Who do you target first?

The Finn

Being the addict that I am, I was thinking about this on the way to the office this morning and wanted to get some opinions.

Typically who do you target first, generally speaking? I'm not asking about priority list of toon names persay, rather do you go after the strongest first (even if they have the most health?) or kill off the one with the lowest health irrespective of overall threat level?

And for nodes with goons, do you go after goons first or the hero? I typically go after hero first but I've found as the levels scale really high, it often times is a necessity to kill the tile dropping goons first.

Would be interested in everyone's style/strategy. And if a thread already exists please redirect me thanks.

mckauhu

Well I simply attack supporters or heavy damagers first. If it's Konran, I attack it first. If it's Kishu, I attack it first and if it's Deadpool or OBW, I attack it first. In general always supporters first since they make overall team stronger (Bullseye, Luke Cage, IF, Mags 3* etc) In goons battle, Konran is pretty much always first because of his huge damage. But it depends who is he with. So I always take my time to think who is the worst and attack that one. If it's the single character who makes both: support AND huge damage that's the main target (Iceman, KK, Moonstone, Moon Knight, Mags, Storm etc)

edit: Oh yeah and MUSCLE comes ALWAYS first! So irritating those "threatening" cd tiles - unless I purposely LET them do those and then use She-Hulks revert ability = Kaboom

Smudge

It really all depends on the makeup of the opposing team, my team, and whether it's PvE or PvP.

If I'm playing PvE, I have a habit of targeting the goons first just to eliminate the risk of having a dangerous CD tile drop into a corner or somewhere I can't deal with it (rockets, any Muscle CDs, flamethrowers, silent strikes, etc). However, if I'm running with, say, 4Thor, I will target the goon with match damage, but when I have enough AP to start firing her powers, I stun the goon and blast any board movers with her red power instead.

For PvP or all board-mover nodes in PvE, there are too many factors to effectively give you a strategy, but I have some general practices I put into place. I tend to target low health pool characters with dangerous abilities first (Hood, Loki) first. If it's a team with KK and a couple heavy hitters, KK gets targeted first. If I'm up against someone who's going to jump in front or retaliate in some other fashion, I tend to target them first even if Hood or Loki are on the team (2* Storm, either Deadpool, Hulk/Rulk). Board movers with dangerous but high AP cost abilities still tend to be the lowest priority for me. For those types of characters, I keep an eye on their AP and just try to bring someone who can stun them until I can deal with them more effectively.

If I can get a hero into a "danger zone" where I can down them with an AoE power, I generally try to stun that hero and then keep it stun-locked if possible. If not, I'll still move on until I can AoE it away.

Like I said, there are a lot of variables, but in general I go for characters that can damage my AP, healers, and goons first to try to keep my team in control.

TxMoose

like smudge said, its highly dependent on team makeup on both sides. for example, kishu is usually first but if i have quake in, he can generally be saved for last. characters i generally target first = hood, obw, loki, kk, im40, deadpool (either), thing, fist, carnage. goons i generally target first = muscle, kishu, healers, commanders. I'm sure there are some I'm not thinking of. can't remember the symbiote names, but they have a couple that go before the others. feeder nodes - if its one feeder and 2 characters i try and take out the feeder. if its 2 feeders and 1 character i try and take out the character, but all that depends on who the feeders and characters are.

Vhailorx

I largely agree with Moore's advice.

Context is very important, but the general rule of thumb is vmist dangerous," by which I mean the enemy most likely to prevent me from achieving my goals.

When grinding pve, saving health is important, so heavy hitters like kishu and muscle are high priorities.

When facing if/switch/imhb in pvp, I tend to go switch, then if, then imhb. I can deny if and imhb with good matching (barring very bad cascade luck), but switch's passive is harder to control, so I take her out first.

Other characters can also mess with targeting priorities (e.g, xpool, thing, Phoenix).

Lots of different variables to consider and there isn't always a 'right' answer.

Pylgrim

This is more or less my thought process when choosing who to attack, following this order:

1. Is there a character that triggers a passive when you deal damage to an ally? (e.g. Deadpool, Thing, 2* Storm) If yes, target it first. If there are two, pick the one with the most annoying/damaging passive and if possible, bring a character that can stun.
2. Is there a character that can reliably steal your AP? (e.g. Hood, She-Hulk, OBW) If yes, target it first/next.
3. Is there a character with a passive that triggers out of your own matches? (e.g. Loki, Jean Grey) If yes, target it first/next.
4. Is there a character with a reliable/cheap "battery" power? (e.g. Scarlet Witch, Iron Fist, IM40) If yes, target it first/next.
5. Is there a character with a cheap and/or long stun power? (e.g. Iceman, 2* Storm, MBW) If yes, target it first/next.
6. Is there a character with a strong AoE power? (e.g. Iceman, Rulk, jean Grey) If yes, target it first/next.
7. Is there a character with a power able to down a character outright or close? (e.g. Luke Cage, 3* Cyclops, Kate Bishop) If yes, target it first/next.
8 Is there a 5* character? (even at 1 cover they deal just too much match damage) If yes, target it first/next.
9. Is there a character with a decently powerful AND cheap power? (e.g. Daken, Gamora, Ares, Juggernaut) If yes, target it first/next.
10. Is there a character that spams special tiles? (e.g. Daken, Blade, Storm, 2* Bullseye) If yes, target it first/next.
11. Is there a character with "annoying" powers? (e.g. long animations, invisibility, damage-lowering, healing) If yes, target it first/next.
12. Is there a character that has a passive that triggers when you attack him? (e.g. Hulk, Rulk) If yes, target last/when you can down it with powers.
13. Is there a character that regenerates/self-heals automatically? (e.g. Wolverines, Grocket) If yes, target last/when you can down it with powers.

