Who Is Your “First To Go”?

[Safehouse]

I’m talking about when dealing with mobs on missions etc. For instance, later in the game, I always focus on Malta Sappers at priority number one. On my kheldians I know to prioritize quantums. But I also have priorities in the early game on other toons as well.

 

I always check for “slammers” first and prioritize those, for example, because they seem to hit extra hard, and because of their knockback. Similarly, I always focus on the “buckshot” lieutenants first. It’s probably not really necessary but just a habit I got into way back on live.

 

How about you guys? Anybody have any little habits like that that they’ve formed?

[biostem]

As you pointed out, it is very situational.  Key targets like sappers or quants would definitely be high up on my list as well.  Other than that, I tend to go after the Rikti portalers, (Comm Officers, IIRC), there are also the Nemesis LTs, who drop vengeance upon being defeated, so I'll often try to control/mez them, then take out all the others, so there's no one to benefit from said effect.

[MTeague]

It depends a reallll lot on the character I'm playing. 

If I have access to Confuse, the sapper may live for 30-40 seconds, but he'll be confused teh entire time. 

And if I'm on /SR, I ltiterally don't care if there's 30 sappers around me. Theyr'e all going to die before they can touch me. 

On a Fiery Aura or Electric Armor toon, sappers are 'huh? oh. I supposed that ticked a little"

 

But certainly abilitiies that can contribute to being Ranked For Death

• enemy heals.  If video games have taught me one thing, it's Shoot The Medic First. With extreme prejudice.  
• endurance drainers, unless the character is well shielded.  Still prioritize if teamed with folks who aren't.
• trash-summoners.  Rikti Portals, etc. 
• Annoying Man:   mobs with buffs / debuffs or cc effects I can't ignore.  
  • Tsoo Sorcerors / Hurricane  (also qualifying for Shoot The Medic)
  • Tsoo Ink Men of all kinds.
  • Devouring Earth Eminators, particularly Resist or To-Hit ones.
  • Force Field Generators, etc
• then mostly Boss > Lt > Yard Trash if I'm single-target focused, or big clumps if I'm an AoE'er.

[KaizenSoze]

Mistress Tarantulas, because of the massive -def

Dark Ring Mistresses, because of the debuffs. I would go after the Master Illusionist first, but the phasing makes the other boss quicker to take out.

Sorcerers

Sappers

Roman surgeons

 

[Luminara]

Whichever one gives me the wrong look.  Or talks back.  Or mildly annoys me.  Or moves.

[Lazarillo]

Depends a little on the AT I'm playing, and also, I'll note "first to go" isn't always the same as "first to hit".  For example, if I'm fighting Rikti, I'll make sure to hit a Comm. Officer with something quickly to prevent any portals from popping up, but it's the Guardians I'm gonna take down fast, to keep them from bubbling all their buddies.

[Greycat]

Going with "situational," as well. Some groups, it doesn't really matter.  Some groups, it depends on the character I'm on. Having a decent snipe (or DOT) can skew what I select, or if I'm dealing in range or melee, or if I'm on a team. Heck, sometimes "first" means "do I wait or charge in with the rest of the team?" (For instance, if I have someone with a sleep and - say - we're running Posi, I'll wait for Ruins to fire off their bubbles... just to be sure I can shut those down right away and make it easier. Same with the -tohit debuffs.)

 

At times, yeah, it's also a matter of "what am I waiting for" (waiting for a Carnie to come OUT of phase so I can throw a hold on them,) or "what am I hitting last, and with what" (Super Stunner with something that does KB to get them out of range, for instance.)

[Techwright]

Sappers, definitely.  Any energy drainer really, so tesla 'bots are on my early hit list as well.

 

Night Widows, due to the fact that the blind treatment is set for too long a time (IMHO).  And don't go quoting me the "pop that yellow" bit.  I've had missions where all my yellow inspirations get used up and the jerks hit me with another blind.  They've earned my seek-and-destroy-with-extreme-prejudice wrath.

 

Master Illusionists are my first strike for carnies, though to be contrary, with the right team, it might be faster to take down all the other carnies in a group then turn on the MI as she takes a while to whittle down.

 

Early in the OG game, I developed a habit of taking out Tsoo sorcerers first, since back then they roamed in packs and were ferocious about healing each other and wearing you down.  They've been weakened enough over the years that although they're a priority, I don't see them as always a first target.

 

With Sky Raiders its always Captain Castille.  Nothing quite so satisfying in the game as a hard fist in the teeth and a fast drop of that popinjay.

[InvaderStych]

Smelters - I don't know if it is a variation of Melt Armor that they use, but when they stack it everyone is going to have a very bad day.

 

Ancients of Sorrow - or any other "of Sorrow" if I was lucky enough for the bosses in the spawn to be some other kind.  These are the Pantheon radiation wielders and they will drink your milkshake if ignored.

 

Manticore - because F#$% Manticore.

