Jump to content

Arena target priority


TrixxieTriss

Recommended Posts

I’ve not played ranked since the server move from the west coast. But I play a fair bit of Arena because there aren’t many people in the queue during the times I play.

 

If I was playing ranked. What is the order for target priority in ranked arena?

I often have one or two ranked guys appear during my play time and they all have differing views. Which is annoying because most of them scream and shout at you or just sit in a corner (and sulk) and then let the team wipe if you focus someone else (that another ranked person has said you must).

 

So what’s the paradigm for which class and mix of team.

I think I remember targeting Juggs because they crumble. But recently I was told Mara then sniper.

Which seems weird to me when you have a Jugg and dps Sorc on the other team. Why would you target two of hardest specs to take down first and let the those others free cast on you?

 

Now if I’m wrong. I’ll except that because I’ve not played ranked for 18 months. I just want to know what the deal is so I know 100% what I should be doing.

Edited by TrixxieTriss
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 57
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Lets assume all 8 players are of equal experience and gear, and that nobody have any particular insight about someone being particular good or bad. As such I would say the general target priority is: PT, Jugg or Sniper, Sin, Sorc, Mara, Merc / Oper.

 

PT and Jugg because they can't escape and they can both taunt and guard. Sniper because they do a ton of damage if left alone, and Sin because, well, most are really squishy and not that hard to kill and they can also taunt and guard.

 

Sorcs are completely DO or DON'T I find. A good sorc can survive a looong time whereas a bad sorc is an instant-kill - especially if you have Merc(s) on your team.

 

Maras are very situational, as some are very hard to fight and they will run to heal at the most annoying time. But at the same time, it can be devastating to leave a good mara unchecked so.... :p

 

Opers do not currently do a ton of damage, and with them being notorious hard to kill, it is better wait until the end. It is sorta the same with madness sorcs, but again, it really depends on team composition. Say they have two veng-juggs and a sniper, and your team is all melee - welcome to your death.

 

And "never" go healer first. Only if you know that healer is particular bad at surviving.

 

(This is all SR, not GR)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lets assume all 8 players are of equal experience and gear, and that nobody have any particular insight about someone being particular good or bad. As such I would say the general target priority is: PT, Jugg or Sniper, Sin, Sorc, Mara, Merc / Oper.

 

PT and Jugg because they can't escape and they can both taunt and guard. Sniper because they do a ton of damage if left alone, and Sin because, well, most are really squishy and not that hard to kill and they can also taunt and guard.

 

Sorcs are completely DO or DON'T I find. A good sorc can survive a looong time whereas a bad sorc is an instant-kill - especially if you have Merc(s) on your team.

 

Maras are very situational, as some are very hard to fight and they will run to heal at the most annoying time. But at the same time, it can be devastating to leave a good mara unchecked so.... :p

 

Opers do not currently do a ton of damage, and with them being notorious hard to kill, it is better wait until the end. It is sorta the same with madness sorcs, but again, it really depends on team composition. Say they have two veng-juggs and a sniper, and your team is all melee - welcome to your death.

 

And "never" go healer first. Only if you know that healer is particular bad at surviving.

 

(This is all SR, not GR)

 

I almost completely agree with this. My personal list is: PT, Jugg, Sniper, Sin, Mara, Sorc, Merc, Op. I think the closest calls are between sniper, sin, and mara. Maras will frequently move up in the kill order depending on team comp.

 

I agree that sorcs are very tricky. You need to go all in on killing them and pursue them relentlessly, which most solo ranked teams aren't able to do well. Snipers can be similar. If you know they are going to kite nonstop, best to focus something else.

 

It's worth noting that any list someone will give you like I have pales in comparison to having knowledge of the actual players in the match. If I know that their merc will pop reflect instantly and is an easy kill, you focus him first. You almost always want to go for whoever will be the easiest to kill, turning the match into a 4v3 as soon as possible. If you think you can get the kills at roughly the same speed, then you take into account how much damage they are going to do. For example, if there are 2 PTs on the other team, one you know will do very good damage if left to freecast and one that will do mediocre damage, you go for the one that will very good damage, because given PTs lack of good dcds, the time to kill will be quite similar.

