What’s your personal target priority?

People are currently boohooing about how broken ast is, which, from personal experience, gets to be a thing when it’s ignored. This just leaves me to wonder what people’s target priorities are. As such, make a list, 1 being top priority, 10 being lowest. Feel free to state why you list certain jobs in the rank you do. I’ll start it off.

1. Whm- Feels like it has highest heals still but a bit squishier than ast. When paired with an ast or sch, get rid of this first as it seems to die quicker to a focus.

2. Ast- Slippery and armored+ a solid healer. Things get much easier when it dies, but HAVE to commit. The more people dogging it, the better.

3. Smn- smns sit in the back and just melt team’s Hp off. Unlike blm, they still retain heavy aoe support, so executing them let’s entire team breathe easier.

4. Mch- Glass cannons. High output and one of the two jobs that can still potentially solo their kills with decent speed. Lack of defensive options makes them cure sinks under prolonged focus

5. Blms- blm woulda been higher but it’s now laughable LB just isn’t the threat it was. Still, aoe nuking’s a problem. Squishier than smn.

6. Sam- because Sam has no real ranged option, they tend to stay up front more often, yet doing nasty dmg, so keeping them under heavy fire does wonders in stopping forward offensives.

7. Gnb- left unchecked, gnbs, especially one’s smart enough to dog the ‘squishies’ (mch, blm, brd, smn, whm) can put grievous holes in the team and have solid defense.

8. Drg- still excellent busters. Can pretty much blow up anything 70% and below every 15ish seconds, so need to be delt with.

9. Mnk- very similar to Gnb in terms of infiltration. You don’t want mnk slipping in the back door (giggles) as it’ll cause problems unchecked.

10. Brd- kill these exclusively to make it 4-5. Dmg still isn’t high enough to be a major threat. More of an annoyance.

Everything below (like rdm or pld) can better be dealt with after the above are removed out the equation as they have higher def.


Post your own list and give your reasons for your logic.

Honnestly, as a main MCH : The target closest to me or the one I can uses AOE on it. And I'll swap my main focus/damage to match the party's current target. Yes I'd like, in a perfect world, to have a list that I can stand to at any time, but the reality is that you need to adjust to your team and the situation. I try to put marker too, it helps on focus.

The important thing I learned in CC : Focus a target with your team. And if it runs away to get an elixir or heals on the maps, it's pointless to chase and leave your teammates behind, it's better to switch target, because you just turned the fight at your advantage being a 5v4 for 5-10 seconds. If it's a kill it's even better.

It depends of the composition of your team and the other. But in any composition where there is healer disparity (especially when the other team has 2 healers), focusing the healers first seems the one thing to do. Whatever the healer

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Originally Posted by AlliciaCapulet

The important thing I learned in CC : Focus a target with your team. And if it runs away to get an elixir or heals on the maps, it's pointless to chase and leave your teammates behind, it's better to switch target, because you just turned the fight at your advantage being a 5v4 for 5-10 seconds. If it's a kill it's even better.

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Yeah, this is the most important.

1. Whoever everyone else is attacking
2. Whoever's closest/most injured
3. The closest/most injured ranged
4. Anyone, because everyone is attacking four different targets

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

It depends of the composition of your team and the other. But in any composition where there is healer disparity (especially when the other team has 2 healers), focusing the healers first seems the one thing to do. Whatever the healer.

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^Its l i t e r a l l y this simple. This is basic 101 rpgic law. If you can’t grasp this concept, shouldn’t even be allowed to play Chrono Trigger. Healers restore life. That. .,.that’s not a good thing, so it’s gotta go. Hard. Horribly. In the most terrible way possible. People who show up as healer need to be psychologically traumatized, multiple times, knowing every SINGLE person on the other team wants to hurt them to the point of breakage. Go after em like they stole your retirement. Talked about your dead little sister.

Yes, there are other practical tactics. Like forcing a ranged to serve as an mp sink since prolonged healer sustainability (speaking Crystal match wise) no longer exists. But a default mentality of simply unapologetically dogpiling healers out of existence everytime they’re even close to their group works so much better. And of course, the FIRST thing they’ll do is run like a little rat. We have closing tools. Utilize em. Be committed. It’s an exhaustive process, but the returns are completely justified.

If people would grasp this one fundamental concept and stop making excuses why they can’t hardtarget one single target as a group, this post about ast difficulty wouldn’t exist.

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Originally Posted by Vandi

If people would grasp this one fundamental concept and stop making excuses why they can’t hardtarget one single target as a group, this post about ast difficulty wouldn’t exist.

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I mean, last time I done competitive PvP was when the Feast was still a thing, but even back then it was still (or even more lol) a source of constant annoyance that people wouldn’t focus the healer lol. It seems like no matter what they do to change PvP that’s been the only constant throughout lol. Also DPS using their high potency attacks and cool downs on the tanks lol.

In terms of priority, in Frontlines I find sometimes it’s best to focus on trying to take out enemy battle highs (depending on the context ofc). Usually players with the higher battle high levels tend to have to stick themselves out of the ‘deathball’ to get their precious kills, so if you can skewer them at that point you can save the melee from their inevitable death to someone’s LB lol. Most people don’t really care enough about winning to bother focusing targets, but I’ve found taking out the right targets there can be just as valuable as doing the same in CC. Maybe lol

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Originally Posted by Connor

I mean, last time I done competitive PvP was when the Feast was still a thing, but even back then it was still (or even more lol) a source of constant annoyance that people wouldn’t focus the healer lol. It seems like no matter what they do to change PvP that’s been the only constant throughout lol. Also DPS using their high potency attacks and cool downs on the tanks lol.

