Guild Wars 2

Getting really really tired of downing 1 person and then them being instantly revived by another.

Did a 1vs2 against daredevil and guardian. When thief got downed the guardian did something to instantly rev it.

I stumbled across this:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Mercy

every 150 seconds u can instantly revive any downed ally as a dh.

Then it got my thinking….“F THIS META, HOW CAN I POSSIBLY KILL A PERMA INVIS DD WITH HIGH BURST AND VENOM SPAM WITH THIS KITTEN AROUND?”

Then I got to thinking…..what is the ideal kill order for this and future situations?

Rev, warrior, engie, mesmer, guard, ele, thief, necro……If I was fighting any combination of these classes, and they were all the same skill level, who should I focus fire first and in what order?

Today’s experience indicates that DH is probably near the top of the list.

Let’s make another assumption: that I cannot flagplant my enemies.

Unless you already know the person you are fighting, a player will usually target those professions that traditionally run a build that is built for burst and has low defense, thieves, necros, eles etc. You can also tell what they are running from looking at their weapons and what consumables they are using. Guardians are usually not the first targets because they can sustain and block a lot of damage leaving you more vulnerable to attack. Playing smart is what wins fights, partner up when needed, fight on better terrain, use obstructions to your advantage, interrupt res’, sometimes constantly harassing an enemy is better then killing them.

Todays experience will not be tomorrows experience.

In my experience, you cant analyze the kill order until you start fighting. Not going to say that build diversity is wide when figting mostly meta comps, but it still exist. That said, this is my most common line of thought and sequence of targets:

- Necro
Due to insane AoE and fears, the necro will ruin your stomps. He need to go. Even when built tanky and I go outmanned against them, I often focus fire.

- Ele, thief, rev, anything with highest probability to be squishy when built for damage and played less than stellar.

- Engie, warrior, guardian, ranger, these have a tendancy to run with invouln traits and skills and are targets of opportunity if they have popped them. Otherwise, just try to avoid bursts until one of the priority targets go down.

Thats it, but we are missing one class:

- Mesmer, the special little snowflake that cant be placed at any one point on a priority list. Unlike thieves that often suffer heavy damage in group combat due to AoE and can be great opportunity targets, the mesmer will 90% of the time stay ranged, dump a ton of confusion and then slip away. If you can lock him down and focus at the beginning of the fight, fantastic. But chasing him mid fight will probably lead to death. Yet you still dont want to leave him alone because if they got just one more condi (like say, the necro), you are also dead.

If you don’t kill the thief & necro first, they’ll kill you. So target priority should always be thieves & necros first. The only time you would try to kill a bunker rez class like engi & guard would be if you’re with an organized team, and you guys are focusing the the rezzers so they can’t insta revive downies.

But by yourself you have no choice but to kill the easier to kill, but often more dangerous classes.

Focus on the ones that are the worst or the most squishy first. Don’t tunnel vision on someone just because they’re squishy however. If they’re skilled enough to survive, you might want to shift your attention to a less competent player and worry about the more skilled one(s) after their cronies are dead.

Don’t worry about the tanky ones until last. Warriors, condition Mesmers and Guardians should be left to deal with after everything else has been disposed of. Or any one else that happens to have a good amount of defence/sustain.

Back on the topic of not getting tunnel vision, I enjoy making people chase me around on my Ranger in small scale fights. Sometimes people see that I’m a full glass pew pew Ranger and they tunnel vision so hard that all their friends die while they waste their time chasing me and before they know it they’re outnumbered and I’m still not dead. So although killing the ones with the least defence first is generally the best idea, don’t get too focused on them if they’re good enough to stay alive. You’ll just end up letting your friends get killed while you chase a squirrel.

But in all seriousness, pew pew Rangers should be killed immediately in small scale encounters. Trust me when I say I am the bane of every player that thinks they’re going to get away from an outnumbered fight alive.

There’s no kill order; it depends on circumstances. With PUGs, I look for which ever foe loses health first and focus on them. If nothing else, I know that the other PUGlies are already targeting them. With friends, I focus on whoever our ‘leader’ suggests first.

Yup pretty much what the others have said, it’s not their class, it’s their build choice and skill level. That being said if I see a basic rank like a general I will target them first because they are inexperienced. I also tend to target diamond ranks really early on because most (not all) are zergers that have no idea how to fight.

Go for the boon sharers and strong healer classes first or the rest will just stay alive, take their boons and heals and you win.

As a longbow ranger I like to target low ranks, necro and thieves.

As for downed people, I like to focus the person trying to rez them. You get a good 3 seconds to free cast into them.

Don’t focus a thieves ally first, they will just stealth rez them unless you super cleave them.

Signet of mercy have 3s cast time. Just saying…

Totally agree with the others. Generally punish the squishier people who are doing higher damage (favoring those who do that damage from range), but:

• Switch targets if the loss of their contribution to the fight while they’re evading you is less than the loss of your contribution as you’re trying to chase them.

• If your opponents have one or more low damage/high group sustain or rez person, you’ll sometimes need to pressure the sustain person enough to keep them occupied while simultaneously focusing the primary damage dealer or your choice. Luring them both into cleave/aoe is a good way to do that. Once their damage dealers are dead, it’s just time and pressure to finish off the tanky sustainers.

Also, do what you can to interrupt rezzes, whether manual or skill based.