Who do you kill first?

squirrel1120

I'm curious to get some input from the veterans about their general strategy for who they target on PVP teams. Keep in mind, I'm talking entirely about the 2* world unless otherwise stated.

I used to go straight for the healer... but over time found that to be counter-productive as the remaining damage dealing character would often annihilate at least one of my own team shortly after, so generally I go for the dps first now. A. Wolvie getting off an adamantium slash right after I'd killed OBW for instance. Mainly I targeted her due to the AP generation, but the heal was annoying too. But how do you decide who to target first in general?

protection ->
dps ->
AP generators ->
healer ->
support ->

Perhaps it'll just never be clear cut enough for a simple flow chart like that...

C. storm first almost always...

Ares & Thor combo? generally been going with ares first for the quick damage he can pop out.
Daken & R/G/Y combos?

NorthernPolarity

The 2* kill chart would probably go something like c. Storm->obw (obw first if you can kill her without triggering c storm a ton) -> ares -> thor -> wolvie or something to that extent.

My general guideline for determining this is
1. How easy is the character to kill
2. How dangerous is the character if left alive?

Slow characters such as thor tend to be prioritized less than faster characters like obw/ares simply because its harder for thor to get enough ap to damage your team.

Unknown

I don't know if there is an absolute since kill order depends on opposing team's composition. If there are 2-3 damage dealers, then I will go after support or squishiest DPS first. If there is 1 damage dealer and 2 support, it is sometimes worth swapping the standard order to take out the DPS and leave enemy team with no way to do damage.

However, in general - this is my kill order:

People that need to die first:
C. Storm (most of the time)
Hood
OBW

People that can't be left alive very long
Patch

Squishy High Damage People
GSBW
Torch
Storm

People that do high damage or are otherwise annoying
Sentry, LThor, Thor, B Panther
Spiderman, Hawk, L Daken, Daken (sometimes these get higher priority based on team)

Hulk (always last)

over_clocked

Agreed with cStorm/Hood/oBW being first priority. One more - 5/5/3 modern Storm. mStorm/oBW are downright nasty in Jungle and most other environments too. Since mStorm is so much squishier, it's usually safer to kill her first. A well-covered Falcon is also too great of a nuisance to be left for last.
If enemy has a DPS and 2 supports, kill the DPS first if they are awful squishy like HT or average health + very fast like Psylocke/Punisher. Obviously when there are both Hood/oBW around it won't work that great. There was a thread, 'Hood or oBW'? People were saying that they prefer to target Hood first; stun the Hood while dealing with oBW; bring their own Hood and deal with oBW first, etc. If I go mirror matched against DPS/Hood/oBW I kill oBW first since Hood vs. Hood is usually fairly even and safe.

If we are to tier the characters by their priority level I think it could go like this:
1. Highest priority (high threat and low health combined):
mStorm, mBW, cStorm, oBW, Hood, Falcon, Human Torch

2. High priority (high threat, average health combined):
Psylocke, Punisher, A.Wolverine (at least in his tier), Magneto (red cascade-o-trons, deadly purple), Ares, Patch, Daken (the last three have good health or regen but their threat is too high to leave them unattended)

3. Higher than average priority (too high health to be taken out immediately but can usually be dealt with despite chances of taking significant damage)
Thor, Sentry, Fury, She-Hulk (very defensive), overscaled Juggernaut

4. Average priority (just be attentive, also known as WATCH THAT BLACK group):
Mororo, Black Panther, Doctor Doom, Loki, Hulk, overscaled Venom (watch that black), Moonstone (watch the red, be ready for purple), Daredevil (personally would put him on lowest priority but he can be spammy)

5. Lower than average priority (annoying, slowing you down but ignorable or safely left for last in favor of the more immediate threats):
Bullseye, Spider-Man, IW (deny green, otherwise too slow), mHawkeye (can't be helped atm as he avoids being the first or even the second target), Ragnarok (good for denying red/green usage to more dangerous mates like Juggs, Sentry, Ares, Thor, Patch), overscaled IM 35

6. Low priority (almost no threat):
Captain America (too slow), GSBW (bad on defense), IM 40 (too slow, watch the AP though), X-Force, MMN, cHawkeye, Yelena, Bag-Man (literally no threat in his case)

squirrel1120

Interesting. So I guess my instinct originally on kill the healer/ ap thief first was more accurate by concensus. I moved away from it after taking so much burst damage from the likes of ares or getting bogged down with her healing off random cascades or stealing my ap away only to be adamantium slashed right after I downed her. Still that is probably more from random cascade than amything... it's tough to win no matter who is on the enemy team getting a ton of every color in a round.

over_clocked

Cascades are deadly, but you can sorta prevent them. If there's a lot of one colour on the board, try to break it up to prevent future cascades. While in 2* stage, your most deadly colour is purple for oBW. Go for it always immediately after the enemy makes their first purple match, and you should be practically safe against cascades, too. If you don't want to set up cascades for the AI, move tiles in top rows, there will be less tile movement occuring with a chance for friendly cascades still.

HairyDave

The AP thieves need to die first simply because they have the most potential to ruin the game for you. Yes healers are annoying, yes the damage dealers hurt, but when you've got no AP left to retaliate with you're completely boned.

Edit: Having now finally faced one, I'd be jamming Fury somewhere up near lockeds group 2 - his abilities can do a ton of damage if he gets the AP to get them off so I'll definitely be making him a high priority in future.

Unknown

HairyDave wrote:

The AP thieves need to die first simply because they have the most potential to ruin the game for you. Yes healers are annoying, yes the damage dealers hurt, but when you've got no AP left to retaliate with you're completely boned.

Edit: Having now finally faced one, I'd be jamming Fury somewhere up near lockeds group 2 - his abilities can do a ton of damage if he gets the AP to get them off so I'll definitely be making him a high priority in future.

Agree about Fury. With 3-5 blue covers, he will kill my character, buffed or not, and unlike DD, you cannot just avoid certain colors, as u have no way of knowing where his traps are. If his yellow turns out decent, I wold almost go after him as soon as the ap stealers are gone

Unknown

There is no true flow chart for this as there are a lot of factors. Big factor #1 is your team make-up. I'm a pun user so even without AP, strike tiles HURT, so someone such as the Hood isn't horrid news. On the flipside, Hulk wil lget Angry ANYTIME I toss a cocktail, and with a couple strike tiles up, every hit causes anger. So for me, Hulk can often be my first target, just take his health while building AP until I can kill him in one barrage of attacks. If I'm not using Pun though? I dont' care about Hulk.

On average though I go Support/Highest Damage/What's left. There are exceptions to the rule of course. People who can ruin your day damage wise with little AP - like Sentry are first targets. I often find that support characters (not always - see Hulk) have low health, so as a Pun user a few strike tiles and cocktails make them melt so quick, that it's a non issue...so the focus can easily switch to who can do the most damage.

At 2* it seems imperative to cut down OBW first.

At 3* just kill who can do the most damage, there are only a few people who can ruin your day by NOT doing damage @ 3*. Sentry, CMags, Black Panther, sometimes GSBW...
- Unreall