Catherine de’ Medici is an epic Engineering (Siege) commander in Rise of Kingdoms. She is available for free in the game.
Is the expertise of Catherine de’ Medici worth using, and can she be as good as other legendary Engineering commanders?
In this guide, you will find Catherine de’ Medici’s talent tree builds, best commander pairings, formations, and pretty much anything you need to know
What is Commander Catherine de’ Medici good at?
Catherine de’ Medici is an engineering commander who leads siege units. So, she is good at hitting enemies from a distance.
Based on her skills, she is good at doing ranged damage in Openfield. She can also do debuffs and some minor buffs, which can be a great tool for F2P players to help big spenders.
Catherine de’ Medici Skill Overview
Veiled Threat (Active Skill)
Required Rage: 1000
Catherine’s Active skill deals 500 direct damage when the enemy march is away and 900 direct damage when the enemy march is in melee range.
500 damage factor is way too low; it would have been better if this skill were the other way around: 900 damage factor for ranged and 500 for melee.
Moreover, this skill makes the target take 15% more damage for 2 seconds. Now this is far more powerful than you think.
For example, if you have 10-15 Catherine de’ Medici marches near the big openfield fights, you can create a sort of barrier for your enemies.
These marches will constantly deliver a 15% damage taken debuff to enemies from a distance. This is not just a theory; we have actually seen different kingdoms using this strategy during Dark Alter fights.
Star Scryer (2nd skill)
This is a pretty straightforward skill; your troops get 15% siege attack and 10% March speed.
The 15% attack is good, but March speed is not needed since you will only use her in tower mode.
Lethal Concoction(3rd skill)
This skill has a 30% chance of dealing an extra 300 ranged direct damage per second for 2 seconds. When a ranged basic attack is launched.
This is a very decent skill. The 300 damage factor is small; however, good enough for Epic Commander. Unfortunately, there is a 10-second cooldown on this skill, which makes this skill even less effective.
Royal Banquet (4th skill)
Whenever she uses an active skill, up to 3 nearby allied troops get either 5% attack, 5% defense, or 5% health.
This is a great skill to use for the strategy that we have talked about in the active skill. You will constantly give buffs to your allies.
Yes, it’s a small buff but still welcome. There is a 5-second cooldown on this, but it won’t matter if there are multiple Catherine de’ Medici marches nearby.
Shadow of the Throne (expertise) – boosted 3rd skill
Her expertise skill boosts her 3rd skill, Lethal Concoction. Instead of 300 direct damage, it now does 400 damage.
The damage factor increases to 500 if the enemy march has less than 50% units remaining. The cooldown remains the same, 10 seconds.
Nothing too impressive, just a minor boost to the third skill. It’s so little that the difference wouldn’t even be noticeable.
Is Catherine de’ Medici worth Investing in?
Catherine de’ Medici is an epic commander, meaning you can obtain her easily from a tavern using silver and gold keys. So, you don’t really need to think about investing your commander sculptures in her.
Skill upgrade order
5-5-5-5(expertise)
As mentioned already, Catherine is an epic commander, and her sculptures are quite easily available in the game. So, there isn’t much to think about her investment order. However, only use her in the Openfield after you have fully unlocked her expertise skill.
Catherine de’ Medici Talent Tree builds
Below you will find the best talent trees for Catherine de’ Medici.
Best Talent Tree for Openfield
This is the talent tree you should try if you want to use her with your allies at big openfield fights.
It has a maxed feral nature, which helps you to fire off skills faster and apply her active skill debuff on enemies quicker.
In the Engineering talent tree, all the important skills are picked, avoiding March Speed once since it won’t be useful in tower mode.
Catherine de’ Medici commander pairings
You can pair almost every engineering commander with Catherine de’ Medici. However, these particular commanders will give you the best results.
Babur(Secondary) – Openfield
Catherine’s Active skill and Babur’s Active skill both deal ranged direct damage. When paired, Catherine’s skill increases the target’s damage taken for 2 seconds, which boosts the effectiveness of Babur’s powerful active skill, which can deal up to the 1200 Damage Factor(the actual damage factor is 2400, but Babur only deals 50% in tower mode).
Babur’s 2nd skill and Catherine’s 2nd skill both increase the attack of siege units. Catherine provides up to 15% Attack, and Babur adds another 15%, totaling a 30% Siege Unit Attack bonus at max level.
Babur’s 3rd skill further reduces damage taken from ranged normal attacks (up to 10%) and provides a chance for additional skill damage.
This complements Catherine’s ranged damage output through 3rd and expertise skill, ensuring consistent additional ranged damage.
Catherine’s 4th skill provides random bonuses (Attack, Defense, Health) to nearby allies, including Babur, which can amplify their survivability and damage output.
At the same time, the 4th skill enhances survivability by increasing siege unit health up to 30% and triggering defense and damage buffs when taking damage.
This complements Catherine’s random stat boosts for durability.
Babur’s expertise generates Rage (50 per second for 3 seconds) after using an active skill, allowing this pair to cycle active skills faster.
This is especially effective in ranged combat, where Catherine and Babur can repeatedly deal amplified skill damage with their active skill.
John Hunyadi (Secondary) – Openfield
Catherine’s active skill increases the target’s damage taken by up to 15% for 2 seconds after casting.
This perfectly sets up the active skill of John Hunyadi, which deals powerful 900 direct damage.
Additionally, John’s active skill boosts ranged skill damage by up to 20% for 3 seconds, enhancing Catherine’s 4th and expertise skill for powerful damage.
John’s 2nd skill increases Rage gain speed by 15% while in ranged mode, and his expertise skill has an 80% chance to generate 30 Rage after using an active skill.
This ensures Catherine and John unleash their devastating active skills more frequently, dominating the battlefield with sustained ranged damage.
Hunyadi’s 4th skill grants a 40% bonus damage to troops with less than 50% units remaining.
This synergizes with Catherine’s active skill and the 3rd skill, ensuring that weakened targets are eliminated efficiently with extra damage.
Furthermore, both commanders have passive extra damage skills. Catherine’s 3rd skill triggers additional ranged damage on basic attacks with a damage Factor of 300.
John’s 3rd skill, combined with his expertise skill, gives you high chances (up to 80%) to deal an extra ranged direct damage Factor of 400.
Lastly, Catherine’s and John’s 2nd skill combined gives you a 45% Siege Unit Attack bonus at max levels.
Narses (Secondary) – Openfield
If you are looking for an F2P option to pair with Catherine, then Narses is your only option at the moment. Aside from her, he is the only epic engineering commander in the game.
You can pair them together for a decent tower defense match. It won’t be as good as the legendary pair, but you will still have a usable siege march to hit enemies from the safe zone.
Catherine de’ Medici Best Formation
Catherine de’ Medici is a ranged commander, so you don’t have any other choice than using a V formation for him. Currently, it’s the only formation available for the ranged commanders.