 

Some people are of the opinion that you have to "shut down" freecasting damage specs. For example, such a person would suggest focusing a good sorc rather than a mediocre jugg. Their reasoning would be "the jugg won't do **** anyway, we have to shut down that sorc!" The major flaw in this reasoning is that the greater the player's skill, the better they will survive. Nearly anyone can do decent damage in solos while freecasting, but not everyone can effectively rotate their dcds, kite, and survive while also outputting damage. You will spend twice as long chasing around and trying to kill that good sorc. Next thing you know, your worst player is dead, it's a 4v3 and the sorc is still running, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lets assume all 8 players are of equal experience and gear, and that nobody have any particular insight about someone being particular good or bad. As such I would say the general target priority is: PT, Jugg or Sniper, Sin, Sorc, Mara, Merc / Oper.

 

PT and Jugg because they can't escape and they can both taunt and guard. Sniper because they do a ton of damage if left alone, and Sin because, well, most are really squishy and not that hard to kill and they can also taunt and guard.

 

Sorcs are completely DO or DON'T I find. A good sorc can survive a looong time whereas a bad sorc is an instant-kill - especially if you have Merc(s) on your team.

 

Maras are very situational, as some are very hard to fight and they will run to heal at the most annoying time. But at the same time, it can be devastating to leave a good mara unchecked so.... :p

 

Opers do not currently do a ton of damage, and with them being notorious hard to kill, it is better wait until the end. It is sorta the same with madness sorcs, but again, it really depends on team composition. Say they have two veng-juggs and a sniper, and your team is all melee - welcome to your death.

 

And "never" go healer first. Only if you know that healer is particular bad at surviving.

 

(This is all SR, not GR)

 

I’m surprised at the sniper 3rd, but I guess someone has to be.

I’ve been going PT, Jugg, Sorc, Sniper, Mara, Merc and leaving Sins and Ops last (cause you know they will stealth out and go heal to full). At least I had the first 2 right, even if the others are a little out of order.

I also don’t attack healers first even though this is one of the biggest suggestions in regs. It’s easier to CC the healer or seperate them to kill the weakest class.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some people go for healers, but I often ignore them especially if there are 4 dps vs 1 healer + 3 dps (or 2 + tank / skank)

 

Combined your dps all on a single target always outweighs hps, their dcds can compensate but not if you catch them while some are down or when their only stun breaker is used (assuming they're a class like that) and burst while stunning heals.

 

You can also trauma on several specs, meaning heals go down even further.

 

The idea is to limit the amount of dps a person can output -- since under focus even the best players lose dps. A significant amount at that.

 

However there is a slight problem with focusing people other than the healer; it requires your team to focus the correct targets.

Edited by RACATW
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In most cases my order of preference is pt,jugg,sin,mara,sorc,merc,sniper then op.

 

Depending on what u have on your team, the list would change. Having multiple nets on your team raises priority on sorcs for me. Also, if you know for certain that a player on the other team is god awful defensively(doesn't matter what he is playing), i'd go him/her first since most bad players can usually do ok damage if left alone.

 

 

I think its important to kill who ever has the ability to guard first, in every situation that a team has only 1 guard possible, you should kill the person who can guard. I dont like going on snipers since you cant stun them early when everyone is alive and you have the most amount of damage possible to global someone (only if I have one on my team aswell who can diversion theirs, does my target selection possibly change).

 

 

Again, its important to know that every situation requires evaluation before making a decision on who to go on first. The player, classes and specs on both sides musty be taken into account. In some situations, its best to split 2 and 2 or 3 and 1 aswell. The more variables you take into account as well as your experience will hopefully help you make the best choice.

 

It's also important to note that in what most people would call "losing situations based on composition", to try different strategies that you would not normally do in order to win. Sometimes, the element of surprise in unorthodox situations can be extremely valuable in gaining your team an edge in these losing situations. Look at what worked or did not work and WHY it did not work or work. Was it because of how your opponents played the situation? Did your teammates listen to what the strategy was suggested by the more experienced players on the team? If they didn't not listen, how can you know that the unorthodox strategy would not of worked? These are some of the questions you should be asking yourselves if you want to improve and have success in ranked.

