General Target Prioritization
Target prioritization is complicated and there are no absolute correct calls on a consistent basis on how you should focus on what targets especially in the heat of the fight. However there are general principles that should be thought of when deciding on what targets should be focus fired.
What is the win condition?
How will the enemy team win this fight, win the game. What combos, key factors, positions will be required in order to win the next series of fights. An example of this can be a combination of ults such as Zaryas graviton or Reinhardts earth shatter.
In the following fight, Kaiser needs to setup an earth shatter to capture the territory that gets past the staircase choke on eichenwalde.
For LW Blue, they know Kaiser earthshatter or Haksal genji blade is the win condition for Runaway so they will try to focus him down. For Runaway, they need to remove Janus in order for Kaiser to succesfully land the earth shatter. First person to die or pressured is Janus as Haksal (the genji) tries to divert Janus attention by turning him around which allows Runaway to land the earthshatter and allow for easy cleanup.
Is there a priority target that is dealing significant damage/a menace preventing you from capturing space?
In the following example, Widowmaker acts as a deterrent from preventing you to capture a point or space and thus should be a primary target though this is harder to do because of her high mobility and as such more planning is required to commit cooldown to removing this obstacle. Because of Carpes sightlines, in what should have been an easy win/cleanup for Boston turns into a quick turn around for Philly to then clean up the point.
Let’s break down the possible reasoning for Carpe’s target prioritization.
- Kalios/Zarya. Carpe knows that Kalios is at half health, no shield to soak the bullet damage and has used personal bubble. As he is the most visible target/out of position, he is a viable target
- Striker/Pharah. Where Striker is positioned, he can more easily re-establish map control and is an obstacle to winning the point.
- Kellex/Mercy. Primary support who is within his sightlines.
In one of the QP games on Numbani, the team came across this situation with a Bastion which is a common setup in lower SR games.

Who on the defending side would be the priority target? Bastion/Widow will be providing the most damage / has the best sight lines and preventing the Attacking Team from capturing the point. However, widow is also isolated from the rest of the team due to being on the highground while the bastion/orissa/mercy are on the low ground. Bastion from the longer distance has inaccurate shots and can’t laser tanks down as quickly until they get much closer. As such, Widow will be the first target to focus/remove as she can create more damage. Once she has been killed or dislodged from her position the next target should be ana as the high ground advantage will protect tanks/mobile dps and she is the next most isolated target. Once ana is killed or dislodged the next target should be:
- Bastion
- Mercy (to prevent rez or if she flies away then..
- Orissa who is immobile.
- Torb as his turret is occupying the low ground but cannot target the high ground from hotel or bridge. Remember that with the highground captured, attackers have advantage/sight lines.
In the following clip with EnVision vs Rogue, we can see how envision utilizies capturing the high ground.
By taking overlook on main, moving to the bridge/catwalk and landing on the isolated supports. The rest of Rogue is unable to help, as Winston is too far away (he is sitting on hotel) and the DPS are unable to get sightlines, EnVision is able to turn back and focus on capturing the point after seizing control and moving to cleanup phase.
- Winston as he is out of position and the lone tank
- AKM/Soldier
- Flankers (which you can force to come to you as you are capturing the point).
In another example on Volskaya, we see Danteh’s Tracers prioritization. Notice how his trajectory is to cut the map to reassert space control.

Danteh goes after:
- Out of position weak winston
- zen backing off that can’t get support
- ana in the backline to cut off healing sightline
- mccree
- doomfist (weak and flying towards him and he doens’t have to chase him).
- dva
Summary
To summarize a general target prioritization until the idea of capturing space is more cemented:
- Main threat/DPS
- Main Healers
- Flanking Dps
- Tanks

But as we progress as a team and get better with communication and map knowledge, we must advance this general knowledge to more awareness of win conditions and capturing space.
