemen, a Palestine, the founder of the Ayyūbid dynasty, and one of the most-famous Muslim heroes of all time. Saladin fought against the Christian Crusaders, most notably against Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade. In 1187, Saladin inflicted a crushing defeat on the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and recaptured the holy city which had been occupied by the Franks for nearly nine decades.
Overview
Saladin is a Legendary Commander in Rise of Kingdoms that specializes in leading Cavalry units. As a Conquering Commander he is primarily used to lead rallies and with help of his Support Tree, he is highly durable and generates rage at a much faster pace.
He was initially available from The Mightiest Governor event and later down the line he was available in the Card King event. He is very versatile and he can be used in multiple positions and he is quite good in all of them, it includes Open Field, leading rallies, as well as a Garrison Captain. Unlike his counterpart Genghis Khan, Saladin scales well into the late game and he can take a few hits thanks to his Skills and Talents.
Saladin Skills
 Hold Fast Active Skill | Rage Requirement: 1000 Deals direct damage to the target, then reduces target march speed and decrease healing effects received for the next 5 seconds. Upgrade Preview: Direct Damage Factor: 600 / 800 / 1000 / 1200 / 1400 March Speed Reduction: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% Healing Effect Reduction: 20% / 25% / 30% / 35% / 40% |
The Damage factor of 1400 isn’t that huge compared to some of the other commanders. With the help of the Support tree, Saladin can disable the enemy’s healing and march speed with only about 1 or 2 turns of downtime.
 Ghulams Passive Skill | Increases cavalry units’ attack defense, and march speed. Upgrade Preview: Cavalry Defense Bonus: 8% / 10% / 12% / 16% / 20% Cavalry Attack Bonus: 8% / 10% / 12% / 16% / 20% Cavalry March Speed Bonus: 1% / 2% / 3% / 4% / 5% |
While the March Speed Bonus isn’t that great compared to other Cavalry Commanders, the 20% Attack and Defense bonus certainly is. It allows Saladin to deal a good amount of damage even without his Active Skill and at the same time increases his durability.
 Bond of Fate Passive Skill | Reduces skill damage taken from enemies and reduces counterattack damage taken. Upgrade Preview: Skill Damage Taken Reduction: 10% / 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% Counterattack Damage Taken Reduction: 8% / 10% / 12% / 16% / 20% |
This skill is what makes Saladin so good, with the combination of this Skill and his talents, he can reach up to 66% Skill Damage Reduction, so you almost never have to worry about AoE Skills hitting you when you are in an open field fight. That said, the reduced counterattack damage taken and March Speed reduction from his Active allows him to easily chase down enemies and take less damage while doing so.
 Generosity Passive Skill | Increases damage dealt to city garrisons. However, Saladin’s army is unable to plunder resources when attacking other governors’ cities. Upgrade Preview: Damage Bonus: 3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15% |
The problem with this skill is that it only works on Cities and not on Structures like Flags, Passes or Holy Sites. That said, the fact that this skill is Saladin’s 4th Skill definitely makes up for it. It allows free to play and low spenders to Keep him at 5-5-5-1 and still be good, and you save 310 Sculptures which you can use on a different commander.
 Praise the Creator Enhanced: Hold Fast | Deals direct damage (Damage Factor 1700) to the target, then reduces target march speed by 50% and decreases healing effects received by 50% for the next 5 seconds. |
This is an underwhelming expertise skill, 5-5-5-1 is just as good as Expertised. You are only missing out on 300 Damage Factor, 10% healing reduction, and 20% March Speed reduction. Save your sculptures, do not expertise him if you are not going to use him for rallies.
Best Talent for Saladin
The best talents for Saladin are:
- Rejuvenate
- Loose Formation
- Emergency Protection
- Emblazoned Shield
- Disarm
This above build gives you a healthy amount of rage regeneration, skill damage reduction and allows you to reduce enemies’ normal attack. In most cases, this is the only build that you need.
Best Pairings for Saladin
 Genghis Khan |  Takeda Shingen |  Yi Seong-Gye |  Chandragupta |
 William |  Minamoto |  Cao Cao |  Frederick I |
 Osmann |  Baibars |  Sun Tzu |  Pelagius |
My kingdom doesn’t have Chandragupta and William yet so there’s no way for me or my allies to test them but I think it’s safe to say that they work just as good if not better than some of the tried and tested commander pairing for Saladin.
My preferred commander to pair with him is Takeda. Together they have a whopping 60% of Cavalry Attack and Cavalry Defense, it also allows Takeda to spam his Active skill frequently thanks to Rejuvenate, thereby increasing the normal attack damage the enemy takes. Takeda’s heal and his 4th Skill allows Saladin to survive even longer in fights and dish out stupendous amounts of damage over time.
Khan is another extremely good commander to use with Saladin but you trade your durability for more damage, use them if you are certain you can get away when needed. Osmann is an interesting choice here, Osman allows you to bring more troops to the fight and his 3 skill gets a significant boost when paired with Rejuvenate from the Support Tree. The same could be said about Frederick, except he deals way more damage, and Saladin benefits from his healing. Yi Seong-Gye and Sun Tzu need no explanation, they work with almost every other commander.