 

I've succeeded to be on the front page (top 5 shadow or assassin) in all 4 seasons(1-2-3-9) that I set that as my goal to achieve, and I did that as a dps shadow which I think every can agree is harder to achieve compared to doing is as a tank. To this day, some people still think that I am not good or simply average at my shadow and that I am not a top 3 player which is perfectly fine for them to think. I've always said I only play the class to around 85% of its potential since I still click my cc break, resilience, vanish. Basically most of my important cooldowns. I never use target of target to interrupt my opponent without changing targets if I am on someone else. If I did all these things, then perhaps I can say I play this class to its full potential, but I don't and that's my choice (I am stubborn sometimes). So for those who have not had the opportunity to play vs me often, be prepared. For those who still think I'm bad, please keep underestimating me, I almost always find it funny and satisfying when I beat you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently returned as well after a 2+ year break. As a Merc player since launch and 3.0ish to 5.0 that used to be at the top of the priority kill list, it's quite nice now to be towards the bottom.

 

I managed to climb to silver during the tail end of the season by mostly listening to the current meta players.

 

Usually, the list goes PT > Jugg > Sniper > Sin > Sorc > Mara > Merc > Op with the middle ones being interchangeable.

Having said that, any relatively good player left to freecast and that list goes out the window.

 

Nothing terrifies me more than a Mara being left to focus on who he wants to kill.

 

I find it much easier to decide after the first round, win or lose, who should be focused regardless of class.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So many wall of texts.

There is no theory about who to focus. I would rather focus a merc with the current solo ranked players than chasing a mara. And don’t you Focus targets to peel your team at the same time? Decrease their damage output for example.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is no theory about who to focus.

 

As clearly demonstrated by this thread, yes there sure are. Combat is fluid and situational, but there are definitely a right and wrong approach to ranked.

 

I would rather focus a merc with the current solo ranked players than chasing a mara.

 

And 9 out of 10 times that would be the wrong target. Not always, but most of the time.

 

And don’t you Focus targets to peel your team at the same time? Decrease their damage output for example.

 

You stun, slow, taunt, push etc. everything that is in a need of control. That is a given and different from focusing a specific target.

 

So many wall of texts.

 

Maybe you should read some of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As clearly demonstrated by this thread, yes there sure are. Combat is fluid and situational, but there are definitely a right and wrong approach to ranked.

 

 

 

And 9 out of 10 times that would be the wrong target. Not always, but most of the time.

 

 

 

You stun, slow, taunt, push etc. everything that is in a need of control. That is a given and different from focusing a specific target.

 

 

 

Maybe you should read some of them.

 

uff you are so wrong with everything you said.

„9 out of 10 times it would be the wrong target“. That’s so wrong and I can tell.

Edited by DuHavok
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lets assume all 8 players are of equal experience and gear, and that nobody have any particular insight about someone being particular good or bad. As such I would say the general target priority is: PT, Jugg or Sniper, Sin, Sorc, Mara, Merc / Oper.

this is reasonable.

 

I think you have to consider your own grp comp as well, which is the real trick in yolo, cuz you have a random comp every pop.

 

e.g., I find snipers particularly troublesome on arsenal merc b/c they can effectively dodge white range attacks almost in perpetuum, and they can likewise ignore CC for large chunks of time. for the same reason, I like to melt the sin b/c I can cut right through his DCDs with white dmg. that's one piece off the board quickly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.....and then you have a sage that only pulls 5.3khps and their guy is doing 7.8khps... gg kthxbye.

 

... and a sniper that does 23k damage and gets insta-killed through guard lol

 

With friends like these, who needs enemies :rolleyes: (And yes I was also the one taken most damage, so not free casting heh).

 

Sorry for derailing this!

Edited by Lundorff
Link to comment
Share on other sites

.....and then you have a sage that only pulls 5.3khps and their guy is doing 7.8khps... gg kthxbye.

 

... and a sniper that does 23k damage and gets insta-killed through guard lol

 

With friends like these, who needs enemies :rolleyes: (And yes I was also the one taken most damage, so not free casting heh).

 

Sorry for derailing this!

 

The fact that you only talk about numbers makes everything you say unrelevant. Krellton.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fact that you only talk about numbers makes everything you say unrelevant. Krellton.

 

 

I would not say that numbers are completely irrelevant, but I do not value them that much either. However, if someones initial and main argument for saying someone is bad because they didn't do high dps/hps/prot numbers, then I agree with you that in most cases they are most likely not very smart when it comes to pvp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would not say that numbers are completely irrelevant, but I do not value them that much either. However, if someones initial and main argument for saying someone is bad because they didn't do high dps/hps/prot numbers, then I agree with you that in most cases they are most likely not very smart when it comes to pvp.

 

Well...

 

90% of the community considers someone bad because they were unable to do high dps/hps..... so there you have it.