The Finn

Interesting decision tree, makes sense! I may incorporate some of this into my play.

sambrookjm

Pylgrim wrote:

This is more or less my thought process when choosing who to attack, following this order:
...
2. Is there a character that can reliably steal your AP? (e.g. Hood, She-Hulk, OBW) If yes, target it first/next.
...
10. Is there a character that spams special tiles? (e.g. Daken, Blade, Storm, 2* Bullseye) If yes, target it first/next.

Great tree, except I would move Blade up into your second level of "KILL IT QUICKLY!" His black can be very frustrating in stealing your best color. If he gets those red strike tiles going, he is lethal no matter what else he does.

One other thing I'd add in is "Do I have a character in my team specifically to counter one of their team members? (They have Scarlet Witch, I bring in Loki for Mischief/Jean Grey for Psychic Feedback)" Take them out last.

Pylgrim

sambrookjm wrote:

Pylgrim wrote:

This is more or less my thought process when choosing who to attack, following this order:
...
2. Is there a character that can reliably steal your AP? (e.g. Hood, She-Hulk, OBW) If yes, target it first/next.
...
10. Is there a character that spams special tiles? (e.g. Daken, Blade, Storm, 2* Bullseye) If yes, target it first/next.

Great tree, except I would move Blade up into your second level of "KILL IT QUICKLY!" His black can be very frustrating in stealing your best color. If he gets those red strike tiles going, he is lethal no matter what else he does.

One other thing I'd add in is "Do I have a character in my team specifically to counter one of their team members? (They have Scarlet Witch, I bring in Loki for Mischief/Jean Grey for Psychic Feedback)" Take them out last.

Yeah, good advice.

Also, Peggy Carter needs to be Added to the #1 category as her yellow passive is similar in difficulty-increase as AP-stealing.

BlackSheep101

Peggy gets a special note, since she doesn't need to die to turn off her ability (assuming KK isn't lurking).

sambrookjm

One more thing that I forgot to add to my decision tree that the most recent event reminded me of:

Is Carnage on the enemy team? Take him our first. Period.

Carnage + 2 Muscle goons? Not even once...

The Finn

sambrookjm wrote:

One more thing that I forgot to add to my decision tree that the most recent event reminded me of:

Is Carnage on the enemy team? Take him our first. Period.

Carnage + 2 Muscle goons? Not even once...

Yes agreed!

But I found that even successfully killing off Carnage didn't guarantee a win. With even one attack+strike from a goon out on the board, the damage would be pretty scary big. And if you didn't kill Carnage fast enough or had an awkwardly placed tommy gun, that could wipe out a team pretty quickly. I gave up on that node after 4 clears and many healthpacks sacrificed.

Definitely one of the more annoying nodes to play!

DarthDeVo

The Finn wrote:

sambrookjm wrote:

One more thing that I forgot to add to my decision tree that the most recent event reminded me of:

Is Carnage on the enemy team? Take him our first. Period.

Carnage + 2 Muscle goons? Not even once...

Yes agreed!

But I found that even successfully killing off Carnage didn't guarantee a win. With even one attack+strike from a goon out on the board, the damage would be pretty scary big. And if you didn't kill Carnage fast enough or had an awkwardly placed tommy gun, that could wipe out a team pretty quickly. I gave up on that node after 4 clears and many healthpacks sacrificed.

Definitely one of the more annoying nodes to play!

I think I managed to clear that node all 6 times, which was one of my prouder accomplishments. Definitely harder than the actual Hard node that was right after it. I think my team was Iron Fist/Rocket&Groot/IM40, and I think IF and R&G were powered up that week. If I remember right, my strategy was to target the goons first. Try and get Recharge going as quickly as possible so I can get R&G strike tiles out to add to IF's attack tile. I think I was pushing 2K damage per turn when all four strike tiles were out.

From there I could use R&G green for board shake and to clear some of the Carnage attack tiles or goon CD tiles or IF green to add more strike tiles if I didn't need the board shake or risked taking out my own tiles. Of course IF purple for massive damage once the 12 black AP was stocked. And I had IM40's red in a pinch if I needed it. I would try to do Recharge as much as possible to keep the AP flowing. Sometimes the trick was finding enough clear tiles to place my own strike and CD tiles.

I tried to get the goons out of the way as quickly as I could so Carnage would stop spamming the attack tiles. I tried to match or row/column clear the CD tiles when I could while also trying to prevent Carnage from getting any red matches. Yellow when needed to heal R&G, although it can get dicey if there aren't too many TU tiles on the board for them to use for the heal.

There were a couple times I had to replay it though, for sure. It didn't take much for it to start going south real quick. I'm not looking forward to having to play that one again the next time Venom:Heroic rolls around.