 

[oedipus_tex]

If you're on a Posi 1 Task Force, the clone of any player who has Trick Arrow as his or her powerset. The clone will have a version of Flash Arrow that blinds the team. Back before TA got buffed it was almost trolling to bring your TA toon, because the clone was so much more effective than anything your actual TA character could do at that level to counter it. 

[Xenosone]

Usually me then me again. The pain of being upright and capable is too much for me to bear

[Doomguide2005]

Very situational, in two ways.

First it depends on who I'm playing (and level).

Second it depends on who my teammates are.

And really it depends on a blend of those two factors.  But overall agree with a lot of typical priorities listed previously.

 

My Claws/SR typically targets things I think threaten teammates and not herself ... sappers, boss/lt debuffers, nemesis lts often by using kb to knock them away from other nemesis.  Probably the only foes she really looks to target first because they threaten her are DE Quartz eminators and Eyeballs.  Most others with to hit buffs aren't enough threat when teamed due to ally buffs and inspires nullifying the foes to hit ... but even on most teams +100% to hit is a bit over the top to target other things first.

 

On one of my Emps it won't necessarily be what I attack as much as who and what my buff priorities might be ... as well as who might get Screech or Cosmic Burst tossed at them first.

 

My Controllers typically just look to mez and debuff everything asap ... it's so much AoE unleashed it doesn't really matter as the priority (such as a sapper) is just getting mezzed along with everything else.  I'm just watching in case that priority gets lucky and is missed in the carnage or if a boss needs a quick follow up mez if the boss is especially problematic.

 

Blasters tend to be a lot like the Controllers. AoE heavy so the priority just tends to be the focus of the overall carnage directed at the mob

 

Still looking forward to how the ASF might alter things since I've yet to be able to try it out.

[wjrasmussen]

5 hours ago, Luminara said:

Whichever one gives me the wrong look.  Or talks back.  Or mildly annoys me.  Or moves.

How do you feel about the ones who appear within your eyesight?

[ZorkNemesis]

Some of my priority targets include:

 

• Sappers
• Quantum and Void Mobs, I usually call them out too.  Mostly a holdover from the old days when they were significantly more dangerous to fellow Kheldians (Void guns used to deal typeless, unresistable damage)
• Immunes Surgeons
• Menders (Longbow and Praetorian Clockwork)
• Longbow Officers
• Mu Guardians
• Super Stunners
• Vanguard Colonels (the ones that use Curse of Weariness)
• Spectral Daemon Lords, both classic and Nerva varieries
• Devouring Earth Quartz pets, they grant such a large accuracy boost to DE mobs that leaving them active will lead to certain death

[Safehouse]

1 hour ago, ZorkNemesis said:

Some of my priority targets include:

 

• Sappers
• Quantum and Void Mobs, I usually call them out too.  Mostly a holdover from the old days when they were significantly more dangerous to fellow Kheldians (Void guns used to deal typeless, unresistable damage)
• Immunes Surgeons
• Menders (Longbow and Praetorian Clockwork)
• Longbow Officers
• Mu Guardians
• Super Stunners
• Vanguard Colonels (the ones that use Curse of Weariness)
• Spectral Daemon Lords, both classic and Nerva varieries
• Devouring Earth Quartz pets, they grant such a large accuracy boost to DE mobs that leaving them active will lead to certain death

I feel like this is largely my list as well. Also there’s a sky raider mob I always prioritize: raider engineers. They summon the bot minion that creates a force field and makes stuff annoying fast. I don’t always kill them first, but I do hit them to interrupt the summon.

[cranebump]

Many have already been mentioned, so i’ll just add Ruin Mages from early game to prevent the constant flopping. Sky Raider Engineers. Freak Super Stunners. Bone Daddies.

[Luminara]

5 hours ago, wjrasmussen said:

How do you feel about the ones who appear within your eyesight?

 

How dare they.

[The_Warpact]

DE its going to be Granite those cairns suck.

 

Carnies Mistresses or Illusionist ugh turning spectral.

 

Longbow wardens are fun mini heroes or menders.

 

Council Lt or bosses mass casualties!

 

Sky Raiders the engineers ff generators blah.

 

CoT mages, deamons, behemoth, succubus confuse you sexy demon Tammy!

 

Malta sappers we can all agree that those @ssholes have to die first.

 

Nemesis either the fakes or hulks big bada boom!

 

Freakshow the tanks or super stunners yeah they suck...literally. 

 

Tsoo the sorcerers big trouble in lil China!

 

Arachnos anything psi or banes.

 

I don't play on blueside so the enemies over there I have no comment on trolls, skulls, etc.

 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by The_Warpact
Forgot something

[Crysis]

I play well built Scrappers.  So whichever target grabs the Tab key first.  The rest is just....smash, hack, slice, kick or clobber until Tab key hits a target over yonder.  Rinse repeat.

 

"priority" and "target" only matters when fighting an AV.