In terms of priority, in Frontlines I find sometimes it’s best to focus on trying to take out enemy battle highs (depending on the context ofc). Usually players with the higher battle high levels tend to have to stick themselves out of the ‘deathball’ to get their precious kills, so if you can skewer them at that point you can save the melee from their inevitable death to someone’s LB lol. Most people don’t really care enough about winning to bother focusing targets, but I’ve found taking out the right targets there can be just as valuable as doing the same in CC. Maybe lol

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Pretty much this, rather than the "o- it's healer, must kill the healer at all costs". Half the people with the "must kill a healer at all costs fixation" can be lead anywhere on the map once they see a healer , while their team loses a match or an objective.

I'm basing my opinion on 5v5 Crystalline Conflict - large-scale PvP such as Frontlines and Rival Wings may play out drastically different.

I understand why many players are actually opting for "kill the healers first" but believe it or not, it is not that simple and hings on a few factors.

I.) What jobs are on your team:
- which CC do you have? (stun, silence, heavy, bind, etc.) and how often?
- do you have enough jobs with high burst spikes or more consistent pressure damage?
- how mobile is your team? (dashes, teleports, draw-ins)
- do you have jobs with defensive actions?
- do you have a job that is good at staying at the objective?

II.) What jobs are on the enemy team:
- how many enemies have access to CC and interrupts?
- how many jobs do they have that can heal, shield or buff each other?
- what limit breaks are you up against?

III.) Positioning:
- What map are you playing on? (hazards, stage effects)
- do they have potions nearby?
- how close are they? do you need to travel a lot to reach a specific target?

It's a lot of info and more interesting at higher level of pvp (Plat to Crystal + customs/scrims)

Essentially, killing anything that is an immediate threat to you or a teammate is always a good pick. If for any reason someone is being forced into a 1v1, it is extremely efficient to help them out by either killing the enemy solo or force them to disengage - that way you can regroup and fight the objective together as a potential 5v4.

Obviously any job out of defensive cooldowns, low on HP, low on MP, forced to elixir etc. are good targets to gain an advantage on, so capitalize on what is already weak.

Next, killing jobs that provide incredibly value if left alive for too long is the next best choice. This is assuming you don't need to invest a ton of resources to reach said target. Jobs in this category are absolutely pretty much all healers, but not exclusively so and not as a priority in every case. Assuming you can reach those jobs reasonably well without losing a lot of ground or cover:

1.) WHM, AST, PLD (jobs that can heal well or provide a LOT of party utility)
2.) DRK, SCH (anti-heal debuff + high sustained damage)
3.) WAR, SGE (dangerous amounts of AOE damage and/or uptime on Vuln Up effects)
4.) Basically jobs that will do untolds amount of damage if left untouched (i.e. not exactly gated by burst cooldowns)

Mind you by nature of how they play, it is easier to have a tank/melee jump into your backline and take them out there with all five party members than it is trying to catch a healer without the right tools in the enemy backline. So personally, I have found a lot of success dissolving overzealous frontliners (if burst damage allows) over backliners.

Lastly, to not make the remainder too complex, opt for killing jobs in order of how fast their limit break charges. High priority should be lethal limit breaks (sorry Viper) that have short timers first so they can't get an early snowballing advantage. Beyond that you want to split the kills on targets that have synergizing limit breaks (Dragoon + Dancer is a good example but not the only one). Lastly, you want to give thought to jobs with VERY LONG (105-120s) recharge timers so you can push out the amount of times they can LB per match from about 2 to 1.

Short LBs (60s): MNK, RPR, GNB, WHM, BLM
Synergy LBs: BRD, DNC, WAR (anti-guard), AST
Long LBs (105-120s): PLD, DRK, AST, SGE, SAM, BRD, PCT


With all that said, don't overly greed your position and try to go for targets that as many of your teammembers as possible can attack with minimal travel time - it is better to get "a" kill that was close but maybe not high value than it is to always go for the high value targets in a match. 5v4 fights are easier than 5v5 (or 4v5 because you may have messed up).

I'd like to have the ability to target members of my own team who spend the entire match typing about food.

Nearest to furthest is target priority, but a factor for their race, if they are taller they get preference as they are easier to pick out for your teammembers. If both applies, you go for the one with the worse glam, as hardcore PvP players often have amazing glam. If both applies, go for the one with the ultimate weapon, they are often bad at PvP.

I've been grinding exclusively frontline for pvp so my opinion may not apply to CC, but:

- Nearest enemy with the lowest HP, or whoever everyone else wants to jump (besides PLD/DRK with invuln).
- Nearest squishy/ranged. If multiple, I personally prio dancer because of their LB, especially if they have a competent team that knows how to crush us if used.
- Nearest melee DPS. I try to prio the samurai if I feel like my team will get the memo to crush them before they crush us, otherwise I try my best to avoid them or save them for last, especially since even using an AOE on them by accident can trigger their one-shot.
- WAR/GNB.
- PLD/DRK. For the love of god, please just ignore them unless we can pick them out from their team. I can't count how many teamfights that have been thrown because my team wants to play around with either of the two while they have invuln over literally anybody else around them. They aren't actually that big of a threat by themselves, please just take out the squishies around them, especially when they CAN'T be TOUCHED.

Of course, this may change depending on who has BH and who doesnt, but frontline in particular also thrives off of numbers, so you're always better off picking them apart when you can rather than constantly chasing down BHs and throwing yourself into a sea of enemies.

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Originally Posted by Commander_Justitia

Nearest to furthest is target priority, but a factor for their race, if they are taller they get preference as they are easier to pick out for your teammembers. If both applies, you go for the one with the worse glam, as hardcore PvP players often have amazing glam. If both applies, go for the one with the ultimate weapon, they are often bad at PvP.

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True, but you can make it even easier simply by marking the target.