1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises: receiving a DSN retrieval request regarding a data object; performing a scoring function using one or more properties of the DSN retrieval request and one or more properties of DSN memory of the DSN to produce a storage scoring resultant, wherein the DSN memory includes a plurality of storage units that are logically arranged into a plurality of storage pools; identifying a set of primary storage units of the plurality of storage units based on the storage scoring resultant; sending a set of retrieval requests to the set of primary storage units regarding the DSN retrieval request; when a primary storage unit of the set of primary storage units does not provide a favorable response to a corresponding one of the set of retrieval requests regarding a corresponding portion of the data object, using the storage scoring resultant to identify an alternative storage unit of the plurality of storage units regarding the corresponding portion of the data object; and when the alternative storage unit is identified, sending the corresponding one of the set of retrieval requests to the alternative storage unit.