 

WHY they were unable to do so.. is not relevant. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would not say that numbers are completely irrelevant, but I do not value them that much either. However, if someones initial and main argument for saying someone is bad because they didn't do high dps/hps/prot numbers, then I agree with you that in most cases they are most likely not very smart when it comes to pvp.

 

Numbers are frequently relevant, but they all have to be looked at together, and in context. For example: Player 1 took 5k dmg and did 100k dmg; Player 2 took 300k dmg and did 250k dmg. Player 1 was freecasting and still did much less dmg than Player 2. There are really only two complicating factors, cc and kiting/chasing. Perhaps the other team was very effectively ccing player 1, or maybe player 1 was forced to chase a certain enemy all over the map. Even still, the numbers can tell a big part of the story.

 

Numbers can also be misleading. Some players will not focus on the proper target at all, will just hit whatever is in front of them and rack up big numbers, but they were completely useless to the team.

Edited by JediMasterAlex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Numbers are frequently relevant, but they all have to be looked at together, and in context. For example: Player 1 took 5k dmg and did 100k dmg; Player 2 took 300k dmg and did 250k dmg. Player 1 was freecasting and still did much less dmg than Player 2. There are really only two complicating factors, cc and kiting/chasing. Perhaps the other team was very effectively ccing player 1, or maybe player 1 was forced to chase a certain enemy all over the map. Even still, the numbers can tell a big part of the story.

 

Numbers can also be misleading. Some players will not focus on the proper target at all, will just hit whatever is in front of them and rack up big numbers, but they were completely useless to the team.

 

Exactly. That is why I specified that I was the one being focused the most in the screenshot, and not just free-casting. If someone does the same damage as 3 teammates combined while also being mostly focused, well, then numbers do matter.

 

As for the healer-numbers I was quoting, this was the fight. We were relative even in DPS, so it really matter when one healer does 5.3k and the other does 7.8k. Did we completely forget to CC their healer all 3 rounds, while they CC'ed ours like crazy? Possibly sure, but unlikely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Exactly. That is why I specified that I was the one being focused the most in the screenshot, and not just free-casting. If someone does the same damage as 3 teammates combined while also being mostly focused, well, then numbers do matter.

 

As for the healer-numbers I was quoting, this was the fight. We were relative even in DPS, so it really matter when one healer does 5.3k and the other does 7.8k. Did we completely forget to CC their healer all 3 rounds, while they CC'ed ours like crazy? Possibly sure, but unlikely.

 

I am impressed with that Jugg healer.

 

That Jugg healed for more than both mercs combined, and nearly as much as the sorc dps. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the kill orders posted here are vaguely accurate so I won't add anything there but there are various combinations of classes and maps that can change things up significantly that haven't really been mentioned

 

for example, going sorc if he's got the bad spawn on rishi cove w/ no marauder teammates and you've got predations may be viable. if you rush with pred the sorc will probably get a mediocre phase walk spot at best and may eat a double hard stun right on top of their phase walk at the start of the round. this is basically worst case scenario for them

 

on the other hand if the predations are swapped and it's a larger map with more stuff to run circles around attempting to go sorc first is probably a terrible idea.

 

similarly to how a marauder differential in your favor vastly increases your team's ability to chase otherwise slippery targets there are classes and specs that are disproportionately bad at chasing and this needs to be kept in mind when choosing a target. MM sniper is a good example. how well a spec can chase while being mutually focused may also need to be accounted for

 

there are plenty of other intangibles like chaseability that you can get into such as how your choice of focus target will impact the amount of pressure going into your team (sometimes it's worth focusing something that may die a bit slower to significantly increase the survivability of your teammate being focused) but this is I think enough specifics for one post - you could go on forever about this stuff

 

my point is just try not to tunnel vision too much on a set in stone kill order and keep in mind intangibles like predations and group stealths so you can imagine in your mind's eye how a round will actually play out based on map goofiness, chaseability, etc.

Edited by bUrself_
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well...

 

90% of the community considers someone bad because they were unable to do high dps/hps..... so there you have it.

 

WHY they were unable to do so.. is not relevant. ;)

 

 

I guess this can explain why I feel like 95% (a lil more than you) of pvpers are not smart when it comes to pvp =p

 

I must admit its amusing to see that I think so differently than most of you. Then again, I've always said my strategic mind is my best asset when it comes to pvp; hybrid clicking does have its weaknesses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...