Often you hear someone saying: focuss the *insert class* first and when reading forums all the pro players here seem to know exactly whom to focus first without the need of discussion but often I realize that I disagree with that priority focus so I want to start this discussion.
Of course target priority not only depends on the class but also on skill of that player or the position of a player or the hp bar etc. These circumstances I call situational and I want to ignore such situational circumstances for my target priority list. Of course I attack a guardian if he only has 300hp remaining but usually a guardian is not number 1 on my priority list.
Then we have something I would like to call a egocentric priority list. It is more likely that a demo or necro will say focuss that assassin first while soldiers might have other priorities.
Let us try to stay neutral, assume we play a not existing 'generic class' with average values so our egocentric point of view will hopefully vanish. Let us assume all our opponents are on equal player skill and equal aa and gear, no matter what class they are playing.
I do not only want to list the 12 classes but I also want to introduce 3 seperating lines to showcase a gap between groups of classes. So all in all we spread our 12 classes over 15 positions where 3 positions are seperating lines. To make it more clear I will start with 5 classes which I consider no brainers but it might be possible that a lot of you will already disagree with me so they are not carved in stone.
For me the first class to focuss is always hox. Here his skills/gear whatever do not really matter to me. If a hox is nearby I focuss the hox. Reason for this is his high aoe dmg and his aoe cc's. You can never leave a hox alone and give him time to do what he wants to do. A hox must always be under pressure. The only reason not to attack a hox first is if he is too far away.
Number 2 is the tos for similar reasons but here player skill and situational circumstances way more often play a role compared to hox. I see way too many tosses that play tos like a crippled demo from range. Nevertheless tos is rank 2 for me.
After hox and tos comes my first separating line to showcase how important I consider it to focuss hox and tos first. There is a gap between hox and tos on position 1 and 2 and the next class to focus after hox/tos.
On the other end of the list are 2 classes which I usually do not focuss at all. First comes guardian. Highest mitigation of all classes, lowest dmg of all classes. By no means this means all guardians are harmless but you get the idea, I hope. Next comes conq. Conq is the class with 2nd highest mitigation but (a lot) more dmg than guardian. On top of that conq can debuff. If I would introduce a fourth seperating line than that line would be between guardian and conq. After guardian and conq comes my second separating line, before dark templar, the third soldier class. Dt has good mitigation but is not on same level with conq and guardian despite his mana shield and his health and mana tap abilities. I loved to play dt on eu server but since server moved to usa my skill is not sufficient to win against really good players because of latency. Dt still is number one noob killer and you can still get a positive kd out of a dt easily but when facing good opponents it's hard to get decent vom stacks. Too much frustration for me when you know it's all because of lag.
So here we start with the first 5 classes and the first 2 separating lines. As I have said this are 'no brainers' for me and almost carved into stone for me but I am still willing to hear your arguments if you think I am wrong.
1. hox
2. tos
3. ------
.
.
.
12. dt
13. ------
14. conq
15. guardian
So this are the first 7 positions out of 15. The remaining 8 positions are harder for me to fill. Nevertheless I want to give you a full first list to start the discussion. I'll start with position 11, one place before dt. Here I see the ranger and that with a very bad feeling. I soo much want to be ranger higher on the priority list because I hate this class so much. I often break my own priority list and focus a ranger before other classes just because of hatred but I want to be reasonable and neutral in this thread and so I have to admit a.) ranger might have excellent burst dmg to get cheesy kill credits but his dmg over time is pretty bad, only better than guardian and bs, and b.) ranger has way too many tools to not get killed easily. Often even the most unskilled ranger gets away just by using some traps and running away in a straight line towards his own team where he gets support. Too often chasing a ranger is a waste of time.
Place 10 is bs. Only class that is doing less dmg is guardian and bs has some decent tools to stay alive longer than most other classes. Not as good as soldiers or ranger but good enough.
Place 9 is pom. Pom does more dmg than bs and can support others way better with his cc's than bs can do.
place 8 is a separating line between 'utility' classes and dmg classes.
place 7 is barb, 6 is sin, 5 is necro and 4 is demo. This four classes gave me the biggest problem to find an order because it is almost always situational.
so this is my priority list:
1. hox
2. tos
3. --------
4. demo
5. necro
6. assassin
7. barb
8. --------
9. pom
10. bs
11. ranger
12. dt
13. --------
14. conq
15. guardian
So what do you think? Where am I wrong and why?