Should Bosses be taken out first?

That was a fun run. i was deliberately lining up my AoEs to try to catch the other AVs.

i've had the same thing happen on an STF where Scirocco and Black Scorpion were both pulled, we were focused on Black Scorpion and took out Scirocco with the splash damage. It was a confusing couple of seconds after BS dropped where we were trying to figure out where Scirocco had gone.

i have to agree that whether to target bosses first depends largely on the enemy faction and the team makeup. Generally the problem sorts itself out on large teams due to AoE damage. Everything else drops first because they have fewer hitpoints.

If I was solo, I'd do the same. On a team, though, since Stalkers generally aren't big on AoEs (none of mine have anything beyond melee cones), I'd focus on taking down the boss. Stalkers are pretty much the kings of ST and spike damage, so can generally take down bosses fairly fast (most things are hurting bad after a BU+AS+ET+TF). Taking down a couple minions or Lts would, IMO, be a waste of time for a ST specialist like my Stalkers, when the AoE heavy characters would have them all dead just shortly after anyways.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Originally Posted by ShadowNate ;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!

And if you're on a team that has little or no AoE? Sounds like you're assuming every team has tons of AoE, or everyone only plays with others they know who are built for heavy AoE... if you have it, sure why not use it... but what if you don't? How about when you're on a completely random PUG that may or may not be optimal for mobs that you're facing? Still leaves it situational at best, IMO.

Since you described your example as an anecdote, which is defined as "a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical"

I'll take it that you meant this isn't a common occurrence on random PUGS that aren't made up of excellent AoE damage, support and aggro control.

The OP was asking specifically about bosses, and I used an AV as an extreme example, but in that light, allow me to pose a question... how many times have you fought an AV (and to a lesser extent, a boss) and the minions/Lts were still standing afterwards?

I think the general consensus is to do as much damage as possible to as many things as possible in as short amount of time as possible... whether that's focusing on a boss and having everything else go down easily with splash damage, or taking out the small fries first, the same general rule applies... the lesser enemies will be taken out of the picture first, in almost every case, including your Kahn TF example... the ones with less HP were terminated with splash, but they still went down first nonetheless.

As others have said, it's dependent on what you have to work with... personally I've found that the entire team is better served by having the minions and Lts go down first. On AoE heavy teams its not generally a thought process, target the toughest enemy and kill everything else with splash (provided they're grouped up and you can)... then pick off the remainder if there are any. but on teams that don't have as much AoE, or enough to do that kind of area damage, or the enemies are spread out and there's no way to feasibly group them at the time due to a number of factors (like the controller/dominator AoE Immobing them while they're spread apart) it's better in almost every case to focus on the lesser enemies first.

In the end, if everyone's on the same page and working together well then you likely won't be having any trouble regardless of when the boss is taken out.