I have been playing a Fighter with the Battle Master archetype (PHB, p. 73-74), and most of my companions in my party are new to the game. I was trying to play a supportive-type character, even if I'm playing a Fighter - I'm mostly shoving people so they can attack with advantage and playing with the Polearm Master feat (and the Sentinel feat in the future) so I can zone out monsters and protect our Sorcerer and Rogue that don't know how to position very well.
Our DM chose to not allow sources other than the PHB for characters.
With Battle Master, I intend to get the Trip Attack, Precision Attack, and possibly Commander's Strike maneuvers so I can keep being supportive and making them feel useful.
Commander's Strike says:
When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can forgo one of your attacks and use a bonus action to direct one of your companions to strike. When you do so, choose a friendly creature who can see or hear you and expend one superiority die. That creature can immediately use its reaction to make one weapon attack, adding the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll.
Action economy wise, Commander's Strike seems to suck. Mainly when I am the person hitting the hardest in the party. At 4th level with Great Weapon Fighting, a Glaive, and Polearm Master (even if I go for 18 STR instead of Great Weapon Master), I would be doing more damage with a Glaive Attack + Polearm Master + Trip Attack than if I used Commander's Strike and allowed our Ranger to attack with Hunter's Mark and Colossus Slayer or allowed our Rogue to attack with Sneak Attack. Besides, with Trip Attack I can actually choose to use the Superiority Dice only after I hit, and it doesn't spend my ally's reaction.
When is Commander's Strike worth it? Are there actual scenarios where a considerably optimized Fighter would choose to forego one of his attacks and a bonus action so an ally can attack? I will probably still be using it just to make them feel good about doing 3d8 + 1d6 + 3 damage at 3rd level, but I would like to use it knowing it's actually my best choice.
Party Context
Our party is currently going to 3rd level, we are playing Princes of the Apocalypse. There are lots of people, the composition is: Tiefling Sorcerer, Human Dual-Wielder Ranger, (Some-kind-of) Elf Rogue, Dragonborn Paladin, Half-Elf Warlock, Dwarf Cleric, (No-Idea-What-Race) Monk and me, Human Fighter.
The Rogue has a +1 Longbow, which I forgot to include in my math, whoops. The Ranger is dual-wielding two Rapiers (and has the Dual Wielder feat).