What is priority?
Is what causes priority?
Priority is a catch-all term for a combination/arrangement/length/range of the hit boxes and get-hit boxes of a move.
In rare cases it actually denotes a priority system, such as VF4’s. In this case, if two moves collide on the same frame, the move with higher damage will win cleanly and score a counter-hit. If they both do the same amount of damage, both players will get hit on counter.
But usually it’s the former definition, illustrating that something has priority over something else (or just ‘other stuff’ in general) because of the properties above.
What Dandy J said:
An example of a “high priority move” is a shoryuken, because they generally have invulnerability frames that generally go past their “active frames”, what this means is basically if you attack someone doing a shoryuken, it will always lose.
a low priority attack is something where the hitbox is extremely close to your hittable box, for example, a light punch extends your arm, and your arm can be hit by attacks, as well as do damage. you can’t attack much but you are much more vulnerable. the poor range, combined with the weak attack that allows you to be hit while attacking at that range, make this move poor in beating out other attacks in a trading situation.
Chun’s B+HP.
Yeah, sorta like if Ken & Guile both try to flashkick & Dragonpunch each other at the EXACT same time, being the EXACT same distance from each other…
Ken’s DP will win out. So you could say the dragonpunch has “more priority” over the flashkick.
Edit: Pretty sure this was true in Original SFII titles, last i tried. Can’t say the same for others…
How can two characters NOT be at “the exact same distance from each other”? 
Regardless, that’s kind of a flimsy example, as in that case it’s just Ken’s DP’s invincibility outlasting Guile’s flashkick’s… it’s still one way in which the concept of “priority” might be applied in practice, but there’s many other factors which are often going to come into play that it doesn’t account for…
Doesn’t karin’s hp have good priority? Just trying to get stuff straight.
EDIT: Or is it just a good AA?
It has decent priority but it’s definitely up there with the aa’s
Depending on the game.
I believe priority means when two or more things happen at the same time and have the same range, the one that consistently comes out first and prevents the other move from happening is considered priority.
Best example is Sagat’s c. fp in CvS2. It beats almost everything in terms of being executed first. Perhaps you can assoicate priority with speed; whatever comes out the fastest has the highest priority.
Strength doesn’t define priority. a lvl 1 super fireball is stronger than Sagat’s c.fp, but the c.fp will hit first before the opponent’s super comes out.
Well…only in VF.
In tekken terms
If character A performs a move on Character B and it is blocked
The move can be negative frames on block or
The move can be positive frames on block
If the move is negative frames on block (lets say for example. -10 frames), then the opponent can do any move worth 10 frames and player 1 cant do anything about it. Further more, the opponent can also perform moves that take longer than 10 frames to perform, (but not significantly longer) but they arent guaranteed to hit.
Priority is more often used in terms of positive frames on the person doing the move.
Say player A performs a move and its blocked… and its + frames for the player, this implies player A has priority. This means, even though player A performed a move, he can now perform another move which will beat player B’s moves in terms of speed. So basically say its similar characters and if player A has positive frames… and then player A and player B perform the SAME move at the SAME time, it will take longer for player B’s move to come out, thus having player B receive the damage.
shit i think i made it more confusing
To sum it up:
Priority = A measure of speed/distance/power that determines how quickly a move will come out first
This can mean out of Block stun, trading hits, as a Reversal Attack etc.
If a move outprioritizes another move, it means when both moves are done at roughtly the same time, it will beat the other one cleanly. When a move is said to have high priority, it means it does this to a lot of moves. IE shoryuken outprioritizes standing fierce. The shoryuken will beat the standing fierce every time. Shoryuken has high priority, it will beat a lot of moves cleanly.
Fighting game priority is not the same as websters priority.
QFTW lol but oh so true
priority simply means which hitbox is less likely to be hit first in an exchange of attacks.
moves and attacks that practically reduce, revert, or hide hit boxes are often considered as high priority
where as moves that enlarge, advance, or expose hit boxes are often considered as low priority
Why the hell are you replying to an 8 year old thread?
I actually really like this idea. It would go a little way to helping out the traditionally stunted footsies of bigger, slower characters (who generally deal more damage on their moves at the expense of speed and large hurt boxes) and the dominance of jabs and shorts in a game like Street Fighter.
dudes name is necrochan. necroing threads is probably his annoying shtick
pretty much all people (including me) misused the word priority for years, as this thread shows. i think killer instinct has a priority system like 3rd strike to reduce the probability of trades. in 3s, its throw>super>special=heavy>medium>light. in ki its special>heavy>medium>light? not sure where throws fit in there or if i’m even right about ki having a priority system.
in 2015, i dont think invincibility, good speed or big hitboxes should be called “priority” when its known that intentional priority systems do exist.