[Snarky]

It depends on the toon I an running.  On my Dark Invul Brute the goal (on a team ) is to capture as much agro as possible, the meanest enemies preferred, whether or not I can kill anything fast

 

On my Blasters I tend to be very kill focused, of course.  Priorities are indeed mobs tgat are way more trouble than their “minion” class indicates are fat targets.  Then burning down a Boss in a few ST attacks is a healthy strategy. 
 

With my Blasters it all depends on team operations.  I play the landscape based on how much agro my team has occupied then make target decisions based on 1) how much damage i can safely do 2) who needs  to die NOW

[Yomo Kimyata]

That's a fun strategic question, and of course it depends on who I'm playing, how developed a character they are, if I am playing on a team, and who I am fighting.

 

If I'm on a team, I will always go for the hardest target, because I know that everything else will melt in AoE.

 

If I'm on a lowbie, I try to assess my risk profile.  If I'm fighting skulls and there are three minions, two lieutenants, and one boss, I'll go for the minions first.  It will take me some time to put down the boss, and while I'm doing so I'm taking fire from the boss and three minions.  So I take out the soft targets first because at this point in the game, they can hit me and do real damage, so by the time I'm chipping away at the boss, I'm only really worried about the boss's attacks.  Shotgun LTs are always last, because they don't present a real danger, even if they are standing right next to you since they have no melee attacks.

 

Debuffers have to go right away.  Fighting scrub bot minions is the worst on some of my melee characters because there are a ton of them, they are ranged (and I'm not soft capped to range or energy usually), and their attacks debuff my melee defense so now I'm toast to the hard hitters.  Anything that uses radiation debuffs (which I think are autohit?).

 

Most of my characters create a targeting macro by level 40 or so (/macro T targetname [xxx]) and usually the only thing I use that for are sappers, cairns, quartzes (which I haven't been seeing much of lately), and mission specific targets if I'm trying to find them on a large outdoor map.

[Safehouse]

21 minutes ago, Snarky said:

It depends on the toon I an running.  On my Dark Invul Brute the goal (on a team ) is to capture as much agro as possible, the meanest enemies preferred, whether or not I can kill anything fast

 

On my Blasters I tend to be very kill focused, of course.  Priorities are indeed mobs tgat are way more trouble than their “minion” class indicates are fat targets.  Then burning down a Boss in a few ST attacks is a healthy strategy. 
 

With my Blasters it all depends on team operations.  I play the landscape based on how much agro my team has occupied then make target decisions based on 1) how much damage i can safely do 2) who needs  to die NOW

It’s a good point about AT being something of a determining factor. I tend to play a lot of Blasters, so my strategy has largely been like yours. And yeah when I’m soloing bosses or elite, I basically pop all my inspirations, aim and build up, then snipe and all single target powers on the big bad lol.

[UltraAlt]

On 2/25/2022 at 6:31 PM, Safehouse said:

How about you guys? Anybody have any little habits like that that they’ve formed?

 

Of course.

It's about knowing the enemy and using knowledge to form tactics against them.

Any group of enemies are a lot harder to defeat if you have no knowledge of them or simply ignore the part of their forces that give them the biggest advantage. 

[Black Talon]

A subject like this is neat because we get to have a look at the enormously varied set of opinions/priorities players can have, irrespective of being locked into having the same sandbox to play in - take two players with two identical ATs, identical power sets, identical levels...both may have completely oppositional, yet equally effective, strategies and tactics for giving bad guys what for.

 

For myself, I tend to go the same route as Safehouse and biostem; Malta, the Sappers are always first in line to get a generous helping of whup-ass, followed by the Operation Engineers - I hate those stupid automated kill-pods they activate, which never seem to run out of ammo (although, to be fair, neither do we), and which take forever to destroy (even though, alone, they don't seem to do much damage).  With Rikti, again, the Communication Officers are first in the slap-upside-the-back-of-the-head line, followed by Guardians.  Council and 5th Column have the Rifles/Marksmen going first, as I (again) hate when they hit with that stupid freezing ray, especially more than one at a time.  Similarly, the CoT have the Ice Thorn casters being taken out to avoid immobilization/slowdown (exceptions are usually made when a +2 Behemoth Overlord is getting ready to skewer-fry some Hero butt).

 

The choice of first-to-go per villain group probably gives some hints as to a player's likes/dislikes in the game; nonetheless, it's a very individual issue, and could lead to some productive results if the choices were batted back and forth beforehand on teaming missions.

[Troo]

Great topic!

 

Depending on the character and the enemy group, here's some generic roles I learned to prioritize;

 

1. Healers first (Surgeons, Menders, etc)
2. Buffers/Summoners
3. Special Status/De-togglers (Blind, Mezz, Etc)
4. Debuffers
5. Non-Anchors
6. Bosses
7. Anchors (if remain)

 

Luckily many groups only have one, two or three of the above top four.